Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Smoking and lung cancer survival: the role of comorbidity and treatment.

STUDY OBJECTIVE Numerous studies indicate that smoking is associated with poorer outcomes in patients with cancer. The aim of this study was to determine whether smoking independently predicts survival in patients with lung cancer or whether an existent effect is mediated through comorbidity and/or treatment. DESIGN AND SETTING Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to study a cohort of 1,155 patients with lung cancer diagnosed at the Henry Ford Health System between 1995 and 1998, inclusive. RESULTS Adjusted for the baseline covariates, age, gender, illicit drug use, adverse symptoms, histology, and stage, the hazard ratio (HR) for smoking (current vs former/never) was 1.37 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18 to 1.59; p < 0.001). Adjusted for the baseline covariates and for 18 deleterious comorbidities, the HR for smoking was 1.38 (95% CI, 1.18 to 1.60; p < 0.001), indicating that the hazardous effect of smoking was not mediated through comorbidity. Current smoking was inversely associated with treatment (any surgery and/or chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy vs none) [odds ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.98 (p = 0.03)]. Adjusted for baseline covariates, comorbidities and treatment, the HR for current smoker vs former/never was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.08 to 1.47; p = 0.003), a decline of 30.7% explained by treatment (HR for any treatment vs none, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.33 to 0.48; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Current smoking at diagnosis is an important independent predictor of shortened lung cancer survival. That this effect was not explained by sociodemographic/exposure factors, adverse symptoms, histology, stage, comorbidity, and treatment suggests that it may be mediated through direct biological effects.
The Detection of Malingered Psychopathology and Cognitive Deficits: Employing the Fake Bad Scale and the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

The feigning of cognitive deficits and the feigning of psychopathology are generally regarded as two separate domains of malingering. Malingering detection techniques have usually been developed and applied with this distinction in mind. This study is one of the first to integrate malingering detection approaches across the cognitive and psychological domains. Three groups of Australian university students (N = 102) completed Lees-Haley, English and Glenn's (1991) Fake Bad Scale (FBS) and Raven's (1989) Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM). For both instruments, the first group was instructed to respond accurately and truthfully to all items, the second group to fake cognitive deficits and the third group to fake psychopathology. As predicted, the FBS was effective when used alone, with an overall sensitivity of 81%, and no false positives. The FBS was equally sensitive to the malingering of cognitive deficits and psychopathology; a similar pattern of results was obtained for two subtests of the RSPM. It was concluded that malingerers tend not to discriminate between cognitive and psychological test instruments when feigning either type of symptom.
A reactive solution with a redundancy-based error correction mechanism for video dissemination over vehicular ad hoc networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are challenging environments for video dissemination since stringent requirements have to be satisfied. We have designed a protocol that is reactive to the dynamic topology of VANETs, adaptive to the non-uniformity of vehicles density throughout a city or a highway and that deliver packets in time for the playback of video frames. The Reactive, Density-Aware and Timely Dissemination protocol (REACT-DIS) was able to achieve low end-to-end latency with an acceptable number of transmissions. In order to meet delivery ratio requirements, we have used Network Coding to implement an additional redundancy control aimed at handling packet loss. By this manner, lower rates of frame loss were achieved which fulfill delivery ratios requirements for video-streaming while maintaining suitable levels of end-to-end latency and overhead.
The Relationship between Credit Growth and the Expected Returns of Bank Stocks ∗ ? ? ? Job Market Paper ? ? ?

I find that a 1% increase in aggregate bank credit growth implies that the excess returns of bank stocks over the next one year are lower by nearly 3%. Unlike most other forecasting relationships, credit growth tracks bank stock returns over the business cycle and explains nearly 14% of the variation in bank stock returns over a 1-year horizon. This effect is robust to the exclusion of data from the crisis years and to the inclusion of several popular forecasting variables used in the literature. Credit growth also predicts returns of investment banks and of bank-dependent firms but does not predict returns for any other asset class. I show that this predictive variation in returns reflects the representative agent’s rational response to a small time-varying probability of a tail event that impacts banks and bankdependent firms. Consistent with this hypothesis I show that the predictive power, as measured by the absolute magnitude of the coefficient on credit growth and the adjusted-R at the the 1-year horizon, depends systematically on variables that regulate exposure to tail risk. Historically, the probability of a tail event increases in a recession, therefore this mechanism also explains the observed correlation between variation in aggregate bank credit level and business conditions. ∗First draft: January 2011; John E. Anderson School of Management, University of California at Los Angeles, CA 90095; Email: pgandhi@anderson.ucla. edu; Tel: (310) 740 0196. I would like to express my immense gratitude to my Committee Co-Chairs, Francis Longstaff and Hanno Lustig, for their invaluable guidance. I would also like to thank Antonio Bernardo, Mark Garmaise, Ivo Welch, Andrea Eisfeldt, Eduardo Schwartz, and seminar participants at the UCLA Brown Bag for helpful comments. All errors are my responsibility.
ApesNet: a pixel-wise efficient segmentation network

Autonomous driving can effectively reduce traffic congestion and road accidents. Therefore, it is necessary to implement an efficient high-level, scene understanding model in an embedded device with limited power and sources. Toward this goal, we propose ApesNet, an efficient pixel-wise segmentation network, which understands road scenes in real-time, and has achieved promising accuracy. The key findings in our experiments are significantly lower the classification time and achieve a high accuracy compared to other conventional segmentation methods. The model is characterized by an efficient training and a sufficient fast testing. Experimentally, we use the well-known CamVid road scene dataset to show the advantages provided by our contributions. We compare our proposed architecture's accuracy and time performance with SegNet. In CamVid dataset training and testing, our network, ApesNet outperform SegNet in eight classes accuracy. Additionally, our model size is 37% smaller than SegNet. With this advantage, the combining encoding and decoding time for each image is 1.45 to 2.47 times faster than SegNet.
Work Stressors, Gender Differences and Psychosomatic Health Problems

Two consistent problems in research assessing the work stress/health relationship are identified, namely, the tendency (a) to ignore possible gender differences in the association between work stressors and health, and (b) to assess work status (i.e., whether an individual is employed or not) rather than the experience of unique work stressors. This study focuses on the association between health problems and work involvement, job satisfaction and role conflict for 91 males and 56 females, all in full-time employment with at least one dependent child. Role conflict and job dissatisfaction predicted health problems of females, but not of males, while work involvement was not associated with health for either gender. The role conflict/health relationship differed significantly for males and females, although the job dissatisfaction/health relationship did not. The dichotomy between emotional outcomes arising from work (e.g., job dissatisfaction and role conflict) and intrinsic work aspects (e.g., job involvement); the importance of gender role expectations on the working mother and father; and the differential experiences of work of males and females are suggested as possible factors accounting for the different patterns of relationships. Some suggestions for further research are offered.
Introducing an Intervention Model for Fostering Affective Involvement with Persons who Are Congenitally Deafblind

The article presented here introduces the Intervention Model for Affective Involvement (IMAI), which was designed to train staff members (for example, teachers, caregivers, support workers) to foster affective involvement during interaction and communication with persons who have congenital deaf-blindness. The model is theoretically underpinned, and practical implications and preliminary implementation findings are discussed.
Negotiating Education Reform: Teacher Evaluations and Incentives in Chile (1990–2010)

Reforms designed to improve the quality of teaching by reforming personnel practices, such as pay for performance arrangements, usually run into opposition from well-organized teacher unions that can either block reform in the short run or undermine it over the longer term. The experience of a series of reforms that introduced collective and individual pay incentives for teachers in Chile from 1990 to 2010 provide a rare example of ongoing negotiation with the teacher union that resulted in an institutionalized structure of incentive pay for teachers as well as widespread attitudes of sustained support among teachers for performance pay. Chile offers an important example of how sustained change in incentive pay can be achieved through ongoing negotiation.
An Inkblot for the Implicit Assessment of Personality: The Semantic Misattribution Procedure

Misattributions people make about their own reaction to ambiguous stimuli can be used to measure personality self–concepts implicitly. On the basis of a semantic misattribution priming paradigm [semantic misattribution procedure (SMP)], we assessed the implicit personality self–concept related to three dimensions included in the Big–Five model: conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion. Across three studies (N1 = 98, N2 = 140, and N3 = 135), the SMP was robustly related, in the expected direction, to individual differences in self–reported personality questionnaires and managed to predict both self–reported and objectively measured behaviours. The main advantage of SMP over classical explicit measures of personality is its higher resistance to social desirability tendencies, although its psychometric properties are somewhat lower than those pertaining to explicit measures of personality. Finally, comparisons of our results with studies that used other implicit measures of personality self–concept indicate that the SMP has higher criterion validity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Media Portrayal of Disease from the Medical, Political Economy, and Life-Style Perspectives

There are three competing explanations of disease and its treatment: the medical, life-style, and political economy models. Each of these models is used as a presupposition for health policy. The mass media are one source of information about disease and health policy. This research examines the incidence of each of these models of disease in the portrayal of cancer, heart disease, and AIDS in six mass-circulating magazines from 1980 to 1987.
Preparing students for their first fieldwork placement using on‐campus practicums

The present study describes and evaluates a programme that aimed to help students make best use of the scarce professional resource of fieldwork placements, in particular the first placement. The placement used a model of self-directed learning as a foundation principle. An on-campus clinical practicum programme was developed following a needs analysis to facilitate attainment of clinical competencies that were a prerequisite to placement commencement. Student self ratings of comfort in doing specific tasks before and after the practicum programme were obtained. Student and supervisor ratings of performance in specific tasks after placement were also made. In addition, supervisors were asked to rate the level of self-directedness of students. Results demonstrate the positive impact of the programme in preparing students for their first placement. Supervisors identified high levels of performance on specified tasks and a view that the students were more self directed than other novice students they had supervised. Recommendations are made for the continuation and further development of the practicum programme.
The Impact of Block Scheduling on Student Achievement, Attendance, and Discipline at the High School Level.

of Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Argosy University Campus College of Education In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education by Charles Williams Jr. Argosy University November 2011 James M. Mitchell, Ph.D. Gerry L. Bedore, Ph.D. Larry Gay Reagan, Ed.D. Department: College of Education
Characterization of Soil Suppressiveness to Root-Knot Nematodes in Organic Horticulture in Plastic Greenhouse

The fluctuation of Meloidogyne population density and the percentage of fungal egg parasitism were determined from July 2011 to July 2013 in two commercial organic vegetable production sites (M10.23 and M10.55) in plastic greenhouses, located in northeastern Spain, in order to know the level of soil suppressiveness. Fungal parasites were identified by molecular methods. In parallel, pot tests characterized the level of soil suppressiveness and the fungal species growing from the eggs. In addition, the egg parasitic ability of 10 fungal isolates per site was also assessed. The genetic profiles of fungal and bacterial populations from M10.23 and M10.55 soils were obtained by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE), and compared with a non-suppressive soil (M10.33). In M10.23, Meloidogyne population in soil decreased progressively throughout the rotation zucchini, tomato, and radish or spinach. The percentage of egg parasitism was 54.7% in zucchini crop, the only one in which eggs were detected. Pochonia chlamydosporia was the only fungal species isolated. In M10.55, nematode densities peaked at the end of the spring-summer crops (tomato, zucchini, and cucumber), but disease severity was lower than expected (0.2–6.3). The percentage of fungal egg parasitism ranged from 3 to 84.5% in these crops. The results in pot tests confirmed the suppressiveness of the M10.23 and M10.55 soils against Meloidogyne. The number of eggs per plant and the reproduction factor of the population were reduced (P < 0.05) in both non-sterilized soils compared to the sterilized ones after one nematode generation. P. chlamydosporia was the only fungus isolated from Meloidogyne eggs. In in vitro tests, P. chlamydosporia isolates were able to parasitize Meloidogyne eggs from 50 to 97% irrespective of the site. DGGE fingerprints revealed a high diversity in the microbial populations analyzed. Furthermore, both bacterial and fungal genetic patterns differentiated suppressive from non-suppressive soils, but the former showed a higher degree of similarity between both suppressive soils than the later.
Early Intervention Providers’ Perspectives About Implementing Participation-Based Practices

Early intervention providers submitted videotapes of home visits as part of requirements for a professional development course. Taped visits were classified into two practice groups: providers who demonstrated use of participation-based practices and those who did not (i.e., traditional practices). A sample of providers, selected from each of these groups, were interviewed to elicit perspectives about implementing participation-based practices. Findings indicate that providers, regardless of practice classification, did not fully understand participation-based practices. In particular, a provider role of promoting children’s participation in family/community activities and routines was not articulated. The caregiver’s role as facilitator of the child’s participation and learning was seldom described although the importance of involving, teaching, and supporting caregivers was acknowledged. Most providers described themselves as able to implement optimal services for only a small percentage of families and attributed both their ability and inability to family characteristics.
Reporting quality of randomized trials in the diet and exercise literature for weight loss

Background: To adequately assess individual studies and synthesize quantitative research on weight loss studies, transparent reporting of data is required. The authors examined the reporting quality of randomized trials in the weight loss literature, focusing exclusively on subject characteristics as they relate to enrollment, allocation, and follow-up. Methods: An extensive literature review, which included a computerized search of the MEDLINE database, manual searches of bibliographic references, and cross-referencing of 92 review articles was conducted. A checklist, based on CONSORT recommendations, was used to collect information on whether or not authors reported age, gender, co-morbid disease, medication use, race/ethnicity, and postmenopausal status. Also tracked was whether or not initial and final sample size was reported and stratified by gender. Results: Of 604 possible articles, 231 articles met eligibility criteria. Important subject characteristics were not reported as the following breakdown indicates: age (11%), gender (4%), race/ethnicity (86%), co-morbid disease states (34%), and medication use (92%). Additionally, 21% of articles failed to report initial sample size by gender while 69% neglected to report final sample size by gender. Conclusion: Inadequate reporting can create difficulties with interpretation and can lead to biased results receiving false credibility. The quality of reporting for weight loss studies needs considerable improvement. Background Current statistics indicate that approximately 64.5% of US adults can be considered overweight while 30.5% can be classified as obese [1]. Obesity is also linked to a variety of chronic diseases, and is associated with approximately 300,000 deaths each year and annual economic costs of over $117 billion [2]. According to the latest Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) data, obesity and Published: 23 February 2005 BMC Medical Research Methodology 2005, 5:9 doi:10.1186/1471-2288-5-9 Received: 01 December 2004 Accepted: 23 February 2005 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-2288/5/9 © 2005 Gibson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. BMC Medical Research Methodology 2005, 5:9 http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-2288/5/9
Statistical Analysis of Quantum Bump Parameters in Limulus Ventral Photoreceptors

Abstract A statistical analysis of current quantum responses (“bumps”) to the absorption of single photons in the ventral photoreceptor of Limulus is presented. The analysis is performed in terms of bump parameters among which two groups are distinguished: “time-like parameters” with distributions independent of individual cells and “current parameters” the distribution of which differ for different cells. The analysis yields a set of “primary” parameters with mutually uncorrelated fluctuations. The results are interpreted by a new model formulation on the basis of a transmitter hypothesis for the transduction. The model separates latency from amplification and postulates the existence of different sources of fluctuations among which one includes individual cell properties.
Recent insights into the pathogenesis of Diamond–Blackfan anaemia

Diamond–Blackfan anaemia (DBA) is a congenital anaemia and broad developmental disease that develops soon after birth. The anaemia is due to failure of erythropoiesis, with normal platelet and myeloid lineages, and it can be managed with steroids, blood transfusions, or stem cell transplantation. Normal erythropoiesis after transplantation shows that the defect is intrinsic to an erythroid precursor. DBA is inherited in about 10–20% of cases, and genetic studies have identified mutations in a ribosomal protein gene, RPS19, in 25% of cases; there is evidence for involvement of at least two other genes. In yeast, RPS19 deletion leads to a block in ribosomal RNA biogenesis. The critical question is how mutations in RPS19 lead to the failure of proliferation and differentiation of erythroid progenitors. While this question has not yet been answered, understanding the biology of DBA may provide insight not only into the defect in erythropoisis, but also into the other developmental abnormalities that are present in about 40% of patients, and into the cancer predisposition that is inherent to DBA.
Is There a Gap between the News Choices of Journalists and Consumers? A Relational and Dynamic Approach

This article examines whether there is a gap between the news choices of mainstream journalists and those of their public. It looks at the choices of both groups in relation to each other and explores whether these choices vary in connection with the occurrence of major political events. The heuristic value of this approach is demonstrated through a mixed-method study of the news choices of journalists and consumers in the main Argentine online sites. A content analysis of the top stories chosen by journalists of that country’s two leading sites and the stories that consumers of these sites click most often yields two key results. First, during periods of relatively normal political activity, journalists choose stories about political, international, and economic subjects substantively more than consumers. Second, during periods of heightened political activity, consumers increase their interest in these stories, and the gap with the choices of journalists either disappears or narrows. Furthermore, interviews with journalists and with news consumers show that the presence of this gap during ordinary political times and its change during extraordinary periods are shaped by divergent and dynamic interpretive logics.
Improved formant frequency estimation from high-pitched vowels by downgrading the contribution of the glottal source with weighted linear prediction

Since performance of conventional linear prediction (LP) deteriorates in formant estimation of high-pitched voices, several all-pole modeling methods robust to F0 have been developed. This study compares five such previously known methods and proposes a new technique, Weighted Linear Prediction with Attenuated Main Excitation (WLP-AME). WLP-AME utilizes weighted linear prediction in which the square of the prediction error is multiplied with a weighting function that downgrades the contribution of the glottal source in the model optimization. Consequently, the resulting all-pole model is affected more by the vocal tract characteristics, which leads to more accurate formant estimates. By using synthetic vowels created with a physical modeling approach, the study shows that WLP-AME yields improved formant frequency estimates for high-pitched vowels in comparison to the previously known methods.