Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Registry-based case-control study of cancer in California firefighters.

BACKGROUND There is no consensus whether firefighters are at increased cancer risk for particular cancers. Previous studies have been small, mostly investigated cancer mortality, and suggested increased risks for brain, bladder, testicular, prostate, thyroid and colo-rectal cancers, leukemia, and melanoma. METHODS Records of all male cancers registered in California during 1988-2003 were obtained. Firefighters were identified from occupation and industry text fields. Logistic regression analysis used other cancers as controls. RESULTS Of the 804,000 eligible records, 3,659 had firefighting as their occupation. Firefighting was associated with testicular cancer (odds ratio = 1.54, 95% confidence interval: 1.18-2.02), melanoma (1.50, 1.33-1.70), brain cancer (1.35, 1.06-1.72), esophageal cancer (1.48, 1.14-1.91), and prostate cancer (1.22, 1.12-1.33). CONCLUSIONS Use of other-cancer controls and lack of an occupational history may have biased relative risks towards the null. However, this study, which contained more firefighter cancers than any previous epidemiologic study, produced evidence supporting some prior hypotheses.
Microalbuminuria in Non‐insulin‐dependent Diabetes Mellitus

Since a radioimmunoassay for measuring low concentrations of albumin in urine was first described over three decades ago,' several investigators have confirmed the prognostic value of microalbuminuria in both types of diabetes. The presence of microalbuminuria predicts subsequent progression to overt nephropathy and increased mortality (predominantly due to cardiovascular disease) in patients with both types of diabetes. * Patients with microalbuminuria also have a substantially higher risk of suffering diabetic neuropathy and retinopathy. Microalbuminuria is also associated with a cluster of other risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and insulin resistance in both insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Yip et a/. showed that patients with IDDM who have microalbuminuria are more insulin resistant and also tend to have higher blood pressure and dy~lipidaemia. ~ Similarly, patients with NIDDM who are microalbuminuric appear to have a greater degree of insulin resistance together with hypertension and dyslipidaemia compared to patients whose urinary albumin excretion rate is n0rma1. ~ Furthermore, this is unlikely to be secondary to the effects of chronic hyperglycaemia as non-diabetic relatives of patients with both IDDM and NIDDM have been shown to have insulin resistance together with higher blood pressure and dy~lipidaemia. ~ These data together with the finding that microalbuminuria indicates an adverse prognosis in non-diabetic individuals and often precedes the onset of NlDDM argue strongly for an underlying genetic factor that determines susceptibility to the syndrome in both types of diabetes. It would appear that the effects of this factor(s) are amplified by the diabetic environment. Thus microalbuminuria appears to be part of a complex metabolic derangement, closely associated with microvascular damage and there are more similarities rather than dissimilarities in IDDM and NIDDM. The identification of the genetic markers of this syndrome is now an area of intense research world-wide. However, until such markers are identified, microalbuminuria remains its most useful early marker. Numerous techniques are now available for the detection of microalbuminuria. It is defined by consensus as a urine albumin excretion rate of 20-200 pg min-' and it has been recommended that all patients with NIDDM should be screened for microalbuminuria on an annual basis from diagnosis and those with IDDM after 5 years from diagnosk6 Its routine use i s regarded as cost-effective in those with IDDM as intervention has been shown to reduce its progression to overt nephr~pathy . ~ As a result, although previously largely in the realm of
A Spatial Model Of Regional Variations In Employment Growth In Appalachia

In this study, a spatial equilibrium model of employment growth is developed and empirically estimated by Generalized Spatial Two-Stage Least Squares (GS2SLS) estimator using cross-sectional data from Appalachian counties for 1990-2000. Besides the existence of spatial spillover effects, the results suggest that agglomerative effects that arise from the demand and the supply side contribute to employment growth in the study area during the study period. The policy implications of the findings are: (1) Regional cooperation of counties and communities is advisable and may in fact be necessary to design effective policies to encourage employment growth; and (2) Policy makers at the county level may need to design policies that can attract people with high endowments of human capital and higher income into their respective counties.
Taxonomy and structure of Croatian personality‐descriptive adjectives

This paper describes the development of a comprehensive taxonomy of Croatian personality‐descriptive terms, organized in three studies. In the first study three judges searched through a standard dictionary of the Croatian language for person‐descriptive terms. In the second study, personality‐descriptive adjectives were classified by seven judges into 13 different categories of descriptors. In the third study, the 483 adjectives that the majority of judges in the second study classified as dispositions were rated for self‐descriptions by 515 University of Zagreb students and for peer‐descriptions by 513 students' best acquaintances. Self‐ and peer ratings were factor analysed separately and the Croatian emic lexical factors from both data sets were interpreted to be similar to the Big‐Five factors: Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Intellect, and Emotional Stability. The inspection of factor content of the Croatian emic factors and their relation to imported Big‐Five measures revealed high correspondences for all five Croatian factors although the relation between the Croatian and the imported factors of Emotional Stability and Agreeableness was somewhat more complex. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of Timing of Supervision on Supervisor and Counselor Performance

This study examined the effect of timing of supervision on the nature of supervision and subsequent counseling. Three levels of treatment were investigated for differential effects on: (1) supervisor and counselor performance in supervision, (2) counselor performance in counseling, (3) client and counselor satisfaction with counseling, and (4) counselor satisfaction with supervision with counseling, and (4) counselor satisfaction with supervision. Fifty-five supervisor-counselor-client subject triads received treatment. All supervision and counseling sessions were audiotaped and rated for critical dependent variables. It was hypothesized that supervision occurring within four hours before counseling (TI) would be significantly (T2) and from supervision occurring more than two days before counseling (T3). Results indicated that T2 yielded a high volume of information, most of which was generated by the supervision. T1 yielded less information because of a decrease in activity on the part of the supervisor.
Glutamine and glutamate exchange between the fetal liver and the placenta.

The transport and metabolism of glutamine (GLN) and glutamate (GLU) during fetal development exhibit unique characteristics that clearly emphasize the importance of the interaction between the placenta and the fetal liver. GLN is delivered into the fetal circulation at a rate that is the highest of all the amino acids. In contrast, approximately 90% of fetal plasma GLU is extracted by the placenta. Conversely, the fetal liver has a large net output of GLU and a net uptake of GLN. We have studied the fluxes of GLU and GLN into and out of the placenta and fetal liver, as well as their interconversion in these organs, during late gestation in sheep. In the fetus, 45% of GLN carbon taken up by the liver exits as GLU; indeed, the production of GLU from GLN is large, approximately 3.7 micromol/(min.kg fetus), and accounts for virtually all of the GLU produced in the fetus. In contrast, only 6% of GLU carbon is converted to GLN in the placenta; most of the fetal plasma GLU taken up by this organ is converted to CO(2). Remarkably, placental GLU uptake accounts for >60% of the fetal plasma GLU disposal rate. In some respects, the net output of GLU from the liver in fetuses replaces the net hepatic glucose output that is characteristic of postnatal life. We also examined GLN and GLU fluxes in pregnant sheep during either dexamethasone-induced or spontaneous parturition. At parturition, a striking reduction in GLU output from the fetal liver occurred, leading to a fall in fetal arterial GLU concentrations and a marked decrease in placental GLU uptake. These changes were progressive as parturition advanced and correlated with a marked decrease in progesterone output from the pregnant uterus.
Voiceless alveolar stop coarticulation in typically developing 5-year-olds and 13-year-olds

ABSTRACT In this study, vowel-on-consonant lingual coarticulation at [t] closure offset was compared in 5-year-old children and 13-year-old adolescents. The study aimed to establish whether, by the end of the closure, children from the younger age group adjust the tongue shape to the following vowels to the same extent as adolescents. Ten 5-year-olds and ten 13-year-olds, all speakers of Scottish Standard English, produced [t]-vowel syllables with the vowels [i] and [a], in a carrier phrase. Measures of tongue shape based on midsagittal ultrasound imaging data were used to compare anticipatory coarticulation and within-speaker variability across groups. Both age groups changed the extent of tongue dorsum bunching in order to coarticulate the consonant with the following vowels. The 5-year-old children, unlike the adolescents, did not consistently modify the bunching location within the tongue curve to accommodate the tongue shape to that of the upcoming vowel. Token-to-token variability was significantly greater in the younger age group. The results suggest that vowel-on-[t] coarticulatory patterns produced by typically developing children are affected by the development of motor control, with articulatory constraints on the tongue limiting the extent of lingual coarticulation in 5-year-old children. The findings on typical coarticulation development are relevant for clinical practice, and they highlight the need for more detailed descriptions of how phonetic characteristics of speech sounds affect coarticulation throughout childhood.
Robust Nuclear Norm-Based Matrix Regression With Applications to Robust Face Recognition

Face recognition (FR) via regression analysis-based classification has been widely studied in the past several years. Most existing regression analysis methods characterize the pixelwise representation error via $l_{1}$ -norm or $l_{2}$ -norm, which overlook the 2D structure of the error image. Recently, the nuclear norm-based matrix regression model is proposed to characterize low-rank structure of the error image. However, the nuclear norm cannot accurately describe the low-rank structural noise when the incoherence assumptions on the singular values does not hold, since it overpenalizes several much larger singular values. To address this problem, this paper presents the robust nuclear norm to characterize the structural error image and then extends it to deal with the mixed noise. The majorization–minimization (MM) method is applied to derive a iterative scheme for minimization of the robust nuclear norm optimization problem. Then, an efficiently alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) method is used to solve the proposed models. We use weighted nuclear norm as classification criterion to obtain the final recognition results. Experiments on several public face databases demonstrate the effectiveness of our models in handling with variations of structural noise (occlusion, illumination, and so on) and mixed noise.
Tribute to R. G. Boutilier: The effect of size on the physiological and behavioural responses of oscar, Astronotus ocellatus, to hypoxia

SUMMARY The physiological and behavioural responses of two size groups of oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) to hypoxia were studied. The physiological responses were tested by measuring ṀO2 during decreasing environmental oxygen tensions. Larger oscars were better able to maintain oxygen consumption during a decrease in PO2, regulating routine ṀO2 to a significantly lower PO2 threshold (50 mmHg) than smaller oscars (70 mmHg). Previous studies have also demonstrated a longer survival time of large oscars exposed to extreme hypoxia, coupled with a greater anaerobic enzymatic capability. Large oscars began aquatic surface respiration (ASR) at the oxygen tension at which the first significant decrease in ṀO2 was seen (50 mmHg). Interestingly, smaller oscars postponed ASR to around 22 mmHg, well beyond the PO2 at which they switched from oxyregulation to oxyconformation. Additionally, when given the choice between an hypoxic environment containing aquatic macrophyte shelter and an open normoxic environment, small fish showed a greater preference for the hypoxic environment. Thus shelter from predators appears particularly important for juveniles, who may accept a greater physiological compromise in exchange for safety. In response to hypoxia without available shelter, larger fish reduced their level of activity (with the exception of aggressive encounters) to aid metabolic suppression whereas smaller oscars increased their activity, with the potential benefit of finding oxygen-rich areas.
Information Technology Outsourcing, Knowledge Transfer, and Firm Productivity: An Empirical Analysis

Firms are increasingly sourcing internal information systems functions from external service providers. However, there is limited empirical evidence of the economic impact of this delivery option and, more specifically, of the productivity gains accruing to firms that have outsourced. Moreover, there is little evidence of the role and contributions of the individual mechanisms by which service providers create value for client firms. We are particularly interested in whether client firms benefit from the accumulated knowledge held by information technology (IT) service firms. In this paper, we examine the impact of IT outsourcing on the productivity of firms that choose this mode of services delivery focusing, on the role of IT-related knowledge. Since firms selfselect into their optimal sourcing mode, we use a variety of econometric techniques including propensity scorebased matching and switching regression to control for potential bias arising from endogenously determined sourcing modes. We demonstrate that IT outsourcing does lead to productivity gains for firms that select this mode of service delivery. Our results also suggest that IT-related knowledge held by IT services vendors enables these productivity gains, the magnitude of which is moderated by a firm's IT intensity. Moreover, the value of outsourcing to a client firm increases with its propensity for outsourcing, which in turn depends on firm-specific attributes including efficiency level, financial leverage, and variability in business conditions. Our analyses also show that firms that outsource have been able to achieve additional productivity gains from contracting out compared with their counterfactuals.
Diverse realities: sexually transmitted infections and HIV in India

There are many features that make India a vulnerable country as far as a sexually transmitted infection (STI)/HIV epidemic is concerned. These include the lack of a strong evidence base on which to formulate decision making, a pluralistic and often unregulated health sector, and a highly vulnerable population. Nonetheless, India has shown strong commitment to other areas of a comprehensive reproductive health care programme, and may be able to do so in the field of STI/HIV control. Vast numbers of people in India are severely disadvantaged in terms of income, education, power structures, and gender. Addressing these basic issues of human rights lies at the core of achieving better health outcomes.
Expression of survivin and of antigen detected by a novel monoclonal antibody, T332, is associated with outcome of diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma and its subtypes

Although diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma, it is both clinically and morphologically heterogenous. The present study investigates the significance of survivin and a novel monoclonal antibody (MAb), T332, immunohistochemically for predicting the prognoses of DLBCL and its subtypes classified as germinal center B‐cell‐like type (GCB) and non‐GCB type (NGCB) based on the expression profiles of CD10, bcl‐6, and MUM1. A total of 60 cases of DLBCL (GCB, n = 22; NGCB, n = 38) were examined for the expression of survivin and T332 antigen. Survivin+ DLBCL had a significantly worse prognosis (P = 0.01) than survivin– cases, as already reported, while survivin+ GCB or NGCB tended to have poor prognoses (P = 0.06 and 0.07, respectively). However, T332+ DLBCL and NGCB had significantly more unfavorable prognoses than T332– cases (P = 0.01 and 0.02, respectively) while there was no significant survival difference between the T332+ and T332– groups of GCB (P = 0.11). Interestingly DLBCL coexpressing survivin and T332 (n = 13) had a significantly worse prognosis (P = 0.009) than the remaining single positive and double negative cases (n = 31). In conclusion, survivin and the novel MAb, T332, might be a good predictor of DLBCL and its subtypes.
Model Predictive Control for Type 1 Diabetes Based on Personalized Linear Time-Varying Subject Model Consisting of Both Insulin and Meal Inputs

An essential component of insulin therapy for type 1 diabetes involves the prediction of blood glucose levels as function of exogenous perturbations such as insulin dose and meal intake. Based on the authors' previously developed patient-specific linear time-varying model for glucose dynamics consisting of both insulin and meal inputs, this paper develops a model predictive control for determining the optimal insulin delivery to regulate blood glucose in euglycemic range. Evaluation of the developed controller using the UVa/Padova simulator shows promising results. In addition, results in this paper show the importance of explicitly including the meal intake in the regression model, which was often lacking in the existing empirical subject-model based control.
Towards a Better Understanding of the Needs of Children Currently Adopted from Care: An Analysis of Placements 2003–2005

John Randall summarises the findings of an in-house study undertaken by Families for Children, a voluntary adoption agency based in the southwest of England. It took a consecutive sample of 103 children placed from care for adoption between 2003 and 2005, using Matching Needs and Services, a method designed for analysing need in child care populations and developing services best suited to meeting them. The study identified nine need groups of varying degrees of complexity and looked at the service responses to those identified needs. The children placed came from 41 local authorities ranging from nearby local authorities to the wider southwest, London and the southeast, the Midlands and the north of England. The sample offers a snapshot of the contemporary challenges presented by children placed for adoption from care.
Comparative Effectiveness and Toxicity of Statins Among HIV-Infected Patients.

BACKGROUND dyslipidemia is common and is often treated with 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins). Little is known about the comparative effectiveness of statins among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. This study compared the effectiveness and toxicity of statins among HIV-infected patients in clinical care. METHODS we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients starting their initial statin medications at 2 large HIV clinics (N = 700). The primary observation was change in lipid levels during statin therapy. Secondary observations included whether individualized National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) goals for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) levels were reached, and toxicity rates. We used linear regression to examine change in lipid levels, controlling for baseline lipid values and demographic and clinical characteristics. We conducted secondary analyses using propensity scores to address confounding by indication. RESULTS the most commonly prescribed statins were atorvastatin (N = 303), pravastatin (N = 280), and rosuvastatin (N = 95). One year after starting a statin therapy, patients who received atorvastatin or rosuvastatin had significantly greater decreases in total cholesterol, LDL-C, and non-HDL-C than patients on pravastatin. The likelihood of reaching NCEP goals for LDL-C levels was higher with the use of rosuvastatin (OR 2.1; P = .03) and atorvastatin (odds ratio [OR], 2.1; P = .001) compared with that of pravastatin. The likelihood of reaching NCEP goals for non-HDL-C levels was higher for rosuvastatin (OR 2.3; P = .045) but not atorvastatin (OR, 1.5; P = .1) compared with pravastatin. Toxicity rates were similar for all 3 statins: 7.3% for atorvastatin, 6.1% for pravastatin, and 5.3% for rosuvastatin. CONCLUSIONS our findings suggest that atorvastatin and rosuvastatin are preferable to pravastatin for treatment of HIV-infected patients with dyslipidemia, due to greater declines in total cholesterol, LDL-C, and non-HDL-C, with similar lower toxicity rates.
How) are Emotionally Exhausted Employees Harmful

Previous research has not considered potential mediating mechanisms (e.g., employee attitudes) through which emotional exhaustion influences counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) targeted at individual stakeholders (CWB-I) and the organization (CWB-O). Drawing upon the stressor-emotion model of CWB and social exchange theory, we examine organizational commitment as a mediator between emotional exhaustion and CWB. One hundred and 13 general employees in a large, South Korean banking company, completed surveys along with their supervisors. Results show that organizational commitment fully mediates the relation between emotional exhaustion and both CWB-I and CWB-O; the 95% confidence intervals for the indirect effect through organizational commitment do not include zero for both CWB-I (.02, .21) and CWB-O (.01, .22). These empirical findings indicate that emotional exhaustion leads to CWB through a decline in the commitment of an employee, which consequently makes the occurrence of CWB more likely. We discuss the implications for the function of organizational commitment in the stressor-emotion model of CWB and implications for reducing stress in the workplace.