Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade Policy and Factor Prices: An Empirical Strategy

This paper presents a new empirical strategy for estimating the effects of trade policy on domestic factor prices when policy endogeneity is suspected. Absent income effectson factor supplies or domestic prices, the coefficient on the terms of trade can provide an unbiased estimator of the effect of trade barriers on the factor distribution of income for a small economy. In the more general case where income effects are allowed for, we provide a means to quantify and control for the possible bias. We implement our strategy on a cross-national data set of trade policies and income shares of capital and labor. We find little evidence of the existence of Stolper-Samuelson effects, both for the sample as a whole as well as within cones of diversification. Consistent with a model of wage bargaining, we find that the effect of openness on capital shares is greater for countries with higher unionization rates.
Asymmetry and structural information in preferential attachment graphs

Graph symmetries intervene in diverse applications, from enumeration, to graph structure compression, to the discovery of graph dynamics (e.g., node arrival order inference). Whereas Erdős‐Rényi graphs are typically asymmetric, real networks are highly symmetric. So a natural question is whether preferential attachment graphs, where in each step a new node with m edges is added, exhibit any symmetry. In recent work it was proved that preferential attachment graphs are symmetric for m = 1, and there is some nonnegligible probability of symmetry for m = 2. It was conjectured that these graphs are asymmetric when m ≥ 3. We settle this conjecture in the affirmative, then use it to estimate the structural entropy of the model. To do this, we also give bounds on the number of ways that the given graph structure could have arisen by preferential attachment. These results have further implications for information theoretic problems of interest on preferential attachment graphs.
Uncertainty of Remote Sensing Data in Monitoring Vegetation Phenology: A Comparison of MODIS C5 and C6 Vegetation Index Products on the Tibetan Plateau

Vegetation phenology is considered a sensitive indicator of climate change, which controls carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles within terrestrial ecosystems. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is an important moderate resolution remote sensing data for monitoring vegetation phenology. However, Terra MODIS Collection 5 (C5) vegetation index products were identified to be affected by sensor degradation, which has been addressed in the recently released MODIS Collection 6 (C6) vegetation index products. In order to compare the difference between MODIS C5 and C6 NDVI in monitoring vegetation phenology, the start and end of growing season (SOS and EOS) of the alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) were extracted using four common methods. Then, the C5 and C6 NDVI-derived SOS (SOSC5 and SOSC6) and EOS (EOSC5 and EOSC6) were compared with ground-observed phenology data. Results showed that the multi-year average growing season NDVIs of C6 were lower than those of C5 in most areas, while the inter-annual variation patterns of regional average SOSC5 and SOSC6 (EOSC5 and EOSC6) were consistent. However, large spatial differences in phenological trends were found between C5 and C6 NDVI products. From C5 to C6, pixels with a SOS (EOS) trend shifting from significant to insignificant or from insignificant to significant accounted for at least 14.58% (9.07%) of the total pixels. SOSC5 was more consistent than SOSC6 with the ground-observed green-up dates. C5 NDVI may be more appropriate for monitoring SOS than C6 NDVI in the study region, but more ground-observed phenology records are needed to confirm it due to only four observational sites in this study. However, large differences and poor correlations existed between EOSC5 (EOSC6) and the ground-observed beginning of leaf coloring. To further evaluate the uncertainty of MODIS C5 and C6 NDVI in monitoring vegetation phenology, higher resolution near-surface remote sensing data and corresponding validation methods should be applied.
Fetal oxygen uptake, oxygenation, and acid-base balance as a function of uterine blood flow.

The rate of O2 delivery to the pregnant uterus (FaO2) was decreased in chronic sheep preparations by mechanical occlusion of uterine blood flow. The relationship of uterine venous O2 saturation (SVO2) to FaO2 was curvilinear with convexity toward the SVO2 axis. As SVO2 decreased, there was a decrease in uterine and umbilical venous O2 tension (PO2), with no appreciable reduction of the PO2 difference between the two veins and a decrease in the umbilical vein O2 delivery rate. Fetal O2 uptake and base excess remained normal as the umbilical vein O2 delivery rate was reduced from 1.1 to 0.6 mmol . min-1 . kg-1 but decreased markedly at an O2 delivery rate less than 0.5. Umbilical venous CO2 tension (PCO2) was higher than, and strongly correlated with, uterine venous PCO2 (R = 0.954). These observations support a venous equilibration model of ovine placental exchange and demonstrate that under normal physiological conditions the O2 supply to the fetal lamb is approximately twice the value necessary to maintain an adequate fetal O2 uptake and a normal fetal base excess.
THE NATURAL LIFE HISTORY OF CHILDREN WITH MINIMAL BRAIN DYSFUNCTION

How complete is our knowledge of the natural life history of the minimal brain damage (MBD * ) syndrome? Controlled scientific data are sparse, and much current information is based upon biased parent reports to physicians. Recently, retrospective reports have begun appearing in the medical literature. In one study in which a 27-item rating scale was used, 5-year-old to 1 1-year-old hyperactive subjects scored substantially lower than normal control subjects. ' The test items ranged from clumsiness and accident proneness to speech pathology and such undesirable behavior traits as short attention span, unpredictability, irritability, tantrums, and destructiveness. Many characteristics were identifiable prior to the second year in the hyperactive group, whereas in the control subjects, they emerged much later. In another study of 45 adolescent youths previously categorized as hyperactive, the authors found that five years after diagnosis, 11 % had significantly improved in behavior and another 58% showed a mild degree of improvement. Persisting hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, overtalkativeness, inadequate school performance, and poor self-esteem were characteristic of the remaining 31%. A significantly lower incidence of these symptoms in a normal adolescent youth population was reported in a third study.3
Flexible Stopping Boundaries When Changing Primary Endpoints After Unblinded Interim Analyses

It has been widely recognized that interim analyses of accumulating data in a clinical trial can inflate type I error. Different methods, from group sequential boundaries to flexible alpha spending functions, have been developed to control the overall type I error at prespecified level. These methods mainly apply to testing the same endpoint in multiple interim analyses. In this article, we consider a group sequential design with preplanned endpoint switching after unblinded interim analyses. We extend the alpha spending function method to group sequential stopping boundaries when the parameters can be different between interim, or between interim and final analyses.
FOREST - A Flexible Object Recognition System

Despite the growing importance of image data, image recognition has succeeded in taking a permanent role in everyday life in specific areas only. The reason is the complexity of currently available software and the difficulty in developing image recognition systems. Currently available software frameworks expect users to have a comparatively high level of programming and computer vision skills. FOREST – a flexible object recognition framework – strives to overcome this drawback. It was developed for non-expert users with littleto-no knowledge in computer vision and programming. While other image recognition systems focus solely on the recognition functionality, FOREST covers all steps of the development process, including selection of training data, ground truth annotation, investigation of classification results and of possible skews in the training data. The software is highly flexible and performs the computer vision functionality autonomously by applying several feature detection and extraction operators in order to capture important image properties. Despite the use of weakly supervised learning, applications developed with FOREST achieve recognition rates between 86 and 99% and are comparable to state-of-the-art recognition systems.
Alcohol and hepatitis C mortality among males and females in the United States: a life table analysis.

OBJECTIVE Evidence from previous studies suggests that heavy alcohol use (HAU) exacerbates the rate of fibrosis progression in the liver and results in increased probability for premature death among patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The current study uses population-based mortality data to investigate whether heavy drinking affects the age of death among individuals with HCV and, if so, whether this effect differs between men and women. METHODS A total of 7,263,163 death records in the United States between 2000 and 2002 were drawn from the Multiple Cause of Death (MCD) public-use data files compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes were used to identify the presence of HCV (B17.1 and B18.2) and HAU (as indicated by alcohol-induced medical conditions, F10 and K70) either as the underlying cause or as one of the contributing causes of death. The deaths were divided into 4 distinctive cause-of-death categories: HCV without HAU, HAU without HCV, HCV plus HAU, and all others. The mean ages of death and the cumulative probabilities of death derived from multiple-cause life table were compared across these categories. RESULTS Hepatitis C virus deaths showed an excessive prevalence of HAU when compared with non-HCV deaths. Compared with deaths of HCV without HAU, the mean age of death was shortened for deaths of HCV plus HAU (from 55.1 to 50.0 years among males, and from 61.0 to 49.1 years among females). The cumulative probability of death before age 65 was much higher for the latter than the former group (0.91 vs 0.68 among males, and 0.88 vs 0.47 among females). While HCV alone showed a disproportionate effect on premature death in males, HAU presented a stronger effect in females, resulting in a "catching-up" effect that diminished the gender difference in age of HCV death. CONCLUSIONS This study provides mortality-based evidence to further establish heavy alcohol consumption as one of the key risk factors contributing to premature deaths from HCV in the United States. More importantly, this study, for the first time, presents empirical evidence that alcohol consumption affects men and women differently in HCV mortality.
Reproducibility of instruments designed to measure subjective evaluation of female stress urinary incontinence.

The aim of this study was to construct two instruments by which detailed knowledge of women's problems related to stress urinary incontinence (SUI) could be registered, and to test the reproducibility of the results obtained. Fourteen women with urodynamically proven SUI, and a mean age of 42.8 years (range 18-56) participated in the study. The leakage index was a five point scale (1 = never, 5 = always) containing thirteen types of physical exertions known to trigger urinary leakage. The social activity index contains nine social settings in which women may have problems to participate. For each parameter a 10 cm visual analogue scale (0 = impossible to participate, 10 = no problem to participate) was used for registration. The correlation coefficient for test 1 and 2 was . 92 (p < 0.01) and . 94 (p < 0.01) for the leakage and the social activity index, respectively. The results obtained were reproducible, and the instruments gave detailed information about how women perceived SUI.
Effectiveness of Left Anterior Right Temporal Electrode Placement in Electroconvulsive Therapy: 3 Case Reports

Abstract Unilateral and bitemporal electrode placement has been the dominant mode of delivery in electroconvulsive therapy. We report 3 patients receiving maintenance electroconvulsive therapy where the use of dominant electrode placements was ineffective. Changing to left anterior right temporal electrode placement resulted in marked clinical improvement. This supports the limited literature on this electrode placement.
No Correlation in Epstein-Barr Virus Reactivation Between Serological Parameters and Viral Load

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been identified as a cofactor in the pathogenesis of a significant proportion of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related or transplantation-related lymphoproliferative disorders (2, 3). Furthermore, EBV reactivation occurs more frequently in patients on hemodialysis due to the uremic immunodeficiency (5). Currently, EBV reactivations are almost exclusively diagnosed by antibody assays. We investigated whether the indirect detection of EBV by serological assays is correlated with the direct detection of the EBV viral DNA load in patients with immunosuppression (30 HIV-positive individuals, 30 transplant recipients, 23 patients on hemodialysis) and in 30 blood donors as controls. EBV primary infections and seronegatives were excluded. First, immunofluorescence analysis of immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgM, and IgA antibodies to virus-capsid antigen (VCA), early antigen (EA-IgG), and EBV nuclear antigens 1 and 2 (EBNA1-IgG and EBNA2-IgG, respectively) were carried out. Serological reactivations were detected when at least one of the following parameters was found: VCA-IgM titer, >32; VCA-IgA titer, >32, EA-IgG titer, >64; EBNA1-IgG ≤ EBNA2-IgG (5). EBV DNA present in peripheral leukocytes was quantified by a competitive nested PCR assay of EBV-p23 (1). The detection limit was determined as 20 EBV copies in 105 EBV-negative leukocytes. In the latent stage, not more than 5 cells in 106 leukocytes are EBV infected; thus, latent infections were not detectable with this PCR (4). Serological reactivation and EBV DNA content were not correlated, since serological reactivations were found with almost the same frequency in PCR-positive as in PCR-negative individuals (Table ​(Table1). 1). No PCR-positive subjects were present in controls; however, 13% exhibited serological markers for reactivation. Furthermore, no differences were found when single serological reactivation parameters such as EA-IgG or EBNA1-IgG ≤ EBNA2-IgG were correlated with PCR. Finally, PCR results failed to correlate with the number of different reactivation markers in individual subjects. Four patients with a high viral load (>106 copies/μg of DNA) were found in the group of PCR-positive subjects. Even among these patients, no serological reactivations were detected. In contrast, 4 of 11 patients (36%) with moderate (104 to 106 copies/μg of DNA) and 6 of 7 patients (85%) with low viral load (<104 copies/μg of DNA) showed such serological reactivations, suggesting that antibody production and the loss of antibodies are individually different, particularly in immunosuppressed patients. TABLE 1 Comparison of serological reactivations detected by antibody assays and EBV DNA by PCR in leukocytes In summary, we suggest that the serological parameters that are currently employed as an indicator for EBV reactivation may be of limited use as they fail to correlate with viral load.
Supercritical-Carbon Dioxide Fluid Extract from Chrysanthemum indicum Enhances Anti-Tumor Effect and Reduces Toxicity of Bleomycin in Tumor-Bearing Mice

Bleomycin (BLM), a family of anti-tumor drugs, was reported to exhibit severe side effects limiting its usage in clinical treatment. Therefore, finding adjuvants that enhance the anti-tumor effect and reduce the detrimental effect of BLM is a prerequisite. Chrysanthemum indicum, an edible flower, possesses abundant bioactivities; the supercritical-carbon dioxide fluid extract from flowers and buds of C. indicum (CISCFE) have strong anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and lung protective effects. However, the role of CISCFE combined with BLM treatment on tumor-bearing mice remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the potential synergistic effect and the underlying mechanism of CISCFE combined with BLM in the treatment of hepatoma 22 (H22) tumor-bearing mice. The results suggested that the oral administration of CISCFE combined with BLM could markedly prolong the life span, attenuate the BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis, suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6), tumor necrosis factor-α, activities of myeloperoxidase, and malondiadehyde. Moreover, CISCFE combined with BLM promoted the ascites cell apoptosis, the activities of caspases 3 and 8, and up-regulated the protein expression of p53 and down-regulated the transforming growth factor-β1 by activating the gene expression of miR-29b. Taken together, these results indicated that CISCFE could enhance the anti-cancer activity of BLM and reduce the BLM-induced pulmonary injury in H22 tumor-bearing mice, rendering it as a potential adjuvant drug with chemotherapy after further investigation in the future.
Effects of electrical stressing in power VDMOSFETs

The effects of gate bias stressing on threshold voltage and mobility in power VDMOSFETs and underlying changes in gate oxide-trapped charge and interface trap densities are presented and analysed in terms of the mechanisms responsible. In the case of positive bias stressing, electron tunnelling from neutral oxide traps associated with trivalent silicon /spl equiv/Si/sub o//sup /spl dot// defects into the oxide conduction band is proposed as the main mechanism responsible for positive oxide-trapped charge buildup, while subsequent hole tunnelling from the charged oxide traps /spl equiv/Si/sub o//sup +/ to interface-trap precursors /spl equiv/Si/sub s/-H is shown to be the dominant mechanism responsible for the interface trap buildup. In the case of negative bias stressing, hole tunnelling from the silicon valence band to oxygen vacancy defects /spl equiv/Si/sub o//sup /spl dot//spl dot//Si/sub o//spl equiv/ is shown to be responsible for positive oxide-trapped charge buildup, while subsequent electro-chemical reactions of interfacial precursors /spl equiv/Si/sub s/-H with the charged oxide traps /spl equiv/Si/sub o//sup +/spl dot//Si/sub o//spl equiv/ and H/sup +/ ions are proposed to be responsible for interface trap buildup.
A New Polymethylmethacrylate Membrane for Hemodialysis

High molecular weight (MW) solutes are not removed during conventional hemodialysis (HD), and their accumulation is thought to play a role in some long-term HD complications (anemia, bone and joint pain, neuropathy, itching). The present trial was conducted to evaluate the removal capacity during in vivo HD of a new polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) membrane (Filtryzer BK-F, 1.3 m2) compared to conventional PMMA (BK-P, 1.6 m2) and to cellulose acetate (CA, 1.3 m2). BK-F dialyzers, with a pore size of 100 A° and 62% porosity, are designed to remove high MW substances. Ten stable anuric RDT patients (53 ± 13 years) were treated for one week with each membrane in a randomized sequence. Plasma concentrations of creatinine, BUN and beta2-microglobulin (beta2-M) were measured before (b) and after (a) HD to determine the reduction rate for these substances (%). Beta2-M concentration after HD was corrected for changes in distribution volume. Samples of spent dialysate were collected after 3 minutes, 120 minutes and at the end of HD sessions, and appropriately treated and concentrated for HPLC analysis. The reduction rate for BUN and creatinine was similar for the 3 membranes. BK-F showed a higher beta2-M reduction rate than BK-P (p<0.005) or CA (p<0.0001). HPLC analysis of dialysate showed prevalent peaks < 4 kilodaltons (kDa) throughout HD for BK-P and CA. Solutes > 10 kDa were infrequently detected. Peak profile during HD with BK-F was quite different, showing a predominant peak > 50 kDa which also included albumin. However, albumin loss significantly decreased after 120 minutes and at the end of dialysis compared with the 3-minute values, and was lower than that reported in CAPD patients. With BK-F a peak of MW > 500 kDa was also detected which previous studies indicated as a range characterized by the presence of erythropoiesis inhibitors. Use of the BK-F membrane in HD could afford satisfactory removal of high MW substances, thereby preventing or controlling some long-term HD complications such as anemia or beta2-M amyloid formation.
The bosonic birthday paradox

We motivate and prove a version of the birthday paradox for $k$ identical bosons in $n$ possible modes. If the bosons are in the uniform mixed state, also called the maximally mixed quantum state, then we need $k \sim \sqrt{n}$ bosons to expect two in the same state, which is smaller by a factor of $\sqrt{2}$ than in the case of distinguishable objects (boltzmannons). While the core result is elementary, we generalize the hypothesis and strengthen the conclusion in several ways. One side result is that boltzmannons with a randomly chosen multinomial distribution have the same birthday statistics as bosons. This last result is interesting as a quantum proof of a classical probability theorem; we also give a classical proof.
The moderating role of social networks within the radical innovation process: a multidimensionality of human capital-based analysis

Knowledge, or intellectual capital, and innovation continue to be key areas subject to rapid change in the current environment. The complexity of the relationship between knowledge and innovation leads to the in-depth study of more specific linkages. Intellectual capital is divided into human, organisational and social capital. This paper attempts to provide empirical evidence relating to the relationship between human capital and radical innovation, along with social networks. Using data collected via a questionnaire, our hypotheses were tested empirically in a sample of 251 Spanish technology-intensive manufacturing firms. The paper provides new, empirically-based insights into the study of radical innovation by adopting a research framework which is built upon the intellectual capital-based view of
Treatment of soft-tissue sarcomas of the hand.

We studied the clinical features, radiographic and pathological findings, treatment, and results for twenty-three patients who had been managed for a soft-tissue sarcoma of the hand between 1982 and 1990. The ages of the patients ranged from sixteen to seventy-six years (median age, thirty-one years). The most common clinical finding was a small, painless soft-tissue mass. Twenty of the tumors were high-grade, and eighteen were less than five centimeters in diameter. The most common diagnosis was synovial sarcoma, which was identified in eight patients. Leiomyosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and malignant fibrous histiocytoma developed in three patients each; epithelioid sarcoma, in two patients; and angiosarcoma, liposarcoma, neuroectodermal tumor, and clear-cell sarcoma, in one patient each. Curative wide excision or amputation was attempted in twenty-two patients; the margins were positive for tumor cells in eight, and local recurrence was seen in nine. Of the twenty-three patients, fourteen had survived, without evidence of disease, after a median duration of follow-up of forty-nine months, and nine had died of disease. The median rate of survival did not differ significantly on the basis of the size or grade of the tumor or the use of adjuvant treatment. However, the rate of survival of the patients who had a soft-tissue sarcoma of the hand that was less than five centimeters in diameter was significantly lower (p = 0.0008) than that of 152 patients who had a similar tumor at another site in an extremity. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)