Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endocrine-Related Cancer ( 2011 ) 18 235 – 244 IGF 1 and risk of additional breast cancer in the WHEL study

IGF1, IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), IGFBP-1, insulin, leptin, and adiponectin have been inconsistently associated with breast cancer incidence. We explore how these factors are related to breast cancer recurrence and how tamoxifen treatment is related to IGF1 levels among breast cancer survivors in the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) study. A nested case–control design was used to match breast cancer cases (who had an additional breast cancer event) to controls. Baseline blood samples from 510 matched cases and controls were analyzed for IGF1 levels; a subset of 188 pairs were analyzed for five other hormones and binding proteins. Median follow-up was 7.3 years. Matching was on recruitment site, cancer stage, age at cancer diagnosis, dates of cancer diagnosis, and randomization. Cox proportional hazards regression models, stratified on case–control pair, were used to assess the associations. Insulin, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-3, leptin, and adiponectin did not significantly predict recurrence of breast cancer. IGF1 was positively, but not significantly, associated with recurrence (hazard ratio (HR): 1.33 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.98–1.81)) in the unadjusted analyses. Adjusting for menopausal status and tamoxifen use attenuated the HR to 1.07 (95% CI 0.76–1.40). Analyses of case–control pairs with discordant tamoxifen use show opposing HR: IGF1 predicts higher risk of recurrence if cases did not receive tamoxifen treatment. In conclusion, no significant association was found between IGF1 levels, or other related factors, and risk of additional breast cancer among breast cancer survivors. Tamoxifen can confound analysis of IGF1 and recurrence. This supports re-evaluating significance of IGF1 to breast cancer recurrence. Endocrine-Related Cancer (2011) 18 235–244
Conflict and Cooperation in Municipalities

One measure of governance quality is the level of reported conflict and cooperation that is present between and among elected officials and administrators. High levels of conflict or low levels of cooperation can hinder the decision-making process. However, there are few attempts to assess the causes of conflict and cooperation in the existing literature. This study uses an expanded typology of local government form and additional independent variables to determine what factors are likely to lead to conditions conducive to cooperation and lower perceived conflict in the local governance process. Data on government performance and indicators of perceived conflict and cooperation were collected from a national survey of municipal mayors, council members, and chief administrators in cities with populations of 50,000 to 250,000. Our results suggest that form of government and proportion of council members elected by district are two factors that significantly influence governance at the local level.
Towards Conversational Speech Recognition for a Wearable Computer Based Appointment Scheduling Agent

We present an original study of current mobile appointment scheduling devices. Our intention is to create a conversational wearable computing interface for the task of appointment scheduling. We employ both survey questionnaires and timing tests of mock scheduling tasks. The study includes over 150 participants and times each person using his or her own scheduling device (e.g., a paper planner or personal digital assistant). Our tests show that current scheduling devices take a surprisingly long time to access and that our subjects often do not use the primary scheduling device claimed on the questionnaire. Slower devices (e.g., PDAs) are disproportionately abandoned in favor of devices with faster access times (e.g., scrap paper). Many subjects indicate that they use a faster device when mobile as a buffer until they can reconcile the data with their primary scheduling device. The findings of this study motivated the design of two conversational speech systems for everyday–use wearable computers. The Calendar Navigator Agent provides extremely fast access to the user’s calendar through a wearable computer with a head-up display. The user’s verbal negotiation for a meeting time is monitored by the wearable which provides an appropriate calendar display based on the current conversation. The second system, now under development, attempts to minimize cognitive load by buffering and indexing appointment conversations for later processing by the user. Both systems use extreme restrictions to decrease speech recognition error rates, yet are designed to be socially graceful.
Antibacterial and Antioxidant Properties of Methanolic Extracts of Some Native Edible Plants Collected from Kermanshah, Western Iran

Background: There is growing demand to improve physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory properties of fresh foods using natural herbal antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds. The aim of the present study was to investigate antioxidant and antibacterial properties of some native edible plants of Kermanshah, Western Iran. Methods: The methanolic extracts of leaves of Falcaria vulgaris, Allium rotundum, Tragopogon graminifolius, and Mentha longifolia plants were prepared. The antibacterial effects of these four plant extracts were determined on Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus subtilis, B. cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 using micro-broth dilution and agar disk diffusion assays. Also, the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl hydrate assay was used for determination of antioxidant properties of the plant extracts. The analysis was performed using SPSS 16.0 (Chicago, IL, USA) software package. Results: The most antibacterial effectiveness was significantly (p<0.05) found for M. longifolia extract. The following sequence inhibition effect on investigated bacterial strains was observed: M. longifolia>T. graminifolius>A. rotundum>F. vulgaris. Moreover, Gram-negative bacteria were more resistant to the presence of methanolic plant extracts than Gram-positive bacteria. The highest antioxidant activity (based on IC50) was significantly (p<0.05) found for M. longifolia (0.88±0.12 mg/ml); as well as these rates for T. graminifolius, A. rotundum, and F. vulgaris extracts were 0.45±0.78, 0.26±0.07, and 0.14±0.23 mg/ml, respectively. Conclusion: The studied edible plants had antimicrobial and antioxidant activities that recommend as potential preservatives in food products. However, methanolic extract of M. longifolia had the best antibacterial and antioxidant properties in vitro.
The Joint Size and Ownership Specialization in Banks' Lending

In this paper we study the specialization of Spanish banks along two intertwined dimensions: size and ownership form. We find some interesting results at odds with the existing empirical literature. As commercial banks increase their size, they lend more to large borrowers but that is not the case for the largest banks. For savings banks, the larger the size the more likely is the lending to small borrowers. Moreover, we find evidence that larger commercial banks are more willing to lend to low credit quality borrowers than medium size banks, while the opposite is true among savings banks. Banks' specialization in lending to business firms seems to go across the reputation considerations, risk shifting behavior and lending technologies most often considered in the literature.
Ex vivo differentiation of human bone marrow-derived stem cells into neuronal cell-like lineages

php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php). Ex vivo differentiation of human bone marrowderived stem cells into neuronal cell-like lineages
Real and perceived losses from unemployment: a cross-country study

This article compares the Unemployment Rate (UR) as a measure of inefficiency with several other potential measures across 18 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Results show that the UR is not a very good measure of relative inefficiency between countries, it overestimates the number of individuals who would get jobs if the market is clear, the Dead Weight Losses (DWLs) of UR are remarkably low even in high unemployment countries and the aggregate perceived monetary losses by the unemployed as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are also uniformly low, although inframarginal individuals in some countries may perceive their losses to be high.
New thermobarometers for martian igneous rocks, and some implications for secular cooling on Mars

Abstract Tests show that terrestrial mineral+liquid geothermobarometers are not well equipped for use on martian rocks, which tend to have much higher FeO and lower Al2O3. Here, we present new calibrations of thermometers and barometers using experimental data on martian samples from the literature. These new models recover P-T conditions with a greater accuracy compared to models calibrated using terrestrial compositions. We applied these new calibrations to primitive martian mantle-derived melts Yamato 980459 (Y98) and Northwest Africa (NWA) 6234 and several surface basalts (Gusev). Our new models yield similar P-T conditions for NWA and Y98 compositions of 1.4-1.7 GPa and 1500-1550 °C, which are close to estimates by most prior studies. Our models yield somewhat lower P estimates compared to Lee et al. (2009), apparently because our Si-activity model (from Beattie 1993) includes an Al2O3-correction (where lower Al2O3, as in martian samples, leads to lower P estimates). For Gusev basalt compositions, our new models yield P-T estimates of 1.0-1.3 GPa and 1340-1390 °C; furthermore, we also obtain P = 1.03 GPa and T = 1340 °C, for a Gusev composition from Monders et al. (2007), which comes very close to the Monders et al. (2007) estimate for multiple saturation, of 1.0 GPa and 1325 °C, derived from phase saturation relationships. Given the different ages of these meteorites, with Gusev at 3.65 Ga (Greeley et al. 2005) and Y98 at 4.3 Ga (Bouvier et al. 2005, 2008, 2009; Werner et al. 2014), their thermal contrasts may represent secular cooling of Mars. We estimate a mantle potential temperature difference of ~200 °C, with mantle potential temperatures of 1450 ±50 °C for Gusev and 1650 ±50 °C for Y98; this implies a cooling rate of 300 °C/Ga. This would appear to be a much more rapid rate of cooling compared to Earth, as may be expected by Mars’ higher surface/volume ratio.
IMPROVING STRENGTH BEHAVIOUR OF A SILTY CLAY THROUGH POLYMER STRIPS

This paper presents strength characteristics of an unsaturated silty clay reinforced with randomly mixed polymer strips. Amount of strip inclusions is varied as 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% by weight of soil. Triaxial compression tests were performed on reinforced soil specimens to evaluate its strength and stress-strain behaviour. Increase in the amount of inclusions increased peak strength of soil, with the effect being more pronounced at low water contents or low degrees of saturation. While parameter c increased, parameter I decreased with increasing amount of inclusions. However, the over all shear strength of the reinforced soil increased.
Security Characteristics and Expected Returns: Evidence from the Chinese Stock Market ⁄

We investigate the cross-sectional determinants of Chinese stock returns using the approach of Brennan, Chordia and Subrahmanyam (1998a, 1998b). We find significant size effect and turnover effect, as well as evidence of short-term return reversal and intermediate-term momentum effect. The book-to-market effect, while present in some model specifications, is not robust to changes of sample periods and estimation methods. Out-of-sample return predictions based on historical relations between stock characteristics and expected returns show a high accuracy. We test three alternative explanations for the size effect: the liquidity-based explanation, the endogeneity-based explanation, and the multi-factor explanation. The results show that the size effect cannot be explained away by liquidity, endogeneity, or exposures to the Fama-French factors. Our results also suggest that the positive relation between the floating ratio and expected stock returns documented in previous studies is a reflection of the size effect associated with non-tradable equity.
STUDIES ON EXTENSION OF SHELF-LIFE OF GUAVA ( Psidium guajava L . ) FRUITS AND VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION OF GUAVA AND DHAMINI ( Grewia tiliaefolia Vahl . )

An investigation was carried out to study the influence of post-harvest treatments with waxol (17 and 25 % nipro and citrus wax), potassium permanganate impregnated on paper shreds, potassium metabisulphite (1000 ppm) and calcium compounds (1% calcium nitrate and 2% calcium chloride) coupled with packaging in polyethylene bags of 200 gauge with 1 percent vents or wrapped with tissue paper on physico-chemical parameters, organoleptic characters and shelf-life of Sardar guava fruits under ambient conditions. The guava fruits treated with 25 per cent citrus wax and packed in polyethylene bag (200 gauge having 1% area of vents) and stored under ambient conditions had a shelf-life of 8.21 days, with lowest shrinkage index (3.00%), physiological loss in weight (3.99%) and retained highest total soluble solids (10.22%), reducing sugars (4.10%), non-reducing sugars (2.12%), total sugars (6.22%), ascorbic acid (213.37 mg/100 g of fruit) and total titratable acidity (0.665%) among the 15 treatments throughout the storage period of 10 days. Organoleptic scores for colour and appearance (4.28), texture (4.30), taste and flavour (4.38), overall acceptability (4.31) was also found to be highest in this treatment. The fruits treated with citrus wax (17%) and packed in polyethylene bag with vents had a shelf-life of 7.46 days followed by 7.42 days in fruits treated with nipro wax (25%) and packed in polyethylene bags with vents. No rooting was observed in guava and dhamini soft-wood cuttings treated with IBA and NAA at the rate 1000 to 3000 ppm concentrations even under poly tunnel condition.
Histopathological evaluation and parasite quantification (qPCR) in the male dog's genital system after natural infection with Leishmania infantum

Canine visceral leishmaniasisis an important disease caused by the protozoon Leishmania infantum which affects several organs and systems, including the genital tract. The L. infantum tropism to the male genital system and correlation among parasite load, immunohistochemistry detection and structural changes in these organs is controversy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate this correlation in the genital organs of the male dogs naturally infected with L. infantum. Samples from testicles, epididymis, prostate, glans penis, prepuce and scrotum were collected from 19 positive adult dogs. Structural changes were observed in the testicles (5.2%), epididymis (2.6%), prepuce (5.2%) and scrotum (5.2%) of the samples positive at immunohistochemistry examination. Conversely, similar structural changes were observed in all tissues negative at immunohistochemistry analysis. Moreover, L. infantum DNA was detected in all organs with the highest parasite load found in testicles, epididymis, and prostate gland. , Testicles had the highest parasite load but the lowest number of inflammatory lesions. These inflammatory lesions were observed in all organs of reproductive system of dogs; however, no correlation was observed between the parasite load and inflammatory lesions of dogs naturally infected with L. infantum.
Acceptable points in games of perfect information.

This is the second of a series of papers on the theory of acceptable points in ^-person games. The first was [1]; in it the notion of acceptable points was defined for cooperative games, and a fundamental theorem was proved relating the acceptable expected payoffs for a single play of a game to probable average payoffs for ' 'strong equilibrium points" in its supergame. The chief result of the current paper, Theorem 5.4, is a generalization of von Neumann's classical Theorem on two-person zero-sum games of perfect information (see [11]). Roughly, it states that strong equilibrium points in the supergame of a stable game of perfect information can be achieved in pure supergame strategies. An example shows that not all games possess this property; and in fact, it is conjectured that the property is characteristic of game structures of perfect information. The theorem stated above holds whether G is interpreted as a cooperative or as a non-cooperative game. To lend meaning to this statement, we will have to extend the theory introduced in [1] to non-cooperative games. We plan to do this in full in a subsequent paper. Here just enough definitions and theorems will be used to enable us to state and prove the chief result for non-cooperative games of perfect information. The paper is divided into two parts, the first centering around the proof of the chief result for cooperative games, the second dealing with the extension to non-cooperative games. Section 1, the introduction, serves mainly to supply background from [1] and from the literature. In § 2, we show that the naive approach to generalizing von Neumann's theorem on games of perfect information fails; that is, we bring an example of a stable game of perfect information that has no acceptable point in pure strategies. It is then shown intuitively that an appropriate generalization of the von Neumann Theorem should involve the supergame. Sections 3 and 4 are devoted to the proof of preliminary theorems, dealing with supergame pure strategies and supergames of perfect information, respectively. In § 5 we establish the chief result. Section 6, which completes the first part of the paper, is devoted to the example and conjecture mentioned in connection with the chief result.
Heritabilities and genetic correlations of lactational and daily somatic cell score with conformation traits in Polish Holstein cattle.

Th e objective of this study was to estimate heritabilities and genetic correlations of lactational and daily somatic cell scores with descriptive and linear type traits in Polish Holstein-Friesian cows. Data were: test-day somatic cell scores and conformation evaluations of 24 599 primiparous cows, daughters of 802 sires. Cows calved from 2006 to 2007. Th e lactational somatic cell score was calculated as the average of four test-day somatic cell scores at least. Th e daily somatic cell score was the test-day somatic cell score closest to the date of type evaluation. A multi-trait animal model was used to estimate genetic parameters. (Co)variance components were estimated by a Bayesian algorithm via Gibbs sampling. Th e heritability of lactational somatic cell score was 0.20 and it was much higher than that of daily somatic cell score (0.13). Heritabilities of type traits were high to moderate for height at rump (0.46), size (0.39), overall conformation score (0.30), two linear rump traits (0.28-0.29) and three linear teat traits (0.26-0.29). Th e genetic correlation between lactational and daily somatic cell scores was 0.84. In many cases, daily somatic cell score showed higher genetic correlations with type traits than lactational somatic cell score. Descriptive udder and feet and legs scores were genetically correlated negatively with both lactational (-0.22 and -0.20) and daily somatic cell scores (-0.28 and -0.33). Somatic cell traits were genetically correlated positively with rump angle (0.21 and 0.19) and negatively with fore udder height (-0.26 and -0.29), udder depth (-0.23 and -0.17) and central ligament (-0.14 and -0.16). Due to higher heritability, direct selection for lower lactational somatic cell score would be more eff ective than selection for lower daily somatic cell score. Th e magnitude of obtained heritabilities and the favourable genetic correlations indicate that the selection utilizing some type traits could improve the resistance to mastitis.
The Barents Sea frontal zones and water masses variability (1980–2011)

Abstract. The polar front separates the warm and saline Atlantic Water entering the southern Barents Sea from the cold and fresh Arctic Water located in the north. These water masses can mix together (mainly in the center of the Barents Sea), be cooled by the atmosphere and receive salt because of brine release; these processes generate dense water in winter, which then cascades into the Arctic Ocean to form the Arctic Intermediate Water. To study the interannual variability and evolution of the frontal zones and the corresponding variations of the water masses, we have merged data from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and have built a new database, which covers the 1980–2011 period. The summer data were interpolated on a regular grid. A probability density function is used to show that the polar front splits into two branches east of 32° E where the topographic constraint weakens. Two fronts can then be identified: the Northern Front is associated with strong salinity gradients and the Southern Front with temperature gradients. Both fronts enclose the denser Barents Sea Water. The interannual variability of the water masses is apparent in the observed data and is linked to that of the ice cover. The frontal zones variability is found by using data from a general circulation model. The link with the atmospheric variability, represented here by the Arctic Oscillation, is not clear. However, model results suggest that such a link could be validated if winter data were taken into account. A strong trend appears: the Atlantic Water (Arctic Water) occupies a larger (smaller) volume of the Barents Sea. This trend amplifies during the last decade and the model study suggests that this could be accompanied by a northwards displacement of the Southern Front in the eastern part of the Barents Sea. The results are less clear for the Northern Front. The observations show that the volume of the Barents Sea Water remains nearly unchanged, which suggests a northwards shift of the Northern Front to compensate for the northward shift of the Southern Front. Lastly, we noticed that the seasonal variability of the position of the front is small.
Internal wave fields and drag generated by a translating body in a stratified fluid

Asymptotic approximations to the velocity and pressure fields generated by steadily towing a body through a uniformly stratified fluid in an arbitrary direction are calculated. This is done explicitly for point sources, both oscillatory and non-oscillatory in strength, and for a spherical source of non-oscillatory strength. The flow fields are divided into regions by causality and radiation conditions which have contributions containing up to three significant internal waves in the non-oscillatory cases, and up to six in the oscillatory cases. A method for describing the caustics is given. The drag due to the internal wave field induced by towing a body through the fluid is calculated for a spherical source, of non-oscillatory strength, being towed at a general tow angle and Froude number. Dependence of the drag coefficient on the tow angle and the Froude number is shown in particular the tow angle can significantly affect the magnitude of the drag coefficient for a given Froude number.