Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Discrete Choice Experiments with Duration to Model EQ-5D-5L Health State Preferences

Background: Discrete choice experiments incorporating duration can be used to derive health state values for EQ-5D-5L. Yet, methodological issues relating to the duration attribute and the optimal way to select health states remain. The aims of this study were to: test increasing the number of duration levels and choice sets where duration varies (aim 1); compare designs with zero and non-zero prior values (aim 2); and investigate a novel, two-stage design to incorporate prior values (aim 3). Methods: Informed by zero and non-zero prior values, two efficient designs were developed, each consisting of 120 EQ-5D-5L health profile pairs with one of six duration levels (aims 1 and 2). Another 120 health state pairs were selected, with one of six duration levels allocated in a second stage based on existing estimated utility of the states (aim 3). An online sample of 2,002 members of the UK general population completed 10 choice sets each. Differences across the regression coefficients from the three designs were assessed. Results: The zero prior value design produced a model with coefficients that were generally logically ordered, but the non-zero prior value design resulted in a set of less ordered coefficients where some differed significantly. The two-stage design resulted in ordered and significant coefficients. The non-zero prior value design may include more “difficult” choice sets, based on the proportions choosing each profile. Conclusions: There is some indication of compromised “respondent efficiency”, suggesting that the use of non-zero prior values will not necessarily result in better overall precision. It is feasible to design discrete choice experiments in two stages by allocating duration values to EQ-5D-5L health state pairs based on estimates from prior studies.
The effectiveness and feasibility of videoconferencing technology to provide evidence-based treatment to rural domestic violence and sexual assault populations.

OBJECTIVE Although evidence-based treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been available for some time, many treatment-seeking trauma survivors are unable to access such services. This is especially the case in remote and rural areas where access to specialists is an exception rather than a rule. Advances in videoconferencing-based technologies are improving rural residents' access to specialized psychological services. However, at present, little is known about the viability and efficacy of providing psychological interventions via distal technologies to individuals who present at rural domestic violence and rape crisis centers. The present study attempts to partially address this void by evaluating, in the context of an uncontrolled trial, the effectiveness and feasibility of providing evidence-based, trauma-focused treatment via videoconferencing to rural survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. MATERIALS AND METHODS Participants in the present study were clients referred to the Wyoming Trauma Telehealth Treatment Clinic (WTTTC) for psychological services via videoconferencing from distal domestic violence and rape crisis centers located in the state of Wyoming. Fifteen female victims of assaultive violence who received at least four sessions of trauma-focused treatment via videoconferencing-based technology at distal rape and domestic violence crisis centers were included in the present study. Participants completed measures of PTSD and depression symptom severity and client satisfaction. RESULTS Participants evidenced large reductions on measures of PTSD (d = 1.17) and depression (d = 1.24) symptom severity following treatment via videoconferencing. Additionally, participants reported a high degree of satisfaction with videoconferencing-administered services. CONCLUSIONS Results provide evidence in support of videoconferencing as an effective means to provide psychological services to rural domestic violence and sexual assault populations. Clinical implications and avenues for future research are discussed.
Alternative Hair‐Dye Products for Persons Allergic to para‐Phenylenediamine

Background: Finding alternative hair dyes for individuals allergic to para‐phenylenediamine (PPD) has been difficult. Newer permanent and demipermanent hair dyes that have replaced PPD with para‐toluenediamine sulfate (PTDS) are now available. Objective: We examined whether individuals allergic to PPD will tolerate PPD‐free hair dyes containing PTDS. Methods: A retrospective analysis of patch‐test results since October 2006 was done and yielded 28 patients allergic to PPD who were also tested with a hair dye series. From January 2004 through October 2006, seven additional patients allergic to PPD were tested with PTDS but not the full dye series. Patch‐test results were analyzed. The newer PTDS dyes were recommended for all PPD‐positive PTDS‐negative subjects starting in 2008, and these subjects were contacted to determine whether they tolerated the recommended hair‐dye products. Results: Of 28 PPD‐allergic patients seen since October 2006, 16 (57.1%) tested negative to all other substances on the dye series. Eleven tested positive to PTDS; of these, several were also allergic to other substances in the hair dye series. There was only one patient who was allergic to ortho‐nitro‐PPD and not to PTDS. Of 7 additional PPD‐allergic patients seen from 2004 through 2006, 4 (57.1%) tested negative to PTDS. In total, 20 of 35 individuals (57.1%) tested positive to PPD but negative to PTDS. Ten of 13 PPD‐positive patients for whom PTDS hair dyes were recommended subsequently used a PTDS hair dye, and all tolerated these products. Conclusion: Fifty‐seven percent of patients allergic to PPD in this study will likely tolerate newer permanent and demipermanent hair dyes based on PTDS. Most individuals not allergic to PTDS will also test negative to other substances in the dye series. All 10 patients who tested positive to PPD and negative to PTDS who subsequently used a PTDS dye free of PPD tolerated these products. Many individuals allergic to PPD will benefit from the newer PTDS‐based products.
Prop Ups During Lockups

The end of the lockup period for initial public offerings generally constitutes the first time corporate insiders sell significant numbers of shares on the market. I test the hypothesis that shareholders pressure analysts to support the share price until the end of the lockup period. In a sample of U.S. initial public offerings from 1996 to 2006, I find that analysts issue overly optimistic recommendations until the end of the lockup period. Furthermore, I find a significant downward revision of recommendations for the whole sample of firms as soon as the lockup period ends.
A cognitive-behavioral group for patients with various anxiety disorders.

OBJECTIVE Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols for each of the anxiety disorders are robust and effective but are best suited for specialty clinics. This study assessed a format more suitable for general clinics: a single protocol based on standard CBT techniques designed to treat patients who have different anxiety disorders in the same group. METHODS Potential participants in Vancouver, British Columbia, were administered a structured clinical interview to identify those with major anxiety disorders: panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia; obsessive-compulsive disorder; social phobia; generalized anxiety disorder; specific phobia; and posttraumatic stress disorder. Forty-three percent of participants had more than one current anxiety diagnosis. Those with active substance abuse or dependence or with psychosis were excluded. A total of 152 patients were randomly assigned to immediate treatment in the 11-week CBT group or to a wait-list control group. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was administered at baseline, at the end of treatment or of the waiting period, and six months later. RESULTS Reductions in BAI scores for participants in the immediate-treatment groups were greater than those for the control group participants. Patients with panic disorder in particular appeared to benefit. Outcomes for the immediate-treatment group were superior in terms of clinically significant changes, defined as a 20% or 40% improvement. Reductions in BAI scores continued to be present six months later. The improvements correspond to a medium effect size (Cohen's d=.50). CONCLUSIONS A group CBT protocol for mixed anxiety disorders may make effective treatment more widely available.
The impact of the September 11 Terrorist Attack on the Global Insurance Markets: Evidence from the Japanese Property-Casualty Insurance Industry

We investigate the significant effects of the September 11 attacks on the Japanese stock market, one of the largest markets in the world. Although several studies have examined the impact of the attacks on the domestic U.S. stock market, few studies have analyzed their impact on the foreign insurance industry through globally well-developed reinsurance transactions. Surprisingly, a mid-sized P/C insurance company, TAISEI Fire and Marine Insurance, went bankrupt on November 22, 2001, two months after the events, due to massive reinsurance claims arising from the terrorist attacks. Using traditional event study methodology for both events, the attacks and the failure, we find that the Japanese stock market reacted to risks of the terrorism event through the global reinsurance market at the time of TAISEI’s failure, rather than immediately after the events of September 11.
Comparison of the QuantiFERON‐TB Gold In‐Tube test with the tuberculin skin test for detecting latent tuberculosis infection prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

A total of 244 patients including 100 (41%) autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) recipients and 144 (59%) allogeneic HCT recipients were enrolled over a 28‐month period. During the study period, no prophylaxis for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection was administrated. Of these, 201 (82%) had Bacillus Calmette‐Guérin (BCG) scars or prior histories of BCG vaccination. The tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON‐TB Gold In‐Tube (QFT‐GIT) test were performed simultaneously in all 244 patients. TST indurations were ≥ 5 mm in 39 of these patients (15%), and in 25 (10%) indurations were ≥ 10 mm. In addition, 40 (16%) had positive QFT‐GIT outcomes, and 34 (14%) indeterminate outcomes. If the 34 patients with indeterminate QFT‐GIT results were excluded from the overall agreement analysis, the agreement between the TST results (induration size ≥ 5 mm) and the QFT‐GIT results in the 210 patients with clear QFT results was poor (κ = 0.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.06 to 0.24), as it was for the patients with indurations ≥ 10 mm (κ = 0.15, 95% CI −0.004 to 0.31). During follow up, 2 patients developed TB after HCT. The incidence of TB in the patients with positive QFT‐GIT outcomes was 2.80 per 100 person‐years (95% CI 0.07–15.81), whereas among those with positive TST (≥ 5 mm) results, it was 0 per 100 person‐years (95% CI 0–8.00). However, this finding should be cautiously interpreted because of the relatively short follow up and the fact that the sample size of the study cohort did not have adequate power. In conclusion, our data show that, although the frequencies of positive outcomes in the 2 TB screening tests were similar, the overall agreement between the TST and the QFT‐GIT test was poor, regardless of BCG vaccination history.
Floating Underwater Manipulation: Developed Control Methodology and Experimental Validation within the TRIDENT Project

This paper presents the control framework that has been proposed and successfully employed within the TRIDENT EU FP7 project, the aim of which is to develop a multipurpose Intervention Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (I‐AUV) exhibiting smart manipulation capabilities, for interventions within unstructured underwater environments. In particular, the work focuses on the exploitation of the highly redundant system for achieving a dexterous object grasping, while also satisfying a set of conditions of scalar inequality type to be achieved ultimately. These represent safety and/or operational‐enabling conditions for the overall system itself, such as, for instance, respecting joint limits and keeping the object grossly centered in the camera system. Thus the design of a control architecture exhibiting such a property first required an extension of the classical task priority framework, to be performed in such a way as to also account, in a uniform manner, for inequality conditions to be achieved ultimately. Then, following a description on how such an extension has been made, both simulations and experimental trials are successively presented to show how the developed TRIDENT I‐AUV system is able to properly exploit all the redundant degrees of freedom for achieving all the established objectives.
In vivo Action of Cisplatin on Phospholipid Content in Rat Liver and Thymus Chromatin

The content of total phospholipid and its individual fractions in rat liver and thymus chromatin was studied. The in vivo action of antitumor agent cisplatin leads to decrease of total phosphilipid content in both rat liver and rat thymus chromatin a 25% and 36% correspondingly. In spite of these significant changes of total phospholipids content the alteration of individual phospholipids percentage in chromatin preparation was negligible. The main difference concerns the relative quantity of choline-contained phospholipids sphingomyelin and phosphatidylcholine. In rat liver chromatin preparations the relative quantity of sphingomyelin decreases and that of phosphatidylcholine increases after the cisplatin action while, on the contrary, in thymus chromatin the relative quantity of sphingomyelin increases and the relative quantity of phosphatidylcholine decreases. Cisplatin leads to the decrease of the absolute quantity of four from five fractions of individual phospholipids both in rat liver and rat thymus chromatin.
Carrier transport and stress engineering in advanced nanoscale transistors from (100) and (110) transistors to carbon nanotube FETs and beyond

Carrier transport in advanced MOSFETs is reviewed. First, electron and hole mobility in (110) MOSFETs are compared with those in (100) MOSFETs. Stress engineering is discussed in terms of energy split and effective mass due to the stress. The optimization of multi-gate MOSFET structure is then considered. As an example of ballistic MOSFETs, the performance and stress engineering of CNT FETs with doped junctions are investigated.
Improving Intrusion Detection using Genetic Linear Discriminant Analysis

The objective of this research is to propose an efficient soft computing approach with high detection rates and low false alarms while maintaining low cost and shorter detection time for intrusion detection. Our results were promising as they showed the new proposed system, hybrid feature selection approach of Linear Discriminant Analysis and Genetic Algorithm (GA) called Genetic Linear Discriminant Analysis (GLDA) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) Kernels as classifiers with different combinations of NSL-KDD data sets is an improved and effective solution for intrusion detection system (IDS).
Joint Contributions of Negative Emotionality, Positive Emotionality, and Effortful Control on Depressive Symptoms in Youth

From a clinical developmental perspective, temperament has been shown to confer vulnerability to depression among youth. High negative emotionality (NE), low positive emotionality (PE), and low effortful control (EC) have repeatedly been independently associated with youth depressive symptoms. However, far less research has examined the joint contributions of NE, PE, and EC on such symptoms. The present study builds upon previous research by examining how NE, PE, and EC jointly predict change in depressive symptoms over time among 211 youngsters (7–14 years, M = 10.7, SD = 1.81) who participated in an 8-month prospective study. Self-reported temperament and symptoms were assessed at baseline; self-reported symptoms were measured again at follow-up. Results suggest that all 3 temperamental traits need to be considered jointly in predicting change in depressive symptoms. Furthermore, results provide further support for the “best two out of three” principle. Surprisingly, results reveal that high EC might be maladaptive in the context of high emotional reactivity. Last, results show that the combination of high NE and low EC could be a possible pathway to the development of symptoms. The current study clarified how NE, PE, and EC may jointly confer risk—or protection for developing depressive symptoms during adolescence. The results highlight the need of taking into account all three temperamental traits in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of the risk for developing depressive symptoms at an early stage, as well as to provide customized care targeting temperamental vulnerability in depressed youth.
Phase Recovery Acceleration in Quantum-Dot Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

In this paper, the acceleration of phase recovery in quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (QD-SOAs) is investigated by employing optical pumping (OP) scheme. For this purpose, the state space theory has been used to derive a dynamic model for the QD-SOA. The derived nonlinear state space model is employed to simulate the gain and phase responses of the device. For the first time, we show that OP can realize a shorter phase recovery time in comparison with electrical pumping (EP) scheme under equal pumping powers. We found that under OP, the contribution of slow phase recovery component induced by the slow carrier dynamics of the carrier reservoir is drastically reduced, and consequently, a fast phase response becomes feasible. Also, we found that under EP, the gain is recovered within a shorter time compared to OP scheme.
Multilingualism, empathy and multicompetence

Abstract The present study investigates the link between multilingualism and the personality trait of cognitive empathy among 2158 mono- and multilinguals. Data were collected through an online questionnaire. Statistical analyses revealed that the knowledge of more languages was not linked to cognitive empathy. Bilingual upbringing and the experience of having lived abroad were equally unrelated to cognitive empathy. Gender and education level were linked to cognitive empathy. Most interestingly, a small but significant positive correlation emerged between multilingualism (operationalised as advanced levels of proficiency in several foreign languages and frequent use of these languages) and cognitive empathy. Further analysis revealed that frequent use of multiple languages was linked to higher levels of cognitive empathy, which could be interpreted as an indication of multicompetence.
Two-Stage Hepatectomy Procedure to Treat Initially Unresectable Multiple Bilobar Colorectal Liver Metastases: Technical Aspects

A two-stage hepatectomy procedure is a therapeutic strategy for patients presenting with initially unresectable multiple and bilobar colorectal liver metastases in order to achieve a curative R0 resection. The main goal of this approach is to minimize the risk of postoperative liver failure resulting from a too small remnant liver after completing a curative resection. This procedure combines two sequential liver resections that involve perioperative chemotherapy and portal vein embolization. This article describes our standardized strategy of two-stage hepatectomy combined with portal vein embolization used over the last 15 years and discusses the alternative procedures as well as their respective advantages and drawbacks.
Outta Control: Laws of Semantic Change and Inherent Biases in Word Representation Models

This article evaluates three proposed laws of semantic change. Our claim is that in order to validate a putative law of semantic change, the effect should be observed in the genuine condition but absent or reduced in a suitably matched control condition, in which no change can possibly have taken place. Our analysis shows that the effects reported in recent literature must be substantially revised: (i) the proposed negative correlation between meaning change and word frequency is shown to be largely an artefact of the models of word representation used; (ii) the proposed negative correlation between meaning change and prototypicality is shown to be much weaker than what has been claimed in prior art; and (iii) the proposed positive correlation between meaning change and polysemy is largely an artefact of word frequency. These empirical observations are corroborated by analytical proofs that show that count representations introduce an inherent dependence on word frequency, and thus word frequency cannot be evaluated as an independent factor with these representations.
Expected Payments from ARC-CO and PLC

Differences in expected payments between Agricultural Risk Coverage – County Coverage (ARC-CO) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) will be an important factor when making the program choice decisions offered under the 2014 Farm Bill. (See Step 4 on Farm Bill Toolbox for other factors – type of risk covered and availability of SCO --that influence the ARC-CO and PC decision). Realization of Market Year Average (MYA) prices and county yields from 2014 through 2018 will affect differences in payments. Much of the focus will be on price levels. General rules of thumb are:
A singular value decomposition based closed loop stability preserving controller reduction method

In this paper a controller reduction method which preserves closed loop stability is described. A Lyapunov inequality based sufficient condition is proposed in the search of the reduced controller. The reduced controller leads to a stable closed loop system with guaranteed approximation quality. Furthermore, the proposed problem can be formulated as a matrix approximation problem which can be solved efficiently using singular value decomposition. Numerical application examples are shown in the end to evaluate the generality of the proposed reduction method.
Improving the MFIE's accuracy by using a mixed discretization

The scattering of time-harmonic electromagnetic waves by perfect electrical conductors (PECs) can be modelled by several boundary integral equations, the magnetic and electric field integral equations (MFIE and EFIE) being the most prominent ones[1]. These equations can be discretized by expanding current distributions in terms of Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) functions defined on a triangular mesh approximating the scatterer's surface and by testing the equations using the same RWG functions [2].
HVDC Offers the Key to Untapped Hydro Potential

Long transmission lines are required to transmit power from remote generation sites to the population centers. When transmission is by AC, the large reactances of the long lines limit the power transmissibility. By siting FACTS controllers or HVDC stations, which have strong voltage support, at the midpoint of the lines, the transmission distance between voltage supported nodes is halved and so is the line reactance. Thus, the maximum steady-state power can be twice that of the original lines. Digital simulation comparison of a realistic AC transmission system shows that the gain factor, based on the steady-state stability limit, is only 1.59 and not 2. This paper reports on analysis undertaken to account for the discrepancy. The analysis shows that the distributed capacitance in the original long transmission line is already providing voltage support. For this reason, the voltage support by the midpoint sited FACTS controllers or HVDC stations becomes less significant. Furthermore, the FACTS controllers or HVDC stations are inserted at the midpoint through transformers, whose leakage reactances add to the line impedance.