Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of low-dose and high-dose postoperative radioiodine therapy on the clinical outcome in patients with small differentiated thyroid cancer having microscopic extrathyroidal extension.

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients classified as intermediate risk based on the presence of microscopic extrathyroidal extension (ETE) should be treated with low or high doses of radioiodine (RAI) after surgery. We evaluated success rates and long-term clinical outcomes of patients with DTC of small tumor size, microscopic ETE, and no cervical lymph node (LN) metastasis treated either with a low (1.1 GBq) or high RAI dose (5.5 GBq). METHODS This is a retrospective analysis of a historical cohort from 2000 to 2010 in a tertiary referral hospital. A total of 176 patients with small (≤2 cm) DTC, microscopic ETE, and no cervical LN metastasis were included. Ninety-six patients were treated with 1.1 GBq (LO group) and 80 patients with 5.5 GBq (HI group). Successful RAI therapy was defined as (i) negative stimulated thyroglobulin (Tg) in the absence of Tg antibodies, and (ii) absence of remnant thyroid tissue and of abnormal cervical LNs on ultrasonography. Clinical recurrence was defined as the reappearance of disease after ablation, which was confirmed by cytologically or pathologically proven malignant tissue or of distant metastatic lesions. RESULTS There was no significant difference in the rate of successful RAI therapy between the LO and HI groups (p=0.75). In a subgroup analysis based on tumor size, success rates were not different between the LO group (34/35, 97%) and the HI group (50/56, 89%) in patients with a tumor size of 1-2 cm (p=0.24). In patients with smaller tumor size (≤1 cm), there was no significant difference in success rates between the LO (59/61, 97%) and HI groups (22/24, 92%; p=0.30). No patient had clinical recurrences in either group during the median 7.2 years of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Low-dose RAI therapy is sufficient to treat DTC patients classified as intermediate risk just by the presence of microscopic ETE.
Information, Ownership Structure, and Shareholder Voting: Evidence from Shareholder-Sponsored Corporate Governance Proposals

This paper examines how information and ownership structure affect voting outcomes on shareholder-sponsored proposals to change corporate governance structure. The authors find that the outcomes of votes vary systematically with the governance and performance records of target firms, the identity of proposal sponsors, and the type of proposal. The authors also find that outcomes vary significantly as a function of ownership by insiders, institutions, outside blockholders, employee stock ownership plans, and outside directors who are blockholders. These results suggest that both public information and ownership structure have a significant influence on voting outcomes. Copyright 1993 by American Finance Association.
Are Facebook Brand Community Members Really Loyal to the Brand?

Although research into consumer participation in online brand communities has grown in recent years, still little is known about how membership in a Facebook brand community is related to brand loyalty. This study tests the direct and indirect effects of brand community engagement, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention, and community promotion behavior on attitudinal loyalty, repurchase intention, and positive word-of-mouth. Partial least squares modeling is used to test the conceptual model on data from a survey of 1,936 Facebook brand community members. The results support most of the hypotheses and show that whereas brand community engagement and eWOM intention are strongly associated with all the aspects of brand loyalty, community promotion behavior only affects word-of-mouth. The results also reveal that user activity in the Facebook brand community has no effect on positive word-of-mouth.
Thermal power generation scheduling by simulated competition

This paper presents a new method for solving the unit commitment problem by simulation of a competitive market where power is traded through a power exchange (PX). Procedures for bidding and market clearing are described. The market clearing process handles the spinning reserve requirements and power balance simultaneously. The method is used on a standard unit commitment problem with minimum up/down times, start-up costs and spinning reserve requirement taken into account. Comparisons with solutions provided by Lagrangian relaxation, genetic algorithms and Chao-an Li's unit decommitment procedure demonstrate the potential benefits of this new method. The motivation for this work was to design a competitive electricity market suitable for thermal generation scheduling. However, performance in simulations of the proposed market has been so good that it is presented here as a solving technique for the unit commitment problem.
Large Molecule Therapeutics Downregulation of HER 3 by a Novel Antisense Oligonucleotide , EZN-3920 , Improves the Antitumor Activity of EGFR and HER 2 Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Animal Models

Among the four human EGF receptor (HER) family members (EGFR, HER2, HER3, HER4), HER3 is of particular interest as it interacts with HER2 and EGFR via heterodimerization and is a key link to the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signal transduction axis. Recent studies indicate that HER3 plays a critical role in mediating resistance to agents that target EGFR or HER2. As HER3 lacks significant kinase activity and cannot be inhibited by tyrosine kinase inhibitors, neutralizing antibodies and alternative inhibitors of HER3 have been sought as cancer therapeutics. We describe here a locked nucleic acid (LNA)-based HER3 antisense oligonucleotide, EZN-3920, that specifically downmodulated the expression of HER3, which was associated with growth inhibition. EZN-3920 effectively downmodulated HER3 expression, HER3-driven PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, and growth in tumors derived from BT474M1 breast and HCC827 lung carcinoma cell lines, which overexpress HER2 and EGFR, respectively. Furthermore, when EZN-3920 was coadministered with gefitinib or lapatinib in xenograft tumor models, enhanced antitumor activity compared with the effect of monotherapy was found. The effect was associated with a blockade of inducedHER3mRNA expression caused by lapatinib or gefitinib treatment. Finally, EZN-3920 sustained its antiproliferative effect in trastuzumab-resistant cells and three independently derived gefitinib-resistant cells. Our findings show that downmodulation of HER3 by EZN-3920 leads to the suppression of tumor growth in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that HER3 can be an effective target for the treatment of various cancers that have been activated by HER3 alone or where HER3 activation is associated with EGFR or HER2 expression.Mol Cancer Ther; 12(4);
Coastal land loss and hypoxia: the ‘outwelling’ hypothesis revisited

It is generally believed that interannual variability in the areal extent of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia is driven primarily by the magnitude of the Mississippi River freshwater and nutrient fluxes. It has recently been proposed that outwelling of carbon from deteriorating coastal wetlands into the surrounding Gulf of Mexico could be an important mechanism promoting the development of hypoxia. We used a coupled hydrology–hydrodynamics model of the Barataria estuary, a site of massive wetland loss, to calculate the fluxes of nitrogen, chlorophyll a and carbon at the estuary–ocean interface. The hydrology model calculates runoff from rainfall and evaporation data, and then feeds it into the high-resolution (100 m × 100 m grid, 1.3 million elements), two-dimensional depth-integrated hydrodynamic model. Model results show substantial outwelling of total organic carbon (TOC, 110 × 106 kg yr − 1), dissolved organic carbon (DOC, 94.3 × 106 kg yr − 1), particulate organic carbon (POC, 15.7 × 106 kg yr − 1) and chlorophyll a (Chl a, 0.3 × 106 kg yr − 1) from the estuary to the coastal waters and an import of nitrate (N–NO3, 6.9 × 106 kg yr − 1) from the nutrient-rich coastal waters into the estuary. Estuarine fluxes of TOC, DOC, POC, Chl a and N–NO3, account for 2.8%, 2.7%, 3.4%, 7.5% and 1%, respectively, of the annual fluxes carried by the lower Mississippi River. The flux of total nitrogen was not statistically significant. Overall, this study supports the conclusion of the previous modeling study (Das et al 2010 Ecol. Modeling 221 978–85), suggesting that the Barataria estuary supplies a relatively small amount of the carbon consumed in the Gulf’s hypoxic zone. Importantly, our results indicate that import of nitrate from the coastal waters and its assimilation within the estuary could account for 38% and 208%, respectively, of the calculated TOC and Chl a exports, demonstrating the pervasive control of the Mississippi River on the productivity of this shelf.
Developments in the efficiency of the Thailand banking sector: a DEA approach

Purpose - The purpose of the present paper is to empirically analyze the efficiency of the Thailand banking sector during the period of 1999-2008. Design/methodology/approach - The efficiency estimates of individual banks are evaluated by using the data envelopment analysis approach. The central tendency and parametric method based on the Tobit regression is employed to investigate the Thailand banking sector's production efficiency while controlling for the potential effects of internal (bank-specific characteristics) and external (macroeconomic and industry specific) contextual variables. As a robustness check, following Banker and Natarajan among others, the second-stage regression is also estimated by using the ordinary least square regression method, while the standard errors are calculated by using White's specification to adjust for cross-section heteroskedasticity. Findings - During the period under study, the empirical findings indicate that scale inefficiency outweighs pure technical inefficiency in determining the Thailand banking sector's technical efficiency. The results from the multivariate regression analysis suggest that banks with higher loans intensity and better capitalized tend to exhibit higher efficiency levels. On the other hand, credit risk is negatively related to bank efficiency. The empirical findings suggest that the recent global financial crisis exerts negative impact on the efficiency of Thailand banks. The results indicate that the domestic banks have exhibited higher TE compared to their foreign bank counterparts. Research limitations/implications - Owing to its limitations, the paper could be extended in a variety of ways. First, the scope of this study could be further extended to investigate changes in cost, allocative, and technical efficiencies over time. Second, future research into the efficiency of the Thailand banking sector efficiency could also consider the production function along with the intermediation function. Finally, investigation of changes in productivity over time as a result of technical change or technological progress or regress by employing the Malmquist total factor productivity index could yet be another extension to the paper. Originality/value - Although the literature examining the efficiency of financial institutions with parametric and/or non-parametric frontier techniques has expanded rapidly in recent times, these studies have been confined to the US banking sector or the banking sectors in the Western and developed countries. However, empirical evidences on the developing countries banking sectors in general and of the ASEAN countries in particular are relatively sparse. The present paper attempted to fill a demanding gap in that case by providing new empirical evidence on the sources and determinants of the Thailand banking sector's efficiency.
Amyloid Goitre

Amyloid goitre is a rare manifestation of amyloidosis; about 50 cases have been recorded and this paper adds a further six cases, the first to be described from Uganda. The condition has to be distinguished from the more common types of goitre, and histological differentiation from medullary carcinoma may be difficult with small biopsies.
Market Structure and Research Intensity in High-Technological-Opportunity Industries

Where the cost and uncertainty of R & D are high and conditions favor speedy imitation by competitors, concentration has a statistically significant and substantial positive impact on research intensity. But its impact is clearly negative when R & D cost and uncertainty are low, and where high barriers to imitation exist. A sample of 160 business unit observations for 1978 was drawn from the PIMS Data Base. All the sample business units' industries recently experienced major technological changes. Research intensity was measured by non-government-financed R & D expenditures as a percentage of sales.
Differential distribution in rat brain of mu opioid receptor carboxy terminal splice variants MOR‐1C‐like and MOR‐1‐like immunoreactivity: Evidence for region‐specific processing

The present study examined immunohistochemically the regional distribution of the mu opioid receptor splice variant MOR‐1C by using a rabbit antisera generated against the C‐terminal peptide sequences and compared it with MOR‐1. Overall, the distribution of MOR‐1C–like immunoreactivity (–LI) differed from MOR‐1–LI. Both MOR‐1C–LI and MOR‐1–LI were prominent in a few central nervous system regions, including the lateral parabrachial nucleus, the periaqueductal gray, and laminae I‐II of the spinal trigeminal nuclei and the spinal cord. In the striatum, hippocampal formation, presubiculum and parasubiculum, amygdaloid nuclei, thalamic nuclei, locus coeruleus, and nucleus ambiguous MOR‐1–LI predominated, whereas MOR‐1C–LI was absent or sparse. Conversely, MOR‐1C–LI exceeded MOR‐1–LI in the lateral septum, the deep laminae of the spinal cord, and most hypothalamic nuclei such as the median eminence, periventricular, suprachiasmatic, supraoptic, arcuate, paraventricular, ventromedial, and dorsomedial nuclei. Double‐labeling studies showed colocalization of the two receptors in neurons of the lateral septum, but not in the median eminence or in the arcuate nucleus, even though both MOR‐1 isoforms were expressed. Because both MOR‐1 and MOR‐1C are derived from the same gene, these differences in regional distribution represent region‐specific mRNA processing. The regional distributions reported in this study involve the epitope seen by the combinations of exons 7, 8, and 9. However, if other MOR‐1 variants containing exons 7, 8, and 9 exist, the antisera would not distinguish between them and MOR‐1C. J. Comp. Neurol. 419:244–256, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Core Body Temperature Control by Total Liquid Ventilation Using a Virtual Lung Temperature Sensor

In total liquid ventilation (TLV), the lungs are filled with a breathable liquid perfluorocarbon (PFC) while a liquid ventilator ensures proper gas exchange by renewal of a tidal volume of oxygenated and temperature-controlled PFC. Given the rapid changes in core body temperature generated by TLV using the lung has a heat exchanger, it is crucial to have accurate and reliable core body temperature monitoring and control. This study presents the design of a virtual lung temperature sensor to control core temperature. In the first step, the virtual sensor, using expired PFC to estimate lung temperature noninvasively, was validated both in vitro and in vivo. The virtual lung temperature was then used to rapidly and automatically control core temperature. Experimentations were performed using the Inolivent-5.0 liquid ventilator with a feedback controller to modulate inspired PFC temperature thereby controlling lung temperature. The in vivo experimental protocol was conducted on seven newborn lambs instrumented with temperature sensors at the femoral artery, pulmonary artery, oesophagus, right ear drum, and rectum. After stabilization in conventional mechanical ventilation, TLV was initiated with fast hypothermia induction, followed by slow posthypothermic rewarming for 1 h, then by fast rewarming to normothermia and finally a second fast hypothermia induction phase. Results showed that the virtual lung temperature was able to provide an accurate estimation of systemic arterial temperature. Results also demonstrate that TLV can precisely control core body temperature and can be favorably compared to extracorporeal circulation in terms of speed.
Compressed Sensing Improves the Performance of Subcarrier Index-Modulation-Assisted OFDM

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing relying on subcarrier index modulation (OFDM-SIM), the information is conveyed by both the indices of the activated subcarriers and the conventional amplitude-phase modulated (APM) symbols. It has been shown that OFDM-SIM is capable of striking a tradeoff between the attainable spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE). In order to further increase the EE of the OFDM-SIM system, while potentially increasing its SE, we propose a compressed sensing (CS)-assisted signaling strategy for the family of OFDM-SIM systems. Correspondingly, we first consider the joint maximum likelihood detection of the CS-assisted index-modulated (CSIM) and of the classic APM symbols, despite its high complexity. Then, we propose a low complexity detection algorithm, which is termed as the iterative residual check (IRC)-based detector. This is based on the greedy pursuit concept of CS, which makes locally optimal choices at each step. Finally, both analytical and simulation results are provided for characterizing the attainable system performance of our proposed OFDM-CSIM system. We demonstrate that in comparison to the conventional OFDM-SIM system, the proposed OFDM-CSIM arrangement is capable of achieving both a higher SE as well as an increased EE. We also show that the diversity gain provided by the OFDM-CSIM system is much higher than that of the OFDM-SIM system. Furthermore, our investigation of the detection performance shows that the proposed IRC detector is capable of providing an attractive detection performance at a low complexity.
CEO Career Horizon and Tenure: Future Performance Implications under Different Contingencies

This paper examines the influence of CEO career horizon and tenure on the future performance of firms. Specifically, we argue that CEOs with shorter career horizons (as measured by their age) will adopt risk-averse strategies that will, on average, adversely influence future firm performance. Further, we argue that at high levels of CEO ownership, this relationship is exacerbated due to the accompanying power that comes with high ownership. In terms of CEO tenure, we propose that CEOs’ paradigms will become increasingly obsolete as their tenure increases with this process hurting future performance in dynamic industries. However, such performance declines may not occur in more stable industries. Using a sample of US-based firms from the S&P 500, we find support for our arguments when examining the future Return on Assets of firms. With market-based performance, we find support for only our career horizon arguments.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAPACITY-ANALYSIS PARADIGM FOR THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ECONOMICS TEACHER’S PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY IN GHANA

This study developed a set of core professional identity indicators to which professional Economics teachers and Economics teacher educators in Ghana responded in order to determine their validity as components of the Economics teachers’ professional identity in relation to their ideal professional capacity. In specific terms, the study investigated opinions of respondents on the importance attached to the rubrics of teachers’ professional capacity as well as differences in opinion on the importance placed on indicators of teachers’ professional knowledge, values, skills and reflective practice. The study was a descriptive type which employed the survey method. The study sample comprised 751 professional Economics teachers and 125 Economics teacher educators who were selected through the simple random sampling technique. One self- developed instrument, Questionnaire on Senior High School Economics Teachers’ Identity (QSHSETI) was used and a reliability index of 0.96 was obtained. The data were analyzed using mean and the independent sample t-test. There are three paradigmatic levels for considering teachers’ identity. They are the ideal paradigm as shown in Figure 1, the implementable paradigm as obtained by the researcher-developed instrument, and finally the perceived or realistic paradigm based on the consensus of Economics teacher educators and Economics teachers. The findings of this study revealed discrepancies in opinion between the perceived competency and ideal targets of Economics teacher educators and that of Economics teachers. Curriculum development in Economics teacher education should therefore aim at bridging the gap between the ideal competency targets and the perceived or core competency targets. The study concluded that, teacher education policy makers should support continuous capacity-building programs among Economics teachers and Economics teacher educators
Effects of the utilization term and additional sowing of Festuca arundinacea and Festulolium on the production of winter pasture

SKLaDANKA, J.: Effects of the utilization term and additional sowing of Festuca arundinacea and Festulolium on the production of winter pasture. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun. , 2006, LIV, No. 1, pp. 95–106 The work was carried out to study the influence of additional sowing and differentiated systems of use in the summer period on the production of grass sward in the autumn and winter period. An additional sowing of Festuca arundinacea and Festulolium was made into the grass stand with dominating Festuca rubra, Taraxacum officinale, Agropyron repens, Dactylis glomerata, Trisetum flavescens, Agrostis stolonifera and Phleum pratense. In summer (preparatory cut), the grass stand was utilized in June, July and August. In the autumn (main use), it was utilized in November, December and January. The additional sowing, the preparatory cut and the main use were monitored for their influence on the yield of dry matter. Another assessment was made of the share of Festuca arundinacea and Festulolium in the harvested herbage. In June 2001, the share of additionally sown herb species in the harvested herbage did not exceed 2%. However, their proportion increased to more than 20% in four years of the study. In the summer period, the additional sowing did not show any significant effect on dry matter yields. The additionally sown herb species exhibited a pronounced dominance in November. The shares of Festuca arundinacea and Festulolium in the harvested herbage were 80.1% and 71.3%, respectively. Yields from the additionally sown grass stands were higher from the third year of the study (by 1.07–1.26 t.ha– 1) than those from the grass stand with no additional sowing (0.66–0.97 t.ha–1) the variance being insignificant. In the autumn and in winter, a significant decrease (P < 0.05) was seen in yields from the grass stand utilized until the beginning of August and the yields further decreased with the proceeding winter. dry matter yields, Festuca arundinacea, Festulolium, winter grazing Apart from usual requirements for growth, endurance, root mat integrity, trampling hardiness, herbage yield and quality (OPITZ VON BOBERfELD, 1994), a herb species suitable for winter grazing should be also cold resistant and capable of growing at low temperatures (whEELER, 1968). The species frequently advised for winter grazing is Festuca arundinacea (KLAPP, 1971; BARhOLOMEw et al., 1997; AChILLES et al., 2002). It is an upright-growing tolerant green stay species (STaHLIN & TIRTAPRADJA, 1974). The upright growth enables an accelerated desiccation of dying leaves, which slows down the process of rotting (BOEKER, 1957) and the utilizability at snow cover is higher, too (wILLMS &