Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the Danish Prostatic Symptom Score with the International Prostatic Symptom Score, the Madsen-Iversen and Boyarsky symptom indexes. ALFECH Study Group.

OBJECTIVE To compare the Danish Prostatic Symptom Score (DAN-PSS) with the International Prostatic Symptom Score (IPSS). Madsen-Iversen and Boyarsky symptom indexes in a clinical setting, and to evaluate the potential significance of any differences in information obtained from these questionnaires. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study comprised two substudies: in the first, 205 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of bladder outlet obstruction (BOO), a Madsen-Iversen score > 6 and a maximum flow rate of < 10 mL/s were randomized to receive either placebo or alfuzosin in a double-blind study of 16 weeks. The symptoms were assessed using the Madsen-Iversen, DAN-PSS and the IPSS questionnaires. In the second, 138 patients with LUTS suggestive of BOO were selected for treatment with transurethral microwave thermotherapy (TUMT, 52 degrees C for 60 min, microwave energy 200 kJ) and their symptoms assessed using the Boyarsky and the DAN-PSS questionnaires. Patients were then followed for one year. Rank correlation coefficients and regression lines were calculated using Spearman's non-parametric test. The relative changes, i.e. responsiveness, calculated for the DAN-PSS, IPSS and Boyarsky indexes were compared pairwise using the Wilcoxon-Pratt test. RESULTS The DAN-PSS, IPSS and Madsen-Iversen indexes were correlated on a pairwise basis. The DAN-PSS and IPSS indexes have significant construct validity in terms of correlation with the Madsen-Iversen system (Spearman's correlation coefficient, rs = 0.51 and rs = 0.45, respectively). The DAN-PSS and the IPSS indexes were correlated (rs = 0.61). The DAN-PSS was more sensitive than the IPSS to changes after pharmacological treatment, with scores decreasing 70% and 29% (P < 0.05), respectively, after treatment with an alpha-blocker for 4 months, and 50% and 29% (P < 0.05), respectively, after 4 months on placebo treatment. Finally, the responsiveness of the Boyarsky and DAN-PSS indexes to TUMT showed that the DAN-PSS system was significantly more responsive than the Boyarsky index, with scores decreasing 57% and 15% (P < 0.05), respectively, after one year. CONCLUSIONS The DAN-PSS index is more sensitive than the IPSS, Madsen-Iversen and Boyarsky symptom indexes, incorporates important outcome events, includes a patient-weighting of each symptom, thereby reflecting better the patients' global assessment of outcome.
Improving landmine detection using frequency domain features from ground penetrating radar

Landmine detection is an important and yet challenging problem remains to be solved. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is an effective sensor to detect landmines that are made of plastic or have low metal content. Most GPR signal processing algorithms apply processing in the time (depth) domain. This paper proposes to use the frequency domain features from the GPR signal to improve the detection of weak plastic mines and to reduce the number false alarms due to clutter objects. The motivation comes from the fact that the energy density spectrum may be different between mine targets and clutter objects, although both may have strong GPR signal return in the time domain. Experimental results based on clutter lane data collected at a test site corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed spectral features to increase the accuracy for landmine detection
Current approaches in the treatment of melanoma-II : Immuno-and gene therapy

The incidence of melanoma has been increasing at a faster rate than that of any other solid tumor. Due to limited efficacy of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, immunotherapy has become a major focus of investigational treatment of distant and regionally metastatic melanoma. This review article focuses on the recent advances in immunoand gene therapy approaches pursuing immunological strategies for the treatment of malignant melanoma. [Turk J Cancer
Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction on Pooled Samples to Detect Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus by using Fresh Ear-Notch—Sample Supernatants

Ear-notch samples from 3,599 yearling heifers were collected to detect persistently infected (PI) animals with suspect bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). Individual immunohistochemistry (IHC), individual antigen-capture enzyme-linked immmunosorbent assay (AC-ELISA), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests with pooled ear-notch supernatants were compared with samples from 3,016 heifers, whereas RT-PCR ear-notch pools and individual AC-ELISA tests were compared with samples from all 3,599 heifers. Four heifers were identified positive by both IHC and AC-ELISA, whereas the remaining heifers were identified negative by both tests. When supernatant from ear notches from 100 animals was randomly pooled and RT-PCR was accomplished on each pool, RT-PCR identified 2 pools that contained 1 positive AC-ELISA sample and 1 pool that contained 2 positive AC-ELISA samples. Further evaluation of the pooled RT-PCR ear-notch supernatant detected 100% (n = 36) samples spiked with supernatant from a single randomly selected positive AC-ELISA ear notch. Although follow-up confirmatory tests were not completed, all 3 methods correlated 100% in detecting suspect PI animals, with a kappa value of 1. The use of RT-PCR on pooled ear-notch supernatant could provide an initial, rapid, cost-effective method of screening cattle herds for BVDV PI animals. Subsequent serial testing with an AC-ELISA to evaluate individual samples included in the positive pool could minimize the length of time other animals are exposed to the virus.
Human iPS cell-based therapy: Considerations before clinical applications

Generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has revolutionized the field of regenerative medicine. With the exponential increase in iPS cell research in the past three years, human iPS cells have been derived with different technologies and from various cell types. From a translational perspective, however, a number of issues must be addressed before safe and high quality patient-specific iPS cells can be derived for clinical applications. In addition, iPS cell-based therapies also need to be thoroughly evaluated in pre-clinical animal models before they can be applied to human subjects.
Integrative computational modeling of protein interactions

Protein interactions define the homeostatic state of the cell. Our ability to understand these interactions and their role in both health and disease is tied to our knowledge of the 3D atomic structure of the interacting partners and their complexes. Despite advances in experimental method of structure determination, the majority of known protein interactions are still missing an atomic structure. High‐resolution methods such as X‐ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy struggle with the high‐throughput demand, while low‐resolution techniques such as cryo‐electron microscopy or small‐angle X‐ray scattering provide data that are too coarse. Computational structure prediction of protein complexes, or docking, was first developed to complement experimental research and has since blossomed into an independent and lively field of research. Its most successful products are hybrid approaches that combine powerful algorithms with experimental data from various sources to generate high‐resolution models of protein complexes. This minireview introduces the concept of docking and docking with the help of experimental data, compares and contrasts the available integrative docking methods, and provides a guide for the experimental researcher for what types of data and which particular software can be used to model a protein complex.
Roles of ‘small- and medium-sized enterprises’ in service industry innovation: a case study on leisure agriculture service in tourism regional innovation

This study combines service-dominant logic (SDL) with industry cluster theory to analyze the evolution of leisure agriculture service in Taiwan. The result shows that cooperation among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can increase customer willingness to participate in value co-creation. Customer-driven cooperation among SMEs drives SMEs to increase their competitiveness and thus overcome their disadvantages in resources and capabilities. Additionally, the four-stage evolution of leisure agriculture service is identified to help tourism SMEs understand their positions and suggest appropriate strategies for achieving sustainable development and it also reveals a shifting paradigm from goods-dominant logic to SDL in tourism industry.
Solving the uncapacitated Multiple Allocation P-Hub Center Problem by Genetic Algorithm

In this paper we describe a genetic algorithm (GA) for the uncapacitated multiple allocation p-hub center problem (UMApHCP). Binary coding is used and genetic operators adapted to the problem are constructed and implemented in our GA. Computational results are presented for the standard hub instances from the literature. It can be seen that proposed GA approach reaches all solutions that are proved to be optimal so far. The solutions are obtained in a reasonable amount of computational time, even for problem instances of higher dimensions.
Inflation, Unemployment, and Monetary Policy

edited and with an introduction by Benjamin M. Friedman The connection between price inflation and real economic activity has been a focus of macroeconomic research--and debate--for much of the past century. Although this connection is crucial to our understanding of what monetary policy can and cannot accomplish, opinions about its basic properties have swung widely over the years.Today, virtually everyone studying monetary policy acknowledges that, contrary to what many modern macroeconomic models suggest, central bank actions often affect both inflation and measures of real economic activity, such as output, unemployment, and incomes. But the nature and magnitude of these effects are not yet understood.In this volume, Robert M. Solow and John B. Taylor present their views on the dilemmas facing U.S. monetary policymakers. The discussants are Benjamin M. Friedman, James K. Galbraith, N. Gregory Mankiw, and William Poole. The aim of this lively exchange of views is to make both an intellectual contribution to macroeconmics and a practical contribution to the solution of a public policy question of central importance.
Butane-1,4-diyl bis(pyridine-3-carboxylate)

Molecules of the title compound (alternative name: butane-1,4-diyl dinicotinate), C16H16N2O4, lie on a inversion centre, located at the mid-point of the central C—C bond of the aliphatic chain, giving one half-molecule per asymmetric unit. The butane chain adopts an all-trans conformation. The dihedral angle between the mean plane of the butane-3-carboxylate group [for the non-H atoms, maximum deviation = 0.0871 (15) Å] and the pyridine ring is 10.83 (7)°. In the crystal, molecules lie in planes parallel to (122). The structure features weak π–π interactions with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.9281 (11) Å.
Forced Migrants as ‘Illegal’ Migrants

This chapter examines how many of those refugees and asylum seekers making transnational journeys are classified as irregular migrants by states who seek to make such movements illegitimate. It considers the framing, targeting, and active production of ‘forced migrants as illegal migrants’ in the literature and highlights the importance of the labels of ‘forced’ and ‘illegal’ in the governing of migration. It discusses the concept of ‘figures of migration’, which is based on the notion that categorizations of people on the move such as the ‘refugee’ or the ‘illegal migrant’ do not represent distinct social groups sharing characteristic features. Furthermore, it looks at how academic knowledge production might intervene in the contested politics of mobility in order to refuse, destabilize, or subvert the terms by which the rendering of ‘forced migrants as illegal migrants’ has become unambiguous.
Information Processing in Securitized Real Estate Markets -- How Newspaper Content and Online Search Behavior Help Explaining Market Movements

This paper analyzes the impact of media on real estate stocks. Although prior work has elaborated on various rationales for short-term stock movements, empirical evidence for the role of media has been rather limited. We apply information systems (IS) methods to extract newspaper sentiment as a proxy for information supply and investigate online search behavior as an indicator for self-revealed information demand by investors. The empirical results stress the relevance of media in securitized real estate markets in the UK. In particular, we find that newspaper pessimism reduces REIT industry returns and increases net asset value (NAV) spreads. Among the various dictionaries applied, sentiment based on the Subjectivity Lexicon yields the best results. The effect of search volume on the REIT market is diverse. While REIT-specific search volume impacts industry returns, we find that rather broad search volume on property markets is decisive for short-term movements of NAV spreads.
No Heritability of Temporomandibular Joint Signs and Symptoms

The causes of temporomandibular joint (TMJ)-rclatcd signs and symptoms are largely unknown. We tested the hypotheses that these signs and symptoms, as well as oral parafunctional habits, are substantially heritable. Questionnaire and clinical data were collected from 494 twins, including pairs of reared-apart and reared-together monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins. A history of joint-area pain, joint noises, and clenching and grinding habits was scorcd as present or absent. Twenty-nine percent of the population experienced at least one sign or symptom. Nearly one-quarter of subjects clenched or ground their teeth, and 8.7% reported a history of joint-area pain. Pain was associated with clenching, grinding, and joint noises. MZ twins were no more similar than DZ twins for any outcome, suggesting that genetic factors do not influence these traits in the population. Reared-together MZ twins were no more similar than reared-apart MZ twins, suggesting a negligible effect of the family environment on these outcomes. Environmental factors unique to each twin appeared to be the major determinants of variation in this population.
Studies in Resource Allocation Processes: Optimality and informational efficiency in resource allocation processes

Introduction This paper is primarily devoted to a study of the (static) optimality properties (e.g., Pareto-optimality of the equilibria) of certain resource allocation mechanisms. It is shown that one such mechanism (the “greed process”) is optimal in a class of economic environments much broader than the class for which perfect competition is optimal. More specifically, the greed process has the desired optimality properties for all environments from which so-called external economies or diseconomies are absent; unlike perfect competition, the greed process does not presuppose the absence of indivisible goods, of discontinuities, or of increasing returns. However, the greed process lacks the dynamic (stability) properties known to hold for perfect competition, at least in certain special cases. That the greed process does have certain optimality properties would be of little interest, were it not for the fact that it belongs to a class of informationally decentralized processes and hence shares with perfect competition a feature that has been extolled as one of the main virtues of the classical market mechanism. Still, just because it is designed to cover a broader class of environments, the greed process calls for more information (is informationally less efficient) than the competitive mechanism. To illustrate this, a variant of the latter (called “quasi-competitive”) is constructed and is shown to have the desired optimality properties when the environment satisfies the usual divisibility and convexity assumptions, while requiring less information than does the greed process.
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Actin Cytoskeletal Component Bsp1p Has an Auxiliary Role in Actomyosin Ring Function and in the Maintenance of Bud-Neck Structure

Iqg1p is a component of the actomyosin contractile ring that is required for actin recruitment and septum deposition. Cells lacking Iqg1p function have an altered bud-neck structure and fail to form a functional actomyosin contractile ring resulting in a block to cytokinesis and septation. Here it is demonstrated that increased expression of the actin cytoskeleton associated protein Bsp1p bypasses the requirement for contractile ring function. This also correlates with reduced bud-neck width and remedial septum formation. Increased expression of this protein in a temperature-sensitive iqg1-1 background causes remedial septum formation at the bud neck that is reliant upon chitin synthase III activity and restores cell separation. The observed suppression correlates with a restoration of normal bud-neck structure. While Bsp1p is a component of the contractile ring, its recruitment to the bud neck is not required for the observed suppression. Loss of Bsp1p causes a brief delay in the redistribution of the actin cytoskeleton normally observed at the end of actin ring contraction. Compromise of Iqg1p function, in the absence of Bsp1p function, leads to a profound change in the distribution of actin and the pattern of cell growth accompanied by a failure to complete cytokinesis and cell separation.
A LEAP forward or a LEAP back? Revelations about the Learning, Earning and Parenting (LEAP) program of Ontario Works

In juxtaposition to the sizeable literature on workfare, there is a significant gap of research on the Learning, Earning, and Parenting (LEAP) policy of Ontario Works, a workfare program for teen parents in Canada. The purpose of this article is to discuss a qualitative study exploring the adequacy and efficacy of the program. Findings indicate that while some amendments are necessary for LEAP specifically, significant modifications are needed to the overall workfare policy. A paradigmatic shift in the characterisation of workfare recipients is also necessary to extricate mothers from the cycle of poverty associated with social assistance access.
Destination brand identity development and value system.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model for destination identity and value system. It aims to use a case study to illustrate a destination brand identity development process in a national tourism office (NTO). Design/methodology/approach – The single case study method is used. The data consist of theme‐based interviews of eight different level managers of a NTO. Theoretical discussion is based on destination branding and emerging identity‐based branding literature.Findings – This study proposes a model of destination brand identity and value system that takes a holistic view to the destination branding. It illustrates concepts of brand identity, brand image, brand value and brand equity in the same figure, incorporating different level actors to the value creation process. The case study illustrates the value creation process in the initial stage of the identity‐based branding.Research limitations/implications – The study is explorative and is based on an illustrative single country case .
Planned Missing Data Designs & Small Sample Size: How Small is Too Small?

Utilizing planned missing data (PMD) designs (ex. 3-form surveys) enables researchers to ask participants fewer questions during the data collection process. An important question, however, is just how few participants are needed to effectively employ planned missing data designs in research studies. This paper explores this question by using simulated three-form planned missing data to assess analytic model convergence, parameter estimate bias, standard error bias, mean squared error (MSE), and relative efficiency (RE). Three models were examined: a onetime point, cross-sectional model with 3 constructs; a two-time point model with 3 constructs at each time point; and a three-time point, mediation model with 3 constructs over three time points. Both full-information maximum likelihood (FIML) and multiple imputation (MI) were used to handle the missing data. Models were found to meet convergence rate and acceptable bias criteria with FIML at smaller sample sizes than with MI.
When Does a Firm Support Substitute Open Source Programming

Software firms are observed to support programmers' communities, which develop rival open source programs. A firm selling a copyright program has an incentive to support substitute copyleft programming when support creates compatibility between the programs and programs exhibit network effects. Costly compatibility benefits the firm as its consumers gain access to the community's services but may also hurt the firm because it cannot profit from the valuation difference between incompatible networks. The incentive arises under a weak network effect even when the consumers' benefit is small. Standardization and enlarging the open source programmers' community do not always increase welfare.
Exploring the moderating influence of product innovativeness on the organizational integration‐new product market success relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the moderating impact of product innovativeness on the new product market success‐organizational integration relationship. Design/methodology/approach – A mail survey research approach was used that gathered 131 completed survey instruments from NPD managers in the electrical products, medical devices, and the heavy construction equipment industries. Findings – This research confirmed that organizational integration during NPD processes and the innovativeness of new products are associated with new product market success. This study also discovered that product innovativeness does not moderate the organizational integration‐new product market success relationship.Research limitations/implications – This study's findings may not be generalizable to industries beyond those studied, the studied relationships may change when new product projects are appended to one another, and it may be necessary to take into account several dimensions of product innov.
Household life‐cycle asset allocation and background risk of labor income

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the relationship between risky asset allocation and background risk of Chinese residents. Design/methodology/approach - Using Chinese macroeconomic data, this study uses numerical method to solve dynamic stochastic optimal problem. Findings - When risk of labor income is considered, ratio of risky asset declines with rising of age for those people with same age and wealth state; any of the following situations will lead to lower risky assets holdings: lower labor income growth expectations, higher labor income risk or higher labor and financial market covariance risk. Research limitations/implications - This study uses real economy investment return as a proxy of risky asset return. Practical implications - Residents with higher background risks should hold less risky assets, and overcome home-bias problem during asset allocation. Originality/value - This study takes two kinds of background risk into consideration: labor income risk, and covariance between labor income and risk asset.