Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting adult stature without using skeletal age: the Khamis-Roche method.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To obtain reliable and accurate predictions of adult stature in white American children who are free of disease without using skeletal age. DESIGN Apply a modification of the Roche-Wainer-Thissen stature prediction model to a sample of white American children. SETTING Longitudinal data (every 6 months) from participants in the Fels Longitudinal Study were used for the development of the stature prediction model. PARTICIPANTS Residents of Southwest Ohio, 223 white males and 210 white females, at the time of their enrollment into the Fels Longitudinal Study. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS The errors of the proposed method, which does not use skeletal age as a predictor variable, are only slightly larger than those for the Roche-Wainer-Thissen method which uses skeletal age as a predictor variable. CONCLUSIONS Adult stature predictions are needed commonly but the current methods are difficult to apply because they require a skeletal age assessed by a modern method. The Khamis-Roche method predicts adult stature in the absence of skeletal age with only a slight deterioration in accuracy and reliability. The applicability of the Khamis-Roche method is limited to white American children without pathologic conditions that alter the potential for growth in stature, but it should be useful for white children who are unusual in stature or in levels of maturity for age.
‘Fourth World’ Cities in the Global Economy: The Case of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

While globalization is often perceived to present opportunities for developing countries as a result of the relocation of industry and the development of a new international division of labor, the least developed countries (LDCs) have for the most part experienced declining shares of global trade and investment. This has led some to characterize such 'fourth world' countries as 'structurally irrelevant' to global capital accumulation, and to infer that patterns of urbanization in LDCs are largely unaffected by globalization. Yet a number of aspects of the global economy have important implications for cities in LDCs, including increased international economic interaction, rapid technological change, changes in regional economies, and the increased influence of transnational organizations. This paper explores the impact of these phenomena in the context of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a city in an LDC that has experienced major socio-economic and spatial change as a result of increased interaction with the global economy. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1998.
A simplified approach for slope stability analysis of uncontrolled waste dumps

Slope stability analysis of municipal solid waste has always been problematic because of the heterogeneous nature of the waste materials. The requirement for large testing equipment in order to obtain representative samples has identified the need for simplified approaches to obtain the unit weight and shear strength parameters of the waste. In the present study, two of the most recently published approaches for determining the unit weight and shear strength parameters of the waste have been incorporated into a slope stability analysis using the Bishop method to prepare slope stability charts. The slope stability charts were prepared for uncontrolled waste dumps having no liner and leachate collection systems with pore pressure ratios of 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5, considering the most critical slip surface passing through the toe of the slope. As the proposed slope stability charts were prepared by considering the change in unit weight as a function of height, they reflect field conditions better than accepting a constant unit weight approach in the stability analysis. They also streamline the selection of slope or height as a function of the desired factor of safety.
Tunable resistance switching characteristics in a thin FeOx-transition layer part I: Compliance current controlling

Multilevel resistance switching characteristics of the thin FeOx-transition layer were studies by controlling the maximum current compliance during set process. It is obtained that the LRS is mainly influenced by the compliance current value, which is nearly independent to the HRS. Moreover, statistics of set and reset electrical parameters show that the possible switching process is localized, and also, the multiple resistive switching states in the TiN/SiO2/FeOx/Fe memristor could be approved.
Hospital discharge of patients with thyroid carcinoma treated with 131I.

UNLABELLED A dose limit-based criterion was proposed to authorize hospital discharge of thyroid carcinoma patients treated with 131I. Evaluation of accumulated doses to determine the effective half-life, the expected accumulated dose at 1 m, and the hospitalization time was performed to ensure that the dose limit was satisfied for each patient. Situations involving different dose limits and occupancy factors were analyzed. This study dealt only with external exposure; the problem of internal contamination was not considered. METHODS Fourteen patients treated postoperatively with 131I were studied. The range of activity was 1,110-8,175 MBq. Electronic dosimeters and thermoluminescent dosimeter chips were placed on the left pectoral muscle. Dose was measured for a mean of approximately 2.5 d. The accumulated doses were plotted as a function of time and then fitted using an exponential model to obtain the parameters of total accumulated dose and effective half-life. The doses to the public and relatives at 1 m were calculated with point source approximation and several occupancy factors. RESULTS The fit function parameters of accumulated doses in the first 36 h predicted the behavior of the total accumulated dose within a 5% error in the parameters. Estimated values of the accumulated dose 1 m from the patient were generally <5 mSv, even for an occupancy factor of 100%. For more restrictive dose constraints, hospitalization times were calculated according to different occupancy factors, as suggested in the European Commission guide. From the fit of the measured data, values of effective half-life for each patient were obtained. CONCLUSION To apply the dose limit-based criterion, one must calculate the patient-specific parameters, as can be done using the accumulated dose. Knowledge of patient-specific parameters ensures that the patient will not expose any individual to levels greater than the dose limit. The calculated hospitalization times were less than those recommended, especially for countries with more restrictive dose limits. The type of measurements performed in this study reveals more realistic doses for the treatment of thyroid carcinoma with 131I.
Survival in patients with incident dementia compared with a control group: a five-year follow-up

ABSTRACT Background: Dementia is an important disease in older age. Existing studies on dementia mortality face limitations. For instance, they are based on prevalent, small, or geographically limited samples or do not include controls. We aimed to study survival after the first diagnosis of dementia compared with a control group. Methods: We analyzed claims data of a German health insurance company, including 1,818 incident dementia cases and 7,235 age- and sex-matched non-dementia controls (53% male; mean age 78.8 years). The follow-up was five years. We assessed survival with the Kaplan–Meier curves and performed Cox proportional hazard regression, also including nursing care dependency and comorbidities. Results: The cumulative five-year mortality was 53.5% in the dementia cases and 31.1% in the control group (hazard ratio: 2.1). Even after adjusting for comorbidities and nursing care, the mortality risk was 1.5 times higher for patients with incident dementia than for controls. Nursing care dependency showed high influence on mortality, likewise in dementia patients and controls. Conclusions: Although some factors, such as education or the type and severity of dementia, could not be included in the analyses, our study shows a clear influence of dementia on mortality irrespective of age, sex, care dependency, and comorbidities. The strongest influence on mortality was found for dementia patients with nursing care dependency. Taking into account their mortality of around 70% in care level 1 and up to 80% in care levels 2 and 3, healthcare delivery to these patient groups should strongly consider elements of palliative care focusing on the quality of life.
ADOPTION OF INNOVATIVE PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ROAD CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

New procurement methods encourage the adoption of innovative production technologies. This triggers the need for entrepreneurship in the construction industry. The purpose of this study is to provide insights into the adoption processes of a particular set of new production technologies in the Dutch road construction industry and the factors affecting these processes. An entrepreneurship in networks (EiN) model and the perceived benefits of Rogers are incorporated into one framework. From the total population 55% participated in this study. The results show that 83% of the respondents preferred innovation over no innovation. From the companies that chose to innovate, typically, the smaller companies preferred an architectural — more challenging — innovation
Strategies for developing third stream activity in new university business schools

Purpose – Developing third stream activity is becoming increasingly important for business schools as they come under increasing financial pressure. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the strategies adopted by new university business schools and highlight the resources, capabilities and constraints under which they are operating.Design/methodology/approach – The research conducted for this paper is based upon Yin's multiple case design methodology using replication logic. Six new university business schools were identified, where two cases would be literal replications (large schools with a large portfolio of third stream activity) and four cases designed to pursue different patterns of theoretical replication (large schools with small levels of third stream activity, and two small schools). In total 14 senior staff were interviewed in the six schools.Findings – The overall picture that emerges from the research is of a complex market that is for the most part local and regional in nature, where th.
Some Problems in Stochastic Portfolio Theory

We consider some problems in the stochastic portfolio theory of equity markets. In the first part, we maximize the expected terminal value of a portfolio of equities. The optimal investment problem is then solved by the stochastic control approach. We next consider a portfolio optimization problem in a Lévy market with stochastic interest rates. Compared with Merton’s model, there are two extra terms coming from the jump component of the stock price and the interest rate risk respectively in the optimal portfolio. The implication is that given the jump risk the investor should invest more in the equity when the stock price and the interest rate are positively correlated, and less when the two are negatively correlated. Our other observation is that given the interest rate risk and the same return as the pure diffusion case the investor should reduce her investment in the equity when the jump component presents in the stock price. We consider relative arbitrage for an infinite market in the second part, and extend the relative arbitrage theory of equity markets to a market which consists of a countably infinite number of assets. One of our goals is to incorporate the bond market, because theoretically the zero coupon bond market is an infinite market. Our conclusion is that there exist relative arbitrage opportunities over arbitrary time horizons in this market under the condition that the capitalizations of the market follows the Pareto distribution. By doing so, we also improved the sufficient conditions of the relative arbitrage in the
Combined CD4 T-Cell and Antibody Response to Human Minor Histocompatibility Antigen DBY After Allogeneic Stem-Cell Transplantation

Background. Antibody responses to HY antigens in male recipients are frequent after transplantation of stem cells from female donors (Miklos et al., Blood 2005; 105: 2973; Miklos et al., Blood 2004; 103: 353). However, evidence that this B-cell immunity is accompanied by T-cell responses to the cognate antigens is scarce. Here, we examined T- and B-cell responses to DBY antigen in a male patient who received hematopoietic stem cells from a human leukocyte antigen-identical female sibling. Materials and Methods. We used 93 overlapping peptides representing the entire DBY protein to detect and characterize T-cell and antibody responses to DBY by enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISPOT) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. High frequency CD4+ T cells specific for a unique DBY peptide were detected in the patient blood. We isolated the corresponding T-cell clone and characterized the recognized epitope as an 18-mer peptide restricted by human leukocyte antigen-DRB1*0101. Upon stimulation, this clone produced cytokines with no evidence of Th1 or Th2 polarization. Remarkably, this clone also recognized the DBX homologue peptide and responded to female donor dendritic cells stimulated with poly I/C or lipopolysaccharide, indicating that the peptide was endogenously processed in these cells. High titer DBY-specific antibodies were also found in the patient serum which, in contrast to the T-cell response, did not cross-react with DBX. Conclusion. We show here the development of a coordinated B and T-cell response to DBY in a recipient of sex mismatched allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation. Our findings support a role for CD4+ T cells in the development of humoral immunity to minor histocompatibility antigens.
Phospholipid and triacylglycerol fatty acid content and pattern in the cardiac endothelium of rats depleted in long‐chain polyunsaturated ω3 fatty acids

Rats depleted in long‐chain polyunsaturated ω3 fatty acids (ω3‐depleted rats) display several features of the metabolic syndrome including hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy. This coincides with alteration of the cardiac muscle phospholipid and triacylglycerol fatty acid content and/or pattern. In the present study, the latter variables were measured in the cardiac endothelium of normal and ω3‐depleted rats. Samples derived from four rats each were obtained from 16 female normal fed rats and three groups of 36–40 female fed ω3‐depleted rats each aged 8–9, 15–16 and 22–23 weeks. At comparable mean age, the ratio between the square root of the total fatty acid content of phospholipids and cubic root of the total fatty acid content of triacylglycerols was lower in ω3‐depleted rats than in control animals. The total fatty acid content of triacylglycerols was inversely related to their relative content in C20:4ω6. Other differences between ω3‐depleted rats and control animals consisted in a lower content of long‐chain polyunsaturated ω3 fatty acids in both phospholipids and triacylglycerols, higher content of long‐chain polyunsaturated ω6 fatty acids in phospholipids, higher activity of Δ9‐desaturase (C16:0/C16:1ω7 and C18:0/C18:1ω9 ratios) and elongase [(C16:0 + C16:1ω7)/(C18:0 + C18:1ω9) and C20:4ω6/C22:4ω6 ratios], but impaired generation of C22:6ω3 from C22:5ω3 in the former rats. These findings support the view that cardiovascular perturbations previously documented in the ω3‐depleted rats may involve impaired heart endothelial function. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of Escherichia coli dnaE antimutator alleles in a proofreading-deficient mutD5 strain

We have previously isolated seven mutants of Escherichia coli which replicate their DNA with increased fidelity. These mutants were isolated as suppressors of the elevated mutability of a mismatch-repair-defective mutL strain. Each mutant was shown to contain a single amino acid substitution in the dnaE gene product, the alpha (i.e., polymerase) subunit of DNA polymerase III holoenzyme responsible for replicating the E. coli chromosome. The mechanism(s) by which these antimutators exert their effect is of interest. Here, we have examined the effects of the antimutator alleles in a mutD5 mutator strain. This strain carries a mutation in the dnaQ gene, which results in defective exonucleolytic proofreading. Our results show that dnaE mutations also confer a strong antimutator phenotype in this background, the effects being generally much greater than those observed previously in the mutL background. The results suggest that the dnaE antimutator alleles can exert their effect independently of exonucleolytic proofreading activity. The large magnitude of the antimutator effects in the mutD5 background can be ascribed, at least in part, to the (additional) restoration of DNA mismatch repair, which is generally impaired in mutD5 strains because of error saturation. The high mutability of mutD5 strains was exploited to isolate a strong new dnaE antimutator allele on the basis of its ability to suppress the high reversion rate of an A.T-->T.A transversion in this background. A model suggesting how the dnaE antimutator alleles might exert their effects in proofreading-proficient and -deficient backgrounds is presented.
Probabilistic appearance based object modeing and its application to car recognition

This paper describes a method for object detection and recognition based on appearance based approach. We introduce a probabilistic model to describe the wide variation of object appearance in images. In our method, objects are modeled as probabilistic features of silhouette and edge. These features are extracted from the object images viewed from various distance and orientation, and form the training data set for template modeling. A Non linear template model is build by the combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR). Finally, the problem of object detection is formulated as maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation using above model. Experiments are conducted on road surveillance, where our method is applied to a certain car type recognition.
Assessing Sincerity of Effort in Maximal Grip Strength Tests

The measurement of maximum hand grip strength in ergonomic or clinical settings has been a useful means of assessing physical characteristics, progress in rehabilitation and degree of disability in upper extremity injuries. The validity of the peak forces observed in such measurements is compromised by the requirement of subject cooperation in giving a maximum effort. Thus, an easily administered analysis of subject sincerity would improve this basic strength-testing tool. Several variables were developed for the discrimination of faking (submaximal) from sincere (maximal) grip contractions. A microcomputer- based grip force data collection system was assembled in which analog output from a Jamar hand dynamometer was sampled at 200 Hz and digitally analyzed. A total of 43 normal subjects (20 male, 23 female) were tested under sincere and faking conditions (three trials of each condition for each hand). The force-time curves of each trial were analyzed for peak and average forces and force variability. From these basic parameters five discriminator variables were developed. The frequency distribution of the sincere values for each of these variables was used to determine a criterion value for discrimination of sincere from faking trials. The five discriminators correctly detected 95.0, 92.5,100,100 and 97.5% of the male faking trials. Female faking was less successfully detected: 59.7, 52.2, 78.3, 71.7 and 87.0% correct detection resulted for the variables (with a 95% confidence level of correctly identifying sincerity). Multiple variable predictions improved the female faking detection up to 93.5% with little apparent decrement in sensitivity to sincerity identification. Thus, the analysis of force-time curve characteristics provides a readily implemented means of judging the sincerity of subject effort in measurement of maximum grip force.
The euro introduction and noneuro currencies

This article documents the existence of large structural breaks in the unconditional correlations among the US dollar exchange rates of the British pound, Norwegian krone, Swedish krona, Swiss franc and euro during the period 1994 to 2003. Using the framework of Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) models, we find that such breaks occurred both at the time the formal decision to proceed with the euro was made in December 1996 and at the time of the actual introduction of the euro in January 1999. Most correlations were substantially lower during the intervening period. We also find breaks in unconditional volatilities at the same points in time, but these are comparatively of a much smaller magnitude.
New Risk Measure and Idiosyncratic Risk in Taiwan Stock Market

Under the model developed by Merton (1987), the idiosyncratic risk would be important to explain the expected stock return. We follow the approach of Daniel and Titman (1998), and use the risk measure developed by Jan and Wang (2012) to examine whether idiosyncratic risk can play an important role in explaining the expected return in Taiwan stock market. We find that beta can’t explain the expected return, and that idiosyncratic risk has a positive relation to expected returns for stocks with smaller beta portfolio. We also explore a weak evidence of the positive relationship between idiosyncratic risk and expected return for size-sorted portfolio.
Resilient consensus for time-varying networks of dynamic agents

We consider networks of dynamic agents that execute cooperative, distributed control algorithms in order to coordinate themselves and to collectively achieve goals. The agents rely on consensus algorithms that are based on local interactions with their nearest neighbors in the communication graph. However, such systems are not robust to one or more malicious agents and there are no performance guarantees when one or more agents do not cooperate. Recent results in network science deal with this problem by requiring specific graph topological properties. Nevertheless, the required network topologies imply high connectivity levels, which may be difficult to achieve in systems that exhibit time-varying communication graphs. In this paper, we propose an approach that provides resilience for networks of dynamic agents whose communication graphs are time-varying. We show that in the case where the required connectivity constraints cannot be satisfied at all times, we can resort to a consensus protocol that guarantees resilience when the union of communication graphs over a bounded period of time satisfies certain robustness properties. We propose a control policy to attain resilient behavior in the context of perimeter surveillance with a team of robots. We provide simulations that support our theoretical analyses.
Exchange Rates and Open Economy Macroeconomics

This book brings together recent work in open economy macroeconomics from economists working in this field. The contributions, all of which are previously unpublished, range from purely theoretical analyses, through simulation exercises to applied econometric studies. The contributors cover a range of topics central to the field from exchange rate modelling and the efficency of foreign exchange markets to the issues surrounding international policy coordination. The book will be useful as a reference source for advanced undergraduates and graduates taking courses in international monetary economics, as well as practising economists in universities, research institutions and government.