Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interval estimation of the difference in proportions under m‐to‐one matching

When the number of potential controls is large relative to the number of available cases, or when little effort needs to be expended in collecting the relevant information on the controls, we often apply multiple matching to attain the validity or increase the efficiency of our inference in epidemiological studies. In this paper, we focus interval estimation on the difference in proportions for m‐to‐one matching. We consider four asymptotic interval estimators, including the estimator directly using the Mantel–Haenszel (MH) point estimator, the estimator using the tanh−1(x) transformation, the estimator derived from the Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel (CMH) test statistic, and the estimator derived from the quadratic inequality developed in this paper. To evaluate and compare the performance of these estimators, we employ Monte Carlo simulation. We find that the estimator directly using the MH estimator can have the coverage probability less than the desired confidence level when the number of matched sets is small. We note that the estimator derived from the quadratic inequality can perform well when the underlying difference is close to 0 even for a small number of matched sets. However, this estimator tends to have the coverage probability less than the desired confidence level as well when the underlying difference in proportions is large. By contrast, the estimator using the CMH statistic tends to have the coverage probability larger than the desired confidence level when the underlying difference is small. We also find that the estimator using the tanh−1(x) transformation consistently outperforms the interval estimator directly using the MH estimator. We use the data regarding the association between induced abortions and ectopic pregnancy to illustrate the use of these estimators. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluating Rank Accuracy based on Incomplete Pairwise Preferences

Existing methods to measure the rank accuracy of a recommender system assume the ground truth is either a set of user ratings or a total ordered list of items given by the user with possible ties. However, in many applications we are only able to obtain implicit user feedback, which does not provide such comprehensive information, but only gives a set of pairwise preferences among items. Generally such pairwise preferences are not complete, and thus may not deduce a total order of items. In this paper, we propose a novel method to evaluate rank accuracy, expected discounted rank correlation, which addresses the unique challenges of handling incomplete pairwise preferences in ground truth and also puts an emphasis on properly ranking items that users most prefer.
Information extraction for multi-participant, task-oriented, synchronous, computer-mediated communication: a corpus study of chat data

Applications for synchronous computer-mediated communication, i.e. chat, like instant messaging and chatroom channels, are playing an everincreasing role in task-oriented (vs. recreational) domains. Information extraction (IE) from chat could provide great value to any process where acting on a real-time information stream is important. However, no previous work exists on performing IE on chat data, and only limited research has been done on the linguistic differences between chat, spoken dialog, and written text. Chat likely poses several challenges for standard IE methods developed for heavily-edited written text, including: (i) surface-form noise, e.g. non-standard usage of punctuation; (ii) discourse-level noise, e.g. complex discourse structures that make resolution of the high frequency of context-dependent and anaphoric linguistic forms even more difficult. This paper describes an annotated corpus of taskoriented chat logs created in order to assess how the noise in chat data will affect the development of high accuracy IE technology for chat.
The European ankylosing spondylitis infliximab cohort (EASIC): a European multicentre study of long term outcomes in patients with ankylosing spondylitis treated with infliximab.

OBJECTIVES To study the long-term efficacy and safety of treatment with infliximab in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in a real life setting. METHODS AS patients from 6 European countries who had finished the 2-year trial ASSERT were invited to participate in the open- label investigator-driven study EASIC. At baseline, 2 groups were formed: patients of group 1 had not been treated with infliximab after ASSERT, while those of group 2 had continuously received it. Patients of group 1 were further subdivided in group 1a: patients with a relapse and 1b: in remission. All patients of group 1a and 2 continuously received infliximab for 96 weeks, mean dose 5 mg/kg, intervals 6-8 weeks. Patients of group 1b were also treated in case of relapse. RESULTS A total of 103/149 patients (69%) were included in EASIC, 1.3 ± 0.9 years after the end of ASSERT: 9 in group 1a, 5 in group 1b and 89 in group 2. Most patients were male (83%), mean age 44 years. Most patients of group 2 completed the trial (86%) vs. only 5 of group 1 (33%) - mostly due to allergic reactions after readministration of infliximab. In total, there were 22 drop-outs due to 6 adverse events, 4 lack of efficacy, 3 planned pregnancy. All standard assessments indicated beneficial values over time, at week 96 significantly better than at baseline of ASSERT. CONCLUSIONS The majority of patients were continuously and successfully treated with infliximab for 5 years, whereas discontinuation and reintroduction of therapy was less satisfactory due to the frequent occurrence of hypersensitivity reactions. Anti-TNF therapy with infliximab proved to be effective and safe on a long-term basis.
Comprehension and Perceived Believability of Seals of Approval Information in Advertising

Abstract This paper reports two exploratory studies on how seal of approval source, currentness, and longevity affect consumers' comprehension of seal meaning and how seals in general impact the perceived believability of information contained within advertisements. The results indicate that consumers do not comprehend what seals of approval represent, and in most cases, do not perceive the believability of ad claims to be enhanced by the presence of seals of approval. Implications for researchers, advertisers, and public policy makers are discussed.
An Efficient Algorithm for the Calculation of Reserves for Non-Unit Linked Life Policies

The underlying stochastic nature of the requirements for the Solvency II regulations has introduced significant challenges if the required calculations are to be performed correctly, without resorting to excessive approximations, within practical timescales. It is generally acknowledged by practising actuaries within UK life offices that it is currently impossible to correctly fulfil the requirements imposed by Solvency II using existing computational techniques based on commercially available valuation packages. Our work has already shown that it is possible to perform profitability calculations at a far higher rate than is achievable using commercial packages. One of the key factors in achieving these gains is to calculate reserves using recurrence relations that scale linearly with the number of time steps. Here, we present a general vector recurrence relation which can be used for a wide range of non-unit linked policies that are covered by Solvency II; such contracts include annuities, term assurances, and endowments. Our results suggest that by using an optimised parallel implementation of this algorithm, on an affordable hardware platform, it is possible to perform the `brute force' approach to demonstrating solvency in a realistic timescale (of the order of a few hours).
ROBUST BOUNDS FOR FORWARD START OPTIONS

We consider the problem of finding a model‐free upper bound on the price of a forward start straddle with payoff . The bound depends on the prices of vanilla call and put options with maturities T1 and T2, but does not rely on any modeling assumptions concerning the dynamics of the underlying. The bound can be enforced by a super‐replicating strategy involving puts, calls, and a forward transaction. We find an upper bound, and a model which is consistent with T1 and T2 vanilla option prices for which the model‐based price of the straddle is equal to the upper bound. This proves that the bound is best possible. For lognormal marginals we show that the upper bound is at most 30% higher than the Black–Scholes price. The problem can be recast as finding the solution to a Skorokhod embedding problem with nontrivial initial law so as to maximize .
Transition of a Clinical Trial into Translational Research: The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial Experience

Large clinical trials provide a tremendous opportunity to integrate correlative, comprehensive biological studies with invaluable repositories of biospecimens and clinical and other data from the trial. The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) was a phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of finasteride in 18,882 men. Clinical data and blood and tissue specimens were collected at baseline and throughout the study, offering an opportunity to create a program project to investigate hypotheses related to the biology underlying the PCPT findings as well as the etiology and risk of prostate cancer. The transition of the randomized PCPT into this translational and epidemiologic scientific investigation required extensive planning and coordination. Five individual but interrelated projects were brought together with the underlying program theme of the genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors associated with the risks of overall and high-grade prostate cancer and how these factors affected the efficacy of finasteride in preventing cancer. All projects with serum-based measures use a single, shared, nested case–control sample of participants so that each subject provides a more complete biomarker and genetic profile for the evaluation of joint effects of these factors. Strengths of this program include the following: 1) the control group contains only men who are negative for biopsy-detected cancer, 2) the statistical methods to evaluate associations of risk factors with disease are shared across all projects, 3) the large number of cancer cases with fully characterized genetic, metabolic, and behavioral exposures, 4) a central pathology core histopathologically classified the prostate cancer, and 5) cancer cases identified during the PCPT reflect the characteristics of cases currently being detected in the prostate-specific antigen screening era, leading to contemporary and highly relevant results. This article describes the comprehensive methodology and multidisciplinary collaborations, both national and international, essential to a major risk-modeling research program. We provide a framework for doing collaborative research in an international setting structured around a common theme of a clinical trial. Cancer Prev Res; 3(12); 1523–33. ©2010 AACR.
MiddleMan: A Video Caching Proxy Server

This paper describes MiddleMan, a collection of cooperating proxy servers connected by a local area network (LAN). MiddleMan differs from existing proxy research in that it concentrates exclusively on video. Other approaches are optimized for HTML documents and images. MiddleMan offers several advantages. By caching videos near clients, MiddleMan reduces start-up delays and the possibility of adverse Internet conditions disrupting video play-back. Additionally, MiddleMan reduces server load by intercepting a large fraction of server accesses and can be easily extended to provide other services such as transcod-ing.
Alanna Conners and the Origins of Principled Data Analysis

Alanna was one of the most important pioneers in the development of not just sophisticated algorithms for analyzing astronomical data but more importantly an overall viewpoint emphasizing the use of statistically sound principles in place of blind application of cook-book recipes, or black boxes. I will outline some of the threads of this viewpoint, emphasizing time series data, with a focus on the importance of these developments for the Age of Digital Astronomy that we are entering.
The Standard of the Elite - Some Findings From the Iea International Survey in Mathe Matics and Science

Increased enrollment at levels of the educational systems which traditionally have been rather selective is supposed to &dquo;lower the standards&dquo;. By drawing upon data from the IEA-project, where national systems of education are evaluated, the author makes cross-national comparisons in terms of mathematics and science achievements of students m selective and comprehensive systems respectively. It is pointed out that the criteria of evaluation differ between the two types of systems, the former focussing more on the end-products and the latter on what happens to the majority of pupils, since the two philosophies behind the systems are an elitist and an egalitarian one respectively. The author conducts a crogs-national comparison of the elite and arrives at the conclusion that when comparable proportions of the age groups are compared the elite pupils in comprehensive systems tend to perform as well as do those in selective systems.
Peer Effects in Employment: Results from Mexico's Poor Rural Communities

Abstract Empirical evidence has shown that off-farm non-agricultural (OFNA) employment offers a major pathway from rural poverty. However, participation in OFNA employment is heterogeneous across categories of individuals and is poorly understood. We explore the role of spillovers from peers on an individual's participation in formal and informal OFNA employment using data for rural Mexico. We find that peers' participation in OFNA employment has a large impact on an individual's ability to engage in this type of employment, even after controlling for individual attributes and village characteristics. Peer effects are structured by similarities in gender, ethnicity, educational level, and land endowment. While the data do not allow to model endogenous formation of peer groups, by estimating different models, we can confidently reject that the measured peer effects proxy for unobserved individual, village-level, or type effects.
Algorithms to Schedule Tasks With And/or Precedence Constraints

In traditional precedence-constrained scheduling a task is ready to execute when all its predecessors are completed. We call such a task an AND task. In many applications there are tasks which are ready to execute when some but not all of their predecessors are complete. We call these tasks OR tasks. The resultant task system, containing both AND and OR tasks, is said to have AND/OR precedence constraints. In this thesis we consider two types of AND/OR scheduling problems: In an "unskipped" problem, all the predecessors of every OR task must eventually be completed, but in a "skipped" problem, some OR predecessors may be left unscheduled. Many classes of AND-only graphs with deadlines can be scheduled in polynomial time in a computer system with 1, 2, or m processors. We show that when OR tasks are present in the task graphs, the aforementioned scheduling problems become NP-hard. We propose approximation algorithms to schedule important subclasses of the AND/OR scheduling problem. For the general problem of minimizing the completion time of an AND/OR/skipped task system on a parallel processor, we propose a class of heuristics that are extensions of our approximation algorithms. The performance of these heuristics is evaluated through simulation.
Voxelwise regularisation of high angular resolution diffusion imaging data

The problem of noise suppression in high angular resolution diffusion MRI data is approached through direct regularisation of the apparent diffusion coefficient profiles. The proposed algorithm is derived in a Bayesian framework in the style of the traditional techniques for image restoration using Markov random field models. In a novel departure from the classical approach, a Markov random field model is applied within each voxel across gradient directions, thus smoothing the image data without inducing additional spatial dependencies that would render region-of-interest statistical testing of diffusion characteristics invalid. The anisotropic smoothing algorithm exploits the heterogeneous distribution of gradient directions and their antipodal pairs on the sphere and, in application to both simulated and experimental high angular resolution imaging datasets, is demonstrated to be superior to the isotropic Markov random field variant and the maximum likelihood estimator.
Combover/CG10732, a Novel PCP Effector for Drosophila Wing Hair Formation

The polarization of cells is essential for the proper functioning of most organs. Planar Cell Polarity (PCP), the polarization within the plane of an epithelium, is perpendicular to apical-basal polarity and established by the non-canonical Wnt/Fz-PCP signaling pathway. Within each tissue, downstream PCP effectors link the signal to tissue specific readouts such as stereocilia orientation in the inner ear and hair follicle orientation in vertebrates or the polarization of ommatidia and wing hairs in Drosophila melanogaster. Specific PCP effectors in the wing such as Multiple wing hairs (Mwh) and Rho Kinase (Rok) are required to position the hair at the correct position and to prevent ectopic actin hairs. In a genome-wide screen in vitro, we identified Combover (Cmb)/CG10732 as a novel Rho kinase substrate. Overexpression of Cmb causes the formation of a multiple hair cell phenotype (MHC), similar to loss of rok and mwh. This MHC phenotype is dominantly enhanced by removal of rok or of other members of the PCP effector gene family. Furthermore, we show that Cmb physically interacts with Mwh, and cmb null mutants suppress the MHC phenotype of mwh alleles. Our data indicate that Cmb is a novel PCP effector that promotes to wing hair formation, a function that is antagonized by Mwh.
Teaching and Assessing Content Knowledge in Preservice Physical Education

Teaching and Assessing Content Knowledge in Preservice Physical Education Shiri Ayvazo a , Phillip Ward b & Paul T. Stuhr c a Department of Sports Education Leadership, University of Nevada#Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154 b School of Physical Activity and Educational Services, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 c Department of Kinesiology, California State University, San Marcos, CA 92096 Version of record first published: 26 Jan 2013.
Diabetes Mellitus Adversely Affects Macrophages During Atherosclerotic Plaque Regression in Mice

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Reversa mice are LDL receptor–deficient mice that develop atherosclerosis. Their elevated plasma LDL levels are lowered after conditional knockout of the gene encoding microsomal triglyceride transfer protein. We examined the morphologic and molecular changes in atherosclerotic plaques in control and streptozotocin-diabetic Reversa mice after LDL lowering. Bone marrow–derived macrophages were also used to study changes mediated by hyperglycemia.
Personality-related responses to the psychoanalytic process : A systematic multicase study

Seven analysands and their analysts were repeatedly interviewed at the beginning, during, and after the analysis about the analysands' problems and helpful and hindering factors in the analytic process. Using the analysands' initial descriptions of their problems, the authors categorized them as anaclitic or introjective according to Blatt's personality model. The hypothesis was that they would differ as to experiences of the analytic work. The introjective group expected improved emotional control and ability to regulate interpersonal distance in addition to better understanding the roots of their problems. The anaclitic group believed that the analyst's strength and empathy would help them handle their need for support and love. The introjective group saw their own problems as the main hindrance in analysis but also directed critique to the analyst as a person. Their analysts experienced that the analysands wanted to do the work by themselves and were difficult to engage in the analytic process. The analysands in the anaclitic group were more occupied by hindrances in the psychoanalytic frame and attitude. Their analysts, on the other hand, sometimes found the work difficult and frustrating. The authors underline the importance of being aware of personality differences in analysands' response to specific dimensions of the analytic process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Critical thinking and Chinese university students: a review of the evidence

Despite extensive discussion on critical thinking (CT) by Chinese students, there are still debates over the question of why Chinese higher education students, when studying abroad, lack (or rather do not demonstrate) CT skills. The main objective of this paper is to explore how far it can be established from the published research literature whether the key factor affecting Chinese university students' CT with respect to academic study in English is cultural background or previous training. The conclusion is that culture cannot be the sole explanation for Chinese students' CT performance at universities abroad. The evidence strongly suggests that, while CT elements can indeed be found in ancient Chinese culture, many other factors, especially students' previous learning experiences, are of more immediate relevance and likely to affect performance. As a result, a holistic approach is suggested. The review also suggests that there is at times a lack of clear definitions and/or explanations of the scope of the key concept – culture – in the current literature.
Motion-Induced Blindness and Troxler Fading: Common and Different Mechanisms

Extended stabilization of gaze leads to disappearance of dim visual targets presented peripherally. This phenomenon, known as Troxler fading, is thought to result from neuronal adaptation. Intense targets also disappear intermittently when surrounded by a moving pattern (the “mask”), a phenomenon known as motion-induced blindness (MIB). The similar phenomenology and dynamics of these disappearances may suggest that also MIB is, likewise, solely due to adaptation, which may be amplified by the presence of the mask. Here we directly compared the dependence of both phenomena on target contrast. Observers reported the disappearance and reappearance of a target of varying intensity (contrast levels: 8%–80%). MIB was induced by adding a mask that moved at one of various different speeds. The results revealed a lawful effect of contrast in both MIB and Troxler fading, but with opposite trends. Increasing target contrast increased (doubled) the rate of disappearance events for MIB, but decreased the disappearance rate to half in Troxler fading. The target mean invisible period decreased equally strongly with target contrast in MIB and in Troxler fading. The results suggest that both MIB and Troxler are equally affected by contrast adaptation, but that the rate of MIB is governed by an additional mechanism, possibly involving antagonistic processes between neuronal populations processing target and mask. Our results link MIB to other bi-stable visual phenomena that involve neuronal competition (such as binocular rivalry), which exhibit an analogous dependency on the strength of the competing stimulus components.