Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Malignant mesothelioma in the Veneto Region (north-east of Italy), 1988-2002: incidence, geographical analysis, trends and comparison with mortality].

OBJECTIVE The study assesses incidence and trend of malignant mesothelioma (MM), and mortality from primary pleural tumour (PPT) among residents of the Veneto region (North-east of Italy 4,450,000 inhabitants at the last census). The study also aims at identifying areas at high risk, by applying geographical analysis techniques. METHOD The results have been obtained through the activity ofa Mesothelioma Registry, established in 2001, thus collecting largely retrospective data. Incidence and trends are estimated on MM diagnosed between 1988 and 2002 by means of histological or cytological techniques. Deaths from PPT are derived through the availability of mortality records for the period 1988-1999 (latest year available). Direct age-standardization was applied to provincial rates (7 provinces), whereas standardized mortality and incidence ratios according to Kernel estimates and spatial scan statistics have been used to identify clusters at the municipality level (581 municipalities). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS the incidence of MM in the Veneto region appears similar to that of other northern Italian regions (904 new MM cases from 1988 to 2002, 650 among males, 819 pleural; age-standardized annual incidence rates x 100,000 in the period 1988-1999): 1.75 (IC 95% 1.59-1.91) among males, based on 460 cases, and 0.67 (IC 95% 0.57-0.77) among females, based on 196 cases, and displays an increasing trend among both genders. Among males incidence doubles during the study period. High risks are detected among males in a cluster formed by the city of Venice and surrounding municipalities (Standardized Incidence Ratio, SIR, for pleural mesothelioma, 1988-1999, 2.94 (p = 0.001) for the cluster based on 110 observed cases), and, in addition to Venice, in the province of Padua among females (SIR from pleural mesothelioma, 1988-1999, 1.98 (p = 0.001) for the cluster based on 95 observed cases). Mortality from TPP turns out to be higher than incidence and tends to approach incidence in more recent years; this may be explained by the increasing application of diagnostic procedures, inclusive of histopathological tests, among old patients.
Sharing rules for a common-pool resource with private alternatives

Agents with ex-ante claims over a common pool resource (CPR) of uncertain size face the risk of resource shortage if the sum of the claims they have over the common pool resource is incompatible with the actual resource size. In case of shortage, a sharing rule or bankruptcy rule is required to organize the restrictions and allocate the available resource among CPR users. However, in many situations, agents can diversify their resources and substitute an alternative safe but costly resource to the free but risky CPR. Optimal resource management requires to study the interaction between the sharing rule of the CPR and the resource diversication choices of agents. We find the optimal sharing rule under two assumptions concerning the regulator: i) the social planner denes simultaneously the sharing rule and the diversication choices in order to maximize social welfare; ii) the policy maker uses the sharing rule as an instrument to induce and each agent to make the optimal diversication decision. We interpret our results in the context of water management in France.
RESISTANCE OF WISTAR/FURTH RATS TO THE MAST CELL-DAMAGING EFFECT OF HORSERADISH PEROXIDASE

with the dye vehicle. The Coomassie blue half wa.s destained for the same period with 15% TCA. The average shrinkage for the napht ho! blue black half is greater than 20% while that of the Coomassie blue half is less thant 10%. From the original gel slices it is quite obvious that the contrast and resolution obtaitted with Coomassie blue is supenor to that obtained with the azo type (naphthol blue black, Amido black lOB, Buffalo black NBH) or iuidulin type (Nigrosin) dyes. That the improved proteini staining with Coomassie blue is due to the nature of the dye and not the dye vehicle is ascertained from the followinig experiments. After electrophoresis the gel slices were prefixed mt 15% TCA for 15, 30 and 60 mini both at 4#{176}C and room temperature (approximately 23#{176}C). Excess fixative was removed by repeated washing with ice-cold gel buffer or distilled water anid the gels were stained with itaphthol blue black ut the methanol-acetic acid-water vehicle. The quality of the proteini staintiutg was, at the very best, inferior to that obtained mi the absence of prefixationt. Furthermore, if 15% TCA is employed as the dye vehicle of utaphthol blue black, the quality of the proteini stainting is extremely poor. There are only two slight disadwauttages to staintinig with Coomassie blue. The gel is not hardened by the dye vehicle and must be hanidled carefully. Also, the stain has a teuideuicy to fade with ime. however, it is possible to rest aini the faded gel arid restaiuiinig appears to enihance resolution. Obviously, the advauitages of the Coornassie blue stain far outweigh its disadvantages.
audEERING's approach to the One-Minute-Gradual Emotion Challenge

This paper describes audEERING's submissions as well as additional evaluations for the One-Minute-Gradual (OMG) emotion recognition challenge. We provide the results for audio and video processing on subject (in)dependent evaluations. On the provided Development set, we achieved 0.343 Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC) for arousal (from audio) and . 401 for valence (from video).
Counseling and management of patients requesting subcutaneous contraceptive implants: proposal for a decisional algorithm

Abstract Despite the easy access to contraception today, the rate of unintended pregnancies is still high because of scarce education among women on the methods available and of non-adherence to indications or discontinuation of the contraceptive method chosen. Adherence to contraception can be implemented through counseling programs intended to provide potential users with information regarding all contraceptive options available and to address women’s concerns in line with their lifestyle, health status, family planning, and expectations. In here, we evaluate a multi-step decisional path in contraceptive counseling, with specific focus on potential users of long-acting release contraception etonorgestrel. We propose an algorithm about the management of possible issues associated with the use of subcutaneous contraceptive implant, with a special focus on eventual changes in bleeding patterns. We hope our experience may help out health-care providers (HCPs) to provide a brief but comprehensive counseling in family planning, including non-oral routes of contraceptive hormones. Indeed, we believe that a shared and informed contraceptive choice is essential to overcome eventual side-effects and to improve compliance, rate of continuation and satisfaction, especially with novel routes of administration.
Likelihood-based estimation of the effective population size using temporal changes in allele frequencies: a genealogical approach.

A new genetic estimator of the effective population size (N(e)) is introduced. This likelihood-based (LB) estimator uses two temporally spaced genetic samples of individuals from a population. We compared its performance to that of the classical F-statistic-based N(e) estimator (N(eFk)) by using data from simulated populations with known N(e) and real populations. The new likelihood-based estimator (N(eLB)) showed narrower credible intervals and greater accuracy than (N(eFk)) when genetic drift was strong, but performed only slightly better when genetic drift was relatively weak. When drift was strong (e.g., N(e) = 20 for five generations), as few as approximately 10 loci (heterozygosity of 0.6; samples of 30 individuals) are sufficient to consistently achieve credible intervals with an upper limit <50 using the LB method. In contrast, approximately 20 loci are required for the same precision when using the classical F-statistic approach. The N(eLB) estimator is much improved over the classical method when there are many rare alleles. It will be especially useful in conservation biology because it less often overestimates N(e) than does N(eLB) and thus is less likely to erroneously suggest that a population is large and has a low extinction risk.
Getting Smart : Need To Focus On Creating an Enabling Environment Structured Around the Objective of Realizing the True Potential of Our Next Generations

Grade-assessment-method of monitoring progress against target learning outcomes, in our observed opinion, is essentially a “production-factory” model. Leadership and success are not necessarily a function of academic achievement but are also reliant on key virtues of an individual. Virtues fortify through use and diminish through neglect. Within this context, in our study, we have: (1) identified 23 outliers over 2500 years and analyzed emerging pattern of virtues that can be attributed to having played an impelling role in life outcomes of these individuals; (2) addressed three key questions – Is there a pattern of virtues? If so, is it significant enough to emulate? Is it possible to structure a targeted intervention and measure results? We have concluded that: (a) 8 intellectual virtues can be isolated as having played a definitively influencing part and the pattern of occurrence warrants prioritizing their development in the next generations; (b) a key curriculum objective must be to focus on providing the tools to facilitate pupils in exploring and developing their potential for these 8 skills; (c) original research is required to evolve a set of methodologies for “enabled” development and an “indicator” mechanism must be fashioned to assess pace of individual (not relative) progress.
Modulation-Free M2M Communications for Mission-Critical Applications

In this paper, we consider a mission-critical control system, where an unstable dynamic plant is monitored by a number of distributed sensors. We propose a novel contention-free machine-to-machine (M2M) communication protocol for mission-critical control applications. Using modulation-free transmission, the proposed solution fundamentally exploits the additive properties of the physical wireless channel. In contrast to all the existing digital-based M2M communications that avoid collision between the multiple sensors, the proposed protocol utilizes collision to enhance the system performance. Using the Lyapunov drift analysis approach, we further establish closed-form sufficient requirements on the communication resources needed to achieve stabilization of the mission-critical control system. The proposed scheme is also compared with various baselines and we show that significant performance gains can be achieved.
IoT lighting: Towards a connected building eco-system

Greater adoption of light emitting diodes and integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) is transforming lighting into the Internet-of-Things (IoT) era. In this paper, we outline the role IoT lighting can play in a connected building eco-system. We present a generic IoT lighting system architecture, and explain how lighting systems can serve as a provider of both lighting and non-lighting data. A system control and data web services model is then proposed through which a third-party can access lighting system data. We finally provide examples of new applications and services enabled with IoT lighting data.
Bowen–Conradi syndrome: A clinical and genetic study

The purpose of the study was to delineate the anomalies and the natural life history of persons with the Bowen–Conradi syndrome [Bowen and Conradi 1976: Birth Defects: Orig Artic Ser XII(6):101–108]. We ascertained 39 cases and personally examined almost all. For those who were not seen, their clinical record were scrutinized. Pedigree analysis of all 39 was done and kinship coefficients computed. The birth prevalence was estimated to be 1/355 live births. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Embedding Culture and Finance: Divorce or a Fresh Start?

We provide a perspective on the contradiction provided by a rising culture-interest, and, the lack of a successful culture-paradigm in financial research. We emphasize how "culture-research" and financial research rest on strikingly different epistemological roots. Culture is concerned with conditionality, conceptuality, ends (values), qualitative evidence, limited diversity, fades, and it is guided by understanding. Culture largely evades precise definition and measurement. Finance is established on deductive and instrumental rationality, on modeling, on measurement, on a-temporality, on an appeal for marginal analysis and it is oriented by quantitative prediction.To overcome this tension we propose a conceptual tool to think about culture in financial research. Chiefly we distinguish between the types of actors being involved in financial phenomena and their expected behavioral and cognitive homogeneity. Then we recommend defining culture 'backward', from primo the mechanism relating it to the financial outcome, and segundo the homogeneity within the group regarding that mechanism.This conceptual framework can be of use to culture-scholars across disciplines. In management, it exemplifies how the view of culture as "toolkits", "layers" and "repertoires" can be intellectually powerful and empirically fruitful within a specific field of inquiry (finance). In finance, we contribute to the understanding of the tensions around "culture-research", and, outlining the epistemological roots to that tension, we exemplify one path that a re-foundation (Zingales, 2000) could engage into. Overall, we provide a grid to understand, and partly reconcile, the complementary foundations of culture research about financial issues within finance, or in sociology, economics, psychology.Eventually we reflect on how the culture-approach, unlike Behavioral Finance, can be compatible with a view of Finance as primarily, conditionally and deductively rational. In a way reminiscent of Simon (1945/1976) suggesting that complexity in Organizations brings limits to rationality, we suggest, here, that culture brings conditionality and temporality to the scientific analysis and quantitative modeling of financial phenomena (culture understood here as the grip exerted by collectives on individual cognitions, behaviors & the rules structuring their interactions).
ASIC-in-the-loop methodology for verification of piecewise affine controllers

This paper exposes a hardware-in-the-loop methodology to verify the performance of a programmable and configurable application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that implements piecewise affine (PWA) controllers. The ASIC inserted into a printed circuit board (PCB) is connected to a logic analyzer that generates the input patterns to the ASIC (in particular, the values to program the memories, configuration parameters, and values of the input signals). The output provided by the ASIC is also taken by the logic analyzer. A Matlab program controls the logic analyzer to verify the PWA controller implemented by the ASIC in open-loop as well as in closed-loop configurations.
Schedule Competition Revisited

This paper proposes and analyses a simple model of schedule competition, where transport providers choose service frequency and fares. The key assumptions are that passengers care about average schedule delay, a consequence of committing to travel before knowing their departure times, and that they exhibit brand loyalty to particular carriers. While the most general version of the model is not amenable to analysis, familiar functional-form assumptions produce a tractable framework that generates a host of useful comparativestatic results, along with a clear-cut efficiency evaluation. The model also sheds light on the phenomenon of excess transport capacity. © 2010 LSE and the University of Bath
Analysis of problem-solving behavior in open-ended scientific-discovery game challenges

Problem-solving skills in creative, open-ended domains are both important and little understood. These domains are generally ill-structured, have extremely large exploration spaces, and require high levels of specialized skill in order to produce quality solutions. We investigate problem-solving behavior in one such domain, the scientiﬁc-discovery game Foldit . Our goal is to discover differentiating patterns and understand what distinguishes high and low levels of problem-solving skill. To address the challenges posed by the scale, complexity, and ill-structuredness of Foldit solver behavior data, we devise an iterative visualization-based methodology and use this methodology to design a concise, meaning-rich visualization of the problem-solving process in Foldit . We use this visualization to identify key patterns in problem-solving approaches, and report how these patterns distinguish high-performing solvers in this domain.
A Survey of Volumetric Illumination Techniques for Interactive Volume Rendering

Interactive volume rendering in its standard formulation has become an increasingly important tool in many application domains. In recent years several advanced volumetric illumination techniques to be used in interactive scenarios have been proposed. These techniques claim to have perceptual benefits as well as being capable of producing more realistic volume rendered images. Naturally, they cover a wide spectrum of illumination effects, including varying shading and scattering effects. In this survey, we review and classify the existing techniques for advanced volumetric illumination. The classification will be conducted based on their technical realization, their performance behaviour as well as their perceptual capabilities. Based on the limitations revealed in this review, we will define future challenges in the area of interactive advanced volumetric illumination.
Increasing the Darkness of Darknet Traffic

A Darknet is a passive sensor system that monitors traffic routed to unused IP address space. Darknets have been widely used as tools to detect malicious activities such as propagating worms, thanks to the useful feature that most packets observed by a darknet can be assumed to have originated from non-legitimate hosts. Recent commoditization of Internet-scale survey traffic originating from legitimate hosts could overwhelm the traffic that was originally supposed to be monitored with a darknet. Based on this observation, we posed the following research question: "Can the Internet-scale survey traffic become noise when we analyze darknet traffic? " To answer this question, we propose a novel framework, ID2, to increase the darkness of darknet traffic, i.e., ID2 discriminates between Internet-scale survey traffic originating from legitimate hosts and other traffic potentially associated with malicious activities. It leverages two inrinsic characteristics of Internet-scale survey traffic: a network- level property and some form of footprint explicitly indicated by surveyors. When we analyzed darknet traffic using ID2, we saw that Internet-scale traffic can be noise. We also demonstrated that the discrimination of survey traffic exposes hidden traffic anomalies, which are invisible without using our technique.
Lumping of Degree-Based Mean Field and Pair Approximation Equations for Multi-State Contact Processes

Contact processes form a large and highly interesting class of dynamic processes on networks, including epidemic and information-spreading networks. While devising stochastic models of such processes is relatively easy, analyzing them is very challenging from a computational point of view, particularly for large networks appearing in real applications. One strategy to reduce the complexity of their analysis is to rely on approximations, often in terms of a set of differential equations capturing the evolution of a random node, distinguishing nodes with different topological contexts (i.e., different degrees of different neighborhoods), such as degree-based mean-field (DBMF), approximate-master-equation (AME), or pair-approximation (PA) approaches. The number of differential equations so obtained is typically proportional to the maximum degree k_{max} of the network, which is much smaller than the size of the master equation of the underlying stochastic model, yet numerically solving these equations can still be problematic for large k_{max}. In this paper, we consider AME and PA, extended to cope with multiple local states, and we provide an aggregation procedure that clusters together nodes having similar degrees, treating those in the same cluster as indistinguishable, thus reducing the number of equations while preserving an accurate description of global observables of interest. We also provide an automatic way to build such equations and to identify a small number of degree clusters that give accurate results. The method is tested on several case studies, where it shows a high level of compression and a reduction of computational time of several orders of magnitude for large networks, with minimal loss in accuracy.
Patterns of relapse and survival following radical mastectomy. Analysis of 716 consecutive patients

The records of 716 consecutive patients with breast cancer randomized from January 1964 to January 1968 between radical and extended radical mastectomy not followed by postoperative radiation therapy were reviewed. Relapse and survival rates were related to different patterns with the intent to define, on clinical basis, the high‐risk groups in whom systemic adjuvant treatment can be attempted. The 10‐year relapse rate was 52.9% for the whole series. In patients with negative axillary nodes (N‐) this finding was 27.9% compared to 75.5% for patients with positive nodes (N+ 1–3: 66.5%, N+>3: 83.6%). The relapse rate was also affected by concomitant involvement of internal mammary nodes (IMN): N‐ IMN+: 60%, N+ IMN+: 96.7%. The corresponding 10‐year survival rates were as follows: 59.7% (total), 81.9% (N‐), 39.6% (N+), 53.7% (1–3), 25.6% (>3), 45.8% (N‐ IMN+), 20.5% (N+ IMN+). In N+ patients relapse and survival rates were directly proportional to the size of primary tumor, while this trend was not present in N‐ patients. Location of primary tumor as well as menopausal status showed no direct effect on relapse and survival. In both nodal groups the sites of first relapse were documented to occur preferentially in distant organs and tissues.
Method for determining voltage control parameters of low-voltage regulator using forecast interval of photovoltaic output

A low-voltage regulator (LVR) is investigated as a countermeasure for voltage violation caused by the integration of photovoltaic (PV) systems in distribution systems. To achieve appropriate voltage control by the LVR, the appropriate control parameters need to be determined. We have proposed schemes to determine the appropriate control parameters using PV forecast profiles. In a previous work, the control parameters were determined on the basis of one-scenario PV forecast, which derives one forecast value in each time step. However, voltage violation could not be avoided by this method in a time step with a large forecast error. In this paper, we propose a method for determining the voltage control parameters of the LVR based on the forecast interval of the PV outputs to quantitatively consider the PV forecast error. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed method can reduce the amount of voltage deviation compared with the conventional method.