Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Docetaxel plus Prednisone versus Mitoxantrone plus Prednisone for Metastatic Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer in Chinese Patients: Experience of a Single Center

Purpose: To preliminarily investigate the efficacy of docetaxel plus prednisone and mitoxantrone plus prednisone for treating metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer and to further evaluate its adverse events in Chinese patients. Materials and Methods: 83 patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer were enrolled in the trial and given a combination of docetaxel 75 mg/m2 intravenously on day 2 or mitoxantrone 12 mg/m2 on day 1 plus prednisone 5 mg twice daily on days 1–21, 21 days a cycle. Serum PSA level, relief of bone pain, myelosuppression, and vomiting were recorded and calculated. Results: Docetaxel plus prednisone was administered to 44 patients: 13.6% (6/44) of them achieved complete response, 29.5% (13/44) partial response, 29.5% (13/44) had stable disease, and 27.3% (12/44) had disease progression. The average time to PSA progression was 37.8 weeks (12–101 weeks) in the response and stable disease patients. The 12 patients with disease progression were given MP as salvage therapy, and 16.7% (2/12) achieved a partial response, 25.0% (3/12) had stable disease and formed the new baseline. Only 2 patients died of disease aggravation. Mitoxantrone plus prednisone were given to 39 patients, and 7.7% (3/39) of them achieved complete response, 25.6% (10/39) partial response, 25.6% (10/39) had a stable disease, and 41.0% (16/39) of patients had disease progression. The mean time to PSA progression was 25.3 weeks (8–61 weeks) in the response and stable disease patients. The 14 patients with disease progression were administered DP as a salvage therapy and 7.1% (1/14) achieved complete response, 35.7% (5/14) partial response, and 21.4% (3/14) had stable disease and formed the new baseline. Four patients had died at the last follow-up. Conclusions: In Chinese patients, docetaxel plus prednisone is better than mitoxantrone plus prednisone in PSA response rate and PSA control, but has a bit more toxicity. When the tumor is resistant to one regimen, the other might still be effective in controlling disease progression.
Evaluation of SMOS Soil Moisture Products Over Continental U.S. Using the SCAN/SNOTEL Network

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite has opened the era of soil moisture products from passive L-band observations. In this paper, validation of SMOS products over continental U.S. is done by using the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN)/SNOwpack TELemetry (SNOTEL) soil moisture monitoring stations. The SMOS operational products and the SMOS reprocessing products are both used and compared over year 2010. First, a direct node-to-site comparison is performed by taking advantage of the oversampling of the SMOS product grid. The comparison is performed over several adjacent nodes to site, and several representative couples of site-node are identified. The impact of forest fraction is shown through the analysis of different cases across the U.S. Also, the impact of water fraction is shown through two examples in Florida and in Utah close to Great Salt Lake. A radiometric aggregation approach based on the antenna footprint and spatial description is used. A global comparison of the SCAN/SNOTEL versus SMOS is made. Statistics show an underestimation of the soil moisture from SMOS compared to the SCAN/SNOTEL local measurements. The results suggest that SMOS meets the mission requirement of 0.04 m3/m3 over specific nominal cases, but differences are observed over many sites and need to be addressed.
How should managers respond? Exploring the effects of different responses to negative online reviews

Online product reviews are now a popular resource for consumers, and it is common for people to read comments about others' experiences to reduce uncertainty before they make a purchase. However, little attention has been given to the impacts of negative reviews in the tourism industry, or especially to managers' public responses to such reviews. The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of answers to negative reviews on purchase intentions. Three different types of answers by management were identified; these can be categorised as denying, accepting and changing responses. Results of an exploratory qualitative analysis show that a changing response can increase not only purchase intention but also the generalised positive perception of a hotel, even if it has the same number of positive and negative reviews as other hotels. The results of this research might help to identify the elements of the 'right answer' to negative online reviews.
Disturbance-free BIST for loop characterization of DC-DC buck converters

Complex electronic systems include multiple power domains and drastically varying dynamic power consumption patterns, requiring the use of multiple power conversion and regulation units. High frequency switching converters have been gaining prominence in the DC-DC converter market due to their high efficiency. Unfortunately, they are also subject to higher process variations jeopardizing stable operation of the power supply. This paper presents a technique to track changes in the dynamic loop characteristics of the DC-DC converters without disturbing the normal mode of operation using a white noise based excitation and correlation. White noise excitation is generated via pseudo random disturbance at reference and PWM input of the converter with the test signal energy being spread over a wide bandwidth, below the converter noise and ripple floor. Test signal analysis is achieved by correlating the pseudo random input sequence with the output response and thereby accumulating the desired behavior over time and pulling it above the noise floor of the measurement set-up. An off-the-shelf power converter, LM27402 is used as the DUT for the experimental verification. Experimental results show that the proposed technique can estimate converter's natural frequency and Q-factor within ±2.5% and ±0.7% error margin respectively, over changes in load inductance and capacitance.
Ethics of Science for Policy in the Environmental Governance of Biotechnology: MON810 Maize in Europe

This paper discusses entanglements of science and ethics in the regulation of genetically modified crops. Using the 2009 German ban of genetically modified maize MON810 and debates concerning the quality of science cited to support it, the paper highlights how values are tacitly embedded in science for policy and how ethical questions permeate the way this science is developed, quality-controlled, and given authority in the European regulation of biotechnology. We argue that a lack of recognition and inadequate treatment of such value-commitments influencing science, and through this policy, impinges upon and weakens the ethical standards involved. This has particular significance as Europe debates genetically modified crop legislative reform.
An endogenous Goodwin–Keynes business cycle model: evidence for Germany (1991–2007)

This article studies business cycles with the use of a novel Goodwin–Keynes type model. Based on its derived equations of motion and dynamic properties, we estimate the proposed model for the case of the German economy, the locomotive of the EMU, in the period 1991 to 2007, using relevant econometric techniques. The empirical estimation of the proposed model is very satisfactory, in contrast to previous efforts to empirically implement the original Goodwin model.
Nonlinear view interpolation

A new nonlinear view interpolation algorithm is presented. Unlike the linear interpolation scheme, our method can exactly simulate the perspective viewing transformation during the walkthrough. To accelerate the view interpolation, the algorithm employs a binary subdivision scheme to optimize the decomposition of the source image so that the number of the resultant blocks is greatly reduced. Holes on the intermediate image are filled by two steps, namely enlarging the transferred blocks at the side adjacent to holes and retrieving the local image within the holes from the destination images by multiple-directional interpolation. Experimental results demonstrate our algorithm is much more accurate and efficient than the traditional one.
Community Economic Development Initiatives: A Descriptive Exploratory Study of Community Shared Agriculture

This study examines community economic development (CED) initiatives and focuses on community shared agriculture (CSA) as an alternative form of farming to industrialized agriculture. CSA connects the farmers directly with consumers, such that both farmers and consumers share the benefits and risks involved in agriculture. The purpose of this study was to understand what motivates individuals to become involved in a CSA and what involvement in CSA means for them. As a point of departure, the ecological and social psychological problems associated with industrialized agriculture are elucidated. Empowerment theory, social vitality, and sense of community were used as conceptual frameworks. Data were collected on a community farm in midwestem Ontario using a participant-observer mode of inquiry and open-ended interviews. The themes that emerged were categorized under empowerment, social vitality, and sense of community.
Fluorescent chemotactic peptides as tools to identify the f-Met-Leu-Phe receptor on human granulocytes.

Neutrophil functions are initiated within seconds after stimulus addition in response to N-formyl chemotactic peptides and precede ligand-receptor internalization [ 1-51. We have biochemical evidence from subcellular fractionation studies [3, 61 and covalently labelling the receptor by means of a radioiodinated photoactivatable arylazido derivative of the hexapeptide CHO-Nle-Leu-Phe-Nle-Tyr-Lys [ 71 which suggests that internalization of N-formyl peptides proceeds by passage of an occupied receptor in a high-affinity complex from the cell surface to organelles co-sedimenting with the light density Golgi complex. Subsequently, receptors translocate into a granule-rich fraction and N-formyl peptides accumulate in the cytosol. We are now able to visualize continuously, in real-time, the interaction of the fluorescent tetramethylrhodamine (TMR)conjugated derivative of the same N-formyl peptide, TMRpeptide 141, with single human neutrophils by fluorescence microscopy in the presence of excess free peptide, and correlate fluorescence distribution and cell shape.
Good Governance

Good governance codes usually end with a list of public values no one could oppose. A recurrent issue is that not all of these values—however desirable they are—can be achieved at the same time. With its focus on performance and procedural values of governance, this article zooms in on the conflict between two different types of values, signifying and exemplifying how output and outcome on one hand and the process of governance on the other may coincide or collide. The main research question is, “What is the nature of value conflict in public governance and what specific conflicts between performance and procedural values do public actors perceive? ” A literature review and two case studies involving aldermen and the most senior public administrators in public governance set out to answer these questions. The most frequently perceived conflict is between lawfulness and transparency in procedure, on one hand, and the attainment of effectiveness and efficiency as performance values on the other.
Improve the Prediction of Student Performance with Hint's Assistance Based on an Efficient Non-Negative Factorization

In tutoring systems, students are more likely to utilize hints to assist their decisions about difficult or confusing problems. In the meanwhile, students with weaker knowledge mastery tend to choose more hints than others with stronger knowledge mastery. Hints are important assistances to help students deal with questions. Students can learn from hints and enhance their knowledge about questions. In this paper we firstly use hints alone to build a model named Hints-Model to predict student performance. In addition, matrix factorization (MF) has been prevalent in educational fields to predict student performance, which is derived from their success in collaborative filtering (CF) for recommender systems (RS). While there is another factorization method named non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) which has been developed over one decade, and has additional non-negative constrains on the factorization matrices. Considering the sparseness of the original matrix and the efficiency, we can utilize an element-based matrix factorization called regularized single-element-based NMF (RSNMF). We compared the results of different factorization methods to their combination with Hints-Model. From the experiment results on two datasets, we can find the combination of RSNMF with Hints-Model has achieved significant improvement and obtains the best result. We have also compared the Hints-Model with the pioneer approach performance factor analysis (PFA), and the outcomes show that the former method exceeds the later one. key words: student performance, hints, matrix factorization, non-negative matrix factorization, RSNMF
The Geography of Privatization in China, 1978–1996

Abstract: Economic reform in China since the late 1970s has led to remarkable economic growth and many changes in China's economic geography. Privatization, an important process in deregulating a centrally controlled economy, has been a significant component of China's economic reform and restructuring. Privatization also has significant spatial consequences linked to its role in China's regional economic development. With data from policy documents and state statistical sources, we use descriptive statistics and correlation analysis to describe, map, analyze, and explain the changing spatial dimensions of China's privatization process. A complex pattern of spatial variation in privatization has emerged related to the recent historical legacy of socialist development and new economic opportunities in different regions. Empirical analysis shows that unemployment was influential to privatization in the late 1970s, but in the 1990s, strong state employment in the commercial sector has been associated with the growth of the urban private sector. Moreover, it is geographically significant that the stronger the private sector at the provincial level, the faster the province's economic growth. Findings on the spatial variation and changes of privatization enhance our understanding of the complex processes of regional development under way in China today and can contribute to the formulation of innovative regional development policies.
The Relationship between College Costs, Local Labor Market Conditions and Persistence among Community College Students

The main objective of this study is to analyze the influence of in-state tuition and labor market conditions on the persistence and degree completion of traditional-aged community college students. This study uses the 1992 high school graduating class of the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88/2000) to develop a new model of community college persistence and attainment that takes into account direct (in-state tuition), indirect (wage data by industry), and relative (change in tuition greater than wage) costs to students. The hypotheses that year-toyear changes in tuition, wages, and the relative change of both affect students’ enrollment and attainment behavior are formally tested. The analysis suggests that community college students do not solely nor independently look at in-state tuition or wages in the local labor market when making attainment decisions; they also simultaneously weigh the relative costs of each. This is especially true for students on the path toward an associate’s degree. On the other hand, there is little evidence that such costs play a role in community college students’ persistence.
Trade Liberalisation and Regional Integration: The Search for Large Numbers

The debate over the impact of regional trade agreements (RTAs) on world welfare hinges upon (1) whether they are net trade creating or trade diverting and (2) whether they impede multilateral trade liberalization. Theoretical models are ambiguous on these issues. We summarize the insights from the vast body of empirical literature on multi-country CGE models which analyze RTAs. The empirical models overwhelmingly show that aggregate trade creation dominates trade diversion. Indeed, in many cases, there is no absolute aggregate trade diversion from an RTA. The models also indicate that welfare for all members — both current and potential — increases when RTAs expand. There are even bigger welfare gains when models incorporate aspects of “new trade theory” such as increasing returns, imperfect competition, technology transfers, trade externalities, and dynamic effects such as links between trade liberalization, total factor productivity growth, and capital stock accumulation. We broaden the search for large numbers by suggesting an additional gain from RTAs. We conjecture that increases in intra-sectoral trade arise from the fact that an RTA provides an expanded secure market, and permits firms to pursue economies of fine specialization. This Smithian specialization in production is another source of efficiency gains.
Early Intervention in Catalonia

his paper describes the evolution of early intervention (EI) in Catalonia until its present day. The first attempts were established in the early seventies by interdisciplinary teams trying to improve the development of children with disabilities with an understanding that it was crucial to intervene as early as possible. Nowadays, EI in Catalonia consists of a well-established public network of Early Intervention Centres with specific catchment areas responsible for preventing, detecting, treating and monitoring children (and their families) with disorders in their development. The article provides an accurate description of the process that families with children with developmental delay follow from the time they discover a problem in their child's development until they reach the Child Development and Early Intervention Centre. To this end, the article is divided into two parts. The first takes a brief look at the history of the legislation regarding EI in Catalonia, while the second focuses on how the services involved were conceived and are currently organised and implemented.
Increasing Returns and the Genesis of American Resource Abundance

The USA became the world's leading mineral-producing nation between 1870 and 1910, a development paralleled by the rising resource-intensity of American manufacturing. This paper challenges the premise that resource abundance simply reflected the country's geological endowment of mineral deposits. Instead, in the century following 1850 the USA exploited its natural resource potentials to a far greater extent than other countries, and did so across virtually the entire range of industrial minerals. The paper argues that "natural resource abundance" was an endogenous, "socially constructed" condition that was not geologically preordained. It examines the complex legal, institutional, technological and organizational adaptations that shaped the US supply-responses to the expanding domestic and international industrial demands for minerals and mineral products. It suggests that strong "positive feedbacks"--even in the exploitation of depletable resources--were responsible for the explosive growth of the American minerals economy. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.
Simulation of The Dynamic Interactions Between Terror and Anti-Terror Organizational Structures

A discrete-event model of the dynamics of certain social structures is presented. The structures include terrorist organizations, anti-terrorism and terrorism-supporting structures. The simulation shows the process of creating the structures and their interactions. As a result, we can see how the structure size changes and how the interactions work, and the process of destroying terrorist organization links by the anti-terrorist agents. The simulation is agent-oriented and uses the PASION simulation system.
A review on future power systems; technologies and research for smart grids

A modernized grid equipped with bidirectional power flow capability, inter-device communication, cyber and physical protection, autonomous fault detection, self-healing and integration of green energy resources to enhance energy efficiency, quality, reliability and system security is regarded as Smart Grid. Revitalizing the existing power system through a paradigm shift from a traditional power system toward the Smart Grid is inevitable. The objective of this paper is to present a technological review of the research being carried out on various domains of smart grid. We explore different technologies required to meet the smart grid revolution. Information and communication technologies necessary for smart grid development are discussed with reference to latest research in the field. We further explore economic and environmental benefits of smart grid and different communicative and computational subsystems as the part of complex smart grid. We present a theoretical model of smart grid vision which integrates different components, systems and networks to evolve into emerging smart grid. This paper presents a brief literature review and points out various research gaps that needs to be fulfilled in our stride for reinventing the electric power system.
Unintended Negative Effects of Diversity Management

Diversity management has grown out of the need for organizations, agencies, and departments to address a changing workforce and other pervasive social pressures. An army of experts has emerged to meet this growing need, but frequently with questionable results. This paper highlights why diversity training is important and will become even more so, issues related to quality control of providers and services, what may go wrong within the context of providing diversity training programs, and the results in these situations for individuals and organizations.