Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunomic analysis of human sarcoma

The screening of cDNA expression libraries from human tumors with serum antibody (SEREX) has proven to be a powerful method for identifying the repertoire of tumor antigens recognized by the immune system of cancer patients, referred to as the cancer immunome. In this regard, cancer/testis (CT) antigens are of particular interest because of their immunogenicity and restricted expression patterns. Synoivial sarcomas are striking with regard to CT antigen expression, with >80% of specimens homogeneously expressing NY-ESO-1 and MAGE-A3. In the present study, 54 sarcoma patients were tested for serum antibodies to NY-ESO-1, SSX2, MAGE-A1, MAGE-A3, MAGE-A4, MAGE-A10, CT7, and CT10. Two patients had detectable antibodies to CT antigens, and this seroreactivity was restricted to NY-ESO-1. Thus, although highly expressed in sarcoma, CT antigens do not induce frequent humoral immune responses in sarcoma patients. Sera from these two patients were used to immunoscreen cDNA libraries from two synovial sarcoma cell lines and normal testis, resulting in the identification of 113 distinct antigens. Thirty-nine antigens were previously identified by SEREX analysis of other tumor types, and 23/39 antigens (59%) had a serological profile that was not restricted to cancer patients, indicating that only a proportion of SEREX-defined antigens are cancer-related. A novel CT antigen, NY-SAR-35, mapping to chromosome Xq28 was identified among the cancer-related antigens, and encodes a putative extracellular protein. In addition to testis-restricted expression, NY-SAR-35 mRNA was expressed in sarcoma, melanoma, esophageal cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer. NY-SAR-35 is therefore a potential target for cancer vaccines and monoclonal antibody-based immunotherapies.
Automated Redesign with the General Redesign Engine

Given a system design (SD), a key task is to optimize this design to reduce the probability of catastrophic failures. We consider the task of redesigning an SD to minimize the probability of particular faults by introducing components selected from a component library. We have implemented a General Redesign Engine (GRE), which uses model-based reasoning techniques and Boolean functional synthesis from component libraries, to automate redesign for combinational circuits. For a significant subset of observations leading to catastrophic (forbidden) modes we demonstrate that GRE trades off redesign cost for increased fault tolerance, and shows a significant advantage compared to the Triple-Modular Redundancy (TMR) method. Our algorithm has a wide application in AI, including automated software and hardware design, error detection, reconfiguration and recovery, and modular robotics.
SIMULATION OUTPUT ANALYSIS USING STANDARDIZED TIME SERIES*t

The method of standardized time series (STS) was proposed by Schruben as an approach for constructing asymptotic confidence intervals for the steady-state mean from a single simulation run. The STS method "cancels out" the variance constant while other methods attempt to consistently estimate the variance constant. Our goal in this paper is to generalize the STS method and to study some of its basic properties. Starting from a functional central limit theorem (FCLT) for the sample mean of the simulated process, a class of mappings of C[O, 1] to R is identified, each of which leads to a STS confidence interval. One of these mappings leads to the batch means method. A lower bound is obtained for the expected length of the asymptotic (as the run size becomes large) STS confidence intervals. This lower bound is not attained, but can be approached arbitrarily closely, by STS confidence intervals. Methods that consistently estimate the variance constant do realize this lower bound. The variance of the length of a STS confidence interval is of larger order (in the run length) than is that for the regenerative method. 1. Introduction. A principal problem in the simulation literature is to construct asymptotic (as the run length becomes large) confidence intervals for steady-state parameters of the simulation output process from a single simulation run. There are two basic approaches to this problem. The first is to consistently estimate the variance constant in the relevant central limit theorem. This is the approach used in the regenerative, spectral, and autoregressive methods. The second approach, proposed by Schruben (1983), is based on standardized time series (STS), and essentially "cancels out" the variance constant in a manner reminiscent of the t-statistic. For other work on STS see Chen and Sargent (1985), Goldsman and Schruben (1984), Glynn and Iglehart (1985), and Nozari (1986). Our goal in this paper is to generalize the method of STS and to study some of its basic properties. The starting point for the STS method is the existence of a functional central limit theorem (FCLT) for the sample mean of the simulated process. These FCLT's exist for stationary (and some nonstationary) f-mixing processes, strictly stationary strongly mixing processes, associated strictly stationary processes, and regenerative processes. We identify a class of mappings from C[0,1] to R, each of which leads to a STS confidence interval. One of these mappings yields the batch means method. We study the asymptotic length of these STS confidence intervals and develop a lower bound for the expected length; see (4.16). This lower bound is attained by the methods which consistently estimate the variance constant. While this lower
An evaluation of the effects of a National Health Service Trust merger on the learning and development of staff

Although mergers are increasingly common amongst National Health Trusts in the UK there is limited research on how National Health Service (NHS) mergers influence the learning and development of staff. This paper bridges the gap in the literature, through a case-study of a recent NHS Trust merger. It gives an account of the delivery of human resource development (HRD) post merger as seen through the eyes of staff from across the merged organization. The data were obtained from 21 unstructured interviews, nine group discussions, two focus group discussions and a form of micro-ethnography. In addition, quantitative data were used for triangulation purposes. Findings show that power differentials, cultural clashes and unequal access to training and development amongst staff have resulted in hostility towards the new organization. However, the strong management structures for professional members of staff have facilitated knowledge exchange across boundaries in the merged organization. The paper concludes by suggesting that without senior managers dealing with cultural issues and inequitable development opportunities, a number of unintended consequences of the merger are likely to occur.
Stability of aggressive behavior from childhood to middle age in women and men

The aim of this study was to investigate the stability of aggression from childhood to middle age in women and men. The participants were drawn from the Finnish Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, where aggression in 145 women and 154 men was assessed at ages 8, 14, 36, and 42. Data were collected at ages 8 and 14 by teacher ratings and peer nominations, and at ages 36 and 42 by self-ratings on aggression. The stability of aggression from childhood to middle adulthood was tested using three different LISREL models: a simplex model; a model linking aggression at age 8 to age 14 to a latent adult aggression variable (ages 36 and 42); and a model linking a latent childhood aggression variable (ages 8 and 14) to a latent adult variable. The simplex model did not fit the data, but the other two models showed that there was significant stability in aggression from childhood to adulthood. When ages 8 and 14 data were separately analyzed, it was found that, in both women and men, aggression was quite stable from age 8 to 14 and, again, from age 14 to adulthood. In men, aggression at age 8 also directly contributed to aggression in adulthood, explaining the fact that the overall stability of aggression from childhood to adulthood was higher in men than in women. However, when latent variables for child measures and for adult measures of aggression were formed, high stability (estimate .42) was observed in both genders; aggression at age 8 to 14 explained 18% of the variance of adult aggression. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–13, 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Land cover change and soil fertility in tropical regions

Land cover changes influence the biogeochemistry, hydrology and climate of the earth. Studies that assessed land cover changes at the global scale mostly focused on: deforestation, cropland expansion, dryland degradation, urbanisation, pasture expansion and agricultural intensification. For the assessment, remotely sensed land-cover data, census data and expert knowledge were used. In tropical regions, forest is cleared for the expansion of cropland, wood extraction or infrastructure expansion. This widely occurs in the Amazon and in Asia. In many temperate regions, the area under forest is increasing although forest plantations are also on the increase in the tropics. Croplands expanded by 50% during the 20th century, from roughly 1200 million ha in 1900 to 1800 million ha in 1990. It appears that there is no major desertification in the Sahel region and that urbanisation and most highlypopulated cities are found in tropical regions. In China, the area under cropland increased from 98 to 130 million ha between 1949 and 1996. In the same period the area under forest almost doubled. In temperate regions, agricultural land is being taken out of production (setaside) and converted to recreational or building areas. Some areas appear to be more affected by rapid land-cover change because they are studied more intensively. There are several interacting drivers for land cover change but the exponential growth in human population is important. Currently, 95% of the population growth takes place in tropical regions. Soil fertility in tropical regions is affected by rapid land cover changes. The effects of deforestation and grassland conversions as well as agricultural intensification have been fairly well-documented. The spatial and temporal effects of soil fertility change and its interaction with land cover change remains to be investigated.
Temporal and spatial patterns for surf zone bacteria before and after disinfection of the Orange County Sanitation District effluent

Data from pre- and post-disinfection fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) samples from final effluent, an offshore ocean outfall, and surf zone stations off Huntington Beach, CA were compared. Analysis of the results from these data sets confirmed that the ocean outfall was not the FIB source responsible for the postings and closures of local beaches that have occurred each summer since 1999. While FIB counts in the final effluent and offshore showed several order of magnitude reductions after disinfection, there were no significant reductions at the nearby surf zone stations. Additionally, the FIB spectral patterns suggest different sources. The dominant fortnightly cycle suggested that the source was related to the wetting and draining of the land from large spring tide tidal excursions.
Covert and overt expressions of self‐criticism and perfectionism and their relation to depression

Multiple measures of both the covert and overt expressions of self‐criticism and perfectionism have been developed. The present study examined the relation between a measure of overt self‐criticism and several measures of covert self‐criticism and perfectionism, using 59 male and 152 female university students. The study also examined the relation between these constructs and depression. The results replicated previous reports that two factors, self‐critical perfectionism and high personal standards, underlie existing measures of covert expressions. Self‐critical perfectionism and overt self‐criticism were shown to be independent predictors of depression, suggesting the importance of assessing the overt interpersonal, as well as the covert, manifestations of self‐criticism. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
OntoFarm : Towards an Experimental Collection of Parallel Ontologies

The number of semantic web tools assumed to operate on multiple ontologies from the same domain is growing far ahead of availability of suitable testing material. We suggest a domain and principles for building a widely-usable collection of parallel ontologies. An initial fragment of the collection has been created and processed with two among available tools.
Bringing up condom use and using condoms with new sexual partners: Intentional or habitual?

Abstract A prospective study of 94 Dutch adults who have casual sexual partners examined whether two important aspects of safe sex, namely bringing up condom use (BCU) and actual condom use (ACU) are intentional or habitual. For each of these aspects, a model based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB: Ajzen, 1991) was pitted against a similar model that was extended with a path from past to later BCU and ACU, respectively. The results suggest that bringing up the issue of condom use was equally predicted by intentions and past BCU. However, among people with casual partners, using condoms - and more importantly not using condoms - was especially predicted by past ACU, suggesting a strong habitual component. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for safe sex education and the use of theories in safe sex promotion campaigns.
Predicting College Student Intention to Seek Help for Alcohol Abuse

Abstract Three studies were conducted to assess the utility of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) to predict college students' Intention to seek professional psychological services for alcohol abuse. Consistent with our hypotheses, Subjective Norm and Attitude contributed significantly to the prediction of Intention to seek help for alcohol abuse. Also consistent with our hypotheses, Outcome Beliefs and Normative Beliefs were not predictive of Intention. Overall, the TRA accounted for 12% of the variance in the Intention to seek help. Clinical implications and limitations of this study are also addressed.
Non-Response in the American Time Use Survey: Who is Missing from the Data and How Much Does it Matter?

This paper examines non-response in a large government survey. The response rate for the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) has been below 60 percent for the first two years of its existence, raising questions about whether the results can be generalized to the target population. The paper begins with an analysis of the types of non-response encountered in the ATUS. We find that non-contact accounts for roughly 60 percent of ATUS non-response, with refusals accounting for roughly 40 percent. Next, we examine two hypotheses about the causes of this non-response. We find little support for the hypothesis that busy people are less likely to respond to the ATUS, but considerable support for the hypothesis that people who are weakly integrated into their communities are less likely to respond, mostly because they are less likely to be contacted. Finally, we compare aggregate estimates of time use calculated using the ATUS base weights without any adjustment for non-response to estimates calculated using the ATUS final weights with a non-response adjustment and to estimates calculated using weights that incorporate our own non-response adjustments based on a propensity model. While there are some modest differences, the three sets of estimates are broadly similar. The paper ends with a discussion of survey design features, their effect on the types and level of non-response, and the tradeoffs associated with different design choices.
Overcoming reduced activity and avoidance: a Five Areas approach

In the first three papers of this series ( [Williams & Garland, 2002 a ][1], [ b ][2]; [Wright et al , 2002][3]), we looked at the different areas of human experience that alter during times of mental illness. The Five Areas Assessment model ( [Williams, 2001][4]; see [Williams & Garland, 2002 a ][1
On the Cognitive Function of Visual Images and the Development of Individual Differences

The hypothesis that mental images are the building blocks from which imaginative thoughts are constructed, although often uncritically accepted, is not supported by the many studies finding no significant correlation between visual imaging abilities and visual problem-solving skills. Based on the alternative hypothesis that visually imaged sensations are constructed from “imageless thoughts,” the present research correlates the ability to image with the ability to develop rules of perceptual equivalence, by constructing imaginal sensations from the rules and testing them against perceptual sensations. Specifically, in this research 60 students were instructed to figure out the rules of topological equivalence which allow a figure to be rotated and stretched and twisted into a topologically equivalent figure but do not allow it to be cut or glued together. As predicted, the results showed that the 30 students whose instructions encouraged them to construct visual “test images” were better at identifying which two figures, out of three, were topologically equivalent. In addition, the results showed that students whose visual images were more vivid and more prevalent at the end of the experiment were better at identifying topologically equivalent figures. Finally, they showed that figuring out topological rules increased the vividness of students' imagery.
Manual choice reaction times in the rate-domain

Over the last 150 years, human manual reaction times (RTs) have been recorded countless times. Yet, our understanding of them remains remarkably poor. RTs are highly variable with positively skewed frequency distributions, often modeled as an inverse Gaussian distribution reflecting a stochastic rise to threshold (diffusion process). However, latency distributions of saccades are very close to the reciprocal Normal, suggesting that “rate” (reciprocal RT) may be the more fundamental variable. We explored whether this phenomenon extends to choice manual RTs. We recorded two-alternative choice RTs from 24 subjects, each with 4 blocks of 200 trials with two task difficulties (easy vs. difficult discrimination) and two instruction sets (urgent vs. accurate). We found that rate distributions were, indeed, very close to Normal, shifting to lower rates with increasing difficulty and accuracy, and for some blocks they appeared to become left-truncated, but still close to Normal. Using autoregressive techniques, we found temporal sequential dependencies for lags of at least 3. We identified a transient and steady-state component in each block. Because rates were Normal, we were able to estimate autoregressive weights using the Box-Jenkins technique, and convert to a moving average model using z-transforms to show explicit dependence on stimulus input. We also found a spatial sequential dependence for the previous 3 lags depending on whether the laterality of previous trials was repeated or alternated. This was partially dissociated from temporal dependency as it only occurred in the easy tasks. We conclude that 2-alternative choice manual RT distributions are close to reciprocal Normal and not the inverse Gaussian. This is not consistent with stochastic rise to threshold models, and we propose a simple optimality model in which reward is maximized to yield to an optimal rate, and hence an optimal time to respond. We discuss how it might be implemented.
Longitudinal Effects of Role Stressors on Strain: A Comparison Between Three Competing Analytical Approaches

Role stressors (role overload, role ambiguity and role conflict) were used to predict strain among samples from Malaysian public university academics. A longitudinal survey with a six-month time interval yielded 310 academics for time 1 and 194 academics for Time 2. The study successfully matched only 170 respondents at Time 1 with respondents at Time 2. The study used three analytical approaches to infer causal relationships: (a) relationships between variables at Time 1 and Time 2, (b) the effects of predictors at Time 1 on changes in criterion variables, and (c) effects of changes in predictor variable on changes in criterion variables. Based on approach 1, only role conflict was related to strain within a six-month lag time. Based on approach 3, role overload and role ambiguity were related to strain. The findings of the study highlight the contribution of sustained role overload and role ambiguity to strain among academics.
Belt Up: Investigating the impact of in-vehicular conversation on driving performance

In-vehicle conversations are typical when there is more than one person in the car. Although many conversations are beneficial in keeping the driver alert and active, there are also instances where a competitive conversation may adversely influence driving performance. Identifying such scenarios can improve vehicle safety systems by fusing the knowledge obtained from conversational speech analysis and vehicle dynamic signals. In this study we incorporate the use of smart portable devices to create a unified platform for recording in-vehicular conversations as well as the vehicle dynamic signals required to evaluate the driving performance. Results show that turn taking rate and overlapping speech segments under certain conditions correlate with deviations from normal driving patterns. The conversational speech analysis can thus be utilized as a component in driver assistance systems such that the impact of in-vehicle speech activity on driving performance is controlled or minimized.
Developing a model for supervising social work students in groups

Much is written about group supervision in other health care fields; however less attention is paid to this topic in social work. This lack of scholarly attention became obvious to the author when he attempted to begin supervising students in groups and was unable to reference a suitable model or template of group supervision from which to gain ideas or direction. The author therefore decided to develop his own model of group supervision. The following article gives an account of how the author developed this model by critically appraising the relevant policy and theory from a local and national perspective to inform his practice.
highlighted topics Exercise Effects on Muscle Insulin Signaling and Action Invited Review: Autocrine/paracrine IGF-I and skeletal muscle adaptation

brief review presents the basic premises suggesting that insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), functioning in an autocrine/paracrine mode, is an important mediator of skeletal muscle adaptation. Key intracellular signaling mechanisms associated with ligation of the primary IGF-I receptor are highlighted to illustrate the mechanisms by which IGF-I may promote muscle hypertrophy. In addition, a number of recent ﬁndings are presented that highlight the potential for interactions between IGF-I-related signaling pathways and intracellular signaling mechanisms activated by cytokines or hormonal systems.