Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GAMEES II: an environment for building probabilistic expert systems based on arrays of Bayesian belief networks

The authors describe GAMEES II (Graphical Modeling Environment for Expert Systems II), a computer system built to manage arrays of Bayesian belief networks (BBNs). With regard to biomedical applications, the system makes it possible to represent probabilistic knowledge both for the individual patient and for population, enlarging the class of problems actually represented through BBNs. In addition, mathematical models can be represented through the BBN formalism. These characteristics were exploited to perform model-based patient monitoring and population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies. BBNs are built within GAMEES II through a graphical interface which is provided with some statistical knowledge, in order to facilitate the construction of sound statistical models. Probabilistic inference is performed by stochastic simulation algorithms that do not give rise to computational problems when dealing with complex networks. <<ETX>>
Kynurenic Acid in the Quinolinate‐lesioned Rat Hippocampus: Studies In Vitro and In Vivo

The present study was designed to examine the cellular localization and biosynthetic machinery of the broad‐spectrum excitatory amino acid receptor antagonist kynurenic acid in the lesioned rat hippocampus. Seven days after an intrahippocampal injection of 120 nmol quinolinic acid, which causes massive neurodegeneration in the dorsal hippocampus, kynurenic acid tissue levels and the activity of kynurenic acid's anabolic enzyme, kynurenine aminotransferase, were increased by 92% and 67%, respectively, as compared to controls. The steady‐state levels of extracellular kynurenic acid, examined by microdialysis in unanaesthetized rats, were also increased in the lesioned tissue (from 93.6 ± 10.2 to 207.6 ± 18.6 fmol/30 μl dialysate). Using microdialysis, three compounds which are known to decrease kynurenic acid production from its bioprecursor l‐kynurenine in brain slices and in vivo were tested for their ability to reduce the levels of endogenous kynurenic acid. In unlesioned tissue, aminooxyacetic acid (300 μM), veratridine (50 μM) and glutamate (5 mM), all administered through the dialysis probe, decreased extracellular kynurenic acid concentrations by 30 – 40%, i.e. to a lesser degree than in previous experiments in which kynurenine was used as a bioprecursor. Only the effect of veratridine was abolished in the quinolinate‐lesioned hippocampus. These data indicate that kynurenic acid is produced in and liberated from astrocytes, and that aminooxyacetic acid and glutamate (but not veratridine) exert their action by directly affecting glial kynurenic acid biosynthesis. The results also suggest the existence of two distinct intracellular kynurenic acid pools, which are responsible for kynurenic acid storage and rapid kynurenic acid mobilization, respectively. Taken together, these features of kynurenic acid neurobiology may be of relevance in the control of excitatory amino acid receptor function under physiological and pathological conditions.
Quantitative expression of thrombopoietin receptor on leukaemia cells from patients with acute myeloid leukaemia and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Using a non‐isotopic ligand binding assay, we quantitatively examined the amount of human thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor (TPO‐R) on leukaemia cells from 128 patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) or acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). The TPO‐R was expressed in 53 (47%) of 114 AML cases, and an in vitro treatment with TPO led to proliferation (stimulation index >1.5) of leukaemia cells in 13 (20%) of 66 AML cases examined. The TPO levels had no relation to the FAB classification except for FAB‐M7 AML. All five FAB‐M7 cases expressed TPO‐R, and one of three FAB‐M7 examined showed in vitro proliferative response to TPO. Although there was no significant correlation (r = 0.3125) between the amount of TPO‐R and the proliferative response, all of the AML cases which showed the in vitro response had TPO‐R expression. There was no relationship between TPO‐R amount and CD phenotypes, or the amount of granulocyte‐colony stimulating factor (G‐CSF) receptor. TPO‐R was also expressed in two (14%) of 14 cases of ALL, and only these two cases had in vitro proliferative response to TPO. One had only lymphoid antigens, and the other had both lymphoid and myeloid antigens. Our results suggest that some leukaemia cells express functionally active TPO‐R.
Strategic development and planning in the New Zealand hotel industry

The researcher wishes to thank all participants who gave freely of their time during this research. This research was conducted by Lincoln University and funded via the Lincoln University Research Fund (LURF). No financial assistance was sought or received from any participating hotel general manager or their hotel company (including those who were invited but did not take part in the research), or organisations associated with the New Zealand hotel industry. 2008.
A preliminary study on imbalanced syndrome differentiation of cold and heat

We investigate the differentiation of cold and heat syndromes in Traditional Chinese Medicine with a special concern on the issue of data imbalance. Data imbalance occurs frequently in syndrome differentiation. In this study, we use a neural network classifier, fastText, to differentiate cold and heat syndromes, which have skewed distributions in the medical records and in the population. We investigate several sampling techniques to tackle the issued of data imbalance, including oversampling, under-sampling, and bagging. We further set thresholds of probabilities of the classifiers based on an observation on precision recall curves. The performances are evaluated using macro-averaged F1 score. It is disclosed the classifier we used, fastText, is insensitive to imbalanced data.
Rate of change in psychotherapy: A matter of patients : A study contrasting the dose-effect model and the good-enough level model using the CORE-OM in primary care and psychiatric care

Studies on relations between number of sessions and effect of psychotherapy have usually assumed a constant rate of change across different lengths of therapy, explained by a model called the dose-effect model. This assumption has been challenged by the good-enough level (GEL) model, which makes the prediction that the rate of change will vary as a function of total number of sessions. This study aimed to compare these models. We also assessed the relationship between reliable and clinically significant change (RCSI) and total dose of therapy. Participants were drawn from two datasets in the Swedish primary care (n = 640) and adult psychiatric care (n = 249). The participants made session-wise ratings on the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM). Multilevel analyses indicated a better fit using the GEL-model, with some reservations concerning RCSI and patterns of change. The results may indicate a general lawful relationship that may have implications for future research, as well as psychotherapy practice and policy making.
The Relative Stability of Money and Credit "Velocities" in the United States: Evidence and Some Speculations

Is credit as closely related to income as is money? Results presented in the first half of this paper, based on a variety of methodological approaches, consistently indicate that the aggregate of outstanding credit liabilities of all nonfinancial borrowers in the United States bears as close a relationship to U.S. nonfinancial activity as do the more familiar asset aggregates like the money stock (however measured) or the monetary base. In contrast to the asset aggregates, however, which exhibit little overall difference among themselves in this context, total nonfinancial indebtedness appears to be unique among credit aggregates in bearing this close relationship to income. Moreover, additional evidence of offsetting movements of the public and private components of total nonfinancial indebtedness further substantiates the case for stability in the aggregate. The second half of the paper suggests three hypotheses that provide internally consistent potential explanations for this phenomenon:(1) an "ultrarationality" hypothesis which emphasizes acute perceptions and offsetting actions on the part of the private sector, (2) a "capital leveraging" hypothesis which emphasizes borrowing limitations and the need for tangible collateral, and (3) an "asset demand" hypothesis which emphasizes the private sector's role as a net lender. Initial efforts to match these hypotheses against data for the U.S. household and corporate business sectors yield only mixed results, however. The stability of the credit-to-income relationship remains for the present a major puzzle, therefore, although these three hypotheses do look sufficiently promising to warrant a much closer investigation.
Instability regimes in flowing suspensions of swimming micro-organisms

The effects of an external shear flow on the dynamics and pattern formation in a dilute suspension of swimming micro-organisms are investigated using a linear stability analysis and three-dimensional numerical simulations, based on the kinetic model previously developed by [D. Saintillan and M. J. Shelley, Phys. Fluids 20, 123304 (2008)]. The external shear flow is found to damp the instabilities that occur in these suspensions by controlling the orientation of the particles. We demonstrate in our simulations that the rate of damping is direction-dependent: it is fastest in the flow direction, but slowest in the direction perpendicular to the shear plane. As a result, transitions from three- to two- to one-dimensional instabilities are observed to occur as shear rate increases, and above a certain shear rate the instabilities altogether disappear. The density patterns and complex flows that arise at long time in the suspensions are also analyzed from the numerical simulations using standard techniques fro.
Lower Bounds for Query Complexity of Some Graph and Matrix Problems

The paper [4] by H.Buhrman and R. de Wolf contains an impressive survey of solved and open problems in quantum query complexity, including many graph problems. We use recent results by A.Ambainis [1] to prove higher lower bounds for some of these problems. Some of our new lower bounds do not close the gap between the best upper and lower bounds. We prove in these cases that it is impossible to provide a better application of Ambainis’ technique for these problems.
Tactile flow on seat pan modulates perceived forward velocity

We conducted a user study to clarify whether a tactile flow created by a matrix of vibrators in a seat pan simultaneously presented with an optical flow in peripheral vision enhances the perceived forward velocity of self-motion. A brief tactile motion stimulus consisted of four successive rows of vibration, and the inter-stimulus onset between the tactile rows was varied to change the velocity of the tactile motion. The experimental results show that the forward velocity of self-motion is significantly overestimated for rapid tactile flows and underestimated for slow ones, compared with only optical flow or non-motion vibrotactile stimulation conditions. Furthermore, the tactile flow on the seat pan can be applied in a car-racing computer game and provide a perceptual change in forward velocity.
Voting Rights, Share Concentration, and Leverage at Nineteenth-Century Us Banks

Studies of corporate governance are concerned with two features of modern shareholding: diffuse ownership and the resulting separation of ownership and control, which potentially leads to managerial self-dealing; and, majority shareholding, which potentially mitigates some managerial self-dealing but opens the door for the expropriation of minority shareholders. This paper provides a study of the second issue for nineteenth-century US corporations. It investigates two related questions. First, did voting rules that limited the control rights of large shareholders encourage diffuse ownership? It did. Second, did diffuse ownership systematically alter bank risk taking? It did. Banks with less concentrated ownership followed policies that reduced liquidity and bankruptcy risk.
Beneficial Effects of Amiodarone Pretreatment on Early Ischemic Ventricular Arrhythmias Relative to Infarct Size and Regional Myocardial Blood Flow in the Conscious Dog

The effects of chronic preireatment with amiodarone on ischemic ventricular arrhythmias were evaluated in fully conscious instrumented dogs. In control dogs (n = 14) with large myocardial infarcts, early (first 30 min) ventricular arrhythmias occurred in a bimodal distribution with peaks at 3–5 min and at 12–25 min, with only the former associated with epicardial conduction delay. Ventricular fibrillation occurred equally frequently during each peak of early ventricular arrhythmias. Amiodarone (30 mg/kg daily) for 3–4 weeks had no significant effect (n = 11) on anatomic infarct size (28 ± 6 vs. 30 ± 5% of left ventricular weight) nor on collateral blood flow in the center of the infarct (19 ± 11 vs. 15 ± 7 ml/min/100 g of tissue) or on the ratio of endocardial/epicardial perfusion (0.23 ± 0.19 vs. 0.28 ± 19). Despite significant lengthening of peak epicardial conduction delay (191 ± 20 to 239 ± 81 ms, p < 0.05), the frequency of early ventricular arrhythmias, especially during the second peak of ectopic activity, were markedly attenuated, by amiodarone pretreatment, with the extrasystole-free intervals often being as long as 6 h. The incidence of ventricular fibrillation was 9% in the treated animals compared with 29% in the controls. In the control animals, arrhythmias always supervened when epicardial fractionation was significant, and no ectopy-free interval was present in the first 6 h following coronary occlusion. The data indicate that chronic amiodarone pretreatment exerts a beneficial effect on the frequency and severity of such ventricular tachyarrhythmias, with reduction in the incidence of ventricular fibrillation and ectopic activity in the early phases following coronary occlusion.
Market Failures in Health and Education Investment for Mexico's Youth 2000

Mincerian econometric estimates including health (as indicated by stature), schooling and experience based on ENSA 2000 data show that human capital has increasing returns for adult income in Mexico. Probit estimates show that nutrition and health, as well as to parental education, have substantial and possibly increasing returns in the acquisition of education as measured by school permanence. These are constituent elements for the presence of a poverty trap or prolonged transition in intergenerational human capital accumulation in Mexico, affecting 90% of the population, which calls for strong public support of education. A transition matrix analysis supports the presence of a barrier to education at 9 years of schooling, and a numerical policy experiment shows that a 5 cm average increase in stature (which South Korea experienced in one generation) would overcome this barrier and lead to higher levels of education. Thus nutrition, health and early child development must be integral elements of a program in human resources that must address all levels of education.
Breast cancer risk after bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy in BRCA1 mutation carriers.

BACKGROUND The availability of genetic testing for inherited mutations in the BRCA1 gene provides potentially valuable information to women at high risk of breast or ovarian cancer; however, carriers of BRCA1 mutations have few clinical management options to reduce their cancer risk. Decreases in ovarian hormone exposure following bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy (i.e., surgical removal of the ovaries) may alter cancer risk in BRCA1 mutation carriers. This study was undertaken to evaluate whether bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy is associated with a reduction in breast cancer risk in BRCA1 mutation carriers. METHODS We studied a cohort of women with disease-associated germline BRCA1 mutations who were assembled from five North American centers. Surgery subjects (n = 43) included women with BRCA1 mutations who underwent bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy but had no history of breast or ovarian cancer and had not had a prophylactic mastectomy. Control subjects included women with BRCA1 mutations who had no history of oophorectomy and no history of breast or ovarian cancer (n = 79). Control subjects were matched to the surgery subjects according to center and year of birth. RESULTS We found a statistically significant reduction in breast cancer risk after bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy, with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.53 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.33-0.84). This risk reduction was even greater in women who were followed 5-10 (HR = 0. 28; 95% CI = 0.08-0.94) or at least 10 (HR = 0.33; 95% CI = 0.12-0.91) years after surgery. Use of hormone replacement therapy did not negate the reduction in breast cancer risk after surgery. CONCLUSIONS Bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy is associated with a reduced breast cancer risk in women who carry a BRCA1 mutation. The likely mechanism is reduction of ovarian hormone exposure. These findings have implications for the management of breast cancer risk in women who carry BRCA1 mutations.
Possibilities and limitations of modeling environmental exposure to engineered nanomaterials by probabilistic material flow analysis

Information on environmental concentrations is needed to assess the risks that engineered nanomaterials (ENM) may pose to the environment. In this study, predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) were modeled for nano‐TiO2, carbon nanotubes (CNT) and nano‐Ag for Switzerland. Based on a life‐cycle perspective, the model considered as input parameters the production volumes of the ENMs, the manufacturing and consumption quantities of products containing those materials, and the fate and pathways of ENMs in natural and technical environments. Faced with a distinct scarcity of data, we used a probabilistic material flow analysis model, treating all parameters as probability distributions. The modeling included Monte Carlo and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations as well as a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. The PEC values of the ENMs in the different environmental compartments vary widely due to different ENM production volumes and different life cycles of the nanoproducts. The use of ENM in products with high water relevance leads to higher water and sediment concentrations for nano‐TiO2 and nano‐Ag, compared to CNTs, where smaller amounts of ENM reach the aquatic compartments. This study also presents a sensitivity analysis and a comprehensive discussion of the uncertainties of the simulation results and the limitations of the used approach. To estimate potential risks, the PEC values were compared to the predicted‐no‐effect concentrations (PNEC) derived from published data. The risk quotients (PEC/PNEC) for nano‐TiO2 and nano‐Ag were larger than one for treated wastewater and much smaller for all other environmental compartments (e.g., water, sediments, soils). We conclude that probabilistic modeling is very useful for predicting environmental concentrations of ENMs given the current lack of substantiated data. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010;29:1036–1048. © 2010 SETAC
Corporate strategy in a globalizing world: the market capitalization imperative

Many companies still want to be big fish in national ponds But that won't generate the high market values that will keep them independent Nothing mutters more than return on equity Few would now dispute that technological innovation, deregulation, and trade liberalization are opening up many of the world's economies to competition from global players. There is much less consensus, however, about what these changes might mean for the size and scale requirements of any given business. Consider the US companies shown in Exhibit 1. Each generates at least 30 percent of sales outside its domestic market; the proportion for Procter & Gamble, AIG, and Citicorp is about half, and for Coca-Cola, almost three-quarters. Each has also increased its market capitalization more than eightfold during the past thirteen years; Coca-Cola's increase was a whopping 1,700 percent. By contrast, the SP the second a high ratio of 5.6; the third a slightly high ratio of 3.2; and the fourth an average ratio of 1.9. Notably, there was only a slight difference in the compounded growth in market capitalization of these four groups, with the highest quartile growing at 26 percent and the lowest at 20 percent. The growth in the collective market-to-book ratio itself varied across the four quartiles, but the ratio of the highest and lowest quartiles grew at about the same rate. …
Age-Dependent Autonomic Changes Following Immersion in Cool, Neutral, and Warm Water Temperatures

Aquatic immersion has been reported to produce a significant number of physiological changes in blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), autonomic nervous system (ANS), and core temperature in young healthy subjects. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of water immersion in younger and older populations, determining whether there are age related differences for ANS regulation measures in cool, neutral, and warm water. Vitals and ANS measures were collected from two samples representing different age-groups in the general population. It was found that water immersion produced a significant number of important physiologic responses such as decreased blood pressure and increased SVB during the warm water cycle. These changes are important components of ANS bioregulation and clearly seem to be influenced by water temperature during immersion. There was a statistically significant relationship between ANS activity manifested by heart rate variability and water temperatures. Aquatic immersion has been reported to produce a significant number of physi ological changes including changes in blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), autonomic nervous system (ANS), and core temperature in young healthy subjects (Becker, Hildenbrand, Whitcomb, & Sanders, 2009). In our previous study, we examined these physiologic changes across three different temperatures: cool (31.1 °C), neutral (36 °C), and warm (39 °C). A decrease in both mean blood pressure and diastolic pressures was seen in immersion states and was most pronounced in warm water. Heart rate also increased significantly in warm water when compared with cool and neutral water. Core temperature increased significantly in warm water compared with the other immersion temperatures. These changes appeared to have been influenced by immersion temperature, impacting the relationship between ANS activity and HRV. Warm water immersion can produce increases in sympathetic power with small drops in sympathovagal balance from baseline. A rise in sympathovagal balance is associated with stress reduction, positive emotions, relaxation, and meditation (Thayer & Lane, 2000; Thayer & Siegle, 2002; Thayer, Newman, & McClain, 1994). Such physiologic