Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stage II colon cancer prognosis prediction by tumor gene expression profiling.

PURPOSE This study mainly aimed to identify and assess the performance of a microarray-based prognosis predictor (PP) for stage II colon cancer. A previously suggested 23-gene prognosis signature (PS) was also evaluated. PATIENTS AND METHODS Tumor mRNA samples from 50 patients were profiled using oligonucleotide microarrays. PPs were built and assessed by random divisions of patients into training and validation sets (TSs and VSs, respectively). For each TS/VS split, a 30-gene PP, identified on the TS by selecting the 30 most differentially expressed genes and applying diagonal linear discriminant analysis, was used to predict the prognoses of VS patients. Two schemes were considered: single-split validation, based on a single random split of patients into two groups of equal size (group 1 and group 2), and Monte Carlo cross validation (MCCV), whereby patients were repeatedly and randomly divided into TS and VS of various sizes. RESULTS The 30-gene PP, identified from group 1 patients, yielded an 80% prognosis prediction accuracy on group 2 patients. MCCV yielded the following average prognosis prediction performance measures: 76.3% accuracy, 85.1% sensitivity, and 67.5% specificity. Improvements in prognosis prediction were observed with increasing TS size. The 30-gene PS were found to be highly-variable across TS/VS splits. Assessed on the same random splits of patients, the previously suggested 23-gene PS yielded a 67.7% mean prognosis prediction accuracy. CONCLUSION Microarray gene expression profiling is able to predict the prognosis of stage II colon cancer patients. The present study also illustrates the usefulness of resampling techniques for honest performance assessment of microarray-based PPs.
Economic Status of the Elderly in the United States

American elders saw sharp gains in their incomes and declines in poverty during the 1960s and 70s and have had smaller gains since. Updated poverty measures show that seniors are as likely as children to be poor. When Social Security and pensions are converted to asset values, a typical household approaching retirement in 2007 had net worth of $676,500. Social Security was the largest part (44 percent) and home equity was second (20 percent). The collapse of the housing bubble and the meltdown in the stock market in 2008-2009 significantly eroded asset values. U.S. elders are more likely to be poor than are elders in other OECD countries. The United States faces a smaller challenge from an aging society because our workforce is growing and our Social Security promises are smaller. Small changes in revenues and benefits could securely pay for Social Security and improve benefit adequacy for vulnerable elders.This working paper is based on the chapter “Economic Status of the Aged,” in the Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences by R.H. Binstock and L. George (eds.), 7th Edition (Oxford: Elsevier, 2011).
Choques de precios de materias primas, desempeño fiscal y crecimiento. Una propuesta de VAR estructural para la economía argentina

The international prices of commodities have increased markedly in recent years, driven by growth in China, India and other developing countries, which has had a positive impact on the economies of exporting these products. This paper analyzes the dynamics of changes in the prices of commodities on output growth and fiscal variables, in the case of Argentina. To this end, we use a structural VAR approach, with short-term restrictions, which allows nominal shocks in the international prices of commodities a_ect tax revenues, government consumer expenditures and output growth.
COMMISSIONING OF A DUAL-SWEEP STREAK CAMERA WITH APPLICATIONS TO THE ASTA PHOTOINJECTOR DRIVE LASER *

Following re-commissioning of the dual-sweep streak camera with a Gig-E readout CCD camera, a comprehensive set of measurements has been performed on the ASTA drive laser beam components with respect to bunch length, phase stability, and multiplicity of peaks. The multi-pass amplifier was identified as the primary source of the longer UV component bunch length at 4 ps and peak multiplicity. This amplifier was replaced with three single-pass amplification stages and tests indicate clean micropulses and bunch lengths of about 3.6 ps sigma.
Justice and Home Affairs in a Globalised World: Ambitions and Reality in the tale of the EU-US SWIFT Agreement

The EU's policy on Justice and Home Affairs has as its objective the establishment of the Union as 'an area of freedom, security and justice with respect for fundamental rights and the different legal systems and traditions of the Member States'. How does this essentially internal objective translate into international action? How does the Union respond, in an internal policy field, to external challenges? This paper will assess the ambitions and the reality of the external dimension of the EU's policy of Justice and Home Affairs from two perspectives. The first is the close link between internal and external objectives and policies, and the implications for both EU competence and policy priorities. The second is the progressive constitutionalisation of the JHA field, its transformation from inter-governmental cooperation into a policy domain subject to the political and judicial accountability of ordinary legislative procedures. The paper is structured around a case study of the negotiation, renegotiation and eventual conclusion of the EU-US Agreement on the transfer of financial messaging data for the purpose of combating terrorism (the 'SWIFT' Agreement), and in particular the interplay thereby revealed between (i) different regulatory approaches to data protection in the context of international commercial transactions and the needs of private commercial undertakings; (ii) different (EU) institutional actors in the context of international action against terrorism where the EU needs to be seen as an effective actor and partner of the US; and (iii) the needs of public security and the need to provide against the risk of breaches of individual rights of data protection and privacy through the misuse of security-based powers.
Brief exposure to a 50 Hz, 100 μT magnetic field: Effects on reaction time, accuracy, and recognition memory

The present study investigated both the direct and delayed effects of a 50 Hz, 100 μT magnetic field on human performance. Eighty subjects completed a visual duration discrimination task, half being exposed to the field and the other half sham exposed. The delayed effects of this field were also examined in a recognition memory task that followed immediately upon completion of the discrimination task, Unlike our earlier studies, we were unable to find any effects of the field on reaction time and accuracy in the visual discrimination task. However, the field had a delayed effect on memory, producing a decrement in recognition accuracy. We conclude that after many years of experimentation, finding a set of magnetic field parameters and human performance measures that reliably yield magnetic field effects is proving elusive. Yet the large number of significant findings suggests that further research is warranted. Bioelectromagnetics 23:189–195, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Disappearance of AML1 ‐MTG8(ETO) fusion transcript in acute myeloid leukaemia patients with t(8;21) in long‐term remission

Summary. In a study of 23 patients with t(8;21)‐associated acute myeloid leukaemia the AML1‐MTG8 fusion transcript was present in the majority of serial samples obtained from 17 patients followed for up to 34 months after diagnosis, but was absent in samples from all six patients who had been in continuous complete remission for 61 months after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), or for 52, 53, 123,182 and 198 months, respectively, after courses of intensive chemotherapy. Previous studies showed that the AML1‐MTG8 fusion transcript was present in most patients with this type of translocation in long‐term remission. Our results indicate that blood cells of patients with t(8;21) in remission of over 10 years may not show the AML1‐MTG8 fusion transcript, and that those of patients who have undergone allogeneic BMT or intensive chemotherapy may become fusion transcript‐negative much earlier. Our study suggests that leukaemic cells with the AML1‐MTG8 fusion transcript may survive for some time after courses of chemotherapy or BMT, but that they may eventually be eradicated by immunologic and other antileukaemic mechanisms.
Health‐care reform and the dimensions of professional autonomy

: A “managed competition” model was introduced in the Canadian province of Ontario as part of the government's reform of home care. With this model, it was assumed that competitive forces would encourage quality while driving down costs. While such reforms often achieve cost controls by constraining the incomes and practices of health-care workers, there has been relatively little analysis of the extent to which self-governing health-care professionals, particularly those outside of medicine and nursing, may experience a decline in their ability to control the content and context of their professional work. In this article, the authors analyse the results of thirty-six in-depth interviews with representatives of Community Care Access Centres (CCACs), the organizations that purchase and coordinate the delivery of home-care services, and rehabilitation provider agencies to examine the impact of Ontario's managed competition reform on rehabilitation professionals. Findings suggest that the impact of the reform varied across the economic, political, and clinical dimensions of professional autonomy and that, despite a general loss of autonomy under the managed competition model, market forces also served to mitigate the loss of autonomy, thus contributing to a remarkable resilience of professional autonomy. Sommaire: Un modele de « concurrence dirigee » a ete introduit recemment dans la province canadienne de l'Ontario dans le cadre de la reforme gouvernementale des soins a domicile. Avec ce modele, il etait presume que les forces de la concurrence encourageraient la qualite tout en faisant baisser les couts. Alors que de telles reformes parviennent souvent a maitriser les couts en reduisant les revenus et les pratiques des travailleurs de la sante, il y a eu relativement peu d'analyses de faites sur la mesure dans laquelle les professionnels de la sante autonomes, particulierement ceux qui exercent en dehors de la medecine et de la profession infirmiere, connaissent une perte de controle sur le contenu et le contexte de leur travail professionnel. Dans le present article, les auteurs analysent les resultats de trente-six entrevues en profondeur menees aupres de representants des Centres d'acces aux soins communautaires (CASC), organismes qui achetent et coordonnent la prestation des services de soins a domicile, et organismes de prestation de soins de readaptation, afin d'examiner les consequences de la reforme de la concurrence dirigee de l'Ontario sur les professionnels de la readaptation. Les resultats laissent entendre que l'effet de la reforme a varie en fonction des dimensions economiques, politiques et cliniques de l'autonomie professionnelle et que, malgre une perte d'autonomie generale liee au modele de concurrence dirigee, les forces du marche ont egalement permis d'attenuer la perte d'autonomie, contribuant ainsi a la remarquable resilience dont font preuve ces professionnels en la matiere.
Helicobacter pylori in Children and Adolescents: Increase of Primary Clarithromycin Resistance, 1997–2000

Background The authors evaluate the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori resistance in 117 children and demonstrate the changes over a 4-year period. Methods In 117 children and adolescents, H. pylori-positive gastritis was revealed by diagnostic upper endoscopy. Biopsies from the antrum and body of the stomach were tested by histology, urease test, and culture. H. pylori was isolated using standard culture techniques, and susceptibility to amoxicillin, clarithromycin, and metronidazole was tested using the E-test (AB-Biodisk, Sweden). Results Endoscopy revealed gastric ulcers in 2 of 117 subjects, duodenal ulcers in 6 of 117, and erosive gastritis or duodenitis in 23 of 117. Almost all patients showed antral nodularity. Histology always showed chronic gastritis with different degrees of activity. During the 4-year study period, the authors noticed an increase of primary clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori strains, from 14.3% to 27.6% (mean, 20.3%). Metronidazole resistance varied between 5% and 25%. No resistance to amoxicillin was found. Conclusion Eradication of H. pylori should take place only after testing of susceptibility. The general use of clarithromycin in children should be restricted to better-defined indications. Resistance to clarithromycin of H. pylori may also become a future problem for the treatment of adults.
Pharmacoeconomic Analysis of Pain Medications Used to Treat Adult Patients with Chronic Back Pain in the United States

ABSTRACT Chronic back pain is an extremely common health problem. The largest category for pain therapy costs includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and opioids. However, there has been limited evidence outlining their effectiveness in terms of quality of life for the treatment of chronic back pain. The authors performed a comparative pharmacoeconomic analysis of chronic back pain patients using NSAIDs versus those using opioids alone or combination opioid analgesics. This pharmacoeconomic evaluation was conducted using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Adults ≥18 years with chronic back pain diagnosis were included in the study. Individuals using opioids were matched in 1:1 ratio with those using only NSAIDs using propensity scores. All direct medical costs were included, and utility scores from Short Form 6D (SF-6D) were used to calculate QALYs (quality-adjusted life years). Monte Carlo probabilistic simulation technique was employed to determine the cost-effectiveness acceptability curve. After matching, there were 1109 patients in each cohort. The total mean annual cost was found to be $6137.41 for NSAIDs and $8982.28 for opioids. The mean utility gain for NSAIDs was found to be 0.661, whereas for opioids it was 0.633. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed that at all willingness-to-pay thresholds, the probability of NSAIDs being cost-effective was higher than the probability of the opioids being cost-effective. The authors found NSAIDs to be a dominant strategy as compared with opioids. Considering the higher cost associated with opioids/combination opioid analgesics, it might be cost-effective if they are used in patients who did not respond to the NSAIDs.
A Tale of Two Approaches-The AFT, the NEA, and NCLB

When President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law on January 8, 2002, neither the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) nor the National Education Association (NEA) was on record supporting the new legislation. What has transpired since the enactment of the statute is the story of the two organizations' different approaches to the law. This chapter takes up the topic of the responses of the NEA and AFT to the early days of implementation of NCLB. As this chapter will show, though the organizations are largely in accord about what they view as the deficiencies of the law, they have taken very different strategic approaches to efforts to secure statutory changes. The NEA efforts have focused on public denunciation of the law. The AFT, on balance, has taken a more considered, and sometimes less predictable, approach. In large measure, these strategies mirror the organizations' reactions to education reform more generally over the last 2 decades.
Pressure Ulcer Pain

OBJECTIVE To describe and interpret the complexities of the pain experienced by persons with painful pressure ulcers. DESIGN Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology. SETTING AND SUBJECTS Ten participants with pressure ulcers hospitalized in an acute-care community hospital were interviewed. METHODS Multiple taped interviews, transcripts, and field notes were collected over an 8-month period. Data analysis occurred over a 16-month period and included an initial process of naming the text, identifying themes, and writing the interpretations of each participant's story. Secondary analysis comprised reading across the texts for commonalities and shared meanings. These data were related to other literature sources, shared with a team of researchers familiar with the Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology process, and with wound, ostomy, and continence nurses. RESULTS A total of 22 themes and 1 constitutive pattern were identified. Participants with varying stages of pressure ulcers shared poignant stories about their pain. Many related their accounts and instances of actions by health personnel and the treatment interventions that were painful. Some related their accounts of communication failures that contributed to stress, tension, and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study clearly indicate the need for increased attention to pain assessment and pain management in nursing education, nursing practice, and nursing research. The findings also suggest that the commonly used definition of pain is insufficient and needs revision.
Generating and Refining Causal Models for an Emotion-based Agent

Establishing cause-effect relationships is a relevant problem in A.I., particularly for providing autonomous agents with models (for decision making) obtained from their interaction with the environment. The strategy adopted in this paper consists of formulating a predictive model of the relevant consequences of agent actions (or inactions). From the agent perspective, a stimulus is relevant whenever either it is desirable (or undesirable), or when the occurrence of that particular stimulus contributes to the anticipation of desirable (or undesirable) stimuli. The purpose of the agent is to use the formulated causal model to act upon on the environment, in order to avoid undesirable stimuli. To validate the approach, the agent was exposed to a very simple environment. Preliminary results are presented, showing that this approach is
Hepatitis B vaccination in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVES In this study, we examined the antibody responses after recombinant hepatitis B vaccine in juvenile SLE patients and whether antibody levels were affected by immunosuppressive therapy. METHODS This study consisted of 64 juvenile SLE patients and 24 healthy controls. We evaluated HBsAg, Anti-HBs and Anti-HbcIgG titers in SLE patients. 24 patients (37%) were non-immunised, 39 patients were immunised (61%) and 1 patient (1.5%) was chronic hepatitis B carrier. Of the 24 non-immunised patients, 3 had active disease (SLEDAI>10) and 1 was being treated for tuberculosis infection so they were not included in the vaccination program. Twenty non-immunised SLE patients were given 3 dose recombinant hepatitis B vaccine doses at 0,1,6 months. AntiHBs antibody titer >10 IU/ml one month after the last dose of vaccine was accepted as seroconversion. RESULTS After 3 doses of vaccination, 16 (80%) of SLE patients and all of the healthy controls had seroconversion. Since two patients had SLEDAI score >10 after the first 2 doses of vaccine and one patient had SLEDAI score >10 after the first dose, these patients were given only two doses of hepatitis B vaccine. These patients had already seroconverted. One patient had exacerbation of the disease one month after the third dose of the vaccine. Protective antibody responses were statistically insignificant between the two groups (p=0.49). Geometric mean antibody titers of SLE patients were lower than those of the healthy controls. Adequate antibody response was not affected by immunosuppressive treatment as prednisone, azathioprine, and hydroxychloroquine. CONCLUSIONS Juvenile SLE patients could reach an adequate antibody response after recombinant hepatitis B vaccination and this response is not affected by immunosuppressive treatment.
Molecular detection and genetic variability of human metapneumovirus in Uruguay

Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) has been described as circulating among the Uruguayan population at least since 1998 based on serologic evidence. However, no isolation attempts, molecular detection, or genetic studies have been carried out so far in the country. In the present study, molecular detection of circulating hMPV in children hospitalized with acute respiratory tract infection in Montevideo–Uruguay was carried out by reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) amplification of the hMPV nucleoprotein (N) gene from 217 nasopharyngeal aspirates. Genetic variability analysis of the positive samples was performed by amplification and sequencing of both N and attachment glycoprotein (G) genes. Eighteen of the 217 samples tested positive for hMPV, with tachypnea, chest indrawing, and wheezing being the main clinical symptoms recorded. Phylogenetic analysis of N and G genes showed that Uruguayan samples clustered in genotypes described previously as A2, B1, and B2, with bootstrap values ≥98%. Sublineages A2a and A2b could also be distinguished within the samples that belong to A2. This is the first molecular report on the circulation of hMPV in Uruguay. The pattern of circulation of this virus, analyzed for both N and G genes independently, resembles the complex evolutionary pattern of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). J. Med. Virol. 82:861–865, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Machine learning approaches to predict learning outcomes in Massive open online courses

With the rapid advancements in technology, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become the most popular form of online educational delivery, largely due to the removal of geographical and financial barriers for participants. A large number of learners globally enrol in such courses. Despite the flexible accessibility, results indicate that the completion rate is quite low. Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics are emerging fields of research that aim to enhance the delivery of education through the application of various statistical and machine learning approaches. An extensive literature survey indicates that no significant research is available within the area of MOOC data analysis, in particular considering the behavioural patterns of users. In this paper, therefore, two sets of features, based on learner behavioural patterns, were compared in terms of their suitability for predicting the course outcome of learners participating in MOOCs. Our Exploratory Data Analysis demonstrates that there is strong correlation between click stream actions and successful learner outcomes. Various Machine Learning algorithms have been applied to enhance the accuracy of classifier models. Simulation results from our investigation have shown that Random Forest achieved viable performance for our prediction problem, obtaining the highest performance of the models tested. Conversely, Linear Discriminant Analysis achieved the lowest relative performance, though represented only a marginal reduction in performance relative to the Random Forest.
Governing Fiscal Commons in the Enlarged EU

This study explores the achievements of the acceding countries in the sphere of procedural fiscal rules (labeled as fiscal governance). The primary goal is to answer two questions: what is the current state of fiscal governance in the “novice” EU comparing to the “old” EU-15? Can we prescribe the acceding states any country-specific fiscal procedures? Three major sections of the study aim at three different issues. Section 2 reviews the rationale for fiscal governance, and the main focus draws upon the common-pool problem. The next section reviews methods to find the fiscal governance suitable for countries with differing political environments. Next, observed fiscal governance is reported by means of indices from survey data gathered in May-June 2004. Group by group, the author compares the observations with what has been measured for EU-15 countries. The findings reveal the existence of groups of countries with similar characteristics and similar institutional potential.