Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mandatory evacuation of residents during the Fukushima nuclear disaster: an ethical analysis.

BACKGROUND The Japan earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. After learning of the radiation leak, the Japanese government issued an evacuation directive for residents within 20 km of the plant a day after the earthquake. Approximately 1 month later, this area was designated a 'high alert zone' and effectively sealed-off. The purpose of this report is to examine these measures from an ethical perspective, and consider what lessons can be drawn from this experience. METHODS Analytic discussion. RESULTS We examine the measures from an ethical perspective and argue that if the government's aim was to avoid health risks posed by radiation exposure, then ordering compulsory expulsion of all residents cannot be ethically justified. We assert that the government may not have ordered the mandatory evacuation solely based on health risks, but rather to maintain public order. CONCLUSION Careful scrutiny of the case revealed that this public health intervention involved an objective completely unrelated to public health, and that disguising these policies using the reasonable and acceptable purpose of public health made it easier to justify undue restriction of individual liberty.
RESTART: a straightforward method for fast simulation of rare events

This paper presents a method for fast simulation of rare events, called RESTART (REpetitive Simulation Trials After Reaching Thresholds). The method obtains dramatic computer time savings for an equal confidence of the results. The paper describes the method in its multiple thresholds version, shows the efficiency of the method and gives criteria to choose its parameters. It presents a simulation library (ASTRO) in which RESTART is implemented and, finally, application examples to teletraffic and reliability problems are provided.
Challenges of Loss to Follow-up in Tuberculosis Research

Background In studies evaluating methods for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB), follow-up to verify the presence or absence of active TB is crucial and high dropout rates may significantly affect the validity of the results. In a study assessing the diagnostic performance of the QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube test in TB suspect children in Tanzania, factors influencing patient adherence to attend follow-up examinations and reasons for not attending were examined. Methods In 160 children who attended and 102 children who did not attend scheduled 2-month follow-up baseline health characteristics, demographic data and risk factors for not attending follow-up were determined. Qualitative interviews were used to understand patient and caretakers reasons for not returning for scheduled follow-up. Results Being treated for active TB in the DOTS program (OR: 4.14; 95% CI:1.99–8.62;p-value<0.001) and receiving money for the bus fare (OR:129; 95% CI 16->100;P-value<0.001) were positive predictors for attending follow-up at 2 months, and 21/85(25%) of children not attending scheduled follow-up had died. Interviews revealed that limited financial resources, i.e. lack of money for transportation and poor communication, were related to non-adherence. Conclusion Patients lost to follow-up is a potential problem for TB research. Receiving money for transportation to the hospital and communication is crucial for adherence to follow-up conducted at a study facility. Strategies to ensure follow-up should be part of any study protocol.
Inhibition of HBV replication in vivo using helper-dependent adenovirus vectors to deliver antiviral RNA interference expression cassettes

Background HBV is hyperendemic to southern Africa and parts of Asia, but licensed antivirals have little effect on limiting life-threatening complications of the infection. Although RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene silencing has shown therapeutic potential, difficulties with delivery of anti-HBV RNAi effectors remain an obstacle to their clinical use. To address concerns about the transient nature of transgene expression and toxicity resulting from immunostimulation by recombinant adenovirus vectors (Ads), utility of RNAi-activating anti-HBV helper-dependent (HD) Ads were assessed in this study. Methods Following intravenous administration of 5x109 unmodified or pegylated HD Ad infectious particles to HBV transgenic mice, HBV viral loads and serum HBV surface antigen levels were monitored for 12 weeks. Immunostimulation of HD Ads was assessed by measuring inflammatory cytokines, hepatic function and immune response to the co-delivered LacZ reporter gene. Results Unmodified and pegylated HD Ads transduced 80–90% of hepatocytes and expressed short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) were processed to generate intended HBV-targeting guides. Markers of HBV replication were decreased by approximately 95% and silencing was sustained for 8 weeks. Unmodified HD Ads induced release of proinflammatory cytokines and there was evidence of an adaptive immune response to β-galactosidase. However the HD Ad-induced innate immune response was minimal in preparations that were enriched with infectious particles. Conclusions HD Ads have potential utility for delivery of therapeutic HBV-silencing sequences and alterations of these vectors to attenuate their immune responses may further improve their efficacy.
Budget Feasible Mechanism Design via Random Sampling

Budget feasible mechanism considers algorithmic mechanism design questions where there is a budget constraint on the total payment of the mechanism. An important question in the field is that under which valuation domains there exist budget feasible mechanisms that admit `small' approximations (compared to a socially optimal solution). Singer \cite{PS10} showed that additive and submodular functions admit a constant approximation mechanism. Recently, Dobzinski, Papadimitriou, and Singer \cite{DPS11} gave an $O(\log^2n)$ approximation mechanism for subadditive functions and remarked that: "A fundamental question is whether, regardless of computational constraints, a constant-factor budget feasible mechanism exists for subadditive function. " In this paper, we give the first attempt to this question. We give a polynomial time $O(\frac{\log n}{\log\log n})$ sub-logarithmic approximation ratio mechanism for subadditive functions, improving the best known ratio $O(\log^2 n)$. Further, we connect budget feasible mechanism design to the concept of approximate core in cooperative game theory, and show that there is a mechanism for subadditive functions whose approximation is, via a characterization of the integrality gap of a linear program, linear to the largest value to which an approximate core exists. Our result implies in particular that the class of XOS functions, which is a superclass of submodular functions, admits a constant approximation mechanism. We believe that our work could be a solid step towards solving the above fundamental problem eventually, and possibly, with an affirmative answer.
And yet she moves! – The earth rests on water: Thales on the role of water in Earth’s mobility and in nature’s transformations

Abstract Thales often is regarded as the first philosopher and as one of the first empirical scientists of the Western tradition. In classical times Thales was also famed for astronomical observations, the prediction of an eclipse, as well as for political acumen, the application of geometrical techniques to practical problems and an astute investment in an agricultural process (olive presses). It is argued here that better sense can be made of two key extant claims attributed to him if they are less considered as grand metaphysical theses or as systematic scientific conclusions than as speculative hypotheses aimed at resolving particular puzzles raised by everyday experience. In this sense, the analysis presented here argues that the claims concerning water attributed to Thales ought to be seen as pronouncements reflecting a kind of speculative engineering, grounded in the observational givens of his time, common sense and practical concerns.
Cumulative effect of genome‐wide association study‐identified genetic variants for bladder cancer

Recent genome‐wide association studies have identified 14 genetic variants associated with bladder cancer in Caucasians. The effects of these risk variants and their cumulative effects in Asian populations are unknown. We genotyped these newly identified variants in a case–control study of 1,050 patients diagnosed with bladder cancer and 1,404 controls in the Chinese population. Odds rations (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed by logistic regression, and cumulative effect of risk alleles were evaluated. Overall, seven of the 14 variants were significantly associated with bladder cancer risk (p = 9.763 × 10−3 for rs9642880 at 8q24.21, p = 3.004 × 10−3 for rs2294008 at 8q24.3, p = 0.012 for rs798766 at 4p16.3, p = 0.034 for rs1495741 at 8p22, p = 2.306 × 10−4 for GSTM1, p = 8.507 × 10−8 for rs17674580 at 18q12.3, p = 7.179 × 10−4 for rs10936599 at 3q26.2) and the odds ratios (ORs) ranged from 1.13 to 1.65. Moreover, there were a significant increased risk for bladder cancer positively correlated numbers of risk alleles and smoking status (Ptrend = 7.060 × 10−16). However, no allelic interaction effects on bladder cancer risk were observed between cumulative effects of variants and clinical characteristics. These findings suggest that seven bladder cancer risk‐associated variants (rs9642880, rs2294008, rs798766, rs1495741, GSTM1 null, rs17674580 and rs10936599) may be used, collectively, to effectively measure inherited risk for bladder cancer.
Understanding The Real Budget Process : The Case of Ghana

espite CAADP commitment by African governments to allocate at least 10 percent of their budgets to agriculture, this has not materialized in all countries. Why is this so? Why do public resource allocations for agriculture still lag behind the polit‐ ical rhetoric and commitments? To answer this, we examine the budget process to try and grapple with a couple of more specific questions of whether the decisionmaking process of allocating resources is sufficiently open and rule‐based, or whether it in‐ volves a lot of gray areas that offer room for back‐door dealings, and whether of any of this may offer an explanation of why agri‐ culture can lose out in the process. We focus on Ghana to draw lessons for the rest of Africa by taking advantage of recent expert interviews in the country com‐ plemented by secondary sources in the literature. Because our interest lies with agriculture, we pay close attention to the sup‐ port provided to the implementation of the Medium Term Agri‐ cultural Sector Investment Plan (METASIP). The sources for our information included both informal expert interviews undertaken in September 2012 in Accra and documentation in the literature. The brief is organized as follows. We begin by discussing the for‐ mal budget process itself, followed by a narrative of what actually happens from the little we have been able to capture in trying to answer some of the questions we have posed. From this, we draw some general lessons for the rest of Africa in the conclusion.
Black and white with some shades of grey: the diverse responses of inducible metabolic pathways in Escherichia coli

The metabolic pathways for many sugars are inducible. This process has been extensively studied in the case of Escherichia coli lactose metabolism. It has long been known that gratuitous induction of the lac operon with non‐metabolizable lactose analogues generates an all‐or‐nothing response, where some cells express the lac genes at a maximal rate and others not at all. However, the response to lactose itself is graded, where all cells express the lac genes in proportion to lactose concentrations. The mechanisms generating these distinct behaviours in lactose metabolism have been a topic of many studies. Despite this large body of work, little is known about how other pathways respond to their cognate sugars. An article of Molecular Microbiology investigated the response of eight metabolic pathways in E. coli to their cognate sugars at single‐cell resolution. The authors demonstrate that these pathways exhibit diverse responses, ranging from graded to all‐or‐nothing responses and combinations thereof. Remarkably, they were able to interpret these responses using a simple mathematical model and identify the mechanisms likely giving rise to each.
Politics or Technique? A Defense of Jacques Ellul

Jacques Ellul is known for his critique of modern technological society, but Professor Menninger maintains that this critique has often been misrepresented and important components of Ellul's thought left out. By "technique" Ellul meant not just technology but the larger, impersonal methods and "systems" by which our family, social, and political lives are ordered. Where "technique" rules, Ellul argues, politics is superfluous. While realistically recognizing that technology's impact cannot be reversed, Ellul urges continued struggle for democratic and humane values, which in his case are embedded in a Christian conception. Professor Menninger helps correct misperceptions of Ellul's ideas, while also bringing out new facets of this complex contemporary thinker.
RELACIÓN ENTRE EL MODELO DE LOS CINCO FACTORES Y LOS TRASTORNOS DE PERSONALIDAD

Se ha considerado que cuando los Rasgos de Personalidad se vuelven desadaptativos pueden convertirse en Trastornos de Personalidad (Widiger, 2005). En los ultimos anos se han propuesto que el modelo de los Cinco Factores (McCrae & Costa, 1992) estaria relacionado con los principales Trastornos de Personalidad propuesto por el DSM IV (APA, 1998). Estudios metaanaliticos han establecido relaciones entre los Cinco Factores de Personalidad con los Trastornos de Personalidad (Douglas y Widiger, 2008). Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este trabajo consistio en observar que Rasgos Personalidad estan relacionado con los Trastornos de Personalidad en una muestra de estudiantes Universitarios. Para lograr este proposito se administro a una muestra de 215 estudiantes Universitarios el Inventario de Personalidad IPIP-NEO (Goldberg, 1999) y el Inventario Clinico Multiaxial de Millon MCMI II (Millon, 1999). Se correlacionaron los Cinco Factores con los diez Trastornos de Personalidad mediante el coeficiente de correlacion de Pearson corregido por la atenuacion. Los resultados coinciden parcialmente con los obtenidos en los estudios meta-analiticos. Se discuten la convergencia y la divergencia destacando que se trata de contextos diferentes. Palabras clave Personalidad Trastornos DSM IV ABSTRACT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND PERSONALITY TRASTRONOS It has been considered that personality traits which become maladaptive can grow into Personality Disorder traits (Widiger, 2005). In recent years, a relationship has been discovered between the “Five Factor Model” or FFM (McCrae & Costa, 1992) and the principal Personality Disorder Traits proposed by the DSM IV (APA, 1998). Meta-analytic studies established relationships between the FFM and the Personality Disorder Traits (Douglas y Widiger, 2008). Therefore, this piece of work was built around the identification of those Personality Traits which related to Personality Disorder Traits in an analysis of a sample of 215 university students. Said identification was made by using the personality inventory IPIP-NEO (Goldberg, 1999) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II MCMI II (Millon, 1999). Through Pearson’s correlation coefficient corrected for attenuation, the FFM and ten Personality Disorder Traits have been studied in correlation to one another; the results showed to partially coincide with those obtained in meta-analytic studies. The topic of convergence and divergence was discussed considering and highlighting the different contexts under analysis. Key words Personality Disorder DSM IV
Simple passive valves for addressable pneumatic actuation

We present a method for setting the pressure of multiple chambers using a single pressure source when they are interconnected via band-pass valves. These valves can be constructed from simple passive devices that behave like leaky check valves. We present the theory of operation and design parameters for individual valves, give a control strategy for serial connections of pressure chambers, and demonstrate the approach by building prototype valves and using them to control serially connected soft-robotic actuators from a single pressure source.
Thalamocortical Connectivity in Healthy Children: Asymmetries and Robust Developmental Changes between Ages 8 and 17 Years

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Thalamocortical connections play a crucial role in complex cognitive functioning, and several neuropsychiatric disorders may involve aberrant thalamocortical circuitry. Here, we quantified the cortical pattern and age-related changes of thalamocortical connections by using probabilistic tractography in children and adolescents. We hypothesized that detectable asymmetry (left>right) exists in thalamocortical fiber connections and the connectivity increases with age during maturation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Diffusion tensor imaging was acquired in 15 normally developing children (age range, 8.3–17.3 years; 11 males), and fiber tracking was initiated from the thalami. The cortical distribution of ipsilateral thalamocortical fibers was quantified by using a landmark-constrained conformal mapping technique. Furthermore, hemispheric asymmetries and potential age-related changes in regional thalamocortical connections were assessed. RESULTS: The left thalamus had significantly higher overall cortical connectivity than the right thalamus (P < .001). Left prefrontal cortical areas showed significantly higher thalamic connectivity compared with homotopic regions of the right hemisphere (P < .001), regardless of the applied parameters. There was an increase of overall thalamocortical connectivity with age, with the most pronounced age-related increases in bilateral prefrontal areas (P < .002). However, thalamic connectivity of some other cortical regions (right sensorimotor, left inferior temporal) showed a decrease with age. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate a region-specific left>right asymmetry and robust developmental changes in thalamocortical (particularly thalamo-prefrontal) connectivity during late childhood and adolescence. These data further add to our knowledge about structural lateralizations and their development in the maturing brain.
CerebroMatic: A Versatile Toolbox for Spline-Based MRI Template Creation

Brain image spatial normalization and tissue segmentation rely on prior tissue probability maps. Appropriately selecting these tissue maps becomes particularly important when investigating “unusual” populations, such as young children or elderly subjects. When creating such priors, the disadvantage of applying more deformation must be weighed against the benefit of achieving a crisper image. We have previously suggested that statistically modeling demographic variables, instead of simply averaging images, is advantageous. Both aspects (more vs. less deformation and modeling vs. averaging) were explored here. We used imaging data from 1914 subjects, aged 13 months to 75 years, and employed multivariate adaptive regression splines to model the effects of age, field strength, gender, and data quality. Within the spm/cat12 framework, we compared an affine-only with a low- and a high-dimensional warping approach. As expected, more deformation on the individual level results in lower group dissimilarity. Consequently, effects of age in particular are less apparent in the resulting tissue maps when using a more extensive deformation scheme. Using statistically-described parameters, high-quality tissue probability maps could be generated for the whole age range; they are consistently closer to a gold standard than conventionally-generated priors based on 25, 50, or 100 subjects. Distinct effects of field strength, gender, and data quality were seen. We conclude that an extensive matching for generating tissue priors may model much of the variability inherent in the dataset which is then not contained in the resulting priors. Further, the statistical description of relevant parameters (using regression splines) allows for the generation of high-quality tissue probability maps while controlling for known confounds. The resulting CerebroMatic toolbox is available for download at http://irc.cchmc. org/software/cerebromatic.php.
Comparison of efficacy of social skills training for deficit and nondeficit negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the efficacy of social skills training for individuals with schizophrenia who did or did not have the deficit syndrome. METHOD Three subjects with the deficit syndrome and three with nondeficit negative symptoms received 12 weeks of social skills training. Social skills and negative symptoms were evaluated before and after training and at 6-month follow-up. RESULTS Patients with schizophrenia who did not have the deficit syndrome demonstrated significantly better social skills and lower negative symptoms both after training and at follow-up than did those who had the deficit syndrome. CONCLUSIONS Schizophrenic patients with nondeficit negative symptoms appear amenable to intensive social skills training, but schizophrenic patients with the deficit syndrome may have significant deficits in skill acquisition.
Quantum nanoplasmonics: surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (SPASER)

We make a step towards quantum nanoplasmonics: surface plasmon fields of a nanosystem are quantized and their stimulated emission is considered. We introduce SPASER, a quantum generator for surface plasmon quanta. Spaser is predicted to generate ultrafast (10 to 100 fs duration), temporally coherent, near-atomic intensity fields of surface plasmon modes that are strongly localized on the nanoscale. Those include dark modes that may constitute a basis for background-free enhanced nano-optical spectroscopy. Applications and related phenomena are discussed.
Evolution of CT findings in patients with cystic fibrosis.

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to assess the evolution of pulmonary CT findings in cystic fibrosis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Serial CT examinations were performed in four different follow-up periods on 107 patients with cystic fibrosis. Lung images of the initial and follow-up CT were reviewed and scored for specific morphologic findings. CT findings were correlated with the results of the pulmonary function tests and clinical (Shwachman-Kulczycki) scores. RESULTS Morphologic changes were minor within the first 18 months of follow-up compared with the period after 18 months. The increase of the overall score was significantly higher in groups with follow-up periods longer than 18 months compared with groups with follow-up periods shorter than 18 months. Various components of morphologic changes contributed to the sequential changes seen on the CT scans. All morphologic changes and the CT scores correlated significantly (p < .0001) with pulmonary function tests and clinical score. CONCLUSION. Serial CT scans allow assessment of the evolution of pulmonary abnormalities in patients with cystic fibrosis. CT seems to have advantages over pulmonary function tests and clinical scoring in the depiction of pulmonary changes over time.