Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Bone Marrow Stromal Abnormalities in a Patient with Constitutional Trisomy 8 Mosaicism and Myelodysplastic Syndrome

The development of myeloid leukemias and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is common in children with trisomy 8 mosaicism. However, the mechanisms by which the presence of an additional chromosome 8 translates to an increased risk of leukemias and MDS is currently unknown. The authors describe the analysis of stromal cells from a pediatric MDS patient with constitutional trisomy 8. Patient and control marrow stromal cells were analyzed for alterations in cytokine production. Clonogenic assays were used to examine stromal support for hematopoiesis. The interplay between leukemia cells and stroma was studied by co-culture experiments. The results indicate that stromal cell function in this patient was seriously altered in favor of progenitor cell proliferation and expansion. This indicates that constitutional trisomy 8 in stromal cells plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of MDS.
A Model of Time-on-Market and Real Estate Price Under Sequential Search with Recall

This article develops a model and provides a closed-form formula to uncover the theoretical relationship between real estate price and time on market (TOM). Our model shows a nonlinear positive price-TOM relationship, and it identifies three economic factors that affect the impact of TOM on sale price. We demonstrate that conventional metrics for real estate return and risk, which are borrowed in a naive fashion from finance theory, do not account for marketing period risk and tend to overestimate real estate returns and underestimate real estate risks. Our model provides a simple way to correct such bias. This theory helps to explain the apparent "risk-premium puzzle" in real estate. Copyright 2008 American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association
On the Relationship between Disaggregated Energy Production and GDP in Italy

This paper tries to assess the relationship between disaggregate energy production and real aggregate income in Italy by undertaking cointegration analyses using annual data from 1883 to 2009. After a brief introduction, a survey of the economic literature on this issue is shown, before discussing the data and introducing some econometric techniques. Stationarity tests reveal that the series are non-stationary, or I(1). Cointegration analyses reveal that there is a long-run relationship between GDP and geothermoelectric production in the 1919–1939 period. Whilst, for the post-war years, we find a cointegration relationship for all sources of energy. Causality tests roughly confirm a bi-directional flow in the long-run, so that energy production and economic growth complement each other, since economic growth may demand more energy, whereas more energy consumption may also induce economic growth.
Production Costs and Output Qualities in Public and Private Employment Agencies

IN a recent article, C. M. Lindsay hypothesized that government enterprises provide goods and services with "nonoptimal" output characteristics. ' By "nonoptimal" he means that publicly produced output lacks certain attributes (ones that are too costly for congressmen or citizens to monitor) normally found in comparable but privately produced output. When attributes are not easily observed, the monitoring authorities find it difficult to reward public managers for providing them. As a result, government managers devote few, if any, resources to their production. Private firm managers, in contrast, will furnish such attributes provided that a sufficient number of customers are willing to pay for them. Reasoning along these lines, Lindsay predicts "that when proprietary and government enterprises confront identical demand functions, systematic differences in the behavior of these two types of organizations will be observed. The output of government enterprises will, in general, contain fewer of those attributes which are 'invisible' to Congress, that is, whose presence and quantity are not monitored. "2 The purpose of this article is to test this hypothesis, using data drawn from a sample of public and private employment agencies.
Behavioral Quantitation Is More Sensitive Than Cognitive Testing in Frontotemporal Dementia

ObjectiveTo compare behavioral and cognitive testing in the clinical diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). MethodsA clinically defined cohort of FTD (n = 52) is compared with 52 Alzheimer disease (AD) patients on a Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI) and cognitive tests (e.g., Mini-Mental State Examination, Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, Western Aphasia Battery, Wechsler Intelligence Scale, Wechsler Memory Scale). Fourteen patients with FTD had autopsy confirmation, and their tests are also compared with the rest of the FTD population. ResultsThe FTD and AD groups were matched in sex, duration, and severity of dementia. The total scores on the FBI showed the largest difference. Mini-Mental State Examination and Mattis Dementia Rating Scale total scores did not discriminate between the two groups. Memory subscores were lower in the AD group, and conceptualization and language-related scores were worse in the FTD group. Milder and earlier affected patients, who could carry on a large battery of neuropsychological tests, were much better distinguished by the FBI scores on discriminant function analysis. In contrast to 78% by the cognitive tests, 98% of the FTD and AD patients were differentiated by the FBI. ConclusionsAlthough memory scores were lower in AD and language scores in the FTD population, many of the cognitive tests do not distinguish between FTD and AD. On the other hand, a behavioral inventory is a useful adjunct in the diagnosis of FTD. Postmortem validation was carried out in a sizeable subset of the population, showing similar behavioral and cognitive data.
Peer-to-peer Multipoint Conferencing using Layered Video: Multi-objective Optimization for Extra Requests

A multi-objective optimization formulation for considering multiple view requests in a peer-to-peer multipoint video conferencing system is described. The system aims end-points with varying bandwidth connections to the Internet and makes use of layered video to assure that each participant can view any other participant's video at anytime. However, this may cause some of the peers to receive lower quality video. We allow multiple video requests from the participants with sufficient bandwidth. Formulations to minimize the number of lower quality video receivers while maximizing the number of additional requests are presented. A multi-objective optimization assigning importance weights to each of these objectives is described and explained with a practical scenario. Sensitivity analysis of the optimization approach, to changes in the weights is made.
Valuing Natural and Non-Natural Attributes for a National Forest Park Using a Choice Experiment Method

With demand increasing for nature-based tourism, forest park authorities and site managers need to understand the trade-off between the level of natural wilderness protection and the visitor experience. The authors use a choice experiment to examine which kind of development profiles are worth considering and which paths not to follow. They focus on the mixed attributes of natural resources and historical relics, and the management services provided by Lushunkou National Forest Park in China, which is a popular recreation site attracting a large number of visitors annually. The results indicate that the expected number of visitors to the park is the most important characteristic for visitors. However, a large increase or decrease in the number of visitors causes visitors' welfare losses. Additionally, increasing the protection of the cultural and historical relics on the site is the second most highly valued feature for its visitors. Thus, the results show that the protection of forest wilderness and the recreational use of national parks can cause conflicting welfare effects if managed in inappropriate ways.
Technology collaboration and foreign equity participation: a theoretical analysis

Technology transfer to the developing nations has been predominantly characterized by technology collaborations between the multinationals and the local firms of these developing countries. When a multinational offers a new technology to a local firm, the firms may have different perceptions regarding the success rate of the technology in the local conditions. This paper discusses various types of contractual arrangements with equity participation by the multinational, which dominate pure technology collaboration agreements. Copyright 1998 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Creativity as a strategy to recover: learning from Scampia

Fifteen years ago a coalition between private and public actors from Naples produced a creative formula to promote the city, supporting the regeneration of the historical centre with a sophisticated socio-cultural approach. After a long period of urban decay, the Neapolitan formula started working again in 2005 but, this time it was applied in a strongly stigmatised suburb. Despite a few differences between the first and the second application, some elements of the strategy seem to remain quite similar, giving us the possibility to state that the Neapolitan way of regeneration consists of what I define site advocacy. Site advocacy is a sort of remedy to make a place overcome a crisis based on a particular interpretive sensitivity to discover the potentials of a place investing on local human resources without forgetting the territorial remit and the relation between soft policies and spatial planning.
La mobilité de la main-d'œuvre en Europe

Cet article propose une analyse descriptive des transitions sur le marche du travail en Europe a partir du panel europeen eu-silc pour 2006-2007. Certains groupes sociaux apparaissent defavorises en termes de mobilite sur le marche du travail, en particulier les peu qualifies, les seniors, les personnes en mauvaise sante, mais egalement, dans une moindre mesure, les femmes et les jeunes. Dans une perspective comparative, l’analyse valide l’hypothese d’heterogeneite des transitions au sein de l’Union europeenne, certains pays augmentant par exemple la probabilite moyenne de connaitre des mobilites favorables (notamment les pays nordiques). En outre, si les probabilites de transition sont inegales entre les groupes sociaux (selon le sexe, l’âge ou le diplome), l’analyse montre que ces inegalites sont plus ou moins marquees selon les pays.
Cultural industries and cultural policy

This article analyses and contextualises a variety of relationships between the cultural industries and cultural policy. A principal aim is to examine policies explicitly formulated as cultural (or creative) industries policies. What lies behind such policies? How do they relate to other kinds of cultural policy, including those more oriented towards media, communications, arts and heritage? The first section asks how the cultural industries became such an important idea in cultural policy, when those industries had been largely invisible in traditional (arts‐ and heritage‐based) policy for many decades. What changed and what drove the major changes? In the second section, we look at a number of problems and conceptual tensions arising from the new importance of the cultural industries in contemporary public policy, including problems concerning definition and scope, and the accurate mapping of the sector, but also tensions surrounding the insertion of commercial and industrial culture into cultural policy regimes characterised by legacies of romanticism and idealism. We also look at problems surrounding the academic division of labour in this area of study. We conclude by summarising some of the main contemporary challenges facing cultural policy and cultural policy studies with regard to the cultural industries. The piece also serves to introduce the contributions to a special issue of International Journal of Cultural Policy on the cultural industries and cultural policy.
Chromosome 19q Deletions in Human Gliomas Overlap Telomeric to D19S219 and May Target a 425 kb Region Centromeric to D19S112

Chromosome 19q harbors a tumor suppressor gene that is involved in astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma and mixed glioma tumorigenesis. We had previously mapped this gene to an approximately 5 megabase region of chromosome 19q13.2- 13.3 between APOC2 and HRC. To narrow the location of this tumor suppressor further, we studied 138 gliomas for loss of allelic heterozygosity at six microsatellite polymorphisms between APOC2 and HRC, including a newly described polymorphism in the ERCC2 gene. Allelic loss occurred in 48 gliomas (35%), including 25 of 41 oligodendroglial tumors (61%). Four cases had proximal breakpoints within the APOC2-HRC region, two telomeric to ERCC2 and two telomeric to D19S219. In addition, one of the latter tumors had an interstitial deletion between D19S219 and D19S112, a distance of only 425 kilobases surrounding the DM (myotonic dystrophy) gene. These findings suggest that the glioma tumor suppressor on chromosome 19q maps to 19q13.3, telomeric to D19S219 and perhaps centromeric to D19S112. The data exclude a number of candidate genes from 19q13.2-13.3, including a putative phosphatasc gene and the DNA repair/metabolism genes ERCC1, ERCC2 and probably LIG1.
Life Cycle Assessment of Biomass‐based Combined Heat and Power Plants

Norway, like many countries, has realized the need to extensively plan its renewable energy future sooner rather than later. Combined heat and power (CHP) through gasification of forest residues is one technology that is expected to aid Norway in achieving a desired doubling of bioenergy production by 2020. To assess the environmental impacts to determine the most suitable CHP size, we performed a unit process‐based attributional life cycle assessment (LCA), in which we compared three scales of CHP over ten environmental impact categories—micro (0.1 megawatts electricity [MWe]), small (1 MWe), and medium (50 MWe) scale. The functional units used were 1 megajoule (MJ) of electricity and 1 MJ of district heating delivered to the end user (two functional units), and therefore, the environmental impacts from distribution of electricity and hot water to the consumer were also considered. This study focuses on a regional perspective situated in middle‐Norway's Nord‐ and Sør‐Trøndelag counties. Overall, the unit‐based environmental impacts between the scales of CHP were quite mixed and within the same magnitude. The results indicated that energy distribution from CHP plant to end user creates from less than 1% to nearly 90% of the total system impacts, depending on impact category and energy product. Also, an optimal small‐scale CHP plant may be the best environmental option. The CHP systems had a global warming potential ranging from 2.4 to 2.8 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule of thermal (g CO2‐eq/MJth) district heating and from 8.8 to 10.5 grams carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule of electricity (g CO2‐eq/MJel) to the end user.
Alles naar wens? Observaties naar aanleiding van het conceptwetsvoorstel ter aanvulling van het spreekrecht voor slachtoffers en nabestaanden in het strafproces

Since 2005, Dutch victims of serious crime have the right to make an oral statement in court (‘spreekrecht’). In the past decade, the Dutch criminal justice system has accommodated this right to make an oral statement with regard to the consequences of the crime; no major problems have occurred. Indeed, only a minority of the victims consumes this right (ca. 230 cases annually), the majority prefers to lodge a written statement. Nevertheless, the Dutch legislature is of the opinion that the right to make an oral statement should be extended and has lodged a draft-proposal recently. The aim is to provide crime victims a right to put forward an advice to the judge at the trial session, such an advice relating to the full scheme of judicial decision-making (truth, legal qualification, punishment). Such a provision resembles a Victim Statement of Opinion, used in the American scheme of justice, and even exceeds this. The draft has been met with criticism, only the Dutch Victim Support is in favor. One of the objections heard is the one dimensional focus underlying the draft: by focusing on a specific group of victims – those who have suffered from serious crimes – the legislature neglects the heterogeneous nature of victims’ needs.
Old School/New School Speech Regulation

In the early twenty-first century the digital infrastructure of communication has also become a central instrument for speech regulation and surveillance. The same forces that have democratized and decentralized information production have also generated new techniques for surveillance and control of expression. “Old-school” speech regulation has traditionally relied on criminal penalties, civil damages, and injunctions directed at individual speakers and publishers to control and discipline speech. These methods have hardly disappeared in the twenty-first century. But now they are joined by “new-school” techniques, which aim at digital networks and auxiliary services like search engines, payment systems, and advertisers. For example, states may engage in collateral censorship by threatening Internet intermediaries with liability to induce them to block, limit, or censor speech by other private parties.Public/private cooperation and co-optation is often crucial to new-school techniques. Because the government often does not own the infrastructure of free expression, it must rely on private owners to assist in speech regulation and surveillance. Governments may use a combination of carrots and sticks, including offers of legal immunity in exchange for cooperation. States may also employ the “soft power” of government influence. Owners of private infrastructure, hoping to reduce legal uncertainty and to ensure an uncomplicated business environment, often have incentives to be helpful even without direct government threats.Finally, governments have also devised new forms of digital prior restraint. Many new-school techniques have effects similar to prior restraints, even though they may not involve traditional licensing schemes or judicial injunctions. Prior restraints are especially important to the expansion of government surveillance practices in the expanding National Surveillance State. Gag orders directed at owners of private infrastructure are now ubiquitous in the United States; they have become fully normalized and bureaucratized elements of digital surveillance, as routine as they are invisible, and largely isolated from traditional first amendment protections.
Fabrication method for passive alignment in polymer PLCs with U-grooves

A method is developed to enhance fabrication tolerance for the passive alignment of polymer waveguides to optical fibers in polymer-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) devices. For the passive alignment, the waveguides and U-grooves, into which the optical fibers are set, are fabricated on a substrate. In order to eliminate lateral misalignment between the centers of the waveguides and U-grooves due to the steps of photolithography, an optical axis alignment is achieved in one photomask. Reduced-cladding single-mode fibers with an 80-/spl mu/m diameter are used to reduce vertical misalignment. PLCs based on polymers were implemented on a 4-in Si wafer using the method, and excessive losses of less than 0.4 dB were obtained.
Valuation, Tax Shields and the Cost-of-Capital with Personal Taxes: A Framework for Incorporating Taxes

This paper presents a general approach to deriving valuation models and the relevant cost of capital formulas independent of a particular tax environment. The value of a levered firm depends to a large extent upon the amount and value of the tax shields. The latter in turn differs from country to country and even from firm to firm, depending on its particular situation. It is subject to change with every change in the tax system of the country where the firm is located. Therefore, in an international environment a general approach is needed, which can be altered for any given situation. At the same time personal taxes play an increasing role in the valuation of companies. Therefore, their consideration is integrated into the models derived. Finally, the resulting generalized versions of the Modigliani/Miller- and Miles–Ezzell-Formulas for adjusting the cost of capital to changes in leverage are applied to the situation of a corporation located in Germany after the Tax Reform Act of 2000.
Low Toxicity in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Treated With Abdominal and Pelvic Radiation Therapy

Objective:To determine the short-term and long-term toxicity of abdominal and pelvic radiation therapy in a cohort of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We hypothesize that with newer techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), patients with IBD can safely undergo abdominal and pelvic radiation, with low risk for major acute or late toxicity. Materials and Methods:Nineteen consecutive patients with IBD (14 with ulcerative colitis, 5 with Crohn disease) who were treated with abdominal or pelvic external beam radiation therapy at Stanford University from 1997 to 2011 were identified. Fourteen patients were treated with IMRT and 5 were treated with 3D-CRT. Treated sites included prostate (n=8), gastric/esophageal (n=5), rectal/anal (n=3), and liver (n=3) tumors. Charts were reviewed and toxicity was graded according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Acute Events version 4.0. Median follow-up was 32.5 months. Fisher exact test was used to determine if any clinical and/or treatment factors were associated with toxicity outcomes. Results:Acute grade ≥3 toxicity occurred in 2 patients (11%). Late grade ≥3 toxicity occurred in 1 patient (6%). Acute grade ≥2 toxicity occurred in 28% of patients treated with IMRT versus 100% of patients treated with 3D-CRT (P=0.01). Acute grade ≥2 gastrointestinal toxicity was lower in patients treated with IMRT versus 3D-CRT (14% vs. 100%, respectively, P=0.002). Late grade ≥2 toxicity occurred in 21% of patients. Higher total dose (Gy) and biologically effective dose (Gy) were associated with increased rates of late grade ≥2 toxicity (P=0.02 and 0.03, respectively). Conclusions:These data suggest that select patients with IBD can safely undergo abdominal and pelvic radiation therapy. The use of IMRT was associated with decreased acute toxicity. Acute and late severe toxicity rates were low in this patient population with the use of modern radiation techniques.
Can't Get No Satisfaction? The Association Between Community Satisfaction and Population Size for Victoria

Traditionally, the problem of determining the optimal size in local government has been empirically assessed by estimating the relationship between population size and the costs of services (usually measured in terms of per capita expenditure). These studies, however, have proved largely inconclusive. In comparison, an empirical analysis based on the relationship between the size of government and community satisfaction offers a potentially fruitful contribution to the debate regarding the optimal size of local government. However, to date, few studies have followed this approach. We therefore contribute to this literature by exploring the relationship between population size and community satisfaction for Victorian councils. Our findings provide evidence of an inverted ‘U-shaped’ relationship, which predicts low community satisfaction at very large and very small population sizes.