Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship between follow-up rates and treatment outcomes in substance abuse research: more is better but when is "enough" enough?

AIMS To examine the effects of different follow-up rates on estimates of treatment outcome and predictive models thereof, and to specify participant characteristics associated with tracking difficulty. DESIGN An observational study using data collected for a randomized, experimental design. SETTING The King County Assessment Center in Seattle, Washington, an organization responsible for referral to publicly funded substance abuse treatment. PARTICIPANTS Substance-addicted individuals referred to publicly funded inpatient or outpatient treatment. MEASUREMENTS Standardized self-report instruments measuring substance use, substance use consequences and general functioning. Chart review was used to measure treatment entry and completion. FINDINGS There was a significant association between follow-up difficulty and outcomes related to addiction treatment and later substance use. However, outcome estimates based on 60% of the sample who were easiest to locate were only minimally different from those based on the 90-100% ultimately captured, and predictive models of outcome based on the 60% group were reasonably similar to those based on the final sample. Of baseline characteristics examined, only age was associated with later tracking difficulty. CONCLUSIONS Studies reporting follow-up rates below 70% may produce valid findings and study attrition may be largely unpredictable from participant characteristics at baseline. However, a number of factors such as type of population studied, geographical location of the sample, reasons for loss to follow-up and sample size must be considered when attempting to generalize the findings of this study.
Global Terrorism: Deterrence Versus Pre-Emption

This paper analyses two anti-terrorism policies when a targeted nation's people and property are in jeopardy at home and abroad. A country's deterrence decision involves both external benefits and costs as the terrorist threat is deflected, while its preemption decision typically gives external benefits when the threat is reduced for all potential targets. With damages limited to home interests, a country will overdeter, while, for globalized terror, a country will underdeter. Pre-emption is usually undersupplied. Leader-follower behaviour is apt to lessen inefficiency for deterrence, but worsen inefficiency for pre-emption, compared with simultaneous-choice equilibrium allocations. Targeted nations can never achieve the proper counterterrorism policy through leadership.
Age-Related Imbalance Is Associated With Slower Walking Speed: An Analysis From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Background and Purpose: Walking speed is an important dimension of gait function and is known to decline with age. Gait function is a process of dynamic balance and motor control that relies on multiple sensory inputs (eg, visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular) and motor outputs. These sensory and motor physiologic systems also play a role in static postural control, which has been shown to decline with age. In this study, we evaluated whether imbalance that occurs as part of healthy aging is associated with slower walking speed in a nationally representative sample of older adults. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the previously collected 1999 to 2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data to evaluate whether age-related imbalance is associated with slower walking speed in older adults aged 50 to 85 years (n = 2116). Balance was assessed on a pass/fail basis during a challenging postural task—condition 4 of the modified Romberg Test—and walking speed was determined using a 20-ft (6.10 m) timed walk. Multivariable linear regression was used to evaluate the association between imbalance and walking speed, adjusting for demographic and health-related covariates. A structural equation model was developed to estimate the extent to which imbalance mediates the association between age and slower walking speed. Results: In the unadjusted regression model, inability to perform the NHANES balance task was significantly associated with 0.10 m/s slower walking speed (95% confidence interval: −0.13 to −0.07; P < .01). In the multivariable regression analysis, inability to perform the balance task was significantly associated with 0.06 m/s slower walking speed (95% confidence interval: −0.09 to −0.03; P < .01), an effect size equivalent to 12 years of age. The structural equation model estimated that age-related imbalance mediates 12.2% of the association between age and slower walking speed in older adults. Conclusions: In a nationally representative sample, age-related balance limitation was associated with slower walking speed. Balance impairment may lead to walking speed declines. In addition, reduced static postural control and dynamic walking speed that occur with aging may share common etiologic origins, including the decline in visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular sensory and motor functions.
Profiling Cardiovascular Disease Event Risk through Clustering of Classification Association Rules

Association Rule Mining (ARM) is a promising method to provide insights for better management of chronic diseases. However, ARM tends to give an overwhelming number of rules, leading to the long-standing problem of identifying the 'interesting' rules for knowledge discovery. Therefore, this paper proposes a hybrid clustering-ARM approach to gain insight into a population's pattern of risk for a chronic disease related adverse event. Classification Association Rules (CARs) indicative of the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are developed from training data and clustered based on commonality of cases satisfying the rule antecedents. Test cases are then assigned to the rule clusters to provide sets of at-risk individuals sharing common CVD risk factors. The approach is demonstrated using the Framingham Heart Study cohort data set obtained from the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Biologic Specimen and Data Repository Information Coordinating Center (BioLINCC).
Peer status in school and adult disease risk: a 30-year follow-up study of disease-specific morbidity in a Stockholm cohort

Background: Children have a social status position of their own, apart from that of the family, that may have an impact on short-term and long-term health. The aim of the present study was to analyse the associations between childhood social status in school (ie, peer status) and disease-specific morbidity in adulthood. Methods: Data were derived from a longitudinal study using a 1953 cohort born in Stockholm, Sweden: The Stockholm Birth Cohort Study (1953–2003). Peer status was sociometrically assessed in sixth grade (1966). Hazard ratios for adult disease-specific morbidity based on information on inpatient care (1973–2003) were calculated by peer status category for men and women separately, using Cox regression. Results: The results indicate that the lower the childhood peer status, the higher the overall adult disease risk. There were, however, differences in the degree and magnitude to which disease-specific inpatient care varied with peer status. Some of the steepest gradients were found for mental and behavioural disorders (eg, alcohol abuse and drug dependence), external causes (eg, suicide) and various lifestyle-related diseases (eg, ischaemic heart disease and diabetes). The results were not explained by childhood social class. Conclusion: The present study underlines the importance of recognising children’s social position, apart from that of their family, for later health. Not only psychologically related diseases but also those related to behavioural risk factors demonstrate some of the largest relative differences by peer status, suggesting that health-related behaviour may be one important mechanism in the association between peer status and morbidity.
A Multi-Resolution stabilization of the Incomplete LU preconditioner

In the solution of the Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE), discretized by the Moment method (MoM) with the classical Rao-Wilton-Glisson basis [1], the resulting linear system has a high conditioning, in the case of low frequency problems, and fine meshes. Moreover the condition number increases with the number of unknowns, but if the dimension of all the mesh cells is close to the Nyquist limit (around λ/5) the increase is very moderate [2].
A general systems theory approach to a theory of violence between family members

between its members. Yet the empirical data and relevant theory leave no doubt that violence between family members is so common as to be almost universal. This paper makes use of general systems theory to formulate a theory accounting for the presence of violence as a continuing element in the social interaction of the nuclear family. This theory views continuing violence as a systemic product rather than a product of individual behavior pathology. It specifies the &dquo;positive feedback&dquo; processes which produce an upward spiral of violence, the &dquo;negative feedback&dquo;
Fluorescent tracer in pilocarpine‐treated rats shows widespread aberrant hippocampal neuronal connectivity

Neuronal fibres of the hippocampal formation of normal and chronic epileptic rats were investigated by fluorescent tracing methods using the pilocarpine model of limbic epilepsy. Two months after onset of spontaneous limbic seizures, hippocampal slices were prepared and maintained in vitro for 10 h. Small crystals of fluorescent dye [fluorescein (fluoro‐emerald®) and tetramethylrhodamine (fluoro‐ruby®)] were applied to different hippocampal regions. The main findings were: (i) in control rats there was no supragranular labelling when the mossy fibre tract was stained in stratum radiatum of area CA3. However, in epileptic rats a fibre network in the inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus was retrogradely labelled; (ii) a retrograde innervation of area CA3 by CA1 pyramidal cells was disclosed by labelling remote CA1 neurons after dye injection into the stratum radiatum of area CA3 in chronic epileptic rats; (iii) labelling of CA1 neurons apart from the injection site within area CA1 was observed in epileptic rats but not in control animals; and (iv), a subicular‐hippocampal projection was present in pilocarpine‐treated rats when the tracer was injected just below the stratum pyramidale of area CA1. The findings show that fibre rearrangement in distinct regions of the epileptic hippocampal formation can occur as an aftermath of pilocarpine‐induced status epilepticus.
A View from Abroad: Can We Have Reason Without Feelings?

This paper discusses the impulse to psychic and political splitting with its consequent political demonization of the other when emotional helplessness and fear cannot be metabolized. I argue that it is through an acceptance of our feelings of helplessness that we are in a position to experience the subjectivity of the other and to begin the process of political discourse.
HANDICAP ET CAPABILITÉS.: Lecture de Frontiers of Justice de Martha Nussbaum

ResumeMartha Nussbaum developpe – contre John Rawls – une approche de la justice sociale en termes de capabilites. Elle avance que la justice sociale consiste a offrir a chaque citoyen les conditions du bien-etre minimal, en lui permettant d’agir dans des domaines d’action necessaires a toute vie digne d’etre vecue. Dans Frontiers of Justice, elle met son approche a l’epreuve du handicap mental. Toutefois, sachant que les capacites de raisonner et de s’attacher a d’autres sont les capabilites centrales, l’approche de Nussbaum permet-elle effectivement de penser les droits des personnes handicapees mentales ?
Reduced Aldosterone Secretory Response to Acute ACTH Stimulation in Sodium‐Restricted Elderly Subjects

The plasma aldosterone (PA) response to ACTH stimulation (5 μg/kg, im) under conditions of varied sodium intake was studied in 10 young (20–35 yr), 9 middle‐aged (41–56 yr) and 11 elderly (66–73 yr) normotensive subjects. No differences in serum sodium, serum potassium, plasma Cortisol and urinary sodium excretion were observed among the three groups during both a 130 mEq (normal) intake and a 25 mEq (low) sodium intake for three days. Basal plasma renin activity (PRA) and PA levels were lower in the elderly than in the young or middle‐aged groups. These age‐related decreases were slight with a normal sodium intake and pronounced with a low sodium intake. ACTH administration induced increases in PA in the three groups. However, the maximal net increment of PA above the baseline level after ACTH did not differ among the three groups with a normal sodium intake, but was lower in the elderly than in the young or middle‐aged groups with a low sodium intake. The ACTH‐induced maximal percentage increment of PA did not differ among the three groups during both the normal and the low sodium intakes. A significant positive correlation was found between the maximal net increment of PA and either the basal PRA or PA level in the combined group of young, middle‐aged and elderly subjects. Thus, aging causes a reduced aldosterone secretory response to ACTH, in parallel with decreases in basal PRA and PA levels, under conditions of low sodium intake.
Direct Alteration of the P/Q-Type Ca2+ Channel Property by Polyglutamine Expansion in Spinocerebellar Ataxia 6

Spinocerebellar ataxia 6 (SCA6) is caused by expansion of a polyglutamine stretch, encoded by a CAG trinucleotide repeat, in the human P/Q-type Ca(2+) channel alpha(1A) subunit. Although SCA6 shares common features with other neurodegenerative glutamine repeat disorders, the polyglutamine repeats in SCA6 are exceptionally small, ranging from 21 to 33. Because this size is too small to form insoluble aggregates that have been blamed for the cause of neurodegeneration, SCA6 is the disorder suitable for exploring the pathogenic mechanisms other than aggregate formation, whose universal role has been questioned. To characterize the pathogenic process of SCA6, we studied the effects of polyglutamine expansion on channel properties by analyzing currents flowing through the P/Q-type Ca(2+) channels with an expanded stretch of 24, 30, or 40 polyglutamines, recombinantly expressed in baby hamster kidney cells. Whereas the Ca(2+) channels with </=24 polyglutamines showed normal properties, the Ca(2+) channels with 30 or 40 polyglutamines exhibited an 8 mV hyperpolarizing shift in the voltage dependence of inactivation, which considerably reduces the available channel population at a resting membrane potential. The results suggest that polyglutamine expansion in SCA6 leads to neuronal death and cerebellar atrophy through reduction in Ca(2+) influx into Purkinje cells and other neurons. Besides the widely accepted notion that polyglutamine stretches exert toxic effects by forming aggregates, expanded polyglutamines directly alter functions of the affected gene product.
Behavioral modeling and predistortion

In this article, a thorough overview of behavioral modeling and predistortion of dynamic nonlinearities in RF PAs and transmitters was presented. The sensitivity of the DUT behavior to the characteristics of the stimulus was reviewed to ensure appropriate conditions for accurate observation. Nearly all state-of-the-art behavioral models were described and their relative performance and complexity discussed. Similarities and specifics of behavioral modeling and digital predistortion were presented. Thereby, digital predistortion can be seen as a behavioral modeling problem for which performance assessment is much more straightforward. For DUT behavioral modeling, there is no comprehensive metric that allows the model performance evaluation while taking into account the model accuracy in predicting all the three components of the DUT behavior (in-band distortion, static nonlinearity and memory effects). Finally, a software digital predistortion solution that enables closed-loop wideband linearization was briefly presented with excellent linearization capabilities when amplifying a 12-carrier 60-MHZ wide WCDMA signal.
Leadership in the Academic Field of Business and Management and the Question of Country of Origin: A Commentary on Burgess and Shaw (2010)

With globalization in business academia expanding and deepening, it is timely to question the validity and utility of the concept of country of origin as a base category for comparative cross‐cultural research and theory development. In their contribution in the British Journal of Management, Burgess and Shaw (2010) rank the most productive institutions and countries contributing to board membership of top ranked journals on the basis of their country of origin. Taking their findings as a starting point for our discourse, we re‐analyse their database, in addition to our own investigations. We contend that while country of origin may be an appropriate category for between‐countries comparison of multinational entities, it is of little use when comparing meta‐national institutions, such as top tier refereed journal boards and the globalized business/management schools from which they are drawn. Our findings point towards the need for finer differentiation of what constitutes the concept country of origin, but also that its relevance should be questioned in, at least, globalized contexts. The question we pose extends to any pertinent ‘globalized’ topic within and without business and management.
The Rise and, Hopefully, the Fall of Economic Neo-Liberalism in Theory and Practice

I count it a great privilege to contribute the opening essay to this issue of The Economic and Labour Relations Review, which is celebrating its first 20 years. Over that time, the journal has been an outlet for independent and outspoken, often unfashionable views, upholding traditions steeped in the thoughts of Michal Kalecki and Maynard Keynes, and some of Australia’s wisest economists. (Even Karl Marx gets a mention.) I am most grateful to the editors for asking me to be their opening bat. Since the 1970s, we have seen the rise to dominance in theory and policy of what Joan Robinson (1964) aptly dubbed ‘Pre-Keynesian theory after Keynes’. In the economics profession, these phenomena have been especially associated with the writings of Milton Friedman, Friedrich von Hayek and Robert Lucas, Jnr. They have spawned many surrogates in the USA, the UK, Continental Europe, Latin America, parts of Asia and, sadly, in the Antipodes as well
How important is the vertical structure for the representation of aerosol impacts on the diurnal cycle of marine stratocumulus

Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) are performed to examine the impact of hygroscopic aerosols on the diurnal cycle of marine stratocumulus clouds, under varying meteo- rological forcing conditions. When the cloud condensation nuclei concentration increase is sufficient to inhibit drizzle formation in the cloud layer, the precipitating and the non- precipitating cloud layers exhibit contrasting evolutions, with noticeable differences in liquid water path. Aerosol-induced modifications of the droplet sedimentation and drizzle pre- cipitation result in noticeable changes of the entrainment ve- locity at cloud top, but also in significant changes of the ver- tical stratification in the boundary layer. This set of simula- tions is then used to evaluate whether a model which does not explicitly represent the effects of the interactions occur- ring within the boundary layer on its vertical stratification (i.e. such as a mixed-layer model) is capable of reproducing at least the sign, if not the amplitude, of these aerosol im- pacts on the liquid water path. It is shown that the evolution of the vertical structure is key to the responses we simulate, and must be considered in bulk models that wish to predict the impact of aerosol perturbations on the radiative proper- ties of stratocumulus-topped boundary layers. clouds are thought to be particularly sensitive to changes in the properties of the atmospheric aerosol, via the induced changes in their cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) and their propensity to rain (i.e. aerosol indirect effects), spe- cial attention has been paid recently to their interactions with the aerosol loading. In this study, we are continuing this ef- fort by focusing on the role played by an accurate represen- tation of the stratocumulus-topped boundary layer's (STBL) vertical structure in the prediction of the aerosol effects on the cloud cover.
Evolving concepts in biofilm infections

Several pathogens associated with chronic infections, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae in chronic otitis media, Staphylococcus aureus in chronic rhinosinusitis and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli in recurrent urinary tract infections, are linked to biofilm formation. Biofilms are usually defined as surface‐associated microbial communities, surrounded by an extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) matrix. Biofilm formation has been demonstrated for numerous pathogens and is clearly an important microbial survival strategy. However, outside of dental plaques, fewer reports have investigated biofilm development in clinical samples. Typically biofilms are found in chronic diseases that resist host immune responses and antibiotic treatment and these characteristics are often cited for the ability of bacteria to persist in vivo. This review examines some recent attempts to examine the biofilm phenotype in vivo and discusses the challenges and implications for defining a biofilm phenotype.
Research Selectivity, Managerialism, and the Academic Labor Process: The Future of Nonmainstream Economics in U.K. Universities

This paper reports the results of empiricalresearch designed to explore the impact of researchselectivity on the work and employment of academiceconomists in U.K. universities.Research selectivityis seen as part of the general trend towardmanagerialism in higher education in both the U.K. andabroad. Managerialism based on performance indicatorsand hierarchical control has been contrasted withcollegiate control-based or informal peer review. However,analysis of the academic labor process has idealizedcollegiate relations at the expense of professionalhierarchies and intellectual authority relations. We argue that in the U.K., there has evolved amainstream economics which is located within awell-defined neoclassical core. We find that theexistence of lists of core mainstream journals which arebelieved to count most in the periodic ranking exerciseposes a serious threat to academic freedom and diversitywithin the profession, institutionalizing the controlwhich representatives of the mainstream exercise over both the academic labor process and jobmarket. In this way, managerialism combines with peerreview to outflank resistance to new forms ofcontrolling academic labor at the same time asreinforcing disciplinary boundaries through centralizedsystems of bureaucratic standardization andcontrol.