Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Family caregiver burden: results of a longitudinal study of breast cancer patients and their principal caregivers

Background: The vital role played by family caregivers in supporting dying cancer patients is well recognized, but the burden and economic impact on caregivers is poorly understood. We prospectively examined the psychosocial, occupational and economic impact of caring for a person with a terminal illness. Methods: We studied 89 caregivers of women with advanced breast cancer receiving care at either the Ottawa or Hamilton regional cancer centres in Ontario. Patients were followed until their death or study completion at 3 years. Patients identified a principal caregiver to participate in the study. The Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) index, the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form (SF-36), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Zarit Burden Inventory, FAMCARE and the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey were administered during follow-up. Economic data were collected by means of a questionnaire administered by an interviewer. Assessments were conducted every 3 months during the palliative period (KPS score > 50) and every 2 weeks during the terminal period (KPS score ≤ 50). Results: Over half of the caregivers were male (55%) and the patient's spouse or partner (52%), with a mean age of 53 years. At the start of the palliative period, the caregivers' mean physical functioning score was better than the patients' (51.3 v. 35.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 13.3–20.0); there were similar mean mental functioning scores (46.6 and 47.1 respectively); similar proportions were depressed (11% and 12%); and significantly more caregivers than patients were anxious (35% v. 19%, p = 0.009). More caregivers were depressed (30% v. 9%, p = 0.02) and had a higher level of perceived burden (26.2 v. 19.4, p = 0.02) at the start of the terminal period than at the start of the palliative period. Burden was the most important predictor of both anxiety and depression. Of employed caregivers, 69% reported some form of adverse impact on work. In the terminal period 77% reported missing work because of caregiving responsibilities. Prescription drugs were the most important component of financial burden. Interpretation: Caregivers' depression and perceived burden increase as patients' functional status declines. Strategies are needed to help reduce the psychosocial, occupational and economic burden associated with caregiving.
Development of Public Spending Structures in the EU Member States: Social Investment and its Impact on Social Outcomes

Abstract This paper analyses the changes in public spending structures in the EU Member States over the period 1995 to 2013 based on data on government expenditures by function (COFOG) with a focus on social expenditure categories (health, education and social protection spending) expressed in per capita terms in PPPs at constant prices. Expenditures generally increased in real terms, while large differences in spending levels are observed across countries. In EU countries which have been hit hard by the economic crisis cuts have been enacted. The paper also analyses the levels of and changes in individual expenditures on health and education based on COICOP data (Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose) across EU Member States. In an econometric analysis the effects of public and private expenditures on public health and other social outcomes are examined. Higher levels of public expenditures and lower levels of economic poverty are significantly correlated with superior population health and public welfare.
A CONTRIBUTING STUDENT PEDAGOGY: CAN ENCOURAGING STUDENTS TO CONTRIBUTE THEIR OWN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO A MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION BANK HELP BOOST ENGAGEMENT AND INTERACTION IN THE CLASSROOM

In this paper, we describe the preliminary ways in which we have extended our mobile system, QUBED, an in-house Multiple Choice System, which is used to encourage students to build a question bank of multiple choice questions (MCQ) that will be used by their peers. They will be able to build questions and set quizzes that will be taken and rated by other classmates. As their usage increases they are awarded various ‘points’ for the way in which they interact with the system. These points are ‘rewards’ for participating in building and enhancing the social capital held within the system. The system monitors student engagement and maintains a leader-board of activities so all students can see how they compare with their peers. It is envisioned that this will add a useful competitive edge to the usage of the system as it should have an effect on how a person is viewed by others in the group, and is likely to help enhance their productivity, wellbeing and self-image. The introduction of the leader-board scenario from games playing will be explored to assess the usefulness and appeal of using such a tool in a learning environment. Case studies in the commercial sector have shown that the concept of gamification can have a positive impact on engagement. EMC 2 embarked on a drive to increase customer participation resulting in the development of their Recognition, Awards and Motivation Program (RAMPS). The program had the desired effect; resulting in increased interaction between the company and its customers. Likewise Deloitte applied a similar approach to their Leadership Academy; including ranking, rewards, missions, and leader-boards achieving improved participation rates and, equally interesting, improved participant returns and retention rates. Ultimately we are interested in the student's ability to learn and not just how well they have used the system so the emphasis is still based on the formative feedback aspects of the original system.
Making Dioramas of Women Scientists Help Elementary Students Recognize Their Contributions

The STEM movement encourages girls to consider careers in science; however, for success, common misconceptions and biases need to be dispelled, while females’ spatial thinking skills are developed. All students, both girls and boys, need exposure to the accomplishments of women scientists to appreciate their contributions and to envision females as successful scientists. This one-week study conducted during a summer day camp examined upper elementary student (n = 15; 7 females, 8 males) attitudes toward science, women in science, and the possibility of a science career before and after participation in learning about diverse accomplished women scientists and making a diorama showcasing the professional work and caring actions of one of the scientists. The efficacy of this project for upper elementary students, conducted during a summer day camp, is supported by pretest-posttest data and attitude surveys. The five-day class showed positive changes in student plans for a career in science and improved attitudes toward the importance of females becoming scientists. Directions for constructing dioramas, examples of student-made work, and creative scenes made with given craft items are provided.
Uncoupling direct and indirect components of female choice in the wild

One of the most controversial debates in evolutionary biology concerns the fitness consequences of female choice in nature. Discriminating females may benefit from high-quality territories and/or sires with high-quality genes. Here we experimentally dissociate female preferences for high-quality territories and male body size in a wild population of side-blotched lizards, Uta stansburiana. Females preferred experimentally improved territories but still chose high-quality sires for their progeny. High-quality territories were associated with earlier egg-laying dates and larger eggs. These maternal effects, evidently stimulated by high-quality territories, have been shown to enhance competitive ability and therefore the likelihood that philopatric offspring will capitalize on the direct benefits of superior territories, previously shown to promote progeny growth rate and survival (most offspring do not disperse from their natal area). Paternity analysis within clutches co-sired by two males revealed that female preferences for large males were also adaptive in terms of indirect benefits. Females used sperm from large sires to produce sons and sperm from small sires to produce daughters. Differential allocation of resources and progeny sex was adaptive and demonstrates a high degree of female control in the mating system.
SOMAR: Privacy-Preserving SOcial Media Advertising ARchitecture

Social media marketing has emerged as a new tool for brands to reach certain target groups. While the use of platforms like Instagram and Facebook has created a multi-billion dollar business, it has also multiplied the amount of sensitive data that is being collected. The associated risks for the end user in terms of data privacy have grown accordingly and most users are unaware of what happens to their data in the background. We propose a novel privacy-preserving social media advertising architecture called SOMAR, which offers a solution that is beneficial to all parties: user privacy is protected and advertisers receive sufficient statistical data, such that all marketing services can be provided in a privacy-friendly manner without sacrificing functionality. Additionally, all computed statistics are equipped with proofs of correctness such that the currently trust-based relationship between brands and social media marketers is replaced by cryptographic verifiability.
Causal Discovery in the Presence of Measurement Error: Identifiability Conditions

Measurement error in the observed values of the variables can greatly change the output of various causal discovery methods. This problem has received much attention in multiple fields, but it is not clear to what extent the causal model for the measurement-error-free variables can be identified in the presence of measurement error with unknown variance. In this paper, we study precise sufficient identifiability conditions for the measurement-error-free causal model and show what information of the causal model can be recovered from observed data. In particular, we present two different sets of identifiability conditions, based on the second-order statistics and higher-order statistics of the data, respectively. The former was inspired by the relationship between the generating model of the measurement-error-contaminated data and the factor analysis model, and the latter makes use of the identifiability result of the over-complete independent component analysis problem.
Influence of carbohydrate dosage on exercise performance and glycogen metabolism.

This study was undertaken to examine the effects of ingestion of carbohydrate (CHO) solutions of 0 (WP), 6 (CHO-6), 12 (CHO-12), and 18 g CHO/100 ml (CHO-18) on performance and muscle glycogen use. Ten trained cyclists performed five 120-min cycling trials. The first 105 min of each trial was at 70% of maximal O2 consumption (VO2max), and the final 15 min was an all-out performance ride on an isokinetic cycle ergometer equipped to measure total work output. In one of the trials (CHO-12I) the submaximal portion of the ride consisted of seven 15-min rides at 70% of VO2max with a 3-min rest between each ride. Every 15 min the men consumed 8.5 ml.kg-1.h-1 (approximately 150 ml) of one of the four test solutions. Venous blood samples were obtained every 15 min for glucose and insulin. Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis at 0 and 105 min in the WP and the CHO-12 continuous and intermittent trials. Biopsy samples were assayed for glycogen and sectioned and stained for myosin adenosinetriphosphatase and glycogen for single fiber depletion measurements. There were no differences in glycogen use (86.7 +/- 6.0, 75.5 +/- 7.9, and 83.5 +/- 5.5 mmol/kg for the WP, CHO-12C, and CHO-12I, respectively) or depletion patterns between the WP and the two CHO-12 trials. Blood glucose was significantly elevated in both the CHO-12 trials and in the CHO-18 trial compared with the WP trial. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Decay resistance, thermal degradation, tensile and flexural properties of sisal carbon hybrid composites

Sisal-carbon hybrid composites were produced from mixtures having different weight ratios of sisal, carbon fibers and recycled polypropylene. All formulations were tested and evaluated for tensile and flexural properties. In addition, the thermal stability of the sisal-carbon hybrid composites were examined via thermogravimetric analysis and decay tests were conducted to determine the degradation of the hybrid composites. Results showed that the biological durability and mechanical and thermal properties improved with the increasing weight ratios of carbon fiber in the hybrid composites. According to the mechanical tests, the optimum hybrid composite formulation was found to be 12% sisal fiber + 28% carbon fiber + 60% rPP.
A miRNA-regulatory network explains how dysregulated miRNAs perturb oncogenic processes across diverse cancers

Genes regulated by the same miRNA can be discovered by virtue of their coexpression at the transcriptional level and the presence of a conserved miRNA-binding site in their 3′ UTRs. Using this principle we have integrated the three best performing and complementary algorithms into a framework for inference of regulation by miRNAs (FIRM) from sets of coexpressed genes. We demonstrate the utility of FIRM by inferring a cancer–miRNA regulatory network through the analysis of 2240 gene coexpression signatures from 46 cancers. By analyzing this network for functional enrichment of known hallmarks of cancer we have discovered a subset of 13 miRNAs that regulate oncogenic processes across diverse cancers. We have performed experiments to test predictions from this miRNA-regulatory network to demonstrate that miRNAs of the miR-29 family (miR-29a, miR-29b, and miR-29c) regulate specific genes associated with tissue invasion and metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma. Further, we highlight the specificity of using FIRM inferences to identify miRNA-regulated genes by experimentally validating that miR-767-5p, which partially shares the miR-29 seed sequence, regulates only a subset of miR-29 targets. By providing mechanistic linkage between miRNA dysregulation in cancer, their binding sites in the 3′UTRs of specific sets of coexpressed genes, and their associations with known hallmarks of cancer, FIRM, and the inferred cancer miRNA-regulatory network will serve as a powerful public resource for discovery of potential cancer biomarkers.
Theory of mind in children with 'lesser variants' of autism: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND The study investigated the development of theory-of-mind (ToM) knowledge in children with lesser variants' of autism (PDD-NOS) over a period thought to be critical for ToM development (i.e., 3 to 5 years of age). METHOD The sample included 11 children with PDD-NOS; 23 normally developing children were included for cross-sectional comparison and 13 normally developing children for longitudinal comparison. The groups were comparable in verbal and non-verbal mental age. Two storybooks were used for repeated assessment of various aspects of the children's theory of mind: emotion recognition, the distinction between physical and mental entities, prediction of behaviour and emotions on the basis of desires and prediction of behaviour and emotions on the basis of beliefs. RESULTS The results showed that the children with PDD-NOS had specific difficulties in understanding and predicting other people's emotions on the basis of situational cues, desires and beliefs. However, their ability to predict actions from beliefs and desires were relatively intact. Compared to the normally developing children, these children achieved lower levels of theory-of-mind knowledge, both at time of initial assessment and approximately 6 months later. CONCLUSIONS The data suggest that the theory-of-mind development of children with PDD-NOS is both delayed and deviant. The growth pattem of theory-of-mind skills in children with PDD-NOS seemed to be qualitatively different from the growth pattern found in the group of normally developing children.
Differences in Outcomes Between Patients Treated with Single‐ versus Dual‐Chamber Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators: A Substudy of the Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the influence of single‐ versus dual‐chamber implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) on the occurrence of heart failure and mortality as well as appropriate and inappropriate ICD therapy in the Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II (MADIT‐II).
Specific in vitro toxicity of crude and refined petroleum products: 3. Estrogenic responses in mammalian assays

Current petroleum risk assessment considers only narcosis as the mode of action, but several studies have demonstrated that oils contain compounds with dioxin‐like, estrogenic or antiestrogenic, and androgenic or antiandrogenic activities. The present study is the third in a series investigating the specific toxic effects of 11 crude oils and refined products. By employing recombinant mammalian cells stably transfected with the human estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) or beta (ERβ), and expressing the luciferase protein (ERα‐U2OS‐Luc and ERβ‐U2OS‐Luc assay), the estrogenicity or antiestrogenicity of oils was studied. All oils, except for two refined oils and one crude oil, induced estrogenic responses. The calculated estrogenic potencies of the oils were six to nine orders of magnitude lower than the potency of 17β‐estradiol (E2). Upon coexposure to a fixed concentration of E2 and increasing concentrations of oils, additive, antagonistic, and synergistic effects were revealed. One nautical fuel oil was tested in the human breast carcinoma cell line MCF‐7, in which it induced cell proliferation up to 70% relative to the maximal induction by E2. At its minimum effect concentration of 25 mg/L, the oil was also capable of inducing mRNA expression of the estrogen‐dependent protein pS2 by a factor of two. The present results indicate that oils naturally contain potentially endocrine‐disrupting compounds that are able to influence the estrogenicity of other compounds and may cause biological responses beyond receptor binding. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2011; 30:973–980. © 2010 SETAC
Investigating Stock Price Volatility : Do Conventional Models Have Some Explanatory Power ?

Stock price determination has always been considered a phenomenon of interest around the globe. Lately, an increased fluctuation has been witnessed in the stock prices and this is the case in Pakistan as well. Apart from that, there is absence of evidence in Pakistan on the phenomenon. This paper is an attempt to explain stock price volatility in Pakistan using Baskin (1989) model. The findings of the study entail that dividend yield and dividend payout have negative impact on stock price volatility with a moderate significance in overall sample representing KSE 100 companies. Further, earning volatility was found to have a positive and significant impact on earnings volatility. The variables lost their significance for financial sector of Pakistan, while in non-financial sector variables of dividend payout, earning volatility and asset growth have a significant impact on stock price volatility. This study highlights the needs for development of alternative models that might have better explanatory power with regard to determination of stock price volatility in Pakistan.
A novel message scheduling paradigm for developing algorithms in network computing platform

There is a trend in building a system by interconnecting non-dedicated computing nodes through public wired or wireless networks. Unstable communication latency and unpredictable CPU utilization can be experienced by the users on such a network computing platform. The adverse effects can be avoided by hiding communication latency. However we have shown that communication latency cannot be effectively hidden without carefully choosing a proper message scheduling strategy. Two parameters are proposed to model the network computing platform. Based on the model, a function can be defined to capture the message scheduling strategy of an algorithm. Our message scheduling paradigm can be employed to develop high performance programs. Finally, matrix multiplication and LU decomposition are used as examples to illustrate the usefulness of our paradigm.
Effects of Starch-based Anti-caking Agents on the Functional Properties of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Mozzarella cheese production has been gaining market share due in part to increasing market for pizza and ready to eat food items. Anti-caking agents are utilized in the production of shredded cheese for reducing clumping and increasing the appearance of separate cheese shreds. Six anti-caking agents were applied to low moisture part skim Mozzarella cheese and examined for effects on three major functional properties of Mozzarella cheese; meltability, stretchability, and free oil formation. Meltability determination utilizing a fabricated UW Meltmeter resulted in no significant differences between untreated samples (control) and samples treated with anti-caking agents containing cellulose, potato starch or mixtures including dextrose. Stretchability measurements taken using a modified helical viscometry procedure also resulted in no significant differences between control and treated samples. Significant differences were found when comparing free oil percentages obtained from varying treatments of anticaking agents. A mixture of potato starch and cellulose resulted in the lowest level of free oil among all samples tested. Because potato starch treated samples performed equally to cellulose treated samples in both meltability and stretchability testing, anti-caking agents containing potato starch could be considered as an alternative to cellulose-based anti-caking agents. In addition, the use of potato starch alone and in conjunction with powdered cellulose has been shown to be more effective for free oil control. By treating with potato starch, functional properties of shredded Mozzarella cheese have been positively altered in a way which may increase acceptability by consumers.