Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiply Robust Estimation: The Development and Evaluation of a Novel Method for Causal Analysis

Author(s): DerSarkissian, Maral Elizabeth | Advisor(s): Arah, Onyebuchi A | Abstract: Correct model specification for confounding control is likely the most common assumption made in causal inference. Yet the validity of this assumption cannot be verified using data or statistical tests. Typically, investigators collect as much data on confounders as possible and then consider multiple models singly. This is a tedious process, thus making multiply robust estimation, an extension of doubly robust estimation, particularly appealing as it affords investigators with more than two chances to specify a correct model within a union model, obviating multiple results presentation. This dissertation introduces a multiply robust approach that combines three or more estimators in one union model, yielding unbiased effect estimates provided at least one of the estimators is correctly specified, no new bias is introduced, and there is no uncontrolled confounding. This dissertation focuses on the development and evaluation of multiply robust estimation in single and multilevel models and in the presence of effect modification and interaction. Monte Carlo simulations are used to assess performance and present a proof of concept, and illustrative examples based on global health data will be used to demonstrate applications of the MR estimation method. A framework for doubly and multiply robust estimators is also presented using directed acyclic graphs to show how multiple adjustment schemes can be combined to yield a consistent effect estimate. Interpretation of doubly robust and multiply robust estimates is also discussed, and it is proposed that a partial-marginal and partial-conditional framework for interpretation is necessary. Results showed that effect estimates for the exposure(s) of interest obtained using MR estimation had higher chances of being valid, or robust to misspecification, whenever at least one of the underlying estimators was not misspecified. This approach allows investigators who disagree about appropriate covariate adjustment schemes to merge their views and obtain a single set of results without forcing them to agree on one model. Although the assumption of correct model specification cannot be verified, multiply robust estimation nevertheless pools opportunities by specifying more than two estimators in one union model in an attempt to hedge a bet on consistently getting a valid effect estimate.
Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Unsupervised Multiple Kernel Learning

Traditional multiple kernel learning (MKL) algorithms are essentially supervised learning in the sense that the kernel learning task requires the class labels of training data. However, class labels may not always be available prior to the kernel learning task in some real world scenarios, e.g., an early preprocessing step of a classiﬁcation task or an unsupervised learning task such as dimension reduction. In this paper, we investigate a problem of Unsupervised Multiple Kernel Learning (UMKL), which does not require class labels of training data as needed in a conventional multiple kernel learning task. Since a kernel essentially deﬁnes pairwise similarity between any two examples, our unsupervised kernel learning method mainly follows two intuitive principles: (1) a good kernel should allow every example to be well reconstructed from its localized bases weighted by the kernel values; (2) a good kernel should induce kernel values that are coincided with the local geometry of the data. We formulate the unsupervised multiple kernel learning problem as an optimization task and propose an efﬁcient alternating optimization algorithm to solve it. Empirical results on both classiﬁcation and dimension reductions tasks validate the efﬁcacy of the proposed UMKL algorithm.
VARIATION OF RESULTS BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL NASAL PACKING AND ENDOSCOPIC SURGERY FOR EPISTAXIS

: Objective: To investigate the clinical features of epistaxis in the posterior fornix of the inferior nasal meatus and compare the treatment outcomes of endoscopic surgery and conventional nasal packing for this intractable form of epistaxis. Methods: Between August 2017 and march 2018, the medical records of 53 adult patients visiting DHQ teaching hospital Sargodha, with idiopathic epistaxis in the posterior fornix of the inferior nasal meatus diagnosed by nasal endoscopy were obtained from our department. Of these, 38 patients underwent endoscopic surgery (surgery group) and 15 received a nasal pack (packing group). The patients ’ background characteristics, incidence of re-bleeding, extent of discomfort after treatment as assessed using a 10-point visual analogue scale (VAS) and incidence of nasal cavity adhesion after treatment were analysed. Results: There were no significant differences in background characteristics between the two groups. The incidence of re-bleeding (0/38 vs. 4/15, surgery vs. control, P = 0.001), VAS score for discomfort (2.4 ± 1.4 vs. 7.6 ± 1.0, surgery vs. control, P = 0.001) and incidence of nasal cavity adhesion after treatment (2/38 vs. 7/15, surgery vs. control, P = 0.007) were significantly lower in the surgery group than in the packing group. Conclusion: Endoscopic surgery is superior to conventional nasal packing for the management of epistaxis in the posterior fornix of the inferior nasal meatus. During surgery, it is crucial to expose the bleeding sites by shifting the inferior turbinate inward by fracture. Variation of Results between Conventional Packing
A HIGH PRECISION PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF ANNONA MURICATA L. BY LCMS STUDIES

Phytochemical studies helps to reveal the chemical nature of secondary metabolites which is pharmacologically effective for many of the ailments. Conventional methods are much time consuming and be less efficient to reveal the chemistry of the phytochemical constituents. High performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC/MS) can be an efficient tool for the accurate and efficient phytochemical studies. Annona muricata are traditionally used to treat a variety of ailments including inflammations, bacterial infections, herpes virus infections, and cancer. The alcoholic extract of leaves was subjected to phytochemical evaluation by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry method (LC/MS) for the studies of various phytoconstituents. The LC-MS Analysis revealed 29 constituents of which 17 of the compounds were identified and matched to the Metwin 2.0 library data . The current study suggests that ethanol extract of leaves of Annona muricata have revealed the presence of many phytochemicals that assures the therapeutic efficacy of the Annona muricata.
Iron in Patients with Non-Dialysis Dependent An analysis of the FIND-CKD Trial.

Hepcidin is the key regulator of iron homeostasis but data are limited regarding its temporal response to iron therapy, and response to intravenous versus oral iron. In the 56-week, open-label, multicenter, prospective, randomized FIND-CKD study, 626 anemic patients with non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease (ND-CKD) and iron deficiency not receiving an erythropoiesis stimulating agent were randomized (1:1:2) to intravenous ferric carboxymaltose (FCM), targeting higher (400 – 600 μ g/L) or lower (100 – 200 μ g/L) ferritin, or to oral iron. Serum hepcidin levels were measured centrally in a subset of 61 patients. Mean (SD) baseline hepcidin level was 4.0(3.5), 7.3(6.4) and
Trends in the prevalence of chronic allergic diseases in Korea: Claim data analysis of Health Insurance

i Abstract Background: Although the prevalence of chronic allergic diseases has increased worldwide for several decades, some developed countries recently have shown a slowdown in the incidence of allergic diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the recent trends in the prevalence of asthma and other chronic allergic diseases in Korea. Methods: From a database of approximately 50 million beneficiaries in the Korean National Health Insurance (NHI) and Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), data-sets of patients with diagnoses of atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma were extracted. We analyzed the annual prevalence of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis in Korea from 2009 to 2013. Results: The prevalence per 1,000 people of atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma in 2013 was 20.3, 127.3, and 39.4, respectively. When divided into 10-year age groups, the prevalence of all three diseases was highest in the age group under 10. The prevalence of atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis had a decreasing pattern with older age, but for asthma, it showed an increasing pattern for the age group 30-39 and another peak for the age group 70-79. During the study period from 2009 to 2013, the prevalence of allergic rhinitis steadily increased in all age groups including the fastest growth in the age group under 10 with an annual average growth rate of 3.2%. In contrast, the prevalence of asthma and atopic dermatitis did not increase during the same period and instead showed a decrease in the age group under 10. Conclusion: We analyzed the prevalence of chronic allergic diseases in Korea based on nationwide health insurance data. While the prevalence of allergic rhinitis increased for the past 5 years, the prevalence of asthma and atopic dermatitis did not show an increase. These results suggest that the prevalence of chronic allergic diseases in Korea might have plateaued currently.
Formal Verification of Route Request Procedure for AODV Routing Protocol

: Many protocols have been designed for routing the packets from a source to destination. In Ad hoc on-demand routing protocol (AODV) the routing table maintains only one route to the specified node. The route is rediscovered by the source node when the earlier route fails. This paper aims to study the characteristics of Ad hoc networks and employ formal methods to model, investigate and analyze the routing protocol. The Z notation is used as a formal technique because of its abstract properties. In the proposed approach, it is specified how a source node can request for a route to the destination in AODV routing protocol. It is investigated how formal methods can be applied to the route discovery process in the AODV routing protocol. Finally, the formal specification is analyzed and validated using Z Eves tool.
The Physics and Mathematics of MRI

Electromagnetics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging : Tissue/field interactions, MRI safety, and field-related image artifacts C M Collins Electromagnetics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging : Recent and ongoing developments C M Collins Scientific Basis of the Royal College of Radiologists Fellowship: Magnetic resonance M Sperrin and J Winder The registration of signals from the nuclei other than protons at 0.5 T MRI scanner N Anisimov, D Volkov, M Gulyaev et al. ‘Battlefield MRI’ comes out of the lab
RRU_A_266400 321..330

1Service of Urology, Hospital Universitario Carlos Haya, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; 2Service of Urology, Hospital Universitario de Valme, Sevilla, Spain; 3Service of Urology, Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, Cádiz, Spain Abstract: Overactive bladder (OAB), clinically defined as urinary urgency, with or without incontinence, generally accompanied by an increase in urinary frequency and nocturia, after any local disease or metabolic disorder that would explain these symptoms have been ruled out, is a highly prevalent condition that affects millions of men and women worldwide. Not only can the symptoms of OAB be very bothersome, but OAB can have significant detrimental effects on many aspects of individuals’ lives, representing a particularly impactful health burden to quality of life and productivity. Besides a wide range of conservative treatments, the clinical efficacy of which remains an open issue, antimuscarinics are the mainstay of pharmacotherapy for this condition but anticholinergic troublesome side effects like dry mouth, and the patient’s perception of lack of efficacy and poor adherence, are common reasons of abandonment of treatment. An alternative to oral administration treatment, with a lower incidence of dry mouth and other anticholinergic adverse effects, might be attractive to patients and a real treatment option for physicians. Delivery of oxybutynin directly through the skin with oxybutynin transdermal (OXY-TDS) avoids the first-pass hepatic metabolism that occurs with orally administered oxybutynin and prevents the appearance of anticholinergic adverse events. OXY-TDS being equally effective than oral treatment improves adherence, persistence, and patient satisfaction. The aim of this review is to focus on evidence available of the use of OXY-TDS in the management of patients with OAB, and to help clinicians in the challenges involved in the treatment options for patients with this condition.
Tourism marketing strategy, a case study for the City of Thessaloniki, including tourists and tourism professionals

This study aims to explore the potential of city tourism development in Thessaloniki (Greece) by analyzing the destination and proposing a strategic marketing plan to promote the city as an all year round tourism destination. This paper firstly examines some recent literature and discusses both the theoretical concept of destination experience and its measurement. Then, it describes the sample and measures employed in the empirical study. It is followed by the reporting of the empirical research results. Finally, it concludes by identifying certain implications. Results lead to the proposition of a marketing plan for the development of city tourism in Thessaloniki, that highlights the need of reinforcing and promoting particular cultural routes, cruise, and gastronomy tourism and health tourism experiences at the destination.
A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF VISION-INDUCED TACTILE ENTICEMENT.

Objects in our daily life contain the ability that arouses people to touch. The research defines it as “Tactile Enticement,” and mainly focuses on visual aspect. The research chiefly aimed at finding the cause of Tactile Enticement, and trying to categorize visual characteristics of objects which are enticing to touch. For doing so, 10 subjects were asked to cruise around the shopping mall and touch anything they want, which were recorded. By applying Evaluation Grid Method, the original reasons of why they touch, the solid characteristics of what they noticed and the feeling when they touched would be obtained. The result shows six aspects—Attract Attention, Raise Curiosity, New Experience Provision, Amusing Interaction, Friendly and kind Feeling, and Disapproval that may cause the Tactile Enticement.
FROM WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING TO WORD OF MOUTH IN THE TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA

Consumers use the recommendations as a source of information in deciding on their purchase. With word of mouth marketing (WOMM) organisations wish to accomplish word of mouth (WOM) communication, i.e. to make as many users share information. This paper presents model “4M”, according to which 4 key ways to spread recommendations are: “mouth”, “mouse”, “mobile phone” and mix – a combination of previously mentioned ways. The survey was conducted on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, on a sample of 200 tourists between 16 and 74 years. Tourists use various ways to spread recommendations. Findings show that WOMM (in order to stimulate WOM) has to be an integral part of holistic marketing activities of an organisation.
Preliminary Investigation of a Calculus with Intersection and Union Types

Type systems based on the concept of intersection types 3, 4, 5] have been extensively studied in recent years, both as tools for the analysis of the pure-calculus and, more recently, as the basis for practical programming languages such as Forsythe 16]. The dual construction, union types, also appears to be of potential practical interest. For example, by expressing more reened types for functions, union types allow a restricted form of abstract interpretation to be performed during typechecking. This report summarizes the results of a preliminary investigation of a simple typed-calculus with intersection and union types. Section 1 introduces the concrete syntax and typing rules of the language. Section 2 presents a number of small programs illustrating various aspects of the language and indicating some of its expressive power. Section 3 gives a semantics in the form of rules for equality between typed terms and exhibits a PER model validating these rules. Section 4 discusses the decidability of typechecking. Section 5 relates this work to some other recent investigations of similar formulations of union types. Section 6 describes planned future work. N.b. This report describes work in a preliminary stage of development. It is likely that further investigation of both semantic considerations (e.g. the validity of deMorgan's laws and the general categorical characterization of union types) and algorithmic issues (e.g. the correctness and eeciency of the typechecking procedure proposed here) will lead to substantial changes in the formulation of the language and its interpretation. 1 Syntax 1.1 Notational Conventions This section introduces the notational conventions used in the rest of the report and deenes the concrete syntax of a simple typed-calculus _ (\lambda union") with intersection and union types. b range over terms; x ranges over a set Var of variables.
SOM Winner-Searching Algorithm Based on Subset of Most Discriminate Codebooks

In the winner-searching algorithm of the Self-Organized Map networks (SOM), the distance between the input and the codebook of all feature map neurons is measured, then the neuron with minimum distance is considered as the winner. However, in case of large applications, this algorithm spends very long time to find the winner, sometimes it also fails to answer the winner category correctly. In this paper, a new winner-searching algorithm for SOM networks is proposed for gesture recognition applications. In such applications, it is required to reduce the recognition time of one image into the normal rates of video camera (30 frames/second) and to increase the recognition accuracy especially for complex image scene with different lighting conditions. The competition in the new algorithm depends on a subset of most discriminate weights of the network codebooks. In addition, to allow recognizing complex images with different lighting conditions, the competition is applied for those pixels, which corresponds to the skin gray levels only. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm could recognize the gestures of complex image scene while the normal SOM algorithm failed. Moreover, the recognition time of one image reduced 92 % less than the normal SOM winner-searching algorithm and allowed real-time recognition in the normal rates of video camera. Key-Words: Neural Network, Self-Organized Map, competitive learning, Winner Searching, computerHuman Interaction, and Gesture Recognition.
E 6 GUT and Baryon Asymmetry Generation in the E 6 CHM

: Grand uniﬁed theories (GUTs) may result in the E 6 -inspired composite Higgs model (E 6 CHM) at low energies, almost stabilizing the electroweak scale. We consider an orbifold GUT in 6 dimensions in which the E 6 -gauge group is broken to the gauge symmetry of the standard model (SM) while different multiplets of the SM fermions come from different 27-plets. The strongly coupled sector of the E 6 CHM is conﬁned on the brane where E 6 is broken down to its SU ( 6 ) subgroup. Near the scale of f (cid:38) 5TeV, this approximate SU ( 6 ) symmetry is expected to be further broken down to its SU ( 5 ) subgroup, which contains the SM-gauge group. Such a breakdown leads to a set of pseudo-Nambu–Goldstone bosons (pNGBs) that includes an SM-like Higgs doublet. The approximate gauge coupling uniﬁcation in the E 6 CHM takes place at high energies when the right-handed top quark is a composite fermion. To ensure anomaly cancellation, the weakly coupled sector of this model contains extra exotic matter beyond the SM. We discuss the mechanism of the generation of matter–antimatter asymmetry within the variant of the E 6 CHM in which the baryon number and CP invariance are violated.
High levels of p110 (cid:1) PI3K expression in solid tumor cells suppress PTEN activity, generating cellular sensitivity to p110 (cid:1) inhibitors through PTEN activation

Class IA PI3K isoforms have divergent, nonredundant cell biological roles. In untransformed cells and tissues, p110 (cid:2) and p110 (cid:3) are ubiquitously expressed, whereas p110 (cid:1) expression is highly en-riched in leukocytes. High levels of p110 (cid:1) expression have been documented in some solid tumor cell lines, but the functional role is unknown. This study aimed to elucidate the link between elevated expression of p110 (cid:1) PI3K and cancer. We report that in breast and prostate cancer cells that contain leukocyte levels of p110 (cid:1) , p110 (cid:1) activity dampens the activity of the PTEN tumor suppressor. Indeed, inactivation of p110 (cid:1) in these cells led to PTEN activation, suppression of Akt phosphorylation, and inhibition of cell proliferation, with inhibition of PTEN activity being able to counter-balance p110 (cid:1) inactivation. Likewise, forced overexpression of p110 (cid:1) in cells with low p110 (cid:1) expression reduced PTEN activity, resulting in increased Akt phosphorylation. Our data indicate that the oncogenic potential of p110 (cid:1) PI3K overexpression
ПЕДАГОГИКА ВА ПСИХОЛОГИЯДА ИННОВАЦИЯЛАР ИННОВАЦИИ В ПЕДАГОГИКЕ И ПСИХОЛОГИИ INNOVATIONS IN PEDAGOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY

data on children and teenagers recruited and participating in terrorist acts. The analysis of the reasons for the effectiveness of terrorist propaganda is presented. Such factors of effective perception of terrorist propaganda as an orientation towards psychological characteristics inherent the youth age group, insufficient religious literacy, the constant presence of religious extremist organizations’ ideologists on the Internet, the development of propaganda content taking into account the rules of psycholinguistics. The main propaganda theses of the “Islamic State” international terrorist organization are demonstrated, as well as counter-propaganda theses with confessional, scientific and logical argumentation, proving the falsity of the propagated pseudo-religious doctrine are presented.
Adaptive Multi-Path Link Quality Routing Protocol For Mobile Ad-Hoc Network

—Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of mobile nodes interconnected by wireless media. Routing protocols for Wireless ad hoc networks have traditionally focused on finding paths with different link quality metrics such as minimum hop count, RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication), SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio), BER (Bit Error Rate). However, such paths can include slow or lossy links, leading to poor throughput. A routing algorithm can select better paths by explicitly taking the quality of the wireless links in to account. But PSR (Packet Success Rate) is a good metric for characterizing link quality at a coarse-grained level, because it is highly dependent on the packet size and the transmission rate. Several approaches have been suggested to improve quality of the link especially on Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol. In this paper we propose an adaptive multi-path Link Quality Routing Protocol which is based on two link quality metrics such as PSR (Packet Success Rate) and Delay. This protocol is adaptive to load distribution. The protocol will collect information about quality of the link during the route discovery phase and use them to choose a set of disjoint paths, and distributes the data based on QoS they provide. Each node has to monitor links and adaptively adds or removes paths whenever it is needed to achieve the required QoS. The simulation experiments will be conducted using NS-2 network simulator. We will compare the performance of the suggested algorithm to the performance of the conventional DSR