ethicalabs/Research-Intent-Collab huggingface dataset:
Genomically adjusted radiation dose to predict for survival with adjuvant radiation in resectable pancreatic cancer.

240  Background: The median survival of patients with resectable pancreatic cancer remains low at approximately 2 years. A major limitation of treating patients with postoperative radiation therapy (RT) is the close proximity of the small bowel, which confines the RT dose. We hypothesized that a subset of patients might exist who would benefit from an escalated RT dose based on their underlying tumor radiosensitivity. Methods: Genomically-profiled patients with pancreatic cancer were identified from an IRB-approved prospective observational protocol. Patients treated with upfront surgery and postoperative RT were included. Briefly, the radiosensitivity index (RSI) is derived from the expression of 10 specific genes and a linear regression algorithm modeled on SF2 of 48 cancer cells. The RSI was combined with the delivered RT dose to derive a genomically adjusted RT dose (GAD). The GAD patient subsets were split at the middle GAD value and rounded up to the nearest integer (27). Our primary endpoint was to assess whether the GAD would predict for survival. Results: Forty patients underwent surgery and postoperative RT with GAD and clinical outcome data available. The median RT dose was 50.4 Gy (range 45-54) and the median follow-up among surviving patients was 68 months (range 42-141). Eighteen patients with a GAD &gt; 27 had a median survival of 32.1 months, while 22 patients with a GAD &lt; 27 had a median survival of 17.9 months (p = 0.48). On Cox multivariate analysis, both high-risk pancreatic cancer patients (positive margins, positive lymph nodes or a postoperative CA 19-9 &gt; 90) and patients with a GAD &lt; 27 had significantly decreased survival (Hazard ratio [HR] 5.0 [95%CI 1.8,13.6], p = 0.002 and HR 2.6 [1.1-6.0], p = 0.03, respectively). Among patients with a GAD &lt; 27, 3 of 22 (14%) would have exceeded a GAD of 27 with an escalated RT dose of 54 Gy, and 8 of 22 (36%) patients would have exceeded a GAD of 27 with an escalated dose of 56 Gy to the pancreatic bed. Conclusions: GAD is predictive of survival among patients with resectable pancreatic cancer when combined with known prognostic factors. The GAD provides a tool to determine who might benefit from dose-escalated RT based on the underlying tumor radiosensitivity.
THE TRANSFER OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC TO THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA (THE ICTY) AND THE TURNING POINT İN INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

The international community has witnessed many human rights violations which have also constituted violations of international humanitarian law throughout the tvventieth century. As of the end of World War II, the number of conflicts of an international nature declined and the number of internal conflicts has increased. in compliance with this fact, internal conflicts and tyrannical regimes made millions of people the victims of unimaginable atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity. From World War II through 1996, the number of people killed reached as many as 86 million people in 220 non-international armed conflicts, including the acts of tyrannical regimes as well.' Until the last decade of the twentieth century, there have been only few prosecutions of responsible persons either at the international or national level and the practice of impunity was common to bring an end to the ongoing conflicts." in the last decade of the tvventieth century, the large scale of killings, rape and other forms of sexual violence, "ethnic cleansing", genocide and other types of crimes committed in the territories of the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda impelled the international community to bring those responsible of such crimes to justice. On this ground, the UN Security Council established "the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecııtion of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991" (hereinafter the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: the ICTY)3 and "the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States, between 1 January and 31 December 1994" (hereinafter the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: the ICTR)4 aeting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter in 1993 and in 1994 respeetively.
ICRD: Self-supervised medical multimodal representation learning with intra-modality contrastive learning and replaced token detection

In medical multimodal learning, due to the heterogeneity of multimodal data, different types of data require distinct preprocessing and feature extraction methods, leading to information inconsistency across modalities in the representation space, which hinders effective representation learning. Therefore, multimodal alignment is necessary to maintain information consistency between the representations of different modalities. However, most existing works primarily focus on inter-modality alignment while ignoring the inherent misalignment within each modality, resulting in insufficient multimodal alignment. Additionally, the robustness of the fused multimodal representations directly influences the performance of subsequent fine-tuning. To address these issues, a model based on self-supervised medical multimodal representation learning with intra-modality contrastive learning and replaced token detection (ICRD) is proposed. Specifically, intra-modality contrastive learning is designed and combined with inter-modality contrastive learning to compensate for the limitation of the latter, improving the image-tabular contrastive learning. Furthermore, a novel self-supervised task called replaced token detection for multimodal representations is proposed, which jointly optimizes the model with other self-supervised tasks during pre-training to further enhance the robustness of the multimodal representations. Experimental results on large-scale medical image–tabular datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of ICRD, consistently outperforming previous methods, including supervised single-modal, supervised multimodal, self-supervised single-modal and self-supervised multimodal.
Legal and Ethical Issues in IoT based Smart City: Data Privacy, Surveillance, and Citizen Rights

As Internet of Things (IoT) technologies revolutionize urban infrastructure and services, smart cities increasingly encounter intricate legal and ethical challenges. This expanded abstract delves into the existing literature on the legal and ethical issues associated with smart cities and IoT. It highlights crucial topics, including data privacy laws, accountability frameworks, fairness, transparency, and responsible data use. Legal questions are primarily concerned with ensuring compliance with existing regulations, while ethical considerations emphasize equitable access to services, transparency in operations, and mitigation of algorithmic biases. Moreover, this abstract explores the interdisciplinary connections between urban governance, technological innovation, and policy advice, aiming to foster comprehensive approaches to addressing these challenges. It emphasizes the importance of developing frameworks that adhere to legal requirements and uphold principles of equity and ethical responsibility. In summary, this abstract sets the stage for future research and policy-making efforts, providing a structured approach to navigate the complexities of deploying smart city and IoT technologies. It underscores the necessity of balancing technological advancement with adherence to legal standards and ethical norms, ensuring that smart city developments contribute positively to societal well-being and fairness.
Methodological aspects of a randomized within-patient concurrent controlled design for clinical trials in spine surgery

INTRODUCTION: Randomized controlled trials are considered the highest level of evidence, but their feasibility in the surgical field is severely hampered by methodological and practical issues. Concurrent comparison between the experimental and control conditions within the same patient can be an effective strategy to mitigate some of these challenges and improve generalizability, mainly by the elimination of between-patient variability and reduction of the required sample size. This article aims (1) to describe the methodological aspects of a randomized within-patient controlled trial and (2) to quantify the added value of this design, based on a recently completed randomized within-patient controlled trial on bone grafts in instrumented lumbar posterolateral spinal fusion. METHODS: Boundary conditions for the application of the randomized within-patient controlled trial design were identified. Between-patient variability was quantified by the intraclass correlation coefficient and concordance in the primary fusion outcome. Sample size, study duration and costs were compared with a classic randomized controlled trial design. RESULTS: Boundary conditions include the concurrent application of the experimental and control conditions to identical but physically separated sites. Moreover, the outcome of interest should be local, uncorrelated and independently assessable. The spinal fusion outcomes within a patient were found to be more similar than between different patients (intraclass correlation coefficient 32% and concordance 64%), demonstrating a clear effect of patient-related factors. The randomized within-patient controlled trial design allowed a reduction of the sample size to one-third of a parallel-group randomized controlled trial, thereby halving the trial duration and costs. CONCLUSION: When suitable, the randomized within-patient controlled trial is an efficient design that provides a solution to some of the considerable challenges of a classic randomized controlled trial in (spine) surgery. This design holds specific promise for efficacy studies of non-active bone grafts in instrumented posterolateral fusion surgery.
Corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting and forest fires: Evidence from the 2018 megafires

Η παρούσα εργασία ερευνά τον τρόπο με τον οποίο έδρασαν οι εταιρείες σε Ελλάδα και Καλιφόρνια κατά τις μεγαπυρκαγιές του 2018, σε Μάτι, Αττικής και στην Camp Fire, στην Καλιφόρνια. Καθώς οι μεγαπυρκαγιές γίνονται όλο και πιο συχνές και οι συνέπειές τους όλο και πιο καταστροφικές, κατά τη διάρκεια των χρόνων, γίνονται συντονισμένες προσπάθειες προς τον περιορισμό αυτών των τραγικών γεγονότων και την οικοδόμηση της ανθεκτικότητας στην κοινωνία. Ο ιδιωτικός τομέας μπορεί να διαδραματίσει σημαντικό ρόλο προς στην επίτευξη των στόχων αυτών, μέσω φιλανθρωπικών ενεργειών που είναι μέρος της Εταιρικής Κοινωνικής τους Ευθύνης (ΕΚΕ) και συνήθως εκφράζεται μέσα από τις εκθέσεις βιωσιμότητας. Βασιμένη στη σχετική με την ΕΚΕ και τις φυσικές καταστροφές βιβλιογραφία και με τη συλλογή εμπειρικών δεδομένων, η παρούσα έρευνα αποδεικνύει Α) μια σημαντική κινητοποίηση τόσο των εταιρειών στη Ελλάδα όσο και των εταιρειών στην Καλιφόρνια, στην προσπάθεια αντιμετώπισης της καταστροφής, Β) την ύπαρξη διαφορετικών μοτίβων ΕΚΕ ανάμεσα στις δυο περιοχές και Γ) μια εκτεταμένη χρήση των εκθέσεων βιωσιμότητας από τις εταιρείες εκείνες που έδρασαν με ΕΚΕ. Αυτή είναι μία εμπειρική εργασία, ανάμεσα στις πρώτες που εξετάζουν συγκριτικά την ΕΚΕ κατά τη διάρκεια δύο μεγαπυρκαγιών σε δύο διαφορετικά μέρη του πλανήτη και στοχεύει να προσθέσει γνώση στην υπάρχουσα βιβλιογραφία, καθώς και να δώσει μία νέα προοπτική σε μελλοντικούς ερευνητές, σε επιχειρήσεις και σε δημόσιους φορείς
Communication for Conflict Resolution: the Pashtun Tribal Rhetoric for Peace Building in Afghanistan

Focusing on communication as an important means besides other efforts for conflict resolution in an asymmetric armed conflict in Afghanistan, this study looked for a rhetorical communication approach appropriate to Pashtun tribal setting in South-eastern (Loya Paktya region) Afghanistan. The study explored and found some perceived essentials of such persuasive communication by conducting face-to-face semi-structured in depth interviews with 17 participants. Thematic analysis was used to code and categorize data. Aristotle’s rhetorical theory provided a framework for this qualitative study by narrowing down the focus to exploring credibility of the communicator (ethos), the rationality of the message (logos), and the emotional appeals (pathos), particular for the south-eastern Pashtun tribal setting, during communication. In addition, considering the relation between rhetorical and soft power theories in influencing the choice of an audience, this project also asked participants if and how communication in their tribal setting could be framed as an influencing power by attraction rather than by coercion. Therefore, soft power of which persuasive communication is a crucial part was also used as a theoretical framework for this study. The findings show the significance of persuasive communication in future conflict resolution efforts in Afghanistan.
Quality of Living and Dying: Pediatric Palliative Care and End-of-Life Decisions in the Netherlands

Abstract:In 2002, The Netherlands continued its leadership in developing rules and jurisdiction regarding euthanasia and end-of-life decisions by implementing the Euthanasia Act, which allows euthanasia for patients 12 years of age and older. Subsequently, in 2005, the regulation on active ending of life for newborns was issued. However, more and more physicians and parents have stated that the age gap between these two regulations—children between 1 and 12 years old—is undesirable. These children should have the same right to end their suffering as adults and newborn infants. An extended debate on pediatric euthanasia ensued, and currently the debate is ongoing as to whether legislation should be altered in order to allow pediatric euthanasia. An emerging major question regards the active ending of life in the context of palliative care: How does a request for active ending of life relate to the care that is given to children in the palliative phase? Until now, the distinction between palliative care and end-of-life decisions continues to remain unclear, making any discussion about their mutual in- and exclusiveness hazardous at best. In this report, therefore, we aim to provide insight into the relationship between pediatric palliative care and end-of-life decisions, as understood in the Netherlands. We do so by first providing an overview of the (legal) rules and regulations regarding euthanasia and active ending of life, followed by an analysis of the relationship between these two, using the Dutch National Guidelines for Palliative Care for Children. The results of this analysis revealed two major and related features of palliative care and end-of-life decisions for children: (1) palliative care and end-of-life decisions are part of the same process, one that focuses both on quality of living and quality of dying, and (2) although physicians are seen as ultimately responsible for making end-of-life decisions, the involvement of parents and children in this decision is of the utmost importance and should be regarded as such.
Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Therapies –  Pharmaceutical Perspectives and Future Directions

Regenerative medicine is a new field that uses stem cell biology, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical sciences to fix or replace damaged tissues. Stem cell therapy, utilising embryonic, adult, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), has demonstrated potential in the treatment of neurological, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and immune-related disorders. Pharmaceutical innovations, including small-molecule modulators, controlled drug delivery systems, nanotechnology, and gene-editing tools, have greatly increased the clinical use of stem cells by making them more viable, able to differentiate, and effective as treatments. However, there are still problems, such as large-scale production, standardisation, long-term safety, immunological rejection, and tumorigenic risks. It is more difficult to safely translate and use drugs in clinical settings around the world because different countries have different rules and morals. 3D bioprinting, nanomedicine, artificial intelligence, and the development of "off-the-shelf" stem cell products indicate that regenerative therapies will soon become more individualised and accessible to a broader population. Stem cell-based therapies have a lot of promise, but they need to be safeand work well before doctors can use them in their daily work. This means that issues with drugs, making them, and the law must be fixed.
Role of Information System Strategies, Business Intelligence and Analytics used to Enhance Firm Performance: Mediating role of Innovation Ambidexterity

The objective of this research is to examine the aspects of Information System (IS) strategies, Business Intelligence, and Analytics (BI&amp;A) used to enhance firm performance. The main purpose of this study is to assess the influence of IS strategy, BI&amp;A impact on firm performance as well as to demonstrate the association of innovation ambidexterity between BI&amp;A and firm performance. Statistically analyzed results were based on data obtained from a survey questionnaire filled out by 322 Indonesian, China, Japan, and Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises employees. The findings revealed that IS strategies, business intelligence, and analytics use have a significant influence on firm performance. The findings also revealed that innovative adaptability is a mediating factor in the favourable relationship between BI&amp;A use and business success. All of the hypotheses were supported and the partial least squares method was used to test them.
Metabolic ecology, microbial community structure, and gene-centric metagenomics

Abstract                 Metabolic ecology includes predictions for biological rates from molecules to ecosystems, but despite the broad range of its scope, its applicability to metagenomes remains an open question. Here, we integrate metabolic ecology with principles of DNA shotgun sequencing to generate specific testable predictions for the metagenomic structure of microbial communities. We start by predicting a scaling relationship between population and assemblage abundance with genome size. This allows us to simplify DNA shotgun sequencing equations for the reads of a population and a gene. Then we derive the temperature dependence of population and assemblage abundance using the volume-temperature and abundance-volume rules and integrate them with simplified DNA sequencing equations to show that these predictions are compatible with a metagenomic framework. In addition, we derive predictions for the temperature dependence of the structure (abundance and richness) of genes and groups of related genes (e.g., metabolic pathways). To test our model, we provide some example data from human, aquatic, and terrestrial microbiomes from recent global projects. All predictions were supported by the observed data. Our model, derived from the integration of first principles, provides a mechanistic basis for variation in the structure of microbial community genomes in environmental and host-associated ecosystems.
Linking Phenotypes to Protein Characteristics in 3D Structures Predicted by Alphafold

Plant breeding aims to develop elite crop varieties appropriate for various environments with higher quality and quantity of production. Researchers use quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and association studies to identify regions in the genome responsible for the variation of the quantitative traits of interest. However, mapped regions do not always translate to functional proteins, which makes it challenging to identify genes associated with traits of interest. The biological functions of proteins are strongly dependent on their 3D structure. Alternatively, if proteins can be directly linked with the phenotypes, the effect of mutations on phenotypic changes can be assessed. Innovation of deep learning models in biology opens new avenues of exploration. AlphaFold is an AI system that predicts the 3D structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence with near experimental accuracy and was used in this study. Point mutations with a significant influence on the 3D structure of a protein can capture the effect on phenotypes through association study, and this provides insights into the regions that are of functional importance. In the current study, 534 plants were selected based on plant vigor, and 154 missense variants that change amino acid sequences, including 5 significant hits from previous study, were included. The changes in protein 3D structure were assessed by association with the phenotype. The analysis identified five significant associations, four of which were also identified in previous study of SNPs GWAS, however, a new fifth association was also identified which was annotated as disease resistance gene in Medicago truncatula. This study helps to associate SNPs that could be missed by GWAS due to stringent Bonferroni corrected p-values by providing a more robust filter for SNPs using features from predicted protein 3D structures.
The SMART Framework: Integration of Citizen Science, Community-Based Participatory Research, and Systems Science for Population Health Science in the Digital Age

Citizen science enables citizens to actively contribute to all aspects of the research process, from conceptualization and data collection, to knowledge translation and evaluation. Citizen science is gradually emerging as a pertinent approach in population health research. Given that citizen science has intrinsic links with community-based research, where participatory action drives the research agenda, these two approaches could be integrated to address complex population health issues. Community-based participatory research has a strong record of application across multiple disciplines and sectors to address health inequities. Citizen science can use the structure of community-based participatory research to take local approaches of problem solving to a global scale, because citizen science emerged through individual environmental activism that is not limited by geography. This synergy has significant implications for population health research if combined with systems science, which can offer theoretical and methodological strength to citizen science and community-based participatory research. Systems science applies a holistic perspective to understand the complex mechanisms underlying causal relationships within and between systems, as it goes beyond linear relationships by utilizing big data–driven advanced computational models. However, to truly integrate citizen science, community-based participatory research, and systems science, it is time to realize the power of ubiquitous digital tools, such as smartphones, for connecting us all and providing big data. Smartphones have the potential to not only create equity by providing a voice to disenfranchised citizens but smartphone-based apps also have the reach and power to source big data to inform policies. An imminent challenge in legitimizing citizen science is minimizing bias, which can be achieved by standardizing methods and enhancing data quality—a rigorous process that requires researchers to collaborate with citizen scientists utilizing the principles of community-based participatory research action. This study advances SMART, an evidence-based framework that integrates citizen science, community-based participatory research, and systems science through ubiquitous tools by addressing core challenges such as citizen engagement, data management, and internet inequity to legitimize this integration.