Search

Can business play a role in building resilience among vulnerable communities? Can (marketing) employment contribute to resilience – and if so, how? These are increasingly important and relevant questions in our current world as the recent COVID-19 pandemic showed many households to be just one shock away from falling into poverty. Consequently, understanding how resilience, the ability to cope both psychologically and economically with adversity, can be built has become a top priority for many policymakers and practitioners. This paper explores a marketing solution to building resilience. In this paper, we seek to answer the following question: “Can sales employment help people build resilience and enable them to cope with adversity?” We offer a mechanism through which sales improves resilience: by facilitating opportunities to connect. We show that by enabling opportunities to connect with a wide set of individuals, sales employment can build resilience. We differentiate between types of connections and show that different connections can lead to different forms of resilience. We present experimental evidence from a randomized controlled trial involving saleswomen in rural India. With our partner organization, we recruited, trained, and randomly assigned 1,048 women to either treatment, placebo, or control condition. We exogenously assign individuals to an employment position that facilitates opportunities to connect and measure the impact on resilience. In doing so, not only do we vary opportunities to connections, but we also provide a plausible mechanism of why they have more connections than others: certain jobs – in our case sales employment. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical evidence showing the impact of (changing) connections on resilience when facing adversity. In doing so, we are the first to randomly assign participants to different employment forms and causally estimate the impact of employment on personal outcomes, such as resilience. Our results show that those engaged in sales employment are more resilient than those in placebo employment or no-employment conditions. In fact, we find that sales employment significantly improves one’s ability to be economically resilient when facing adversity by increasing: i) the likelihood of being aware of external sources of help and ii) the ability to take-up external sources of help. Second, our results show that engagement in sales is associated with having a wider set of connections. This effect is largely driven by increased connections with local government representatives and local community leaders. We find a strong association between the width of connections and economic and psychological resilience. Last, we examine heterogeneous effects and find that those from lower caste benefit most from engaging in sales employment in terms of building resilience compared. To the best of our knowledge, no one has looked at the impact of employment on resilience – we show that marketing employment holds the power to improve resilience when facing adversity.

This thesis is a contribution to macroeconomics and macro-finance research. It focuses on two areas, the interactions between debt markets and the macroeconomy, in the first two chapters, and consumption heterogeneity’s role in the transmission of shocks, in the third. The first chapter is my job market paper, “Monetary Policy and the Maturity Structure of Public Debt”. It studies the mediating impact of the maturity structure of public debt in the transmission of monetary policy shocks to economic activity. A longer debt maturity attenuates greatly the effect of monetary policy: going from the average historical duration of US debt to very short term debt doubles the impact of a rise of the policy rate on output. A similar result holds in UK data. There is no differential effect on inflation. I show that these effects can be traced back to a quantitatively important financing channel. A model featuring an interaction between an empirically estimated primary market friction and a standard financial accelerator is able to account for these facts. The second chapter of the thesis is “The Fiscal Consequences of Missing an Inflation Target”. This is a joint work with Helene Rey. We show, in Euro Area countries and in the US, the effect of the reliability of central banks’ monetary policy on public finances. When a credible central bank misses its inflation target, this has large fiscal consequences for the fiscal authority. These misses are quantitative sizable in the past low inflation decade, especially for countries with a high level and a high maturity of public debt. We link our results to the optimum currency area literature as the monetary-fiscal nexus is key to the functioning of the Euro Area: the ECB sets monetary policy for sovereigns with heterogeneous debt profiles. The third chapter of my thesis, “LESS is MORE: Consumer Spending and the Size of Economic Stimulus Payments”, is a joint work with Paolo Surico. We study the consumption response to unexpected transitory income gains of different size, using hypothetical survey questions. Affluent households exhibit a higher Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC) out of large gains while families with low cash-on-hand display a higher MPC out of small gains. The spending of higher earners is consistent with the predictions of a model with non-homothetic preferences on consumption, while spending of low-income families can be accounted for by borrowing constraints. Our results suggest that, for a given level of public spending, a fiscal transfer of smaller size paid to a larger group of low-income households stimulates aggregate consumption more than a larger transfer paid to a smaller group.

This paper shows that endogenous adjustments in the composition of labour supplies magnify the effects of changes in commodity prices on the measured skill premium under quite plausible conditions. These composition effects arise from decisions of individuals with heterogeneous inherent abilities about acquiring human capital. They reinforce the well-known Stolper – Samuelson effect on the measured skill premium in countries with a sufficiently high relative supply of skilled labour, but compensate them otherwise. As a result, the model can account for the observation of a worldwide increase in the skill premium during the last two decades.

In this paper, we present a method for segmenting lung lobe regions and segmental lobe regions from 3D CT datasets. In a CAD system for the chest, it is very important to understand structures of the chest by a computer. It is required to develop algorithms that automatically segment organ regions of the chest area from input 3-D chest CT datasets. This paper tries to divide lung regions into lung lobe regions and segmental lobe regions by the figure decomposition process and the Voronoi division process. In this method, we enhance sheet structures on CT images by using eigenvalues of a Hessian matrix. Also, the lung regions are segmented by simple thresholding and morphological filtering. Then, we subtract sheet structures from the lung regions. By applying the figure decomposition process, we obtain each lung lobe region. Segmental lobe regions are obtained by the Voronoi division process using bronchial branch information The proposed method was applied to thirteen cases of 3-D chest CT images. Experimental results showed that the proposed method can extract lung lobe regions and segmental lobe regions even for cases of incomplete fissure or over-extraction of interlobar pleura.

Reading is a commandment from Allah. commanded through al-Qur'an Surah al-Alaq verse 1 which was revealed through the intermediary angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad. Which will be preached to all the human Ummah specifically to the Ummah who always follows the teachings of Islam. Therefore, we must read the Koran, both reading directly (written) and reading with signs of Allah's power. (implied). Which has a variety of discussions ranging from reading the Koran, mentadabburi, practice and practice so as to create a generation of Qur'ani. In this paper using library research with the method of using library data collection techniques (Library Research) that uses various kinds of existing literature such as books, books of hadith, books of interpretation and the Qur'an that will help in using methods, deductive, inductive and comparative. And it was concluded that the command to read in the Koran so that it can be seen that reading is not just a job, not a mere hobby but as a very important command that will underlie all our activities in this world, let alone a prosecutor of knowledge, reading also is a foundation to go to the path that is blessed by Allah.

The quality of asphalt pothole repair in carriageways depends on several important factors, such as the selection of patching material and the choice of repair technique. Conventional hot mix plants operate to support large paving projects, making production more economic with high volume output. When small repairs and maintenance are needed, it can be challenging to maintain small quantities of hot asphalt at a sufficient temperature, especially in the case of winter maintenance. Consequently, the repair materials cannot be compacted to the desired level on some occasions. Thus, producing high quality asphalt materials for low-volume and hand-laid applications including potholes patching and utility reinstatements has lways been a problem. This research aimed to develop a pelletised polymer modified bitumen (PPMB) with reduced temperature sensitivity for low volume applications. The effect of the developed binder PPMB on the asphalt has been evaluated in terms of stiffness, permanent deformation (wheel track test, creep test and indentation test) and fatigue life test, durability (water sensitivity and freeze-thaw cycle) in comparison with the conventional patching materials. The results showed that the highest penetration index (low temperature sensitivity) has been achieved by modifying bitumen with 20% rubber and 2% wax to produce polymer modified bitumen (PMB). Hence, the developed PMB has been incorporated with 5% filler (limestone) and then pelletised and coated with 1% paper sludge ash to produce PPMB. The outcomes showed that PPMB improved the asphalt properties in terms of stiffness, permanent deformation and fatigue life test, water sensitivity and freeze-thaw cycle; this is due to the development of a strong bonds between the PPMB and the aggregate resulting in stronger and more durable asphalt compared to the traditional hot mix asphalt. Furthermore, the self-compacted mastic asphalt has been developed by incorporating PPMB and fine aggregate. The results demonstrated that modifying the mastic asphalt with 2% gilsonite and 3% low density polyethene has improved the sensitivity to permanent deformation (creep test, wheel track test and indentation test), resistance for water sensitivity and long-term ageing compared to the unmodified mastic asphalt. This implies that the modified mastic asphalt could be used in heavy traffic due to its mechanical and durability properties. The overall results indicated that using the PPMB to produce asphalt and modified mastic asphalt is a successful alternative to the traditional patching materials in different applications.

Delays on construction projects are w result in several negative effects like disputes, lawsuits, total dissertation and abandonment. Thus, identifying, ranking and confronting the causes of delay This paper identifies the causes construction projects in Addis Ababa. categorized in 8 major groups. 43 Contractors, 21 Consultants, and 19 Aluminum Fabricators were asked to evaluate frequency and severity of each cause. Data were analyzed with frequency and importance indices. Agreement of the rankings of importance of the causes between groups was tested. Findings of the research revealed that a consultants experienced a 42% and 52% of delay the groups of respondents attest that cause of delay. They also share the view that important. Consultants distinctly perceive whereas Contractors regard Fabricators view that Material Related causes are second in line. Relative agreement of rank of causes between groups showed a high degree of correlation among the groups of respondents. viii worldwide phenomena. Construction projects delays are important. of delay in aluminum fabrication and installation in This study revealed a total of 52 causes . about 90% of the contractors and 85% of the average delay over original contract period. All Owner induced factors are the most frequent and severe Contractor Related causes are third most that Project related causes are second most severe, related causes as runner-ups. Fabricators hold the

In 2018, Bader et al. published research showing evidence that the level of workplace harassment experienced by expatriates varied according to the expatriate’s gender and the culture of the nation in which they were working. Furthermore, Bader et al. found that the level of harassment experienced influenced important outcomes such as job satisfaction and work-related frustration. Recent research, however, has shown that research results often fail to replicate in subsequent research studies (Anvari & Lakens, 2018; Maxwell et al., 2015; Open Science Collaboration, 2015). In fact, recent replications (Obenauer & Kalsher, 2022; Ubaka et al., 2022) of seminal research on employment discrimination (Rosette et al., 2008) have failed to fully replicate the findings of their target study. Bader et al.’s paper has been downloaded more than 1300 times per year since publication and has already received more than 50 citations. Considering the impact of this work within the context of what is often referred to as a replication crisis, this research is a prime target for replication. Additionally, given the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on expatriates, there is a need to investigate if and how our knowledge of the previous expatriate experience is applicable to today’s context. Building on this, displays of Asian hate that have been observed since the pandemic have illustrated a need to extend Bader et al.’s work beyond looking at gender differences to include race/ethnicity as a factor that would influence harassment experienced

The detailed description about the OMIS (One Machine-Infinite Bus) and the SLIS(Single Load -Infinite Bus)will be done in this paper and the detailed introduction of these two concepts(the coherent generators and the coherent buses) and their aggregation. Based on the new OMIS model, the new methods of identifying the coherent generators and aggregating the coherent generators will be advanced. Based on the coherent generators, the new algorithm for the reserving coefficient of the steady angular stability will comes into being. Based on the new SLIS model, the new methods of identifying the coherent buses and aggregating the coherent buses will be put forward. Based on the coherent buses, the new algorithm for the reserving coefficient of the steady voltage stability will be brought about. A real example is used to validate the idea in this paper. A discussion on the angular references between the online data and the offline data will be done when the phases from the WAMS are used. The steady stability of two generators model will be acquired.

This PhD thesis is a collection of three independent papers with the overall objective to explore the process of leader emotional labour from the perspective of leader identity work, particularly in leader-follower role relationships. Paper 1 takes a relational identity approach to conceptualise underlying emotional dynamics of leaderfollower relationships, using managers in healthcare as an exemplar of leaders who occupy multiple role identities at work. The paper proposes the conceptual framework of leader emotional labour based on the salience of leader role identity and their personal latitude. Some propositions are provided to guide on how to use the developed framework in future research. Paper 2 offers a longitudinal multilevel model of emotional labour changes within leaders. The paper uses random coefficient modelling to analyse the multiwave leader-follower dyadic data. The findings reveal the impact of between-leader difference: leader relational self-concept, and the moderating effect of leader-follower relational self-concept similarity on leaders emotional labour and its changes within leaders over time. With this, the paper proposes a person-based mechanism of emotional labour antecedents that is influenced by the heterogeneity of significant followers in role-relationships. Meaningful changes in emotional labour within leaders over time provide some unique insight into emotional labour processes in leader-follower relationships. Paper 3 investigates indirect effects of emotional labour in leader identity work on supervisor well-being through social validation from followers in the presence of leader identity threat. Using structural equation modelling to analyse the multiwave leader-follower dyadic data, the results illustrate the significant boundary conditions where social validation from followers can function differently in leader emotional labour when their leader identity is under threat.

In an era of global warming, addressing key agricultural development challenges, including reducing food insecurity and feeding a growing population, while building resilience to the adverse effects of climate change and minimising further environmental degradation induced by the agricultural sector requires a transformation of agricultural systems. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is a sustainable agriculture approach that can help guide such a transformation by orienting agricultural system actions towards the realisation of a triple-objective – sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, adapting to climate change, and contributing to lower the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Yet, high levels of inequality in the distribution of land, a key natural resource for agricultural production, and land tenure insecurity may limit opportunities for widespread farmer adoption of CSA. Policy interventions, such as land reforms, that can broaden landless and land-poor farmers’ access to land as well as to markets, infrastructure and advisory services, and that can enhance farmers’ tenure security, may not only help improve equity and efficiency but also contribute to build an enabling environment for CSA, thereby enhancing environmental sustainability. This thesis comprises three papers investigating associations between CSA and land reform, with a particular emphasis on lower-income country settings. The first paper (Chapter 2) introduces and describes a conceptual framework, the Climate Smart Land Reform (CSLR) framework, which builds on theoretical and empirical literature on CSA and land reform and uncovers associations between the two concepts. It describes a CSLR as comprising of four pillars, land redistribution, land tenure reform, markets and infrastructure, and Rural Advisory Services (RAS). These four pillars are considered, within the framework, to have the potential to foster CSA adoption and to generate positive effects on a range of social, political, economic and environmental objectives that land reformers may entertain, including the three CSA objectives. The CSLR framework represents an innovative way to conceptualise how land reforms can contribute not only to socio-economic and political improvements, but also to environmental sustainability. The second paper (Chapter 3) explores the linkage presented in the CSLR framework between the land tenure reform pillar of the framework and the three CSA objectives by examining the land registration and certification programme undertaken at the end of the 1990s in Tigray (Ethiopia). The use of a difference-in-differences approach applied to an original panel dataset constructed from Earth Observation data reveals that the reform has led to progress on the three CSA objectives. This suggests that land tenure reforms can contribute to the achievement of rural development objectives, including objectives associated with climate change. The third paper (Chapter 4) is dedicated to the study of the South African land reform. It includes a historical summary of the causes and of the process that led to its launch, as well as a critical analysis comparing land reformers’ initial intentions with the actual implementation of the land reform. This analysis exposes key issues that have hampered the realisation of land reformers’ original intentions, including the implementation of inadequate measures for the transfer of land and for the provision of support services to land reform participants. Building on these findings, secondary data from a farm-household level survey are used to analyse empirically the association between the land redistribution and RAS pillars of the CSLR framework and CSA adoption. Results from the estimation of binary response models show that land redistribution participation was associated with a higher likelihood of adopting CSA, but only in the absence of RAS, thus providing evidence of the inadequacy of RAS in fostering CSA in the South African land reform context and confirming the need to enhance efforts for the establishment of a well-coordinated, multi-stakeholder and participatory RAS system.

This thesis is composed of four environmental economics essays spanning the topics of climate change, international trade, and meat consumption. The first two chapters bring together approaches from the fields of international trade and climate econometrics. Using reduced-form empirical methods informed by theory, they investigate how international trade and weather shocks interact to affect economic outcomes. Chapter 1 estimates the impact of weather shocks on export sales relative to domestic market sales, finding that in the agricultural sector temperature shocks create additional barriers to international trade, as do precipitation shocks for the manufacturing sector in rainy countries. Chapter 2 examines the historical role of trade openness in the effect of temperature shocks on growth, finding some support for the hypothesis that connectedness to international markets may help to mitigate the impact of temperature shocks on economic growth. Chapter 3 continues the focus on international trade but shifts towards the topic of reduced meat consumption. Using insights from a structural gravity model for international trade, this paper explores how the impact of a tax on meat consumption in the EU can reach beyond borders and generate market signals via international trade mechanisms that undermine (to some degree) the aim of mitigating carbon emissions. Chapter 4 continues the theme of meat consumption but departs from the international trade perspective and instead focuses to the US market. Using granular data on households and stores, this paper interrogates popular stories about plant-based meat substitute products, finding that they remain a niche market and so far have shown limited potential for decarbonizing the food sector. This analysis highlights the potential need for policy intervention to spur demand growth and innovation in this product space. Overall, this thesis contributes to broadening our understanding of the challenges posed by climate change and climate policymaking.

This thesis is composed of four essays on urban and spatial economics. The first two papers are empirical studies evaluating the impact of public policies in England – one looking at transport infrastructure and the other at flood management. The last two papers leverage satellite imagery to investigate the effects of floods and flood risk on urbanisation in developing countries. The first paper focuses on the impact of cycling infrastructure on road traffic in London. It demonstrates that providing segregated cycling lanes increases cycling flows without impacting motorised traffic. Not only do the cycling flows increase immediately after the opening of the dedicated lanes, but they also appear to be on a permanent steeper growth path. One primary causal mechanism investigated is the reduction in accidents along the cycling routes. The second paper analyses the role of natural disasters in local election results in England. It finds that at the electoral ward level, electors punish the incumbent party after a flood during local elections in England – but they are much more likely to do so if the incumbent party aligns with the party in power, both at the local authority and national government levels. There is no evidence that the political party alignment of the incumbent is a significant driving force. However, there is a clear pattern of more votes going to the UK Independence Party in the wake of a flood shock. The third paper of the thesis investigates the causal role of land scarcity and path dependence on the expansion of Chinese cities into high flood risk land. It finds that a naïve OLS regression overestimates the role topographic constraints play in driving urbanisation in high flood risk areas. Once instrumented for, land scarcity due to topographic constraints is not a driver of urbanisation in high flood risk areas: cities expand into high flood risk land despite having safe land to expand on. The last paper explores the medium-term effect of flooding on population growth in Sub- Saharan Africa. It finds that large floods in rural areas have long-term persistent effects on population growth but that the effects are mitigated in large urban areas. Using Demographic and Health Survey data, the paper finds that experiencing a severe flood is associated with worse health outcomes and a higher probability of being classified in the poorest wealth bracket, especially in rural areas. In the medium-term, the analysis shows sorting of the poorest households in high-flood risk areas. This is consistent with a higher out-migration rate from rural areas.

This paper develops a sequential model that specifies the interrelationships among six major variables which determine a sojourner's attitudinal satisfaction with living in another culture. Attitud...

This project explored Japan’s changing security attitudes from 1972 to 2014 under the scope of its official defense white papers, using a method of sentiment analysis. Consistent with previous studies, Japan was highly cooperative with China during the period from 1972 to 1992, a period rightfully characterized as the “Golden Age.” Starting from 1993, faced with a rising China, Japan maintained an overall neutral posture on the official and legal level towards China, but subtle attitudinal changes could be seen. While Japan had praised China for its cooperative efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and active involvement in UN peacekeeping, it also pointed to China’s covert purposes for engaging in such activities and repeatedly raised concerns about a perceived violation of state sovereignty by China on the “Senkaku Islands,” as well as over Beijing’s human rights issues and lack of transparency in military spending. The current project shows that Japan has continued to adopt non-confrontation, non-provocative language even when describing its disputes with China.

Sequencing can provide genomic characterisation of a specific organism, as well as of a whole environmental or clinical sample. High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) makes it possible to generate an enormous amount of genomic data at gradually decreasing costs and almost in real-time. HTS is used, among others, in medicine, veterinary medicine, microbiology, virology and epidemiology. The paper presents practical aspects of the HTS technology. It describes generations of sequencing, which vary in throughput, read length, accuracy and costs ̶ and thus are used for different applications. The stages of HTS, as well as their purposes and pitfalls, are presented: extraction of the genetic material, library preparation, sequencing and data processing. For success of the whole process, all stages need to follow strict quality control measurements. Choosing the right sequencing platform, proper sample and library preparation procedures, as well as adequate bioinformatic tools are crucial for high quality results.

Time series regression models are commonly used in time series analysis. However, in modern real-world applications, serially correlated data with an ultra-high dimension and fat tails are prevalent. This presents a challenge in developing new statistical tools for time series analysis. In this paper, we propose a novel Bernstein-type inequality for high-dimensional linear processes and apply it to investigate two high-dimensional robust estimation problems: (1) time series regression with fat-tailed and correlated covariates and errors, and (2) fat-tailed vector autoregression. Our proposed approach allows for exponential increases in dimension with sample size under mild moment and dependence conditions, while ensuring consistency in the estimation process.

The distribution of the incubation period of the novel coronavirus disease that emerged in 2019 (COVID-19) has crucial clinical implications for understanding this disease and devising effective disease-control measures. Qin et al. (2020) designed a cross-sectional and forward follow-up study to collect the duration times between a specific observation time and the onset of COVID-19 symptoms for a number of individuals. They further proposed a mixture forward-incubation-time epidemic model, which is a mixture of an incubation-period distribution and a forward time distribution, to model the collected duration times and to estimate the incubation-period distribution of COVID-19. In this paper, we provide sufficient conditions for the identifiability of the unknown parameters in the mixture forward-incubation-time epidemic model when the incubation period follows a two-parameter distribution. Under the same setup, we propose a likelihood ratio test (LRT) for testing the null hypothesis that the mixture forward-incubation-time epidemic model is a homogeneous exponential distribution. The testing problem is non-regular because a nuisance parameter is present only under the alternative. We establish the limiting distribution of the LRT and identify an explicit representation for it. The limiting distribution of the LRT under a sequence of local alternatives is also obtained. Our simulation results indicate that the LRT has desirable type I errors and powers, and we analyze a COVID-19 outbreak dataset from China to illustrate the usefulness of the LRT., 34 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables

Blockwise missing data occurs frequently when we integrate multisource or multimodality data where different sources or modalities contain complementary information. In this paper, we consider a high-dimensional linear regression model with blockwise missing covariates and a partially observed response variable. Under this framework, we propose a computationally efficient estimator for the regression coefficient vector based on carefully constructed unbiased estimating equations and a blockwise imputation procedure, and obtain its rate of convergence. Furthermore, building upon an innovative projected estimating equation technique that intrinsically achieves bias-correction of the initial estimator, we propose a nearly unbiased estimator for each individual regression coefficient, which is asymptotically normally distributed under mild conditions. Based on these debiased estimators, asymptotically valid confidence intervals and statistical tests about each regression coefficient are constructed. Numerical studies and application analysis of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative data show that the proposed method performs better and benefits more from unsupervised samples than existing methods., Comment: V2: 40 pages, 2 figures. Accepted at Statistica Sinica

This paper presents the case of a male dialysis patient, with generalised epilepsy, who experienced complications after starting medium cut-off (MCO) dialysis. While receiving haemodiafiltration, the patient’s epilepsy had been relatively well controlled using two antiseizure medications (brivaracetam and sodium valproate). However, the patient’s seizure frequency increased when he was changed to MCO dialysis. MCO is a new dialysis method that has been developed to allow for better clearance of uraemic toxins through its larger pore size. We hypothesise that using the highly permeable MCO membrane changed the seizure threshold by an unknown mechanism. This is the first reported case to observe increased seizure frequency in a patient receiving MCO dialysis. The case highlights the need for caution when prescribing dialysis methods to patients with epilepsy.

In this paper, we report the case of a man in his 30s with a first-episode psychosis, characterised by a subtype of delusional misidentification syndrome in which the delusion of doubles is exclusively of the patient’s own self. This subdivision can be termed ‘syndrome of doubles of the self’ or ‘syndrome of subjective doubles’. Additionally, an examination of the patient’s mental state showed paranoid delusions. After being evaluated in the emergency department, the patient was hospitalised, and medicated with antipsychotic drugs. One week later, he was discharged with total remission of psychotic symptoms. This is a rare and curious presentation of a psychotic episode, with very few similar cases described to date.

Data for spatial transcriptomics on triple negative breast cancers The repository contains a number of (tarballed) directories. byArray - data by array/subarray classification - data relative to the classification / regression at the spot level, as well as the per-annotation gene expressions Clinical - clinical data and link array / samples clustering - data relative to the clusterings - by sample, the megaclusterings and the ecotypes deconvolution - gene expression in each annotation category, for each sample, obtained by deconvolution external datasets - external datasets used to confirm the results Images - original images (jpg, png...) misc - various annotation and other files patches - info about the patch size distribution rawCountsMatrices - raw count matrices Robjects - formatted R objects used for the analyses byArray Data by array/subarray. Mapping between those arrays and samples is in ids.RDS (Clinical directory). In each directory, there are the following files - A Cy3 jpg file giving the location of the spots An HE jpg file which is the H&E image For both image, there can be a .rot version if it was necessary to rotate them for the analysis. spot_data... give the localization of all or selected spots small.jpg is a subsampled version of the image. selection.RData counts of selected spots all.RData counts of all spots allSpots.RData position of all spots annotBySpot.RDS if available, the annotation (in pixel) for each spot artefacts.RDS if present, gives the number of pixels annotated as an artefact in each spot classification Data relative to the classification / regression at the spot level. LOOstart.RData - Data with all the samples together used for the Xvalidation baseClassif.RDS - Rotation / scaling used on the gene-level data loosReg.RData - Result of the Xvalidation classifAll.RDS - Classification of each spot projectedSamples Data at the spot level projected on the PC from baseClassif.RDS. regressors The regressors obtained. Must be loaded with xgboost. baseClassif.RDS is used to rotate the genes prior to classification. See code for details, or use directly the function classifySpots in the STstuff package. Clinical Clinical data. Clinical.xlsx - clinical data as an Excel table, identical to the one of paper Clinical.RDS - clinical data in R format (survival objects already created and slide-level annotation fractions included) ids.RDS - link between arrays and sample IDs clustering Data relative to the clusterings - by sample, the megaclusterings and the ecotypes. intraPatientClust Clusterings in each patient. Each RDS contains the following objects - clusts - the prototypes for the best clustering in 2 to 10 clusters km - the best kmeans for 2 to 10 clusters (cluster id for each spot) qv - quality of the clusterings N - number of clusters for each item / column in clusts / km. scg - score giving how spatial a gene is clustPrototypes Deconvolution of the best prototypes from intraPatientClust. List with the following items - proto - deconvoluted prototypes fit - the fitted model kOrig - the original kmeans k - the kmeans after removing some clusters (which we did not do) Nreads - total number of reads for the spot of each cluster Kmeans MC Kmeans on the deconvoluted prototypes (megaclustering), in 5 to 20 clusters. looMC Leave-one-out cross validation of the recovery of the MC in the bulk dataset. MC deconv Deconvolution of the MC at the spot level. Each file contains the following objects - m - the fraction of each MC in each spot idSpot - the id of each spot (slide and position) fm2 - the fitted model deconvolution Per-annotation gene expressions used for TLS / tumor /stroma etc analyses. Each file is an RData, containing - prot - the expression in each annotation, as pseudo-counts fm - the fitted models Ntot - the pseudo-number of spots corresponding to each annotation, obtained by summing the fractional presence in each spot (e.g. 2 spots with 50% of annotation in each equal 1 spot). external datasets External datasets used to confirm the results. otherTNBC SCAN-B and METABRIC iSpy2 Data from Ispy2 Immunotherapies - directory with data for immunotherapies with expression data Images The original images in png/jpg/ndpi format. imageAnnotation Original annotation images. Coded as - colAnn2 = c(Nothing="#FFFFFF", Tumor="#017801", Necrosis="#000000", `Fat tissue`="#000080", `Low TIL stroma`="#ff904f", Vessels="#dc0000", Artefacts="#6e2400", `Lactiferous duct`="#9980e6", `High TIL stroma`="#e9e900", `in situ`="#ccffcc", `Lymphoid nodule`="#80801a", `Hole (whitespace)`="#40e5f6", Lymphocyte="#c4417f", `Stroma cell`="#ff9980", Nerve="#4d8080", `Heterologous elements`="#808080", `Acellular stroma`="#e9d1bb", `Tumor region`="#258a15") imagesLarge Original H&E images in high def, not rotated/translated. The annotated image is not rotated either so those can be directly compared. imagesHD Original H&E images in highest def. Similar to imagesLarge but bigger. artefacts Contours from Qpath used to flag artefacts in non-annotated images. Correspond to imagesLarge. Images IHC CD3/CD20 IHC images that were used to help slide annotation. Note that those images are on a subsequent slide, and so do not correspond exactly to any of the subarrays. misc Various files that are used for image registration, deciding what to plot, annotations, etc. The most useful ones are described here. For the others check the code (in particular ST TNBC figs.R for plotting). registration.xlsx Transformations applied to superpose the images. Columns: pts: patient ID fixed: ref slide moving: the slide to transform theta: rotation dx, dy: translation inv: if X, do a flip In R, the transformation for the images are (using EBImage) if (!is.na(tr$inv)) { x = flip(dta[[i]]$im); spots[,"pixel_y"]=dim(x)[1]-spots[,"pixel_y"]; } x = rotate(x, tr$theta, filter='none', output.dim=dim(dta[[i]]$im)[1:2]+600, bg.col='white') x = translate(x, c(tr$dx, -tr$dy), bg.col='white') # The +600 is to have all the slide after rotation. It is removed below Regarding the spot positions: spots[,c("pixel_x", "pixel_y")] = transfo(c(tr$theta*base::pi/180, tr$dx, -tr$dy), as.matrix(spots[,c("pixel_x", "pixel_y")]), ctr=dim(dta[[i]]$im)[1]/2) The slides are then recentered to keep only the part with spots. sp = colRanges(do.call(rbind, lapply(dta, function(i) as.matrix(i$spots[,c("pixel_x", "pixel_y")])))); sp[,1] = sp[,1]-50; sp[,2]=sp[,2]+50; for (i in seq_along(dta)) { x = translate(dta[[i]]$im, -sp[,1], bg.col='white'); dta[[i]]$im = x[300+(0:diff(sp[1,])), 300+(1:diff(sp[2,])), ]; dta[[i]]$spots[,c("pixel_x", "pixel_y")] = dta[[i]]$spots[,c("pixel_x", "pixel_y")] - rep(sp[,1], each=nrow(dta[[i]]$spots)) } patches Data on patch sizes distribution. Each RDS is a list, with items Np Number of pixels of each annotation (before dilatation) patches also a list, each item giving the size of each patch for each annotation. rawCountsMatrices tsv files by array obtained directly from the sequencing. Robjects R objects of the various basic data, used for the analyses. counts Counts per gene per spot. Batch-corrected. Lists with items: cnts: matrix of counts spots: ids of the spots (pixels are relative to the "images" files) countsNonCorrected Similar to "counts", but not batch-corrected images Lists with one item per slide (so 2-3 per sample) For each slide there are two items: img: image in EBImage format spots: positions of the spots on that image imagesSmall Same as images, but with smaller images. Usually big enough to display. The "spots" info are rescaled to fit the image size. annotsBySpot Lists with items: annots: matrix, N pixels annotated as class ... on each spot spots: position of the spots annotated annotationRecoded Annotation images (imageAnnotation) recoded as a matrix of values 1 to 17. The values correspond to the order of colAnn2 (see imageAnnotation directory), so 1 = Nothing 2 = Tumor 3 = Necrosis and so on BatchCorrection The negative binomial fit parameters used to correct for the array-specific batch effect. There are also the following files - bulkCount.RDS Counts per gene from the bulk RNA. PB_count.RDS Counts per gene from the pseudo-bulk RNA (obtained by summing values from each spot for a alide).

Obstructed hemivagina with ipsilateral renal anomaly (OHVIRA) is a rare congenital genitourinary defect with a triad of unilateral vaginal obstruction, uterine anomaly and ipsilateral renal agenesis. This paper reports an unusual presentation of OHVIRA, with our patient experiencing severe abdominal pain from a left tubo-ovarian abscess that is contralateral to the side of the vaginal outflow obstruction. Another reportable finding is our patient’s rare association of a trifid ureter that fuses distally before inserting ectopically in her vaginal canal. Lastly, this case report also emphasises the importance of radiologists’ expertise in suspecting the diagnosis early on and in contributing to the preoperative evaluation of patients with OHVIRA, thereby providing adequate management for these patients.

Acral fibromyxomas are benign tumours ranging in size between 0.6 and 5 cm, commonly found around the nailbed. The often asymptomatic presentation of acral fibromyxomas means that there is often a delay in their diagnosis and subsequent treatment. The objective of this paper is to present the unique case of a fibromyxoma present in the acral region, as well as a review of the literature.

In this paper, a novel strategy in the application of the parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) to a four-way voltammetric dataset was improved to evidence the interaction of etoposide (ETO) and calf thymus deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to determine the ETO-DNA binding constant. PARAFAC is one of the most commonly used techniques applicable to the decomposition of higher-order data arrays to focus on features of interest and provides a different resolution of the chemical problem of interest. Under optimized conditions, peak current data of a seven-sample set containing DNA in the range of 2.0–90.0 µM in the presence of ETO at a constant concentration (10 µM) at five different pHs were recorded as a function of potential and frequency and then arranged as a four-dimensional array. The characteristic curves of ETO and ETO-DNA complex were monitored from the potential, frequency, pH, and DNA concentration profiles obtained by PARAFAC decomposition of the fourth-order array. The binding constant, which is one of the principal parameters for the estimation of drug-DNA interaction and mechanism, was computed from the DNA concentration profile. The consequence of drug-DNA binding constant (K = 1.26 × 106) indicated that there was a significant interaction between ETO and DNA with the intercalation mechanism.

A man in his 70s was referred to the endocrine surgery department after incidental finding of hypercalcaemia during preoperative work-up for abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. The patient reported severe fatigue and malaise with no previous history of nephrolithiasis or osteoporosis. After biochemical confirmation of primary hyperparathyroidism, localisation studies suggested multiple gland disease. Intraoperatively, three enlarged parathyroid adenomas were found and excised. Histopathological and immunohistochemical examination revealed triple water clear cell (WCC) parathyroid adenomas. Adenomas being entirely composed of WCCs are rare. In addition, triple adenomas are so rare that their existence is disputed by some authors. The present paper reports on an extremely rare case of a patient suffering from triple parathyroid adenomas composed entirely of WCCs. To our knowledge, this is the first such reported case in the English language literature.

The definition of the mandibular angle profile is a common challenge for oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Accurate diagnosis and treatment planning are mandatory in order to properly manage soft and hard tissues. The use of several biomaterials is described in the literature. The present paper reports the treatment of a defect in the right mandibular angle in otomandibular syndrome sequelae by positioning polyetheretherketone (PEEK) patient-specific implants (PSI) in a 25-year-old patient who previously underwent orthognathic surgery. Satisfactory aesthetic results were achieved with no complications 12 months after surgery. Considering its advantageous physical properties and the low rate of postoperative complications reported in the literature, PEEK can increase the treatment options for recontouring not only the upper third and the middle third of the face, but also of the lower third, in particular in cases of large three-dimensional defects.

A man in his twenties with a history of recurrent sinusitis was urgently referred to the emergency department (ED) by an out-of-hours general practitioner following a 2-day history of increasing right eye pain, redness and swelling after a week of coryzal symptoms. He denied visual impairment and any history of recent dental pain or procedures. Initial assessment in ED noted fever, tachycardia and hypotension. Video consultation with ophthalmologist in the ED identified proptosis, periorbital erythema and chemosis with full eye movement solely affecting the right eye. Visual acuity of 6/6 was confirmed in both eyes. After review by the ear, nose and throat (ENT) team, a diagnosis of sinogenic right orbital cellulitis was made, empirical antibiotics started and care transferred to the ENT team for immediate surgical intervention. 48 hours postoperatively, the patient acutely deteriorated, developing ophthalmoplegia and visual acuity of 6/95 in the right eye. Repeat imaging demonstrated a deteriorating picture and urgent surgery was organised at a neighbouring hospital’s specialist ENT unit combined with a change to his antibiotics. On day 4, 1 day following transfer, an anaerobic bacterium,Eggerthia catenaformis,was isolated from blood cultures collected on admission. The patient improved clinically following the second surgery and targeted antimicrobial therapy, eventually being discharged 10 days after initial presentation. In addition toE. catenaformis, the Anaerobic Reference Unit (Cardiff) identified two further anaerobic bacteria,Parvimonas micraandDialister pneumosintes. This paper presents the first documented case of polymicrobial anaerobic orbital cellulitis secondary to acute bacterial sinusitis. Moreover, this case underpins the importance of broad empirical antibiotics coupled with surgical source control to effectively manage a rare but sight-threatening and life-threatening disease.

How are abstract concepts such as ‘freedom' and ‘democracy' represented in the mind? One prominent proposal suggests that abstract concepts are grounded in emotion. Supporting this ‘affective embodiment' account, abstract concepts are rated to be more strongly positive or more strongly negative than concrete concepts. This paper demonstrates that this finding generalizes across languages by synthesizing rating data from Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish and Spanish. However, a deeper look at the same data suggests that the idea of emotional grounding only characterizes a small subset of abstract concepts. Moreover, when the concreteness/abstractness dimension is not operationalized using concreteness ratings, it is actually found that concrete concepts are rated as more emotional than abstract ones. Altogether, these results suggest limitations to the idea that emotion is an important factor in the grounding of abstract concepts. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences’.

Lipomas are benign tumours of mesenchymal origin, representing one of the most common tumours of the body. They are often observed between the fourth and the sixth decade of life and in 13% of the cases they occur in the head and neck region. In case of symptoms, surgical removal is the treatment of choice; when the formation involves the temporal region, the surgical approach is often challenging due to the presence of the neurovascular structures, such as the temporalis branch of the facial nerve and their potential extension to the nearby structures under the zygomatic arch to either the infratemporal fossa or the buccal region. Recurrence can occur frequently only if there is incomplete removal of lipoma. In this paper, the authors discuss surgical pitfalls of a very rare case of a large-sized symptomatic lipoma extended to the infratemporal and pterygomaxillary fossa, surgically removed via trans-zygomatic hemicoronal approach.

Humans rely on both kin and non-kin social ties for a wide range of support. In patrilocal societies that practice village exogamy, women can face the challenge of building new supportive networks when they move to their husband's village and leave many genetic kin behind. In this paper, we track how women from 10 diverse communities in rural Bangladesh build supportive networks after migrating to their husband's village, comparing their trajectories with women who remained in their childhood village (Bengali: n = 317, Santal: n = 36, Hajong: n = 39, Mandi: n = 36). Women who migrated for marriage started with almost no adult close kin (mean 0.1) compared to women who remained in their childhood village (mean 2.4). However, immigrants compensated for the lack of genetic kin by a combination of close affinal kin and close friends. By their late 20s, immigrants reported substantially more non-kin friends than did non-immigrants (mean 1.4 versus 1.1) and a comparable number of supportive partners in several domains. These findings raise questions about the functions and quality of these different social ties and how different composition of supportive networks may provide different opportunities for women in these settings. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’.

Cooperative networks are essential features of human society. Evolutionary theory hypothesizes that networks are used differently by men and women, yet the bulk of evidence supporting this hypothesis is based on studies conducted in a limited range of contexts and on few domains of cooperation. In this paper, we compare individual-level cooperative networks from two communities in Southwest China that differ systematically in kinship norms and institutions—one matrilineal and one patrilineal—while sharing an ethnic identity. Specifically, we investigate whether network structures differ based on prevailing kinship norms and type of gendered cooperative activity, one woman-centred (preparation of community meals) and one man-centred (farm equipment lending). Our descriptive results show a mixture of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ features in all four networks. The matrilineal meals network stands out in terms of high degree skew. Exponential random graph models reveal a stronger role for geographical proximity in patriliny and a limited role of affinal relatedness across all networks. Our results point to the need to consider domains of cooperative activity alongside gender and cultural context to fully understand variation in how women and men leverage social relationships toward different ends.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’.

This research paper aims to study the axes of the transition towards blockchain technology, how to apply it in Islamic financial institutions, obstacles of actual implementations and the proposed solutions. Islamic financial institutions must keep pace with technological developments, especially with regard to strategic changes, development of work mechanism, performance efficiency, accuracy of operations performance, service speed with cost and security of operations, and the impact of this on the competitiveness of Islamic financial institutions with international and traditional financial institutions, and the impact of all of this on the success and effectiveness of financial institutions. The role of blockchain technology in developing the performance of financial institutions and the huge change in the way of work that has emerged is the importance and severity of the need for technology, especially during the pandemic, for an effective transformation towards blockchain technology considering cases studies is very important to manage the change through the following three main axes: Technology: how to choose the right technology and the right technology partner. Procedures: The development of procedures has a major and effective role in improving and controlling all operations in general, achieving the best productivity, reducing waste of time and money, and controlling better workflow and costs and removing obstacles. Employees: One of the most important factors affecting the application of modern technologies and the success of development and change is the mechanism of work in financial institutions. Keywords: Islamic, Financial, Blockchain, institutions, Transformation.

We investigate the value of a two-armed Bayesian response adaptive randomization (RAR) design to investigate early preterm birth rates of high versus low dose of docosahexaenoic acid during pregnancy. Unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic forced recruitment to pause at 1100 participants rather than the planned 1355. The difference in power between number of participants at the pause and planned was 87% and 90% respectively. We decided to stop the study. This paper describes how the RAR was used to execute the study. The value of RAR in two-armed studies is quite high and their use in the future is promising.