LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Strategic Interaction among Governments

Strategic interaction among governments has recently become a major focus of theoretical and empirical work in public economics. One branch of the literature analyzes strategic interaction due to various kinds of “spillovers.” For example, in a model with pollution spillovers, the preferred level of abatement in one jurisdiction depends on policies chosen elsewhere (for a survey, see Wilson 1996). While other types of spillovers also lead to interaction, a different mechanism is at work in tax competition models, where governments levy taxes on a mobile tax base. Recognizing that their tax bases shrink as tax rates rise, large jurisdictions choose their rates in strategic fashion, with an eye on choices made elsewhere (for a survey, see Wilson 1999). A related body of literature focuses on “welfare competition,” analyzing income redistribution by state governments when the poor migrate in response to differentials in welfare benefits. In such models, states choose benefit levels in strategic fashion taking account of the mobility of the poor and the choices of other jurisdictions (for a survey, see Brueckner 2000). Spurred in part by these theoretical developments, strategic interaction among governments is now the focus of a growing empirical literature. Most studies in this literature test for strategic interaction by estimating reaction functions, which show how a jurisdiction responds to the choices of neighboring jurisdictions in setting the level of its own decision variable. If the estimated reaction function shows interdependence among policy choices, the presence of strategic interaction is confirmed. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of conceptual issues in the theoretical and empirical literatures on strategic interaction. The discussion
jContractor: Introducing Design-by-Contract to Java Using Reflective Bytecode Instrumentation

Design by Contract is a software engineering practice that allows semantic information to be added to a class or interface to precisely specify the conditions that are required for its correct operation. The basic constructs of Design by Contract are method preconditions and postconditions, and class invariants. This paper presents a detailed design and implementation overview of jContractor, a freely available tool that allows programmers to write “contracts” as standard Java methods following an intuitive naming convention. Preconditions, postconditions, and invariants can be associated with, or inherited by, any class or interface. jContractor performs on-the-fly bytecode instrumentation to detect violation of the contract specification during a program’s execution. jContractor’s bytecode engineering technique allows it to specify and check contracts even when source code is not available. jContractor is a pure Java library providing a rich set of syntactic constructs for expressing contracts without extending the Java language or runtime environment. These constructs include support for predicate logic expressions, and referencing entry values of attributes and return values of methods. Fine grain control over the level of monitoring is possible at runtime. Since contract methods are allowed to use unconstrained Java expressions, in addition to runtime verification they can perform additional runtime monitoring, logging, and analysis.
British Women Writers and the Short Story, 1850–1930

List of Illustrations Introduction Feminine Occupations 1. The Spinster Re-Drawing Rooms in Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford 2. M.E. Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, and the Specter of Social Critique 3. Possessing London: The Yellow Book's Women Writers 4. Barbara Baynton and Katherine Mansfield's Unsettling Women Conclusion Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, and Narratives of Obscurity Bibliography Index
Handwritten Hindi Text Segmentation Techniques for Lines and Characters

This paper mainly deals with the new methods for line segmentation and character segmentation of overlapping characters of Handwritten Hindi text. The text is segmented into lines, lines into words and then from lines words header lines are detected and converted as straight lines. Each word is divided into three parts upper modifier, consonant and lower, so that character segmentation becomes easy. Algorithm is finding the header lines and base lines by estimating the average line height and based on it. This algorithm works efficiently on overlapped characters for different text sizes and different resolutions images.
Adding Once-Daily Lixisenatide for Type 2 Diabetes Inadequately Controlled With Newly Initiated and Continuously Titrated Basal Insulin Glargine

OBJECTIVE
When oral therapy for type 2 diabetes is ineffective, adding basal insulin improves glycemic control. However, when glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) remains elevated because of postprandial hyperglycemia, the next therapeutic step is controversial. We examined the efficacy and safety of lixisenatide in patients with HbA1c still elevated after initiation of insulin glargine.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
This double-blind, parallel-group trial enrolled patients with HbA1c 7-10% despite oral therapy. Insulin glargine was added and systematically titrated during a 12-week run-in, after which candidates with fasting glucose ≤ 7.8 mmol/L and HbA1c 7-9% were randomized to lixisenatide 20 µg or placebo for 24 weeks while insulin titration continued. The primary end point was HbA1c change after randomization.


RESULTS
The randomized population (n = 446) had mean diabetes duration of 9.2 years, BMI 31.8 kg/m(2), and daily glargine dosage of 44 units. HbA1c had decreased during run-in from 8.6 to 7.6%; adding lixisenatide further reduced HbA1c by 0.71 vs. 0.40% with placebo (least squares mean difference, -0.32%; 95% CI, -0.46 to -0.17; P < 0.0001). More participants attained HbA1c <7% with lixisenatide (56 vs. 39%; P < 0.0001). Lixisenatide reduced plasma glucose 2 h after a standardized breakfast (difference vs. placebo -3.2 mmol/L; P < 0.0001) and had a favorable effect on body weight (difference vs. placebo -0.89 kg; P = 0.0012). Nausea, vomiting, and symptomatic hypoglycemia <3.3 mmol/L were more common with lixisenatide.


CONCLUSIONS
Adding lixisenatide to insulin glargine improved overall and postprandial hyperglycemia and deserves consideration as an alternative to prandial insulin for patients not reaching HbA1c goals with recently initiated basal insulin.
Serum folate, vitamin B12, and homocysteine in major depressive disorder, Part 1: predictors of clinical response in fluoxetine-resistant depression.

OBJECTIVE
In the present study, we assessed the relationship between serum folate, vitamin B12, and homocysteine levels and clinical response in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who had previously failed to respond to open treatment with fluoxetine 20 mg/day and were enrolled in a 4-week, double-blind trial of either (1) fluoxetine dose increase, (2) lithium augmentation of fluoxetine, or (3) desipramine augmentation of fluoxetine.


METHOD
Fifty-five outpatients (mean +/- SD age = 41.7 +/- 10.6 years; 50.9% women) with MDD as assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R who were enrolled in the double-blind trial had serum folate, vitamin B12, and homocysteine measurements completed at baseline (prior to fluoxetine treatment initiation). Folate levels were classified as either low (< or = 2.5 ng/mL) or normal. Vitamin B12 levels were classified as either low (< or = 200 pg/mL) or normal. Homocysteine levels were classified as either elevated (> or = 13.2 micromol/L) or normal. With the use of a logistic regression, we then assessed the relationship between (1) low or normal folate levels, (2) normal or low B12 levels, and (3) elevated or normal homocysteine levels and clinical response to double-blind treatment. The study was conducted from November 1992 to January 1999.


RESULTS
Low serum folate levels (chi2=3.626, p =.04), but not elevated homocysteine (p >.05) or low vitamin B12 levels (p >.05), were associated with poorer response to treatment. The response rates for patients with (N = 14) and without (N = 38) low folate levels were 7.1% versus 44.7%, respectively.


CONCLUSION
Low serum folate levels were found to be associated with further treatment resistance among patients with fluoxetine-resistant MDD.
Turkish Delight: Does Turkey's Accession to the EU Bring Economic Benefits?

We explore the economic implications of the possible Turkish accession to the European Union. We focus on three main changes associated with Turkish membership: (i) accession to the internal European Market; (ii) institutional reforms in Turkey triggered by EUmembership; and (iii) migration in response to the free movement of workers. Overall, the macroeconomic implications for EU countries are small but positive. European exports increase by around 20 percent. Turkey experiences larger economic gains than the EU: consumption per capita is estimated to rise by about 4 percent as a result of accession to the internal market and free movement of labour. If Turkey would succeed in reforming its domestic institutions in response to EU-membership, consumption per capita in Turkey could raise by an additional 9 percent. These benefits would spill over to the EU. JEL classification: F13, F15.
Calcium in ischemic cell death.

BACKGROUND
This review article deals with the role of calcium in ischemic cell death. A calcium-related mechanism was proposed more than two decades ago to explain cell necrosis incurred in cardiac ischemia and muscular dystrophy. In fact, an excitotoxic hypothesis was advanced to explain the acetylcholine-related death of muscle end plates. A similar hypothesis was proposed to explain selective neuronal damage in the brain in ischemia, hypoglycemic coma, and status epilepticus.


SUMMARY OF REVIEW
The original concepts encompass the hypothesis that cell damage in ischemia-reperfusion is due to enhanced activity of phospholipases and proteases, leading to release of free fatty acids and their breakdown products and to degradation of cytoskeletal proteins. It is equally clear that a coupling exists between influx of calcium into cells and their production of reactive oxygen species, such as .O2, H2O2, and .OH. Recent results have underscored the role of calcium in ischemic cell death. A coupling has been demonstrated among glutamate release, calcium influx, and enhanced production of reactive metabolites such as .O2-, .OH, and nitric oxide. It has become equally clear that the combination of .O2- and nitric oxide can yield peroxynitrate, a metabolite with potentially devastating effects. The mitochondria have again come into the focus of interest. This is because certain conditions, notably mitochondrial calcium accumulation and oxidative stress, can trigger the assembly (opening) of a high-conductance pore in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) pore leads to a collapse of the electrochemical potential for H+, thereby arresting ATP production and triggering production of reactive oxygen species. The occurrence of an MPT in vivo is suggested by the dramatic anti-ischemic effect of cyclosporin A, a virtually specific blocker of the MPT in vitro in transient forebrain ischemia. However, cyclosporin A has limited effect on the cell damage incurred as a result of 2 hours of focal cerebral ischemia, suggesting that factors other than MPT play a role. It is discussed whether this could reflect the operation of phospholipase A2 activity and degradation of the lipid skeleton of the inner mitochondrial membrane.


CONCLUSIONS
Calcium is one of the triggers involved in ischemic cell death, whatever the mechanism.
Novel Ergonomic Postural Assessment Method (NERPA) Using Product-Process Computer Aided Engineering for Ergonomic Workplace Design

BACKGROUND
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) that result from poor ergonomic design are one of the occupational disorders of greatest concern in the industrial sector. A key advantage in the primary design phase is to focus on a method of assessment that detects and evaluates the potential risks experienced by the operative when faced with these types of physical injuries. The method of assessment will improve the process design identifying potential ergonomic improvements from various design alternatives or activities undertaken as part of the cycle of continuous improvement throughout the differing phases of the product life cycle.


METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
This paper presents a novel postural assessment method (NERPA) fit for product-process design, which was developed with the help of a digital human model together with a 3D CAD tool, which is widely used in the aeronautic and automotive industries. The power of 3D visualization and the possibility of studying the actual assembly sequence in a virtual environment can allow the functional performance of the parts to be addressed. Such tools can also provide us with an ergonomic workstation design, together with a competitive advantage in the assembly process.


CONCLUSIONS
The method developed was used in the design of six production lines, studying 240 manual assembly operations and improving 21 of them. This study demonstrated the proposed method's usefulness and found statistically significant differences in the evaluations of the proposed method and the widely used Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) method.
Multiuser subcarrier and bit allocation along with adaptive cell selection for OFDM transmission

−A dynamic multiuser subcarrier-and-bit allocation algorithm with low computational complexity for wideband OFDM downlink transmission is proposed to exploit the multiuser diversity in this paper. Our objective is to maximize the overall spectral efficiency in terms of the number of bits per subcarrier while simultaneously satisfying the requirements on each user’s data rate, Bit Error Rate (BER), and the total transmit power. Our results show that the proposed dynamic subcarrier-and-bit allocation algorithm offers about 6dB performance gain over OFDM using adaptive modulation with fixed subcarrier allocation. Since outage may occur when users happen to be located near the boundary of the cell, a novel adaptive cell selection scheme is proposed to further reduce the probability of outage. Our results show that the probability of outage can be reduced by one order of magnitude.
Targeted anticytokine therapy in patients with chronic heart failure: results of the Randomized Etanercept Worldwide Evaluation (RENEWAL).

BACKGROUND
Studies in experimental models and preliminary clinical experience suggested a possible therapeutic role for the soluble tumor necrosis factor antagonist etanercept in heart failure.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Patients with New York Heart Association class II to IV chronic heart failure and a left ventricular ejection fraction < or =0.30 were enrolled in 2 clinical trials that differed only in the doses of etanercept used. In RECOVER, patients received placebo (n=373) or subcutaneous etanercept in doses of 25 mg every week (n=375) or 25 mg twice per week (n=375). In RENAISSANCE, patients received placebo (n=309), etanercept 25 mg twice per week (n=308), or etanercept 25 mg 3 times per week (n=308). The primary end point of each individual trial was clinical status at 24 weeks. Analysis of the effect of the 2 higher doses of etanercept on the combined outcome of death or hospitalization due to chronic heart failure from the 2 studies was also planned (RENEWAL). On the basis of prespecified stopping rules, both trials were terminated prematurely owing to lack of benefit. Etanercept had no effect on clinical status in RENAISSANCE (P=0.17) or RECOVER (P=0.34) and had no effect on the death or chronic heart failure hospitalization end point in RENEWAL (etanercept to placebo relative risk=1.1, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.33, P=0.33).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of RENEWAL rule out a clinically relevant benefit of etanercept on the rate of death or hospitalization due to chronic heart failure.
Dependent Evidence Combination Based on Shearman Coefficient and Pearson Coefficient

Dempster–Shafer evidence theory is efficient to deal with uncertain information. One assumption of evidence theory is that the source of information should be independent when combined by Dempster’s rule for evidence combination. However, the assumption does not coincide with the reality. A lot of works are done to solve the problem about the independence. The existing method based on the statistical parameter Pearson correlation coefficient discount is one of the feasible methods. However, the Pearson correlation coefficient is only used to characterize the linear correlation between the attributes of the normal distribution. In this paper, a new method is proposed, the Pearson correlation coefficient and Shearman correlation coefficient to generate the discounting factor. Taking the parametric statistic and nonparametric statistic into consideration, the proposed method is more efficient. The experiments on wine data set are illustrated to show the efficiency of our proposed method.
Homing in on helminths.

I am honored to give this lecture dedicated to the memory of Dr. Fred Soper, whose pioneering efforts against the insect vectors of malaria and yellow fever are legendary. Soper and his col leagues also played key roles in restoring the con cept of eradication to respectability after the col lapse of earlier campaigns to eradicate hookworm and yellow fever. When Soper was himself in vited to give the first of five Fred Soper Lectures to mark his retirement as regional director of the Pan American Health Organization in 1959, he entitled his lecture Rehabilitation of the Eradi cation Concept in Prevention of Communicable Diseases.' Ten years later, The World Health Or ganization (WHO)'s abandonment of the de clared goal of malaria eradication marked an other nadir in the acceptability of the concept of eradication, from which we are only now re emerging. One measure of the change is that the Director General of WHO in 1980 wrote that â€œImportant lessons can be learned from smallpox eradica tion, but the idea that we should single out other diseases for worldwide eradication is not among them.â€•2By 1988, the same Director-General had endorsed the goal of polio eradication.3 Under sponsorship of a grant from the Charles A. Dana Foundation, there is now an International Task Force for Disease Eradication, the Secretariat of which is located at the Carter Center. That Task Force has developed criteria for systematically assessing the eradicability of candidate diseases, and has used those criteria to evaluate 15 dis eases so far.4'5 The Task Force plans to review 14 other diseases in 1992. Of the diseases re viewed to date, twoâ€”dracunculiasis and polio myelitisâ€”have been judged to be eradicable, while two othersâ€”rubella and mumpsâ€”were felt to be probably eradicable. Dr. Soper would no doubt be pleased that the
Cancer-related fatigue and rehabilitation: a randomized controlled multicenter trial comparing physical training combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy with physical training only and with no intervention.

BACKGROUND
Research suggests that cancer rehabilitation reduces fatigue in survivors of cancer. To date, it is unclear what type of rehabilitation is most beneficial.


OBJECTIVE
This randomized controlled trial compared the effect on cancer-related fatigue of physical training combined with cognitive behavioral therapy with physical training alone and with no intervention.


DESIGN
In this multicenter randomized controlled trial, 147 survivors of cancer were randomly assigned to a group that received physical training combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (PT+CBT group, n=76) or to a group that received physical training alone (PT group, n=71). In addition, a nonintervention control group (WLC group) consisting of 62 survivors of cancer who were on the waiting lists of rehabilitation centers elsewhere was included.


SETTING
The study was conducted at 4 rehabilitation centers in the Netherlands.


PATIENTS
All patients were survivors of cancer.


INTERVENTION
Physical training consisting of 2 hours of individual training and group sports took place twice weekly, and cognitive-behavioral therapy took place once weekly for 2 hours.


MEASUREMENTS
Fatigue was assessed with the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory before and immediately after intervention (12 weeks after enrollment). The WLC group completed questionnaires at the same time points.


RESULTS
Baseline fatigue did not differ significantly among the 3 groups. Over time, levels of fatigue significantly decreased in all domains in all groups, except in mental fatigue in the WLC group. Analyses of variance of postintervention fatigue showed statistically significant group effects on general fatigue, on physical and mental fatigue, and on reduced activation but not on reduced motivation. Compared with the WLC group, the PT group reported significantly greater decline in 4 domains of fatigue, whereas the PT+CBT group reported significantly greater decline in physical fatigue only. No significant differences in decline in fatigue were found between the PT+CBT and PT groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Physical training combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy and physical training alone had significant and beneficial effects on fatigue compared with no intervention. Physical training was equally effective as or more effective than physical training combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy in reducing cancer-related fatigue, suggesting that cognitive-behavioral therapy did not have additional beneficial effects beyond the benefits of physical training.
The effect of sevelamer carbonate and lanthanum carbonate on the pharmacokinetics of oral calcitriol

BACKGROUND
Lanthanum carbonate and sevelamer carbonate are non-calcium-based phosphate binders used to manage hyperphosphataemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients with CKD may require intravenous or oral active vitamin D. We investigated the effects of lanthanum carbonate and sevelamer carbonate on the bioavailability of oral calcitriol.


METHODS
This was a three-period, crossover study in healthy volunteers. Forty-one individuals were randomized to one of six possible sequences, each consisting of three treatment periods separated by washouts. The treatments were calcitriol (1 μg at lunch), calcitriol with lanthanum carbonate (3000 mg/day) and calcitriol with sevelamer carbonate (7200 mg/day). Serum calcitriol levels were assessed at baseline and throughout the study.


RESULTS
Co-administration of lanthanum carbonate with calcitriol had no significant effect on area under the curve over 48 h (AUC(0-48)) for serum exogenous calcitriol [least-squares (LS) mean, calcitriol with lanthanum carbonate vs calcitriol alone: 429 pg h/mL vs 318 pg h/mL, respectively; P = 0.171]. Similarly, there was no significant effect on maximum concentration (C(max)). In contrast, co-administration with sevelamer was associated with a significant reduction in bioavailability parameters for calcitriol (calcitriol with sevelamer carbonate vs calcitriol alone, LS mean AUC(0-48): 137 pg h/mL vs 318 pg h/mL, respectively; P = 0.024; LS mean C(max): 40.1 pg/mL vs 49.7 pg/mL, respectively; P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Sevelamer carbonate significantly reduces serum concentrations of exogenous calcitriol when administered concomitantly with oral calcitriol, whereas lanthanum carbonate has no significant effect. This should be considered when treating CKD patients who require phosphate binders and oral vitamin D.