Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neighbourhood Governance: Contested Rationales within a Multi-Level Setting – A Study of Manchester

Abstract ‘Neighbourhood’ is a long standing concept in local governance which was re-energised as part of the post-1997 New Labour policy paradigm. This paper builds on the work of Lowndes and Sullivan which identified four distinct rationales for neighbourhood working – civic, social, political and economic. The utility of the framework is explored through primary research in Manchester, UK. The research shows that different rationales are held by actors at different locations within the complex system of multi-level governance within which neighbourhood policy is made and implemented. Neighbourhood approaches to urban regeneration exist within a congested governance environment. In Manchester, regeneration has been strongly driven by the self-styled ‘Team Manchester’ who have provided an urban entrepreneurial vision for change in the city. Significantly, however, interventions at the neighbourhood level have shown potential for creating opportunities for citizen and community dissent and empowerment not subsumed with the narrative of the entrepreneurial city. Lowndes and Sullivan's framework provides important analytical building blocks and illuminating tools for understanding neighbourhood approaches. This research points to the merit of a dynamic approach recognising competing perspectives and contested agendas.
Mexican Municipalities and the Flypaper Effect

We investigate the phenomenon of flypaper effect and its relationship with the local tax effort by using a panel data comprising approximately 48 percent of the Mexican municipalities. Our estimations based on the difference and system GMM estimators confirm the existence of flypaper effect. Moreover, we find evidence to suggest that the municipalities are likely to experience substitution effect, i.e., the lower levels of tax effort. We also find that the magnitude of the flypaper effect is an increasing function of the economic well-being of municipalities.
Ethnicity and Earnings in a Mixed‐Race Labor Market

This study examines the relationship between earnings and racial differences in a context in which various races have coexisted and mixed during several centuries, as is true in many parts of the postcolonial world and specifically urban Peru. Coarse indicators of racial differences do not suffice in capturing this relationship; therefore, we introduce a score‐based procedure of white and indigenous racial intensities that allows us to approximate these mixed racial heritages. We introduce a score‐based procedure of white and indigenous racial intensities that allows us to approximate the heterogeneity within the mestizo population. We construct two types of indicators of racial intensities using a score‐based procedure: a single‐dimensional indicator of degrees of whiteness and a two‐dimensional indicator combining degrees of both whiteness and indigenousness. This second indicator allows us to study nonlinearities in earning differences across mixed white and indigenous racial characteristics. Our estimates from a semiparametric model show evidence of a race premium for whiteness on earnings, statistically significant among wage earners but not among the self‐employed. These results may be consistent with a story of employer discrimination.
Public Participation and Claimsmaking: Evidence Utilization and Divergent Policy Frames in California's Ergonomics Rulemaking

Notice and comment provisions in agency rulemaking provide an important mechanism for the public to contribute to policy. Yet there is limited research on how interest groups participate in this process. California's passage of an ergonomics standard in 1997, the only current state statute in the country, provides a useful, high salience policy case for examining public commentary. Between an initially proposed comprehensive standard and the enactment of a much weaker regulation occurred the largest public response in California's state Occupational Safety and Health Administration history. Through a detailed content analysis of the notice and comment submissions we identify features of participation and claimsmaking that differ between business and nonbusiness submissions. Business groups were the large majority of participants and also presented a disproportionate amount of evidence, using an abstract-technical policy frame to assert the illegitimacy of the ergonomics standard. Labor, public health organizations and private citizens represented less than one-third of the participants and relied primarily on experiential information and a concretized-moral characterization of policy issues in support of the standard. The existence of these distinct interpretive communities that mobilize different resources raises questions about whether public commentary can fulfill its purported democratic accountability purpose as well as underline the limitations of appealing to scientific expertise for solving complex policy problems.
Political connection and firm value: an Indian perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to verify existence of political connection of firms in India. For this purpose the paper first presents a theoretical model and then tests empirically the movement of stock prices during two state elections in India. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is theoretical modelling where the paper applies the standard Cournot model of oligopoly. The paper then applies correlation and Wilcoxon Paired Rank Sum test to verify the results of the theoretical model by using data from the Indian stock market during the election results. Findings – The theoretical result states that some firms opt for political connection and some remain independent in an oligopoly. It also shows that political connection affects stock price. The empirical results find out that divergent responses of stock prices to the election results can be linked to politically connection. Research limitations/implications – The theoretical model is a simple two firm model and not generalized to n .
The "Hot Issue" Market of 1980

During the 15-month period commencing in January 1980, the mean return on initial public offerings of common stock purchased at the offering price and sold at the closing bid price on the first day of public trading was 48.4%. This is in contrast to a mean return on initial public offerings of 16.3% during the remainder of the 6-year period 1977-82. This "hot issue" market for initial public offerings was not an isolated event. As first documented by Jbbotson and Jaffe (1975), there have been a number of periods over the last 2 decades in which initial public offerings of common stock have had extremely high returns. Why do these hot issue markets occur? In this paper, I develop an implication of Rock's (1982) model of the underpricing of initial public offerings that can explain this phenomenon. In this model, some types of unseasoned new issues are underpriced more, in an expected-value sense, than others. In particular, high-risk initial public offerings are underpriced more than low-risk ofThis paper analyzes the "hot issue" market of 1980, the 15-month period starting in January 1980 and extending through March 1981 during which the average initial return on unseasoned new issues of common stock was 48.4%. (This is not an annualized return.) This average initial return compares with an average of 16.3% during the "cold issue" market comprising the rest of the 1977-82 period. An equilibrium explanation for this difference in average initial returns is investigated but is found to be insufficient. Instead, this hot issue market is found to be associated almost exclusively with natural resource issues. For firms in other industries, a hot issue market is barely perceptible. *1 am grateful to Joe Mazzotti, Jeff Sams, and John Vilot for outstanding research assistance. Useful comments on earlier drafts were received from Jeff Jaffe, Don Keim, Kevin Rock, Robert Stambaugh, an anonymous referee, participants in seminars at New York University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania, and especially from Harry DeAngelo. This work was partially supported by a grant from the Zweig Forecast. I am solely responsible for all errors of omission or commission, however.
Epidermal growth factor inhibits the expression of myelin basic protein in oligodendrocytes

The major function of the oligodendrocyte is to myelinate axons in the central nervous system (CNS). Two of the components of myelin, galactocerebroside (galc) and myelin basic protein (MBP), have been used as markers of oligodendrocyte maturation in the developing CNS, and it has been found that galc+ cells arise initially, which then mature into MBP+ oligodendrocytes several days later. We have been interested in the control of expression of MBP and have followed its appearance in cultures of brain cells isolated from 4 day‐old mice. In low serum (0.5% foetal bovine serum), approximately 330 MBP+ cells arise per 2 × 105 brain cells after 3 days incubation. We have examined the ability of several growth factors to influence the expression of MBP in these cultures, including epidermal growth factor (EGF), platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF), and the fibroblast growth factors (acidic and basic FGF). EGF was found to suppress strongly the developmental expression of MBP in these cultures, but the suppression was reversible, since the number of MBP+ cells approached control numbers 3 days after removal of EGF from the cultures. It was also found that MBP could be down‐regulated in mature MBP+ oligodendrocytes. The action of EGF in these cultures could be mimicked by transforming growth factor‐α (TGFα). The effects of EGF appear to be associated primarily with MBP production in oligodendrocytes since expression of galc is unaffected by EGF.
Works Councils and Establishment Productivity

Declining union density in many industrialized countries increases interest in alternative forms of employee representation, such as works councils. The German works council is one of the most powerful forms of worker representation in developed countries, but little is known of its causal effect on productivity. The author used a large linked employer-employee panel data set to examine this issue. Comparing firms with and without a works council, the author finds that establishments with a works council are on average 6.4% more productive; but he also presents evidence that this figure underestimates the true productivity effect of works councils.
Lack of beneficial effects of platelet-rich plasma on sinus augmentation using a fluorohydroxyapatite or autogenous bone: an explorative study.

BACKGROUND Maxillary sinus augmentation is frequently necessary before placement of dental implants in the posterior maxilla. Besides autogenous bone graft, various bone substitutes have been used, with favourable results. Although platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been used in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery for years, its beneficial effects on osseous regeneration still remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the short and long time effects of PRP on single-stage sinus augmentation using autogenous bone or a fluorohydroxyapatite (Algipore) in a randomized prospective animal study. METHODS After extraction of maxillary premolars of sixteen minipigs, the wounds were allowed to heal for 2 months. Then, sinus augmentations were performed bilaterally using one of the following grafting materials: autogenous bone and Algipore with or without PRP. Three dental implants (Ankylos) were installed in each sinus simultaneously. Four animals were euthanized at each period of observation (1, 2, 8 and 12 months). Implant-bearing specimens were sectioned bucco-lingually along the long axis of implants and undecalcified ground specimens were prepared. The bone-implant-contact (BIC) was measured by means of microradiographic examination. For histological evaluation, the specimens were stained with toluidin blue, and the percentage of the newly formed bone and the remaining bone substitute were evaluated. RESULTS The grafting materials chosen showed increasing levels of BIC and newly formed bone throughout the period of observation in both PRP and non-PRP groups. Adding PRP resulted in lower BIC and newly formed bone compared with autogenous bone grafts or Algipore alone. However, a statistical significance was not found. The percentages of the remaining bone substitute in both the PRP and non-PRP groups were closely comparable in all observation periods. CONCLUSIONS The application of PRP could not reveal significant beneficial effects on the BIC, the percentage of the newly formed bone and the remaining bone substitute in this study.
Building Cross-Sector Careers in India's New Service Economy? Tracking Former Call Centre Agents in the National Capital Region

This article presents findings from a labour mobility survey of 250 former call centre agents in India's National Capital Region (September 2008) exploring individuals’ employment before, during and immediately after leaving India's high-profile call centre ‘industry’. These data are combined with forty-two in-depth interviews conducted in India's NCR (July 2006 to August 2008) with call centre agents, managers, ex-call centre agents, labour organizers and economic development officials, as well as representatives from different labour market intermediaries. The study gives a cautiously optimistic account about the call centre work and employment opportunities on offer in India's ‘IT Enabled Services – Business Processing Outsourcing’ (or ITES-BPO) industry, and their implications for young urban middle class graduates based on: (i) the movement of around one fifth of the ex-call centre agent sample into further study, facilitated by relatively high call centre salaries; (ii) the movement of ex-call centre agents into higher paying job roles in a wide range of sectors including banking, IT, insurance, marketing, real estate and telecommunications; and (iii) the development of transferable skills in Indian call centres that are recognized by ex-call centre agents and their subsequent employers as conferring a labour market advantage in other sectors of India's new service economy relative to colleagues without prior call centre work experience.
Public service motivation and organizational performance in Swiss federal government

During the last 20 years public sector reforms focused on the increase of organizational performance mainly by implementing managerial tools and methods. The one-sided, output-oriented reforms meet with criticism. In our study we focus on the links between employee attitudes, managerial measures, institutional factors and organizational performance. Therefore, three attitudinal constructs, public service motivation, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, are analysed. The study empirically tests the effects of these dimensions on perceived performance in the federal administration of Switzerland. The analysed data of 13,532 federal employees give insight into the importance of employee commitment to the public interest and the need for goal-oriented management techniques. The results are discussed in light of previous studies. Points for practitioners Public administration research raises more and more criticism against New Public Management reforms. This study, however, shows that there is an important link between managerial techniques and the individual perception of organizational performance in administrative practice. There are a range of private management tools immigrating into the public sector. But for the tools to be effective, practitioners need to integrate them with consideration of the specific requirements of the employee's commitment to the public interest.
Migraine and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study

A recent population-based prospective study reported that in women, migraine with aura (MA), but not migraine without aura (MoA), was associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease events (CHD). We sought to confirm this association in an Australian population-based cohort of older men and women (n = 2331, aged 49-97 years). We defined MA and MoA from face-to-face interview using International Headache Society criteria. Over a mean 6-year follow-up, 30 women (2.8%) and 30 men (4.4%) without any prior CHD history died from CHD-related causes. In women, a history of MA was associated with a non-significant twofold higher risk of CHD death (age-adjusted relative risk 2.2, 95% confidence interval 0.8, 5.8, P = 0.11), which remained similar after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors. There were no CHD deaths in men with a history of migraine. Our findings support reports that in women, MA, but not MoA, may be associated with increased risk of CHD.
Empathetic Dialog Systems

In this paper, we outline an approach of end-to-end interactive systems with emotional embeddings, which are transfered from a large corpus. We show how to apply emotional embeddings trained from Twitter databases with hashtags and emojis as labels in a regression task. We also show that task-oriented dialog systems can be cast in an end-to-end framework using recurrent entity networks and dynamic query memory networks. In addition, we propose to include emotional embeddings into this framework for a more empathetic human-machine interactions. Finally, we show how to train an end-to-end open-domain dialog systems with deep reinforcement learning that learns a sense of humour from TV sitcoms.
Familial Control, Size and Performance in the Largest French Firms

Contrasting with the traditional profit‐maximising economic theory of the firm where managerial discretion is unimportant, there is a growing volume of U.S. economic studies suggesting first, that the large corporation is characterised by a wide dispersion of stock ownership implying a separation of ownership and control; secondly, that the shift in control from owners to managers lead to firms' policies and performance conflicting with stockholders' interests.
Practice of Epidemiology Type-and Subtype-Speci fi c In fl uenza Forecast

Prediction of the growth and decline of infectious disease incidence has advanced considerably in recent years. As these forecasts improve, their public health utility should increase, particularly as interventions are developed that make explicit use of forecast information. It is the task of the research community to increase the content and improve the accuracy of these infectious disease predictions. Presently, operational real-time forecasts of total influenza incidence are produced at the municipal and state level in the United States. These forecasts are generated using ensemble simulations depicting local influenza transmission dynamics, which have been optimized prior to forecast with observations of influenza incidence and data assimilation methods. Here, we explore whether forecasts targeted to predict influenza by type and subtype during 2003–2015 in the United States were more or less accurate than forecasts targeted to predict total influenza incidence. We found that forecasts separated by type/subtype generally produced more accurate predictions and, when summed, produced more accurate predictions of total influenza incidence. These findings indicate that monitoring influenza by type and subtype not only provides more detailed observational content but supports more accurate forecasting. More accurate forecasting can help officials better respond to and plan for current and future influenza activity.
Econometric modelling of the European Community compound feed sector: an application to France

This paper develops a model of the European Community compound feed sector capable of explaining demand for feed ingredients, and the output demand and prices for compound feeds. The adopted framework rests upon the use of duality theory to represent the optimising production decisions of compound feed firms. In addition, an appropriate methodology is suggested to capture the rapid expansion in the consumption of compound feeds in the European Community and their adoption by livestock producers. The model is then applied to the French compound-feed sector using annual time-series data stretching over the period 1962–1980.
microRNAs are biomarkers of oncogenic human papillomavirus infections

Significance Persistent infections with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) lead to development of cervical, penile, anal, and oropharyngeal cancers. The ability to diagnose HPV infections has been dependent on the detection of viral DNA, on virus-associated cytological and histological abnormalities, and on a few virus-induced host proteins. In this study, we identified a subset of host microRNAs regulated specifically by HPV16 or HPV18 infection in in vitro model systems. The elevated expression of miR-16, miR-25, miR-92a, and miR-378 and the decreased expression of miR-22, miR-27a, miR-29a, and miR-100 were attributed to viral oncoprotein E6 or E7. An expression ratio ≥1.5 of miR-25/92a group over miR-22/29a group was found to be informative in distinguishing normal cervix from cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancers. Cellular and viral microRNAs (miRNAs) are the transcriptional products of RNA polymerase II and are regulated by transcriptional factors for their differential expression. The altered expression of miRNAs in many cancer types has been explored as a marker for possible diagnosis and therapy. We report in this study that oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs) induce aberrant expression of many cellular miRNAs and that HPV18 infection produces no detectable viral miRNA. Thirteen abundant host miRNAs were specifically regulated by HPV16 and HPV18 in organotypic raft cultures of foreskin and vaginal keratinocytes as determined by miRNA array in combination with small RNA sequencing. The increase of miR-16, miR-25, miR-92a, and miR-378 and the decrease of miR-22, miR-27a, miR-29a, and miR-100 could be attributed to viral oncoprotein E6, E7, or both, all of which are known to target many cellular transcription factors. The examination of 158 cervical specimens, including 38 normal, 52 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and 68 cervical cancer (CC) tissues, for the expression of these eight miRNAs showed a remarkable increase of miR-25, miR-92a, and miR-378 with lesion progression but no obvious change of miR-22, miR-29a, and miR-100 among the HPV-infected tissues. Further analyses indicate that an expression ratio ≥1.5 of miR-25/92a group over miR-22/29a group could serve as a cutoff value to distinguish normal cervix from CIN and from CIN to CC.
A Study of the Environmental Disclosure Practices of Australian Corporations

Abstract This paper analyses the environmental disclosure practices of Australian corporate entities. The paper documents three separate but related investigations. First, in a review of a sample of annual reports for the 1991 financial year, it is apparent that environmental disclosure practices adopted by the sample are self-laudatory, with companies promoting positive aspects of their environmental performance, but failing to disclose negative aspects. Second, in a review of corporate disclosure practices in the period 1980 to 1991, environmental disclosure made by the sample significantly increases across time. This change is linked to an apparent increase in societal concern relating to environmental issues. Finally, using a questionnaire administered to environmental lobby groups, it appears that the extent of corporate environmental disclosure is positively associated with the environmental lobby groups' concern about the environmental performance of companies within particular industries.