Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Renal transplants in cats: 66 cases (1987-1996).

OBJECTIVE To document the morbidity and survival time after renal transplants in cats with end-stage renal failure. DESIGN Retrospective case series. ANIMALS 66 cats that had renal transplants. PROCEDURE Information regarding signalment, history, diagnostic testing, and postoperative morbidity and mortality was retrieved from medical records of cats with renal failure that had renal transplants at the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine between 1987 and 1996. RESULTS 47 of 66 (71%) cats that had renal transplants survived until discharge. Nineteen cats died in the perioperative period. Most common causes of death were seizure-related complications (7 cats) and renal pedicle complications (4). One discharged cat was unavailable for follow-up monitoring. Of the 46 cats discharged and available for follow-up monitoring, 28 died. Most common causes of death in these cats were renal complications (9 cats) and death related to immunosuppression (8; mean and median survival times, 15 and 12 months, respectively). Of the 18 cats that were still living at the time this report was written, mean and median survival times were 26 and 22 months, respectively. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Renal transplantation resulted in long-term survival of many cats that would have otherwise died from, or have been euthanatized as a result of, renal failure. Problems with ureteral obstruction can be minimized. Postoperative CNS disorders were the most prevalent complication.
Ethical and Compliance-Competence Evaluation: A Key Element of Sound Corporate Governance

Motivated by the ongoing post-Enron refocusing on corporate governance and the shift by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK to promoting compliance-competence within the financial services sector, this paper demonstrates how template analysis can be used as a tool for evaluating compliance-competence. Focusing on the ethical dimension of compliance-competence, we illustrate how this can be subjectively appraised. We propose that this evaluation technique could be utilised as a starting point in informing senior management of corporate governance issues and be used to monitor and demonstrate key compliance and ethical aspects of an institution to external stakeholders and regulators.
Public Service Motivation Research : Achievements, Challenges, and Future Directions

This article takes stock of public service motivation research to identify achievements, challenges, and an agenda for research to build on progress made since 1990. After enumerating achievements and challenges, the authors take stock of progress on extant proposals to strengthen research. In addition, several new proposals are offered, among them conducting more research on the disaggregated construct, developing grounded theory of public service motivation to understand contextual variations across cultures and political institutions, and improving current measures to better capture loyalty to governance regime as an institutional dimension of the public service motivation construct.
A Public Choice? Federalism and the Prospects of a Republican Preamble

Republican change in Australia necessarily involves issues of constitutional alteration. Accordingly, the prospects of Australian republicanism turn on the availability of means of constitutional alteration necessary in order to achieve such a change. There is, however, argument over two things: what kind of republic, and what mechanisms are available to achieve the changes necessary to implement the kind of republic preferred. Most of the debate over a republic concerns substantive changes to the main body of the Constitution in order to remove the Queen from the Australian system of government. However, republicanism in Australia is also a highly symbolic thing, and there are republicans who would like to see the references to the British Parliament and the Queen contained in the Preamble and Covering Clauses of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 also removed. This latter idea raises, however, questions about the location of power to alter the Preamble and Covering Clauses. Since the British Parliament abdicated power to legislate for Australia there is no explicit provision which unambiguously includes the power to alter the Preamble and Covering Clauses. This article considers the three possible sources of the power to amend the Preamble and Covering Clauses and, noting that none of them is without its limitations and doubts, argues that the safest and most legitimate approach is to adopt a process which involves a direct referendum (following s 128 of the Constitution) in which a majority of the people in each of the Australian States affirm the proposed change (following 51(xxxviii) of the Constitution and s 15 of the Australia Acts 1986). Such an approach takes into consideration not only the formal mechanisms laid down in the Constitution and Australia Acts, but also gives due weight to the unanimous agreement of the people of the Australian States as the formative basis of the Constitution.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Intestinal Helminth and Protozoa Infections in an Urban Setting of Cameroon: the Case of Douala

Intestinal parasitic infections remains a public health problem in rural areas of low-income and middle-income settings of tropical and subtropical zones however epidemiological evidence is scarce in urban areas. This study aimed to assess the extent of intestinal helminths and protozoa infections among residents of Douala city in Cameroon, and to identify risk factors of their transmission. A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in 2013 on 428 residents from two quarters of Douala city by microscopic examination of a stool sample from each participant simultaneously as fresh wet mounts, Kato-Katz thick smear and smear from formol-ether concentration technique. All participants from the selected quarters were invited to provide a stool sample, and interviewed about demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, sanitary situation, hygiene behaviors, antihelminthic chemotherapy. The overall prevalence of intestinal helminths and protozoa infection was 15,2%. The infection rate was significantly different between quarters (p=0.003). Dwellers harbored helminths, protozoa or both infections. The prevalence of pathogenic intestinal protozoa, namely E.histolytica/E.dispar and G.intestinalis was 8.9% and 0.7% respectively. The prevalence of the non pathogenic protozoa E.coli was 1,6%. Prevalences of helminth namely A.lumbricoides, T.trichiura, S.stercoralis, H.nana and S.mansoni were below 5%. Polyparasitic infections occurred in 2.1% of the participants. The prevalence of intestinal parasites carriage were influenced by age, educational level, dwelling area, household clustering for all parasitic infections taken together, poor sanitation and hygiene behaviors. Intestinal helminth and protozoa infections were hypoendemic in Douala urban area. Amoebiasis, giardiasis, ascaridiasis, trichuriasis, strongyloidiasis hymenolepiasis, and mansoni schistosomiasis were the main infections identified mostly at low prevalent rates. All helminth infections recorded were of low intensity. Provision of health education, improving personal hygiene, potable drinking water supply as well as school based deworming should be the major focus area of all institutions in Douala.
Giardia infection in Auckland and New Zealand: trends and international comparison.

AIMS To describe the epidemiological pattern of Giardia infection in the Auckland region and compare it with national and international patterns of Giardia infection. METHODS Anonymised giardiasis notification data from the Auckland District Health Board for the period July 1996 to June 2000 were analysed by person, place and time. Infection rates and relative risks were calculated and compared with national and international information. RESULTS Auckland had a significantly higher rate of Giardia infection than New Zealand as a whole. Infection rates, which peaked during February-May, were significantly higher in Pakeha/Europeans and Asian/others, compared with Maori/Pacificans. Adjusted notification rates were higher for residents of North Shore and Auckland cities than for other areas of Auckland. The crude regional and national notification rates were almost six times the rate of laboratory identification of positive isolates in the UK and four times US reported rates. CONCLUSIONS The higher rates of giardiasis observed in Auckland and New Zealand, in comparison with other developed countries, may be related to environmental or social factors. Missing ethnicity information precludes clear interpretation of variations in notification rate by ethnic group and suggests a need for improvement in data collection. There are opportunities to investigate the influence of risk factors on seasonal changes in notification rates both locally and nationally.
An empirical study of the underground economy in the Kingdom of Belgium

This article investigates the underground economy in Belgium. Although several government initiatives are attempting to combat underground economic activities, we found illegal foreign workers identifying opportunities and fulfilling market needs. Underground employment thus thrives in a variety of sectors, including the building sector, cleaning houses, delivery jobs, garage business horticulture, hotels, industrial cleaning, and social work.
Strategy, Positioning and Projection in Digital Television: Channel Four and the Commercialization of Public Service Broadcasting in the UK

This article examines the digital televison and interactive strategies of one of Britain’s leading public service broadcasters, Channel Four. They form part of a wider shift in Channel Four’s identity: from a television channel to a cross-platform media company positioned to exploit technological convergence and the expanding media economy. The wider context is one of multiple uncertainties, technological, economic, regulatory and cultural. Channel Four’s DTV strategies developed in the context of a government decree that the broadcasting industry must move to digital in coming years, an injunction that has been met, however, by substantial consumer resistance. Given the uncertainties and heightened competition, the article highlights through the case of Channel Four the contemporary importance for broadcasters of the development of strategy based on business analysis and market research. The article’s focus is an analysis of the rationales given by Channel Four executives for the DTV strategies that were adopted. It points to the centrality in strategic thinking of projections: predictive, future-oriented discourses informed by the abstractions of media analysts. Before that the article gives a periodization of Channel Four’s place within Britain’s broadcasting ecology based on key phases in its changing positioning since its launch in 1982. In doing so it develops a critique and an extension of Bourdieu’s analysis of cultural fields in relation to contemporary broadcasting. In the last section, the article gives a critical evaluation of the current state of the channel, and of the contradictions arising from its commercialization and diversification, one with wider implications for the hybrid model of PSB represented by Channel Four.
Prevalence and differential host‐specificity of two avian blood parasite genera in the Australo‐Papuan region

The degree to which widespread avian blood parasites in the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus pose a threat to novel hosts depends in part on the degree to which they are constrained to a particular host or host family. We examined the host distribution and host‐specificity of these parasites in birds from two relatively understudied and isolated locations: Australia and Papua New Guinea. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we detected infection in 69 of 105 species, representing 44% of individuals surveyed (n = 428). Across host families, prevalence of Haemoproteus ranged from 13% (Acanthizidae) to 56% (Petroicidae) while prevalence of Plasmodium ranged from 3% (Petroicidae) to 47% (Ptilonorhynchidae). We recovered 78 unique mitochondrial lineages from 155 sequences. Related lineages of Haemoproteus were more likely to derive from the same host family than predicted by chance at shallow (average LogDet genetic distance = 0, n = 12, P = 0.001) and greater depths (average distance = 0.014, n = 11, P < 0.001) within the parasite phylogeny. Within two major Haemoproteus subclades identified in a maximum likelihood phylogeny, host‐specificity was evident up to parasite genetic distances of 0.029 and 0.007 based on logistic regression. We found no significant host relationship among lineages of Plasmodium by any method of analysis. These results support previous evidence of strong host‐family specificity in Haemoproteus and suggest that lineages of Plasmodium are more likely to form evolutionarily–stable associations with novel hosts.
Warrants, ownership concentration, and market liquidity

Purpose - Firms issuing equity securities for capital must recognize that this issuance may alter the ownership concentration of the firm. Through this change in ownership structure, the market liquidity of the firm's stock may also change, which has implications for the cost of equity capital and firm value. This paper aims to examine a specific security, the common stock purchase warrant, within this context. It also aims to posit that the decision to issue warrants has important implications for the firm's subsequent ownership structure and market liquidity. Design/methodology/approach - The paper's unique dataset of warrant-issuing firms tracks the warrants from their issue through to their exercise. Based on the study of SEOs by Kothare, the ownership concentration and market liquidity of the underlying stock prior to and following warrant exercises are measured. The paper examines the causal relations between warrant exercises and ownership changes, and between ownership changes and market liquidity. Findings - The paper shows that firms experience a statistically and economically significant decrease in ownership concentration following warrant exercises. Examining the liquidity effects of this change in ownership, it shows that market liquidity increases significantly after the exercise of warrants, consistent with the literature. The decrease in concentration following warrant exercises is experienced exclusively by firm insiders. The paper also finds that outsiders increase their holdings in firms with a high concentration of inside holdings and in firms with a low concentration of outside holdings prior to warrant exercises; that is, they use warrant offerings to increase their influence in the firm. Originality/value - This study is the first to the authors' knowledge that investigates warrants through their entire life span, and the first to examine the effects of warrant exercises on the performance and market liquidity of the firm. The results contribute to securities issuance, ownership, and liquidity literatures.
Convergent and invariant object representations for sight, sound, and touch

We continuously perceive objects in the world through multiple sensory channels. In this study, we investigated the convergence of information from different sensory streams within the cerebral cortex. We presented volunteers with three common objects via three different modalities—sight, sound, and touch—and used multivariate pattern analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to map the cortical regions containing information about the identity of the objects. We could reliably predict which of the three stimuli a subject had seen, heard, or touched from the pattern of neural activity in the corresponding early sensory cortices. Intramodal classification was also successful in large portions of the cerebral cortex beyond the primary areas, with multiple regions showing convergence of information from two or all three modalities. Using crossmodal classification, we also searched for brain regions that would represent objects in a similar fashion across different modalities of presentation. We trained a classifier to distinguish objects presented in one modality and then tested it on the same objects presented in a different modality. We detected audiovisual invariance in the right temporo‐occipital junction, audiotactile invariance in the left postcentral gyrus and parietal operculum, and visuotactile invariance in the right postcentral and supramarginal gyri. Our maps of multisensory convergence and crossmodal generalization reveal the underlying organization of the association cortices, and may be related to the neural basis for mental concepts. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3629–3640, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Non‐Tradable Share Reform, Liquidity, and Stock Returns in China

This article studies the influence of the non-tradable share reform in the cross-section of stock returns in China. Prior research has generally neglected this important development in the Chinese stock market. We find that the firm-specific illiquidity measures that reflect direct transaction costs, price impact and difficulties in trading immediacy, exhibit a positive and significant relationship with stock returns. These effects are particularly pronounced after the non-tradable share reform. Furthermore, in the post-reform era, portfolios with high illiquidity (i.e. high relative bid–ask spread, high Amihud illiquidity, low Amivest liquidity ratio) significantly outperform portfolios with low illiquidity, controlling for size, and book-to-market effects.
Rural sustainability, inter-generational support and mobility

The issue of the resilience of rural areas has again emerged as a result of the economic recession, particularly in the countries of Southern Europe, which have been especially hard hit by cuts in the provision of services. In this paper we focus on the Spanish case to explore the role that mobility plays in the central age groups of the age pyramid in rural sustainability. Based on the results obtained from a representative survey of the population and in-depth interviews carried out between 2008 and 2012, we show how demographic composition and mobility strategies are two central factors in considering the future of rural areas. Their medium and long-term effects have been considered separately, but in this article, their inter-relationship is analysed in the context of the sustainability of Spanish rurality. The conclusions point to the dual effect of mobility: on the one hand, it regulates the actual subsistence of rural populations to the point of making them highly dependent on cars; on the other hand, it transmits social inequalities in the social structure, such as those related to gender.
The Forecasting Performance of Single Equation Models of Inflation

In the US academic literature, it is now widely accepted that it is difficult to generate a more accurate forecast of inflation than a simple autoregressive model, following Atkeson and Ohanian's seminal work. In central banks, however, the conventional view that inflation is ultimately determined by excess demand in the economy is still widely accepted, and research into activity‐based models has continued. We add to this research by examining a range of activity‐based models, with the aim being to determine whether any of these can outperform the autoregressive benchmark, and if so, which performs best. Our results show that an expectations‐augmented, unemployment‐based Phillips Curve can produce significantly superior forecasts of Australian trimmed mean inflation to both the autoregressive benchmark and others at a range of forecast horizons, while mark‐up type models also produce superior results at longer horizons. This outperformance is shown to come from the period in which inflation rose to relatively high rates. These results do not, however, translate to headline consumer price index inflation, suggesting that inflation in the items that are ‘trimmed’ largely reflects ‘noise’, as opposed to any signal of trend inflation.
Trading strategies of the US‐based international mutual funds and test of the SEC regulation

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the predictability of the US-based international mutual fund returns by investigating 2,479 daily observations for all categories of international equity, bond and hybrid mutual funds. Further, trading strategies are proposed and tested under different scenario including a proposed regulation by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Design/methodology/approach - The sample is split and the initial sub sample is used to investigate return patterns of international funds and to develop trading rules based on the predictable return patterns. Trading rules are then tested on the holdout sample. Findings - Empirical results demonstrate statistically significant predictabilities. Various trading strategies show that the returns of both load and no-load funds are economically significant beating a buy-and-hold strategy. Empirical findings are consistent across the fund categories irrespective of sizes and styles. The tested strategies are profitable even with various limits on frequency of trading, minimum holding periods and even under a recent SEC's proposed regulation. Further, possible contracting and regulatory changes are proposed to improve the efficiency in the mutual fund industry. Originality/value - The results confirm previous findings of statistically and economically significant regularities from trading strategies that involve following the US markets. A test of SEC's proposed regulation documents that short-term investors may benefit from active trading strategy even if the SEC's rule is implemented.
Leadership models, methods, and applications.

Over the last decade, the leadership field has grown in a number of new directions. The models of leadership being developed and intensively studied today focus more on what constitutes charismatic or transformational leadership, as opposed to the transactional models of leadership. More of the literature is being generated from overseas as the discipline of leadership globalizes. Methodologies used to study leadership are expanding and include quantitative and qualitative strategies. Leadership is now being modeled and investigated across levels of analysis, including individual, dyadic, collective or shared, and strategic. And more attention is being directed towards examining leadership in the ‘new’ organizational forms. We've attempted to capture the pace of change in the leadership field and to highlight areas where future research discoveries are needed. Our goal was not to simply review the literature on leadership published since last handbook. Instead, we began by outlining areas that clearly require further exploration like the emerging area of virtual team leadership. We've also highlighted the need to study the complex process of leadership development, given the vast amount of attention and resources being dedicated to this area, as well as the opportunity to have ubiquitous leadership development with support from advanced information technology. We've attempted to cover where leaders come from, who they are, what they do, who follows them, and how the context affects what they are able to accomplish. We've included followers in our discussion of leadership, since without followers the field of leadership would be a glass half full. Keywords: cultural values; female leaders; Fieldler's contingency theory; implicit leadership theory; leadership; leadership models, methods, applications; male leaders; triangulation