Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transparency mechanisms: building publicness into public services

Recent changes in patterns of public service provision, sometimes associated with the 'regulatory state', have been said to have eroded citizenship and diminished accountability. This paper responds to these challenges by outlining a toolbox of four transparency mechanisms - information, choice, representation, and voice - as alternative devices that can be built into the architecture of public service regimes, to increase responsiveness and answerability. Using insights drawn from cybernetics and transaction cost analysis, this paper looks at the consequences of different choices of combinations of mechanisms in allocating authority in line with competing administrative doctrines of fiduciary trusteeship and consumer sovereignty. Attention is drawn to differences in 'cost profiles' between different public services that can facilitate or inhibit consumer choice as a basis for understanding the suitability of different combinations of mechanisms to specific public services. A contingency model determining the suitability of particular mechanisms to particular services of different 'cost-profiles' is presented. Given the variety of public services and among different public service architectures in the regulatory state, it is argued that this differentiated approach to transparency and accountability provides a more effective response to holding public services accountable than narrower traditional notions of political accountability.
Determining the best forecasting model of cement price index in Malaysia

Malaysia is aiming towards a developed country by the year 2020. Therefore, implementation of Private Financial Initiative (PFI) in Malaysia is needed as a procurement method to improve the delivery and quality of infrastructure facilities and public services in this country. The most essential aspect that needs to be fulfilled in this program is value for money (VFM) whereby maximum efficiency and effectiveness of every purchase is attained. Hence, at the preliminary stage of this study, estimating materials price index in Malaysia is the main objective. This particular paper aims to discover the best forecasting method to estimate cement price index by different regions in Malaysia since cement is the main material used in construction industry. Cement index data used were from year 2005 to 2011 monthly data of different regions in Peninsular Malaysia, and year 2003 to 2011 monthly data in both Sabah and Sarawak. It was found that Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) with linear transfer function produced the most accurate and reliable results for estimating cement price index in every region in Malaysia. The neural network models selection were based on the Root Mean Squared Errors (RMSE), where the values were approximately zero errors and highly significant at p<0.01. Therefore, artificial neural network is sufficient to forecast cement price index in Malaysia. The estimated price indexes of cement will contribute significantly to value for money in PFI and soon towards Malaysian economical growth.
False positive results: a challenge for psychiatric screening in primary care.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to characterize primary care patients with false positive results on screens for mental disorders. METHOD A sample of 1,001 primary care patients completed self-administered screens and structured interviews for DSM-IV diagnoses. RESULTS A substantial proportion of the patients with false positive screen results for at least one diagnosis met the diagnostic criteria for other psychiatric disorders. They also had significantly greater functional impairment and higher rates of recent use of mental health services than the subjects with true negative results on the screens. CONCLUSIONS Although the positive predictive values of screens for specific mental disorders are in line with those of other medical screens, false positive results are not uncommon. This may be due in part to the sensitivity of brief screening instruments to nonspecific symptoms. The results suggest that as with other screens used in primary care, patients with false positive results on screens for mental disorders should receive clinical attention.
DEFENCE WHITE PAPER

• What are the main threats to, and opportunities for, Australia’s security? • Are Defence’s policy settings current and accurate? • What defence capabilities do we need now, and in the future? • How can we enhance international engagement on defence and security issues? • What should the relationship be between Defence and defence industry to support Defence’s mission? • How should Defence invest in its people, and how should it continue to enhance its culture?
Does the Exchange Rate Regime Affect Export Volume? Evidence from Bilateral Exports in Us-Uk Trade: 1900-98

By utilizing the techniques of multivariate cointegration and error correction models, we investigate the impact of the different exchange rate regimes that spanned the twentieth century on the bilateral exports between the UK and the USA over the last 99 years. Our results support two conclusions. First, fixed exchange rate regimes and managed float exchange rate regimes are equally conducive to trade. Second, freely floating exchange rate regimes are more conducive to trade than fixed exchange rate regimes.
Connective tissue growth factor in drug-induced gingival overgrowth.

BACKGROUND Drug-induced gingival overgrowth is a known side effect of certain chemotherapeutic agents used for the treatment of systemic disorders. The pathogenesis and mechanisms responsible for this condition are not fully understood. This study assesses for the presence and localization of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in drug-induced gingival overgrowth tissues. CTGF immunostaining was compared with sections stained with transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 and CD31 antibodies in order to investigate possible pathogenic mechanisms. METHODS Gingival overgrowth samples were obtained from patients undergoing therapy with phenytoin (n = 9), nifedipine (n = 4), cyclosporin A (n = 5), and control tissues from systemically healthy donors (n = 9). Tissue sections were subjected to peroxidase immunohistochemistry and were stained with CTGF and TGF-beta1 polyclonal primary antibodies. Possible relationships between CTGF staining and angiogenesis were also studied using an anti-CD31 antibody as a marker for endothelial cells. Staining was analyzed by computer-assisted quantitative and semiquantitative methodology at 5 defined sites in all samples based on the location of specific landmarks including epithelium and underlying connective tissues. RESULTS Cellular and extracellular CTGF content in phenytoin gingival overgrowth tissues was significantly (P<0.05) higher compared to the other gingival overgrowth tissues and the controls. Higher CTGF staining in phenytoin gingival overgrowth tissues was accompanied by an increased abundance of fibroblasts and connective tissue fibers. No strong association of CTGF staining with TGF-beta1 or CD31 staining was found. CONCLUSIONS The data from the present study show significantly higher CTGF staining in phenytoin-induced gingival overgrowth tissues compared to controls, cyclosporin A-, or nifedipine-induced gingival overgrowth. Moreover, semiquantitative analyses of histologic samples support the concept that the phenytoin overgrowth tissues are fibrotic. These associations suggest a possible role for CTGF in promoting development of fibrotic lesions in phenytoin-induced gingival overgrowth.
An Analysis of the Tax Revenue Components in Sub-Sahara Africa

Reforming the tax system in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) will require a closer look at the individual tax revenue components, not just tax revenues as a whole. The findings in this paper established that tax revenue determinants affect the individual tax revenue components in different ways. In this connection, we find that the tax structure in SSA is skewed towards indirect taxes because the existing structural, institutional and policy characteristics in these countries are not conducive for the collection of direct taxes. On the other hand, indirect taxes are less susceptible to these influences, hence can be collected with little effort.
Paradata in the European Social Survey: Studying Nonresponse and Adjusting for Bias

The ESS is a biennial face-to-face survey of attitudes, opinions and beliefs in around 30 European countries. The target response rate is 70%, but in practice response rates are often lower and vary across countries. This paper presents an overview of the paradata that are collected in the ESS and of the purposes for which they are used. It also describes the different auxiliary variables that have been used to assess and adjust for nonresponse bias: population statistics, interviewer observations, data from doorstep questionnaires and follow-up studies, and paradata derived from the „contact forms‟. It also devotes attention to the balance between high national quality and optimal comparability across countries.
On the Heterogeneity of Leveraged Going Private Transactions

In contrast to previous literature, we argue that are two types of poorly performing firms going private through a leveraged buyout (LBO). One group consists of firms in which managers own an insignificant fraction of their firm's stock and are vulnerable to a hostile takeover. The other group consists of firms in which managers own a significant fraction of their firm's stock and so face little risk of hostile takeover. Our evidence indicates that there are two such groups of LBOs and that their motivations and posttransaction actions are different. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Customer Satisfaction in Retail Banking

The primary aims of this article are to examine the rationale behind the emergence of customer satisfaction as an explicit corporate objective in retail banking and to postulate the view that if it is to be attained it will necessitate wide-ranging cultural change on a hitherto unprecedented scale. This change will in essence witness the emergence of retail banks as highly cost- sensitive, marketing-oriented organisations. In the process they will become increasingly externally driven, anticipating and responding to customer needs, in terms ofproduct development and delivery systems. Thereby they will recognise that customer service is fundamentally an externally driven strategy, being a response partly to increased competition and partly to increased demands from customers.
Decidual and peripheral blood TCRαβ + CD 3 + CD 4-CD 8-double negative regulatory T cells in early pregnancy subjects and unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion patients

Accumulating evidences have demonstrated that TCRαβ+CD3+CD4-CD8NK1.1-double negative regulatory T cells (DN Tregs) are highly potent immune suppressors and play an important role in down regulating immune responses in autoimmunity, transplant rejection, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). Whether human DN Tregs play a role in maternal-fetal immunological tolerance hasn’t been reported yet. In the present study, to explore the possible role of human DN Tregs in unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA), we compare the frequency and function of peripheral and/or decidual DN Tregs of 22 women with normal history of reproduction, 31 normal early pregnant women and 42 URSA patients through flow Cytometry and cell proliferation assays. The proportion of DN Tregs in decidua was significantly higher than peripheral blood both in URSA patients and normal early pregnant women. It is the proportion but not the suppressive ability of DN Tregs decreased in peripheral blood and decidua of URSA patients than normal early pregnant women. Our result suggests that human DN Tregs enrich in decidua and may contribute to the mechanisms mediating maternal-fetal immunological tolerance and may be involved in protection the fetus during pregnancy in human. Also, DN Tregs may serve as a novel target in URSA treatment.
The merchant banker, the broker and the company chairman: A new issue case study

Abstract This paper explores the roles of a merchant banker, Everard Hambro, and the chairmen of two companies, Thames Iron and Trollope, Colls & Co., in the restructuring of their companies at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their correspondence provides evidence that the choice of corporate capital structure had little to do with company needs or risk characteristics. Instead, Hambro, in concert with stockbrokers, concentrated on ensuring that the securities issued conformed in amount, type and price to market norms, including the avoidance of stock watering. The company chairmen concentrated on ensuring that they retained control and that the new issues were deemed a success.
Is There Less Discrimination in Occupations Where Recruitment Is Difficult?

The authors empirically test the cross-sectional relationship between hiring discrimination and labor market tightness at the level of the occupation. To this end, they conduct a correspondence test in the youth labor market. In line with theoretical expectations, results show that, compared to natives, candidates with a foreign-sounding name are equally often invited to a job interview if they apply for occupations for which vacancies are difficult to fill; but, they have to send out twice as many applications for occupations for which labor market tightness is low. Findings are robust to various sensitivity checks.
Does privatisation drive innovation? Business model innovation through stakeholder viewpoints: the case of Sydney Airport 10 years post-privatisation

Abstract Broad economic and social reform, rapid technological change and increasing global competition have meant that organisations must consider all aspects of their business model in order to successfully create and capture ongoing customer value. In this study it is proposed that business model innovation must always consider and incorporate the symbiotic and interdependent relationship that stakeholders have with an organisation. One particular aspect of economic reform, privatisation, has become an important driver of economic growth in many economies, particularly when linked with the rapid growth of air travel. Privatisation of an airport can generate a radical change in the overall business model for the airport owner and the various stakeholders involved in the operation of the airport. Sydney Airport has restructured its overarching business model to meet the demands of stakeholders. Using feedback from key stakeholders, this research examines the generally accepted view that airport privatisation leads to an improvement in airport performance. Chesbrough's Business Model Framework provides a lens to assist the analysis of Sydney Airport operations before and after privatisation, and provides valuable insights into the impact of privatisation on business model innovation.
Predicting GPCR-G-protein coupling using hidden Markov models

MOTIVATION Determining the coupling specificity of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) is important for understanding the biology of this class of pharmacologically important proteins. Currently available in silico methods for predicting GPCR-G-protein coupling specificity have high error rate. METHOD We introduce a new approach for creating hidden Markov models (HMMs) based on a first guess about the importance of various residues. We call these knowledge restricted HMMs to emphasize the fact that the state space of the HMM is restricted by the application of a priori knowledge. Specifically, we use only those amino acid residues of GPCRs which are likely to interact with G-proteins, namely those that are predicted to be in the intra-cellular loops. Furthermore, we concatenate these predicted loops into one sequence rather than considering them as four disparate units. This reduces the HMM state space by drastically decreasing the sequence length. RESULTS Our knowledge restricted HMM based method to predict GPCR-G-protein coupling specificity has an error rate of <1%, when applied to a test set of GPCRs with known G-protein coupling specificity. AVAILABILITY Academic users can get the data set mentioned herein and HMMs from the authors.
Time dependence of bias-stress induced threshold-voltage instability measurements

Silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are very attractive devices for high temperature, high frequency, and high power applications, allowing voltage controlled transistor operation with limited cooling requirements. However, interfacial charge (interface traps, oxide traps, and fixed charge) at and near the SiC-SiO2 inversion channel-gate insulator interface can lead to degradation in device performance by reducing the effective channel mobility and shifting the threshold voltage. The threshold voltage instability measurement is a method of determining a lower bound for the number of oxide traps present. Finally, a shift of 1 V could cause a dramatic increase in the subthreshold current, leading to a dramatic increase in drain leakage in the off state if the threshold voltage is not positive enough.
Synthesis and characterization of cross-linked chitosan microspheres for drug delivery applications

The present study deals with the synthesis and characterization of cross-linked chitosan microspheres containing an hydrophilic drug, hydroquinone. The microspheres were prepared by the suspension cross-linking method using glutaraldehyde as the cross-linking agent of the polymer matrix. Perfectly spherical cross-linked hydrogel microspheres loaded with hydroquinone were obtained in the size range of 20–100 μm. The effect of the degree of polymer cross-linking, chitosan molecular weight, chitosan concentration and amount of the encapsulated drug on the hydroquinone release kinetics was extensively investigated. It was found that slower drug release rates were obtained from microspheres prepared by using a higher initial concentration of chitosan, a higher molecular weight of chitosan or/and a lower drug concentration. Most importantly, it was shown that the release rate of hydroquinone was mainly controlled by the polymer cross-linking density and, thus, by the degree of swelling of the hydrogel matrix.
The Impact of Brain Temperature and Core Temperature on Intracranial Pressure and Cerebral Perfusion Pressure

&NA; Hyperthermia has been demonstrated to increase neuronal injury when present during or after an acute brain injury. The assumption that core temperature equals brain temperature exists. If the temperature of an injured brain is higher than core temperature, episodes of neural hyperthermia may go undetected. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine if differences exist between brain temperature and core temperature in subjects with acute neurological injuries in both normothermic and febrile states and (2) investigate the impact of brain and core temperatures on intracranial pressure (ICP) and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP). The study was conducted through a retrospective chart audit of patients age 18 years or older admitted to a level I trauma center with a diagnosis of brain injury whose condition warranted placement of a pulmonary artery catheter (which measured core temperature) and an intraventricular catheter (which measured brain temperature). Thirty‐one charts contained complete data; nine charts provided partial data. Mean brain temperature (100.8 °F, SD = 0.69) was found to be significantly higher than mean core temperature (100.2 °F, SD = 0.74; p = .00). Brain temperature means were hyperthermic (≥100.9 °F), while matching core temperatures were normothermic in almost one‐third of the subjects. There was no significant difference found between hyperthermic ICP or CPP and normothermic ICP or CPP determined by brain or core temperature. No significant correlation was found between temperature and intracranial dynamics. Future research is needed with prospectively collected data of adequate sample size to continue to investigate the impact of core and brain temperature on the intracranial dynamics of ICP and CPP.
ORGANIZATION AND NATIONALITY IN THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION SERVICES

Existing literature on the internal functioning of the European Commission services indicates that officials’nationality does have an impact on their policy-making behaviour. Students of western national administrations on the other hand, have found the geographical and social backgrounds of officials to be highly insignificant. However, given the unresolved tension between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism in the European Union, this seeming inconsistency may be understandable. In this article, an effort is made to specify some of the organizational and policy-related conditions under which nationality might be particularly important in order to understand decision behaviour. Interview data gathered from 38 Norwegian officials who had been seconded to the Commission are used to make an explorative appraisal of the assumptions put forth.
Forestry income management and poverty reduction: empirical findings from Kongo, Cameroon

This article examines different uses of forest-based incomes by local communities in Cameroon. Following, the 1994 forestry legislation, local communities have had the opportunity to derive income from forests in the form of annual fees from logging companies, and through the creation of community forests. Currently, several village communities are benefiting from these financial mechanisms, which should allow them to reduce their chronic poverty and to develop. However, this study undertaken in the village of Kongo indicates how these incomes are generally poorly managed and diverted by local elites. This finding runs contrary to the poverty-reduction objective underlying the development of community forests and the allocation of a proportion of forest taxation to local populations. A profound change in direction is required, through instituting democratic local governance. This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis.
Family-Related Opinions and Stressful Situations Associated with Psychological Distress in Women Undergoing Infertility Treatment

The purpose of this study is to investigate how family-related opinions and stressful situations are related to psychological distress in women undergoing infertility treatment. The subjects in this cross-sectional study were recruited from female patients undergoing infertility treatment (n = 2540) at 70 infertility treatment institutions in Japan. Because of non-participation or missing data, the number of subjects included in the analysis was 635 (response rate, 25.0%). The family-related opinions and stressful situations were evaluated using the original questions. Psychological distress was assessed using a self-report measure, the Kessler Six-question Psychological Distress Scale (K6). The K6 scores of the following participants were significantly (p < 0.05) and independently high: those with more frequent miscarriage/stillbirth/abortions, those with repeated miscarriages as the cause of infertility, those with infertility of unknown causes, those living with no child, those having a low joint income with their partner, those with the opinion that “women should devote themselves to their household duties” those who had considered stopping treatment, those without the opinion that “married life without children is favorable” and those who had experienced stressful situations such as inadequate explanation by doctors, frustration of multiple failed attempts, differences of opinion with the partner, and lack of knowledge regarding when to stop treatment. Family-related opinions and stressful situations associated with psychological distress in women undergoing infertility treatment are outlined. The results of this study may contribute to the prevention of and care for psychological distress in female patients undergoing infertility treatment.