Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Right-to-work Laws and Manufacturing Employment: The Importance of Spatial Dependence

Using 2000 decennial census data, we estimate the relationships between right-to-work (RTW) laws and employment in manufacturing and other industries. Estimates that do not account for geographically correlated omitted factors dramatically overstate the positive relationship between RTW legislation and manufacturing employment. We estimate that RTW legislation is associated with an increase in manufacturing's share of private wage and salary employment of 2.12%, an estimate almost 30% lower than the estimate that does not control for these spatially correlated omitted factors. Results for other industries indicate that RTW legislation is negatively associated with employment shares in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining industries and some service industries, but is positively associated with employment shares in the information and professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services industries. Improperly controlling for geographic factors can lead to incorrect inferences and misinform policy.
Metformin reduces weight, centripetal obesity, insulin, leptin, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in nondiabetic, morbidly obese subjects with body mass index greater than 30.

We studied 31 nondiabetic, habitually (> or =5 years) morbidly obese subjects (mean +/- SD body mass index [BMI] 43 +/- 8.7, median 43). Our specific aim was to determine whether metformin (2.55 g/d for 28 weeks) would ameliorate morbid obesity and reduce centripetal obesity; lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol, insulin, and leptin levels; and plasminogen activator inhibitor activity (PAI-Fx), risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD). The patients were instructed to continue their prestudy dietary and exercise regimens without change. After 2 baseline visits 1 week apart, the 27 women and 4 men began receiving metformin, 2.55 g/d, which was continued for 28 weeks with follow-up visits at study weeks 5, 13, 21, and 29. Daily food intake was recorded by patients for 7 days before visits then reviewed with a dietitian. Kilocalories per day and per week were calculated. At each visit, fasting blood was obtained for measurement of lipid profile, insulin, leptin, and PAI-Fx. The mean +/- SD kilocalories consumed per day, 1,951 +/- 661 at entry, fell by week 29 to 1,719 +/- 493 (P =.014) but did not differ at weeks 5, 13, and 21 from that at week 29 (P >.2). Weight fell from 258 +/- 62 pounds at entry to 245 +/- 54 pounds at week 29 (P =.0001). Girth was reduced from 51.8 +/- 6.2 to 49.2 +/- 4.5 inches (P =.0001). Waist circumference fell from 44.0 +/- 6.4 inches to 41.3 +/- 5.9 (P =.0001). The waist/hip ratio fell from 0.85 +/- 0.09 to 0.84 +/- 0.09 (P =.04). Fasting serum insulin, 28 +/- 15 microU/mL at entry, fell to 21 +/- 11 microU/mL at week 29 (P =.0001), and leptin fell from 79 +/- 33 ng/mL to 55 +/- 27 ng/mL (P =.0001). On metformin, there were linear trends in decrements in weight, girth, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, insulin, and leptin throughout the study period (P <.007). Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, 126 +/- 34 mg/dL at study entry, fell to 112 +/- 43 mg/dL at week 29 (P =.001), with a linear trend toward decreasing levels throughout (P =.036). By stepwise linear regression, the higher the entry weight, the larger the reduction in weight on metformin therapy (partial R(2) = 31%, P =. 001). The greater the reduction in kilocalories consumed per day, the greater the decrease in weight on metformin therapy (partial R(2) = 15%, P =. 011). The higher the waist/hip ratio at entry, the greater its reduction on metformin therapy (partial R(2) = 11%, P =. 004). The higher the entry serum leptin, the greater its reduction on metformin therapy (partial R(2) = 29%, P =. 002). The greater the reduction in insulin on metformin, the greater the reduction in leptin (partial R(2) = 8%, P =. 03). The higher the entry PAI-Fx, the greater the reduction in PAI-Fx on metformin (partial R(2) = 43%, P =. 0001). Metformin safely and effectively reduces CHD risk factors (weight, fasting insulin, leptin, LDL cholesterol, centripetal obesity) in morbidly obese, nondiabetic subjects with BMI > 30, probably by virtue of its insulin-sensitizing action.
The economic effects of shorter working hours: The 1989/91 union campaign in the British engineering industry.

This thesis analyses the impact on productivity, employment, overtime, earnings and costs of shorter working hours with particular reference to the 1989/91 campaign by the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU). The events leading up to the CSEU campaign and the reasons for its success are investigated. One result of this union success was the end of national bargaining. The changing role of national bargaining, including why it became a casualty of reduced hours, is also examined. Research on earlier reductions in hours has tended to suggest that productivity rises as a result of reduced hours. A review of this research concludes that the productivity effect of reduced hours has been overstated. It also raises some important methodological issues. The thesis presents research on 20 engineering plants where the 37-hour week was introduced as a result of the CSEU campaign. A variety of managers and union representatives were interviewed. In addition there was a survey of engineering plants. This included plants with unchanged hours. Finally, the effect of unions on working hours in the whole economy is explored using a large data set. The research finds that when engineering hours were reduced hourly earnings typically rose so that weekly pay was unaffected, at least in the short-term. While measures to increase productivity were a feature of collective agreements on reduced hours, there is little evidence that productivity has been permanently increased by reduced hours. The productivity-increasing measures would in general have been agreed without reduced hours, albeit somewhat later in many cases. There is even less evidence that reduced hours have affected output and overtime than there is of a productivity effect. So, increased employment is left as the major consequence of reduced hours. The recession, which was at its most serious when reduced hours were implemented, had a much larger effect on employment. This makes the employment effect of reduced hours hard to observe as it mainly took the form of job retention. Increased costs may well mean that the employment effect of reduced hours is a little less than it would otherwise have been.
Delayed Postischemic Hypothermia Improves Long-Term Behavioral Outcome after Cerebral Hypoxia-Ischemia in Neonatal Rats

Hypothermia may be an ideal neuroprotective intervention in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy after perinatal asphyxia. The present study describes the long-term effects of prolonged resuscitative whole-body hypothermia initiated 2 h after hypoxic-ischemic injury on brain morphology and neuropsychological behavior in 7-d-old rats. After right common carotid artery ligation and exposure to hypoxia of 8% O2 for 105 min, 10 animals were kept normothermic at 37°C and 10 animals were cooled to 30°C rectal temperature for 26 h, starting 2 h after the hypoxic-ischemic insult. All hypoxic-ischemic animals were gavage fed to guarantee long-term survival. Neuroprotection was evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral testing. Hypothermia significantly reduced the final size of cerebral infarction by 23% at 6 wk after the insult. The most extended tissue rescue was found in the hippocampus (21%, p = 0.031), followed by the striatum (13%, p = 0.143) and the cortex (11%, p = 0.160). Cooling salvaged spatial memory deficits verified at 5 wk of recovery with Morris Water Maze test; whereas circling abnormalities after apomorphine injection and sensory motor dysfunctions on rotating treadmill improved, yet did not reach statistical significance. When compared with controls, hypoxic-ischemic animals performed worse in all behavioral tests. Hypothermia did not influence functional outcome in controls. Significant correlations between behavioral performance and corresponding regional brain volumes were found. We conclude that 26 h of mild to moderate resuscitative hypothermia leads not only to brain tissue rescue, but most important to long-lasting behavioral improvement throughout brain maturation despite severity of injury and delayed onset of cooling.
Gender Differences in Spatial Ability within Virtual Reality

The main question that this study addressed was whether the gender differences found in performance within Virtual Reality (VR) are due purely to innate spatial ability differences or due to, at least in part, environmental factors. Examination of the differences, as a function of virtual or real training environments, is important to understanding what can be accomplished with virtual environments and what aspects of VR needs to be studied further in order to maximise their effectiveness. Contemporary research into VR has suggested sex differences in performance are due to females having a poorer innate ability to mentally rotate objects and that this ability underpins the ability to navigate successfully both real and a threedimensional computer generated world. Mental rotation tests (MRT) were used to measure spatial ability as these have been shown to produce consistent and robust sex difference. Environmental factors such as motivation, self-perception and practice were used to manipulate performance on the MRTs to ascertain whether such factors were as important as biological differences. A virtual environment (VE) was also used to test participants on their visualisation, orientation and way­ finding skills along with their ability to recall information from the VE The main results showed that in seven of the nine MRTs and also in the VE tests, no significant sex differences were found. The conclusion was that although there are biological differences that have evolved a male advantage with regards to spatial ability, changes in society and the perception of gender roles has to some
Does government fragmentation enhance or hinder metropolitan economic growth

Economic growth is an important priority for many local governments. There is a long-standing theoretical debate on how to best organize government for economic growth. There is surprisingly little empirical research focusing on how government organization affects regional growth. In this paper we forward several recent measures of government fragmentation in contrast to the common measure of government units per capita to examine how government competition influences growth, testing them in a metropolitan statistics area (MSA) growth model for 1992 - 2002. Going somewhat against the current embrace of regional collaboration, our results suggest that regions with relatively fragmented governments had stronger relative economic performance over the study's time frame. Copyright (c) 2010 the author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2010 RSAI.
Lending relationships, auditor quality and debt costs

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the circumstances under which high quality audits reduce a firm's cost of debt. The paper extends previous research by Pittman and Fortin by considering how auditor quality relates to the capital cycle and industry of the firm. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses a sample of US initial public offerings (IPOs) from 1986 to 1998 to analyze a firm's debt costs for the five years following the IPO. The paper uses a firm's private age as a proxy for its capital cycle and existing banking relationships to capture the likely extent of debt dependence prior to IPO. The authors separately analyze technology firms from other firms. Findings - Consistent with prior literature, it is found that firms that are young at the time of an IPO pay higher interest rates and auditor quality plays a significant role in lowering the cost of debt financing. Consistent with the hypotheses made, the authors also observe that the effect of auditor quality is larger for firms in the high tech industry sector. Further, the relationship between auditor quality and age depends on industry, with the benefits of hiring a high quality auditor primarily accruing to younger tech firms and older non-tech firms. Originality/value - While the issue of auditor quality and cost of debt has been examined by previous researchers, the additional insight that the effect of auditor quality depends on both capital cycle (age) and industry of a firm, increases understanding of the circumstances under which the audit of financial statements is socially desirable and economically valuable to investors and other stakeholders.
Short-term changes in cerebral microhemodynamics after carotid stenting.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The cerebral hemodynamic sequelae of interventions in patients with severe internal carotid artery (ICA) stenoses are not fully understood. In this study, we sought to determine the immediate changes in cerebral perfusion characteristics, determined by MR imaging in patients who have undergone unilateral transluminal angioplasty and stent placement. METHODS Eleven patients with symptomatic high-grade ICA stenosis underwent MR imaging within 4 hours before and within 3 hours after carotid stent placement. First-pass gadolinium-enhanced imaging of perfusion was performed by using a gradient-recalled echo-planar technique. Localized relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) and bolus first-moment transit time (TT(FM)) were calculated for different vascular territories (middle, anterior, and posterior cerebral arteries) in each hemisphere. RESULTS Significantly longer TT(FM) (P <.005) was observed in the symptomatic territory of the middle cerebral artery before intervention. After intervention, TT(FM) remained significantly longer in this territory (P <.05). However, the magnitude of the interhemispheric asymmetry had declined significantly (50-60% reduction; P <.05). No significant differences or changes in rCBV were identified between hemispheres, between images, or in areas of unilateral leptomeningeal enhancement after intervention. CONCLUSION MR can demonstrate short-term partial resolution of timing asymmetry in interhemispheric perfusion after angioplasty and stent insertion for severe stenosis of the ICA.
Risk Perception of the “Mad Cow Disease” in France: Determinants and Consequences

Since 1996, when bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was assessed as a possible human transmissible disease, a variant of Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease (vCJD), French people have entered into a long period of fear and avoidance of beef and bovine byproducts, which produced an unprecedented collapse in the beef market. This article deals with the perceived risk of the “mad cow disease” (MCD) in the French general population. Two surveys were conducted on a representative sample of the adult population, the first one in 2000 during the peak of the crisis and the second one 13 months later in a quieter period. The main assumption we made was that changes in beef consumption are strongly related to the perceived risk of MCD, which we defined as people's cognitive and affective responses to hazard. Our objective was to identify the determinants and consequences of this perceived risk and to compare them in different sociopolitical contexts. The results issued from a bivariate and multivariate analysis show that: (i) the distribution of most of the variables significantly related to the perceived risk identified in the first survey had changed in the second survey, in relation with the reduction of worry and the resumption of national beef consumption; (ii) the propensity for self‐protection through avoiding or ceasing beef eating was more related to feelings of worry than to subjective vCJD risk assessments; and (iii) the main determinant of less avoidance to beef products was the preference for beef, a feeling identified prior to emergence of the risk of MCD, remaining unchanged in various contexts.
Evaluating the impact of 5S methodology on manufacturing performance

After globalisation and liberalisation, quality has emerged as most critical area of concern along with productivity for manufacturing organisations. With the reduction of geographical barriers and the pressure of competing in the global market, overall operational effectiveness has become a necessity for the organisations. The contemporary lean manufacturing attributes characterised by both technology push and market pull have forced the organisations to realise world-class performance by fostering continuous improvements in the products and processes. 5S is a business improvement approach that seeks to find and eliminate causes of defects in business processes by focusing on process outputs that are of critical importance to customers, and as a result process performance is enhanced, customer satisfaction is improved, and the bottom-line is affected through savings and increased revenue. 5S as a management approach to bring about dramatic improvements in manufacturing performance and thereby company's bottom line is undisputed. The present study highlights contributions of strategic 5S initiatives on manufacturing performance and demonstrates the true potential of 5S in achieving manufacturing excellence.
A distributed MAC design for data collision-free wireless USB home networks

USB has been used at an enormous number of USB devices as a universal interface. Advances in USB and wireless communication technologies have led USB-IF (USB Implementers Forum) to establishment of WUSB(Wireless USB) standard 1.0 that has wired USB's speed and compatibility in addition to wireless technology's convenience. The wireless USB provides convenience. However, due to mobility of WUSB devices in multi-hop environment, DRP (Distributed Reservation Protocol) reservation conflicts happen frequently among devices with three-hop distance. To solve this problem, we propose a new DRP reservation scheme using a new 2-hop range DRP Availability IE for three-hop mobility support in WUSB networks with ultrawideband (UWB) technology. It is shown by simulation results that throughputs of devices at frequent three-hop range DRP reservation conflicts are largely increased.
Nurses' ethical perceptions about coercion.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study was to describe Finnish psychiatric nurses' ethical perceptions about coercive measures in acute psychiatric setting. METHODS The data were collected with a questionnaire developed for this study. The sample included 170 Finnish psychiatric nurses on acute wards in five psychiatric hospitals. The data were analysed using frequency and percentage distributions, mean and standard deviations. The internal consistency of the instrument was explored with Cronbach's alpha. The association between the background variables and the sum score of the items of the questionnaire was tested with Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The open-ended question was analysed with content analysis. RESULTS Some psychiatric nurses perceived coercive measures as ethically problematic. In particular, the implementation of forced medication (18%), four-point restraints (16%) and patient seclusion (11%) were perceived as ethically problematic. Female nurses and nurses who worked on closed wards perceived the measures to be more problematic than male nurses and nurses who did not work on closed wards. CONCLUSION In Finland, special attention has been paid to ethical questions related to the care of psychiatric patients and to the enhancement of patients' rights, yet the majority of the nurses participating in the survey did not perceive coercive measures as ethically problematic. More research on this issue as well as further education of the personnel and more extensive teaching of ethics in nursing schools are needed to support the ability of the psychiatric personnel to identify ethically problematic situations. In addition, it is important to consider new measures for generating genuine moral reflection among the personnel on the usage of coercive measures as well as on their effectiveness and legitimacy in the psychiatric care.
Altered distribution of Sertoli cell vimentin and increased apoptosis in cryptorchid rats.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE Sertoli cell cytoskeletons play an important role in the process of spermatogenesis. The authors investigated the effects of cryptorchidism in immature rats on the distribution of Sertoli cell cytoskeletons and the incidence of testis germ cell apoptosis. METHODS Immature 3-week-old rats were made cryptorchid unilaterally, and the distribution of Sertoli cell cytoskeletons by immunohistochemistry and germ cell apoptosis by TUNEL technique were evaluated at different day intervals. RESULTS Immunohistochemical staining from control rats showed that the distribution of vimentin in Sertoli cells changes in developing rats. Basally, it is localized in the perinuclear region of the cell as well as in filament networks that project into the apical Sertoli cell cytoplasm in a "spokelike" pattern. In cryptorchidism, there was an intense vimentin immunoreactivity surrounding Sertoli cell nuclei along with the collapse of the apical extensions. This became significantly evident by 7 days. Microtubules occur in Sertoli cell cytoplasm apical to the nucleus. Cryptorchidism did not alter their distribution. Spontaneous apoptosis of germ cells occurs in the control testis, and a markedly increased incidence of apoptosis was observed in cryptorchidism by 7 days with decreased testis weight. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, the authors propose that Sertoli cells are affected in cryptorchidism, and altered distribution of Sertoli cells vimentin filaments correlates with the increased germ cell apoptosis. Sertoli cell vimentin filaments are important for maintaining the structural integrity of the seminiferous epithelium.
Establishing a time‐line of word recognition: evidence from eye movements and event‐related potentials

THE average duration of eye fixations in reading places constraints on the time for lexical processing. Data from event related potential (ERP) studies of word recognition can illuminate stages of processing within a single fixation on a word. In the present study, high and low frequency regular and exception words were used as targets in an eye movement reading experiment and a high-density electrode ERP lexical decision experiment. Effects of lexicality (word vs pseudoword vs consonant strings), word frequency (high vs low frequency) and word regularity (regular vs exception spelling-sound correspondence) were examined. Results suggest a very early time-course for these aspects of lexical processing within the context of a single eye fixation.
Parents' Participation in Child Protection Practice: Toward Respect and Inclusion

In this article, we focus on parents' opportunities for, and experiences of, participation in child protection decision making in Queensland, Australia. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 10 interviews with parents who have children 0–8 years of age and who have been subject to child protection investigation, we examine parents' perceptions of the process. Parents reported a range of difficulties in interactions with practitioners, including family-related and systemic factors; the most common grievances involved poor communication practices and negative worker attitudes, which created further disengagement. Conversely, interactions involving a willingness to listen, support, and provide for goal-focused plans were seen as facilitating positive outcomes. Taking into account the case complexity and interrelationships between workers' and clients' attitudes and behaviours, we discuss strategies for promoting parents' participation.