Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MANAGERS, PROFESSIONAL AND DISCRETION IN STREET-LEVEL BUREAUCRACIES

Lipsky brackets off managers’ motivation and the influence of professionalism as occupational ideology in his analysis of discretion in street-level bureaucracies. He assumes that managers are a uniform group that shares a common commitment to the effective implementation of policy. Street-level bureaucrats, a broad group of front-line workers made up of a range of occupational groups, are similarly treated as a uniform group, but one which, unlike managers, is unencumbered by concerns and commitments outside the self-interest needed to survive in ‘the corrupted world of service’. I will argue that these assumptions are problematic and that they lead to a crude approach to understanding the nature and uses of discretion within street-level bureaucracies. In considering these issues I will draw on a qualitative study of streetlevel bureaucrats (social workers) and their managers in different teams within the same local authority. The study suggests that ‘management’ is not an homogenous group and that managers themselves exercise significant discretion in a range of ways that directly influence street-level services. The study also suggests that the idea of professionalism plays a significant role in structuring discretion, but to different degrees in the different settings. Overall I will argue that there is a need to extend street-level bureaucracy theory and move beyond sweeping assumptions about the motivation and commitments of key actors in the analysis of the construction and uses of discretion in street-level bureaucracies.
Non-steady-state measurement of in vivo radioligand binding with positron emission tomography: specificity analysis and comparison with in vitro binding

We previously have developed a non-steady-state method for in vivo measurement of radioligand-receptor binding in brain using positron emission tomography (PET) and 18F-spiperone (18F-SP). This method has proven to be highly sensitive to the detection of decreases in the apparent number of available specific binding sites. The purposes of this investigation are to demonstrate the specificity of this PET assay and compare findings to in vitro binding assays. Three to six studies were performed in each of five male baboons. Each animal was pretreated with either ketanserin [serotonergic (S2)], eticlopride [dopaminergic (D2)], or unlabeled SP to compete with 18F-SP for specific binding sites. Sequential PET scans and arterial-blood samples were collected for 3 hr after intravenous injection of 18F-SP. Data were analyzed with a three-compartment model that considered the accumulation of radiolabeled metabolites in arterial blood. Five baboons were killed, and radioligand-receptor binding in vitro was measured by homogenate techniques. There was no detectable in vitro or in vivo specific binding of SP in cerebellum. The specific binding of SP in striatal tissue in vitro was approximately 74% to D2 sites and 26% to S2 sites, whereas ketanserin displaced all specific binding in frontal cortex. In close agreement, specific binding measured in vivo with PET revealed that 68% of apparent striatal binding could be blocked by pretreatment with eticlopride, and 34% by ketanserin. The small apparent difference between receptor binding in vitro and in vivo may result from the relatively poor resolution of PET. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Research design : successful designs for social and economic research

Key to Abbreviations Preface 1. Introduction 2. Part One: Types of Research Study 3. Research Reviews, Meta-analysis and Secondary Analysis 4. Qualitative Research 5. Administrative Records and Documents 6. Cast Studies 7. Ad Hoc Sample Surveys 8. Regular Surveys 9. Longitudinal Studies 10. Experimental Social Research 11.Part Two: Putting Together a Research Design 12. Choices and Combinations 13. Research Programmes 14. The Organisation and Funding of Research 15. Cross-National Comparative Studies 15. Conclusion Bibliography Author Index Subject Index
A pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma subpopulation is sensitive to FK866, an inhibitor of NAMPT

Treating pancreatic cancer is extremely challenging due to multiple factors, including chemoresistance and poor disease prognosis. Chemoresistance can be explained by: the presence of a dense stromal barrier leading to a lower vascularized condition, therefore limiting drug delivery; the huge intra-tumoral heterogeneity; and the status of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. These factors are highly variable between patients making it difficult to predict responses to chemotherapy. Nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (NAMPT) is the main enzyme responsible for recycling cytosolic NAD+ in hypoxic conditions. FK866 is a noncompetitive specific inhibitor of NAMPT, which has proven anti-tumoral effects, although a clinical advantage has still not been demonstrated. Here, we tested the effect of FK866 on pancreatic cancer-derived primary cell cultures (PCCs), both alone and in combination with three different drugs typically used against this cancer: gemcitabine, 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) and oxaliplatin. The aims of this study were to evaluate the benefit of drug combinations, define groups of sensitivity, and identify a potential biomarker for predicting treatment sensitivity. We performed cell viability tests in the presence of either FK866 alone or in combination with the drugs above-mentioned. We confirmed both inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity. Interestingly, only the in vitro effect of gemcitabine was influenced by the addition of FK866. We also found that NAMPT mRNA expression levels can predict the sensitivity of cells to FK866. Overall, our results suggest that patients with tumors sensitive to FK866 can be identified using NAMPT mRNA levels as a biomarker and could therefore benefit from a co-treatment of gemcitabine plus FK866.
Reflection groups of Lorentzian lattices

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence for the following new principle: interesting reflection groups of Lorentzian lattices are controlled by certain modular forms with poles at cusps. We use this principle to explain many of the known examples of such reflection groups, and to find several new examples of reflection groups of Lorentzian lattices, including one whose fundamental domain has 960 faces.
Scalable Rendering on PC Clusters

Sandia National Laboratories use PC clusters and commodity graphics cards to achieve higher rendering performance on extreme data sets. The main obstacle in using cluster-based graphics systems is the difficulty in realizing the full aggregate performance of all the individual graphics accelerators, particularly for very large data sets that exceed the capacity and performance characteristics of any one single node. Based on our efforts to achieve higher performance, we present results from a parallel sort-last implementation that the scalable rendering project at Sandia National Laboratories generated. Our sort-last library (libpglc) can be linked to an existing parallel application to achieve high rendering rates. We ran performance tests on a 64-node PC cluster populated with commodity graphics cards. Applications using libpglc have demonstrated rendering performance of 300 million polygons per second $approximately two orders of magnitude greater than the performance on an SGI Infinite Reality system for similar applications.
A method using linguistic and acoustic features to detect inadequate utterances in medical communication

We have previously proposed two methods using both linguistic and acoustic features separately to detect inadequate utterances in medical communication. However, some inadequate utterances could not be detected because these methods only considered either linguistic or acoustic features, whereas, in general, people use both features to judge an utterance. In this paper, we propose a method using both linguistic and acoustic features. The linguistic features are based on not only word frequency but also sentence and conversation structures. The acoustic features are based on the variances of power and fundamental frequency (F0). A Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to learn these two types of features compositely. The experimental results showed that the precision of proposed method using both linguistic and acoustic features increased 6% from the traditional recognition method and recall of the proposed method increased 14% from the traditional method.
Composing and decomposing ontologies : a logic-based approach — A Case for Support

The project will be jointly undertaken by the University of Manchester and the University of Liverpool. The team members from both institutions are world leaders in their own fields and have, between them, the range of complementary expertise that will be necessary for the successful completion of the project. The project will build on a number of collaborations already established by members of the team. For example,Sattler and Wolter have been jointly working on the relation between first-order and description logics (DLs) and DLs for describing actions and services [21, 2]. Horrocks, Sattler, andWolter are working together on the DynamO project (GR/S63168/01) investigating logics for the description of services and related reasoning problems, and they have jointly organised international events such as the International Description Logic Workshop 2005. Konev andWolter are working on the algorithmic properties of expressive temporal logics and logics for dynamical systems [17, 19]. Horrocks andSattler have designed expressive DLs and practicable reasoning algorithms, and have worked on their usage as logical underpinning for ontology languages [12, 13, 11]. Of particular interest for this project is their joint recent work on modularity of DLs [3, 7]. Parsia, Horrocks andSattler are working together on further developments of OWL, namely OWL 1.1, and on related reasoning problems and tools [8]. Ulrike Sattler is a Reader in the Information Management Group. She has worked in the field of knowledge representation and reasoning since 1994 [14, 13]. Most of her work on practical inference algorithms was carried out in a productive co-operation with Ian Horrocks. An outcome of this line of research was the design of the SH I Q family of DLs: these are DLs that form the logical basis of ontology languages such as OIL, DAML+OIL, and OWL [1]. Besides this “applied” research, she is interested in the computational complexity of inference problems underlying the system services of knowledge representation systems. She is/has been involved in several national and international research projects, including DynamO, Extending Expressive Description Logics (GR/S87171/01), DWQ (Esprit LTR-22469), and TONES (IST-007603-2), and was a DAAD fellow. She was a member of the editorial board of JAIR, is a corner editor of JLC, a member of the DL Steering Committee, and a member of numerous programme committees, e.g., ISWC 2003-2006, ECAI 2006, WWW 2003, AAAI 2006, and AiML 2004.
Partisan policy promises and sector-specific stock-market performance: evidence from Mexico's 2006 presidential campaign

Scholars have long held that partisan politics cause aggregate-level fluctuations in markets. However, if investors hold different policy preferences, the effects of election campaigns on their behavior should be more nuanced. In particular, investors in economic sectors benefiting from neo-liberal economic policies might respond favorably to gains in support by right-leaning candidates, whereas those expected to profit from state-led economic development might react favorably to gains by left-leaning contenders. To test these propositions, I examine stock market performance by economic sector during Mexico's 2006 presidential race. Statistical analysis of pre-election polls and stock market returns during the campaign reveals that, although investors did not react to potential partisan policy change in the ways originally expected, they did respond to polling news differently by economic sector. The findings demonstrate the importance of disaggregating stock, bond, and currency markets according to economic criteria, and thus the limitations of aggregate level analysis for research on politics and markets.
Synthetic TLR Agonists Reveal Functional Differences between Human TLR7 and TLR8

Although TLR7 and TLR8 are phylogenetically and structurally related, their relative functions are largely unknown. The role of TLR7 has been established using TLR7-deficient mice and small molecule TLR7 agonists. The absence of TLR8-selective agonists has hampered our understanding of the role of TLR8. In this study TLR agonists selective for TLR7 or TLR8 were used to determine the repertoire of human innate immune cells that are activated through these TLRs. We found that TLR7 agonists directly activated purified plasmacytoid dendritic cells and, to a lesser extent, monocytes. Conversely, TLR8 agonists directly activated purified myeloid dendritic cells, monocytes, and monocyte-derived dendritic cells (GM-CSF/IL-4/TGF-β). Accordingly, TLR7-selective agonists were more effective than TLR8-selective agonists at inducing IFN-α- and IFN-regulated chemokines such as IFN-inducible protein and IFN-inducible T cell α chemoattractant from human PBMC. In contrast, TLR8 agonists were more effective than TLR7 agonists at inducing proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as TNF-α, IL-12, and MIP-1α. Thus, this study demonstrated that TLR7 and TLR8 agonists differ in their target cell selectivity and cytokine induction profile.
Firm and Country Determinants of Debt Maturity. International Evidence

This paper analyses the effect of firm- and country-level determinants on debt maturity structure and how this effect varies across countries and across firm size. Results for 39 countries show that firm-level variables such as asset maturity, size, firm quality and leverage affect debt maturity structure. Institutions and banking structure also influence corporate debt maturity. While the efficiency of the legal system, protection of creditors’ rights and bank concentration show a positive relationship to debt maturity, the protection of property rights and the weight of banks in the economy have a negative effect on firm debt maturity. However, these firm- and country-level determinants vary according to firm size. The agency costs and signalling hypotheses are more relevant in explaining the debt maturity structure of large firms, while the asset maturity and tax hypotheses are more pertinent in the case of small firms. Most of the country-level determinants of debt maturity are size dependent; in particular, bank concentration has a positive influence on debt maturity only for the subsample of small firms, while the weight of banks in the economy has a negative influence for small firms.
Pareto discriminant analysis

Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is a popular tool for multiclass discriminative dimensionality reduction. However, LDA suffers from two major problems: (1) It only optimizes the Bayes error for the case of unimodal Gaussian classes with equal covariances (assuming full rank matrices) and, (2) The multiclass extension maximizes the sum of pairwise distances between the classes, and does not “simultaneously” maximize each pairwise distance between the classes. This typically results in serious overlapping in the projected space between classes that are “close” in the input space. To solve these two problems, this paper proposes Pareto Discriminant Analysis (PARDA). Firstly, PARDA explicitly models each of the classes as a multidimensional Gaussian with a sample covariance. Secondly, PARDA decomposes the multiclass problem to a set of pairwise objective functions representing the pairwise distance between different classes. Unlike existing extensions of Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA) to multiclass problems, that typically maximize the sum of pairwise distances between classes, PARDA simultaneously maximizes each pairwise distance, thus encouraging the case that all classes are equidistant from each other in the lower dimensional space. Solving PARDA is a multiobjective optimization problem – simultaneously optimizing more than one, possibly conflicting, objective functions – and the resulting solution is known to be “Pareto Optimal”. Experimental results on synthetic data, several image data sets and data sets from the UCI repository show positive and encouraging results in favor of PARDA when compared with standard and state-of-the-art multiclass extensions of LDA.
Comparative study of different control techniques for the regulation of blood glucose level in diabetic patients

Blood glucose regulation is of a great concern for insulin-dependant patients with excessive glucose in blood (hyperglycaemia), or low glucose profile (hypoglycaemia) due to excess insulin delivery. Both conditions can cause dangerous complications for diabetic patients, and hence glucose regulation in blood is of prime importance. Insulin pumps are used to deliver insulin in small quantities, allowing the glucose level to remain as close as possible to that of non-diabetics (near 100 mg dl−1). Different control techniques are used to maintain the glucose level and most of them depend on an exact mathematical or empirical model of insulin–glucose interaction. Recently, we have proposed different controllers that are based on fuzzy logic and so do not use mathematical modelling, which in general is nonlinear, complex and suffers from uncertainties. PI fuzzy controllers are physically related to classical PI and PID controllers, which are extremely popular. The parameter settings of classical and fuzzy logic controllers are based on deep common physical background. In this manuscript, a comparative study is proposed to evaluate the use of fuzzy logic controllers over other conventional controllers such as PI and PID controllers to maintain the blood glucose level within a normoglycaemic average especially when a diabetic patient is subjected to different conditions.
Molecular mimicry in the autoimmune pathogenesis of rheumatic heart disease

Molecular mimicry is a hallmark of the pathogenesis of rheumatic fever where the streptococcal group A carbohydrate epitope, N-acetyl glucosamine, and the α-helical coiled-coil streptococcal M protein structurally mimic cardiac myosin in the human disease, rheumatic carditis, and in animal models immunized with streptococcal M protein and cardiac myosin. Recent studies have unraveled the potential pathogenic mechanisms by which the immune response against the group A streptococcus attacks the rheumatic valve leading to chronic rheumatic heart disease. Both B- and T-cell responses are involved in the process, and evidence for the hypotheses of molecular mimicry and epitope spreading are reviewed.
Gd-DTPA-enhanced MR imaging of cochlear schwannoma.

The majority of eighth cranial nerve tumors are acoustic schwannomas, with greater than 90% arising from the vestib­ ular division within the internal auditory canal. Most originate near the porus acusticus at the gliai-Schwann cell interface. The minority of vestibular schwannomas arise at other loca­ tions along the nerve, such as within the vestibule or at the fundus of the internal auditory canal. Schwannomas arising from the cochlear division in the absence of vestibular involve­ ment or neurofibromatosis are rare. Previously, cochlear schwannomas have been seen primarily at autopsy, although demonstration by CT [1, 2] and polytomography [3] have been reported . CT evaluation of eighth cranial nerve tumors has largely been replaced by MR imaging. The recent availa­ bility of paramagnetic contrast agents has further enhanced the value of MR in the preoperative localization of intracana­ licular or intralabyrinthine tumors [4] . The case reported here represents in vivo demonstration of an isolated cochlear schwannoma by means of paramagnetic-contrast-enhanced MR imaging . The ability to demonstrate the cochlear location of the abnormality had direct bearing on clinical management and surgical planning. Case Report A 36-year-old woman presented with a 3-year history of tinnitus , vertigo, and progressively severe neurosensory hearing loss in the right ear. Audiometric evaluation revealed a 65 dB loss with 20% discrimination. The caloric response was diminished, but the auditory brainstem re sponse (ABR) revealed no delay in the interpeak latency. Acoustic schwannomas involving the vestibular division are most classically associated with an ABR interpeak delay. In the absence of this finding , a lesion of the cochlea or a very small vestibular lesion is suggested. The patient was referred directly to MR for evaluation of the temporal bones and cerebellopontine angles. No CT was obtained.
An improved rate region for the classical-quantum broadcast channel

We present a new achievable rate region for the two-user binary-input classical-quantum broadcast channel. The result is a generalization of the classical Marton-Gelfand-Pinsker region and is provably larger than the best previously known rate region for classical-quantum broadcast channels. The proof of achievability is based on the recently introduced polar coding scheme and its generalization to quantum network information theory.
Randomized versus nondeterministic communication complexity

Our main result is the demonstration of a Boolean function <italic>f</italic> with nondeterministic and co-nondeterministic complexities <italic>O</italic>(log <italic>n</italic>) and ε-error randomized complexity &OHgr;(log<supscrpt>2</supscrpt> <italic>n</italic>), for 0 ≤ ε < 1/2. This is the first separation of this kind for a decision problem.
On the efficiency of the financial system

The United States, as befits the major capitalist economy of the world, has the largest, most elaborate, most sophisticated financial industry in the world. New York is rivalled only by London, which thanks to long-standing international connections and experience, maintains a financial role disproportionate to Britain's declining position in world trade and production. Moreover, finance is one of America's rapid growth sectors.
Bias Reduction in Estimating Long-run Relationships from Dynamic Heterogenous Panels

This paper considers the small sample properties of the mean group estimator of the long-run coefficients in dynamic heterogeneous panels, and using Monte Carlo techniques examines the effectiveness of a number of alternative bias-correction procedures in reducing the small sample bias of these estimates. Four different bias-corrected estimators of the long-run coefficients are considered. A `naive' procedure which attempts to bias-correct the estimator of the long-run coefficients, two variations of a direct approach which derives bias-corrections of the estimators of the short-run coefficients, and a bootstrap bias- correction procedure.
Thinking the Unthinkable: Think-Tanks and the Economic Counter-Revolution, 1931-1983

There is another modern British history - an alternative tradition in our government, politics and economics. It is a history kept rather quiet, a tradition largely hidden from view - suspiciously well hidden, some would say. Thatcher seemed to hit Britain like a thunderbolt from the blue, but her ideas, her policies, her strategies and her vision had all been forged long before she ever arrived at Downing Street. They were first contrived by the anti-Keynesian economist, Friedrich Hayek, the man whose writings inspired Thatcher in all she did. He and his followers began, after World War II, the difficult and uphill task of countering the rise of socialistic collectivism. They were the economic liberals. Among their shock troops, their vanguard of revolutionaries, were Milton Friedman, Alan Walters, Keith Joseph, Ralph Harris, Alfred Sherman, John Biffen and Geoffrey Howe. Theirs was a long, gruelling fight, but in the mid-1970s, they found their ideal secret weapon. Within five years that weapon was running the country, and the rest is history, retold here in a new way. Richard Cockett is the author of "Twilight of Truth: Chamberlain, Appeasement and the Manipulation of the Press", and "David Astor and the 'Observer'".