Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of price increases and other tobacco- control policies

This chapter provides conservative estimates of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of tobacco-control policies. Using a model of the cohort of smokers alive in 1995, we find that tax increases that would raise the real price of cigarettes by 10% worldwide would cause about 42 million of these smokers to quit. This price increase would prevent a minimum of 10 million tobacco-related deaths. A combined set of non-price measures (such as comprehensive bans on advertising and promotion, bans on smoking in public places, prominent warning labels, and mass information) would cause some 23 million smokers alive in 1995 to quit and would prevent 5 million deaths. The non-price measures are assumed to have an effectiveness of 2%—a conservative assumption. Increased use of nicotine-replacement therapies (NRTs), with an assumed effectiveness of 0.5%, would enable some 6 million smokers alive in 1995 to quit and would avert 1 million deaths. The cost-effectiveness of these interventions in low-income and middle-income countries has also been estimated. By weighing the public-sector costs of implementing and running tobacco-control programs against the years of healthy life saved, measured in disability-adjusted life years, or DALYs, we find that price increases on tobacco would be cost-effective in many circumstances. Depending on various assumptions, price increases could cost between US $4 and $34 per DALY in low-income and middle-income countries. Non-price measures are also cost-effective, ranging from $34 to $685 per DALY in low-income and middle-income countries. NRTs with public provision are also cost-effective in low-income and middle-income countries, ranging from $276 to $851 per DALY. Given that, in practice, there is substantial local variation in the likely effectiveness and costs of these interventions, local assessments are required to guide policy.
Comorbid psychiatric diagnosis predicts three-year outcomes in alcoholics: a posttreatment natural history study.

OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of three common comorbid disorders on a variety of outcomes 3 years after inpatient alcoholism treatment. METHOD Using a prospective cohort design, we examined the frequency and intensity of drinking, the severity of alcohol-related symptoms, global alcohol-related outcome and severity of psychiatric symptoms in a group of 225 (74% male) alcoholics. At the index admission, patients were categorized as to the lifetime presence of major depression, antisocial personality disorder (ASP) and drug abuse/dependence. Multiple linear regression was used hierarchically to step in blocks of predictors in a logical sequence: (1) gender and age; (2) number of comorbid psychiatric diagnoses and the presence or absence of the three individual comorbid psychiatric disorders; and (3) the interaction between gender and each of the three diagnostic groups. RESULTS Men showed greater intensity of drinking, more alcohol-related symptoms and poorer global alcohol-related outcome. Younger patients also showed more alcohol-related symptoms. Although the number of comorbid diagnoses was correlated with both the intensity of drinking and the severity of psychopathology, each of the specific comorbid diagnoses accounted for unique variance in outcome. Comorbid drug abuse/dependence was associated with more drinking days and more alcohol-related symptoms. In contrast, the presence of comorbid major depression was associated with lower intensity of drinking. Finally, ASP was associated with poorer global alcohol-related outcome. CONCLUSIONS Outcomes 3 years after alcoholism treatment are related to the presence of specific lifetime comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. Since such disorders may positively influence the course of alcoholism, trials of clinical interventions that target these disorders are warranted.
Identification of the D2‐‐Dopamine Receptor Binding Subunit in Several Mammalian Tissues and Species by Photoaffinity Labeling

Photoaffinity labeling of the D2‐‐dopamine receptor in plasma membrane preparations of various tissues from several mammalian species was performed using the recently developed D2‐‐dopaminergic antagonist probe [125I]N‐(p‐azidophenethyl)spiperone ([125I]N3‐‐NAPS). In tissues containing D2‐‐receptors such as the corpus striatum from rat, dog, calf, hamster, guinea pig, and rabbit as well as the anterior pituitary of rat, bovine, and hamster, the probe covalently labels a peptide of Mr= 94,000. Specificity of the labeling is typically D2‐‐dopaminergic in character. The covalent labeling is blocked by (+)‐butaclamol but not by the inactive (‐) isomer. Agonists block incorporation with the order of potency: N‐n‐propylnorapomorphine > apomorphine > dopamine. The D2‐‐selective antagonist spiperrone blocks labeling of the Mr= 94,000 peptide whereas the D1‐‐selective antagonist SCH‐23390 is ineffective. Thus, these results indicate that the ligand binding subunit of the D2‐‐dopamine receptor resides on a Mr= 94,000 peptide in these various tissues from several species. Under conditions where proteolysis is not stringently controlled, peptides of lower Mr (32–38,000) are labeled at the expense of the Mr= 94,000 peptide. The most efficient protease inhibitor tested in these systems was EDTA, suggesting that the generation of these lower Mr receptor fragments might be the result of a metal‐dependent proteolysis in the membrane preparations. In the rat neurointermediate lobe, a tissue containing D2‐‐receptors. [125I]N3‐‐NAPS specifically labels a major peptide of Mr± 120,000 in addition to the Mr= 94,000 peptide. This peptide may represent an unprocessed or differently processed form of the receptor or a pharmacologically similar but biochemically distinct form of the receptor in this tissue. Alternatively, the Mr= 94,000 peptide labeled in all the other tissues, even under the conditions used, may already represent a fragment of this high‐Mr peptide.
Comparing attentional skills in children with acquired and developmental central nervous system disorders

Attentional impairments in children occur in the context of both developmental and acquired disorders involving the central nervous system (CNS) and may have implications for ongoing development, potentially impeding cognitive, educational, and behavioral functions. Using a continuous performance paradigm (CPT), this study compared attentional profiles of children with developmental and acquired conditions impacting on the CNS: (i) attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD: n = 27); (ii) moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI: n = 41); (iii) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n = 31); and (iv) insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (n = 39). A healthy control group (n = 46) was also examined. Groups were compared on measures of sustained attention, selective attention, and response inhibition. In addition, measures of performance variability and deterioration and processing speed were examined. Results showed that children with ADHD exhibited global and severe attentional impairments in contrast to all other groups. Children with moderate TBI displayed mild attentional difficulties, restricted to selective and sustained attention domains. In conclusion, although CPT parameters differentiated the ADHD group from all others, a disorder-specific profile was not observed. (JINS, 2006, 12, 519–531.)
Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Remains the Principal Cause of Initial Anogenital Herpes in Edinburgh, Scotland

Goal: The goal of this study was to investigate the trends in the prevalence of anogenital herpes caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV) type-1 and HSV-2 among patients attending a sexually transmitted infections clinic. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of virologically proven first-episode genital herpes diagnosed in the Department of Genitourinary Medicine in Edinburgh between 1989 and 2002. Results: First-episode anogenital herpes was associated with HSV-1 in 659 (62%) women and 294 (42%) men (P <0.0002). HSV-1 was recovered more often from women younger than 25 years than from older women (P <0.0005). For both HSV-1 and HSV-2 infections, the median ages of heterosexual men (26.0 and 28.0 years, respectively) were significantly higher than those of women (23.0 and 25.0 years, respectively)(P <0.05). The median age of men who have sex with men with HSV-1 (29.0 years) was significantly higher than that of heterosexual men (26.0 years)(P <0.01). Conclusion: HSV-1 remains the most common cause of symptomatic first-episode anogenital herpes, especially among young women in our clinic population.
Managing Catastrophic Risk Through Insurance and Securitization

In recent years, the magnitude of catastrophic property/casualty disaster risks has become a major topic of discussion. Recent catastrophic events such as Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge earthquake each cost the insurance industry in excess of $10 billion. These events illustrate the potential stresses which the insurance industry is now facing. In addition, concentration of values in catastrophe-prone coastal areas has caused an increase in the amount of damage. When loss exposures are (partially) correlated, the design of an optimal risk sharing contract is based on a decomposition of the risk into systemic, i.e., non-diversifiable, and idiosyncratic, i.e., diversifiable, parts. This decomposition allows us to apply two complementary risk sharing rules: risk mutualization and risk securitization. In his classic 1962 article, Borch showed that Pareto optimal risk sharing in an economy with risk-averse agents is one in which each shares the aggregate wealth. This is risk mutualization. When aggregate wealth is riskless and without transaction costs, agents can fully insure. If aggregate wealth is risky, then individuals may insure idiosyncratic risk but retain shares in aggregate wealth according to their tolerance towards risk. This mutual-
Female labour force participation, fertility and infant mortality in Australia: some empirical evidence from Granger causality tests

This study applies Granger causality tests within a multivariate error correction framework to examine the relationship between female participation rates, infant mortality rates and fertility rates for Australia using annual data from 1960 to 2000. Decomposition of variance and impulse response functions are also considered. The main findings are twofold. First, in the short run there is unidirectional Granger causality running from the fertility rate to female labour force participation and from the infant mortality rate to female labour force participation while there is neutrality between the fertility rate and infant mortality rate. Second, in the long run both the fertility rate and infant mortality rate Granger cause female labour participation.
Increased Disclosure Requirements and Corporate Governance Decisions: Evidence Form Chief Financial Officers in the Pre- and Post-Sarbanes Oxley Periods

I study how increased internal control disclosure requirements mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) affect annual corporate governance decisions regarding CFOs. Using non-CEO, non-COO executive officers as a control group, I find that CFOs of firms with weak internal controls receive lower compensation and experience higher forced turnover rates after the passage of SOX. In contrast, CFOs of firms with strong internal controls receive higher compensation and do not experience significant changes in forced turnover rates. These results are consistent with the "disclosure of type" hypothesis, which suggests that the mandatory internal control disclosures under SOX are a credible mechanism that effectively distinguishes good CFOs from bad ones by revealing the firm's internal control quality. The empirical evidence thus supports the notion that mandated increases in disclosure reduce information asymmetry in the executive labor market.
Responsibility-based continuing professional development for in-service physical educators

Hemphill, Michael A. Ph.D, Purdue University, December 2011. Responsibility-based Continuing Professional Development for In-Service Physical Education. Major Professor: Thomas J. Templin. Since 2004, the National Standards for Physical Education have endorsed the notion that physical educators should teach personal and social responsibility. Continuing professional development (CPD) programs, based on teaching personal and social responsibility, are needed to support teacher’s adherence to the national standards. The purpose of this study was to provide eight teachers, from two schools, with a novel CPD protocol that introduces teachers to nine discrete responsibility-based teaching strategies. The Tools for Assessing Responsibility-based Education (TARE) were employed to conduct systematic observations of physical education lessons and to train the teachers to implement responsibility-based teaching strategies. Over four months, the CPD protocol included periodic visits by the investigator, teachers’ observations of their peers, guided reflections, and videotaped observations. Findings demonstrated contrasting results. At Southside Middle School, the teachers’ employed responsibility-based teaching strategies extensively. In contrast, the teachers at Tuscola Junior High School opted out of much of the CPD protocol due to some differences between their values for physical education and the values of the CPD. The findings from this study suggest that systematic observations can support teachers CPD. However, CPD is a complex process and the
Should medical students be selected only from recent school‐leavers who have studied science?

Summary. This study was undertaken to investigate the apparently widespread belief that in order to be successful at medical school, aspiring candidates must have a sound academic background based predominantly on the study of the natural sciences, be school‐leavers aged about 18 (in the non‐college educational environments such as Australia or the United Kingdom) and preferably be men. The demographic background and prior academic achievement of individual students entering the University of Newcastle Medical School between 1978 and 1989 has been reviewed and compared with their progress in medical studies. The data show that in the Newcastle medical school environment there is no significant correlation between outcome and previous study of any of the natural sciences. However, significant correlations between outcome and performance in the humanities in general, and English in particular, were found. In this regard a weak background in these subjects correlated with an increased tendency not to complete the medical course. There were no significant correlations found between outcome and age at entry, sex or levels of prior academic achievement (within the top 10% achievement band studied). In summary, the study offers no support for the current selection criteria dominating medical school admissions processes.
Ageing and the Welfare State: Securing Sustainability

Over the next four decades, increasing old-age dependency ratios exert an enormous upward pressure on welfare spending in most developed countries. As this is mainly due to existing unfunded public pension schemes, many countries have embarked on far-reaching reforms in this area, strengthening actuarial fairness, modifying indexation rules, adding elements of prefunding and, last but not least, attempting to extend the period of economic activity. Efforts to contain costs may also be relevant with regard to public expenditure on health and long-term care but, thus far, no country has started to really deal with these issues. Still, some countries have made substantial progress in securing the long-term sustainability of their welfare systems. What remains to be considered is re-constructing the system of intergenerational transactions as a potential way of removing disincentives to raise children and invest in their human capital in the long run.
Pulsatile Stretch and Shear Stress: Physical Stimuli Determining the Production of Endothelium-Derived Relaxing Factors

Mechanical forces generated at the endothelium by fluid shear stress and pulsatile stretch are important in ensuring the continuous release of vasoactive endothelial autacoids. Although the mechanism by which endothelial cells are able to detect and convert these physical stimuli into chemical signals is unclear, this process involves the activation of integrins, G proteins and cascades of protein kinases. The constitutive endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS III), classified as a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent isoform, can be activated by shear stress and isometric contraction in the absence of a maintained increase in [Ca2+]i via a mechanism involving its redistribution within the cytoskeleton/caveolae and the activation of one or more regulatory NOS-associated proteins. Thus it would appear that the intracellular cascades activated by Ca2+-elevating receptor-dependent agonists, such as bradykinin, and hemodynamic stimuli are distinct. Rhythmic vessel distension is also able to elicit the synthesis of superoxide anions and the endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor which play a role in modulating arterial compliance in certain vascular beds.
Beyond Publication Bias

This review considers several meta-regression and graphical methods that can differentiate genuine empirical effect from publication bias. Publication selection exists when editors, reviewers, or researchers have a preference for statistically significant results. Because all areas of empirical research are susceptible to publication selection, any average or tally of significant/insignificant studies is likely to be biased and potentially misleading. Meta-regression analysis can see through the murk of random sampling error and selected misspecification bias to identify the underlying statistical structures that characterize genuine empirical effect. Meta-significance testing and precision-effect testing "PET" are offered as a means to identify empirical effect beyond publication bias and are applied to four areas of empirical economics research - minimum wage effects, union-productivity effects, price helasticities, and tests of the natural rate hypothesis. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2005.
The decellularized porcine heart valve matrix in tissue engineering

Summary An approach in tissue engineering of heart valves is the use of decellularized xenogeneic matrices to avoid immune response after implantation. The decellularization process must preserve the structural components of the extracellular matrix to provide a biomechanically stable scaffold. However, it is known that in vascular lesions platelet adhesion to extracellular matrix components occurs and platelet activation is induced. In the present study we examined the effects of a decellularized porcine heart valve matrix on thrombocyte activation and the influence of re-endothelialisation in vitro. Porcine pulmonary conduits were decellularized using Triton X-100, Na-deoxycholate and Igepal CA-630® followed by a ribonuclease digestion. Cryostat sections of decellularized heart valves with and without seeding with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were incubated with platelet rich plasma. Samples were either stained with fluorescent antibodies for CD41 and PAC-1 (recognizing the activated fibrinogen receptor) or fixed with glutaraldehyde. Thereafter, the samples were processed for laser scanning microscopy (LSM) or scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Examination by LSM showed numerous platelets with co-localized staining for CD41 and PAC-1 on the nonseeded decellularized heart valve matrix whereas after seeding with endothelial cells no platelet activation was detected. SEM revealed platelet adhesion and aggregate formation only on the surface of the non-seeded or partially denuded matrix specimens. We show in this study that the decellularized porcine matrix acts as a platelet-activating surface. Seeding with endothelial cells effectively abolishes the platelet adhesion and activation and therefore is necessary to eliminate thrombogenicity in tissue engineered heart valves.
Quantifying Australia's 'Three‐Speed' Boom

This paper examines Australia's terms of trade boom since 2003 with a particular interest in quantifying the links between the terms of trade and sectoral performance and identifying an associated 'secondary services boom'. Comparative static general equilibrium modelling and empirical analysis are used to examine the sectoral impacts on employment and income. The modelling confirms the services expansion of sufficient scale to tighten national labour markets and it projects an associated manufacturing contraction. A separate empirical analysis approaches the same links using vector auto-regressions estimated from pre-boom Australian data (1989 through 2002) and out of sample simulations over the subsequent boom period. The secondary services boom appears clearly but the results on manufacturing are ambiguous. Actual employment booms were larger, and manufacturing sector performance better, than predicted on the estimated VARs, suggesting that the recent boom accompanied changes in industrial structure and underlying behavioural parameters that have been favourable to surviving manufacturing firms.
The Tacit Nature of Design Knowledge

Valuable knowledge acquired by small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) over time can be lost through the exit of staff. The difficulty of retaining knowledge lies in the fact that part of the knowledge involved is tacit in nature and is highly, if not totally, inarticulable. This paper analyzes the explicit/tacit nature of the design knowledge involved in projects undertaken by an SME. It is analyzed to provide a model of knowledge application and a schema for eliciting the mental process during knowledge application and the types of knowledge used respectively. The tacit characteristics associated with the application of design knowledge are explored. The paper also discusses the tactics that can be employed to tackle the knowledge retention problem as experienced by the SME.
From Plan to Market: Patterns of Transition

This discusses the unique experience of Peru's Central Bank with inflation targeting in an economy characterized by a high degree of financial dollarization. The paper outlines how Peru has taken financial dollarization into consideration in the design of monetary policy, then deals with monetary policy implementation and the Central Bank's strategy for controlling financial dollarization risks. The paper concludes with analysis and lessons drawn from the Peruvian case.