Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Continental Divide? The attitudes of US and Canadian oncologists on the costs, cost-effectiveness, and health policies associated with new cancer drugs.

PURPOSE Oncologists in the United States and Canada work in different health care systems, but physicians in both countries face challenges posed by the rising costs of cancer drugs. We compared their attitudes regarding the costs and cost-effectiveness of medications and related health policy. METHODS Survey responses of a random sample of 1,355 United States and 238 Canadian medical oncologists (all outside of Québec) were compared. RESULTS Response rate was 59%. More US oncologists (67% v 52%; P < .001) favor access to effective treatments regardless of cost, while more Canadians favor access to effective treatments only if they are cost-effective (75% v 58%; P < .001). Most (84% US, 80% Canadian) oncologists state that patient out-of-pocket costs influence their treatment recommendations, but less than half the respondents always or frequently discuss the costs of treatments with their patients. The majority of oncologists favor more use of cost-effectiveness data in coverage decisions (80% US, 69% Canadian; P = .004), but fewer than half the oncologists in both countries feel well equipped to use cost-effectiveness information. Majorities of oncologists favor government price controls (57% US, 68% Canadian; P = .01), but less than half favor more cost-sharing by patients (29% US, 41% Canadian; P = .004). Oncologists in both countries prefer to have physicians and nonprofit agencies determine whether drugs provide good value. CONCLUSION Oncologists in the United States and Canada generally have similar attitudes regarding cancer drug costs, cost-effectiveness, and associated policies, despite practicing in different health care systems. The results support providing education to help oncologists in both countries use cost-effectiveness information and discuss drug costs with their patients.
Rational speculative bubbles and duration dependence in exchange rates: an analysis of five currencies

We investigate the presence of rational speculative bubbles in the exchange rates of the British pound, the Canadian dollar, the Danish krone, the Japanese yen and the South African rand against the US dollar. The unit root test shows that the exchange rates and fundamental variables – money supply, income and interest rates – are integrated of order one, indicating no rational speculative bubbles. Further, the cointegration test indicates evidence of a long-run relationship between the exchange rate series and the fundamental variables, corroborating that no speculative bubble is present. The results of the non-parametric duration dependence test suggest that rational expectations bubbles do not affect these exchange rates.
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA STATISTIQUE ET DES ETUDES ECONOMIQUES Série des Documents de Travail du CREST (Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique)

In this paper we look for interest rate rules ensuring strong local equilibrium determinacy, i.e. making sure that there is a unique equilibrium starting out in the neighbourhood of the steady state and that this equilibrium remains constantly in that neighbourhood. We show in a general framework that such interest rate rules exist and in the more specific framework of the canonical New Keynesian model that they are necessarily forward-looking, that is to say that they make the nominal interest rate conditional on the private agents’ expectations. We also characterize the set of such interest rate rules implementing the optimal equilibrium under discretion or under commitment (for a closed economy or a small open economy with a flexible exchange rate) or the fixed exchange rate equilibrium (for a small open economy) in this model.
The Public–Private Mix of Retirement Income in Nine OECD Countries: Some Evidence from Micro Data and an Exploration of its Implications

Over the past three decades, the wellbeing of people over retirement age has improved, not only absolutely but also relatively. Being old is no longer synonymous with being poor. This improvement has occurred across almost all of the main OECD countries, and has occurred almost regardless of the type of pension system that is operating in the country concerned. This chapter seeks to illustrate the importance or other wise of the nature of the public-private mix in incomes in old age both in producing this improvement in wellbeing and in leading to differences in the level of wellbeing enjoyed by different types of person. It draws from a number of studies undertaken at the Social Policy Division of the OECD in the course of 2000 and 2001, many of which have been reported upon in OECD (2001) and Yamada and Casey (2002).
Heart rate variability parameters of myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs with and without heart failure obtained using 24-hour Holter electrocardiography

Time-domain heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and the correlation between echocardiography and Holter examinations in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) were determined. Holter examination was also performed at different time frames: an entire 24-hour period, a four-hour period during sleep, and a four-hour period while awake. Ten healthy (control group) and 28 MMVD dogs, 15 with and 13 without heart failure, were evaluated. The SDANN (sd of the mean normal RR intervals for all five-minute segments during 24-hour Holter) and pNN50 (percentage of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals that are >50 ms computed over 24-hour Holter) variables were significantly lower in the dogs with MMVD heart failure. The differences in HRV between the groups were only detected during the 24-hour evaluation period (P < 0.05). There were high correlations (canonical analysis) between Holter and echocardiography examinations when considering pNN50, SDANN, and LA/AO (left atrial to aortic root ratio) (r = 0.92; P < 0.05), indicating that both are important in evaluating MMVD dogs. SDANN and pNN50 are measures of parasympathetic control of the heart, and thus, it is possible to infer that the MMVD dogs exhibit parasympathetic withdrawal during the development of heart failure.
Government E-Commerce Adoption

ABSTRACT This article examines the adoption of electronic commerce or e-commerce in county governments. This study uses Texas as a case study of e-commerce adoption because it is the second largest state in the United States in terms of population. The existing literature on e-government has primarily examined the adoption of e-government and has not focused specifically on e-commerce usage in local governments, an important subset of e-government. This study attempts to determine the extent of shifting into stage two of e-government adoption, namely, online transactions. This article defines e-commerce as the subset of e-government that involves the exchange of money for goods and services purchased from governments. The study uses a survey of Texas county treasurers conducted in early 2005 of their e-commerce offerings. A Website content analysis was also conducted for county governments in Texas. The two most commonly offered e-commerce services that counties provide are online payment of property taxes and vehicle registration. The survey results and Website content analysis revealed that around a third of Texas counties had an e-commerce Website. For counties that had an e-commerce Website, improved customer service was the most commonly cited impact. The most frequently reported management barrier to e-commerce adoption concerns problems with transaction or convenience fees. Having an e-commerce Website was associated with being a large county government.
Regional development and competitiveness : An analysis of indices of regional competitiveness

There is a growing debate on the theoretical basis, how it could be conceptualised, as well as the utility and meaning of regional competitiveness. This is associated with various attempts to measure regional competitiveness with the help of composite indices for coming-up with league tables. However the measurement of regional performance has run ahead of the academic debate, such indices receive a lot of media attention, and in some cases are even used by policy-makers to support their arguments. It is therefore instructive to look at such indices in more detail to evaluate their utility from a practical standpoint. This is done by working out the theoretical framework for six indices, deconstructing these and analysing the single indicators. Methodologically, issues such as normalization, standardization and the aggregation into a single number are also included. In addition to this, since many authors claim that their indices can function as a proxy for future growth, a statistical analysis of the predictive quality with respect to economic performance has also been carried out. This thesis, therefore, for the first time, sheds light on the utility of regional competitiveness indices and contributes to the discussion of the meaning of benchmarking regional performance based on the regional competitiveness hegemony that can be observed. The findings suggest that indices of regional competitiveness can be of only limited help for policy-decisions besides although they are a source for a wealth of information on certain regional indicators. This is primarily because of the lack of a theoretical basis for measuring regional competitiveness, and secondly because of the poor performance in functioning as a proxy for future economic performance.
Two-Level Stable Matching-Based Selection in MOEA/D

Stable matching-based selection models the selection process in MOEA/D as a stable marriage problem. By finding a stable matching between the sub problems and solutions, the solutions are assigned to sub problems to balance the convergence and the diversity. In this paper, a two-level stable matching-based selection is proposed to further guarantee the diversity of the population. More specifically, the first level of stable matching only matches a solution to one of its most preferred sub problems and the second level of stable matching is responsible for matching the solutions to the remaining sub problems. Experimental studies demonstrate that the proposed selection scheme is effective and competitive comparing to other state-of-the-art selection schemes for MOEA/D.
Linezolid Alone or Combined with Rifampin against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Experimental Foreign-Body Infection

ABSTRACT We investigated the activity of linezolid, alone and in combination with rifampin (rifampicin), against a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain in vitro and in a guinea pig model of foreign-body infection. The MIC, minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) in logarithmic phase, and MBC in stationary growth phase were 2.5, >20, and >20 μg/ml, respectively, for linezolid; 0.01, 0.08, and 2.5 μg/ml, respectively, for rifampin; and 0.16, 0.63, >20 μg/ml, respectively, for levofloxacin. In time-kill studies, bacterial regrowth and the development of rifampin resistance were observed after 24 h with rifampin alone at 1× or 4× the MIC and were prevented by the addition of linezolid. After the administration of single intraperitoneal doses of 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg of body weight, linezolid peak concentrations of 6.8, 12.7, and 18.1 μg/ml, respectively, were achieved in sterile cage fluid at ≈3 h. The linezolid concentration remained above the MIC of the test organism for 12 h with all doses. Antimicrobial treatments of animals with cage implant infections were given twice daily for 4 days. Linezolid alone at 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg reduced the planktonic bacteria in cage fluid during treatment by 1.2 to 1.7 log10 CFU/ml; only linezolid at 75 mg/kg prevented bacterial regrowth 5 days after the end of treatment. Linezolid used in combination with rifampin (12.5 mg/kg) was more effective than linezolid used as monotherapy, reducing the planktonic bacteria by ≥3 log10 CFU (P < 0.05). Efficacy in the eradication of cage-associated infection was achieved only when linezolid was combined with rifampin, with cure rates being between 50% and 60%, whereas the levofloxacin-rifampin combination demonstrated the highest cure rate (91%) against the strain tested. The linezolid-rifampin combination is a treatment option for implant-associated infections caused by quinolone-resistant MRSA.
Regional differences in oesophageal motor function

Abstract We tested the hypotheses that oesophageal bolus transit and motor function vary regionally, with bolus viscosity and with body position. In healthy volunteers, we measured the bolus head advance time, bolus presence time and bolus transit time in the proximal and distal oesophagus using water and viscous materials. We compared concurrent manometric responses. Bolus head advance time, bolus presence time and bolus transit time were longer in the distal oesophagus during water and viscous swallows in the upright and supine positions. The total bolus head advance time and transit time, measured across the entire oesophageal body, were shorter for water than viscous swallows. The amplitudes of peristaltic pressure waves were lower for viscous swallows, and varied as a function of region. These studies demonstrated true functional differences between the proximal and distal oesophagus using multichannel intraluminal impedance and that the viscosity of the bolus is a determinant of oesophageal function.
Trade Effects of the Euro: Evidence from Sectoral Data

This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of EMU on trade, adding two new elements. First, we propose a theoretical model for explaining how the euro could have increased trade by the large amounts found in the empirical literature. Second, we propose a sectoral dataset to test the insights from the theory. Our theoretical model shows that in a monopolistic competition set-up, the effect of exchange rate uncertainty on trade has nonlinear features, suggesting that EMU and a standard measure for exchange rate uncertainty should be jointly significant. Our empirical results confirm this finding, with a trade creating effect between 108 and 140% in a pooled regression, and between 54 to 88% when sectors are estimated individually. Importantly, we find evidence for a trade creating effect also for trade with third countries. JEL Classification: F12, C33, E0
The Effects of Job Turnover on the Training of Men and Women

Human capital theory predicts that workers will be more likely to invest in job training the longer they expect to remain working. The author tests that prediction using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth by examining the effect of the predicted probability of job turnover on the probability of receiving training. She finds that predicted turnover is significantly related to receiving training. Her preliminary analysis confirms the finding of previous studies that men undergo more training than women. The gender difference in training is 25% smaller, however, in an analysis that controls for the predicted probability of job turnover—an approach not taken in previous studies. Another finding is that the positive effect of education on training that has been reported previously is due to differences in turnover by education level rather than a pure complementarity between education and training.
Diploma Effects by Gender in the Spanish Labour Market

The aim of this paper is to contrast the nature of the schooling effect on earnings in the Spanish labour market in terms of gender. Hungerford and Solon's (Review of Economics and Statistics 69: 175-177, 1987) methodology is used to distinguish between the returns to schooling arising from mere years of schooling as a reflection of their productivity-enhancing contribution (human capital) and the returns to schooling arising from certificates (diploma effects) as signals of the individual's productivity (sheepskin effects) or as credentialism. The results show evidence only of diploma effects in Upper Secondary Studies for men.
Out-of-Court Restructurings and the Resolution of Financial Distress: Section 3(a)(9) Compared to Investment-Bank-Managed Exchange Offers

To avoid bankruptcy, financially distressed firms often undertake out-of-court restructurings, which take the form of exchange offers for firms with public debt outstanding. We examine the choice between potentially lower cost, faster offers of unregistered securities under Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and investment-bank-managed exchange offers. We find that investment bank participation relates negatively to commercial bank debt outstanding but positively to bank loan concessions, firm size, number of debt contracts outstanding, and proposed debt reduction. Investment-bank-managed exchange offers result in greater debt reduction and better postrestructuring operating performance.
Effect of the temperament of dairy cows on lifetime production efficiency

Abstract. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of the temperament of cows on their lifetime production efficiency. Data on milk performance, longevity and culling reasons of 11 629 Polish Holstein-Friesian cows were extracted from the SYMLEK database. Using the methodology of the Polish Federation of Cattle Breeders and Dairy Farmers, cow temperament was assessed as follows: 1 – calm; 2 – normal; and 3 – excitable or aggressive. Most cows showed a normal temperament (89.52 %). Over successive years of the evaluation, there were increases in the proportion of cows with a calm (from 2.98 to 6.85 %) and excitable temperament (from 7.50 to 8.27 %). Temperament was found to have a highly significant effect on first lactation milk yield, first lactation daily milk yield, milk yield per day of age, and milk yield per day of productive life. In cows with a calm temperament, first lactation milk yield was 621 kg higher than in cows with a normal temperament and 329 kg higher compared to excitable (aggressive) cows.
Effect of Two Novel Sustained-Release Drug Delivery Systems on Bleb Fibrosis: An In Vivo Glaucoma Drainage Device Study in a Rabbit Model.

PURPOSE To evaluate two drug delivery systems, a nonbiodegradable poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (P[HEMA]) system with mitomycin C (MMC) and a biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) system with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) with and without MMC for their ability to reduce fibrosis when attached to an Ahmed glaucoma valve (AGV) and implanted in a rabbit model. METHODS New Zealand albino rabbits (48) were divided into six equal groups, and AGVs, modified as described below, were implanted in the right eye of each rabbit. The groups included (1) PLGA alone; (2) P(HEMA) plus MMC (6.5 μg); (3) PLGA plus 5-FU (0.45 mg); (4) PLGA plus 5-FU (1.35 mg); (5) PLGA plus 5-FU and MMC (0.45 mg and 0.65 μg, respectively); (6) PLGA plus 5-FU and MMC (1.35 mg and 0.65 μg, respectively). The rabbits were followed for 3 months prior to euthanasia. RESULTS The bleb wall thickness was significantly less in groups 2, 5, and 6 compared to the rest. At 3 months, the PLGA polymer had completely disappeared, while the P(HEMA) polymer remained intact. There were no statistical differences in the degree of clinically graded conjunctival injection, histologic inflammation, or histologic fibrosis among the six groups. CONCLUSIONS We successfully created a sustained-release drug delivery system that decreased the postoperative fibrosis using both a nonbiodegradable P(HEMA) polymer and a biodegradable (PLGA) polymer. Both systems appear to work equally well with no side effects. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE These results are supportive of the antifibrotic effect of the slow-release drug delivery system following glaucoma drainage device implantation, thus paving the way for human pilot studies.
The territorial genealogies of Russia's political parties and the transferability of political machines

This article uses statistical analysis of aggregate electoral returns in order to establish continuities in the territorial patterns of support between four major political parties of contemporary Russia, on the one hand, and those parties that contested national legislative (Duma) elections from 1993 through 2007, on the other hand. It is hypothesized that such continuities, dubbed “territorial genealogies,” are largely rooted in the migration of region-based gubernatorial political machines from one national party to another, which constitutes a major flow of organizational continuity in the development of political parties. Statistical analysis confirms that the main hubs of machine politics in Russia's regions, originating from the intra-elite struggles of the 1990s, provide United Russia with the territorial core of its current support. Other political parties retain electoral salience in those regions where their electoral appeal is not mitigated by the presence of political machines, which underscores the importance of non-machine party organization for their electoral destinies.
Valuation of Foreign Currency Options: Some Empirical Tests

Abstract This paper investigates the efficiency of the market for foreign currency options with the help of a modified version of the Black-Scholes model. The evidence in the ex post tests is inconsistent with this hypothesis since we find a large number of opportunities for abnormal profits. A second set of tests is conducted on an ex ante basis to determine whether these profit opportunities exist even if the execution of the strategy is delayed by one day. The evidence from these tests provides more support for the hypothesis of market efficiency.
Evidence for self-organized criticality in electric power system blackouts

We analyze a 15-year time series of North American electric power system blackouts for evidence of selforganized criticality. Scaled window variance and R/S analysis of the time series shows moderate long time correlations. The probability distribution functions of various measures of blackout size have a power tail. Moreover, the same analysis applied to a time series from a sandpile model known to be self-organized critical gives results of the same form. Thus the blackout data is consistent with self-organized criticality. Self-organized criticality, if fully confirmed in power systems, would suggest new complex systems approaches to understanding and possibly controlling blackouts.