Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal Monetary Policy with Relative Price Distortions

This paper analyzes optimal monetary policy in a sticky price model with Calvo-type staggered price-setting. In the paper, the optimal monetary policy maximizes the expected utility of a representative household without having to rely on a set of linearly approximated equilibrium conditions, given the distortions associated with the staggered price-setting. It shows that the complete stabilization of the price level is optimal in the absence of initial price dispersion, while optimal inflation targets respond to changes in the level of relative price distortion in the presence of initial price dispersion.
Branded: International education and 21st-century Canadian immigration, education policy, and the welfare state

Over the past two decades there has been a shift in Canadian education policy from a focus on education as a public good to education as a commodity, with policy language increasingly infused with the strategies of business. Branded ‘Education au/in Canada’, complementary immigration and education policies accommodate seamless entry, renewal, employment opportunities and finally citizenship for the best and the brightest of students abroad. Using a theoretical lens of neo-liberalism and post-colonialism, this article analyses the close intersectionality between immigration and education policy in Canada, illustrates how Canada actively recruits and maintains international students for its nation-building, and discusses the impact on the Canadian welfare state.
Enhanced performance of a thermal ground plane utilizing an Inorganic Aqueous Solution

In this paper, two TGPs with monoporous sintered wick structures fabricated from spherical copper particles, are studied. The TGPs used in this study are 3" by 5" troughs, 4.8mm in depth, made of copper. On the back side of the trough, a 1cm2 raised section, referred to as pedestal, is used as a heater interface; pedestal is subjected to heat fluxes from 50 to 250 W/cm2 and the data is recorded when steady state is achieved at each heat flux. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of working fluid on two TGPs with different monoporous wick structures. The result of the comparison between TGPs charged with water and with IAS has shown a remarkable improvement in performance of IAS charged TGPs, relative to water, when used in the same device. The use of IAS enables one to significantly improve thermal performance and broaden the operating temperature range in vapor chambers.
Physical Illness: Social Construction or Biological Imperative?

All cultures have metaphors for mental illness that define how it is diagnosed, treated, and experienced by the patient. Cultural metaphors that define mental illness have been traced predominantly to biomedical and systems models. However, the research on factors such as progression of illness, survival rates, adherence to medical regimens, level of disability, and experience of pain in chronic and acute life-threatening illnesses suggests another metaphor. This article not only explores how a constructivist metaphor makes sense of this research, but also suggests an approach to consider in helping patients and their families deal with the difficult life circumstances that illness imposes. Implications for nurses are outlined.
Use of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography To Study the Pharmacokinetics of Colistin Sulfate in Rats following Intravenous Administration

ABSTRACT The pharmacokinetics of colistin was investigated using specific high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to measure the concentrations of colistin and colistin A and B in plasma and urine in five rats after administration of an intravenous bolus of 1 mg of colistin sulfate/kg of body weight. There were differences in the pharmacokinetic behaviors of unbound colistin A and B. This is the first report of the use of HPLC to study the pharmacokinetics of colistin and its two major components.
Patterns of DNA sequence variation in chromosomally recognized taxa of Anopheles gambiae: evidence from rDNA and single‐copy loci

Patterns of DNA sequence variation in the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) and five unlinked single‐copy nuclear loci were examined for evidence of reproductive isolation among four chromosomally recognized taxa of Anopheles gambiae from West Africa: Savanna, Bamako, Mopti and Forest, as well as sibling species An. arabiensis and An. merus. Included among the single‐copy loci were three sequence‐tagged random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) loci, two of which (R15 and R37) had been reported as discriminating between Mopti and other chromosomal forms. Each of the five single‐copy sequences were highly polymorphic in most samples. However, the R15 and R37 loci had no diagnostic value, and therefore are not recommended as tools in recognition of field‐collected An. gambiae chromosomal forms. Although pairwise comparisons between species generally revealed significant levels of differentiation at all five loci, variation was not partitioned by chromosomal form within An. gambiae at any single‐copy locus examined. The few exceptions to these trends appear related to a location either inside or nearby chromosomal inversions. At the tryptophan oxygenase locus inside inversion 2Rb, variation was structured only by inversion orientation and not by taxonomic designation even between An. gambiae and An. arabiensis, providing the first molecular evidence that the 2Rb inversion was transferred between species by introgressive hybridization. By contrast, the rDNA showed fixed differences between species and a difference diagnostic for Mopti, consistent with effective, if not complete, reproductive isolation. The apparent disagreement between the data from this locus and multiple single‐copy loci within An. gambiae may be explained by the much lower effective population size of rDNA, owing to concerted evolution, which confers increased sensitivity at much shorter divergence times. Taken together with the accompanying reports by della Torre et al. (2001) , Favia et al. (2001) and Gentile et al. (2001) , our data suggest that neutral molecular markers may not have the sensitivity required to detect isolation between these recently established taxa.
Bank selection factors in the banking industry: An empirical investigation from potential customers in Northern Cyprus

This study investigates the bank selection criteria of undergraduate students who are future potential customers of banks from different regions of the world in a small island economy by comparing the selection factors of international students for the first time. Survey results of 258 respondents show that there are not huge differences in the bank selection factors between Turkish and non-Turkish international students in the case of a state university in North Cyprus. “Availability and convenient location of ATM services” and “speed and quality of service” are the most important factors for considering banks and their services for both Turkish and non-Turkish undergraduate students.
Clinical Predictors of Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndromes in Pediatric patients with Scrub Typhus

Scrub typhus can produce multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). Early recognition of the patients at risk of MODS would be helpful in providing timely management and reducing the mortality. In all, 449 children with scrub typhus were enrolled at three hospitals in Yunnan, China from January 2010 to January 2015. The patients' clinical status of organ system dysfunction was evaluated on the day of discharge from hospital by using standard criteria. The patients were classified into MODS present (64 cases, 14.3%) or MODS absent (385 cases, 85.7%). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that the prognostic factors for MODS included skin rash (odds ratio, OR = 3.3, p = 0.037), time interval form treatment to defervescence (OR = 1.2, p = 0.035), hemoglobin (OR = 0.54, p = 0.041), platelet counts (OR = 0.06, p < 0.001), aspartate-aminotransferase (OR = 4.7, p = 0.011) and total bilirubin (OR = 2.3, p = 0.013). By describing risk factors resulting in MODS in pediatric scrub typhus, our study provides clinicians with important information to improve the clinical monitoring and prognostication of MODS.
Interim estimates of 2016/17 vaccine effectiveness against influenza A(H3N2), Canada, January 2017

Using a test-negative design, the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) assessed interim 2016/17 influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) against dominant influenza A(H3N2) viruses considered antigenically matched to the clade 3C.2a vaccine strain. Sequence analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity in emerging 3C.2a1 variants by province and over time. Adjusted VE was 42% (95% confidence interval: 18–59%) overall, with variation by province. Interim virological and VE findings reported here warrant further investigation to inform potential vaccine reformulation.
New Challenges for Thailand: Labour and Growth after the Crisis

Abstract Exploring the relationship between labour and economic growth in Thailand over the past half century, the article shows that Thailand can no longer rely on an extensive growth regime based on abundant and cheap labour. We argue that Thailand is at a critical juncture and that Thailand cannot avoid shifting to an intensive growth regime based on increases of labour productivity in order to control labour costs and, unlike past regimes, seek ways to ensure that the benefits of growth are better shared.
Immunoglobulin M antibody response to measles virus following primary and secondary vaccination and natural virus infection

The use of IgM antibody detection for the classification of the primary and secondary measles antibody response in persons following primary and secondary vaccination and natural measles virus infection was examined. Of 32 nonimmune children receiving primary measles vaccination, 31 (97%) developed IgM antibodies, consistent with a primary antibody response. Of 21 previously vaccinated children with low levels of preexisting IgG antibodies who responded to revaccination, none developed detectable IgM antibodies, whereas 33 of 35 (94%) with no detectable preexisting IgG antibodies developed an IgM response. Of a sample of 57 measles cases with a prior history of vaccination, 55 (96%) had detectable IgM antibodies. Of these, 30 (55%) were classified as having a primary antibody response and 25 (45%) a secondary antibody response based on differences in their ratios of IgM to IgG antibodies. Differences in the severity of clinical symptoms between these 2 groups were consistent with this classification scheme. These findings suggest that 1) an IgM response follows primary measles vaccination in the immunologically naive, 2) an IgM response is absent on revaccination of those previously immunized, and 3) an IgM response may follow clinical measles virus infection independent of prior immunization status.
Do ICDPs Work? An Empirical Evaluation of Forest-Based Microenterprises in the Brazilian Amazon

This paper evaluates public investments in forest-based microenterprises as part of an integrated conservation and development project (ICDP) in the Brazilian Amazon. We combine matching with regression to quantify the effects of program participation on household income, wealth, and livelihoods. We find that participation increased cash and total income and asset accumulation, suggesting that the microenterprises contributed to the development goals of the ICDP. There is no clear evidence, however, that the microenterprise program helped achieve the ICDP’s conservation goals of shifting household livelihoods away from agriculture and into sustainable forest use. (JEL O12, O13)
Biology of the Malaysian strain of Plasmodium juxtanucleare Versiani and Gomes, 1941. 3. Life cycle of the erythrocytic parasite in the avian host.

Some aspects of the life history of the Malaysian strain of Plasmodium juxtanucleare are presented. The periodicity of the parasite is believed to be an asynchronous, quotidian parasitemia with a long period of chronicity. Mature parasites are more common in visceral blood than in the peripheral circulation, indicating deep circulation schizogony. The parasite normally invades mature erythrocytes, with multiple infection of a cell uncommon except in instances of high parasitemia. The gametocytes are only slightly infective to mosquitoes during the first 30 days of patency, but subsequently become much more infective. Chronic infections remain highly infective to mosquitoes for as long as 198 days. The parasite could not be transmitted to canaries or young ducks. In the first paper of this series (Bennett and Warren, 1966) the asexual stages of the Malaysian strain of Plasmodium juxtanucleare were described, and in the second paper (Bennett et al., 1966) the development of the same parasite in the mosquito host was presented. The biology of P. juxtanucleare has been investigated to some extent by Al-Dabagh (1961) working with the Brazilian strain and by Dhanapala (1962) with the Ceylonese strain. This report is concerned with the biology of the Malaysian strain in the avian host with particular reference to periodicity of the asexual parasites in the peripheral blood, host cell preference, and infectivity of the gametocytes. In addition, this strain is compared with other known strains of the parasite and with other members of the subgenus Novyella. MATERIALS AND METHODS The parasite was maintained in the laboratory in young, hatchery-bred chickens by a combination of parasitized blood and sporozoite transfers. All birds were maintained in mosquito-proof cages. Subcutaneous, intravenous, and intraperitoneal routes were used for inoculations. Heparin was used as the anticoagulant for all parasitized blood transfers. Routine blood smears were made from the brachial vein at 0800 hr and stained with Giemsa stain at pH 7.2. Incisions through the body wall above the liver on anesthetized birds provided access to the liver for the hepatic smears. The incisions were closed with adhesive plaster and the birds treated with penicillin. The birds were then Received for publication 1 March 1966. * Present address: Ontario Research Foundation, 43 Queen's Park, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada. anesthetized with ether, the incision opened, and smears made from the cut surface of the liver at desired intervals. Sporozoites for both routine and experimental transfers were obtained by dissecting the salivary glands from infected mosquitoes into Haye's saline. The glands were then crushed and the sporozoites collected in a mixture of 90% physiological saline10% serum (monkey or rabbit).
Modulation-Frequency-Specific Adaptation in Awake Auditory Cortex

Amplitude modulations are fundamental features of natural signals, including human speech and nonhuman primate vocalizations. Because natural signals frequently occur in the context of other competing signals, we used a forward-masking paradigm to investigate how the modulation context of a prior signal affects cortical responses to subsequent modulated sounds. Psychophysical “modulation masking,” in which the presentation of a modulated “masker” signal elevates the threshold for detecting the modulation of a subsequent stimulus, has been interpreted as evidence of a central modulation filterbank and modeled accordingly. Whether cortical modulation tuning is compatible with such models remains unknown. By recording responses to pairs of sinusoidally amplitude modulated (SAM) tones in the auditory cortex of awake squirrel monkeys, we show that the prior presentation of the SAM masker elicited persistent and tuned suppression of the firing rate to subsequent SAM signals. Population averages of these effects are compatible with adaptation in broadly tuned modulation channels. In contrast, modulation context had little effect on the synchrony of the cortical representation of the second SAM stimuli and the tuning of such effects did not match that observed for firing rate. Our results suggest that, although the temporal representation of modulated signals is more robust to changes in stimulus context than representations based on average firing rate, this representation is not fully exploited and psychophysical modulation masking more closely mirrors physiological rate suppression and that rate tuning for a given stimulus feature in a given neuron's signal pathway appears sufficient to engender context-sensitive cortical adaptation.
Chemically Modified Polyvinyl Chloride for Removal of Thionine Dye (Lauth’s Violet)

The chemical modification of hydrophobic polymer matrices is an alternative way to elchange their surface properties. The introduction of sulfonic groups in the polymer changes the surface properties such as adhesion, wettability, catalytic ability, and adsorption capacity. This work describes the production and application of chemically modified polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as adsorbent for dyes removal. Chemical modification of PVC was evaluated by infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis, which indicated the presence of sulfonic groups on PVC. The chemically modified PVC (PVCDS) showed an ion exchange capacity of 1.03 mmol−1, and efficiently removed the thionine dye (Lauth’s violet) from aqueous solutions, reaching equilibrium in 30 min. The adsorption kinetics was better adjusted for a pseudo second order model. This result indicates that the adsorption of thionine onto PVCDS occurs by chemisorption. Among the models for the state of equilibrium, SIPS and Langmuir exhibited the best fit to the experimental results and PVCDS showed high adsorption capacities (370 mg−1). Thus, it is assumed that the system presents homogeneous characteristics to the distribution of active sites. The modification promoted the formation of surface characteristics favorable to the dye adsorption by the polymer.
FBK’s Participation to the English-to-German News Translation Task of WMT 2017

In this paper we report on FBK’s participation to the English-to-German news translation task of the Second Conference on Machine Translation (WMT’17). The submitted system is based on Neural Machine Translation using byte-pair encoding segmentation on both source and target languages for open-vocabulary translations. Back-translations of news mono-lingual data are used for improving the translations ﬂuency on the in-domain data. With respect to last year’s evaluation, our baseline outperforms the 2016 best system’s baseline on the test sets 2015 and 2016. However, in our set-up back-translations produced a smaller improvement than expected. The ﬁnal submission is given by the combination of 7 systems, including a system trained only on true parallel data and two right-to-left systems, which improves over our single best sys-tem by 1.5 BLEU points.
Short positions, size effect, and the liquidity hypothesis: implications for stock performance

This study focuses on the relationship between short interest and subsequent stock returns. It also deals with the question of whether this relationship itself is attributable to firm size. In this context, this study investigates: (1) whether short sellers are correct in their predictions and whether these predictions can benefit other investors, (2) whether returns on short positions are related to firm size, and (3) whether the liquidity hypothesis or the differential information hypothesis can explain the relationship between firm size and short selling. The results support the notion that short sellers made correct predictions of price movements during the sampling period, 1986–1990. The results also show that following the monthly report of short interests, investors can still earn higher returns on shorted stocks, especially the small ones. Finally, the results maintain that short interest positions on less-liquid overpriced small stocks are more profitable than more-liquid overpriced large stocks, thus supporting the liquidity hypothesis. Overall these findings do not display seasonal differences, especially in January.
Understanding and managing generational differences in the workplace

Purpose – The modern workplace now consists of four different generations for the first time in history. Each generation, Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y, has been heavily influenced by the events of their time; this creates a new challenge for employers. Companies must make workplace adjustments in order to create a productive environment for all employees, regardless of their generation. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – The findings of researchers interested in generational differences, workplace communication, management, diversity in the workplace, and many other topics were studied in the production of this piece.Findings – This research shows that employers must identify the separate characteristics of each generation present in their workplace. Further, employers must foster a work environment that aids productivity for every generation; they must give their employees the information and skills needed to understand the generational c.
Executioner caspase-3 and caspase-7 are functionally distinct proteases

Members of the caspase family of cysteine proteases play central roles in coordinating the stereotypical events that occur during apoptosis. Because the major executioner caspases, caspase-3 and caspase-7, exhibit almost indistinguishable activity toward certain synthetic peptide substrates, this has led to the widespread view that these proteases occupy functionally redundant roles within the cell death machinery. However, the distinct phenotypes of mice deficient in either of these caspases, as well as mice deficient in both, is at odds with this view. These distinct phenotypes could be related to differences in the relative expression levels of caspase-3 and caspase-7 in vivo, or due to more fundamental differences between these proteases in terms of their ability to cleave natural substrates. Here we show that caspase-3 and caspase-7 exhibit differential activity toward multiple substrate proteins, including Bid, XIAP, gelsolin, caspase-6, and cochaperone p23. Caspase-3 was found to be generally more promiscuous than caspase-7 and appears to be the major executioner caspase during the demolition phase of apoptosis. Our observations provide a molecular basis for the different phenotypes seen in mice lacking either caspase and indicate that these proteases occupy nonredundant roles within the cell death machinery.
Long memory in international equity markets: revisited

This study provides empirical evidence of the long-range behaviour in international equity markets. We test for long memory in the daily returns using the modified rescaled range statistic R/S proposed by Lo (1991) and the rescaled variance V/S statistic developed by Giraitis et al. (2003). Long memory is found to be weak in the return series when using R/S but some evidence of long memory is found in USA and Germany based on V/S analysis. Our results confirm those reported by Lo (1991) using only the rescaled range analysis and should be useful to regulators, practitioners and derivative market participants, whose success depends on the ability to forecast stock price movements.
The Impact of Digital File Sharing on the Music Industry: An Empirical Analysis

The first file-sharing software, Napster, was shut down in 2001, but the copying technologys impact on the music industry is still passionately debated. This paper uses micro-level data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine the impact of Internet file sharing on music sales. Music industry representatives argue that the practice decreases CD sales, while supporters of file-sharing allege the practice could actually increase sales. Using household-level data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we find support for the claim that file-sharing has decreased sales.