Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Power output and muscle myosin heavy chain composition in young and elderly men.

PURPOSE Aging is associated with a decline in muscle volume, power output, and the velocity at which peak power (Vopt) occurs. The current study aimed to examine the relationship between lower-limb power output characteristics, muscle myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition, and lean limb volume. METHODS Lower-limb power output during repeated efforts on an inertial sprint cycle and single-leg thrusts on the modified Nottingham power rig was studied in seven young and seven old males in relation to muscle MHC isoform composition of the vastus lateralis. RESULTS Older subjects produced significantly lower power outputs and Vopt under all conditions (P < 0.01) and had lower proportions of fast MHC isoforms (P< 0.05). Peak power output during cycling was significantly related to lower-limb lean volume (r = 0.92, P < 0.05), whereas Vopt during sprint cycling was closely related to vastus lateralis MHC-II composition (r = 0.80, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS These results provide further evidence of the importance of fast myosin isoform composition in the maintenance of dynamic muscle function in later life and particularly for maximal cycling performance.
Lead levels in primary teeth of children in Karachi

Abstract The majority of children in Karachi have blood lead levels above 10 mug/dl, the upper safety limit set by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A study was undertaken to evaluate chronic lead exposure in children by measuring lead levels in shed primary teeth collected from primary school children in Karachi. A total of 309 teeth were collected from nine different schools, and analysed for lead content by atomic absorption spectrophotometry with electrothermal atomization. The mean (SD) age of the subjects was 7.6 (1.2) years and the mean lead level was 5.78 mug/g of whole tooth (dry weight), ranging from 0.42 to 39.75 mug/g. Incisor teeth had a significantly higher mean (SD) lead level, 6.42 (4.19) mug/g, than canines and molars which contained 4.91 (5.12) mug and 4.50 (2.67) mug lead whole tooth (dry weight), respectively. Significant differences were observed between different schools. No difference was observed between boys and girls and the accumulation of lead in teeth was not correlated with chronological age.
Uncertainty and the Market Valuation of R&D within a Real Options Logic

The aim of this study is to provide new theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the effect of market and technological uncertainty on the market valuation of a firm's R&D capital. A set of hypotheses is developed adopting a real options logic and tested on a panel dataset of 290 manufacturing firms traded in the UK. Consistently with our theoretical model, we show that market and technological uncertainty have distinct effects on the valuation of R&D investments. The results have several important implications for resource allocation to R&D under uncertainty, which we discuss in the concluding section. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance Debate

This article extends earlier research concerning the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance, with particular emphasis on methodological inconsistencies. Research in this area is extended in three critical areas. First, it focuses on a particular industry, the chemical industry. Second, it uses multiple sources of data-two that are perceptual based (KLD Index and Fortune reputation survey), and two that are performance based (TRI database and corporate philanthropy) in order to triangulate toward assessing corporate social performance. Third, it uses the five most commonly applied accounting measures in the corporate social performance and corporate financial performance (CSP/CFP) literature to assess corporate financial performance. The results indicate that the a priori use of measures may actually predetermine the CSP/CFP relationship outcome. Surprisingly, Fortune and KLD indices very closely track one another, whereas TRI and corporate philanthropy differentiate between high and low social performers and do not correlate to the firm's financial performance.
The contribution of the ‘pacemaker’ current (if) to generation of spontaneous activity in rabbit sino‐atrial node myocytes.

1. The contribution to the diastolic depolarization of the hyperpolarization‐activated current, if, relative to other components was investigated in isolated rabbit sino‐atrial (SA) node myocytes. 2. During the diastolic phase the membrane potential depolarized by 0.1096 +/‐ 0.014 V/s, which requires only about 3 pA of inward current in a cell with an average capacity of 30 pF. The problem of which ionic component is responsible for initiating the diastolic depolarization was investigated by analysing the composition and the properties of the net inward current in the diastolic range of voltages. 3. The measured instantaneous ‘background’ current activated during voltage clamp steps from a holding potential of ‐35 mV was outward positive to approximately ‐61 mV, and had a region of negative slope conductance from ‐45 to ‐35 mV. 4. The instantaneous component lost its rectifying behaviour in the presence of Ni2+ (100 microM) and nitrendipine (10 microM). These blockers of Ca(2+)‐dependent currents modified the instantaneous I‐V relation at voltages positive to ‐45 to ‐50 mV, thus implying that Ca2+ currents become important at less negative potentials than ‐50 mV, towards the very end of diastolic depolarization. 5. Possible errors introduced by voltage clamp analysis with the whole‐cell method on the instantaneous current and on if measurement were evaluated. Leakage through the seal resistance caused the instantaneous I‐V relation to be displaced in the inward direction at negative voltages. Correction for the seal leakage moved the reversal potential for the instantaneous current toward the negative direction from ‐61 to approximately ‐66 mV. Thus, no depolarization can be driven by the background current beyond ‐66 mV. 6. During voltage clamp analysis, lack of series‐resistance compensation led to lack of intracellular voltage control, as was apparent using a second pipette on the same cell. This slowed activation of if and led to a 1.5‐ to 2‐fold reduction of if size in the range ‐55 to ‐115 mV. Thus, uncorrected measurements of the instantaneous component and of if may concur to underestimate the role of if in pacemaking. 7. These results lead to the conclusion that in the SA node cells analysed, pacemaker activity is generated with the essential contribution of the hyperpolarization‐activated current, if. Numerical computation of SA node cell activity using an extension of the DiFrancesco‐Noble model shows that the if‐activation hypothesis can account for the presence of spontaneous action potentials and their sensitivity to if changes.
Whole Genome Sequence of the Heterozygous Clinical Isolate Candida krusei 81-B-5

Candida krusei is a diploid, heterozygous yeast that is an opportunistic fungal pathogen in immunocompromised patients. This species also is utilized for fermenting cocoa beans during chocolate production. One major concern in the clinical setting is the innate resistance of this species to the most commonly used antifungal drug fluconazole. Here, we report a high-quality genome sequence and assembly for the first clinical isolate of C. krusei, strain 81-B-5, into 11 scaffolds generated with PacBio sequencing technology. Gene annotation and comparative analysis revealed a unique profile of transporters that could play a role in drug resistance or adaptation to different environments. In addition, we show that, while 82% of the genome is highly heterozygous, a 2.0 Mb region of the largest scaffold has undergone loss of heterozygosity. This genome will serve as a reference for further genetic studies of this pathogen.
Treatment of terminal restlessness: a review of the evidence.

Terminal restlessness is an important issue in the management of symptoms at the end of life with between 25% and 88% of dying patients exhibiting this condition. (1-5) The purpose of this review was to examine the empiric evidence about the pharmacological treatment for terminal restlessness. All available literature, in all languages, from 1966-2002 including randomized trials, concurrent observations, retrospective chart reviews, single case studies, clinical practice guidelines, expert consensus, single expert opinion articles, and editorials were reviewed as "best available evidence. " Of the 72 articles reviewed, 14 met the criteria and were chosen for analysis. Despite the majority of authors recommending neuroleptic medications as a first or second line pharmacological treatment of restlessness, a number of studies demonstrated the effectiveness of other medications such as benzodiazepines (notably midazolam and lorazepam), or phenothiazines, either alone or in combinations. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that a single medication or class of medications is appropriate for terminal restlessness. There is a clear need for additional trials of neuroleptics, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and combination protocols to determine which protocols are the most effective and have the least side effects.
The Asian Currency Crises: Vulnerability, Contagion, or Unsustainability

The Asian currency crises have been introduced by many economists as evidence that almost any country could be vulnerable to speculative attacks and to contagion effects, even with apparently good economic fundamentals. These financial crises have also been interpreted by other economists as rational market reactions to the unsustainability of domestic macroeconomic policies or structural weaknesses. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the relative importance of macroeconomic unsustainability, financial vulnerability, and crisis contagion in a model that explains and predicts the Asian currency crises. Out-of-sample forecasts based on two-stage panel and logit regressions provide evidence of a pure contagion effect, which significantly worsened the crises. They also show that Indonesia was the only one of the six Asian nations examined (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand) that was in an unsustainable economic situation, and that the other five nations were only vulnerable to a currency crisis.
What Does a Monetary Policy Shock Do? An International Analysis with Multiple Filters

What does a monetary policy shock do? We answer this question by estimating a new-Keynesian monetary policy DSGE model for a number of economies with a variety of empirical proxies of the business cycle. The effects of two different policy shocks, an unexpected interest rate hike conditional on a constant inflation target and an unpredicted drift in the inflation target, are scrutinized. Filter-specific Bayesian impulse responses are contrasted with those obtained by combining multiple business cycle indicators. Our results document the substantial uncertainty surrounding the estimated effects of these two policy shocks across a number of countries.
Public Value Dimensions: Developing and Testing a Multi-Dimensional Classification

Further integration of the public value literature with other strands of literature within Public Administration necessitates a more specific classification of public values. This article applies a typology linked to organizational design principles, because this is useful for empirical public administration studies. Based on an existing typology of modes of governance, we develop a classification and test it empirically, using survey data from a study of the values of 501 public managers. We distinguish among seven value dimensions (the public at large, rule abidance, balancing interests, budget keeping, efficient supply, professionalism, and user focus), and we find systematic differences between organizations at different levels and with different tasks, indicating that the classification is fruitful. Our goal is to enable more precise analyses of value conflicts and improve the integration between the public value literature and other parts of the Public Administration discipline.
Implied Hurst Exponent and Fractional Implied Volatility: A Variance Term Structure Model

Two methods to derive Hurst exponent from option prices are proposed in this paper. They are based on fractional Brownian market setting. The first method is to use fractional Black-Scholes model inversely to derive implied Hurst exponent. The second one depends on no specific option pricing model. It is a model-free approach which is applicable as long as asset price evolves with on jumps. The difficulty in deriving implied information from fractional Brownian market is due to the fact that both Hurst exponent and volatility are unobservable. So they can be derived as a whole from single-period option prices, but can hardly be separated from each other. In this paper, a method that integrates option prices of different maturities is suggested to solve this problem. We also make a comparison between volatility in classical Brownian market and that in fractional Brownian market, which reveals that variance term structures are fitted differently in two settings. Based on this result, we suggest two potential applications of implied Hurst exponent in this paper.
Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States

Social scientists and policy analysts have long expressed concern about the extent of intergenerational income mobility in the United States, but remarkably little empirical evidence is available. The few existing estimates of the intergenerational correlation in income have been biased downward by measurement error, unrepresentative samples, or both. New estimates based on intergenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics imply that the intergenerational correlation in long-run income is at least 0.4, indicating dramatically less mobility than suggested by earlier research. Copyright 1992 by American Economic Association.
Rapid Detection of Serum Antibody by Dual-Path Platform VetTB Assay in White-Tailed Deer Infected with Mycobacterium bovis

ABSTRACT Bovine tuberculosis (TB) in cervids remains a significant problem affecting farmed herds and wild populations. Traditional skin testing has serious limitations in certain species, whereas emerging serological assays showed promising diagnostic performance. The recently developed immunochromatographic dual-path platform (DPP) VetTB assay has two antigen bands, T1 (MPB83 protein) and T2 (CFP10/ESAT-6 fusion protein), for antibody detection. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of this test by using serum samples collected from groups of white-tailed deer experimentally inoculated with Mycobacterium bovis, M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis, or M. bovis BCG Pasteur. In addition, we used serum samples from farmed white-tailed deer in herds with no history of TB, as well as from free-ranging white-tailed deer culled during field surveillance studies performed in Michigan known to have bovine TB in the wild deer population. The DPP VetTB assay detected antibody responses in 58.1% of experimentally infected animals within 8 to 16 weeks postinoculation and in 71.9% of naturally infected deer, resulting in an estimated test sensitivity of 65.1% and a specificity of 97.8%. The higher seroreactivity found in deer with naturally acquired M. bovis infection was associated with an increased frequency of antibody responses to the ESAT-6 and CFP10 proteins, resulting in a greater contribution of these antigens, in addition to MPB83, to the detection of seropositive animals, compared with experimental M. bovis infection. Deer experimentally inoculated with either M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis or M. bovis BCG Pasteur did not produce cross-reactive antibodies that could be detected by the DPP VetTB assay. The present findings demonstrate the relatively high diagnostic accuracy of the DPP VetTB test for white-tailed deer, especially in the detection of naturally infected animals.
The Impact of IFRS Adoption and Corporate Governance Principles on Transparency and Disclosure: The Case of Borsa Istanbul

ABSTRACT This article investigates whether mandatory and voluntary regulation and best governance practices enhance disclosure quality in an emerging market where code law tradition, dominant family ownership, and lax rules and implementation make it less likely for disclosure quality effects to be observed. We show that the Transparency & Disclosure (T&D) scores have improved for a sample of Borsa Istanbul (BIST) firms, and the firms that voluntarily adopted IFRS during 2003 and 2004 have significantly higher scores. However, in 2005, the year IFRS became mandatory, the T&D scores for mandatory and voluntary adopters were no longer significantly different. Multivariate analysis shows that the Corporate Governance (CG) principles and voluntary and mandatory adoptions of IFRS have all had significant positive effects on various T&D scores of the sample firms.
The political economy of government interventions in financial crises

Chapter 1 examines how political economy considerations affect the desirability of banking unions. It presents a model in which bank recapitalizations are carried out by rent-seeking policymakers. These policymakers face a trade-off between using public funds for needed recapitalizations and diverting them towards socially inefficient rents. In equilibrium, a banking union increases recapitalizations, but it can also increase rent-seeking and decrease consumer welfare. I consider two policy proposals for countering the reduction in welfare: better electoral accountability and limits on public debt. When used alone, neither policy can increase welfare for all countries in the banking union. When used together, the policies have complementary effects, and a Pareto improvement can be achieved in consumer welfare. Chapter 2 focuses on two key features of the bailout programs seen in the 2008-2009 financial crisis: first, the opposition of voters to these programs; and second, the implementation of a variety of interventions, ranging from targeted transfers that inject capital in particular institutions to untargeted transfers aimed at entire sectors. I argue that a shift towards untargeted transfers emerges in a political economy environment, when voters possess less information than the government about the shocks hitting the economy, and when firms can lobby the government for socially inefficient transfers. The model shows that the optimal incentives voters give to elected politicians lead to persistent effects of government interventions. Chapter 3 examines the optimal degree of centralization that can be achieved with respect to bailout policies when a central authority cannot supervise the entire banking system of the economy. Part of the banking system is supervised by a local authority that can observe local shocks and is biased towards local banks. The chapter presents a model of delegation in which a central authority can mandate the contribution of the local authority to bank bailouts as well as the size of the bailout fund. I derive conditions under which it is optimal for the local authority to be given full autonomy over bailout policies. The model shows that these conditions become more restrictive if the local authority can use public debt to increase the size of the bailout fund. Thesis Supervisor: Daron Acemoglu Title: Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics Thesis Supervisor: Ivdn Werning Title: Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics
Pensions and Intertemporal Choice: Evidence from the U.S. Military

We study a choice made by over 20,000 U.S. military personnel annually between the High-3 and Redux retirement plans. Compared to High-3, Redux offers a $30,000 current lump sum payment in exchange for lower future annuity payments. Despite break-even discount rates between 10% and 25%, about 40% of individuals chose Redux. The likelihood of choosing Redux is decreasing with the break-even discount rate and is related to individual demographics. The implied personal discount rates from this choice are around 9.2%, much lower than found previously. Offering this choice has already saved the government over $2 billion in future retirement payments.
Racial Conflict and Political Choice

This article proposes a theoretical framework for the study of local voting behavior. The central argument is that salient group interests often act as political cues in local elections. The extent to which group interests influence electoral outcomes and overshadow other more traditional political cues, such as partisanship, is fundamentally related to the political context and the degree of group conflict. Analyzing public opinion surveys from three mayoral elections-New York (1989), New York (1993), and Los Angeles (1993)—this study finds that heightened levels of group conflict correspond with racially motivated voting in all three cases.
Competitive strategies and performance in Spanish hospitality firms

Purpose – The aim of this article is to identify the relationships between strategic orientations and various performance measurements in Spanish hospitality enterprises.Design/methodology/approach – With a sample of 189 hospitality firms, this study uses the Miles and Snow strategy typology, and validates a performance scale using the structural equations technique.Findings – Following the application of ANOVA methodology, the paper confirms that the three viable strategy types identified in the literature (prospectors, defenders, and analysers) are likely to perform well. In contrast, reactors are linked with poor performance.Practical implications – Inferences drawn from this study should take into account the limitations of the sample and the methodology used, mainly as using qualitative data. However, the evidence of the findings suggests that any of the positive strategic profiles are effective forms of competing and organizing, and can be equally successful in any environment if the firm implements.
Political data in 2010

As has been the case for several years now (see Bale & Caramani 2010; Bale & Biezen 2008, 2009), the depressed state of the global economy remained a predominant theme in many countries. However, the negative influence of the economy was not universal; for some countries, a period of economic malaise was only beginning, while others reached their peak or even began to emerge from the other side. Slovenia was hit by the economic crisis later than other countries, and suffered in 2010 as unemployment and the national deficit went up. Austerity plans in countries such as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom contributed to a downcast public mood and growing resentment of politicians and public policies. Disillusionment with incumbents led to the ousting of the Australian Prime Minister and violent strikes and protests in Greece, while the economy dominated election campaigns in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Meanwhile, many countries kept a nervous eye on Greece as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped in and sought to bail out the floundering Greek economy. Bail-outs were also provided to Ireland and Latvia, while Lithuania, whose sky-high levels of unemployment were causing talented citizens to emigrate in pursuit of work elsewhere, refused to accept help from the IMF or the European Union (EU) and instead opted for expensive bonds. Not all was doom and gloom, however. Estonia, Israel, Luxembourg and Malta all showed strong economic recoveries in 2010, with a return to growth. Meanwhile, the economies of Canada and the Scandinavian countries fared well in 2010, with Denmark even setting its sights on become one of the ten richest states in the world. Canada’s relative economic advantages did not translate into political capital due to an uncanny ability of its government to whittle away its popularity. Other governments faced with more challenging economic European Journal of Political Research 50: 869–887, 2011 869 doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2011. 02010.x