Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postnatal development of GABA‐ergic neurons in the rabbit retina

Uptake, synthesis, storage, and release of γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) are some of the characteristic properties of GABA‐ergic neurons. In the present study, we have used these properties as physiological probes to follow the emergence and maturation of GABA‐ergic neurons during postnatal development of the rabbit retina. There is autoradiographic, immunocytochemical, and pharmacological evidence that some amacrine cells and certain neurons in the ganglion cell layer probably use GABA as the neurotransmitter. These neurons take up GABA, contain the GABA‐synthesizing enzyme L‐glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD, EC 4.1.1.15), and release the accumulated GABA by a Ca++‐dependent mechanism when depolorized with high extracellular K+ concentration. In this study, we show that certain neurons in the newborn retina already possess a specific mechanism for GABA uptake. The positions and numbers of these cells in the developing retina suggest that they will become GABA‐ergic neurons in the adultretina. These putative GABA‐ergic neurons are, however, probably immature an birth because newborn retinas contain only low levels of GABA and GAD. Additionally, there is relatively little K+‐stimulated, Ca++‐dependent release of (3H)‐GABA from the newborn retinas. GABA concentrations and GAD activities in developing retinas increase steadily postnatally, reaching about 80% of the adult levels by day 9. The activities of the GABA‐degrading enzyme, GABA‐glutamate transaminase (GABA‐T, EC 2.6.1.19), follow a similar pattern of maturation during retinal development. K+stimulated GABA release, however, remains low until about day 6, and then increases dramatically from 20% to 85% of the adult level over the next 3 days. Taken together, our results indicate that in the rabbit retina, the commitment by certain neurons to use GABA as the transmitter is made prenatally. These neurons are immature at birth but are biochemically, physiologically, and probably functionally mature by about 9 days after birth.
Antibacterial Efficacy of Several Surgical Hand Preparation Products Used by Veterinary Students.

OBJECTIVE To compare the antibacterial efficacy of different surgical hand antisepsis protocols used by veterinary students. STUDY DESIGN Prospective, randomized, controlled study. STUDY POPULATION Third year veterinary students (n=45). METHODS The participants were randomly assigned to 4 of the following 12 hand preparation product/time combinations: nonabrasive hand scrub method with 4% chlorhexidine gluconate (CH); hand rub with a mixture of 30% 1-propanol and 45% 2-propanol solution (MPS), 70% 2-propanol solution (IPS), or 61% ethanol solution with 1% chlorhexidine gluconate (ES/CH), with a contact time of 1.5, 3, or 5 minutes. Antibacterial efficacy was assessed after surgical hand preparation and at the end of surgery. Log reductions of total bacterial colony forming unit (CFU)/mL and positive aerobic culture rates were compared using multivariable analysis of variance and multivariable logistic regression, respectively. RESULTS After surgical hand preparation, CH and ES/CH provided significantly higher log CFU reduction and lower positive culture rate for Gram-positive and spore-forming bacteria compared to MPS and IPS. Increase in contact time did not provide significant improvement in bacterial reduction. At the end of surgery, ES/CH provided significantly higher log CFU reduction compared to IPS and lower positive culture rate for Gram-positive bacteria compared to CH, MPS, and IPS. Increase in contact time significantly improved log CFU reduction in ES/CH and MPS groups. CONCLUSION In our population of veterinary students ES/CH hand rubs or CH scrubs were more effective in reducing bacterial CFU during surgical hand preparation than MPS or IPS.
Service Coproduction with Information Stickiness and Incomplete Contracts: Implications for Consulting Services Design

Drawing from three theoretical bases—“information stickiness” from the knowledge management literature, “service coproduction” from the service operations management literature, and “incomplete contract theory” from the transaction cost economics literature—we discuss a theoretical framework and develop models to study the efficiency of the service coproduction process in a knowledge‐intensive consulting environment. We apply, refine, and interpret these theories to determine how work should be allocated between the consultant and the client and the corresponding pricing under different contractual relationships that occur in this industry. We find that, with a pricing schedule that relates the fee adjustment to the self‐service level and one party's ownership of the residual right to specify the workload allocation, the client underinvests her efforts in the service coproduction process, whereas the consultant overinvests his efforts, resulting in an inefficient process. In addition, to improve overall process efficiency, we show that the more productive party should own the residual right to respecify the self‐service level when the final service need emerges. Our results, as well as interview data from experienced consultants, provide insights into the causes of inefficient service delivery processes and offer direction for achieving better efficiency through contract design and pricing schedules.
Improving Health Care for Critically Ill Patients Using an Evidence‐Based Collaborative Approach to ABCDEF Bundle Dissemination and Implementation

BACKGROUND Patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) often experience pain, oversedation, prolonged mechanical ventilation, delirium, and weakness. These conditions are important in that they often lead to protracted physical, neurocognitive, and mental health sequelae now termed postintensive care syndrome. Changing current ICU practice will not only require the adoption of evidence-based interventions but the development of effective and reliable teams to support these new practices. OBJECTIVES To build on the success of bundled care and bridge an ongoing evidence-practice gap, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) recently launched the ICU Liberation ABCDEF Bundle Improvement Collaborative. The Collaborative aimed to foster the bedside application of the SCCM's Pain, Agitation, and Delirium Guidelines via the ABCDEF bundle. The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of the Collaborative, the evidence-based implementation strategies used to foster change and teamwork, and the performance and outcome metrics used to monitor progress. METHODS Collaborative participants were required to attend four in-person meetings, monthly colearning calls, database training sessions, an e-Community listserv, and select in-person site visits. Teams submitted patient-level data and completed pre- and postimplementation questionnaires focused on the assessment of teamwork and collaboration, work environment, and overall ICU care. Faculty shared the evidence used to derive each bundle element as well as team-based implementation strategies for improvement and sustainment. RESULTS Retention in the Collaborative was high, with 67 of 69 adult and eight of nine pediatric ICUs fully completing the program. Baseline and prospective data were collected on over 17,000 critically ill patients. A variety of evidence-based professional behavioral change interventions and novel implementation techniques were utilized and shared among Collaborative members. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION Hospitals and health systems can use the Collaborative structure, strategies, and tools described in this paper to help successfully implement the ABCDEF bundle in their ICUs.
Natural resources, economic growth and institutions – a panel approach

This study re-evaluates the impact of natural resources on growth using panel data and a factor-efficiency accounting framework. The resource-curse thesis is dismissed as capital efficiency is improved by geographically-concentrated natural resources, which hinder institutional quality in recent cross-section studies. This consensus does not hold in our case even when we use unadjusted resource proxies and the standard institutional approach, as both concentrated and diffuse resources show negative effects in low institutional-quality countries. Adequate fiscal policy seems to prevent the curse in that case, but reduces the positive effect of concentrated resources found with our adjusted proxy.
Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) H9N2 are in the course of reassorting into novel AIVs

中文概要目的分析H9N2 禽流感病毒通过基因重配形成H7N9 和H10N8 人间禽流感病毒的进程,探讨作为供体 的禽流感病毒H9N2 在当前中国的主要分布及其 内部6 个基因节段的进化关系。 创新点人间禽流感病毒H7N9 和H10N8 共起源于H9N2 禽流感病毒早已成为共识,但共起源的时间节 点、作为供体的禽流感病毒H9N2 在当前中国的 分布及其内部6 个基因节段的进化关系鲜有论 及。 2014 年,H5N6 禽流感被多次报道造成人类 感染。 研究表明,H5N6 禽流感具有复杂的重配 来源,H9N2 正是其一,加之H7N9 第五波流行 的严峻形势,亟需明确H9N2 禽流感病毒通过基 因重配形成新亚型的能力以及它在我国的当前 主要分布。 方法从流感病毒公共数据库下载基因序列,评估查找 适当的碱基替代模型,通过进化树查看与H7N9、 H10N8 及H5N6 具有高度相似性的H9N2 病毒的 分布地区以及它们在内部6 个基因节段上的进化 关系,同时通过碱基替代速率的计算追溯最近共 同祖先(tMRCA)及其分歧时间。 结论人间禽流感病毒H7N9 与H10N8 均在2012 年之 前形成,短期内通过碱基替代与基因重配形成了 两种可感染人类的禽流感病毒,证实了H9N2 通 过重配形成新亚型的高效性。 作为重配供体的 H9N2 至今仍广布于华东、华南及东南亚。 其内 部基因节段的重配复杂,发生在亚型内部的重配 以及通过重配形成新的病毒亚型的风险都很高, 需在禽畜中加强流感病毒的流行动态监测,特别 是那些一向被忽视的编码内部蛋白的基因组节 段。
Reputation-Aware, Trajectory-Based Recruitment of Smart Vehicles for Public Sensing

With the abundant on-board resources in smart vehicles, they have become major candidates for providing ubiquitous services, including public sensing. One of the challenges facing such ubiquitous utilization is the recruitment of the participating vehicles. In this paper, we present the reputation-aware, trajectory-based recruitment (RTR) framework that handles recruitment of vehicles for public sensing. The framework considers the spatiotemporal availability of participants along with their reputation to select vehicles that achieve desired coverage of an area of interest within a budget cap. The framework consists of a reputation assessment scheme, a pricing model, and a selection scheme collaborating for a main recruitment objective; maximizing coverage with minimum cost. We propose greedy heuristic solutions targeting the selection problem in real-time. The RTR framework generalizes the basic selection problem to handle some practical scenarios, including departing vehicles and varying redundancy requirements. We also propose a reputation assessment scheme and a pricing model as parts of the framework. Extensive performance evaluation of the proposed framework is conducted and the evaluation shows that the proposed greedy heuristics are able to achieve results close to previously obtained optimal benchmarks under different scenarios, and that the framework succeeds in achieving high levels of coverage even when vehicles do not stick to their announced trajectories.
Housing Supply, Land Costs and Price Adjustment

We analyze relationships between housing supply elasticities, land costs and house price dynamics, contributing three main insights. First, higher housing supply elasticities help contain short‐run price spikes following demand shocks. Second, land price dynamics influence this relationship; supply responses are lessened and house price spikes are exacerbated as land prices increase. Third, we estimate a system of regional equations modeling housing supply using a Tobin's‐q specification (incorporating construction and land costs) and show that regional price dynamics are a function of the region's supply elasticity.
Competitive Balance and Game Attendance in Major League Baseball

This article tests for the effects of a change in competitive balance on attendance at Major League Baseball games using game-level attendance data for the 2000-2002 seasons. Employing the difference between the winning percentages of the home and visiting teams as a measure of competitive balance, the authors find (a) the effects of a change in competitive balance on attendance are not symmetric, (b) the effects of a change in competitive balance increase as a team falls further behind the divisional leader, and (c) the effects of a change in competitive balance decline throughout the season if the home team has a better record than the visiting team but increase if the home team has a worse record than the visiting team.
Medium-term Management of Green Budget: The Case of Ukraine

The purpose of this study is to examine the medium-term budget planning process in Ukraine and the extent to which this approach is used within the environmental sector. It aims to assist the Ukrainian government to integrate environmental programmes more effectively into overall programming, financial planning and budgeting practices which could result into more adequate and predictable allocations to the environment sector. The study also seeks to analyse the implications of the progressive shift in aid modalities towards sectoral and general budget support. This report was prepared within the framework of the OECD Task Force for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. The report also builds upon work that started within the OECD Task Team on Governance and Capacity Development for Natural Resource and Environmental Management, a joint Task Team of the OECD Development Assistance and Environmental Policy Committees. In addition, the report contributes to the debate on Green Growth, demonstrating the need for more adequate and well-costed environmental budgets, in the context of medium-term expenditure frameworks, as a means of promoting structural changes as part of the transition to green economy.
Prediction of Treatment-Related HBsAg Loss in HBeAg-Negative Chronic Hepatitis B: A Clue from Serum HBsAg Levels

Background Quantification of HBsAg in serum may be of clinical importance in predicting HBsAg seroconversion and complete response to treatment. Methods Serum HBsAg was quantified by ADVIA Centaur® in 63 patients with HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHBe-). A total of 42 had received interferon-α2b (IFN-α2b) (median 12.1 months; 19 sustained responders including 12 HBsAg-seroconvertors; 23 non-sustained responders) and 21 were on lamivudine (LAM) (median 33.0 months). Measurements were done at baseline, during and at the end of treatment, and during and at the end of follow-up. Results Baseline median [interquartile range (IQR)] HBsAg levels in all patients were 3,286 (1,602–7,458) IU/ml, not different between IFN- and LAM-treated (P=0.139). IFN significantly depressed HBsAg in all patients except IFN non-responders, but HBsAg decline persisted only in sustained responders. Low pretreatment HBsAg level was the only significant prognostic variable of HBsAg seroconversion by multivariate analysis. LAM treatment also suppressed HBsAg levels but at a significantly slower rate compared with IFN (P=0.022). The median (IQR) estimated time to HBsAg undetectability (ETU-HBsAg), derived from best curve fitting, was 127 (87.6–263.5) months for LAM virological responders and 65.3 (36.3–95.0) months for IFN sustained responders (P=0.002). In 12 HBsAg seroconvertors, ETU-HBsAg was similar to the real time of HBsAg loss (P=0.525) and seroconversion (0.056). Conclusions In CHBe-, IFN induces a sharper decrease in serum HBsAg compared with LAM and low pretreatment levels are significantly associated with HBsAg seroconversion. Serial HBsAg measurements may be useful for prediction of HBsAg loss and our data suggest that to achieve this, 5.4 years of sustained response to IFN or 10.6 years of effective LAM therapy are probably needed.
Infrastructure development and economic growth in India

In this study, we investigate the role of infrastructure in economic growth in India for the period 1970–2006 on the basis of the empirical framework developed by D.A. Aschauer (Is public expenditure productive? Journal of monetary economics, 23 (2), 1989, 177–200). In this context, we develop an index of infrastructure stocks and estimate growth-accounting equations to investigate the impact of infrastructure development on output. Overall, the results reveal that infrastructure stocks, labour force and total investment play an important role in economic growth in India. More importantly, we find that infrastructure development in India has a significant positive contribution toward growth than both private and public investments. Further, causality analysis shows that there is unidirectional causality from infrastructure development to output growth. From a policy perspective, there should be greater emphasis on infrastructure development to sustain the high economic growth which the Indian economy has been experiencing for the last few years.
Barotropic and Baroclinic Annular Variability in the Southern Hemisphere

AbstractThe leading patterns of large-scale climate variability in the Southern Hemisphere are examined in the context of extratropical kinetic energy. It is argued that variability in the Southern Hemisphere extratropical flow can be viewed in the context of two distinct and largely independent structures, both of which exhibit a high degree of annularity: 1) a barotropic structure that dominates the variance in the zonal-mean kinetic energy and 2) a baroclinic structure that dominates the variance in the eddy kinetic energy. The former structure corresponds to the southern annular mode (SAM) and has been extensively examined in the literature. The latter structure emerges as the leading principal component time series of eddy kinetic energy and has received seemingly little attention in previous work.The two structures play very different roles in cycling energy through the extratropical troposphere. The SAM is associated primarily with variability in the meridional propagation of wave activity, has a s.
Peripheral T-Cell Lymphomas Expressing CD30 and CD15

Coexpression of CD30 and CD15 is typically associated with classic Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) can often display histologic features that simulate classic HL. However, reports of PTCLs coexpressing both CD30 and CD15 have been infrequently described. We report 11 cases of PTCL in which at least a subset of the neoplastic cells coexpressed CD30 and CD15. The patients included 4 women and 7 men and age ranged from 43 to 83 years (median, 62 years). Nine of 10 patients had advanced stage III or IV disease at presentation. Nodal involvement predominated in 8 of 11 patients, whereas 2 patients presented primarily with skin involvement. Two distinct groups were identified based on morphologic and immunophenotypic features. The first group of 5 cases had histologic features mimicking classic HL with CD30+, CD15+ Reed-Sternberg (RS)-like cells in an inflammatory background of varied extent and composition. The background lymphoid cells showed minimal cytologic atypia. The RS-like cells were negative for CD20 and CD79a in all cases, and CD45 expression was absent in 4 of 5 cases. The RS-like cells expressed CD25 and at least one T-cell-associated marker in all cases. The background T-cell population showed convincing subset predominance in 4 of 5 cases and loss of T-cell-associated antigens in 3 of 5 cases and coexpression of CD30 and CD15 in one case. The second group of 6 cases had morphologic features more in keeping with PTCL than classic HL. The proportion of neoplastic cells coexpressing CD30 and CD15 varied. Loss of T-cell antigens was noted in all cases and CD4 predominated in 4 of 5 cases. Three of the 6 cases expressed CD45. PCR analysis revealed clonal T-cell receptor gamma (TCR-&ggr;) chain gene rearrangements in 9 of 11 cases, but no immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) chain gene rearrangements. In situ hybridization studies for Epstein-Barr virus were negative in all cases. In some PTCL cases, the overlap with classic HL can be striking, and combined immunophenotypic and molecular studies are often necessary to confirm the diagnosis.
The use of flexible employment arrangements: some new evidence from Greek firms

The present study attempts an examination of the extent to which Greek firms use flexible employment arrangements, the kind of jobs in which they are used and the factors affecting their use. It concentrates on three types of flexible work: temporary workers, independent contractors and subcontractors. Drawing upon data from a sample of seventy-five companies, it identifies factors affecting: a) firm's decision to use flexible forms of work or not and b) the percentage of flexible workers used. Irini Voudouris, Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Management Science and Technology, 76 Patission str, Athens 10434, Greece (e-mail: ivoudour@aueb.gr) The main findings indicate that different types of flexible worker are used by the same firm for the accomplishment of different kinds of job and are affected by different factors. Training costs and monitoring problems appear to be the most influential factors explaining the use of temporary workers, while low frequency of specialized tasks is the main factor affecting the use of independent contractors and often the recourse to subcontractors. Results from the Greek national context would add to existing evidence on this important issue.
Market Reaction to Auditor Switching from Big 4 to Third-Tier Small Accounting Firms

SUMMARY: After the demise of Arthur Andersen, the public accounting industry has witnessed a significant migration of public clients to second-tier (Grant Thornton and BDO Seidman) and smaller third-tier accounting firms. While prior literature documents that smaller auditors are perceived by the stock market as an inferior substitute for a Big 4 auditor, this perception appears to have changed in recent years. In this paper, we analyze market responses to auditor switching from Big 4 to smaller accounting firms during 2002 to 2006. We break our sample period into two separate periods (Periods 1 and 2) based on when regulatory changes occurred. These changes included Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) 404 implementation, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspections, and a tightened Form 8-K filing deadline. We find a relatively more positive stock market reaction to clients switching from a Big 4 to a smaller third-tier auditor in Period 2. This relatively more positive reaction in Period 2 reflects co.
A Meta-analysis of Hypothetical Bias in Stated Preference Valuation

Individuals are widely believed to overstate their economic valuation of a good by a factor of two or three. This paper reports the results of a meta-analysis of hypothetical bias in 28 stated preference valuation studies that report monetary willingness-to-pay and used the same mechanism for eliciting both hypothetical and actual values. The papers generated 83 observations with a median ratio of hypothetical to actual value of only 1.35, and the distribution has severe positive skewness. We find that a choice-based elicitation mechanism is important in reducing bias. We provide some evidence that the use of student subjects may be a source of bias, but since this variable is highly correlated with group experimental settings, firm conclusions cannot be drawn. There is some weak evidence that bias increases when public goods are being valued, and that some calibration methods may be effective at reducing bias. However, results are quite sensitive to model specification, which will remain a problem until a comprehensive theory of hypothetical bias is developed.