Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A pan-Asian survey of risk perception, attitudes and practices associated with live animal markets.

Principal applicant and corresponding author: Prof Richard Fielding Department of Community Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China Tel: (852) 2819 9288 Fax: (852) 2855 9528 E-mail: fielding@hkusua.hku. hk R Fielding 莊日昶 GM Leung 梁卓偉 WWT Lam 藍詠德 CQ Jiang 江朝強 C Sitthi-Amorn LV Ahn YM Lu 劉移民 WS Zhang 張維森 A pan-Asian survey of risk perception, attitudes and practices associated with live animal markets
Interaction between transcriptional activator protein LAC9 and negative regulatory protein GAL80

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, transcriptional activation mediated by the GAL4 regulatory protein is repressed in the absence of galactose by the binding of the GAL80 protein, an interaction that requires the carboxy-terminal 28 amino acids of GAL4. The homolog of GAL4 from Kluyveromyces lactis, LAC9, activates transcription in S. cerevisiae and is highly similar to GAL4 in its carboxyl terminus but is not repressed by wild-type levels of GAL80 protein. Here we show that GAL80 does repress LAC9-activated transcription in S. cerevisiae if overproduced. We sought to determine the molecular basis for the difference in the responses of the LAC9 and GAL4 proteins to GAL80. Our results indicate that this difference is due primarily to the fact that under wild-type conditions, the level of LAC9 protein in S. cerevisiae is much higher than that of GAL4, which suggests that LAC9 escapes GAL80-mediated repression by titration of GAL80 protein in vivo. The difference in response to GAL80 is not due to amino acid sequence differences between the LAC9 and GAL4 carboxyl termini. We discuss the implications of these results for the mechanism of galactose metabolism regulation in S. cerevisiae and K. lactis.
Comparing Government Agendas

At the beginning of each parliamentary session, almost all European governments give a speech in which they present the government’s policy priorities and legislative agenda for the year ahead. Despite the body of literature on governments in European parliamentary democracies, systematic research on these executive policy agendas is surprisingly limited. In this article the authors study the executive policy agendas—measured through the policy content of annual government speeches—over the past 50 years in three Western European countries: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Contrary to the expectations derived from the well-established “politics matters” approach, the analyses show that elections and change in partisan color have little effect on the executive issue agendas, except to a limited extent for the United Kingdom. In contrast, the authors demonstrate empirically how the policy agenda of governments responds to changes in public problems, and this affects how political parties define these problems as political issues. In other words, policy responsibility that follows from having government power seems much more important for governments’ issue agendas than the partisan and institutional characteristics of governments.
Reassessing Judicial Independence and Impartiality against the Backdrop of Judicial Appointments in South Africa

The South African Judicial Service Commission (JSC), considered to be exemplary for its independence, plays a pivotal part in judicial appointments. Yet the Commission has long been marred by tensions that have lately erupted into a full-blown conflict between those who could here be referred to as the transformationists, on the one hand, and the liberals, on the other. The transformationists, who may generally be regarded as falling within the sphere of influence of the ruling elite under the African National Congress (ANC), are bent on pursuing the policy of transformation. Hence they insist that the composition of the bench must reflect the national population profile and on individual judges' pursuing the ruling party's ideological goals. The liberals reject this as a threat to judicial independence and the professional competence of the judiciary. On close analysis the clash is based on incompatible interpretations of judicial independence and impartiality. This article is a critique of these interpretations against the backdrop of an assessment of what these notions can reasonably be expected to achieve. It is argued that the liberals are harbouring unrealistic views about judiciaries, believing them to wield power which may even extend over matters of political significance, powers on a par with or even outweighing those of the political branches. However, on proper analysis it is clear that the judiciary is in fact, firstly, inherently weak and dependent on the support of the political branches; and, secondly, it is integrated into the ruling elite with whom they share the same ideological assumptions without any inclination to oppose them. Hence, the impartiality of the courts, when it comes to politically sensitive issues, is distinctively politically (regime) relative and ideologically conditioned. Ironically the transformationists have bought into the liberals' erroneous belief in the potency of the courts (in the above-mentioned sense) and they fear, without foundation, for the political risks the courts might be posing to the ruling elite. This fear is based on an exaggerated vision of the far-reaching consequences that they ascribe to judicial independence and impartiality, believing it to render the judiciary a formidable political force on a par with the political branches. The transformationists would therefore go to extreme lengths to secure an amenable judiciary. This is exemplified by their rather improper insistence that the best candidates need not be appointed, thus compromising even the (limited) independence and impartiality which courts, on a realistic assessment, should have. In doing this the transformationists show a serious lack of appreciation of the distinctive professional nature of the judiciary, whose independence, impartiality and effectiveness are rooted not in political might but in the exceptional professional competence of the incumbents on the bench, who should be drawn from the best candidates the legal professional can produce.
Contrasting Patterns in the Internationalisation of Supply Networks in the Motor Industries of Emerging Economies

Detailed industry and firm level research reveals a striking difference between the patterns of motor vehicle parts supply networks in two major transition regions — Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) and China. In CEE second and third-tier suppliers are well developed, and are generally capable of working within international supply networks. But there are virtually no domestically owned first-tier suppliers in CEE. In China, by contrast, there are a number of domestically owned first-tier suppliers supplying export markets. But second and third-tier suppliers present serious bottlenecks in that economy. The difference is explained in terms of differences in patterns of industrialisation in the two regions.
Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Colonization With Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus Among Human Immunodeficiency Virus–Positive Outpatients

TO THE EDITOR—Patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at increased risk for infection with both typical community-acquired pathogens and drugresistant organisms. HIV-positive patients often receive antibiotic therapy and have frequent contact with the healthcare system, both of which are factors that have been associated with an increased risk of infection with vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) in other populations. ' One study of hospitalized patients with enterococcal bacteremia showed that they were more likely to be infected with vancomycinresistant strains if they were HIV positive or had a history of AIDS.
Efficiency and Equity in Funding for Government Schools in Australia

This study measures cost inefficiency for government school in New South Wales, Australia using a two-stage data envelopment analysis (TSDEA) model and the inefficiency-effects model (Battese & Coelli, 1995). The study found overall primary schools are 75 per cent and secondary schools are 89 per cent cost efficient. However, cost efficiency for primary schools has decreased and for secondary schools has increased marginally over the study period. The study found that social disadvantage in primary schools exerts a strong negative impact on students’ achievement scores causing inefficient use of available resources. For secondary schools no such conclusive relationship is observed.
Financial Market Innovation and Security Design: An Introduction

Abstract The article describes, in the context of theory and practice, this special issue of the Journal of Economic Theory on financial market innovation and security design. The main focus is on security design in incomplete financial markets, possibly with asymmetrically informed traders. We first survey the general equilibrium literature, which emphasizes the spanning role of securities. We then provide a unified framework encompassing the literature that employs a CARA-Guassian setting to study the impact of financial innovation on risk-sharing and information aggregation. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers G10, D52.
Creating the U.S. Dollar Currency Union, 1748–1811: A Quest for Monetary Stability or a Usurpation of State Sovereignty for Personal Gain?

The desirability of politically creating currency unions among otherwise sovereign states is an ongoing debate. A key backdrop in this debate is the supposed empirical success of the U.S. dollar currency union. The fact that otherwise sovereign states within the United States are not constitutionally allowed to issue their own currency, thus creating a single currency for the whole United States—the U.S. dollar— is the archetype that underlies many policy choices and recommendations, such as the creation of the European currency union and the condemnation of the separate currencies issued by individual states within Argentina during their recent crisis. The benefits of the U.S. currency union and, by analogy, the benefits of other politically manufactured currency unions are assumed to be obvious, namely a reduction in monetary instability and exchange rate transaction costs within the union thereby stimulating long-run economic growth. These alleged benefits for the United States, however, are not derived from market evidence, but from simple theoretical assertions and from a literature that takes as fact the rhetoric of the winning side at the U.S. Constitutional Convention. Independent of theory and rhetoric, little is known about how and why the U.S. currency union was created, or about whether it improved macro performance. These deficiencies are addressed here. Prices indices, exchange rates, and market-generated transaction data from 1748 through 1811 are used to determine when the market moved from state currencies to the U.S. dollar and to assess the nonwartime performance of prices, exchange rates, and purchasing power parity before versus after this transition. This evidence suggests that the U.S. currency union had more to do with usurpation of state sovereignty by rent-seeking bankers than with solutions to monetary instability and transactions costs.
Murine Polyomavirus Requires the Endoplasmic Reticulum Protein Derlin-2 To Initiate Infection

ABSTRACT The pathways by which viruses enter cells are diverse, but in all cases, infection necessitates the transfer of the viral genome across a cellular membrane. Polyomavirus (Py) particles, after binding to glycolipid and glycoprotein receptors at the cell surface, are delivered to the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The nature and extent of virus disassembly in the ER, how the viral genome is transported to the cytosol and subsequently to the nucleus, and whether any cellular proteins are involved are not known. Here, we identify an ER-resident protein, Derlin-2, a factor implicated in the removal of misfolded proteins from the ER for cytosolic degradation, as a component of the machinery required for mouse Py to establish an infection. Inhibition of Derlin-2 function by expression of either a dominant-negative form of Derlin-2 or a short hairpin RNA that reduces Derlin-2 levels blocks Py infection by 50 to 75%. The block imposed by Derlin-2 inhibition occurs after the virus reaches the ER and can be bypassed by the introduction of Py DNA into the cytosol. These findings suggest a mode of Py entry that involves cytosolic access via the quality control machinery in the ER.
The Fabrication and Characteristics of CuPc Thin Film Phototransistor

Organic transistors consist of a vertical type are promising due to their shorter channel length. We have fabricated a vertical structure thin film phototransistor: ITO/CuPc/Al/CuPc/Cu. Detected this device and then the results show that the I-V properties of the transistors exhibit unsaturated characteristics and photosensitive characteristics. When Vec=3V, amplification factor of the device without light is 16.5 and the 625nm light amplification factor is 266.2.
Accelerated development of spontaneous and benzopyrene-induced skin cancer in mice exposed to 2450-MHz microwave radiation.

C3H/HeA mice with high incidence of spontaneous breast cancer and Balb/c mice treated with 3,4-benzopyrene (BP) (by painting of the skin resulting in the development of skin cancer) were irradiated with 2,450-MHz microwaves (MW) in an anechoic chamber at 5 or 15 mW/cm2 (2 h daily, 6 sessions per week). C3H/HeA mice were irradiated from the 6th week of life, up to the 12th month of life. Balb/c mice treated with BP were irradiated either prior to (over 1 or 3 months) or simultaneously with BP treatment (over 5 months). The appearance of palpable tumors in C3H/HeA mice and of skin cancer in BP-treated Balb/c mice was checked every 2 weeks for 12 months. Two additional groups of mice were exposed to chronic stress caused by confinement or to sham-irradiation in an anechoic chamber; these served as controls. Irradiation with MWs at either 5 or 15 mW/cm2 for 3 months resulted in a significant lowering of natural antineoplastic resistance (mean number of lung neoplastic colonies was 2.8 ± 1.6 (SD) in controls, 6.1 ± 1.8 in mice exposed at 5 mW/cm2 and 10.8 ± 2.1 in those irradiated at 15 mW/cm2) and acceleration of development of BP-induced skin cancer (285 days in controls, 230 days for 5 mW/cm2 and 160 days for 15 mW/cm2). Microwave-exposed C3H/HeA mice developed breast tumors earlier than controls (322 days in controls, 261 days for 5 mW/cm2 and 219 days for 15 mW/cm2). A similar acceleration was observed in the development of BP-induced skin cancer in mice exposed simultaneously to BP and MWs (285 days in controls, 220 day for 5 mW/cm2 and 121 days for 15 mW/cm2). The acceleration of cancer development in all tested systems and lowering of natural antineoplastic resistance was similar in mice exposed to MW at 5 mW/cm2 or to chronic stress caused by confinement but differed significantly from the data obtained on animals exposed at 15 mW/cm2, where local thermal effects (“hot” spots) were possible.
How Do Auditors Weight Informal Contrary Advice? The Joint Influence of Advisor Social Bond and Advice Justifiability

ABSTRACT: Auditors frequently seek informal advice from peers to improve judgment quality, but the conditions under which advice improves auditor judgment are poorly understood. We predict and find evidence of a trust heuristic among auditors receiving advice from advisors with whom they share a social bond. This heuristic is evident among non-specialists, who weight advice according to its justifiability when it is received from a weaker social bond advisor, but fail to objectively assess the quality of advice received and weight it heavily when it comes from a stronger social bond advisor, regardless of its justifiability. Specialists, while less prone to the trust heuristic in advice weighting, show inconsistencies in advice weighting and their assessments of advice quality. In particular, specialists discount better justified advice from stronger social bond advisors, despite rating this advice as being of relatively high quality. This defensiveness likely arises from an aversive social comparison pro.
Consumer Inertia and Firm Pricing in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Insurance Exchange

I use the Medicare Part D prescription drug insurance market to examine the dynamics of firm interaction with consumers on an insurance exchange. Enrollment data show that consumers face switching frictions leading to inertia in plan choice, and a regression discontinuity design indicates initial defaults have persistent effects. In the absence of commitment to future prices, theory predicts firms respond to inertia by raising prices on existing enrollees, while introducing cheaper alternative plans. The complete set of enrollment and price data from 2006 through 2010 confirms this prediction: older plans have approximately 10% higher premiums than comparable new plans.
Capacity Cost and Capacity Allocation

Issues surrounding the allocation of sunk capacity costs to products are among the oldest in managerial accounting. On the one hand, such costs are generally deemed to be irrelevant, but on the other hand, actual accounting systems commonly make these allocations. This paper examines a decision maker who incurs costs to acquire capacity and then uses an opportunity cost to allocate that capacity among a sequence of product proposals. Under specified circumstances, the sunk cost of capacity is shown to approximate the optimal opportunity cost of capacity. As the number of product proposals grows, the expected opportunity loss from using a simple sunk cost based capacity allocation rule goes to zero. The model is extended to consider different types of products and a multiperiod setting. Resume. Les questions qui entourent la repartition des couts irrecuperables relatifs a la capacite entre les differents produits comptent parmi les plus vieux problemes en comptabilite de gestion. D'une part, ces couts sont generalement reputes n'etre pas pertinents, tandis que d'autre part, en realite, les systemes de comptabilite assurent couramment ces repartitions. Les auteurs examinent le cas d'un decideur qui engage des frais pour acquerir une certaine capacite et utilise ensuite un cout d'option pour repartir cette capacite entre une serie de projets de fabrication de produits. Dans des circonstances donnees, les auteurs demontrent que les couts irrecuperables de la capacite acquise se rapprochent du cout d'option optimal de cette capacite. A mesure que croit le nombre de projets de fabrication de produits, la perte d'option prevue, si l'on utilise une regle de repartition simple de la capacite fondee sur les couts irrecuperables, se rapproche de zero. Le modele est elargi de facon a englober differents types de produits et plusieurs periodes.
Lower rehospitalization rates among rural Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes.

PURPOSE We estimated the 30-day readmission rate of Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes, across levels of rurality. METHODS We merged the 2005 Medicare Chronic Conditions 5% sample data with the 2007 Area Resource File. The study population was delimited to those with diabetes and at least 1 hospitalization in the year. Unadjusted readmission rates were estimated across levels of rurality. Multivariate logistic regression estimated the factors associated with readmissions. FINDINGS Overall, 14.4% had a readmission; this was higher among urban (14.9%) than rural (12.9%) residents. The adjusted odds indicated that remote rural residents were less likely to have a readmission (OR 0.74, 0.57-0.95) than urban residents. Also, those with a 30-day physician follow-up visit were more likely to have a readmission (OR 2.25, 1.96-2.58) than those without a visit. CONCLUSION The factors that contribute to hospital readmissions are complex; our findings indicate that access to follow-up care is highly associated with having a readmission. It is possible that residents of remote rural counties may not receive necessary readmissions due to lower availability of such follow-up care. Policy makers should continue to monitor this apparent disparity to determine the impact of these lower rates on both patients and hospitals alike.
Empirical Evidence on Jurisdictions that Adopt IFRS

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have recently been adopted in a number of jurisdictions, including the European Union. Despite the importance of IFRS in the context of global accounting standards harmonization, little is known regarding what institutional factors influence countries' decisions to voluntarily adopt IFRS. This issue is relevant to standard‐setters because a better understanding of the motivations for adoption will enable them to promote IFRS more effectively to countries that currently do not employ IFRS. Consistent with bonding theory, we find that countries with weaker investor protection mechanisms are more likely to adopt IFRS. Our evidence also shows that jurisdictions that are perceived to provide better access to their domestic capital markets are more likely to adopt IFRS. Taken together, our results are consistent with the view that IFRS represent a vehicle through which countries can improve investor protection and make their capital markets more accessible to f.
Heterotransplantation of human head and neck tumours into nude mice.

Multimodality therapy of advanced malignant tumours of the head and neck includes surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, the cure rate for these tumours is low and guidelines for the selection and timing of therapy are needed. For such guidelines, tumour cell kinetic parameter studies, e.g. cell proliferation, may be a suitable approach. In the present study an in vivo system for tumour cell kinetic studies, the nude mice system, has been evaluated for malignant human head and neck tumours. The overall 'take' rate for heterotransplanted human tumour grafts was 35%. The take rate was not influenced by the sterility state of the specimen. An advanced tumour stage showed a tendency to a higher take rate than less advanced tumour stages. In the tumour cell kinetic study the rate of DNA synthesis, measured by incorporation of radioactively labelled thymidine ( [3H]TdR) into DNA, was analysed in human malignant head and neck tumours and in serially heterotransplanted tumours. The rate of DNA synthesis was found to increase during the first serial passages though the histopathological picture remained unchanged. The increased rate of DNA synthesis may be explained by the recruitment of Go cells or by stem cell selection. These findings are discussed and may provide a basis for therapeutic guidelines.
Changing Wage Structure and Education in Vietnam, 1992-1998: The Roles of Demand

This paper examines the changes in relative earnings of workers with different education levels in Vietnam. Using a simple demand-and-supply framework developed by Katz and Murphy (1992), it was found that an increase in the relative demand for better-educated male workers in particular appears to play an important role in explaining the earnings differentials between workers of different education groups. Education reform to better suit the needs of the post-reform emerging market, on-the-job training for workers and equal access to education are some policy options that hold the key to reducing wage inequality between different education groups.