Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Barriers to new competition

Conditions of entry into markets where sellers are few are analyzed intensively by Professor J. S. Bain in his Barriers to New Competition.1 In the tightly written first chapter the theory of entry is developed far beyond what was previously in the literature. There emerges a series of hypotheses as to the conditions of entry, and the probable degree to which they serve as barriers to new competition. A bold attempt is then made to measure the height of these barriers in 20 manufacturing industries. Predictions stemming from these empirical findings are compared with observed performance of these industries. Finally, the conclusions with respect to the significance of types of entry barriers lead to a number of observations as to public policy. All of this comprehensive analysis is carried out explicitly within the framework of comparative statics. Specifically excluded from the circumstances considered as having a significant effect on entry, and through that on the maximum level of the equilibrium price, are secular or cyclical [or episodic? ] movements of demand, capacity or costs. Nor, except for a few notable cases of product innovation, does Bain believe that new sellers are able to alter the condition of entry. Instead, "It is definitely posited for purposes of the present study-on the basis of extensive empirical observation-that the condition of entry as defined and its ultimate determinants are usually stable and slowly changing through time . " (p. 18). Such stability is elsewhere said to exist "persistently . over a period of time. " Repeatedly this or a similar phrase appears to emphasize that observation ex post can be tied conceptually to the ex ante long-term equilibrium. Such stable and slowly changing conditions of entry are held to determine the ceiling price for an industry or the amount by which its price can, persistently, exceed the level ". hypothetically attributed to long-run equilibrium in pure competition" (p. 6). The actual persistent level of price may fall short of this entry-inviting level because of the nature of interfirm rivalry. The latter opens up the whole of oligopoly theory, but the author moves into that area only to indicate how the alternative solutions to interfirm rivalry would affect the price expectations of a would-be entrant. Entry is marked off from other sources of capacity expansion by the require-
Australian evidence on tax smoothing and the optimal budget surplus

This paper tests a version of R. J. Barro's tax smoothing hypothesis using Australian data for the period 1964-65 to 1994-95. The model assumes intertemporal optimization by a government seeking to minimize the distortionary effects of tax collection. The model predicts that the budget surplus is stationary even if government expenditure and tax collections are nonstationary. In addition, the surplus should be a linear function of expected future changes to government expenditure. The results indicate that Australian fiscal policy has been too volatile to be consistent with optimal tax smoothing. Copyright 1997 by The Economic Society of Australia.
Customer switching behaviour in Greek banking services using survival analysis

Purpose - This paper aims to examine customer switching behaviour in Greek banking services. More specifically it aims to investigate predictors of churn behaviour as part of customer relationship management (CRM). Design/methodology/approach - The enhancement of existing relationships is of pivotal importance to banks, since attracting new customers is known to be more expensive. The paper discusses survival analysis based on data collected from customers of a leading financial services company. It examines a number of variables, which represent characteristics of the customers and of the offered services and products. By using life tables, it estimates the contribution of each separate factor in customers' switching behaviour in different periods of time. Findings - A hazard proportional model is built to determine the risk of churn behaviour, which is the end-result of all the examined factors. Practical implications - Bank's management team could use the findings of our study, in order to determine specific attributes in designing financial services and products, which would add in customers' satisfaction. Originality/value - The approach and results have significant implications for enlarging the duration of the relationship among customer and bank.
Oral Immunosuppressive Treatment of Myasthenia Gravis in Denmark: A Nationwide Drug Utilization Study, 1996–2013

Although immunosuppressants in the treatment of myasthenia have been available for several decades, population‐based studies describing drug utilization in myasthenia patients are scarce. We aimed in this study to describe the treatment of myasthenia in Denmark in more recent years with emphasis on use of oral immunosuppressant agents. We identified a nationwide cohort of incident myasthenia patients in Denmark from 1996 to 2013 and tracked their use of drugs over the entire period using data from nationwide registers. Patients with myasthenia were classified according to utilization of specific immunosuppressants (e.g. prednisolone) as ‘never user’ or ‘ever user’. We used Kaplan–Meier (K‐M) and proportion of patients covered (PPC) curves to describe treatment onset and termination. We identified 928 patients (52% female) with incident myasthenia in the study period. Overall, 638 (69%) were treated with prednisolone and 506 (55%) with azathioprine. Treatment with prednisolone and azathioprine within 2 years of myasthenia diagnosis was initiated in 462 (56%) and 366 (45%). Only one of four myasthenia patients (n = 231) did not receive oral immunosuppressive treatment at any time in the study period. Prednisolone was stopped in most patients, whereas treatment with azathioprine was often continued throughout follow‐up. In conclusion, we found that treatment of myasthenia in Denmark in recent years corresponded well to the expected clinical course of myasthenia and that most patients underwent long‐term immunosuppression.
A Search for L Dwarf Binary Systems

We present analysis of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) planetary camera images of 20 L dwarfs identified in the course of the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Four of the targets, 2MASSW J0746425+200032, 2MASSs J0850359+105716, 2MASSW J0920122+351742, and 2MASSW J1146345+223053, have faint red companions at separations between 0. ″07 and 0. ″29 (1.6–7.6 AU). Ground-based infrared imaging confirms the last as a common proper motion companion. The surface density of background sources with comparable colors is extremely low, and we identify all four as physical binaries. In three cases, the bolometric magnitudes of the components differ by less than 0.3 mag. Since the cooling rate for brown dwarfs is a strong function of mass, similarity in luminosities implies comparable masses. The faint component in the 2M0850 system, however, is over 1.3 mag fainter than the primary in the I band and ∼0.8 mag fainter in Mbol. Indeed, 2M0850B is ∼0.8 mag fainter in I than the lowest luminosity L dwarf currently known, while the absolute magnitude we deduce at J is almost identical with MJ for Gl 229B. We discuss the implications of these results for the temperature scale in the L/T transition region. 2M0850 is known to exhibit 6708 Å Li I absorption, indicating that the primary has a mass less than 0.06 M⊙. Theoretical models predict that the magnitude difference implies a mass ratio of ≈0.75. The apparent binary fraction of the current sample, 20%, is comparable to the results of previous surveys of late-type M dwarfs in the field and in the Hyades. However, the mean separation of the L dwarf binaries in the current sample is smaller than the M dwarf value by a factor of 2, and only one system would be detected at the distance of the Hyades. We discuss the likely binary frequency among L dwarfs in light of these new data.
President Carter's Selection Reforms and Judicial Policymaking

In order to shed light on the impact of reforms in selection procedures on the policy made by the federal courts, this article compares the voting patterns of United States courts of appeals judges appointed by President Jimmy Carter with those appointed by President Lyndon Johnson. The study shows that there are significant differences between the two groups of judges that are not attributable to affirmative action in the Carter selection system nor to changes in Johnson appointees' voting patterns over time. Although I acknowledge that there are other factors that may underlie the differences between the two groups of judges, I conclude that it is reasonable to assert that the differences are attributable to the Carter reforms in the selection process.
Strength of Analyst Coverage Following Ipos

Firms with poor aftermarket performance are given higher target prices and are more likely to receive strong buy recommendations, especially by analysts affiliated with the lead underwriter. This favorable coverage is relatively short-lived, lasting for only the first one or two analyst reports, typically less than six months. Controlling for the quantity of coverage received, stock prices of newly public firms increase more when the target price ratio is high and the recommendation is a strong buy. These results suggest that when a firm goes public, underwriter affiliated analysts provide protection in the form of market-moving "booster shots" of stronger coverage if the firm experiences poor aftermarket stock performance.
Policy issues in the teaching of economics in cyberspace: research design, course design, and research results

More than 50 colleges, universities, and community colleges now offer economics instruction in cyberspace, and this number is growing rapidly. Despite the implications of this growth for the quality of economics instruction, only a small fraction of those institutions venturing into cyberlearning are doing so in a carefully monitor the quality and performance of their online courses. It does so within the context of reporting the course design, research design, and research results of two cyberlearning studies conducted at the University of California. Copyright 2000 Western Economic Association International.
Avacopan in the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis

ABSTRACT Introduction: ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is a rare but potentially life-threatening disease. Currently used induction treatment (cyclophosphamide or rituximab with high-dose corticosteroids) has significantly improved outcome of AAV, but is associated with high toxicity. Alternative complement pathway activation was shown to play a role in the pathogenesis of AAV, thus providing rationale for the use of avacopan, a selective inhibitor of C5a receptor, in the treatment of AAV. Areas covered: Pharmacokinetic and pharmocodynamic properties of avacopan, clinical efficacy and safety and tolerability of avacopan in so far performed clinical trials in patients with AAV are reviewed and discussed. Expert opinion: Avacopan was shown to have at least similar efficacy compared to high dose corticosteroids in patients with active AAV with renal involvement, while there were no major safety issues reported. Replacement of corticosteroids should decrease the corticosteroid-related toxicity and improve long-term outcome of patients with AAV even though this still needs to be confirmed in a larger trial. Data on long-term outcome of avacopan-treated patients are currently lacking and will be eagerly awaited. In the future, avacopan could replace corticosteroids not only in the induction phase, but also in the maintenance treatment of AAV.
State Infrastructure and Productive Performance

The impact of public infrastructure investment on the productive performance of firms has been an important focus of the recent literature on productivity growth. The size of this impact has important implications for policymakers' decisions to invest in public capital, and productivity analysts' evaluation of productivity growth fluctuations and declines. However, detailed evaluation of the infrastructure impact is difficult using existing studies which rely on restricted models of firms' technology and behavior. In this paper we construct a more complete production theory model of firms' production and input decisions. We then apply our framework to state-level data on the output production and input (capital, nonproduction and production labor and energy) use of manufacturing firms to evaluate the contribution of infrastructure to firms' costs and productivity growth. We find that infrastructure investment does provide a significant direct benefit to manufacturing firms and thus augments productivity growth. We also show, however, that this evidence should be interpreted taking into account the social cost of such capital (which is not reflected in firms' costs), and the indirect impact resulting from scale effects.
Homeless Mobility, Institutional Settings, and the New Poverty Management

Poverty management involves organized responses by elites and/or the state to contain potentially disruptive populations. As a result of global, national, and institutional compressions, the new poverty management tends to circulate these populations, especially the mentally disabled, across an array of unrelated and frequently institutional settings. This restructuring of interactions between mobility and institutional settings, in the form of institutionalized cycling, has yet to be investigated for other potentially vulnerable groups, such as single homeless women. Using a convenience sample of twenty-five women at a shelter in Central Los Angeles, I seek to understand their residential patterns, identify evidence of institutionalized cycling through a fivefold typology, and to elucidate the personal and structural factors behind why some women were prone to institutionalized cycling whereas others were not. Results point to highly uneven evidence of institutionalized cycling across the sample, with the most obvious impacts in the institutional cycler and institutionally accommodated categories.
Catheter-related bloodstream infections in patients with intestinal failure receiving home parenteral support: risks related to a catheter-salvage strategy.

Background In intestinal failure (IF) patients receiving home parenteral support (HPS), catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) frequently result in replacement of their tunneled central venous catheters (CVCs), which may lead to future loss of central venous access. Objective This observational study investigated the consequences of a catheter-salvage strategy related to CRBSIs. Design All CRBSIs from 2002 to 2016 in the Copenhagen IF and microbiological databases were retrospectively analyzed. Catheter salvage was defined by successful antimicrobial therapy with a retained CVC at discharge. Re-occurrences of CRBSIs with the same microbial species and identical antibiogram were defined as a relapse (<30 d) or as a recurrent (30-100 d) infection. Cox regression analyses incorporated a frailty factor to account for recurrent events and overrepresentation by some patients. Cumulative incidence curves are presented with a competing risk model. Results There were 2006 tunneled CVCs inserted in 715 adult HPS patients covering 2014.3 CVC years, with a CRBSI incidence rate of 1.83/1000 (n = 1350) and a mortality rate of 0.007/1000 CVC days (n = 5). The mean ± SD salvage rate was 55.3% ± 5.5%, varying according to infection type [monoinfections (62.9% ± 4.4%) and polyinfections (58.6% ± 17.3%)] and causative microorganism [coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) (68.1% ± 9.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (42.6% ± 17.5%), and Enterobacteriaceae (54.3% ± 16.7%)]. The overall risk of CRBSI relapse was 7.5%, and the risk of CRBSI recurrence was 7.3%. The HR for a subsequent CRBSI was 14% lower in a replaced than in a retained CVC (95% CI: 0.74, 0.99). The HR for a new CRBSI after catheter salvage was 36% higher after polyinfections than after monoinfections (95% CI: 1.03, 1.79). Enterobacteriaceae entailed an increased risk of CRBSI recurrence compared with CoNS (2.26; 95% CI; 1.08, 4.75) and S. aureus (4.45; 95% CI: 1.28, 15.5). Conclusions High catheter-salvage rates related to CRBSIs were achievable and safe in HPS patients within a broad range of microorganisms but contributed to an increased risk of CRBSI relapse or recurrence.
Impact of Agriculture Productivity on Economic Growth: A Case Study of Pakistan

The present study investigates the impact of agriculture productivity on economic growth. The secondary source of data covering the time series period 1972 to 2012 is employed. We have used the auto regressive distributed lags method (ARDL) to estimate the economic growth. Different variables are used such as real gross domestic production per capita gross capital formation, employed labor force, inflation rate, trade, openness, agriculture value added. The inflation rate has negative effect on economic growth while all other variables are positively related to economic growth. The study concludes that big share of agriculture contribute more in economic growth and suggest that government should enhance employed labor force by increasing the higher education in both agriculture and industrial sector. Keywords: Agriculture productivity, GDP, ARD, Pakistan
Deceased donor renal transplantation at army hospital research and referral: Our experience

Context: In India, there are a large number of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients waiting for renal transplant. Deceased donor organ transplantation (DDOT) is the possible solution to bridge the disparity between organ supply and demand. The concept of expanded criteria donors (ECDs) was developed to combat the huge discrepancy between demand and organ availability. However, ECD kidneys have a higher propensity for delayed graft function (DGF), and therefore worse long-term survival. We present our experience of deceased donor renal transplantation. Aims: We report single centre experience on DDOT including ECDs vis-à-vis patient/graft survival, graft function in terms of serum creatinine (SCr), rejection episodes, and delayed graft function in 44 DDOT Materials and Methods: Between August 1998 and April 2011, 44 renal transplants from 35 deceased donors were performed, of which 37.2% were expanded criteria donors. Results were analyzed in terms of age of donor, terminal SCr, graft ischemia time, graft function, post-transplant complications, and graft and patient survival. All recipients received sequential triple drug immunosuppression and induction with rabbit antithymocyte globulin (rATG). The induction is commenced by giving first dose of rATG intraoperatively (dose 1.5 mg/kg) and subsequent rATG infusions were administered daily for a minimum of 5 and maximum of 7 doses depending on initial graft function. Results: We have been able to achieve a mean cold ischemia time of 6.25 ± 2.55 h due to the coordinated team efforts. Delayed graft function occurred in 34% patients and 31.8% had prolonged drainage. There were no urinary leaks. Seven (16%) patients had biopsy-proven rejection episodes, all of which were reversed with treatment. Two patients underwent graft nephrectomy. One of these was due to hyperacute rejection and another due to anastomotic hemorrhage. One-year graft survival was 92.4% and the patient survival was 83.8%. Conclusion: Deceased donor renal transplants have satisfactory graft function and patient survival despite the high incidence of delayed graft function. Retrieving kidneys from marginal donors can add to the donor pool.
The evolution of the ultraviolet and infrared luminosity densities in the universe at 0 < z < 1

The ratio between far-ultraviolet (FUV) and infrared (IR) luminosity densities from z=0 to z=1 is discussed by using the luminosity functions (LFs) of both wavelengths. The FUV LF (z=0-1) based on GALEX has been reported by Arnouts et al. (2005), whilst for the IR LF, we used the IRAS PSCz 60-um LF for the local universe and the Spitzer 15-um LF at higher-z as used by Le Floch et al. (2005). Both luminosity densities show a significant evolutionary trend, but the IR evolves much faster than the FUV. Consequently, the ratio $\\rho_{dust}/\\rho_{FUV}$ increases toward higher-z, from 4 (local) to 15 (z = 1). It is also shown that more than 70% of the star formation activity in the universe is obscured by dust at 0.5 < z < 1.2.
Deep learning from crowds

Over the last few years, deep learning has revolutionized the field of machine learning by dramatically improving the state-of-the-art in various domains. However, as the size of supervised artificial neural networks grows, typically so does the need for larger labeled datasets. Recently, crowdsourcing has established itself as an efficient and cost-effective solution for labeling large sets of data in a scalable manner, but it often requires aggregating labels from multiple noisy contributors with different levels of expertise. In this paper, we address the problem of learning deep neural networks from crowds. We begin by describing an EM algorithm for jointly learning the parameters of the network and the reliabilities of the annotators. Then, a novel general-purpose crowd layer is proposed, which allows us to train deep neural networks end-to-end, directly from the noisy labels of multiple annotators, using only backpropagation. We empirically show that the proposed approach is able to internally capture the reliability and biases of different annotators and achieve new state-of-the-art results for various crowdsourced datasets across different settings, namely classification, regression and sequence labeling.
Beyond Brainstorming: Exploring Convergence in Teams

Abstract Collaborative brainstorming is often followed by a convergence activity where teams extract the most promising ideas on a useful level of detail from the brainstorming results. Contrary to the wealth of research on electronic brainstorming, there is a dearth of research on convergence. We used experimental methods for an in-depth exploration of two facilitation-based interventions in a convergence activity: attention guidance (focusing participants on procedures to execute a convergence task) and discussion encouragement (engaging participants in conversations to combine knowledge on ideas). Our findings show that both attention guidance and discussion encouragement are correlated with higher convergence quality. We argue that attention guidance’s contribution is in its support of coordination, information processing, and goal specification. Similar, we argue that discussion encouragement’s contribution is in its stimulation of idea clarification and idea combination. Contrary to past research, our findings further show that satisfaction was higher after convergence than after brainstorming.
SEX‐BIASED GENETIC STRUCTURE IN THE VECTOR OF LYME DISEASE, IXODES RICINUS

Abstract. — We analyzed 725 Ixodes ricinus ticks (the principal vector of Lyme disease in Europe) collected in Switzerland in 1995 and 1996 (three and eight samples, respectively) and in Tunisia in 1996 (one sample) with five microsatellite markers. We found highly significant genetic differentiation between Swiss and Tunisian samples but detected almost no differentiation within Switzerland, even between those samples separated by the Alps. Interestingly, we found that I. ricinus females were more genetically related to one another than were males at a local scale, which would indicate a higher dispersal rate of immature males. Possible explanations for these findings in terms of sex‐specific association of ticks with certain hosts (e.g., birds) and their epidemiological consequences are discussed.