Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gut microbiome response to short‐term dietary interventions in reactive hypoglycemia subjects

Reactive hypoglycemia is a metabolic disorder that provokes severe hypoglycemic episodes after meals. Over recent years, the gut microbiota has been recognized as potential target for the control of metabolic diseases, and the possibility to correct gut microbiota dysbioses through diet, favouring the recovery of metabolic homeostasis, has been considered.
IgM Antibodies to Apoptosis-Associated Determinants Recruit C1q and Enhance Dendritic Cell Phagocytosis of Apoptotic Cells1

Natural Abs, which arise without known immune exposure, have been described that specifically recognize cells dying from apoptosis, but their role in innate immunity remains poorly understood. Herein, we show that the immune response to neoantigenic determinants on apoptotic thymocytes is dominated by Abs to oxidation-associated Ags, phosphorylcholine (PC), a head group that becomes exposed during programmed cell death, and malondialdehyde (MDA), a reactive aldehyde degradation product of polyunsaturated lipids produced following exposure to reactive oxidation species. While natural Abs to apoptotic cells in naive adult mice were dominated by PC and MDA specificities, the amounts of these Abs were substantially boosted by treatment of mice with apoptotic cells. Moreover, the relative amounts of PC and MDA Abs was affected by VH gene inheritance. Ab interactions with apoptotic cells also mediated the recruitment of C1q, which enhanced apoptotic cell phagocytosis by immature dendritic cells. Significantly, IgM Abs to both PC and MDA were primary factors in determining the efficiency of serum-dependent apoptotic cell phagocytosis. Hence, we demonstrate a mechanism by which certain natural Abs that recognize neoantigens on apoptotic cells, in naive mice and those induced by immune exposure to apoptotic cells, can enhance the functional capabilities of immature dendritic cells for phagocytic engulfment of apoptotic cells.
Managing stakeholders in team‐based innovation

Purpose – Team‐based innovation requires a balance of creative and pragmatic processes both within teams and between teams and their organizational stakeholders. However, prior research has focused primarily on the internal team dynamics that facilitate innovation, paying comparatively little attention to team‐stakeholder dynamics. The purpose of this study is to address this limitation by studying the impact of team‐stakeholder networks and shared cognition on the effectiveness of innovation teams.Design/methodology/approach – This study investigates the knowledge and trust linkages between 51 new product development (NPD) teams and their organizational stakeholders using a mixed methods design that combines network analysis, surveys, and qualitative interviews. Multiple indicators of team effectiveness were collected at various stages of the innovation process.Findings – The results show that effective NPD teams establish knowledge ties with many non‐redundant organizational stakeholders and foster a hi.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FRONTIER MODELLING AND EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT

In this paper recent developments in the estimation of frontier functions and the measurement of efficiency are surveyed, and the potential applicability of these methods in agricultural economics is discussed. Frontier production, cost and profit functions are discussed, along with the construction of technical, allocative, scale and overall efficiency measures relative to these estimated frontiers. The two primary methods of frontier estimation, econometric and linear programming, are compared. A survey of recent applications of frontier methods in agriculture is also provided.
L2-Performance Analysis for Sandwich Systems with Backlash

This paper addresses the problems of performance and stability analysis for a certain class of nonlinear systems resulting from a sandwiched backlash operator in the connection of a plant and an actuator device, and subject to Lscr2-limited time-derivative disturbance. Constructive conditions based on LMIs to ensure both the internal stability and the trajectories boundedness of the sandwich system are proposed by using some suitable Lyapunov functionals and generalized sector conditions. The associated set of all the admissible equilibrium points is precisely defined. Some extensions to the case where some parameters of the backlash nonlinearity are uncertain are also provided
The Capital Structure of Swiss Companies: An Empirical Analysis Using Dynamic Panel Data

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of the capital structure for a panel of 106 Swiss companies listed in the Swiss stock exchange. Both static and dynamic tests are performed for the period 1991-2000. It is found that the size of companies, the importance of tangible assets and business risk are positively related to leverage, while growth and profitability are negatively associated with leverage. The sign of these relations suggest that both the pecking order theory and trade off hypothesis are at work in explaining the capital structure of Swiss companies, although more evidence exists to validate the latter theory. Our analysis also shows that Swiss firms adjust toward a target debt ratio, but the adjustment process is much slower than in most other countries. It is argued that reasons for this can be found in the inst itutional context.
Has Poverty Gotten Worse

The official U.S. government figures showed an increase in the poverty rate from 11.1 percent in 1973 to 13.8 percent in 1995. However, some maintain that this upward trend is due to defects in the official poverty measure. This paper analyzes alternative measures of poverty and concludes that nearly all reasonable alternatives show similar trends in poverty over the recent past. There has been an increase in the percentage of people in the United States who are poor, although one can argue that the official Census figures either understate or somewhat overstate the increase.
A mobility model for heterogeneous wireless networks

In this paper we derive an expression for hotspot residence time of multi-mode users in heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs) based on the general distributions of cell residence time in wireless local area networks (WLANs) and cellular networks. The hotspot boundary crossing probability during a call for different types of users are also derived analytically using realistic distributions of multi-RAN cell residence times and call holding time. Analytical results are validated using simulation results under different hotspot scenarios. Finally two examples are given to demonstrate the use of hotspot boundary crossing probabilities for calculating vertical handoff (VHO) call arrival rates in HWNs.
Transition to IFRS in Germany and Italy: impact on companies’ reporting performance

Previous research has investigated the economic consequences of IFRS adoption, but there is little evidence on the impact of IFRS adoption on companies' reporting performance by adopting a comparative approach. To this purpose, this study investigates the impact on reporting performance of IFRS transition for a sample of German and Italian companies listed on domestic stock exchanges. The analysis is conducted on the changes of magnitude of some key financial ratios, in order to highlight the most important differences and similarities between German and Italian companies due to the transition to IFRS. Our results show that IFRS adoption has changed the magnitude of the key financial ratios. These changes are the result of different accounting treatments under local GAAP and IFRS, which are mostly common to Germany and Italy.
Structural Change and Labor Requirement of the Japanese Economy

This paper extends the framework of input–output decomposition analysis into a model which decomposes changes in the labor requirement of an economy into effects of occupational substitution, changes in labor productivity and changes in material inputs. By application of this model to the Japanese experience it was found that the most important characteristic of the evolution of the Japanese labor force in the period 1975–85 was the replacement of blue collar workers by highly skilled professionals and technicians. Both technical change and changes in the structure of final demand fostered the increasing demand for professionals and technicians. As the mix of employment shifted towards high knowledge level occupations, Japan's labor productivity increased sharply.
Tax and the crisis

Did taxation play any role in precipitating the financial crisis? Are there lessons to be drawn for future tax reform priorities? This paper reviews the main channels by which tax effects might have been felt and which may require forceful attention. These include in particular the large tax biases favouring debt finance and, in some countries, investment in housing. The complexities of national tax codes, and the international interaction between them, have, moreover, encouraged the use of complicated financial instruments and international tax planning, reducing transparency. Tax distortions did not cause the crisis – in the sense that there are no obvious tax changes likely to have triggered it – but they may well have contributed by leading to higher leverage and more complexity than would otherwise have been the case. Most of these distortions have long been a source of concern, but dealing with them may be more important than previously supposed.
Market Potential and the Location of Japanese Firms in the European Union

This paper develops a theoretical model of location choice under imperfect competition to formalize the notion that firms prefer to locate "where the markets are. " The profitability of a location depends on a term that weights demand in all locations by accessibility. Using a sample of Japanese firms' choices of regions within European countries, we compare the theoretically derived measure of market potential with the standard form used by geographers. Our results show that market potential matters for location choice but cannot account entirely for the tendency of firms in the same industry to agglomerate.
A molecular phylogeny of marine amphipods in the herbivorous family Ampithoidae

Ampithoid amphipods dominate invertebrate assemblages associated with shallow‐water macroalgae and seagrasses worldwide and represent the most species‐rich family of herbivorous amphipod known. To generate the first molecular phylogeny of this family, we sequenced 35 species from 10 genera at two mitochondrial genes [the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and the large subunit of 16 s (LSU)] and two nuclear loci [sodium–potassium ATPase (NAK) and elongation factor 1‐alpha (EF1)], for a total of 1453 base pairs. All 10 genera are embedded within an apparently monophyletic Ampithoidae (Amphitholina, Ampithoe, Biancolina, Cymadusa, Exampithoe, Paragrubia, Peramphithoe, Pleonexes, Plumithoe, Pseudoamphithoides and Sunamphitoe). Biancolina was previously placed within its own superfamily in another suborder. Within the family, single‐locus trees were generally poor at resolving relationships among genera. Combined‐locus trees were better at resolving deeper nodes, but complete resolution will require greater taxon sampling of ampithoids and closely related outgroup species, and more molecular characters. Despite these difficulties, our data generally support the monophyly of Ampithoidae, novel evolutionary relationships among genera, several currently accepted genera that will require revisions via alpha taxonomy and the presence of cryptic species.
Effects of delayed, prolonged hypothermia on the pial vascular response after traumatic brain injury in rats.

OBJECT In the experimental setting, hypothermia has been demonstrated to attenuate the damaging consequences of stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Laboratory studies of TBI have focused primarily on the use of early hypothermic intervention, with little consideration of the potential efficacy of more delayed but prolonged hypothermia, which would constitute a more clinically relevant approach. In this investigation, the authors evaluated whether delayed, prolonged hypothermia after TBI protected the cerebral microcirculation. METHODS Male Sprague-Dawley rats were equipped with cranial windows for direct visualization of the pial arterial circulation and then subjected to impact-acceleration brain injury. The rats were randomly divided into four experimental groups: Group 1 consisted of normothermic animals; in Group 2 the rats received a 1-hour period of hypothermia (32 degrees C) 30 minutes posttrauma, followed by slow rewarming (32-37 degrees C/90 minutes); and in Groups 3 and 4 the rats received a more delayed induction (at 1 hour postinjury) of either 1 hour (Group 3) or 2 hours (Group 4) of hypothermia, followed by the slow rewarming. The pial arteriolar responses to acetylcholine (ACh) or hypercapnia were measured until up to 6 hours postinjury. With this approach the authors found that the normothermic group demonstrated severely impaired vasoreactivity in terms of ACh-dependent dilation and CO2 reactivity in comparison to baseline values (p < 0.001). In contrast, hypothermia of short duration that was initiated early (30 minutes postinjury) conferred significant cerebrovascular protection (p < 0.001), yet this protection was reduced when the onset of this 1-hour hypothermic period was postponed to 1 hour postinjury. Nevertheless, reduced protection could be significantly improved (p < 0.001) with prolongation of the hypothermic period to 2 hours. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study show that early as well as delayed but prolonged hypothermia attenuate the impaired vascular responsiveness seen after TBI, indicating the potential clinical usefulness of this treatment.
Exploring Resilience Avenues for Managing Covariant and Idiosyncratic Poverty Related Shocks: Evidence from Three Districts in Tanzania

This study identified covariant and idiosyncratic shocks that made households vulnerable and how these are managed. Using data collected from three districts in Tanzania using qualitative data collection methods (focus group discussions and individual life histories) coupled with key informant interviews, this paper identified major covariant shocks to include those which are weather and agricultural market related, witchcraft and theft of agricultural produce while in the farms. Further, idiosyncratic shocks identified include property grabbing after the death of husband and property loss after divorce/separation, alcoholism, old age vulnerability, serial polygamy, and selling labor on credit. The poor were also found to be vulnerable as measured by the number of meals per day whereby the destitute and very poor groups could afford one meal a day which is even not assured. Major resilience avenues for coping with these shocks include transformation of available physical and human capital and formation of networks. One major latent resilient avenue that needs to be activated is leasing out land. Property transfer and investment on human capital were major ex-ante resilient building processes. The study recommends for promotive and transformative social protection measures in form of measures to increase productivity and legal institutional reforms.
Climate Change Impact on Togo’s Agriculture Performance: A Ricardian Analysis Based on Time Series Data

This paper applies Ricardian approach to measure the effect of climate change on agriculture performance in Togo using time series data from the period 1971-2004. The study examines the relationship between net farm revenue and climate variables. Net farm revenue is regressed on climate and other variables. The findings show that there exists a non linear relationship between agricultural added value and recorded precipitations during the cropping period. More specifically, relatively high precipitation seems to have positive impact on net farm income during the rainy seasons. Marginal impacts are mostly in line with the Ricardian model, showing marginally increasing precipitation during rainy season would increase net farm income, but reduce by the square terms of this season. Other variables such as ratio of irrigated farm land and farm labour are found to have positive impact on net farm value but not agricultural machinery. Climate change impact simulations reveal that changes in climate attributes will reduce agricultural added value per hectare by a value ranging from 7.11% in 2025 climate scenario to 15.24% in 2050 climate scenario. In terms of GDP, climate change will cost Togo a proportion between 2.84 and 6 percent. Conclusively, the impact of climate change on agriculture seems to be varied with the temperature and precipitation in different seasons. Climate change impacts are driven by decreases in precipitations implies that adaptation efforts should target more drought-resistant crop varieties and technologies. Keywords: Climate change, Agricultural Added Value, Ricardian analysis, Togo
Silicone Implant Correction of Pectus Excavatum

Between May 1989 and December 2000 in 24 adult patients with pectus excavatum, a subcutaneous implantation of silicone prostheses was performed. Of the 24 patients, 20 were followed. During follow-up the authors encountered seroma complications in 13 patients and postoperative hematoma in 4 patients. The patients stayed in the hospital 5 days on average, and showed excellent aesthetic results in 80% (N = 16), good results in 10% (N = 2), and fair results in 10% (N = 2). Patient satisfaction was also taken into consideration. A follow-up survey questioned whether patients were satisfied with the cosmetic outcome. On a scale of 1 to 5 points, with 1 point being the highest level of satisfaction, 85% of patients used ratings of 1 and 2 to express satisfaction levels. Silicone implant correction of pectus excavatum in adult patients without any impairment of cardiopulmonary function has value. The major advantages are the minimally invasive operation, the short hospital stay, good aesthetic results, and high patient satisfaction
The Contributions of Living-Learning Programs on Developing Sense of Civic Engagement in Undergraduate Students

This study examines the influence of elements of the college experience, specifically participation in a living-learning (L/L) program, on students’ self-reported sense of civic engagement. The researchers examined a nationally representative sample of students (n = 1,474) including those who participated in civic engagement themed L/L programs, noncivic-engagement L/L programs, and students who lived in the traditional residence hall environment. The most significant predictors of sense of civic engagement were not students’ participation in L/L programs, but their precollege perception of the importance of cocurricular involvement, and students’ college participation in activities such as community service and student government.
Globalization and Foreign News Coverage

To illustrate the impacts of globalization on international mass communication, this paper brings together both a theoretical analysis on the impacts of cultural globalization penetrating media content and a case study of German media in covering China. It aims to empirically examine to what extent and in what ways cultural globalization exercises its symbolic power to constitute international news reporting. This study demonstrates that foreign news reporting is increasingly influenced by a global consciousness, even in the international context. This phenomenon of foreign news “going global” and/or “going transnational” can be effectively observed across the major news reporting areas and systematically studied under four criteria that are the ways in which news is structured.
Questioning the Taylor Rule

This article estimates a forward-looking Taylor-rule-type reaction function exclusively during Greenspan’s tenure and shows a considerable loss in both magnitude and significance of the inflation coefficient compared with the extended sample that otherwise includes Volcker’s tenure. That fact indicates that the interest rate pushing up in the early 1980s drives the coefficient towards being greater than one, when in fact it varies. A key variable in determining its size is the output gap, which is unobservable. Therefore, the paper approaches the Kalman filter to estimate the Taylor rule reaction function jointly with output gap, in order to characterize the monetary policy in the U.S. from 1960 to 2005. The results show that the point estimation of inflation is overall smaller than one-toone when the sample is split into either before and after Volcker’s appointment as Federal Reserve chairman or before and after Greenspan’s tenure. When the model allows for a drifting inflation coefficient, then the estimate is barely greater than one and often negative. Such a dynamics matches up with Greenspan’s claim that monetary policy is discretionary and that the Federal Reserve does not follow any simple rule. Consequently, an inflation coefficient inferior to one may be associated with monetary stability, disrupting the Taylor’s principle.
An empirical model of urban fringe land use

growing interest in urban fringe land markets. Empirical studies have concentrated on explaining land values in urban fringe areas (Adams et al. 1968; Chicoine 1981; Clonts 1970; Dunford, Marti, and Mittelhammer 1985; Hushak 1975; Hushak and Sadr 1979; Shonkwiler and Reynolds 1986; Vaillancourt and Monty 1985). These studies take land use as given and attempt to determine how various characteristics of a
Prejudice and self-esteem: A transactional model

This paper reviews three theoretical models of how prejudice affects the self-esteem of its targets. The stimulus-response model assumes that prejudice has a direct, negative effect on self-esteem. The stimulus-perception-response model recognises that perceptions of prejudice may not directly mirror experiences with prejudice, but predicts that the subjective perception of being a target of prejudice has a direct, negative effect on self-esteem. Both of these models are found to be inadequate. We propose a third, transactional model, which assumes that individuals do not respond in uniform way to being the target of prejudice. Rather, this model contends that self-esteem and emotional responses to prejudice are determined by cognitive appraisals of prejudicial events and coping strategies used in response to these events; these processes, in turn, are shaped by personal, situational, and structural factors. Experiments are presented showing that self-esteem in response to perceived prejudice is moderated by presence or absence of threats to personal identity, clarity of prejudices cues in the situation, ingroup identification, dispositional optimism, endorsement of legitimising ideologies, and group status. We argue that a transactional model of responses to prejudice emphasises sources of resistance as well as vulnerability among targets of prejudice.
Performance evaluation of resource allocation strategies for new product development under different workload scenarios

Purpose – Resource scarcity is a major difficulty facing firms that engage in new product development (NPD) projects. The purpose of this paper is to understand how resource allocation strategies affect NPD performance and which strategy is the best alternative, a research and development (R&D) process model is constructed using system dynamics.Design/methodology/approach – Moreover, resource allocation strategies are categorized into two types: design‐stage‐first strategy and manufacturing‐stage‐first strategy, and several important indicators of performance evaluation are defined. Then different workload scenarios are developed to test the relationships between resource allocation strategy and various NPD performance measures.Findings – The most important finding from simulation results is that a firm should allocate its resources into early development stage first in order to obtain superior R&D performance.Originality/value – This paper has successfully constructed new system dynamics model for quanti.