Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Merger Profitability and Trade Policy

We study the profitability incentives for merger and the endogenous industry structure in a strategic trade policy environment. Merger changes the strategic trade policy equlilibrium. We show that merger can be profitable and welfare enhancing, even though it would not be profitable in a laissez-faire economy. A key element is a change in the governments' incentives to give subsidies to their local firms. National merger induces more strategic trade policy, whereas international merger does not.
NUTRITION OF THE HOST AND NATURAL RESISTANCE TO INFECTION

The double strain inoculation test as used for the assay of nutritional factors capable of enhancing survivorship in mouse salmonellosis has been modified and improved. The modification has been based on the use of genetically marked strains of S. typhimurium, and substitutes for survivorship a bacteriological datum, a certain minimum population size of the virulent salmonellae in the mouse spleen at a certain time. The analysis permitting this substitution and the economies achieved by the modification has been presented. In the course of development of the new assay evidence was obtained that the nutrient entity or entities responsible for enhanced survivorship, as measured by the bacteriological correlate, are not stored in the mouse. A deficiency state was achieved 24 hours after supplying the basal synthetic diet. Similarly, positive effect of active nutrients was evident as soon as 24 hours after feeding.
Estimating Large-Scale Factor Models for Economic Activity In Germany: Do They Outperform Simpler Models?

This paper discusses a large-scale factor model for the German economy. Following the recent literature, a data set of 121 time series is used via principal component analysis to determine the factors, which enter a dynamic model for German GDP. The model is compared with alternative univariate and multivariate models. These models are based on regression techniques and considerably smaller data sets. Out-of-sample forecasts show that the prediction errors of the factor model are smaller than the errors of the rival models. However, these advantages are not statistically significant, as a test for equal forecast accuracy shows. Therefore, the effciency gains of using a large data set with this kind of factor models seem to be limited.
An Empirical Exploration of the Near-Term and Persistent Effects of Conflict on Risk Preferences

A burgeoning empirical literature on the effects of conflict on various economic behavioral parameters exhibits mixed results, with respect to both the magnitude and the direction of the effects. By estimating the distribution of estimated effects of violence on risk preferences, rather than just the average effect, we reconcile the discordant results of the prior literature. The distribution also reveals substantial and previously overlooked variation in the effects of exposure. This raises questions about the widespread use of aggregated measures of exposure to violence in conflict literature. We use panel data from northern Uganda, the latest round collected seven years after the violence ended, to explore the heterogeneous effects of different experiences of violence – personal suffering, perpetration, witness, or indirect experience through family members’ suffering – on different measures of ambiguity and risk aversion, correcting for many of the methodological shortcomings of previous studies. We find that violence has an adverse near-term effect on mental health, but with heterogeneous effects on risk aversion depending on the nature of one’s experience of violence. We also find that the risk preference effects persist even after a recovery in mental health.
Investment Professionals' Ability to Detect Deception: Accuracy, Bias and Metacognitive Realism

ABSTRACT In the first empirical study on the topic, the authors examined the ability of investment professionals to distinguish between truthful and deceptive statements. A random sample of 154 investment professionals made judgments about a series of truthful and deceptive statements, some of which involved financial fraud. Investment professionals' lie detection accuracy was poor; participants performed no better than would be expected by chance. Accuracy in identifying lies about financial fraud was especially poor. Further, participants displayed poor metacognitive realism when assessing their own performance. The theoretical and practical implications for lie detection in the financial industry are discussed.
The Effectiveness of Local Antibiotics in Treating Chronic Osteomyelitis in a Cohort of 50 Patients with an Average of 4 Years Follow-Up

The treatment of chronic osteomyelitis requires both appropriate surgical and antibiotic management. Prolonged intravenous antibiotic therapy followed by oral therapy is widely utilised. Despite this, the long-term recurrence rate can be up to 30%. A cohort of 50 patients from a 7-year period, 2003 to 2010, with chronic osteomyelitis was identified. This cohort was treated by surgical marginal resection in combination with local application of antibiotics (Collatamp G - gentamicin in a collagen fleece), a short course of systemic antibiotics post-operatively and conversion to oral antibiotics on discharge. Information was retrieved from case notes and computerized records. Outcomes from this cohort were compared with a historical cohort treated with marginal resection followed by 6 weeks of systemic antibiotics and 6 weeks of oral antibiotics. The mean follow-up duration was 3.2 years (SD 1.8). The average length of admission was 9.8 days (SD 11.4). 6 patients (12%) suffered recurrence of infection requiring further treatment. We used the Cierny and Mader classification to stratify the patients. 'A' hosts had a shorter duration of admission (7.1 days) than 'B' hosts (12.3 days). There was no significant difference between recurrence rates of 'A' and 'B' hosts. Where available, we found pre-operative C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) levels had no correlation with disease recurrence. Disease-free probability for this cohort compared favourably with the historical cohort. We believe local administration of gentamicin in a collagen fleece is a useful component in the management of chronic osteomyelitis.
Extensive sampling of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Northwest Passage (Canadian Arctic Archipelago) reveals population differentiation across multiple spatial and temporal scales

As global warming accelerates the melting of Arctic sea ice, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) must adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. This process will necessarily alter the species distribution together with population dynamics and structure. Detailed knowledge of these changes is crucial to delineating conservation priorities. Here, we sampled 361 polar bears from across the center of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago spanning the Gulf of Boothia (GB) and M'Clintock Channel (MC). We use DNA microsatellites and mitochondrial control region sequences to quantify genetic differentiation, estimate gene flow, and infer population history. Two populations, roughly coincident with GB and MC, are significantly differentiated at both nuclear (FST = 0.01) and mitochondrial (ΦST = 0.47; FST = 0.29) loci, allowing Bayesian clustering analyses to assign individuals to either group. Our data imply that the causes of the mitochondrial and nuclear genetic patterns differ. Analysis of mtDNA reveals the matrilineal structure dates at least to the Holocene, and is common to individuals throughout the species’ range. These mtDNA differences probably reflect both genetic drift and historical colonization dynamics. In contrast, the differentiation inferred from microsatellites is only on the scale of hundreds of years, possibly reflecting contemporary impediments to gene flow. Taken together, our data suggest that gene flow is insufficient to homogenize the GB and MC populations and support the designation of GB and MC as separate polar bear conservation units. Our study also provide a striking example of how nuclear DNA and mtDNA capture different aspects of a species demographic history.
The Acquisition of Narrative Skills bySpanish L1 and L2 Speakers

In this paper we will compare the development of narrative skills in Spanish in two groups of fiveyear-old children who are brought up in two different Basque-Spanish bilingual environments, where Spanish is their L1 or L2 respectively. Our data are drawn from a research project concerning bilingual language acquisition in family and school contexts, initiated in 2001. The main body of the research on bilingual language acquisition has dealt with children who acquire two languages simultaneously from birth. These studies usually reflect individual development at very early ages (Muller, 1998; Deuchar & Quay, 2000; Meisel, 2001). De Houwer (1990) situates bilingual first language acquisition as early as before one month of age. But successive acquisition of L1 and L2 is becoming increasingly frequent. On the one hand, this is due to educational immersion programmes, especially among linguistic minority populations, and on the other hand, to the need for migrant populations to acquire the language of their destiny (Hamers & Blanc, 2000; Akinci, 2001). This fact has also brought about a renewed interest in features such as the critical age factor (Meisel, 2007) and in the possible influence of L1 on L2, where the interpretation of “transfer” or “cross-linguistic influence” is not seen as an inevitable fusion of codes, but rather as relief strategies or as the application of structures that are common in the two languages (Lanza, 1998; Muller & Hulk, 2001). Concerning the acquisition of narrative skills, several studies have shown that by age five children have generally attained a basic oral narrative capacity, both referring to narrative structure and to the distinction of background / foreground events, etc., although not all their linguistic knowledge is adequately used at discourse level (Bamberg 1987, 1997; Berman & Slobin, 1994, Batoreo, 2001; Idiazabal et al., in press). In this paper, we compare the extent to which L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish are able to narrate a story in an autonomous way. Subsequently, two discourse aspects that may cause difficulties are analysed. Firstly, we will look into the development of the intrigue or the plot (Adam, 1992; Bronckart, 1996), a relevant feature for the organization of the contents throughout the story. And secondly, we will analyze the introduction of characters, identified as one of the aspects related to text cohesion (Bronckart, 1996; De Weck, 1991).
Non-formal deformation quantizations of solvable Ricci-type symplectic symmetric spaces

Ricci-type symplectic manifolds have been introduced and extensively studied by M. Cahen et al. [10, 11]. In this note, we describe their deformation quantizations in the split solvable symmetric case. In particular, we introduce the notion of non-formal tempered deformation quantization on such a space. We show that the set of tempered deformation quantizations is in one-to-one correspondence with the space of Schwartz operator multipliers on the real line. Moreover we prove that every invariant formal star product on a split Ricci-type solvable symmetric space is an asymptotic expansion of a tempered non-formal quantization. This note illustrates and partially reviews through an example a problematic studied by the author regarding non-formal quantization in presence of large groups of symmetries.
Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and Cystic Fibrosis Lung Disease: A Systematic Meta-Analysis

Background To systematically assess the literature published on the clinical impact of Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 on cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Methods An online search in PUBMED database was conducted. Original articles on CF patients with Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 infection were included. We analyzed incidence, symptoms, clinical course and treatment. Results Four surveys with a total of 202 CF patients infected by Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 were included. The meta-analysis showed that hospitalisation rates were higher in CF patients compared to the general population. While general disease symptoms were comparable, the clinical course was more severe and case fatality rate (CFR) was higher in CF patients compared to asthmatics and the general population. Conclusions Evidence so far suggests that CF patients infected with Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 show increased morbidity and a higher CFR compared to patients with other chronic respiratory diseases and healthy controls. Particularly, CF patients with advanced stage disease seem to be more susceptible to severe lung disease. Accordingly, early antiviral and antibiotic treatment strategies are essential in CF patients. Preventive measures, including vaccination as well as hygiene measures during the influenza season, should be reinforced and improved in CF patients.
The effect of food concentration on fecal pellet size in marine copepods1

Three species of copepods, Temora turbinata, Eucalanus pileatus, and Neocalanus plumchrus, were fed cultures of the diatom, Thalassiosira weissflgii, at concentrations ranging from 0.3 to 14.5 fig Chl liter-’ to determine whether fecal pellet size was related to food concentration. In all three copepods, pellet size increased with food concentration up to about 3 pg Chl liter-‘. At higher concentrations pellet size was constant. Pellets were less compact and appeared to be more fragile at low food concentrations. The level of gut contents in these copepods was also related to food concentration up to about 3 pg Chl liter-l. Below this concentration, ingestion and defecation were balanced in such a way that the gut did not fill, and therefore pellet size was smaller. Food concentrations sufficient to allow a copepod to fill its gut result in the production of fecal pellets of maximum size. It is concluded that fecal pellets produced by large copepods under conditions of low food availability are less likely to sink out of the euphotic zone than pellets produced by the same copepods under conditions of higher food availability.
Sequential Regularization Methods for Higher Index DAEs with Constraint Singularities: The Linear Index-2 Case

Standard stabilization techniques for higher index differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) often involve elimination of the algebraic solution components. This may not work well if there are singularity points where the constraint Jacobian matrix becomes rank deficient. This paper proposes instead a sequential regularization method (SRM)---a functional iteration procedure for solving problems with isolated singularities which have smooth differential solution components. For linear index-2 DAEs we consider both initial value problems (IVPs) and boundary value problems (BVPs). The convergence of the SRM is described and proved in detail. We believe that this is the first convergence proof for any method for DAEs with this type of constraint singularities. Moreover, the regularization parameter in our method is not necessarily very small, so the SRM is an important improvement over usual regularization methods. Various aspects of the subsequent numerical discretization of the regularized problems are discussed as well and some numerical verifications are carried out.
Two-Component System Cross-Regulation Integrates Bacillus anthracis Response to Heme and Cell Envelope Stress

Two-component signaling systems (TCSs) are one of the mechanisms that bacteria employ to sense and adapt to changes in the environment. A prototypical TCS functions as a phosphorelay from a membrane-bound sensor histidine kinase (HK) to a cytoplasmic response regulator (RR) that controls target gene expression. Despite significant homology in the signaling domains of HKs and RRs, TCSs are thought to typically function as linear systems with little to no cross-talk between non-cognate HK-RR pairs. Here we have identified several cell envelope acting compounds that stimulate a previously uncharacterized Bacillus anthracis TCS. Furthermore, this TCS cross-signals with the heme sensing TCS HssRS; therefore, we have named it HssRS interfacing TCS (HitRS). HssRS reciprocates cross-talk to HitRS, suggesting a link between heme toxicity and cell envelope stress. The signaling between HssRS and HitRS occurs in the parental B. anthracis strain; therefore, we classify HssRS-HitRS interactions as cross-regulation. Cross-talk between HssRS and HitRS occurs at both HK-RR and post-RR signaling junctions. Finally, HitRS also regulates a previously unstudied ABC transporter implicating this transporter in the response to cell envelope stress. This chemical biology approach to probing TCS signaling provides a new model for understanding how bacterial signaling networks are integrated to enable adaptation to complex environments such as those encountered during colonization of the vertebrate host.
Acquired resistance of pancreatic cancer cells to treatment with gemcitabine and HER-inhibitors is accompanied by increased sensitivity to STAT3 inhibition

Drug-resistance is a major contributing factor for the poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer. We have shown previously that the irreversible ErbB family blocker afatinib, is more effective than the reversible EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib in inhibiting the growth of human pancreatic cancer cells. The aim of this study was to develop human pancreatic cancer cell (BxPc3) variants with acquired resistance to treatment with gemcitabine, afatinib, or erlotinib, and to investigate the molecular changes that accompany the acquisition of a drug-resistant phenotype. We also investigated the therapeutic potential of various agents in the treatment of such drug-resistant variants. Three variant forms of BxPc3 cells with acquired resistance to gemcitabine (BxPc3GEM), afatinib (BxPc3AFR) or erlotinib (BxPc3OSIR) were developed following treatment with increasing doses of such drugs. The expression level, mutational and phosphorylation status of various growth factor receptors and downstream cell signaling molecules were determined by FACS, human phopsho-RTK array, and western blot analysis while the sulforhodamine B assay was used for determining the effect of various agents on the growth of such tumours. We found that all three BxPc3 variants with acquired resistance to gemcitabine (BxPc3GEM), afatinib (BxPc3AFR) or erlotinib (BxPc3OSIR) also become less sensitive to treatment with the two other agents. Acquisition of resistance to these agents was accompanied by upregulation of p-c-MET, p-STAT3, CD44, increased autocrine production of EGFR ligand amphiregulin and differential activation status of EGFR tyrosine residues as well as downregulation of total and p-SRC. Of all therapeutic interventions examined, including the addition of an anti-EGFR antibody ICR62, an anti-CD44 monoclonal antibody, and of STAT3 or c-MET inhibitors, only treatment with the STAT3 inhibitor Stattic produced a higher growth inhibitory effect in all three drug-resistant variants. In addition, treatment with a combination of afatinib with either c-MET inhibitor Crizotinib or Stattic resulted in an additive or synergistic growth inhibition in all three variants. Our results suggest that activation of STAT3 may play an important role in the acquisition of resistance to gemcitabine and HER inhibitors in pancreatic cancer and warrant further studies on the therapeutic potential of STAT3 inhibitors in such a setting.
SARNA-ensemble-predict: The effect of different dissimilarity metrics on a novel ensemble-based RNA secondary structure prediction algorithm

Recently, there is a resurgence of interest in the RNA secondary structure prediction problem due to the discovery of many new families of non-coding RNAs with a variety of functions. This paper describes and presents a novel algorithm for RNA secondary structure prediction based on an ensemble-based approach. An evaluation of the performance in terms of sensitivity and specificity is made. Experiments were performed on eleven structures from four RNA classes (RNaseP, Group I intron 16S rRNA, Group I intron 23S rRNA and 16S rRNA). Three RNA secondary structure similarity metrics (base pair distance, tree edit distance, and thermodynamic energy distance) and their effects on the clustering algorithm were explored. The significant contribution of this paper is in the examining of the various results from employing different dissimilarity metrics. Overall, the base pair distance dissimilarity metric shows better results with the other two distance metrics (tree edit distance and thermodynamic energy distance). The results presented in this paper demonstrate that SARNA-Ensemble-Predict can give comparable performance to a state-of-the-art algorithm Sfold in terms of sensitivity.
The universal galaxy cluster pressure profile from a representative sample of nearby systems (REXCESS) and the Y-SZ-M-500 relation

We investigate the regularity of cluster pressure profiles with REXCESS, a representative sample of 33 local (z < 0.2) clusters drawn from the REFLEX catalogue and observed with XMM-Newton. The sample spans a mass range of 1014 < M500 < 1015 , where M500 is the mass corresponding to a density contrast of 500. We derive an average profile from observations scaled by mass and redshift according to the standard self-similar model, and find that the dispersion about the mean is remarkably low, at less than 30 per cent beyond 0.2 R500, but increases towards the center. Deviations about the mean are related to both the mass and the thermo-dynamical state of the cluster. Morphologically disturbed systems have systematically shallower profiles while cooling core systems are more concentrated. The scaled profiles exhibit a residual mass dependence with a slope of ~0.12, consistent with that expected from the empirically-derived slope of the M500 – YX relation; however, the departure from standard scaling decreases with radius and is consistent with zero at R500. The scatter in the core and departure from self-similar mass scaling is smaller compared to that of the entropy profiles, showing that the pressure is the quantity least affected by dynamical history and non-gravitational physics. Comparison with scaled data from several state of the art numerical simulations shows good agreement outside the core. Combining the observational data in the radial range [0.03–1] R500 with simulation data in the radial range [1–4] R500, we derive a robust measure of the universal pressure profile, that, in an analytical form, defines the physical pressure profile of clusters as a function of mass and redshift up to the cluster “boundary”. Using this profile and direct spherical integration of the observed pressure profiles, we estimate the integrated Compton parameter Y and investigate its scaling with M500 and LX, the soft band X-ray luminosity. We consider both the spherically integrated quantity, Ysph(R), proportional to the gas thermal energy, and the cylindrically integrated quantity, Ycyl(R)=YSZ DA2, which is directly related to the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect signal. From the low scatter of the observed Ysph(R500) – YX relation we show that variations in pressure profile shape do not introduce extra scatter into the Ysph(R500) – M500 relation as compared to that from the YX – M500 relation. The Ysph(R500) – M500 and Ysph(R500) – LX relations derived from the data are in excellent agreement with those expected from the universal profile. This profile is used to derive the expected YSZ – M500 and YSZ – LX relations for any aperture.