Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Emerging Markets

This paper examines the degree of Exchange Rate Pass-Through (ERPT) to prices in 12 emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. The results, based on three alternative vector autoregressive models, partly overturn the conventional wisdom that ERPT into both import and consumer prices is always higher in ‘emerging’ than in ‘developed’ countries. For emerging markets with only one digit inflation (most notably the Asian countries), pass-through to import and consumer prices is found to be low and not very dissimilar from the levels of developed economies. The paper also finds robust evidence for a positive relationship between the degree of the ERPT and inflation, in line with Taylor’s hypothesis once two outlier countries—Argentina and Turkey— are excluded from the analysis. Finally, the presence of a positive link between import openness and ERPT, while plausible theoretically, finds only weak empirical support.
Information and Political Engagement in America: The Search for Effects of Information Technology at the Individual Level

Some aspects of democracy appear more sensitive than others to the availability throughout society of political information. Individual-level political engagement poses a puzzle in this regard. An instrumentalquantitative conception of information that is central to rational theories and is also found in some behavioral theories of participation appears contradicted by historical trends. I treat the contemporary expansion in political information made possible by new information technology as a form of natural experiment. I test for a relationship between information availability and political engagement using survey data about Internet use in the period 1996-99. This test is relevant to the applied debate over whether the information revolution will prove salutary for participation, and at the same time sheds light on contending theories of information. I find little relationship exists; the only form of participation which is demonstrably connected to Internet use is donating money This finding fails to support instrumental conceptions of information and instead endorses cognitive conceptions employed in psychological and certain behavioral theories of political engagement.
Do Community-Based, Long-Term-Care Services Reduce Nursing Home Use? A Transition Probability Analysis

This study offers logit estimates of the probability of transition from the community to a nursing home based upon data from the National Long-Term-Care Demonstration. It is found that nurses deter entry by those using a wheelchair while home-health aides deter entry for those with cognitive impairments. Personal-care aides and housekeepers reduce admission risk for those with severe functional disabilities. These findings suggest that appropriate targeting of community-based services would improve the degree to which they offset nursing home expenditures.
Genotype-phenotype correlation in ocular von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease: the effect of missense mutation position on ocular VHL phenotype.

PURPOSE von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease is a dominantly inherited, multisystemic tumor syndrome caused by mutations in the VHL gene. This study was conducted to establish genotype-phenotype correlations between the positions of disease-causing missense mutations and the ocular phenotypes of VHL disease. METHODS Participants with clinically defined VHL disease and documented germline missense mutations in the VHL gene were identified in a cross-sectional study (n=412). Statistical analysis was used to correlate the position of the missense mutation in either the alpha- or beta-domain of the VHL protein with the ocular disease phenotype. RESULTS Missense mutations among study participants were located in 47 of the 213 possible codons in the VHL gene. Almost all mutations (98.5%) were located in one of two structural domains of the VHL protein: the alpha- and beta-domains. alpha-Domain mutations were significantly associated with a higher prevalence of retinal capillary hemangioblastomas (RCHs) compared with the beta-domain mutations (P=0.016). Among patients with RCHs, the prevalence of the lesions in the juxtapapillary position was also significantly higher in patients with alpha-domain mutations (P=0.0017). Conversely, beta-domain mutations correlated with a higher prevalence of peripherally located RCHs (P=0.0104). CONCLUSIONS The location of missense mutations in the VHL gene correlates significantly with the prevalence and phenotype of ocular disease, and as such, influences the risk of visual loss in affected patients. These genotype-phenotype correlations can assist in the prognostic counseling and follow-up of VHL patients and may provide a basis for molecular inferences on ocular VHL disease pathogenesis.
Capital flight and violent conflict : a review of the literature

This paper reviews the literature on capital flight and violent conflict to attempt to answer the following questions. What happens to capital flight before, during, and after violent conflict? What are the implications for economic recovery from conflict? Broadly speaking, capital flight refers to outflows of private capital from developing countries. However, while economists generally agree that capital flight could be deleterious to economic development, they do not agree on the definition of the phenomenon. The lack of consensus stems in part from the fact that capital flight is unobservable and has to be estimated. A wide range of approaches to estimating capital flight have been proposed. Many measures estimate capital flight as the residual between an economy's sources and uses of foreign exchange. Differences arise as to what constitutes sources and uses of foreign exchange. Violent conflict enters the portfolio-choice framework directly as a factor that could increase the riskiness of the domestic environment, reducing risk-adjusted expected return, and thereby inducing capital flight. The effect of conflict on capital flight is likely to depend on a number of factors such as the nature, intensity and duration of the conflict.
Detection of Emerging Sunspot Regions in the Solar Interior

Helioseismic observations allow the detection of sunspots before they emerge at the surface of the Sun. Sunspots are regions where strong magnetic fields emerge from the solar interior and where major eruptive events occur. These energetic events can cause power outages, interrupt telecommunication and navigation services, and pose hazards to astronauts. We detected subsurface signatures of emerging sunspot regions before they appeared on the solar disc. Strong acoustic travel-time anomalies of an order of 12 to 16 seconds were detected as deep as 65,000 kilometers. These anomalies were associated with magnetic structures that emerged with an average speed of 0.3 to 0.6 kilometer per second and caused high peaks in the photospheric magnetic flux rate 1 to 2 days after the detection of the anomalies. Thus, synoptic imaging of subsurface magnetic activity may allow anticipation of large sunspot regions before they become visible, improving space weather forecast.
Surgical management in metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients after imatinib mesylate treatment

Imatinib mesylate (IM) demonstrates substantial efficacy in most patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). However, progression of GIST eventually develops and emerges as a challenge. To assess the role of surgery in the multidisciplinary management of GISTs, we studied the surgical outcomes in GIST patients receiving IM.
Trade size, trade frequency, and the volatility‐volume relation

Purpose – The Chinese stock market is a typical emerging market with special features that are very different from those of mature markets. The objective of this study is to investigate whether and how these features affect the volatility-volume relation for Chinese stocks. Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the roles of the number of trades, size of trades, and share volume in explaining the volatility-volume relation in the Shanghai Stock Exchange with high frequency trade data used. Findings – The results confirm that the volatility-volume relation is driven mainly by the number of trades on the Chinese stock market. The number of trades explains the volatility-volume relation better than the size of trades. Furthermore, some results are obtained that differ from those of mature markets, such as the US market. The results show that the second largest sized trades affect the volatility more than other trades on the Chinese market. Originality/value – The results show that, in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, informed traders camouflage their private information or manipulation behavior through the second largest sized trades. The results may have important implications for work explaining the volatility-volume relation on the Chinese stock market, further providing a reference by which to regulate emerging markets.
The Europeanisation of Parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe

The role and functioning of the upper chambers of Central and Eastern European (CEE) parliaments have for a long time been a minor topic on the research agenda of legislative specialists. This paper seeks to fill the gap in existing research by aiming to determine the main effects caused by the process of Europeanisation on the relationships between the upper and lower chambers of parliaments in four CEE countries; the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. The paper identifies these changes on two levels – the institutional and the individual. The institutional level analysis examines changes in the formal and informal structures of CEE bicameral legislatures and their functioning. The individual level analysis focuses on changes within the recruitment and career patterns of parliamentarians within the expanded multilevel governance system. The aim of the paper is to determine whether the process of Europeanisation and EU accession establishes a common ground for formal and informal cooperation between the chambers (and their respective members) at the national level, or whether this process operates as a further constraint for the successful consolidation of parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe.
Pushed into Unemployment, Pulled into Retirement: Facing Old Age in Gothenburg, 1923-1943

Along with rapid growth and improved standards of living, the first decades of the twentieth century saw the introduction of new technology and new ways to organize production. There are contrasting views on what impact these developments, often summarized as the Second Industrial Revolution, had on the situation of old men in the labour market. Some contemporary observers and modern-day historians have described how old men were crowded out of the labour force and pushed into an ‘industrial scrap heap’. Other researchers have maintained a more optimistic view on the opportunities of old men and argued that labour force withdrawal often was made possible by rising real earnings and savings. Since most of the research in the field has been based on cross-sectional data, the debate has relied on anecdotes, indirect evidence and assumptions.This paper uses data from a longitudinal panel of men living in the city of Gothenburg during the period 1923-1943. In contrast to most previous studies, this one takes up actual transitions into retirement and how such transitions were associated with access to resources. The main result is that a lack of resources was associated with a higher risk of retirement. This association appears even clearer when the sample is restricted to workingclass men and to the latter half of the period of investigation, when unemployment was lower and pension benefits higher. Thus, it would appear that transitions into retirement were most frequent when push and pull mechanisms were combined.
Description and Evaluation of a Short-Stay Admission Ward

Summary Duration of stay for unselected admissions to an acute psychiatric ward was reduced to an average of 11 days. The clinical methods by which this was achieved are described. Comparing patients randomly allocated to this experimental ward and other admission wards: (i) the readmission rate to the experimental ward was higher but readmissions were briefer so that total in-patient experience per patient over the course of one year remained substantially lower; (ii) symptom levels and burden on the family had improved equally at three weeks and at four months after discharge; (iii) experimental ward patients made fewer demands on their general practitioners and reported fewer parasuicides. Beds can be released for other purposes in this way.
Hybrid ICA with wavelet for describing local regions

In this paper present a local regions descriptors representation method based on independent components analysis (ICA) and wavelet transform. We reduce the feature dimensions using ICA. The proposed algorithm first finds the characteristic scale and the location for the interest points. And then wavelet transform is performed on the neighborhood of the local regions and get low frequency gradient feature. The experiments show that our method is more accurate and fast than some standard method.
Does Mood Explain the Monday Effect

ABSTRACT A number of studies have explored the sources of the Monday effect, according to which returns are on average negative on Mondays. We contribute to the literature by exploring whether a direct measure of mood explains the Monday effect. In line with psychological literature, a greater proportion of investors are more pessimistic in the early days of the week, and become more optimistic as the week progresses. We use novel daily mood data from Facebook across 20 international markets to explore the impact of mood on the Monday anomaly. We find that the Monday effect disappears after controlling for mood. In line with our hypothesis that mood drives the Monday effect, we find that the effect is more prominent within small capitalization indices and within collectivist and high‐uncertainty‐avoidance countries. Investors could consider mood levels to forecast Mondays with more (less) pronounced negative returns. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Structure and composition of savanna vegetation in northern Bolivia: A preliminary report

The vegetation of seasonally flooded savannas iin the tropical lowland of the Departamento La Paz, northern Bolivia, was studied. A first collection of vascular plants in this area includes about 600 species, at least three of which are new to the Bolivian flora and four are new to science. The eight major vegetation types distinguished within the savannas are dry bunchgrass savanna (“altura”), seasonally flooded bunch-grass community (“sartenejal”), palm swamp (“palmar”), two types of river floodplains (”bajíos”), a tall shrub community (“chaparral”), the vegetation of termite mounds, and gallery forest. The study area is among the least known in Bolivia. There is a strong need for further studies of these savannas.
"Constituency Preferences: California ballot Propositions, 1974-1990"

What effect do their constituencies'voting preferences have on legislators' roll-call voting patterns? Through a study of citizens' votes on statewide ballot propositions and legislators' votes on roll calls in California, I find that when aggregated into legislative districts, the revealed preferences of California voters can be described by a spatial model with just three dimensions; that the constituency preference dimensions defined by this spatial model do an excellent job of predicting the overall roll-call voting patterns in the California legislature; and that there is evidence of a strong dimension-by-dimension correspondence between constituency preferences and legislative roll-call patterns. These findings suggest that the high degree of constraint found in roll-call voting in many U.S. legislatures may be due to legislatorconstituency linkages.
What is the Link between Margin Loans and Stock Market Bubbles?

As a reaction to the general suspicion that margin loans had been a key element of the stock market boom and crash of the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve Bank was empowered to regulate margin lending with the Securities and Exchange Act. The efficacy of the Federal Reserve's margin policy has extensively been studied empirically. However, there still exists no formal rationale for the regulation of margin lending. In this paper, we demonstrate in a principal-agent model that the availability of margin loans can cause the development of a stock market bubble through inducing investors to pay more for a stock than its fundamental value. We show that the emergence of a margin loan induced bubble can be ruled out by an initial margin requirement and thus provide a formal rationale for margin regulation.
Happiness and Growth the World Over: Time Series Evidence on the Happiness-Income Paradox

There is no significant relationship between the improvement in happiness and the long term rate of growth of GDP per capita. This is true for three groups of countries analyzed separately ? 17 developed, 9 developing, and 11 transition ? and also for the 37 countries taken together. Time series studies reporting a positive relationship confuse a short-term positive association between the growth of happiness and income, arising from fluctuations in macroeconomic conditions, with the long-term relationship, which is nil.
Factors Affecting Perioperative Transfusion Decisions in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Background:A high proportion of patients having cardiac bypass surgery receive erythrocyte transfusions. Decisions about when to transfuse patients having surgery for coronary artery disease may impact on erythrocyte utilization and patient morbidity and mortality. There are no published data about the factors that influence physicians’ decisions to transfuse erythrocytes to these patients. The objectives of this study were to determine the hemoglobin concentration for transfusion and the factors that influence physicians’ perioperative transfusion decisions for coronary artery bypass patients. Methods:The authors conducted a cross-sectional study using pretested, self-administered, mailed questionnaires sent in 2004 to all cardiac surgeons and anesthesiologists in Canada who participate in coronary artery bypass surgery. The questionnaire included four intraoperative and four postoperative vignettes. Factors assessed included patient age, sex, cardiac index, and myocardial ischemia. Results:The response rates were 70% (345 of 489) for the intraoperative and 61% (297 of 489) for the postoperative case scenarios. The mean hemoglobin concentrations for transfusion were 7.0 g/dl for the intraoperative case scenarios and 7.2 g/dl for the postoperative case scenarios. Older age, the presence of myocardial ischemia, and a low cardiac index were factors that increased the hemoglobin concentration for transfusion (P < 0.0001). Physicians ranked myocardial ischemia as the most significant factor affecting their transfusion decisions. Conclusions:Factors such as the presence of a low cardiac index, myocardial ischemia, and older age increase the hemoglobin concentrations at which physicians transfuse coronary bypass surgery patients. Future studies are required to elucidate whether transfusions based on these variables affect patient morbidity and mortality.
The Response of MNCs to Radical Systemic Change in a Transition Environment

After the collapse of the communist system, multinational corporations (MNCs) embarked on direct investments in Poland and launched export operations through their subsidiaries at astonishing speed, in spite of the initially weak institutional environment. These developments challenge the explanatory power of institutional theories explaining the patterns of MNC expansion into Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. We propose an alternative theoretical framework based on a stream of organizational research that focuses specifically on strategic responses to radical changes in external operating environments. The analysis is based on a dataset covering 4,000 subsidiaries operating in the Polish manufacturing sector during the transition period 1989–2003.
Effect of Anoreceptive Intercourse on Anorectal Function

This study is the first published assessment of the effect of anoreceptive intercourse (ARI) on anal sphincter tone and function. Forty anoreceptive (AR) male homosexuals were compared with 18 age matched non-anoreceptive (non-AR) heterosexual males. Subjects were questioned about ARI, defaecation and faecal incontinence. Anal resting pressure, maximum voluntary squeeze pressure, anal mucosal electrosensitivity, perineal descent and rectal sensation were measured in all subjects. Fourteen of the AR subjects but only one of the non-AR subjects had symptoms of frequent anal incontinence (P<0.05). There was a significant reduction in both maximum anal resting pressure (P<0.01) and anal mucosal electrosensitivity (P<0.05) and a significant difference in the anal resting pressure profile (P=0.02) in the AR subjects compared with the non-AR subjects. There was a significant reduction in maximum squeeze pressure in AR subjects with anal incontinence compared with either AR subjects without anal incontinence (P<0.01) or non-AR subjects (P<0.01). There were no significant differences in stool consistency, frequency of defaecation, perineal descent or rectal sensation between the groups. ARI is associated with reduced resting pressure in the anal canal and an increased risk of anal incontinence. The risk of incontinence is greatest amongst AR subjects with reduced maximum squeeze pressure.
Decreased Susceptibilities to Retapamulin, Mupirocin, and Chlorhexidine among Staphylococcus aureus Isolates Causing Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in Otherwise Healthy Children

ABSTRACT Topical antimicrobial and antiseptic agents are commonly used in the management of minor skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). Resistance to mupirocin has been documented in Staphylococcus aureus isolates causing SSTIs. Data are limited, however, on the prevalence of retapamulin resistance or tolerance to antiseptics. We sought to determine the prevalence of decreased susceptibility to retapamulin and mupirocin as well as the potential for decreased chlorhexidine susceptibility of S. aureus isolates from SSTIs in children. Two hundred isolates from patients with a single SSTI and 200 isolates from patients with ≥3 previous episodes from the years 2010 to 2012 were selected from an S. aureus surveillance study. Screening for retapamulin resistance was performed by the broth macrodilution method; mupirocin MICs were determined by Etest. PCR was performed for the presence of the smr gene associated with elevated MICs/minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) to chlorhexidine. Among the isolates screened, 38 isolates (9.5%) exhibited retapamulin resistance, of which 22 (57.9%) were methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Two isolates (0.5%) displayed cross-resistance to retapamulin and linezolid. Thirty-nine isolates (9.8%) were found to have mupirocin resistance. smr-positive S. aureus accounted for 14% of isolates. The proportion of smr-positive organisms increased during the study (P = 0.005). The prevalence of in vitro resistance to topical antimicrobials among S. aureus isolates causing SSTI in healthy children in our community is almost 10%. Retapamulin resistance was associated with cross-resistance to linezolid in 0.5% of isolates. In addition, there was an increase in the proportion of smr-positive isolates. Further research including clinical correlations with these findings is warranted.