Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of the Everyday Memory Questionnaire With Children

The Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ; Sunderland, Harris, & Baddeley, 1983) was examined for its suitability to assess children's memory. The parents of 226 school children (6-12 years) completed the EMQ in relation to their own children. A subset of these children (N=101), in 6, 8 and 10 years age groups, completed subtests of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML; Sheslow & Adams, 1990). Comparison of EMQ and WRAML data found aspects of verbal memory correlated moderately with the EMQ in the 10 years age group. There were no meaningful correlations in the 8 years age group. In the 6 years age group aspects of visual memory correlated moderately with the EMQ. The diagnostic utility of the EMQ for children was assessed by comparing the school group to children diagnosed with ADHD and/or learning disorders. Diagnostic indicators revealed the EMQ to have high sensitivity (89%) but poor positive predictive power, identifying 40% of the school group as having memory deficits. Negative predictive power (confirming a negative diagnosis) was high. Validity data suggested that the EMQ could be useful with children at least as young as 10 years and further research needs to be conducted to establish the utility of the EMQ in clinical groups with primary memory deficits.
Firm acquisitions and earnings management: evidence from Greece

Purpose – To investigate whether acquiring firms listed in the Athens Stock Exchange, that completed mergers and acquisitions during the period 2001‐2003, tend to manipulate accounting earnings upward prior to the initiation and completion of the transaction.Design/methodology/approach – The focus is on discretionary accruals as a measure of managers' earnings manipulation. To estimate discretionary and non‐discretionary components of total accruals the time series Jones model is adopted.Findings – Results provide weak evidence of biased accruals reported by managers in the year preceding the announcement and the completion of the deal. The results seem to agree with those of Erickson and Wang who found no evidence of pre‐merger earnings management by a sample of acquiring firms that were involved in cash mergers.Research limitations/implications – The model applied, even if it is considered effective in discriminating abnormal from normal accruals, has been shown to have certain deficiencies, while simul.
Evaluation of Prognostic Immune Signatures in Patients with Breast, Colorectal and Pancreatic Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND CD97 is a member of the epidermal growth factor-seven transmembrane (EGF-TM7) receptor family and is dominantly expressed on immune cells and in a variety of malignant diseases. B7-H1 and B7-H3 are transmembrane proteins that are involved in suppression of the immune system. The aim of this study was to evaluate if these molecules are up-regulated in patients with cancer and change during chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS We analyzed cluster of differentiation (CD) protein expression levels on tumor cell lines and in blood samples of 37 patients with solid tumors at baseline and during chemotherapy; we correlated the serum levels of CD proteins with survival outcome. RESULTS Levels of soluble CD97 proteins were significantly elevated in all three cancer types compared to healthy controls. Patients with colorectal cancer and those with high CD97 levels had a significantly worse prognosis. CONCLUSION This study showed a marked elevation of soluble CD97 expression in patients with certain cancer types and demonstrated definite changes in CD protein expression during chemotherapy in one patient with metastatic breast cancer.
Profit-Seeking Behavior of Medical Providers and Generic Competition in the Pharmaceutical Market: Evidence from Taiwan

Abstract Promoting competition between brand-name and generic drugs has long been recognized as an approach adopted to save on health care costs. However, there are substantial variations in the extent of the generic competition across countries. This study empirically estimates the determinants of the generic market share in Taiwan, where medical providers are in a position to profit directly from the sale of prescription drugs. Our empirical results point out that the profit-seeking behavior of medical providers plays an important and dominant role behind generic competition in the pharmaceutical market. As a result, there is a positive association between the generic-to-brand price ratio and the generic market share in Taiwan’s pharmaceutical market, which contrasts with the conventional empirical finding that the relationship between the generic-to-brand price ratio and generic market share is negative. An important implication of our study is that the profit-seeking behavior of medical providers undermines the policy effectiveness of using generic competition as the cost containment strategy in the health care market.
Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pre-clinical characteristics of ophthalmic drugs that bind VEGF

Drugs that prevent the binding of VEGF to its trans-membrane cognate receptors have revolutionized the treatment of the most important chorioretinal vascular disorders: exudative age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and retinal vein occlusions. Pegaptanib, which binds to VEGF165 and longer isoforms, ranibizumab and bevacizumab, which bind all VEGF-A isoforms, and aflibercept, which binds VEGF-A, VEGF-B, and placental growth factor, all bind VEGF165 with high affinity. The drugs have relatively long half-lives (7 to 10 days) after intravitreal depot injections and clinical durations of action that usually exceed 4 weeks. Plasma VEGF concentrations decrease after intravitreal injections of bevacizumab and aflibercept because their systemic half-lives are extended by their Fc fragments. Extensive in vitro and in vivo testing shows that the drugs prevent VEGF-mediated activation of endothelial cells while exhibiting little evidence of toxicity. Further anti-VEGF drug development is on-going.
Sustainable Investment Withdrawals

The mean–variance approach permits the evaluation of portfolio strategies without otherwise first specifying preferences about risk. It is not well suited, however, to investors who must make periodic withdrawals from their investments. This includes endowment funds, foundations, and individuals after they retire. Expected utility models have been applied to such situations, but they have been difficult for practitioners to implement since preferences must be specified beforehand. By assuming such investors want to make sustainable withdrawals, the author develops a simple model for evaluating investment choices over time without making any further assumptions about preferences. Various factors that affect the size and sustainability of the withdrawals are explored.
Young Adolescent Voices: Students’ Perceptions of Interdisciplinary Teaming

Abstract Interdisciplinary teaming in middle schools has increased dramatically over the past few decades (McEwin, Dickinsen & Jensen, 2003); nevertheless, students have rarely been consulted as important sources of insight into this practice (Dickinsen & Erb, 1997) of two or more teachers sharing the responsibility for instruction, curriculum, and assessment of a common group of students (NMSA, 1995). The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze young adolescents’ perceptions of effective interdisciplinary teaming. Qualitative methods were employed to describe, analyze, and interpret the perceptions of 77 middle level students from three middle schools. A multi-genre approach was used to represent the findings, including analytic writing, student-produced photographs, narrative vignette, and poetic transcription. Findings indicated that students felt like trusted members of a community, viewing themselves as self-disciplined and self-directed learners. Students perceived themselves to be growing in confidence, independence, and tolerance, gaining leadership and collaborative skills, and belonging to a family. Data indicate that when schools are organized to support multi-year teams, and when students are invited to collaborate in team governance and learning, many students report positive personal growth.
The Time Course of Cytokine Expressions Plays a Determining Role in Faster Healing of Intestinal and Colonic Anastomatic Wounds

Objectives: Inflammation is critical in the early phases of wound healing. It has been reported previously that small intestinal and colonic wounds display a more rapid healing than those of other organs. However, the underlying mechanism has not yet been elucidated. Here we examined whether differences in the time course of specified cytokine expression, in colonic and small intestinal anastomotic lesions, might play a major role in this observation in comparison to lesions effecting skin and muscle tissue. Materials and Methods: Tissue lesions were applied to 36 male Sprague–Dawley rats. Tissue samples were harvested at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14 days postoperatively with the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and IFN-α determined by ELISA-derived methods. Results: The characteristics of TNF-α, IL-6, and IFN-α expression during the healing process for intestinal and colonic lesions were comparable. However, data differed significantly with that observed during healing of skin and muscle lesions. Intestinal and colonic lesions exhibited a significant and sustained increase in specified cytokine levels on day 5 to day 14 as compared with day 1 and 3. Skin and muscle lesions had random or unaltered cytokine levels throughout the study period. Conclusion: Differences in expression of cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, and IFN-α indicate that these play an important role underlying the more rapid healing processes observed in small intestinal and colonic lesions.
How Serious Is The Neglectof Intra-Household Inequality?

In this report the authors develop a framework for assessing the consequences of ignoring intrahousehold inequality in the measurement and analysis of poverty and inequality. They apply this framework to data for the Philippines and conclude that : 1) the result of neglecting intrahousehold inequality will probably be considerable understatement of the levels of poverty and inequality. With the Philippine data, measured levels of inequality and poverty were off 30 percent as a result of ignoring intrahousehold variation, and 2) patterns of inequality revealed by household level data are somewhat different from patterns revealed by individual level data, but the differences seem not to be dramatic. To confirm these results, the exercise should be repeated with data from other countries. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Algerian Economic Development, 1968–1979: A Multiplier and Linkage Analysis

The development plans for the Algerian economy in the period 1968–79 were based on the establishment of ‘industrializing industries’, with the establishment of growth poles. The effectiveness of this policy is assessed, using multiplier and linkage analysis. It is concluded that the strategy was not effective, largely because of the initially slight integration of the hydrocarbon sector with the rest of the economy and because of neglect of the development of light industry.
ARABIDOPSIS : A RICH HARVEST 10 YEARS AFTER COMPLETION OF THE GENOME SEQUENCE Linking genotype to phenotype using the Arabidopsis unimutant collection

The large collections of Arabidopsis thaliana sequence-indexed T-DNA insertion mutants are among the most important resources to emerge from the sequencing of the genome. Several laboratories around the world have used the Arabidopsis reference genome sequence to map T-DNA flanking sequence tags (FST) for over 325 000 T-DNA insertion lines. Over the past decade, phenotypes identified with T-DNA-inducedmutants have played a critical role in advancing both basic and applied plant research. These widely used mutants are an invaluable tool for direct interrogation of gene function. However, most lines are hemizygous for the insertion, necessitating a genotyping step to identify homozygous plants for the quantification of phenotypes. This situation has limited the application of these collections for genome-wide screens. Isolating multiple homozygous insert lines for every gene in the genome would make it possible to systematically test the phenotypic consequence of gene loss under a wide variety of conditions. One major obstacle to achieving this goal is that 12% of genes have no insertion and 8% are only represented by a single allele. Generation of additional mutations to achieve full genome coverage has been slow and expensive since each insertion is sequenced one at a time. Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing technology open up a potentially faster and cost-effective means to create new, very large insertion mutant populations for plants or animals. With the combination of new tools for genome-wide studies and emerging phenotyping platforms, these sequence-indexed mutant collections are poised to have a larger impact on our understanding of gene function.
On-line tuning of fuzzy-neural network for adaptive control of nonlinear dynamical systems

The adaptive fuzzy-neural controllers tuned online for a class of unknown nonlinear dynamical systems are proposed. To approximate the unknown nonlinear dynamical systems, the fuzzy-neural approximator is established. Furthermore, the control law and update law to tune on-line both the B-spline membership functions and the weighting factors of the adaptive fuzzy-neural controller are derived. Therefore, the control performance of the controller is improved. Several examples are simulated in order to confirm the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed methods in this paper.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in animal-based foods from Shanghai: bioaccessibility and dietary exposure

A total of 175 samples of 18 types of food were collected from markets in Shanghai, China, and the concentrations and bioaccessibility of 15 priority-controlled polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in these samples were determined. The mean concentrations of PAHs varied between 2.4 and 47.1 ng g−1 wet weight, with the highest being observed in snail and lowest in chicken. The concentrations were lower than the maximum levels of PAH allowed for food per EU regulations. Among the PAHs measured, phenanthrene was the predominant one. Most of the PAHs originated from pyrogenic sources, analysed using molecular indices. The mean bioaccessibility of PAHs varied from 29.0% to 61.2% as measured by simulating the human gastrointestinal digestion process. Linear relationships between the bioaccessibility and lipid contents were observed for most PAH congeners. The daily intake of PAHs by an average Shanghai resident was 848 ng day−1 and decreased to 297 ng day−1 when the bioaccessibility of PAHs were considered, demonstrating that most intake might have been overestimated. According to the potency equivalent concentrations and screening values of PAHs, consumption of snail and clam, especially snail, should be limited.
Concussion-like symptom reporting in non-concussed adolescent athletes

Abstract Objective: The primary goals of this study were (1) to report rates of concussion-like symptoms in healthy adolescent student athletes assessed using the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool, 3rd edition (SCAT3) at baseline, (2) to examine rates of psychiatric diagnoses in this population, and (3) to evaluate effects of baseline symptoms on SCAT3 cognitive and balance performance.Methods: 349 adolescent student athletes (245 male) were administered the SCAT3 during pre-participation physical examinations. We described the prevalence rate of student athletes meeting criteria for International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, post-concussional syndrome (ICD-10 PCS) diagnosis at baseline, and evaluated associations between symptom reporting and demographic/medical history factors using chi-square tests. Rates of self-reported psychiatric diagnosis were compared to general population estimates with one-sample binomial tests. We also compared SCAT3 cognitive and balance performance between adolescents with and without baseline ICD-10 PCS symptoms.Results: Overall, 20.3% of participants met ICD-10 PCS criteria at baseline. Rates were similar across sexes and age groups. We found no statistical association with medical history factors. The proportion of student athletes reporting a history of psychiatric diagnosis (5.2%) was significantly lower than general population estimates (14.0%; p < .001), and this effect was consistent across sexes and age groups. SCAT3 cognitive and balance performance did not differ based on baseline symptom reporting.Conclusions: Healthy adolescent student athletes frequently report concussion-like symptoms at baseline. Clinicians should factor pre-injury symptomatology and medical history into concussion management when determining symptom etiology throughout the course of recovery.
Toolkit on gender in water and sanitation

Since the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade and the Fourth World Conference for Women at Beijing, women are now widely recognized as playing a central part in the water and sanitation sector. This toolkit shows why attention to gender is important and how much attention can be ensured. The toolkit starts in chapter 2 by presenting the rationale for considering gender issues in water and sanitation. Chapter 3 brings together ten salient lessons learned from experience in the sector around the world and illustrates these lessons with concrete examples. The chapter discusses what has and has not worked as well as problems encountered and solutions found. Chapter 4 then illustrates good practice in more detail in country case studies of Bank projects in the sector that have utilized effective gender strategies.
Expected Utility Maximization

We present the martingale method for solving the continuous-time portfolio problem in a complete market setting. As a special application, a mean–variance problem under nonnegative wealth constraints is examined in detail. Keywords: utility maximization; martingale method; continuous-time mean–variance problem
Electrical Behavior of X-Ray Detector Based on PbI2 Crystal With Coplanar Electrode Structure

In this work, we report on the results of the electrical behavior of coplanar electrode structure X-ray detector based on PbI2 crystal. The detector with coplanar electrode similar to the Van der Pauw structure instead of conventional planar structure can partly reduce the influence of trapping effect to charge carrier transport along the $c$ -axis. According to the configuration, four operating modes of the detector were thoroughly studied. Several novel results, such as the negative polarity dark current and photocurrent under zero bias voltage, orientation polarization, short relaxation time of steady-state surface leakage current and fast photocurrent response are obtained by this kind of coplanar structure configuration. The detector has the potential to be developed as a solid state X-ray dosimeter in the medical radiation environment, providing a high sensitivity and good adaptability under positive or negative bias voltage.
Labor productivity and job-market flows: trends, cycles, and correlations

I derive measures of U.S. job-separation and job-matching rates from aggregate Current Population Survey data. Using an unrestricted unobserved-components approach, I decompose these series into trends and cycles and compare the results with the trend and cyclical behavior of labor-productivity growth. Both transitory and permanent shocks to productivity are strongly positively correlated with fluctuations in the rate of job matching and negatively correlated with cyclical fluctuations in separation rates. Productivity growth thereby accounts for about a third of the overall variation in the unemployment rate. However, it displays only weak correlation with trend separation rates. Because trend movements in unemployment are dominated by permanent changes in separation rates, productivity shocks alone cannot account for most of the movement in the natural rate of unemployment over time.
EARLY LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHER TRAINING: A FOREIGN LANGUAGE SYLLABUS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

The Decree Law no.59 of 2004 concerning the introduction of foreign languages in the Italian primary school has led to several nationwide teacher training programmes with the aim to provide in-service training for teachers employed in all types and levels of school according to the EU directives contained in Document no.36 of April 2003. One such scheme is the Training Programme (ex Comunicazione di Servizio Ministeriale n.1446 of 29th July 2005) to develop linguistic and communicative competences in English and teaching methodology for primary school teachers which envisages a concerted effort on the part of the country’s educational institutions. The aim of this article is to review the present training scheme and to suggest possible outcomes and future prospects. The article is divided into two parts. In part one, to contextualise the present project, we outline a brief history of the language policies which have been carried out in Europe and in Italy in the last decades in the primary school sector. In part two, we describe the operational phases which have led to the implementation of the current training programme and explain the theoretical and legal basis of the project as well as the research perspectives underlying the creation of specific syllabuses for each level of language competence. In the conclusion we suggest ways of developing our research in order to contribute to the building of a national framework for foreign language teacher training.
Mechanical properties of non-centrosymmetric CePt3Si and CePt3B

Elastic moduli, hardness (both at room temperature) and thermal expansion (4.2–670 K) have been experimentally determined for polycrystalline CePt3Si and its prototype compound CePt3B as well as for single-crystalline CePt3Si. Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy was used to determine elastic properties (Young’s modulus E and Poisson’s ratio ν) via the eigenfrequencies of the sample and the knowledge of sample mass and dimensions. Bulk and shear moduli were calculated from E and ν, and the respective Debye temperatures were derived. In addition, ab initio DFT calculations were carried out for both compounds. A comparison of parameters evaluated from DFT with those of experiments revealed, in general, satisfactory agreement. Positive and negative thermal expansion values obtained from CePt3Si single crystal data are fairly well explained in terms of the crystalline electric field model, using CEF parameters derived recently from inelastic neutron scattering. DFT calculations, in addition, demonstrate that the atomic vibrations keep almost unaffected by the antisymmetric spin–orbit coupling present in systems with crystal structures having no inversion symmetry. This is opposite to electronic properties, where the antisymmetric spin–orbit interaction has shown to distinctly influence features like the superconducting condensate of CePt3Si.
Tourism Research Inquiries: The Response of the State Office of Tourism

This article reports on the findings of a 1995 survey of state offices of tourism on how they address research inquiries. Results indicate that most state offices of tourism have a mechanism in place to deal with tourism research inquiries, yet very few of them track the nature of the inquiry or evaluate their own performance in this area.