Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The American Congress Reader: Pivotal Politics

Politicians and pundits alike have complained that the divided governments of the last decades have led to a legislative gridlock. The author argues against this, advancing the theory that divided government actually has little effect on legislative productivity. Gridlock is in fact the order of the day, occurring even when the same party controls the legislative and executive branches. Anchored to real politics, the author argues that the pivotal vote on a piece of legislation is not the one that gives a bill simple majority, but the vote that allows its supporters to override a possible presidential veto. This theory of pivots also explains why, when bills are passed, winning coalitions usually are bipartisan and supermajority sized. Offering an account of when gridlock is overcome and showing that political parties are less important in legislative-executive politics than previously thought, this text offers a perspective on American lawmaking.
Capital Flight from Sub-Saharan African Countries: Updated Estimates, 1970-2010

A key constraint to SSA’s growth and development is the shortage of financing. Indeed SSA faces large and growing financing gaps, hindering public investment and social service delivery. At the same time, the sub-region is a source of large-scale capital flight, which escalated during last decade even as the region experienced growth acceleration. The group of 33 SSA countries covered by this report has lost a total of $814 billion dollars (constant 2010 US$) from 1970 to 2010. This exceeds the amount of official development aid ($659 billion) and foreign direct investment ($306 billion) received by these countries. Oil-rich countries account for 72 percent of the total capital flight from the sub-region ($591 billion). The escalation of capital flight over the last decade coincided with the steady increase in oil prices prior to the global economic crisis.
Factorsaffectingpackedandunpackedfluidmilk consumption Faktory ovlivňující spotřebu baleného a nebaleného méka

This article identifies consumer characteristics associated with preferences toward fluid milk alternatives. Using consumer survey data from Samsun province of Turkey and Multinomial Logit model, unpacked and packed fluid milk pre - ferences were analyzed. Based on the results, 14.1% of respondents consumed only unpacked fluid milk, 58.2% consumed only packed fluid milk and 27.7% of respondents consumed both unpacked and packed fluid milk at least once a weak. Multinomial Logit model results indicated that better educated household head, higher income households, younger and female household head and people who agree with "unpacked milk is not healthy" consume more packed fluid milk than do others. Moreover, consumers who agree with statement "price of packed milk is expensive compare to unpacked milk" were less likely to consume packed fluid milk than do others.
Welfare Reform, Insurance Coverage Pre-Pregnancy, and Timely Enrollment: An Eight-State Study

Implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) broke the automatic linkage between Medicaid eligibility/enrollment and welfare cash assistance for women eligible at welfare income levels. This study used data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) for the period 1996–1999 to examine insurance coverage of these and other pregnant women pre- and post-PRWORA. Controlling for individual characteristics and economic growth, the relative odds of having private insurance did not change while the odds of being Medicaid enrolled versus uninsured pre-pregnancy declined for welfare-eligible women post-PRWORA. The absolute effect was a decline of 7.9 percentage points in the probability of welfare-eligible women being insured. While these results apply to the early years of welfare reform, it is still likely that states can improve Medicaid outreach and enrollment of women eligible prior to pregnancy.
Credit Scores, Race, and Residential Sorting.

Credit scores have a profound impact on home purchasing power and mortgage pricing, yet little is known about how credit scores influence households' residential location decisions. This study estimates the effects of credit scores on residential sorting behavior using a novel mortgage industry data set combining household demographic, credit, and financial data with property location information and detailed community attribute data. I employ the data set to estimate a discrete-choice residential sorting model. I find that credit scores significantly predict residential sorting behavior and models that do not account for credit score provide biased estimates of housing utilities for black households in particular. Simulation results show that increases in credit score are associated with increases in the consumption of higher-priced homes in more expensive school districts, higher-quality public schools, and proximity to urban|metropolitan areas. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Small Business Social Responsibility

This article seeks to expand business and society research in a number of ways. Its primary purpose is to redraw two core corporate social responsibility (CSR) theories (stakeholder theory and Carroll’s CSR pyramid), enhancing their relevance for small business. This redrawing is done by the application of the ethic of care, informed by the value of feminist perspectives and the extant empirical research on small business social responsibility. It is proposed that the expanded versions of core theory have wider relevance, value, and implications beyond the small firm context. The theorization of small business social responsibility enables engagement with the mainstream of CSR research as well as making a contribution to small business studies in scholarly, policy, and practice terms.
Corporate collaborative activity: exploratory evidence on the determinants of vehicle choice

This exploratory study analyses the factors that affect the selection of a contract, alliance or joint venture for collaborative activity. The findings, based on a sample of 441 announcements made by UK firms, reveal that although no unequivocal support exists for either the agency- or transaction cost economics-based explanations of vehicle choice, the decision does appear to have a strategic element. In addition, the results suggest that while the three forms of inter-firm arrangement are often viewed as points on a continuum, the key decision relates to whether or not to establish a joint venture. In the light of these initial findings, future research might most usefully investigate decision-making of this type on a case-by-case basis, rather than attempting to induce pervasive explanations of the process.
Performance measurement of Taiwan's commercial banks

Most previous studies concerning company performance evaluation focus merely on operational efficiency. Operational effectiveness, however, which might directly influence the survival of a company, is usually ignored. As a result, this paper presents a study which uses an innovative two‐stage data envelopment analysis model that separates efficiency and effectiveness to evaluate the performance of 41 listed corporations of the banking industry in Taiwan. The empirical result of this paper is that a company with better efficiency does not always mean that it has better effectiveness. There is no apparent correlation between these two indicators.
How Changes in Benefits Entitlement Affect the Duration of Unemployment

This paper investigates the disincentive effects of the potential duration of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.The disincentive effects are identified by exploiting changes in the UI system in Slovenia, which involved substantial reductions in the potential benefit duration and had characteristics of a "natural experiment". We find that the change had a positive effect on the exit rate out of unemployment - both to employment and to other destinations - at various durations of unemployment spells and for many categories of unemployed workers.
Do Principles-Based Accounting Standards Lead to Biased Financial Reporting? An Australian Experiment

International accounting standards are deliberately designed to be principles-based (i.e. 'substance over form'). With Australia's recent adoption of international accounting standards, a relevant question is, do principles-based accounting standards lead to biased financial reporting? The present paper describes a study that analysed the consolidation judgements of senior accounting officials from Australian listed companies. Participants made consolidation judgements based on AASB 1024 "Consolidated Accounts". Although AASB 1024 is not identical to IAS 27 "Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements", there are many similarities and both follow a principles-based approach. In aggregate, the present study finds that principles-based accounting standards do not necessarily lead to biased financial reporting. Copyright (c) The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2007 AFAANZ.
Job stress, coping strategies, and burnout among hotel industry supervisors in Taiwan

The complex and changing environment of the hospitality industry presents a never ending array of stimuli, pressures and demands which can become sources of stress for hotel supervisors. A focus on the identification of current and potential stressors in organizations, and the development of strategies which individuals and management may use to manage and reduce stress effectively, is imperative. This study is to investigate the perceived level of stress of hotel supervisors, to establish frequency of the use of various coping strategies, and to determine the burnout rate. This study also empirically examines the relationships among stress, coping strategies, and job burnout. A convenient sample of hotel supervisors of large hotels in Taiwan was selected. The return of 298 questionnaires represented 74.5% of the total supervisors surveyed. The study findings suggest that the major job stress of hotel supervisors originates from task characteristic and workload. Moreover, a direct action coping strategy may allow one to perceive the situations as opportunities and may, in turn, contribute to reduce job stress. Furthermore, hotel supervisors experience a lower level of burnout if they apply more direct action strategies in coping with the pressures of their job. The results of this study can be used as part of guidelines including what should be considered to reduce job stress and burnout in the work environment.
Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus storage in alpine grassland ecosystems of Tibet: effects of grazing exclusion

Abstract In recent decades, alpine grasslands have been seriously degraded on the Tibetan Plateau and grazing exclusion by fencing has been widely adopted to restore degraded grasslands since 2004. To elucidate how alpine grasslands carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) storage responds to this management strategy, three types of alpine grassland in nine counties in Tibet were selected to investigate C, N, and P storage in the environment by comparing free grazing (FG) and grazing exclusion (GE) treatments, which had run for 6–8 years. The results revealed that there were no significant differences in total ecosystem C, N, and P storage, as well as the C, N, and P stored in both total biomass and soil (0–30 cm) fractions between FG and GE grasslands. However, precipitation played a key role in controlling C, N, and P storage and distribution. With grazing exclusion, C and N stored in aboveground biomass significantly increased by 5.7 g m−2 and 0.1 g m−2, respectively, whereas the C and P stored in the soil surface layer (0–15 cm) significantly decreased by 862.9 g m−2 and 13.6 g m−2, respectively. Furthermore, the storage of the aboveground biomass C, N, and P was positively correlated with vegetation cover and negatively correlated with the biodiversity index, including Pielou evenness index, Shannon–Wiener diversity index, and Simpson dominance index. The storage of soil surface layer C, N, and P was positively correlated with soil silt content and negatively correlated with soil sand content. Our results demonstrated that grazing exclusion had no impact on total C, N, and P storage, as well as C, N, and P in both total biomass and soil (0–30 cm) fractions in the alpine grassland ecosystem. However, grazing exclusion could result in increased aboveground biomass C and N pools and decreased soil surface layer (0–15 cm) C and P pools.
Modulation of Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate Oxidase Expression and Function by 3′,4′-Dihydroxyflavonol in Phagocytic and Vascular Cells

Previously we have demonstrated that 3′,4′-dihydroxyflavonol (DiOHF), a novel synthetic flavonol, protects against ischemia reperfusion injury in both heart and brain. In this study, we characterized the pharmacological effects of DiOHF on phagocytic and vascular NADPH oxidase. Superoxide release (lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence or cytochrome c reduction), NADPH oxidase activation (membrane translocation of p47phox), and subunit expression (real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot) were examined in differentiated HL-60 cells, human neutrophils, vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells, and mouse aorta. DiOHF concentration dependently suppressed superoxide accumulation (EC50 = 8.4 ± 1.7 μM) in vascular smooth muscle cells, which appears to be attributable to its superoxide scavenging activity (EC50 = 6.1 ± 1.1 μM measured in a cell-free system). DiOHF had similar effects in HL-60 cells and isolated aortic rings. In HL-60 cells, but not endothelial or smooth muscle cells, DiOHF and quercetin (10 and 30 μM) significantly reduced the protein expression of p47phox, whereas p67phox was not altered. DiOHF did not affect phorbol ester-induced membrane translocation of either p47phox or protein kinase C in leukocytes. Our results suggest that suppression of NADPH oxidase-dependent superoxide accumulation may contribute to the cytoprotective actions of DiOHF during ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Fitting Regional Income Distributions in the European Union

Cross-sectional distribution of per capita (log) GDP across the European Union regions from 1977 to 1996 is analysed. Kernel density estimates reveal a multimodal structure of the distribution during the 1970s and early 1980s, and a tendency towards unimodality since the mid-1980s. The distribution is further analysed by a mixture of normal densities. A two well-separated component mixture fits the distributions in the 1970s and early 1980s. These two clusters tend to converge, supporting the idea of a process of catching up. In the mid-1990s, a small group of very rich regions is generated by a separated component.
Severe Pancreatic Dysfunction But Compensated Nutritional Status in Monogenic Pancreatic Disease Caused by Carboxyl-Ester Lipase Mutations

Objectives The impact of pancreatic dysfunction in several diseases of the pancreas, including chronic pancreatitis and cystic fibrosis, is obscured by concomitant extra-pancreatic disease. Carboxyl-ester lipase–maturity-onset diabetes in the young (CEL-MODY) is a monogenic, highly penetrant and progressive pancreatic disease with no known primary extrapancreatic manifestations. It is characterized by low fecal elastase, steatorrhea, and development of diabetes mellitus. We sought to determine the nature of the exocrine dysfunction in CEL-MODY and relate the findings to clinical parameters of malnutrition. Methods We examined CEL-MODY patients and control subjects by rapid, endoscopic secretin test and dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of the pancreas. The findings were related to the subjects’ clinical status. Results The CEL-MODY patients displayed severely reduced acinar function and moderately reduced ductal function of the pancreas compared with control subjects. Surprisingly, CEL-MODY patients did not have clinical or biochemical signs of malnutrition, except for subnormal levels of vitamin E. Vitamin E levels seemed to be directly related to pancreatic acinar function. Conclusions Pancreatic exocrine dysfunction in CEL-MODY is associated with severely reduced acinar and moderately reduced ductal dysfunction. Despite severely reduced exocrine pancreatic function, CEL-MODY patients revealed only minor signs of malnutrition.
Immigration and Trust in Politics in Britain

A previously overlooked explanation for varying individual levels of political trust is concern about immigration. This article examines the effect of concern about immigration on political trust in Britain, where levels of opposition to immigration have remained high since the 1960s and yet the implications of such opposition are still unclear. Using the pre-election and post-election panel component of the 2005 British Election Study and the 2002–03 European Social Survey, the author shows, after controlling for other predictors of trust in politics, that concerns about the impact of immigration significantly affect political trust. In addition, in 2005 the perception that government had not handled the issue of immigration effectively also significantly affected political trust, with both linear and interactive effects.
Clinical Outcome of Acute Upper Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage among Patients Admitted to a Government Hospital in Egypt

Background/Aim: Acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (AUGIH) is a life-threatening emergency that results in high morbidity and mortality. The mortality rate varies between 4% and 14%. The aim of the study was to determine the clinical outcome of AUGIH among patients admitted to a government hospital in Egypt. Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional hospital-based study performed in 1000 patients presenting with AUGIH over a 7-year period between January 2004 and January 2011. Results: One thousand patients were analyzed. Fifty-four percent were male. Mean age was 52 ± 17 years. Eighty-eight percent were emergency admissions and 12% were inpatients at the time of bleeding. At presentation 68% had major comorbidity and 50% had liver disease. Seven hundred and twenty-four patients (72%) underwent endoscopy. Bleeding varices accounted for 31% of AUGIH and peptic ulcer 28%. Two hundred and thirty-two patients had endoscopically diagnosed bleeding varices or peptic ulcer with a visible vessel or active bleeding. These received endoscopic therapy. Initial hemostasis was achieved in 207 (89%). Thirteen patients (6%) had therapy at a subsequent endoscopy for further bleeding. Surgery was performed on 9 patients (0.9%) with AUGIH. Complications were reported in 70 patients (7%) mainly liver failure (4%). Six hundred and eighty-four patients (68%) were discharged improved, 162 (16%) left hospital without a diagnosis and 4 (0.4%) were referred to another facility. The overall mortality was 15%. Mortality was 24% in patients ≥60 years, 37% among inpatients, and 21% in those who had a major comorbidity. Mortality was 22% in patients who had liver disease and 9% in variceal bleeding. Conclusion: The most common cause of AUGIH was variceal in origin. Endoscopic therapy was successful in most cases. Mortality after AUGIH was particularly high among elderly patients, inpatients, and patients who had a major comorbidity, liver disease, and variceal bleeding.
An Estimation of Human Capital Share in Economic Growth of Iran Using Growth Accounting Approach

One of the important factors in economic growth of each country is human capital that plays an important role in economic development and growth. On the other hand, one of the best methods for calculation of human capital share is growth accounting which not only focuses on econometric models, but also calculates the share of each factor through growth accounting; that is considered as the innovation of the present research in comparison with similar researches. The findings indicate that the effect of human capital on economic growth of Iran is positive during 1978-2010. Moreover, the share of this factor in the Second Five Year Economic Development Plan of Iran is higher than others.
Postoperative computed tomography and low-field magnetic resonance imaging findings in dogs with degenerative lumbosacral stenosis treated by dorsal laminectomy

Summary Objectives: To describe postoperative computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in dogs with degenerative lumbosacral stenosis (DLSS) treated by dorsal laminectomy and partial discectomy. Methods: Prospective clinical case study of dogs diagnosed with and treated for DLSS. Surgical and clinical findings were described. Computed tomography and low field MRI findings pre- and postoperatively were described and graded. Clinical, CT and MRI examinations were performed four to 18 months after surgery. Results: Eleven of 13 dogs were clinically improved and two dogs had unchanged clinical status postoperatively despite imaging signs of neural compression. Vacuum phenomenon, spondylosis, sclerosis of the seventh lumbar (L7) and first sacral (S1) vertebrae endplates and lumbosacral intervertebral joint osteoarthritis became more frequent in postoperative CT images. Postoperative MRI showed mild disc extrusions in five cases, and in all cases contrast enhancing non-discal tissue was present. All cases showed contrast enhancement of the L7 spinal nerves both pre- and postoperatively and seven had contrast enhancement of the lumbosacral intervertebral joints and paraspinal tissue postoperatively. Articular process fractures or fissures were noted in four dogs. Clinical significance: The study indicates that imaging signs of neural compression are common after DLSS surgery, even in dogs that have clinical improvement. Contrast enhancement of spinal nerves and soft tissues around the region of disc herniation is common both pre- and postoperatively and thus are unreliable criteria for identifying complications of the DLSS surgery. Supplementary Material to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.3415/VCOT-16-06-0096
Sarcoidosis: Family Contact Study

Aim: To assess the familial aggregation in sarcoidosis in our environment. Methods: The medical centers of Catalonia (Spain) were approached to identify, retrospectively, patients diagnosed as sarcoidosis from 1986 to 1988. 245 sarcoidosis cases were recorded (annual incidence: 1.36/100,000 inhabitants). Finally, in 1990 a telephone questionnaire was administered to 188 sarcoidosis cases. Results: These cases reported 3,757 familial contacts, 5 of whom had confirmed sarcoidosis. The clinical presentation of familial sarcoidosis was similar to nonfamilial sarcoidosis, only Löfgren syndrome stood out. The prevalence of sarcoidosis among familial contacts was 1.33/1,000. Conclusions: The familial association is low and corresponds with the low annual incidence in our community.
Geometry Images of Arbitrary Genus in the Spherical Domain

While existing spherical parameterization algorithms are limited to genus‐0 geometrical models, we believe a wide class of models of arbitrary genus can also benefit from the spherical domain. We present a complete and robust pipeline that can generate spherical geometry images from arbitrary genus surfaces where the holes are explicitly represented. The geometrical model, represented as a triangle mesh, is first made topologically equivalent to a sphere by cutting each hole along its generators, thus performing genus reduction. The resulting genus‐0 model is then parameterized on the sphere, where it is resampled in a way to preserve connectivity between holes and to reduce the visual impact of seams due to these holes. Knowing the location of each pair of boundary components in parametric space, our novel sampling scheme can automatically choose to scale down or completely eliminate the associated hole, depending on geometry image resolution, thus lowering the genus of the reconstructed model. We found our method to scale better than other geometry image algorithms for higher genus models. We illustrate our approach on remeshing, level‐of‐detail rendering, normal mapping and topology editing.