Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells of Fetal or Maternal Origin from Human Placenta

Recently we reported that second‐trimester amniotic fluid (AF) is an abundant source of fetal mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In this study, we analyze the origin of these MSCs and the presence of MSCs in human‐term AF. In addition, different parts of the human placenta were studied for the presence of either fetal or maternal MSCs. We compared the phenotype and growth characteristics of MSCs derived from AF and placenta.
In-Place Irregular Computation for Message-Passing Chip-Multiprocessors

With the increase of CMP (Chip-Multiprocessor) scale, moving data to computation on chip becomes more expensive. Accordingly, moving computation to data has potential to improve efficiency. We propose an in-place computation co-design of many-simple-core CMP for irregular applications. The computing paradigm is that an application's critical irregular data (or part of them) is partitioned into on-chip memory-slices and each slice is delegated by an adjacent core. From the hardware aspect, it divides cores into two groups with load balancing; each group is responsible for accessing off-chip data or irregular data respectively. Moreover, L2 caches are replaced with scratchpads and intra-core message-passing is supported by hardware. Accordingly, algorithms of some typical irregular application kernels are presented, including Breadth-First Search, hash-map, Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication and data-walk. Simulations show that, compared with conventional implementations based on cache-coherence (CC), it can improve the performance and energy-efficiency significantly. The limitation is also discussed.
Dividend Policy in Regulated Network Industries: Evidence from the EU

type="main" xml:id="ecin12238-abs-0001"> We study the dividend policy of firms in regulated network industries, focusing on the impact of different regulatory regimes and government control. We link payout and smoothing decisions to different regulatory mechanisms (cost-based vs. incentive regulation) and state versus private ownership. We test our predictions on a panel of listed European electric utilities, accounting for potential endogeneity of the choice of regulatory and ownership patterns. We find that incentive-regulated firms smooth their dividends less than cost-based regulated firms and that they report higher target payout ratios. Consistent with the interest group theory of regulation, we find that incentive regulation schemes are less likely when the state is still an important shareholder in the sector. Additionally, our results show that government control undermines the efficiency-enhancing effects of incentive regulation on dividend policy, for example, lower smoothing is only due to private firms. (JEL G35, L51, L32, L9)
Sensory and affective predictors of overall pain and emotions associated with affective pain.

OBJECTIVE Psychological scaling techniques consistently produce separate ratings for sensory and affective components of pain. This study examines the relative contributions of these components to pain as a whole and the contributions of different emotions to the affective component of pain. DESIGN The design was correlational. Visual analogue scales were used to quantify overall pain, sensory pain, affective pain, and individual emotions. These data lent themselves to regression techniques for expressing pain as a function of sensation and affect as a function of emotion types. SETTING Data were collected at the Pain Clinic within the Department of Physical Medicine at the Ohio State University. PATIENTS Subjects were 40 chronic pain sufferers admitted to an inpatient pain management program. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Ratings of overall pain were not a simple summation of sensory and affective ratings, but a linearly additive function of both component ratings each with a unique weighting. The affective component of pain was a function of three differentially weighted sets of emotions, anger, fear, and sadness being most salient. Implications arise for the broader assessment of chronic pain and the treatment of specific emotions that may be particularly associated with the pain.
Relationship of efficiency of lifetime performance to lifetime milk yield and longevity in Holstein-Friesian cows of different body types.

INTRODUCTION Attention of most researchers dealing with lifetime performance and lifetime has been focussed on the udder, feet and legs as type traits in dairy cows. It seems that, in investigations the role of lifetime and lifetime performance has remained in the background in their relation to body types created by body measurements. The determination of optimum body size from the point of view of efficient milk production and lifetime performance, however, might be an important task as Dohy (1999) stated. Consequently further research is needed in the matter, he emphasised. That is why in dairy cow selection the optimum balance between body size traits and milk production should be found (Gáspárdy et al., 1996 ; Püski et al., 1998 ; 2000 ; 2001) which may result in improvement of efficiency in dairy production. The aim of this study was to find out the effect of different cow types in terms of efficiency of lifetime performance and life span in Holstein-Friesian breed.
Managerial efficiency and hospitality industry: the Portuguese case

In this article, the innovative twostage procedure of Simar and Wilson (2007) is used to estimate the efficiency determinants of Portuguese hotel groups from 1998 to 2005. In the first stage, the hotels' technical efficiency is estimated with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), in order to establish which hotels have the most efficient performance. These could serve as peers to help improve performance of the least efficient hotels. In the second stage, the Simar and Wilson model is used to bootstrap the DEA scores with a truncated regression. The article contributes to the hotel industry literature by adopting a somewhat novel approach that has never been applied to this industry despite its managerial implications. The motivation for the analysis lies in the fact that during the period under analysis Portuguese hotels faced a number of threats. Knowing what the best practices are is then good news for managers and institutions.
Test of the MBA knowledge and skills transfer

In view of the growing popularity of the MBA degree as a management development tool, there is a need to examine knowledge and skills transfer among MBA graduates. This study then developed and tested a parsimonious model of perceived transfer of knowledge and skills of MBA graduates to the job. Respondents were those who had completed part-time MBA programmes in Hong Kong for at least one year but not more than five years. LISREL results revealed a modest fit of the model to the data. The path coefficients further revealed that seven of the fifteen predicted relationships were statistically significant and in the predicted direction. Specifically, self-efficacy, Type A personality, transfer climate, and transfer rewards were positively related to motivation to learn, while organizational commitment was negatively related to motivation to learn. The results also indicated that motivation to learn, continuous-learning culture, and utility of MBA programme were positively related to perceived knowledge and skills transfer.
Making market democracies? The contingent loyalties of post-privatization elites in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Serbia

ABSTRACT Neoliberal market reformers stress the ‘market building instincts’ of private owners to justify rapid forms of property transformation under illiberal political conditions. Private owners demand the institutions of the self-restraining state to protect property from various forms of expropriation and to enforce contracts. Legacy theorists counter that under illiberal political conditions, economic insiders are more likely to capture the benefits of privatization programs and then seek exemption from the rule of law rather than application of it. We employ a ‘path contingency’ approach to show that under illiberal, competitive authoritarian conditions, privatization recipients and other private economic agents are unlikely to demand the basic institutions of market democracy. Yet, this is by no means a stable set of affairs. Political inequality and its attendant rent-seeking behavior will likely delay or distort growth and can contribute to economic and political instability. Political crisis may follow as regimes face societal frustration and energized, united political oppositions. Such crises are moments of uncertainty and flux. Crises provide private economic agents in particular with an opportunity to reconsider their ties to an illiberal regime. This paper examines these propositions during illiberal regime crises in Serbia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The Evolutionary Origin and Genetic Makeup of Domestic Horses

The horse was domesticated only 5.5 KYA, thousands of years after dogs, cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. The horse nonetheless represents the domestic animal that most impacted human history; providing us with rapid transportation, which has considerably changed the speed and magnitude of the circulation of goods and people, as well as their cultures and diseases. By revolutionizing warfare and agriculture, horses also deeply influenced the politico-economic trajectory of human societies. Reciprocally, human activities have circled back on the recent evolution of the horse, by creating hundreds of domestic breeds through selective programs, while leading all wild populations to near extinction. Despite being tightly associated with humans, several aspects in the evolution of the domestic horse remain controversial. Here, we review recent advances in comparative genomics and paleogenomics that helped advance our understanding of the genetic foundation of domestic horses.
How Do Auditors Behave During Periods of Market Euphoria? The Case of Internet IPOs

How do auditors behave during periods of market euphoria? To address this question, we study auditor going-concern opinions around the time of the wave of stressed Internet companies filing to go public on Nasdaq, a period many characterize as the ‘dot com bubble’. We focus on the day the auditor signs the opinion that appears in a stressed, Internet registrants’ IPO filing and document a sharp increase in the number of opinions with dates between January 1999 and April 2000. Contemporaneous with this jump in transaction volume, and for the duration of these 16-months, Big 5 firms were less likely to render going-concern opinions to their stressed, Internet IPO registrant clients. Upon conducting tests for determinants that could lead auditors to shift their decision criteria during this euphoric audit market, we find the presence of a going-concern opinion varies with variables that proxy for client reasons (financial distress, company age, venture backing, IPO cash burn) and for less auditor independence/skepticism (recent fees for clients without venture backing and a rush-to-market for clients with venture backing) by the Big 5 firms. These findings suggest a mixed conclusion regarding the Big 5's behavior; as the presence of a going-concern opinion varies inversely with variables that proxy for both client viability and auditor self interest. As for consequences to investors, our analysis of two, three and four-year post-IPO stock delisting provides some evidence of a decrease in the predictive content (early-warning value) of Big 5 opinions signed during the Internet IPO bubble.
Increased Urinary Extracellular Vesicle Sodium Transporters in Cushing Syndrome With Hypertension

Context Increased renal sodium reabsorption contributes to hypertension in Cushing syndrome (CS). Renal sodium transporters can be analyzed noninvasively in urinary extracellular vesicles (uEVs). Objective To analyze renal sodium transporters in uEVs of patients with CS and hypertension. Design Observational study. Setting University hospital. Participants The uEVs were isolated by ultracentrifugation and analyzed by immunoblotting in 10 patients with CS and 7 age-matched healthy participants. In 7 patients with CS, uEVs were analyzed before and after treatment. Main Outcome Measure Abundance of protein in uEVs. Results The 10 patients with CS were divided in those with suppressed and nonsuppressed renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS; n = 5 per group). Patients with CS with suppressed RAAS had similar blood pressure but significantly lower serum potassium than patients with CS with nonsuppressed RAAS. Compared with healthy participants, only patients with suppressed RAAS had higher phosphorylated Na+-K+-Cl- cotransporter type 2 (pNKCC2) and higher total and phosphorylated Na+-Cl- cotransporter (pNCC) in uEVs. Serum potassium but not urinary free cortisol correlated with pNKCC2, pNCC, and Na+-Cl- cotransporter (NCC) in uEVs. Treatment of CS reversed the increases in pNKCC2, NCC, and pNCC. Conclusions CS increases renal sodium transporter abundance in uEVs in patients with hypertension and suppressed RAAS. Potassium has recently been identified as an important driver of NCC activity, and low serum potassium may also contribute to increased renal sodium reabsorption and hypertension in CS. These results may also be relevant for hypertension induced by exogenous glucocorticoids.
Transition to IFRS in Greece: Financial Statement Effects and Auditor Size

Purpose - The paper aims to explore the impact of the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on Greek listed companies' financial statements with a focus on net profit, shareholders' equity, gearing and liquidity. It also seeks to examine any differences in the impact across the sub-samples of companies with Big 4 and non-Big 4 auditors. Design/methodology/approach - In line with recent literature, the paper employs Gray's comparability index. The sample consists of 238 Greek companies, representing 75 per cent of the companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange at the end of March 2006. Findings - Implementation of IFRS had a significant impact on financial position and reported performance as well as on gearing and liquidity ratios. On average, impact on shareholders' equity and net income was positive while impact on gearing and liquidity was negative. Only companies with non-Big 4 auditors faced significant impact on net profit and liquidity. They also faced a significantly greater impact on gearing than companies with Big 4 auditors. A large number of companies with material negative changes is identified, suggesting that transition to IFRS and the fair value option does not necessarily result in higher shareholders' equity figures. Many companies provided inadequate transitional disclosures. This is significantly related to auditor size. Practical implications - The findings suggest that reporting quality has improved under the new accounting regime, especially for companies with non-Big 4 auditors. Originality/value - Prior literature indicates that the impact revealed in companies' reconciliation statements can have significant effects on users' decision making. On that basis, the study can stimulate future research and is relevant to standard setters and regulators.
Efficient hedging in incomplete markets under model uncertainty

We consider an investor who has sold a contingent claim and intends to minimize the maximal expected weighted shortfall. Here, the maximum is taken over a family of models and the minimum is taken over all admissible hedging strategies that satisfy a given cost constraint. We call the associated minimizing strategy robustefficient. The problem to determine a robust-efficient strategy is closely related to the statistical problem of testing a composite hypothesis against a composite alternative. The hypothesis is given by the family of pricing rules and the alternative coincides with the family of models. The mathematical centerpiece of this thesis is the solution of the statistical testing problem on a general level by means of convex duality and game-theoretical methods. The problem differs from the classical testing problem in that the power of a test is defined in terms of a strictly concave state dependent utility function rather than the identity mapping. Furthermore, our only essential assumption is that the alternative and the hypothesis are dominated, i.e., the alternative and the hypothesis need neither be parameterized nor of the form of the neighborhoods typically considered in robust statistics. Similar to the classical notion of least-favorable pairs of priordistributions on the hypothesis respectively alternative, we introduce the pivotal notion of a least-favorable pair of elements of the hypothesis respectively alternative. The main result of our analysis on maximin-optimal tests is that the maximinoptimal test can be found among the simple-optimal test for a least-favorable pair. If the least-favorable pair is equivalent to the dominating measure, the simple optimal test is the unique maximin-optimal test. If the latter condition is not fulfilled, we approximate the maximin-optimal test by a sequence of explicitly constructed simple optimal tests. These results clarify the general structure of the robust-efficient hedging strategy. We also show that a least-favorable pair can be decomposed into a worst-case model and a worst-case pricing rule for this model. The worst-case model has a very direct economic interpretation, whereas the worst-case pricing rule is a more mathematical auxiliary tool. If the worst-case model dominates all models, the efficient strategy associated to the fixed worst-case model is robust-efficient. For fixed model, the worst-case pricing rule yields the optimal modified claim and allows us to make some statements about its attainability. In the second part of this thesis, we explicitly construct the robust-efficient strategy in a series of applications. For this, the task remains to determine the efficient strategy for each fixed model and a worst-case model. First, we enlarge the family of models in order to establish existence of a worst-case model. Then we derive the dynamics of the price process, the efficient strategy and the associated risk under each (fixed) model. If the model is incomplete, we adapt the dynamic programming principle to the specific dynamics of the model to compute or approximate the efficient strategy.
Effect of chemotherapy on immune response to egg antigens of Schistosoma mansoni in chronically infected children from areas of low transmission

In an attempt to identify antigenic molecules from Schistosoma mansoni eggs, a serological study was performed on children of a Venezuelan town (Carabal‐leda) in which the transmission of schistosomiasis had been interrupted two years prior to sera sampling. Infected children received treatment with Praziquantel and, based on the disappearance of eggs in the stools plus negativiza‐tion of the circumoval precipitin test (COPT) one year after treatment, they were classified as either responders or non‐responders to chemotherapy. Western blots of soluble egg antigen (SEA) with a very sensitive chemiluminescent substrate were performed. Sera from responder children recognized a 25kDa band of SEA which diminished significantly after treatment. This was less frequent in non‐responder children. When the sera of responder and non‐responder children were compared before treatment, we found that the recognition of the 40 and 41 kDa proteins could be predictive of response to chemotherapy. All these antigens, used in ELISA‐type techniques, might be of importance in the evaluation and follow‐up of large scale schistosome control programmes.
Potential nutritional strategies for the amelioration or prevention of high rigor temperature in cattle – a review

Environmental conditions influence animal production from an animal performance perspective and at the carcass level post-slaughter. High rigor temperature occurs when the animal is hyperthermic pre-slaughter, and this leads to tougher meat. Hyperthermia can result from increased environmental temperature, exercise, stress or a combination of these factors. Consumer satisfaction with beef meat is influenced by the visual and sensory traits of the product when raw and cooked, with beef consumers commonly selecting tenderness of the product as the most important quality trait. High rigor temperature leads to a reduction in carcass and eating quality. This review examines some possible metabolic causes of hyperthermia, with focus on the importance of adipose tissue metabolism and the roles of insulin and leptin. Potential strategies for the amelioration or prevention of high rigor temperature are offered, including the use of dietary supplements such as betaine and chromium, anti-diabetic agents such as thiazolidinediones, vitamin D, and magnesium (Mg) to provide stress relief.
Marketing Agreement Impacts in an Experimental Market for Fed Cattle

Marketing agreements between meatpacking and cattle feeding firms have created concerns about their effects on fed cattle prices. Profit-sharing marketing agreements were imposed onto a simulated fed cattle market. Price level and variability differences with and without agreements, between agreement participants and nonparticipants, during agreement and nonagreement periods, and between participants receiving and not receiving a monetary incentive were evaluated. Prices and variability for nonagreement cattle were higher during the agreement periods. Marketing agreement participants realized lower, less variable prices than nonparticipating firms. Monetary incentives did not affect price levels but increased price variability. Copyright 1999, Oxford University Press.
Effects of maternal nicotine exposure on thyroid hormone metabolism and function in adult rat progeny.

Postnatal nicotine exposure leads to obesity and hypothyroidism in adulthood. We studied the effects of maternal nicotine exposure during lactation on thyroid hormone (TH) metabolism and function in adult offspring. Lactating rats received implants of osmotic minipumps releasing nicotine (NIC, 6 mg/kg per day s.c.) or saline (control) from postnatal days 2 to 16. Offspring were killed at 180 days. We measured types 1 and 2 deiodinase activity and mRNA, mitochondrial α-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (mGPD) activity, TH receptor (TR), uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), hypothalamic TRH, pituitary TSH, and in vitro TRH-stimulated TSH secretion. Expression of deiodinase mRNAs followed the same profile as that of the enzymatic activity. NIC exposure caused lower 5'-D1 and mGPD activities; lower TRβ1 content in liver as well as lower 5'-D1 activity in muscle; and higher 5'-D2 activity in brown adipose tissue (BAT), heart, and testis, which are in accordance with hypothyroidism. Although deiodinase activities were not changed in the hypothalamus, pituitary, and thyroid of NIC offspring, UCP1 expression was lower in BAT. Levels of both TRH and TSH were lower in offspring exposed to NIC, which presented higher basal in vitro TSH secretion, which was not increased in response to TRH. Thus, the hypothyroidism in NIC offspring at adulthood was caused, in part, by in vivo TRH-TSH suppression and lower sensitivity to TRH. Despite the hypothyroid status of peripheral tissues, these animals seem to develop an adaptive mechanism to preserve thyroxine to triiodothyronine conversion in central tissues.