Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neighbourhood-level social capital and anti-immigrant prejudice in an African context: an individual-level analysis of attitudes towards immigrants in South Africa

African states are often characterised as low trust societies. Could a deficiency of social capital explain prejudice towards immigrants in such societies? Using South Africa as a case study, this paper tests the effect of social trust, social bonds with neighbours and a sense of community on attitudes towards foreigners. The results reveal that social capital may be a more important predictor of attitudes than economic status. Social bonds between neighbours and a sense of community were found to be more salient determinants of prejudice than social trust. In African societies it is, therefore, important to invest in programmes that promote social cohesion within communities.
Granuloma multiforme in eastern Nigeria.

The recent report by Leiker et 07. ( ;1) of a chronic skin granuloma with pol ymorphi c appearances may he supplemented by this record of the same condition as observed in the north of Eastern N igeria not far from the focus in tIll' Northern Hegion already described. Fourteen years ago Garrett ( ~ ) , the Area Superintendent, at the time, of the Oji Hi \"er Leprosy Settlement, distin guish ed the condition from leprosy on clinical grounds hecause of the retention of tactil e sensation in the patches, which , if they had represented tuberculoid leprosy, should have heen characteri zed by well-marked loss. Garrett also made histologic inves tiga tion s ( unpublished ), and observed the negative results of fungicida l and karyolytic trea tments. Subsequen tly, Felton Hoss and Fern , successively Area Superintendents at Oji River, confirmed Garrett's observa tions . For the same reasons that led to des igna ti on of gran uloma multiformc as Mkar disease in Northern Nigeria , it was called Nkanu disease in the Eastern Hegion . Further enquiries over the past few years have shown that the focus in the east is more extensive than was formerly believed. While it is admittedly impossible to make an unassailable diagnosis from a photograph, it may be mentioned that figure 216 in a hook by Clarke ( I ) over the caption "erythema annulare centrifugum ( Darier )" resemhles very closely one variety of granuloma multiforme. Clarke reported that histologically this lesion showed a tuberculoid structure, and that dapsone was without effect. He suggested that it might he described as an "annular sarcoid. "
Bankruptcy and Agency Costs: Their Significance to the Theory of Optimal Capital Structure

Abstract We support and generalize our original results (1978) in light of potential impediments to a pure market solution to agency problems and potential causal links between liquidation and bankruptcy. In the case of bankruptcy costs, market impediments are easily eliminated through the inclusion of simple provisions in corporate charters and bond indentures. Further, we demonstrate that recent attempts to link liquidation costs to capital structure are without merit. If the firm is to be liquidated on the basis of a rule other than one that maximizes the total value of all the claimants, arbitrage profits arise, and informal reorganization will discipline management to follow the liquidation rule that is optimal for existing securityholders. Also, we find that the pure market solution is not readily generalizable to other classes of agency problems, particularly the risk incentive problem. However, the alternative solution of the risk incentive problem through complex financing contracting may be useful in explaining complexities in contemporary financial contracts.
The distribution of wages and employee incomes in Slovenia, 1991–2009

This paper analyses the distribution of employee income in Slovenia in the period 1991–2009. The analysis is based on two different datasets, both derived from the personal income tax files. It was shown that income inequality of employees income has somewhat increased in this period, using the Gini coefficient as the indicator of income inequality. Though increases in income inequality were moderate according to this summary measure, rather largest changes did occur at the very top of the income distribution, i.e. top 5 per cent and top one per cent of employees. Income inequality of employees’ net income (i.e. net of employee social contributions and personal income tax) remained fairly stable in this time period. In other words, the changes in personal income tax dampened to a large degree the effects of increasing inequality in the distribution of employee gross income. This was also established using the Kakwani index of progressivity. Increases in progressivity of the personal income tax came in leaps, mostly following the introduction of new income tax legislation.
Physical activity and exercise in obstructive sleep apnea

Abstract Objectives: In the last decade significant research has focused on the relationship between physical activity (PA), exercise and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The purpose of this study is to provide an overview and interpretation of different studies regarding this subject. Methods: PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched for English articles published before August 21, 2017. Search terms were ‘Sleep Apnea, Obstructive’ and ‘Exercise’. Results: Low levels of PA are associated with higher odds of OSA. A negative correlation between PA level and OSA severity is shown, even after adjusting for baseline differences. OSA also impairs the aerobic exercise capacity significantly. OSA patients have a poor hemodynamic response to exercise, which is related to OSA severity. Findings on the influence of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on PA in OSA are inconsistent in terms of statistical significance. A regular and predominantly aerobic exercise training significantly reduces OSA severity, even without a significant decrease in body weight. Conclusion: The available evidence suggests that further research is necessary to explore the relationships between PA, exercise and OSA and to examine the efficacy of exercise as alternative or additional treatment for OSA.
The Regional Environment and a Firm’s Innovative Performance: A Plea for a Multilevel Interactionist Approach

Abstract Following the recent critical debate on the role of the firm versus that of the region, this article contends that for a true test of the importance of the role of the region for a firm’s innovative performance firm-specific heterogeneity needs to be minimized. Empirical studies have tended to deduce that the region matters from the macrophenomenon of regional clusters of economic activity. This deduction has led to an ecological fallacy, in which global phenomena or data aggregates that are actual representations of lower-level phenomena cannot be generalized to those lower levels. This article argues that if researchers want to analyze how a firm’s environment affects its performance, they need to include firm-level strategy and structure. As an empirical illustration of this argument, the article presents a test—controlling for a number of firm-specific factors—of whether regional characteristics like the intensity of regional research and development (R&D), the number of R&D workers in the region, and the presence of a research institute are significantly related to a firm’s ability to produce innovations. The findings suggest that the firm-specific drivers of innovation are more important than is a firm’s regional environment. The article concludes that a renewed focus on the main actors and their interrelationships is needed, particularly those that involve the exchange of knowledge, to assess the extent to which such interactions are carried out within bounded territories.
A jump telegraph model for option pricing

In this paper we introduce a financial market model based on continuous time random motions with alternating constant velocities and jumps occurring when the velocities are switching. This model is free of arbitrage if jump directions are in a certain correspondence with the velocities of the underlying random motion. Replicating strategies for European options are constructed in detail. Exact formulae for option prices are derived.
Comparison of absolute CD4+ lymphocyte counts determined by enzyme immunoassay (TRAx CD4 test kit) and flow cytometry

Currently, CD4+ lymphocyte counts are one of the most widely used surrogate markers for monitoring disease progression in and initiating therapy for human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals. However, the process of obtaining lymphocyte subset counts can be complex and expensive, often rendering the test inaccessible to many patients. In contrast to standard laser-based flow cytometry, the TRAx CD4 Test Kit utilizes an enzyme-linked immunoassay format to provide CD4+ lymphocyte counts by a simple and more cost-effective means. In order to evaluate the utility of the TRAx CD4+ assay in comparison with flow cytometry, heparinized blood samples were drawn from 188 infected and uninfected adult patients and 24 infected pediatric patients and evaluated by both assays. The correlation coefficient for all adult individuals tested was 0.94, and the mean absolute counts (in cells per milliliter, +/- standard deviation) were 510 +/- 358 for TRAx and 480 +/- 361 for flow cytometry. The correlation for the pediatric group was 0.93, with mean absolute counts of 956 +/- 767 for TRAx and 1,521 +/-a 1,438 for flow cytometry. Overall the TRAx CD4 Test Kit performed well in comparison to flow cytometry, and its lower cost and ease of use make it an encouraging alternative for the routine determination of CD4+ lymphocyte counts.
Effects of local melatonin application on implant osseointegration.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to assess the effect of local melatonin administration on bone osseointegration around implants in rabbit tibiae. MATERIAL AND METHODS Ten female, 6-month-old New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group, where five rabbits were treated with local application of melatonin (3 mg) to implant sites when placed into the rabbit tibia, and the control group, those who where without additive materials. Four weeks later, animals were sacrificed; tibiae were dissected from soft tissues and fixed in buffered formaldehyde, and then included in methacrylate. Histological sections were performed to be studied under light microscopy and analyzed morphometrically to evaluate the amount of bone to implant contact (BIC), trabecular area density, and cortical area density. One-way analysis of variance test was used for statistical evaluation. p < . 05 was considered to be significant. RESULTS Histological evaluation showed more trabecular reaction in the melatonin group. Morphometrical analysis showed a statistically significant increase in trabecular BIC in the melatonin group when compared with the control group (24.61% ± 2.87 vs 13.62% ± 1.44; p < .01). Cortical BIC was decreased in the melatonin group, without statistical significance (71.08 ± 3.63 vs 76.28 ± 2.57; p = 0.31). Trabecular area density was increased significantly in the melatonin group (8.68 ± 1.61 vs 4.02 ± 0.36; p < .05). Cortical area density was decreased significantly in the melatonin group (91.31 ± 1.6 vs 95.7 ± 0.5; p < .05). CONCLUSION Within the limitation of this animal study, local melatonin application at the time of implant placement might induce more trabecular bone at implant contact and higher trabecular area density.
International Organizations and Government Killing: Does Naming and Shaming Save Lives?

Do international organizations affect government killing? Extant work has studied international organizations' effects on a set of human rights, but has not examined the abilities of specific actors to protect specific rights. I analyze naming and shaming by three types of international organizations (human rights nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], the news media, and the United Nations), focusing on their impacts on a single type of abuse: one-sided government killing. I present a principal-agent theory in which the government develops a preference for killing, and then delegates the murderous task to a set of individual perpetrators. The theory reveals new ways for international organizations to make killing costly, and statistical analyses support my expectations: By calling attention to abusive states, human rights NGOs and the United Nations can reduce both the likelihood and severity of state-sponsored murder. I also find that international organizations are better equipped to prevent killing from the beginning than to limit mounting body counts once it has begun.
Institutional Pressures as Sources of Improvisations: A Case Study from a Developing Country Context

Abstract This article applies concepts and ideas from institutional theory to study improvisations in IT and organizational change. Within the information systems (IS) discipline, IT and organizational change models have evolved from early teleological models to more dynamic models which consider the role of IT in organizational change as emergent based on improvisations. Improvisations are regarded as unexpected actions aimed at solving crises and/or exploiting opportunities. However, the sources of these crises or opportunities have not been adequately accounted for - leaving it a fruitful area for research. Applying institutional ideas, we suggest in this article that the sources of these crises/opportunities are the normative, mimetic and coercive prescriptions found within the institutional context of the organization. A major implication of applying institutional ideas to the study of improvisations is that the sources of improvisations are extended to include established norms of practice from within the environment of organizations.
A method of HIV‐1 inactivation compatible with antibody‐based depletion of abundant proteins from plasma

We have examined several methods, including heat treatment and treatment with detergents, to inactivate HIV‐1 present in plasma to be depleted of abundant proteins utilizing an antibody‐based technology. Treatment with Triton X‐100 was not compatible with abundant protein depletion with an antibody column and heat treatment alters the composition of the plasma proteome. However, treatment with 1.2% N‐octylglucoside for 5 min completely inhibited HIV‐1 infectivity. The detergent was easily removed through buffer exchange, and this treatment had no discernable effect on protein depletion.
Leaning Against the Wind: Debt Financing in the Face of Adversity

We offer evidence of a new stylized feature of corporate financing decisions: the tendency of managers to rely more on debt financing when earnings prospects are poor. We term this 'leaning against the wind' and consider three possible explanations: market timing, precautionary financing, and 'making the numbers'. We find no evidence in favor of the first two hypotheses, and provisionally accept the 'making the numbers' hypothesis that managers who are under pressure because of unrealistically optimistic earnings expectations by analysts and deteriorating real opportunities, will rely more heavily on debt financing to boost earnings per share and return on equity.
Tensorized Projection for High-Dimensional Binary Embedding

Embedding high-dimensional visual features (d-dimensional) to binary codes (b-dimensional) has shown advantages in various vision tasks such as object recognition and image retrieval. Meanwhile, recent works have demonstrated that to fully utilize the representation power of high-dimensional features, it is critical to encode them into long binary codes rather than short ones, i.e., b ~ O(d). However, generating long binary codes involves large projection matrix and high-dimensional matrix-vector multiplication, thus is memory and computationally intensive. To tackle these problems, we propose Tensorized Projection (TP) to decompose the projection matrix using Tensor-Train (TT) format, which is a chain-like representation that allows to operate tensor in an efficient manner. As a result, TP can drastically reduce the computational complexity and memory cost. Moreover, by using the TT-format, TP can regulate the projection matrix against the risk of over-fitting, consequently, lead to better performance than using either dense projection matrix (like ITQ) or sparse projection matrix. Experimental comparisons with state-of-the-art methods over various visual tasks demonstrate both the efficiency and performance ad- vantages of our proposed TP, especially when generating high dimensional binary codes, e.g., when b ≥ d.
Low fertility: unifying the theory and the demography

The market is very short-term and favors flexible, childless people averse to risk, while the private world of the family requires them to be self-sacrificing and prepared to accept risks. These two areas which some still consider to be separate attest to the old division of labor between men and women. The reinforcement of the male breadwinner model of the family is not the solution to the dilemma that we now face in maintaining social reproduction in combination with a free-market approach to production. What is required is no less than a new social contract asserting that children are a social good and not merely a private, optional pleasure. The new social contract also must be one based on gender equity.
Research Issues at the Boundary of Competitive Dynamics and Market Evolution

Building on the observation that competitive dynamics and market evolution are inextricably linked and underresearched, we propose a road map to guide and stimulate future research in the area. A number of rationales have been proposed to explain why there is relatively little research directed toward understanding the links between competitive dynamics and market evolution; these include the predominance of different research paradigms in each area, a lack of data appropriate for analyzing the two areas together, and the difficulty of obtaining robust and significant results with analysis that is by definition complex (it must consider factors and outcomes both across firms and over time). Using this last rationale as a starting point, we develop a series of research propositions related to key relationships where (a) insignificant or contradictory results have been obtained (in extant research) or (b) researchers have yet to delve. The propositions are designed to deepen our understanding of the relationship between the areas. Throughout the analysis, the key to developing the propositions is to recognize the importance of moderating factors, mediating factors, and covariates. In addition, where the approach to empirically test a proposition is new, we propose categories, measures, and comparisons that can be used.
Vitamin B6 treatment for tardive dyskinesia: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

BACKGROUND Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a significant clinical problem. Vitamin B(6) is a potent antioxidant and takes part in almost all of the possible mechanisms that are suggested as being associated with appearance of TD. The aims of this study were (1) to reexamine the efficacy and safety of higher doses of vitamin B(6) versus placebo in a greater sample of patients for a longer time and (2) to evaluate the carryover effect of vitamin B(6). METHOD A 26-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in a university-based research clinic from August 2002 to January 2005 on 50 inpatients with DSM-IV diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and TD. In a double-blind crossover paradigm, all study subjects were randomly assigned to start treatment with either vitamin B(6) (daily dose of 1200 mg) or placebo. After 12 weeks of treatment and then a 2-week washout, subjects were crossed over to receive the other treatment for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the change from baseline in Extra-pyramidal Symptom Rating Scale (ESRS) scores. RESULTS The mean decrease in ESRS clinical global impression scores from baseline to endpoint was 2.4 points in patients treated with vitamin B(6) and 0.2 points in patients treated with placebo (p < .0001). The mean decrease in the parkinsonism subscale score was 18.5 points and 1.4 points, respectively (p < .00001), and the mean decrease in the dyskinesia subscale score was 5.2 points and -0.8 points, respectively (p < .0001). CONCLUSION Vitamin B(6) appears to be effective in reducing symptoms of TD. The specific mechanisms by which vitamin B(6) attenuates symptoms of TD are not clear.
Pathogenic variants in the ABCC6 gene are associated with an increased risk for ischemic stroke

Ischemic stroke causes a high mortality and morbidity worldwide. It results from a complex interplay of incompletely known environmental and genetic risk factors. We investigated the ABCC6 gene as a candidate risk factor for ischemic stroke because of the increased ischemic stroke incidence in the autosomal recessive disorder pseudoxanthoma elasticum, caused by biallelic pathogenic ABCC6 variants, the higher cardiovascular risk in heterozygous carriers and the established role of ABCC6 dysfunction in myocardial ischemia. We established segregation of a known pathogenic ABCC6 variant (p.[Arg1314Gln]) in 11/19 family members of an ischemic stroke patient in a large multigenerational family suffering from ischemic stroke and/or cardiovascular disease at a relatively young age. In an independent case‐control study in 424 ischemic stroke patients and 250 healthy controls, pathogenic ABCC6 variants were 4.9 times more frequent (P = 0.036; 95% CI 1.11–21.33) in the ischemic stroke patient cohort. To study cellular consequences of ABCC6 deficiency in the brain, immunostaining of brain sections in Abcc6‐deficient mice and wild‐type controls were performed. An upregulation of Bmp4 and Eng and a downregulation of Alk2 was identified in Abcc6−/− mice, suggesting an increase in apoptosis and angiogenesis. As both of these processes are induced in ischemia, we propose that a pro‐ischemic state may explain the higher risk to suffer from ischemic stroke in patients carrying a pathogenic ABCC6 variant, as this may lower the threshold to develop acute ischemic events in these patients. In conclusion, this study identified heterozygous ABCC6 variants as a risk factor for ischemic stroke. Further, dysregulation of Bmp (Bmp4, Alk2) and Tgfβ (Eng) signaling in the brain of Abcc6−/− mice could lead to a pro‐ischemic state, lowering the threshold to develop acute ischemic events. These data demonstrate the importance of a molecular analysis of the ABCC6 gene in patients diagnosed with cryptogenic ischemic stroke.