Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cancer risk in HFE C282Y homozygotes: results from the HUNT 2 study

Abstract Objective. In addition to hepatocellular cancer, HFE C282Y homozygotes are reported to have increased risk of colorectal cancer and breast cancer. This study was done to further explore the cancer risk in C282Y homozygotes. Material and methods. We studied cancer incidence in 292 homozygotes and 62,568 others that participated in the HUNT 2 population screening in 1995–1997. Using Cox proportional hazard models, we estimated cancer hazard ratio as a function of C282Y homozygosity and several screening variables including serum transferrin saturation, alcohol consumption and daily smoking. Results. Cancer was diagnosed in 36 homozygotes, five of which had two cancer diagnoses. The overall cancer incidence was not increased in C282Y homozygotes (hazard ratio 1.10 [95% CI 0.60–2.03] in women and 0.94 [95% CI 0.53–1.66] in men). However, homozygous men had increased risk of colorectal cancer (hazard ratio 3.03 [95% CI 1.17–7.82], p = 0.022) and primary liver cancer (hazard ratio 54.0 [95% CI 2.68–1089], p = 0.009). The risk of breast cancer in homozygous women was not increased (hazard ratio 1.13 [95% CI 0.35–3.72]). Adjusted for other variables including C282Y homozygosity, very low and very high serum transferrin saturation were associated with increased overall cancer incidence. Conclusions. C282Y homozygosity is associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer and hepatocellular cancer in men. In the general population, individuals with a very low or a very high serum transferrin saturation may have increased cancer risk.
The length of a tetranucleotide repeat tract in Haemophilus influenzae determines the phase variation rate of a gene with homology to type III DNA methyltransferases

Haemophilus influenzae is an obligate commensal of the upper respiratory tract of humans that uses simple repeats (microsatellites) to alter gene expression. The mod gene of H. influenzae strain Rd has homology to DNA methyltransferases of type III restriction/modification systems and has 40 tetranucleotide (5′‐AGTC) repeats within its open reading frame. This gene was found in 21 out of 23 genetically distinct H. influenzae strains, and in 13 of these strains the locus contained repeats. H. influenzae strains were constructed in which a lacZ reporter was fused to a chromosomal copy of mod downstream of the repeats. Phase variation occurred at a high frequency in strains with the wild‐type number of repeats. Mutation rates were derived for similarly engineered strains, containing different numbers of repeats. Rates increased linearly with tract length over the range 17–38 repeat units. The majority of tract alterations were insertions or deletions of one repeat unit with a 2:1 bias towards contractions of the tract. These results demonstrate the number of repeats to be an important determinant of phase variation rate in H. influenzae for a gene containing a microsatellite.
Staying on Top: Why is Munich so Resilient and Successful?

Abstract This article seeks to explain why Munich, Germany's most economically successful city in recent decades, has proved so resilient despite various challenges and shocks. It begins by discussing different theoretical understandings of resilience and our methodological approach which builds on complex adaptive systems and evolutionary economic geography perspectives. Using a blend of historical analysis and in-depth investigation of the dynamics of one of the city's most innovative clusters, we argue that Munich's resilience essentially stems from the complex interplay of Germany's distinctive political history and federal system, which has promoted multi-level governance and a strong urban system, longstanding city regional leadership and entrepreneurialism, Munich's inherent assets and diverse economy and the combined strength of its many knowledge institutions, innovation system and networks. The evidence suggests that historic, structural and locational factors and agglomeration effects largely explain Munich's rise to prominence but that sustained urban and regional leadership and effective governance and policy especially in the technological, scientific and educational spheres coupled with intelligent urban planning have played an increasingly important role in sustaining its competitiveness.
Habit Formation in Consumer Preferences: Evidence from Panel Data

This paper tests for the presence of habit formation using household data. A simple model of habit formation implies a condition relating the strength of habits to the evolution of consumption over time. When the condition is estimated with food consumption data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID), the results yield no evidence of habit formation at the annual frequency. This finding is robust to a number of changes in the specification. It also holds for several proxies for nondurables and services consumption created by combining PSID variables with weights estimated from Consumer Expenditure Survey data.
Postnatal Craniofacial Skeletal Development of Female C57BL/6NCrl Mice

The craniofacial skeleton is a complex and unique structure. The perturbation of its development can lead to craniofacial dysmorphology and associated morbidities. Our ability to prevent or mitigate craniofacial skeletal anomalies is at least partly dependent on our understanding of the unique physiological development of the craniofacial skeleton. Mouse models are critical tools for the study of craniofacial developmental abnormalities. However, there is a lack of detailed normative data of mouse craniofacial skeletal development in the literature. In this report, we employed high-resolution micro-computed tomography (μCT) in combination with morphometric measurements to analyze the postnatal craniofacial skeletal development from day 7 (P7) through day 390 (P390) of female C57BL/6NCrl mice, a widely used mouse strain. Our data demonstrates a unique craniofacial skeletal development pattern in female C57BL/6NCrl mice, and differentiates the early vs. late craniofacial growth patterns. Additionally, our data documents the complex and differential changes in bone parameters (thickness, bone volume, bone volume/tissue volume, bone mineral density, and tissue mineral density) of various craniofacial bones with different embryonic origins and ossification mechanisms during postnatal growth, which underscores the complexity of craniofacial bone development and provides a reference standard for future quantitative analysis of craniofacial bones.
Two-warehouse inventory model for deteriorating items with imperfect quality under the conditions of permissible delay in payments

Regularly, manufacturing systems produce perfect and imperfect quality items. The perfect items start deteriorating as soon as these enter to the inventory. On the other hand, the suppliers provide a delay in payment in order to motivate their buyers to purchase more products. This paper develops a two-warehouse inventory model that considers jointly the imperfect quality items, deterioration and one level of trade credit. The proposed inventory model optimizes the order quantity to maximize the total profit per unit time. Finally, the proposed inventory model and its solution procedure are validated with numerical examples and a sensitivity analysis is done to show how inventory model reacts to changes in parameters.
The Effect of Private Antitrust Litigation on the Stock-Market Valuation of the Firm

The authors study the implications for shareholder wealth of interfirm antitrust litigation and how the costs of the dispute affect the propensity to settle. Upon filing, defendants experience significant wealth losses that are ten million dollars larger than the wealth gains of plaintiffs. Financial distress, behavioral constraints, and follow-on suits are sources of wealth leakage and influence settlement behavior. Since the threat of a monetary transfer has little power to explain either wealth effects or the likelihood of settlement, the central concern of defendants may be the potential prohibition of profitable business practices. Copyright 1995 by American Economic Association.
Unionization and Profitability: Evidence from the Capital Market

This paper examines the effect of unionization on the profitability of firms. Abnormal monthly common stock returns for a sample of 253 NYSE-listed firms are estimated for the month in which the union petitions for an election and for the month in which the National Labor Relations Board certifies the election outcome. The results suggest that unionization, on average, is associated with a reduction in equity value. When unions win an election, the average loss associated with the unionization drive is 3.8 percent of equity value. When unions lose an election, there is an average net reduction of 1.3 percent in the equity value of the firm.
A Normalized Citation Analysis of Real Estate Journals

This study presents an analysis of the citation patterns and rankings for journals in real estate and related areas for the period 1990-1995. Journals were ranked based on the number of times the journals were cited in four base journals with adjustments for journal size and longevity. The results show that Real Estate Economics is the most cited journal among real estate publications followed closely by the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics and The Journal of Real Estate Research. A temporal analysis reveals a shift over the time period in citations away from the traditional economics and practitioner-oriented journals to the academic real estate journals.
Gibt es Hinweise auf zunehmende Ungleichheit der Alterseinkünfte und zunehmende Altersarmut? Der Einfluss von Erwerbs- und Familienbiographien auf die Rentenhöhe in Deutschland

This article deals with different dimensions of inequality in the life course. It examines retrospectively how individual possibilities to participate in the labour market have developed. An analysis of the individual wages hints at wage inequalities and possible effects of discrimination. Family biographies constitute an additional dimension. It will be examined how these three dimensions act together in determining the individual amounts of public pensions and their inequality in Germany. The empirical analyses are based on the anonymised scientific use file of the so-called "Rentenzugangsstatistik" 2003 which can be obtained by scientists through the "Forschungsdatenzentrum der Rentenversicherung". The findings are supplemented with results from the survey "Alterssicherung in Deutschland 2003". It will be shown that apart from women in Western Germany pensioners today predominantly receive old age incomes above the welfare level ("Grundsicherungsniveau"). However, regarding the recent pension reforms and especially the labour market situation there are also hints that these circumstances will change. Der Beitrag behandelt verschiedene Dimensionen der Ungleichheit im Lebensverlauf. Es wird untersucht, wie sich die Teilhabemoglichkeiten am Arbeitsmarkt in retrospektiver Betrachtung entwickelt haben. Weitere Analysen der jeweiligen Entlohnung geben Hinweise auf die Lohnspreizung und mogliche Diskriminierungseffekte. Eine zusatzliche Dimension bildet die jeweilige Familienphase. Untersucht wird das Zusammenwirken der drei Dimensionen im Hinblick auf die Hohe und Ungleichheit der gesetzlichen Renten. Empirische Basis dieser Analysen ist zum einen das faktisch anonymisierte Scientific Use File der Rentenzugangsstatistik 2003, welches das Forschungsdatenzentrum der Rentenversicherung der Wissenschaft auf Antrag zur Verfugung stellt. Zum anderen werden diese Befunde um Ergebnisse aus der Erhebung Alterssicherung in Deutschland 2003 (ASID 03) erganzt. Es zeigt sich, dass heutige Rentner - abgesehen von Frauen in den alten Bundeslandern - uberwiegend Alterseinkunfte jenseits des Grundsicherungsniveaus erhalten. Allerdings finden sich auch Hinweise darauf, dass sich diese Verhaltnisse vor dem Hintergrund der jungsten Rentenreformen und vor allem der Probleme auf dem Arbeitsmarkt andern werden.
Bayesian Bootstrap of the Quantile Regression Estimator--A Large Sample Study

The large sample property of the Bayesian bootstrap distribution of the quantile regression estimator is investigated. When the pair of dependent and independent variables are resampled, the Bayesian bootstrap is shown to converge weakly in probability to the limiting distribution of the quantile regression estimator. The Bayesian bootstrap thus has the same asymptotic distribution as the Frequentist bootstrap. In addition, the median of the Bayesian bootstrap distribution has the same asymptotic distribution as the quantile regression estimator. Copyright 1997 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.
Enhancement of Service Quality with Job Standardisation

This empirical study examines the relationship between job standardisation and service quality. Data used herein comes from service contact-employees and customers at 105 branches of 35 service-oriented firms in Taiwan. Results obtained from three different levels of data, i.e. service contact-employees, customers and branches, indicate that job standardisation is positively related to the perception of service quality. This finding corresponds to a conceptual model of service quality developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985:45. In addition, we speculate that service contact-employees meet with situations involving task uncertainty that moderate the relation between job standardisation and service quality as perceived by customers; however, this hypothesis is not supported by our empirical results. Furthermore, results of this study indicate that customers who are unacquainted with a service or product believe job standardisation influences.
Family Control in Listed Corporations - A Review of the Literature

This monograph reviews 76 published empirical studies in relation to listed family corporations. Existing empirical evidence shows that a substantial proportion of listed corporations around the world are classified as family firms. Family shareholders are characterized as large, undiversified and with long-term investment horizons. These unique attributes are expected to have significant impacts on corporate behaviors. This monograph reviews the impact of family control on firm performance; financing and investment; corporate disclosures; corporate governance; and various socio-economic issues. Limitations of existing empirical studies and future research directions are provided.
Long-term outcome of drug-eluting stenting for stenoses of the intracranial vertebrobasilar artery and vertebral ostium

Object Patients with symptomatic atherosclerotic stenosis of the intracranial vertebrobasilar artery (VBA) have a poor prognosis, and those with coexistent intracranial and extracranial stenoses have worse outcomes despite medical therapy. A study was undertaken to investigate the long-term outcome and restenosis rates of patients with symptomatic atherosclerotic stenoses at the intracranial VBA and the vertebral artery ostium (VAO) after drug-eluting stent (DES) placement. Methods From July 2004 to July 2008, 24 consecutive patients (mean age 65 years) with this condition underwent DES placement. Technical success was defined as stent placement of both the VAO and intracranial VBA stenoses with complete stent coverage of the lesions and residual stenosis of ≤30%. The study end point was a composite of stroke or death within 30 days and ischemic stroke in the VBA territory after 30 days. Results Technical success was obtained in all patients without any stroke or death within 30 days. During a median follow-up duration of 35 months, recurrent in-stent restenosis developed in two cases (10%) at 12-month follow-up. These two patients were free from stroke recurrence. Thus, the annual stroke rate in the VBA territory (including any stroke or death within 30 days) was 0. Conclusions This pilot study confirms that DES placement for patients with symptomatic atherosclerotic stenoses at the intracranial VBA and VAO has an acceptable long-term outcome and may be considered as an alternative to medical therapy.
Predicting Sales from the Language of Product Descriptions

What can a business say to attract customers? E-commerce vendors frequently sell the same items but use different marketing strategies to present their goods. Understanding consumer responses to this heterogeneous landscape of information is important both as business intelligence and, more broadly, a window into consumer attitudes. When studying consumer behavior, the existing literature is primarily concerned with product reviews. In this paper we posit that textual product descriptions are also important determinants of consumer choice. We mine 90,000+ product descriptions on the Japanese e-commerce marketplace Rakuten and identify actionable writing styles and word usages that are highly predictive of consumer purchasing behavior. In the process, we observe the inadequacies of traditional feature extraction algorithms, namely their inability to control for the implicit effects of confounds like brand loyalty and pricing strategies. To circumvent this problem, we propose a novel neural network architecture that leverages an adversarial objective to control for confounding factors, and attentional scores over its input to automatically elicit textual features as a domain-specific lexicon. We show that these textual features can predict the sales of each product, and investigate the narratives highlighted by these words. Our results suggest that appeals to authority, polite language, and mentions of informative and seasonal language win over the most customers.
A Within‐Sample Investigation of Test–Retest Reliability in Choice Experiment Surveys with Real Economic Incentives

type="main" xml:id="ajar12067-abs-0001"> In this paper, we investigate the level of agreement between respondents' choices in identical choice sets in a test–retest choice experiment for a market good with real economic incentives, thus investigating whether the incentivised CE method can be reliable and stable over time. Besides comparing choices, we also test for differences in preferences and error variance when a sample of respondents is given the exact same questionnaire twice, with a time lag of 2 weeks in between. Finally, we examine potential reasons and covariates explaining the level of agreement in choices across the 2 weeks. Across four different tests, we find very good agreement between the two choice experiments – both with respect to overall choices and with respect to preferences. Furthermore, error variances do not differ significantly between the two surveys. The results also show that the larger the utility difference in a choice task, the larger the probability that the respondent will choose the same alternative in the retest. Moreover, the results show that the longer time respondents take to answer the 12 choice sets in the retest, the lower the probability that the respondent will choose the same alternatives in the retest as they did in the test.
Analyst Industry Diversification and Earnings Forecast Accuracy

This study of the effects of both number of business segments followed by an analyst and analyst industry diversification on individual analyst earnings forecast accuracy applies a new measure of an analyst's diversification. The measure uses a combination of the number of two-digit SIC code business segments reported by the company and the number of two-digit SIC code business segments followed by the individual analyst to calculate an analyst's diversification measure for each analyst-company combination. The analysis indicates that as an analyst follows more business segments and a greater diversification of industry, his earnings forecasts are significantly less accurate. These results have implications for researchers who use analyst earnings forecasts in studies; investors who use forecasts for company valuation; and brokerage firms in evaluating individual analysts and assigning analysts to companies.
Developing logistics competencies through third party logistics relationships

This paper considers third party logistics (TPL) from a resource and competence perspective. New competencies are developed in the relationship between the shipper and the TPL provider. A typology of TPL relationships is developed going from market exchanges to joint logistics solutions. Here, the article will concentrate on the highest level – joint logistics solutions. The theoretical grounding of competence development will be outlined. Two case examples will illustrate the learning process in TPL arrangements. Finally, the article will discuss managerial implications and implications for future research in TPL.
Monetary Integration and Real Estate Markets: The Impact of Euro on European Real Estate Equities

This paper assesses the impact of the monetary integration project on different types of stock returns in Europe. In order to isolate European monetary factors, the impact of global equity integration is investigated. European countries are sub‐divided according to the differences in the timing and degree of monetary integration. Analysis shows that national equity indices are strongly influenced by global market movements, with a European stock factor providing additional explanatory power. The global and European factors explain small cap and real estate stocks much less well – suggesting an increased importance of local and national drivers. However, there is little evidence to suggest that monetary integration is causing the phenomenon. For all sectors investigated, the European factor affects non‐Eurozone members and non‐EU members in the same way as Eurozone members. Further, the importance of global and European factors has almost invariably increased over time. For real estate equities, the largest increase in correlation was for non‐Eurozone and non‐European Union markets. One possible interpretation is that broader regional economic integration rather than more narrow monetary integration is driving the European factor.
Globalization and Labour-Market Adjustment: How Fast and at What Cost?

In this paper we argue that the flexibility of an economy's labour market plays a role in determining the gains from trade liberalization, the level of short-run adjustment costs, and the relative value of these two measures. To do so, we describe the model introduced in Davidson and Matusz (2000) which allows us to solve for adjustment costs when workers vary according to ability and jobs differ in terms of the skills that they require. We then report results based on simulations of this model. We find that economies with sluggish labour markets have the least to gain from liberalization. The reason is that while the removal of trade barriers creates large benefits, they are almost completely offset by large short-run adjustment costs. In contrast, we find that with either very flexible or very slothful labour market gains from liberalization are always significantly larger than the short-run adjustment costs. Copyright 2000 by Oxford University Press.