Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Post-traumatic Growth among Cardiac Outpatients

This study evaluated the sociodemographic, clinical and behavioral correlates of post-traumatic growth (PTG) in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, and the degree of PTG compared to other patient groups. Using a prospective design, 1497 CAD outpatients completed a survey assessing potential PTG correlates. A total of 1268 responded to a nine-month follow-up survey assessing PTG. Significant PTG correlates were being younger, non-white, having lower income, functional status, and depressive symptoms, greater social support, and positive illness perceptions. The degree of PTG was equivalent to that of cardiac patients in other countries, but was lower than that of breast cancer and multiple sclerosis patients.
Potential of MREIT conductivity imaging to detect breast cancer: Experimental and numerical simulation studies

The conductivity values of cancerous tissues in the breast are significantly higher than those of surrounding normal tissues. Breast imaging using MREIT (Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography) may provide a new noninvasive way of detecting breast cancer in its early stage. In breast MREIT, the conductivity image quality highly depends on the amount of injected currents assuming a certain signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of an MRI scanner. The injected current should not produce any significant adverse effect especially on the nerve conduction system of the heart and still distinguish a small cancerous anomaly inside the breast. In this paper, we present results of experimental and numerical simulation studies of breast MREIT. From breast phantom experiments, we evaluated practical amounts of noise in measured magnetic flux density data. We built a realistic three-dimensional model of the human breast connected to a simplified model of the chest including the heart. We performed numerical simulations of various scenarios in breast MREIT including different amplitudes of injected currents and predicted SNRs of MR images related with imaging parameters. Simulation results are promising to show that we may detect a cancerous anomaly in the breast while restricting the maximal current density inside the heart below a level of nerve excitation.
Platform pricing with endogenous network effects

This paper examines a monopoly platform’s two-sided pricing strategy through modeling the trades between the participating sellers and buyers. In this approach, the network effects emerge endogenously through the equilibrium trading strategies of the two sides. We show that platform pricing depends crucially on the characteristics associated with market liquidity, including both sides’ entry costs, the buyers’ preferences, and the distribution of the sellers’ quality. The platform may subsidize sellers if the market is sufficiently liquid, whereas buyer subsidy can be optimal given an illiquid market. We also illustrate the impact of the sellers’ quality heterogeneity on the platform’s optimal fees and the two sides’ entry scales. These findings provide guidance for platform pricing based on specific market and user characteristics, which are directly applicable to managerial decisions and deepen theoretical understanding of two-sided platforms.
On the Validity of the Augmented Fama-French Four-Factor Model

This study investigates the performance of four-factor asset pricing model using Hong Kong stock returns. Our four-factor model is constructed by adding a momentum facgtor into the Fama and French's (1993) three-factor model. We find that the four-factor model does well in explaining return variation using Hong Kong data. Our results show evidence that all the four factors are significant in the model and intercepts are not significant. In addition, the reasonably high values of adjusted R squared and the insignificance of an additional explanatory variable of residula standard deviation provide supportive evidence to the model. The robustness of the model is also checked for two effects: up- and down-market conditions and seasonal behavior.
Role of Vasopressin in Aggressive and Dominant/Subordinate Behaviors

One of the basic principles of adaptive behavior is the establishment and maintenance of dominance hierarchies. Mate choice, access to food, population number, and territorial dispersion are all influenced by social status. Evidence suggests that hamsters establish a social hierarchy by fighting. Following the initial phase of overt aggression, hamsters communicate their dominant and subordinate status, thereby lessening the likelihood of a potentially harmful encounter. One of the most commonly employed forms of communication is the transmission of olfactory signals3 The golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) has specialized scent glands on its dorsolateral flanks that are used for olfactory-based communication with conspecifics.M The scents from these flank glands are spread around the environment by a stereotypic motor behavior called flank marking. ’ Hamsters flank mark by arching the back, raising the tail, and vigorously rubbing the flank gland region against objects in the environment. In a laboratory setting, hamsters can be stimulated to flank mark in response to odors of a conspecific, for example, by placing a hamster into the recently vacated home cage of another ham~te r . ~ In this situation, the intruder initially sniffs and digs through the bedding and, within minutes, starts to flank mark the sides and comers of the resident’s cage. While hamsters will flank mark in response to the scent of another hamster, the incidence of this behavior is greatly increased during social interactions, particularly paired aggressive encounters between conspecifics. ”8 It had been noted that the frequency of flank marking is highest among dominant animals, leading to the notion that flank marking may function to communicate social ~ t a t u s . ~ ~ To test this hypothesis, we examined the aggression and flank marking in pairs of male hamsters with intact flank glands, and when one or both members of a pair had their flank glands removed.6 If hamsters flank mark to communicate social status, then how would they behave if they were “mute,” that is, flank glandectomized? Pairs of male hamsters with intact flank glands, matched together in a neutral arena for short periods of time over several consecutive days establish dominanthbordinate relationships. The social status of each combatant would appear to be determined by the level of overt aggression during the initial encounters. Once the social status is determined, the level of overt aggression declines with each subsequent encounter, while the level of flank marking by each
Rural Household Labour Demand, Contract Choice, Hoarding Cost and Poverty: Evidence from Western Kenya

This study determines the factors that influenced contract choice, labour demand and examines the existence of labour hoarding practice in Western region of Kenya. Data from Egerton University’s Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development was used for the analysis. A two step Heckman model was employed to estimate the extent of engagement in daily and semi-permanent contracts conditional on choice of contract. Results from the study show that casual and semi-permanent contracts are substitutes. Family labour negatively influences engagement in daily and semi-permanent contracts hence it is a substitute to the two forms of the contracts. Increase in wages paid to casual contracts is negative and significant to the extent of daily contract engagement but positive and significant to semi-permanent contracts supporting the substitutability of daily contracts for semi-permanent contracts. Methods and costs of farm preparation are significant in influencing the choice and demand for any type of contracts. The proxy variable for hoarding costs is significant and positive indicating that there are hoarding costs incurred in the maintaining a steady pool of labour within the farm. From the results the relatively asset poor farmers engage in the wage high daily contracts to avoid incurring hoarding costs as indicated by the dummy denoting poverty level. However, to avoid uncertainty during peak periods semi-permanent contracts are highly employed by the asset poor farmers. From the results, farmers willing to minimize hoarding costs may find themselves substituting family labour for daily contracts or in absence of family labour, semi-permanent contracts for daily contracts.
Clinical spectrum of hypopituitarism in India: A single center experience

Objectives: There is paucity of information regarding clinical profile of hypopituitarism from India. We report the clinical profile of hypopituitarism from a tertiary center in North India. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out in patients attending our endocrine center between January 2010 and December 2011. All new patients were studied prospectively and those registered before January 2010 retrospectively. Relevant clinical, hormonal, and imaging data were collected. Dynamic testing for pituitary functions was carried out as necessary. Hormonal deficiencies were defined as per prevailing recommendations. Results: This study included 113 subjects. The mean age was 38.6 ± 17.8 years (range, 4 – 76 years). There were 78 (69%) males and 35 females (31%). There were 22 subjects aged ≤18 years (childhood and adolescence) and 91 adults (>18 years). Visual disturbances were the most common presenting complaint (33%), though headache was the most common symptom (81%). Fifteen percent presented with pituitary apoplexy. Tumors comprised of 84% of cases. Hypogonadism (97%) was the most common abnormality seen followed by hypothyroidism (83.2%), hypoadrenalism (79.6%), growth hormone deficiency (88.1% of the 42 patients tested), and diabetes insipidus (13.3%). Panhypopituitarism was seen in 104 (92%) patients. There were no cases of hypopituitarism secondary to traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, central nervous system infections, or cranial irradiation to extrasellar tumors. Conclusion: The most common cause of hypopituitarism at tertiary care center is pituitary tumors and the commonest presenting complaint is visual symptoms. Panhypopituitarism is present in 92% cases.
Forward Looking Price Setting in UK Manufacturing

Given an equilibrium pricing rule, minimization of a multiperiod quadratic cost function yields a precise specification for the weights on the leads and lags of a dynamic pricing equation. Using an equilibrium (cointegrating) vector, the theoretical specification is found to fit the U.K. manufacturing data remarkably well. Non-nested tests fail to reject either the (backward looking) error correction or the forward looking model against the alternative (so long as dynamic homogeneity is imposed in the error correction model). This is consistent with the notion that the error correction model is conflating the true structural model (which is forward looking) with the expectation formation process. Copyright 1992 by Royal Economic Society.
Does the Mission of Providers Matter on a Quasi-Market? The Case of the Belgian ‘Service Voucher’ Scheme

In 2001, the Belgian government introduced a 'service voucher' scheme in the field of domestic (housework) services, following a quasi-market mechanism which fosters competition between providers of different types as regards sector (for-profit, public, third sector) and mission (seeking profits, home care provision to vulnerable groups and work integration of the unemployed). Empirical evidence suggests that third sector organizations focusing on a social mission recognized by a tutelary regulation are the best performing with regards to the quality of jobs and service organization, leading to a better 'triangulation' of the service relationship. On the other hand, for-profit providers, especially temporary work agencies, seem to favour their capacity of adaptation to the desiderata of their clients and costs' minimization to the detriment of the quality of jobs which are made as flexible as possible. Copyright © 2010 The Authors Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics © 2010 CIRIEC.
The Effect of Employer-Sponsored Education on Job Mobility: Evidence from the U.S. Navy

We examined the impact of employer-sponsored part-time college education on job mobility, using the case of the Tuition Assistance (TA) program of the U.S. Navy. We used two modeling approaches - a bivariate probit model of job mobility and TA usage that accounts for the endogeneity of TA usage, and a propensity score model. The results from both models showed that TA usage significantly decreases the probability of staying in the Navy.
Characterization of the A2B Adenosine Receptor from Mouse, Rabbit, and Dog

We have cloned and pharmacologically characterized the A2B adenosine receptor (AR) from the dog, rabbit, and mouse. The full coding regions of the dog and mouse A2BAR were obtained by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and the rabbit A2BAR cDNA was obtained by screening a rabbit brain cDNA library. It is noteworthy that an additional clone was isolated by library screening that was identical in sequence to the full-length rabbit A2BAR, with the exception of a 27-base pair deletion in the region encoding amino acids 103 to 111 (A2BAR103-111). This 9 amino acid deletion is located in the second intracellular loop at the only known splice junction of the A2BAR and seems to result from the use of an additional 5′ donor site found in the rabbit and dog but not in the human, rat, or mouse sequences. [3H]3-Isobutyl-8-pyrrolidinoxanthine and 8-[4-[((4-cyano-[2,6-3H]-phenyl)carbamoylmethyl)oxy]phenyl]-1,3-di(n-propyl)xanthine ([3H]MRS 1754) bound with high affinity to membranes prepared from human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells expressing mouse, rabbit, and dog A2BARs. Competition binding studies performed with a panel of agonist (adenosine and 2-amino-3,5-dicyano-4-phenylpyridine analogs) and antagonist ligands identified similar potency orders for the A2BAR orthologs, although most xanthine antagonists displayed lower binding affinity for the dog A2BAR compared with A2BARs from rabbit and mouse. No specific binding could be detected with membranes prepared from HEK 293 cells expressing the rabbit A2BAR103-111 variant. Furthermore, the variant failed to stimulate adenylyl cyclase or calcium mobilization. We conclude that significant differences in antagonist pharmacology of the A2BAR exist between species and that some species express nonfunctional variants of the A2BAR due to “leaky” splicing.
Evolution of Risks for Energy Companies from the Energy Efficiency Perspective: The Brazilian Case

This study aims to evaluate whether energy savings from energy efficiency programs in Brazil affected the risks taken by energy companies during the period 2000-2013, based on the following research question: can we assume that energy conservation programs affect return risks to electrical energy companies? The results obtained through risk assessment models, exponentially weighted moving averages, and the capital asset pricing model indicated that during periods of crisis, both volatility and required returns were higher, but during less difficult periods, risks taken were significantly reduced. Further, as research contribution, this research suggests the elimination the affirmative hypothesis that a possible increase in energy efficiency affects the risks taken by electrical energy companies.
Towards evolvable software architectures based on systems theoretic stability

In today's increasingly volatile environments, evolvability is quickly becoming the most desirable characteristic of information systems. Current information systems still struggle to provide these high levels of evolvability. Based on the concept of stability from systems theory, we require that information systems should be stable with respect to a set of anticipated changes in order to exhibit high evolvability. This requires that information systems should be free from so‐called combinatorial effects. Combinatorial effects occur when the impact of a change is dependent on the size of the information system. To eliminate these combinatorial effects, we propose four theorems that are constraints on the modular structure of software architectures. The theorems are prescriptive and ensure that stable information systems are built, thereby guaranteeing high evolvability. We further present five higher level modular structures called elements. These elements provide the core functionality of information systems and comply fully with the stringent constraints implied by the four theorems. The internal structure of these elements is described by design patterns which are eligible for automatic code generation. These design patterns offer a constructive proof that it is possible to build information systems in practice by applying this set of theorems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
iTE: Student Teachers using iPad on a Second Level Initial Teacher Education Programme

Research on the use of iPad in initial teacher education is limited. This paper outlines a study to examine how the professional learning and pedagogical knowledge development of student teachers could be supported following 1:1 iPad deployment on a second level initial teacher education programme in Ireland. Findings show that iPad can be utilised both as an effective pedagogical tool and as a medium for the creation of new learning spaces where student teachers' professional and pedagogical knowledge development is supported through feedback, peer-learning, resource sharing and critical reflection. Creating resources with and for iPad as part of a collaborative design process can also support student teachers in developing and integrating technological, pedagogical and content knowledge TPACK within their approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. Implications for initial teacher education providers and the integration of technology within schools are outlined.
Predictability in Hedge Fund Returns (corrected)

A significant amount of research has been devoted to the predictability of traditional asset classes, but little is known about the predictability of returns emanating from alternative vehicles, such as hedge funds. We attempt to fill this gap by documenting evidence of predictability in hedge fund returns. Using multifactor models for the return on nine hedge fund indexes, for which the factors were chosen to measure the many dimensions of financial risk, we found strong evidence of significant predictability in hedge fund returns. We also found that the benefits of “tactical style allocation” portfolios are potentially large. We obtained even more spectacular results for an equity-oriented portfolio that mixed traditional and alternative investment vehicles and for a debt-oriented portfolio that mixed traditional and alternative investment vehicles. These results do not seem to have been significantly affected by the presence of reasonably high transaction costs.
REITs in the decentralized investment industry

Existing studies provide conflicting results regarding whether real estate investment trusts (REITs) effectively optimize and diversify institutional portfolios. Based on the style analysis of Sharpe, we extend Liang and McIntosh’s study with a more complete set of asset classes over a longer sample period. We provide additional evidence suggesting that practicing analysts should include REITs as an asset class to optimize their portfolios. Specifically, our results show that the price behavior of REITs is unique and cannot be satisfactorily duplicated by combining equity, fixed‐income securities, and unsecuritized real estate. The time series of the styles on REITs indicates that it is difficult to ex ante produce returns on REITs without diversifying into REITs.
The Advertising–price Relationship: Theory and Evidence

Abstract The relationship between advertising and price is important because the welfare effect of advertising depends upon the price effect of advertising. We attempt to provide a better understanding of the theoretical relationship between advertising and price. We establish theoretical conditions sufficient for advertising to raise prices. This will occur, for example, when firms play a supermodular game – a structure that considers the type of advertising (i.e., persuasive, image creating, or informative) and the effect that advertising has on a firm’s demand and costs. We also compare results from two simple duopoly models, one with horizontal and the other with vertical differentiation, and find that only the model with horizontal differentiation is supermodular for the forms of advertising that are thought to raise price (e.g., persuasive advertising). In consideration of these theoretical issues, we then develop an empirical model to determine whether advertising raises prices in the US brewing and cigarette industries.
Holiday Effects and Stock Returns: Further Evidence

Abstract This paper provides further evidence of the holiday effect in stock returns and additional insight into the effect. This paper reports abnormally high returns on the trading day before holidays in all three of the major stock markets in the U.S.: the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ. The holiday effect is also present in the U.K. and Japanese stock markets, even though each country has different holidays and institutional arrangements. This study finds that the holiday effects in the U.K. and Japanese stock markets are independent of the holiday effect in the U.S. stock market. Unlike the other seasonal patterns in stock returns, such as January and weekend effects, this investigation of size decile portfolios shows that the size effect is not present in mean returns on preholidays.
Joint consultation of general practitioner and rheumatologist: does it matter?

Objective: To assess the effects of joint consultation on referral behaviour of general practitioners (GPs) in a prospective cohort study. Methods: All patients with rheumatological complaints that 17 participating GPs, from the area of the University Hospital Maastricht, wanted to refer during a two year inclusion period (n=166) were eligible for inclusion. These patients were either referred to the outpatient clinic, or presented at a joint consultation held every six weeks at the practice of the GP, where groups of three GPs presented their patients to a visiting, consulting rheumatologist. The number of patients referred by each GP a year at the end of the trial, comparing participating and non-participating GPs, was the main outcome measure. Results: During two years of inclusion, the 17 participating GPs presented 166 patients. The number of patients referred by each GP a year decreased for the participating GPs by 62% at the end of the whole study. By contrast, non-participating GPs maintained the same rate of referral. The range of diagnoses remained proportionally the same throughout the study, with the exception of fibromyalgia. The referral rate of this diagnosis decreased significantly (p=0.001). Conclusions: Joint consultation seems to be a good strategy in influencing the referral behaviour of GPs in the area of rheumatology. The decrease in referral is substantial and can subsequently lead to a reduction of waiting lists.