Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Macroeconomic Analysis of the Fiscal System in Egypt

We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model to analyze the fiscal situation of Egypt. We model Egypt as a small open economy that takes real interest rates and world prices of fuel as given. Since a large component of the government budget consists of pensions payments, we use an overlapping generations structure. The model contains descriptions of the public and private sector, as well as descriptions of the production sectors for a public good such as infrastructure, energy, and a final aggregate consumption good. The model pays special attention to the energy sector. We then calibrate the model to data from Egypt. The following policy reforms are considered: (i) reductions in pensions to public sector workers, (ii) reductions in pensions to private sector workers, (iii) reductions in the public sector pay premiums, (iv) decreases of the energy subsidies, and (v) a decrease of the public sector workforce. In each case we reduce the "expenditure" by 15 percent. For each of the reforms we adjust consumption taxes, labor taxes, "capital taxes", or public investments in infrastructure to satisfy the government budget constraint. We calculate the new steady states, the transition paths to the new steady states, and the size of the welfare gains or losses for all reforms. We find that due to the modest nature of the reforms, the effect of the policy reforms on GDP and consumption are modest. Often these gains are in the neighborhood of 1 percent. We find that welfare gains or losses can be sizable and that the largest gains from the reforms are attained when the freed up resources are used for infrastructure investments or for lowering the tax on company profits.
An Energy-Balance Analysis of Deep Convective Self-Aggregation above Uniform SST

Abstract The spatial organization of deep moist convection in radiative–convective equilibrium over a constant sea surface temperature is studied. A 100-day simulation is performed with a three-dimensional cloud-resolving model over a (576 km)2 domain with no ambient rotation and no mean wind. The convection self-aggregates within 10 days into quasi-stationary mesoscale patches of dry, subsiding and moist, rainy air columns. The patches ultimately merge into a single intensely convecting moist patch surrounded by a broad region of very dry subsiding air. The self-aggregation is analyzed as an instability of a horizontally homogeneous convecting atmosphere driven by convection–water vapor–radiation feedbacks that systematically dry the drier air columns and moisten the moister air columns. Column-integrated heat, water, and moist static energy budgets over (72 km)2 horizontal blocks show that this instability is primarily initiated by the reduced radiative cooling of air columns in which there is extensive.
Antihypertensive treatments in adult autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease: network meta-analysis of the randomized controlled trials

Background Blood pressure (BP) control is one of the most important treatments of Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). The comparative efficacy of antihypertensive treatments in ADPKD patients is inconclusive. Methods Network meta-analysis was used to evaluate randomized controlled trials (RCT) which investigated antihypertensive treatments in ADPKD. PubMed, Embase, Ovid, and Cochrane Collaboration were searched. The primary outcome was estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Secondary outcomes were serum creatinine (Scr), urinary albumin excretion (UAE), systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean artery pressure (MAP) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI). Results We included 10 RCTs with 1386 patients and six interventions: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI), Angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), combination of ACEI and ARB, calcium channel blockers (CCB), β-blockers and dilazep. There was no difference of eGFR in all the treatments in both network and direct comparisons. No significant differences of Scr, SBP, DBP, MAP, and LVMI were found in network comparisons. However, ACEI signiﬁcantly reduced SBP, DBP, MAP and LVMI when compared to CCB. Significantly increased UAE was observed in CCB compared with ACEI or ARB. Bayesian probability analysis found ARB ranked first in the surrogate measures of eGFR, UAE and SBP. Conclusions There is little evidence to detect differences of antihypertensive treatments on kidney disease progression in ADPKD patients. More RCTs will be needed in the future. Use of ARB may be an optimal choice in clinical practice.
Prevalence and factors influencing perinatal mortality in rural mysore, India.

BACKGROUND With decreasing Infant Mortality Rate, Perinatal Mortality is gaining importance as it takes into consideration most of the factors influencing child birth and its survival, mortality during this period is a better indicator of quality of Maternal and Child Health services. OBJECTIVES To estimate the Prevalence of perinatal mortality and its associated risk factors. METHODOLOGY Cross sectional community based study was carried out in rural field practice area catering 26,700 population. All births during 2010 among permanent residents of this area were included. House to house survey was conducted to collect details regarding Antenatal, intra-natal and post-natal history by interviewing mother using a pre-tested questionnaire. Hospital records were also referred when available. RESULTS Nine perinatal deaths had occurred out of 314 births in a span of one year with a perinatal, early neonatal mortality rates of 28.93, 19.29 per 1000 live births respectively and still birth rate of 9.55 per 100 total births. Higher Perinatal Mortality Rate(PNMR) was observed in mothers who got married before 18 years, conceived during teenage, having anaemia, delivered at home, normal vaginal deliveries and having suffered by intra-partal and placental complications. Male babies, babies fed with prelacteal feeds, born out of intra-uterine complications, having low birth weight, had delayed first cry, premature births and twin births showed higher risk for mortality. CONCLUSION The prevalence of perinatal mortality in the present study was 28.93 per 1000 live births. Even though this was well below the national and state values indicating improved quality of Maternal and Child Health care, it also gives way for relooking into strategies for further bringing down the perinatal deaths.
Impact of Contextual Factors and Substance Characteristics on Perspectives toward Cognitive Enhancement

Enhancing cognitive performance with substances–especially prescription drugs–is a fiercely debated topic among scholars and in the media. The empirical basis for these discussions is limited, given that the actual nature of factors that influence the acceptability of and willingness to use cognitive enhancement substances remains unclear. In an online factorial survey, contextual and substance-specific characteristics of substances that improve academic performance were varied experimentally and presented to respondents. Students in four German universities rated their willingness to use and moral acceptance of different substances for cognitive enhancement. We found that the overall willingness to use performance enhancing substances is low. Most respondents considered the use of these substances as morally unacceptable. Situational influences such as peer pressure, policies concerning substance use, relative performance level of peers, but also characteristics of the substance, such as perceptions of substance safety, shape the willingness and acceptability of using a substance to enhance academic performance. Among the findings is evidence of a contagion effect meaning that the willingness was higher when the respondents have more CE drug users in their social network. We also found deterrence effects from strong side effects of using the substance, as well as from policy regulations and sanctions. Regulations might activate social norms against usage and sanctions can be seen as costly to users. Moreover, enhancement substances seem to be most tempting to low performers to catch up with others compared to high performers. By identifying contextual factors and substance characteristics influencing the willingness and acceptability of cognitive enhancers, policy approaches could consider these insights to better manage the use of such substances.
Statin therapy is associated with reduced neuropathologic changes of Alzheimer disease

Background: Treatment with 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme-A reductase inhibitors (“statins”) has been associated in some epidemiologic studies with reduced risk of Alzheimer disease (AD). However, direct evidence of statin effects on neuropathologic markers of AD is lacking. We investigated whether antecedent statin exposure is associated with neuritic plaque (NP) or neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) burden in a population-based sample of human subjects. Methods: Brain autopsies were performed on 110 subjects, ages 65 to 79 years, who were cognitively normal at enrollment into the Adult Changes in Thought Study. Neuropathologic findings were compared between statin users with ≥3 prescriptions of ≥15 pills of simvastatin, pravastatin, lovastatin, or atorvastatin vs nonusers, based on pharmacy dispensing records. Results: After controlling for age at death, gender, cognitive function at study entry, brain weight, and presence of cerebral microvascular lesions, the odds ratio (OR) for each unit increase in Braak NFT stage in statin users vs nonusers was 0.44 (95% CI: 0.20 to 0.95). The OR for each unit increase in Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) staging of NPs did not deviate significantly from unity (OR 0.69; 95% CI: 0.32 to 1.52). However, the risk for typical AD pathology (Braak stage ≥ IV and CERAD rating ≥ moderate) was reduced in statin users (OR 0.20; 95% CI: 0.05 to 0.86). Conclusions: These findings demonstrate an association between antecedent statin use and neurofibrillary tangle burden at autopsy. Additional study is needed to examine whether statin use may be causally related to decreased development of Alzheimer disease–related neuropathologic changes.
Pathfast Presepsin Assay for Early Diagnosis of Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome in Patients with Nephrolithiasis

It is relatively difficult to diagnose bacterial sepsis in nephrolithiasis patients. The aim of the study is to evaluate the diagnostic ability of presepsin in the differential diagnosis including SIRS, infection, or sepsis and to compare its diagnostic value with other markers, mainly as CRP, procalcitonin (PCT), and white blood cell (WBC) in patients of nephrolithiasis presenting with SIRS. 39 patients of nephrolithiasis who were diagnosed as SIRS were prospectively investigated. Plasma presepsin was detected by Pathfast presepsin assay system; CRP and PCT were measured as well. Additionally, 25 nephrolithiasis patients without SIRS were included. At all timing samples, patients were classified as SIRS or non-SIRS group. Median plasma presepsin levels were significantly increased in the SIRS group compared with non-SIRS group (452 pg/mL versus 178 ng/mL, P < 0.001), and presepsin was markedly elevated even in the early stage of SIRS (584 pg/mL 6 h, 660 pg/mL 24 h versus 452 pg/mL, P < 0.001). According to the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, presepsin demonstrated a high diagnostic value compared with either PCT or CRP. In the early stage of SIRS, presepsin remained a highly sensitive (74.7%) and specific (88.4%) diagnostic marker compared with either PCT, CRP, or WBC. Moreover, the areas under the curve (AUCs) of presepsin (84.6%) were also superior to those seen in either PCT (79.6%) or CRP (71.8%). Thus plasma presepsin levels have comparable performance in SIRS for patients with nephrolithiasis.
When Learning and Performance Are at Odds: Confronting the Tension

This chapter explores complexities of the relationship between learning and performance. We start with the general proposition that learning promotes performance, and then describe several challenges for researchers and managers who wish to study or promote learning in support of performance improvement. We also review psychological and interpersonal risks of learning behavior, suggest conditions under which exploratory learning and experimentation is most critical, and describe conditions and leader behaviors conducive to supporting this kind of learning in organizations. We illustrate our ideas with examples from field studies across numerous industry contexts, and conclude with a discussion of implications of this complex relationship for performance management.
Health Behaviors of Breast Cancer Survivors with Hypertension: A Propensity Analysis of KNHANES III-V (2005-2012)

Objective This study examines health behaviors of breast cancer survivors with hypertension and compares them with those of non-cancer individuals with hypertension. Methods In this cross-sectional study, a total of 10,996 hypertensive adults (≥ 19 years) who participated in the 2005-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were considered. Data on alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, antihypertensive medication adherence, self-reported diet control, and sodium intake were collected through self-report questionnaire. A total of 64 breast cancer survivors with hypertension and 10,932 non-cancer participants with hypertension were identified. To better compare health behaviors of the two groups, 56 breast cancer survivors and 280 non-cancer participants were selected through the 1:5 nearest available matching based on estimated propensity scores. Multivariate analysis was conducted to determine any differences between the two groups. Results According to multivariate analysis, breast cancer survivors with hypertension (n = 56) were significantly less likely to consume alcohol (odds ratio (OR): 3.75; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.06-13.29) but significantly more likely to have sodium intake of more than 2400 mg (OR: 2.98; 95% CI: 1.27-6.97) than the propensity-matched control group (n = 280). There was no significant difference in other health behaviors between the two groups. Conclusions Breast cancer survivors require active interventions for healthy behaviors related to the management of comorbid conditions such as hypertension to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and improve their overall survival rate.
Noise in refractive index enhancement

By utilizing the interference between an absorptive resonance and an amplifying resonance, one can achieve an enhanced refractive index without an increase in absorption to the beam. We analyze noise added to the beam due to spontaneous emission while propagating through such an index enhanced medium. We find that, for a medium with a refractive index of n and of length L, n−1 2 / 0 L noise photons are added to the beam.
Exporting and Productivity

Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth. This paper examines whether exporting has played any role in increasing productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing. Contemporaneous levels of exports and productivity are indeed positively correlated across manufacturing industries. However, tests on industry data show causality from productivity to exporting but not the reverse. While exporting plants have substantially higher productivity levels, we find no evidence that exporting increases plant productivity growth rates. However, within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exporters in terms of both shipments and employment. We show that exporting is associated with the reallocation of resources from less efficient to more efficient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation effects are quite large, making up over 40% of total factor productivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of this reallocation to more productive plants occurs within industries and the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants. The positive contribution of exporters even shows up in import-competing industries and non-tradable sectors. The overall contribution of exporters to manufacturing productivity growth far exceeds their shares of employment and output.
The Evolution of Charter School Quality 1

Studies of the charter school sector typically focus on head-to-head comparisons of charter and traditional schools at a point in time, but the expansion of parental choice and relaxation of constraints on school operations is unlikely to raise school quality overnight. Rather, the success of the reform depends in large part on whether parental choices induce improvements in the charter sector over time. We study quality changes among Texas charter schools between 2001 and 2011. Our results suggest that the charter sector was initially characterized by schools whose quality was highly variable and, on average, less effective than traditional public schools. However, exits from the sector, improvements of existing charter schools, and positive selection of charter management organizations that open additional schools raised the average charter school effectiveness over time relative to traditional public schools in Texas. Moreover, the evidence is consistent with the belief that a reduction in student turnover as the sector matures, expansion of the share of charters that adhere to a No Excuses philosophy, and increasingly positive student selection at the times of both entry and reenrollment all contribute to the improvement of the charter sector. JEL Codes: H0, H75, I20, I2 The conclusions of this research do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official position of the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, or the State of Texas.
Fresh insights into the Musa genome and its comparison with rice

The aim of this study was to better understand the evolution of the Musa (banana) genome through sequence and phylogenetic analyses. For this purpose, we used a set of large-hybridization spectrum across monocots cDNA probes from Sorghum bicolor to isolate and sequence 11 Musa acuminata BAC clones containing genes with a high degree of sequence conservation among monocots. Comparison of the 11 Musa BAC sequences with the complete genome sequence of rice led to the identification of several syntenic regions between these two species that are likely to reflect highly conserved genomic blocks across monocots. In contrast, comparison between Musa and the more distantly related dicot Arabidopsis thaliana revealed only one case of microcolinearity. To extend our investigations on Musa genome evolution, BAC clones corresponding to two orthologous regions from two cultivated Musa species (Musa A and B) were also isolated and sequenced. Sequence analysis revealed a perfect conservation of gene order and a high level of sequence identity between the two Musa genomic regions. We used a molecular clock approach to estimate the age of divergence between the Musa A and B genomes to circa. 1 Mya. Finally, we analysed the distribution of the ages of pairs of duplicated Musa genes and provide strong evidence that one or more largescale duplication events occurred in the lineage leading to modern Musa species some 42 Mya.
Uncoupling Protein 1 of Brown Adipocytes, the Only Uncoupler: A Historical Perspective

Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), is a unique mitochondrial membranous protein devoted to adaptive thermogenesis, a specialized function performed by brown adipocytes. Whereas the family of mitochondrial metabolite carriers comprises ∼40 members, UCP1 is the only memberable to translocate protons through the inner membrane of brown adipocyte mitochondria. By this process, UCP1 uncouples respiration from ATP synthesis and therefore provokes energy dissipation in the form of heat while, also stimulating high levels of fatty acid oxidation. UCP1 homologs were identified but they are biochemically and physiologically different from UCP1. Thirty five years after its identification, UCP1 still appears as a fascinating component. The recent renewal of the interest in human brown adipose tissue makes UCP1 as a potential target for strategies of treatment of metabolic disorders.
The Financial Economics of Privatization

Central to the book's content is its focus on where privatization stands today and what are the next frontiers, the why and how behind countries who privatize certain industries, whether privatization works as an economic tool and important insights relevant to financial institutions such as how to value privatized industries, how share offerings differ from private offerings, how countries go about harnessing private capital, etc. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship. com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/0195150627/toc.html
Role of rural women in household energy management in Tofa L.G.A. of Kano State.

This study examines the role of rural women in household energy management in Tofa . Local Government Area (L.G.A), Kano State, with emphasis on identification on the specific tasks, and decision-making roles of women in household energy management. Data generated were sourced using questionnaire and interview schedule through P.R. A (Participatory Rural Appraisal), with a total sample of 250 women in four wards of Tofa L.G. A. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected at the household level, the study demonstrated that the roles of rural women in Tofa L.G. A are culture derived and women are primarily responsible for the use of biomass energy sources and household management in the area and it is used primarily for cooking. Specific tasks involved in by women in biomass energy management include stacking, storing, handling and use. Decision that have to do with the type and how sourced are solely the domain of the men The specific tasks of jn the management of energy identified earlier is likely reduce constraints women’s participation in their other roles from productive and reproductive tasks.
The Vesicular GABA Transporter, VGAT, Localizes to Synaptic Vesicles in Sets of Glycinergic as Well as GABAergic Neurons

A transporter thought to mediate accumulation of GABA into synaptic vesicles has recently been cloned (McIntire et al., 1997). This vesicular GABA transporter (VGAT), the first vesicular amino acid transporter to be molecularly identified, differs in structure from previously cloned vesicular neurotransmitter transporters and defines a novel gene family. Here we use antibodies specific for N- and C-terminal epitopes of VGAT to localize the protein in the rat CNS. VGAT is highly concentrated in the nerve endings of GABAergic neurons in the brain and spinal cord but also in glycinergic nerve endings. In contrast, hippocampal mossy fiber boutons, which although glutamatergic are known to contain GABA, lack VGAT immunoreactivity. Post-embedding immunogold quantification shows that the protein specifically associates with synaptic vesicles. Triple labeling for VGAT, GABA, and glycine in the lateral oliva superior revealed a higher expression of VGAT in nerve endings rich in GABA, with or without glycine, than in others rich in glycine only. Although the great majority of nerve terminals containing GABA or glycine are immunopositive for VGAT, subpopulations of nerve endings rich in GABA or glycine appear to lack the protein. Additional vesicular transporters or alternative modes of release may therefore contribute to the inhibitory neurotransmission mediated by these two amino acids.