Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alcohol Consumption, Genetic Variants in Alcohol Deydrogenases, and Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Prospective Study and Meta-Analysis

Objective First, to investigate and compare associations between alcohol consumption and variants in alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) genes with incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large German cohort. Second, to quantitatively summarize available evidence of prospective studies on polymorphisms in ADH1B and ADH1C and CVD-risk. Methods We conducted a case-cohort study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam cohort including a randomly drawn subcohort (n = 2175) and incident cases of myocardial infarction (MI; n = 230) or stroke (n = 208). Mean follow-up time was 8.2±2.2 years. The association between alcohol consumption, ADH1B or ADH1C genotypes, and CVD-risk was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression. Additionally, we report results on associations of variants in ADH1B and ADH1C with ischemic heart disease and stroke in the context of a meta-analysis of previously published prospective studies published up to November 2011. Results Compared to individuals who drank >0 to 6 g alcohol/d, we observed a reduced risk of MI among females consuming >12 g alcohol/d (HR = 0.31; 95% CI: 0.10–0.97) and among males consuming >24 to 60 g/d (HR = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.33–0.98) or >60 g alcohol/d (HR = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.12–0.78). Stroke risk was not significantly related to alcohol consumption >6 g/d, but we observed an increased risk of stroke in men reporting no alcohol consumption. Individuals with the slow-coding ADH1B*1/1 genotype reported higher median alcohol consumption. Yet, polymorphisms in ADH1B or ADH1C were not significantly associated with risk of CVD in our data and after pooling results of eligible prospective studies [ADH1B*1/1: RR = 1.35 (95% CI: 0.98–1.88; p for heterogeneity: 0.364); ADH1C*2/2: RR = 1.07 (95% CI: 0.90–1.27; p for heterogeneity: 0.098)]. Conclusion The well described association between alcohol consumption and CVD-risk is not reflected by ADH polymorphisms, which modify the rate of ethanol oxidation.
Role of Information and Communication Technology investment on the profitability of small medium scale industries - a case of sachet water companies in Oyo State, Nigeria

The research aims at evaluating the effects of Information and Communication Technology investment on profitability of sachet water companies in Nigeria. The study was carried out on sixty (60) randomly selected sachet water companies that registered with National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Association of Table Water Association Producers (ATWAP). Both primary and secondary data were used in the study. Secondary data was obtained from the book of accounts of the selected sachet water companies while primary data was collected with the aid of questionnaires and scheduled interviews conducted to managers, data management officers, staff and customers of the selected sachet water companies. The data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics used included frequencies, percentages and tables and determination of profitability was assessed using Return on Equity (ROE) and Return on Capital Employee (ROCE). The study revealed that years of existence of the companies, capital base and educational level of the manager have significant effects on the extent of ICT usage with an adjusted R2 of 0.6274. The paired sample 't' test value of 1.809 and which is significant (P<0.1) also implies that there is significant relationship between ICT investment and the profitability of the companies. The study therefore concluded that ICT investment had positive effects on the profitability of selected sachet water companies in Nigeria. Based on these findings it was recommended that sachet water companies should be ICT compliance.
OIL PRICES AND THE ECONOMY

The importance of oil prices to explain economic fluctuations emerged when the remarkable price stability that characterized the Golden Age period was interrupted in the early 70s. The recent conflicts on Iraq and the strong increase of oil prices in 2004 contributed to perk up the debate concerning the importance of oil prices to industrialized economies, as scenarios of a new oil shock have been frequently put forward. This paper resumes the main channels through which oil prices affect the economy. Recent empirical findings are confronted with simple indicators and some models simulations, as a way to derive useful rules of thumb for the effects of oil prices both in real activity and inflation. Concerning the direct and short-run effects on inflation an elasticity of around 0.01 seems to hold over the last 30 years across the countries considered (G7 and Portugal). Concerning GDP, elasticities of around -0.02 for the main developed countries (underlying a higher value for the euro area countries) and -0.04 for Portugal emerge as possible rules of thumb when oil prices are at a level around 25 USD. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the evolution of oil prices against inflation and GDP growth in the OECD area since the early 70s. A simple graphic analysis shows that periods with more pronounced increases in oil prices were connected with higher inflations and lower GDP growth rates. Section 3 presents the main channels underlying the transmission of oil prices to the economy. Despite the great unanimity concerning the signal of the effects on inflation and GDP, the transmission channels underlying those effects are complex and evolve over time. Nevertheless, an oil price shock would inevitably produce lower effects today than in the past given the reduction of the oil expenditure share on GDP— reflecting the decline of the relative price of oil as well as the reduction in the consumption of oil per unit of output — and the lessons drawn for monetary authorities from the past oil price shocks. Reflecting a more intensive use of oil and a strong sensitiveness to the external environment, that characterizes a small and open economy, the effects on the Portuguese economy are more pronounced than in the main developed countries. Section 4 presents estimates for the overall impact of an oil price increase on GDP and prices, both for the main developed countries and Portugal. Despite the considerable uncertainty surrounding those estimates, they may constitute useful rules of thumb. Finally, section 6 resumes the main conclusions.
Transformational Leadership and Hospital Restructuring: A Descriptive Study

This article reports on a descriptive study conducted in late 2002 on the impact of middle nurse managers’ transformational leadership characteristics on hospital registered nurses’ sense of empowerment and job satisfaction during a hospital restructuring. The purpose of this study was to determine whether middle nurse managers’ transformational leadership behaviors were related to an increase in job satisfaction and empowerment of staff RNs in a nursing service department undergoing restructuring. This study utilized a descriptive correlational design with convenience sampling. It was conducted from July to October 2002 in an acute care, for-profit hospital in the southeastern United States. The sample included full-time, part-time, and PRN staff registered nurses who were employed at this facility for at least 1 year. The instruments used to collect data were a demographic questionnaire, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the Organizational Job Satisfaction Scale, and the Reciprocal Empowerment Scale.
Creative, Cultural and Critical: Media Literacy Theory in the Primary Classroom

Media literacy education projects and initiatives have tended to focus on teenagers and to be informed either by social or moral concerns or by a body of theory which has evolved primarily in the academy. Three recent research initiatives to which we have all contributed – Reframing Literacy (RL), Persistence of Vision (POV), and Developing Media Literacy: towards a model of learning progression (DML) – prompt consideration of a different approach.1 All three projects indicate that young children (from age three or four onwards) are already engaging with the kinds of powerful questions that generate the central theories of media literacy; for example representation, audience, institutions, narrative and media language. Our research also indicates that children’s pre-school engagements with non-print texts such as films and TV programmes provide them with a rich repertoire of experience for literacy learning in the form of recognising textual features that contribute to meaning making, and skills such as inference and prediction. Where this early learning is recognised and built on by teachers, children’s overall attainment is substantially enhanced. We present evidence from all three research projects, exploring how children’s existing understandings can be made explicit and how their learning can be extended through further critical analysis and creative production. Furthermore, we propose that by valuing children’s understandings of film and by offering opportunities for using diverse, powerful modes of expression, the hierarchies of classroom achievement can be productively upturned. We discuss some of the implications for pedagogy in the primary school and signal the need for radical change in educational policy.
A Weblog Recommender using Machine Learning and Semantic Web Technologies

The semantic web is an extension of the existing web that adds a layer of information semantically describing the data on the web. It is an emergent technology that has great potential. In this paper we give a discussion of the background to the semantic web followed by an introduction to one of the areas where it is starting to be introduced – weblogging. A Weblog or blog is a website that aggregates data from other, usually similar, websites. This paper goes on to propose a system that will make use of machine learning technologies to classify and recommend weblogs to users. CONTENTS
Understanding USDA Corn and Soybean Production Forecasts: An Overview of Methods, Performance and Market Impacts

The purpose of this report is to improve understanding of USDA crop forecasting methods, performance and market impact. A review of USDA’s forecasting procedures and methodology confirmed the objectivity and consistency of the forecasting process over time. No changes in methodology occurred in 2003. Month-to-month changes in corn and soybean production forecasts from 1970 through 2003 indicated little difference in magnitude and direction of monthly changes over time. USDA production forecast errors were largest in August and smaller in subsequent forecasts. There appeared to be no trend in the size or direction of forecast errors over time. On average, USDA corn production forecasts were more accurate than private market forecasts over 1970-2003, with the exception of August forecasts since the mid-1980s. Private market forecasts in soybeans were more accurate than USDA forecasts for August, regardless of the time period considered. As the growing season progresses the USDA’s relative accuracy in soybeans improved. USDA corn production forecasts had the largest impact on corn futures prices in August and recent price reactions have been somewhat larger than historical reactions. For soybeans, the largest reactions in futures prices occurred in August and September, but recent reactions have been large in October. Overall, the analysis suggests the USDA performs reasonably well in generating crop production forecasts for corn and soybeans.
An Efﬁcient IP Matching Tool using Forced Simulation

Automatic IP (Intellectual Property) matching is a key to reuse of IP cores. This report presents an efﬁcient IP matching algorithm which can check if a given programmable IP can be adapted to match a given speciﬁ-cation. When such adaptation is possible, the algorithm also generates a device driver (an interface) to adapt the IP. Though simulation, reﬁnement and bisimulation based algorithms exist, they cannot be used to check the adaptability of an IP, which is the essence of reuse. The IP matching algorithm is based on a formal veriﬁcation technique called forced simulation . A forced simulation based matching algorithm is implemented using a logic programming environment, which provides distinct advantages for encoding such an algorithm.The prototype tool, MatchMaker, has been used to reuse several programmable IPs achieving on an average 12 times speedup and 64 % reduction in code size in comparison to previously published algorithm.
Government Ideology, Globalization, and Top Income Shares in OECD Countries

I investigate how government ideology and globalization are associated with top income shares in 16 OECD countries over the period 1970 to 2010. I use the new World Top Incomes Database. Globalization is measured by the KOF index of globalization. The results show that the top 1% income share increased more under rightwing governments than under leftwing governments. The effect was stronger when globalization proceeded more rapidly.
Capital Regulation and Bank Risk Taking: Completing Blum’s Picture

This paper studies the intertemporal effects that capital regulation has on curbing bank risk taking, using the seminal model proposed in Blum (1999). Threshold values of the requirement in each period, for which capital regulation start affecting bank risk taking decisions, are calculated. One main lesson from this exercise is that constant capital requirements (as considered in Basel I) are indeed capable of reducing risk taking below the unregulated solution, and can even achieve the zero bankruptcy cost, socially efficient level of risk. However, that might happen for very high levels of the requirement, and at the cost of reducing financial intermediation. A second important lesson is that as the dynamic of risk depends on these thresholds, and they in turn depend upon the initial equity of the bank; knowing the latter is essential for the regulator to determine the effectiveness of capital regulation. Additional market instruments and effective monitoring and supervision (as proposed in Basel II) could be helpful on this task.
Effects of Nicotine During Pregnancy: Human and Experimental Evidence

Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke is a major risk factor for the newborn, increasing morbidity and even mortality in the neonatal period but also beyond. As nicotine addiction is the factor preventing many women from smoking cessation during pregnancy, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has been suggested as a better alternative for the fetus. However, the safety of NRT has not been well documented, and animal studies have in fact pointed to nicotine per se as being responsible for a multitude of these detrimental effects. Nicotine interacts with endogenous acetylcholine receptors in the brain and lung, and exposure during development interferes with normal neurotransmitter function, thus evoking neurodevelopmental abnormalities by disrupting the timing of neurotrophic actions. As exposure to pure nicotine is quite uncommon in pregnant women, very little human data exist aside from the vast literature on prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke. The current review discusses recent findings in humans on effects on the newborn of prenatal exposure to pure nicotine and non-smoke tobacco. It also reviews the neuropharmacological properties of nicotine during gestation and findings in animal experiments that offer explanations on a cellular level for the pathogenesis of such prenatal drug exposure. It is concluded that as findings indicate that functional nAChRs are present very early in neuronal development, and that activation at this stage leads to apoptosis and mitotic abnormalities, a total abstinence from all forms of nicotine should be advised to pregnant women for the entirety of gestation.
Economic Determinants of Non-Performing Loans: Perception of Pakistani Bankers

This study provides the perception of Pakistani bankers regarding the economic factors causing non-performing loans in the Pakistani banking sector since 2006. This is the first time that any study is conducted in Pakistan to highlight the economic factors of NPLs via primary data collection from loan providing and approving authorities of Pakistani banking industry. This study was conducted via a well structured questionnaire and data was collected from 201 bankers who are involved in the lending decisions or analyze the credit risk or handling non-performing loans portfolio. Correlation and regression analysis was carried out to analyze the impact of selected independent variables ( Interest Rate, Energy Crisis, Unemployment, Inflation, GDP Growth, and Exchange Rate ) on the non-performing loans of Pakistani banking sector. Top 10 Pakistani banks were selected as a sample. According to the results Pakistani bankers perceive that Interest Rate, Energy Crisis, Unemployment, Inflation, and Exchange Rate has a significant positive relationship with the non-performing loans of Pakistani banking sector while GDP growth has significant negative relationship with the non-performing loans of Pakistani banking sector. This study also discusses how good loans are turning into bad loans due to disaster in energy sector of Pakistan and how these energy crisis are badly affecting the banking sector of Pakistan. In future social determinants of non-performing loans should be studied. This study is first of its kind opening door for further primary research on NPLS of Pakistani banking sector. Key words: Non-performing loan; perception of Pakistani bankers; energy crisis; Economic determinants of Non-performing loans
An Allelochemical from Myrica gale with Strong Phytotoxic Activity against Highly Invasive Fallopia x bohemica Taxa

We report the identification of the allelochemical 3-(1-oxo-3-phenylpropyl)-1,1,5-trimethylcyclo-hexane-2,4,6-trione, known as myrigalone A, from the fruits and leaves of Myrica gale. The structure of the compound was confirmed by high-resolution techniques (UV, MS and NMR analysis). The compound is phytotoxic towards classical plant species used for allelochemical assays and also against Fallopia x bohemica, a highly invasive plant. Application of either powdered dry leaves or dry fruits of M. gale also showed in vitro phytotoxic activity. We hypothesize that M. gale could be used as a green allelopathic shield to control Fallopia x bohemica invasion, in addition to its potential use as an environmentally friendly herbicide.
Does Trading Frequency Affect Subordinated Debt Spreads?

Because illiquid bonds may be relatively poorly priced, the ability to infer investor perceptions of changes in a banking organization's financial health from such bonds may be obscured. To examine the time-series effect of trading frequency on subordinated debt spreads, we consider the liquidity of subordinated debt for large, complex U.S. banking organizations over the 1987:Q2 - 2002:Q4 period. Since trade volumes are unobservable, we construct various measures of weekly trading frequency from observed bond prices. Using these indirect liquidity measures, we find evidence that trading frequency does significantly affect observed subordinated debt spreads. We also provide estimates for the premium of illiquidity.
Generation of liver-specific TGF-α/c-Myc-overexpressing porcine induced pluripotent stem-like cells and blastocyst formation using nuclear transfer

Transgenic porcine induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are attractive cell sources for the development of genetically engineered pig models, because they can be expanded without senescence and have the potential for multiple gene manipulation. They are also useful cell sources for disease modeling and treatment. However, the generation of transgenic porcine iPS cells is rare, and their embryonic development after nuclear transfer (NT) has not yet been reported. We report here the generation of liver-specific oncogenes (TGF-α/c-Myc)-overexpressing porcine iPS (T/M iPS)-like cells. They expressed stem cell characteristics and were differentiated into hepatocyte-like cells that express oncogenes. We also confirmed that NT embryos derived from T/M iPS-like cells successfully developed blastocysts in vitro. As an initial approach toward porcine transgenic iPS cell generation and their developmental competence after NT, this study provides foundations for the efficient generation of genetically modified porcine iPS cells and animal models.
Comparison of Aortic Annulus Diameter Measurement between Multi-Detector Computed Tomography and Echocardiography: A Meta-Analysis

Background and Purpose Accurate measurement of aortic annulus diameter is crucial for choosing suitable prosthetic size for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Several imaging methods are available for the measurement, but significant variability between different modalities has been observed. The purpose of this study was to systematically compare the measurements of aortic annulus diameter between multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT), transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), and transesophegeal echocardiography (TEE). Methods PubMed and EMBASE databases between January 2000 and January 2012 were searched. We extracted data from eligible studies evaluating the aortic annulus diameter by MDCT and echocardiography (TTE, TEE, or both). We performed a random-effects meta-analysis to calculate the weighted mean differences of aortic annulus diameter measurement between MDCT, TTE, and TEE. Results A total of 10 eligible studies involving 581 subjects with aortic valve stenosis were included. Aortic annulus diameter measured on coronal view by MDCT (25.3±0.52 mm) was respectively larger than that measured on sagittal view by MDCT (22.7±0.37 mm), TTE (22.6±0.28 mm), and TEE (23.1±0.32 mm). The weighted mean difference of aortic annulus diameter between coronal view by MDCT and TTE these two methods was 2.97 mm, followed by the weighted mean difference of 2.53 mm between coronal view and sagittal view by MDCT, and the mean difference of 1.74 mm between coronal view on MDCT and TEE (P<0.0001 for all). The weighted mean difference of aortic annulus diameter measurement between TEE and TTE was significant but somewhat small (0.45 mm, P = 0.007). Conclusion Aortic annulus diameter measured on coronal view by MDCT was robustly and significantly larger than that obtained on sagittal view by MDCT, TTE, or TEE. Such variability of aortic annulus diameter measurement by different imaging modalities cannot be ignored when developing optimal strategies for selection of prosthetic valve size in TAVI.
Adverse Selection, Dissembling, and Competitive Equilibrium

Rothschild and Stiglitz have shown than insurance markets and other markets in which an adverse-selection problem exists cannot have Nash-type pooling or subsidized separating equilibria and are unlikely to have Nash-type unsubsidized separating equilibria. Wilson, Miyazaki, and Riley have analyzed anticipatory pooling and subsidized-separating equilibria and reactive unsubsidized separating equilibria. Each of these alternatives to Nash-type equilibria requires strategic behavior on the part of insurance sellers for support. The present paper analyzes as another alternative pooling equilibria that require dissembling behavior on the part of insurance buyers for support. This dissembling model has the attractive feature that it takes explicit account of the convention of requiring insurance buyers to submit applications, a practice that the analysis interprets to be a natural response to the adverse-selection problem.