Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Window Dressing of Financial Leverage

We investigate bank holding companies’ window dressing of quarter-end financial leverage through short-term borrowings, and the stock market reaction around the public release of information that can be used to infer such window dressing. We find evidence of downward window dressing of repo and federal funds liabilities that appear material for a large fraction of the sample, particularly among the largest banks. Firms with greater financial leverage have more repo and federal funds liabilities in the makeup of their total liabilities and are more likely to engage in downward window dressing in these accounts. Finally, the stock market reacts negatively to information indicating greater downward window dressing in these accounts. The potential implications of our findings go beyond bank holding companies and the financial industry, and bear relevance to recent SEC deliberations regarding short-term borrowing disclosure regulations.
Epitaxial Relationships between Calcium Carbonate and Inorganic Substrates

The polymorph-selective crystallization of calcium carbonate has been studied in terms of epitaxial relationship between the inorganic substrates and the aragonite/calcite polymorphs with implication in bioinspired mineralization. EpiCalc software was employed to assess the previously published experimental results on two different groups of inorganic substrates: aragonitic carbonate crystals (SrCO3, PbCO3, and BaCO3) and a hexagonal crystal family (α-Al2O3, α-SiO2, and LiNbO3). The maximum size of the overlayer (aragonite or calcite) was calculated for each substrate based on a threshold value of the dimensionless potential to estimate the relative nucleation preference of the polymorphs of calcium carbonate. The results were in good agreement with previous experimental observations, although stereochemical effects between the overlayer and substrate should be separately considered when existed. In assessing the polymorph-selective nucleation, the current method appeared to provide a better tool than the oversimplified mismatch parameters without invoking time-consuming molecular simulation\.
Frictional strength and healing behavior of phyllosilicate-rich faults

[1] We study the mechanisms of frictional strength recovery for tectonic faults with particular focus on fault gouge that contains phyllosilicate minerals. We report laboratory and microstructural work from fault rocks associated with a regional, low-angle normal fault in Central Italy. Experiments were conducted in a biaxial deformation apparatus at room temperature and humidity, nominally dry, under constant normal stresses of 20 and 50 MPa, and at a sliding velocity of 10 mm/s. Our results for nominally dry conditions show good agreement with previous work conducted under controlled pore fluid pressure. The phyllosilicate contents of our samples, which include clay, talc and chlorite range from 0 to 52 weight %. We study both intact rock samples, sheared in their in situ geometry, and powders made from the same rocks to address the role of fabric in fault healing. We measured frictional healing, Dm, using slide-hold-slide tests with hold periods ranging from 3 to 3000 s. Phyllosilicate-free materials show friction values of m ≈ 0.6 and healing rates that are larger in powdered samples, b ≈ 0.006 (Dm per decade in time, s) compared to intact wafers of fault rock, b ≈ 0.004. For phyllosilicate-bearing materials, healing rates are low, b < 0.002, and independent of fabric, phyllosilicate content and normal stress. We observe that frictional strength decreases systematically with increasing phyllosilicate content. Intact, phyllosilicate-bearing fault rock is consistently weaker than its powdered equivalent (0.2 < m < 0.3 versus 0.4 < m < 0.5, respectively). We compare our data to results from experiments conducted on a wide range of materials and conditions. Deformation microstructures show localized slipping along sub-parallel shear planes. We suggest that low values of frictional strength and near zero healing rates will combine to exacerbate the weakness of phyllosilicate-bearing faults and promote stable, aseismic creep.
Rich-Club Organization in Effective Connectivity among Cortical Neurons

The performance of complex networks, like the brain, depends on how effectively their elements communicate. Despite the importance of communication, it is virtually unknown how information is transferred in local cortical networks, consisting of hundreds of closely spaced neurons. To address this, it is important to record simultaneously from hundreds of neurons at a spacing that matches typical axonal connection distances, and at a temporal resolution that matches synaptic delays. We used a 512-electrode array (60 μm spacing) to record spontaneous activity at 20 kHz from up to 500 neurons simultaneously in slice cultures of mouse somatosensory cortex for 1 h at a time. We applied a previously validated version of transfer entropy to quantify information transfer. Similar to in vivo reports, we found an approximately lognormal distribution of firing rates. Pairwise information transfer strengths also were nearly lognormally distributed, similar to reports of synaptic strengths. Some neurons transferred and received much more information than others, which is consistent with previous predictions. Neurons with the highest outgoing and incoming information transfer were more strongly connected to each other than chance, thus forming a “rich club. ” We found similar results in networks recorded in vivo from rodent cortex, suggesting the generality of these findings. A rich-club structure has been found previously in large-scale human brain networks and is thought to facilitate communication between cortical regions. The discovery of a small, but information-rich, subset of neurons within cortical regions suggests that this population will play a vital role in communication, learning, and memory. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Many studies have focused on communication networks between cortical brain regions. In contrast, very few studies have examined communication networks within a cortical region. This is the first study to combine such a large number of neurons (several hundred at a time) with such high temporal resolution (so we can know the direction of communication between neurons) for mapping networks within cortex. We found that information was not transferred equally through all neurons. Instead, ∼70% of the information passed through only 20% of the neurons. Network models suggest that this highly concentrated pattern of information transfer would be both efficient and robust to damage. Therefore, this work may help in understanding how the cortex processes information and responds to neurodegenerative diseases.
Heteromeric Kainate Receptors Formed by the Coassembly of GluR5, GluR6, and GluR7

In the CNS kainate subtype glutamate receptors (GluRs) are likely to be heteromeric assemblies containing multiple gene products. However, although recombinant kainate receptors from the GluR5–GluR7 gene family have been studied extensively in their homomeric forms, there have been no tests to determine whether these subunits can coassemble with each other. We used the GluR5 selective agonists (RS)-2-amino-3-(3-hydroxy-5-tertbutylisoxazol-4-yl)propanoic acid (ATPA) and (S)-5-iodowillardiine (I-will) to test for the coassembly of GluR5 with GluR6 and GluR7 by measuring changes in rectification that occur for heteromeric receptors containing both edited and unedited Q/R site subunits. Birectifying ATPA and I-will responses resulting from polyamine block for homomeric GluR5(Q) became outwardly rectifying when GluR6(R) was coexpressed with GluR5(Q), although GluR6 was not activated by ATPA or I-will, indicating the formation of heteromeric receptors. Similar approaches showed the coassembly of GluR7 with GluR6 and GluR5. Heteromeric kainate receptors containing both GluR5 and GluR6 subunits exhibited novel functional properties, including reduced desensitization and faster recovery from desensitization than those recorded for homomeric GluR5. Coexpression of GluR6 with GluR5 also enhanced the magnitude of responses to GluR5 selective agonists. In contrast, the coassembly of GluR7 with GluR6 markedly decreased the amplitude of agonist responses. Our results indicate that, similar to AMPA receptors, the kainate receptor subunits GluR5–GluR7 exhibit promiscuous coassembly. The formation of heteromeric kainate receptors may help to explain why the functional properties of native kainate receptors differ from those that have been reported for recombinant kainate receptors.
Regime Changes and Financial Markets

Regime switching models can match the tendency of financial markets to often change their behavior abruptly and the phenomenon that the new behavior of financial variables often persists for several periods after such a change. While the regimes captured by regime switching models are identified by an econometric procedure, they often correspond to different periods in regulation, policy, and other secular changes. In empirical estimates, the regime switching means, volatilities, autocorrelations, and cross-covariances of asset returns often differ across regimes, which allow regime switching models to capture the stylized behavior of many financial series including fat tails, heteroskedasticity, skewness, and time-varying correlations. In equilibrium models, regimes in fundamental processes, like consumption or dividend growth, strongly affect the dynamic properties of equilibrium asset prices and can induce non-linear risk-return trade-offs. Regime switches also lead to potentially large consequences for investors' optimal portfolio choice.
Trends in Salmonella enteric serovar Typhi in Nairobi, Kenya from 2004 to 2006.

BACKGROUND Typhoid fever is a global health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the current annual global burden of typhoid is approximately 22 million new cases, 5% of which are fatal. METHODOLOGY To assess the trends in antibiotic resistance in 100 Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strains were isolated from the blood of patients in Nairobi, Kenya, from 2004 to 2006. All isolates were tested against ampicilin, chloramphenic, nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, cotrimoxazole, cefuroxime, cefriaxone, amoxycillin/clavulanic acid, tetracycline and gentamycin. Susceptibility and resistance were determined using MIC and disk diffusion tests. RESULTS From 2004 to 2006 a total of 100 strains were studied; 70% of the isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR) while 15% of the isolates were sensitive to all drugs tested. Of 13 isolates that were resistant to ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid by disk diffusion, 11 had an MIC of 0. 25 microg/ml while two isolates had an MIC of 1.00 microg,/ml. Resistance in ampicillin decreased from 88% in 2004 to 64% in 2005; this increased to 76% in 2006. Similar trends were observed for four other antibiotics tested. CONCLUSION The prescription of first-line antibiotics used in the treatment of S. Typhi should be stopped temporarily. Drugs such as cipfloxacin would be useful in the treatment of typhoid caused by MDR S. Typhi. There is need to monitor the resistance in flouroquinolones as resistance to these drugs has been observed and they are the current drugs used to treat typhoid.
Recent Advances in Numerical Simulation of Propagation of EM Waves in the Earth's Ionosphere

EM wave propagation in the magnetoactive terrestrial ionosphere was investigated by numerical methods, and associated software was developed. Two principal functions were realized: ray tracing and ionogram synthesis. For the first time, reference-standard models, including the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) 2012, World Magnetic Model 2010, and World Geodetic System 1984, have been globally implemented for every component of the propagation medium, and fully manipulatable 3-D visualization was enabled in a study utilizing the bicharacteristic method. An assimilation model of the ionosphere was also used along with IRI. The focus was on the unveiling of multiskip long-range propagation effects. Effective numerical algorithms for solving the bicharacteristic system that allow rapid insight into an extremely large-scale EM problem and enable quasi-real-time operation were discussed. The simulation in the presence of abnormal locally increased or decreased electron density in the ionosphere of natural or artificial occurrence was considered. Experimental ionograms obtained by an ionosonde were compared to numerically synthesized ones.
Volume Changes of Frontal Lobe and Hippocampus in Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy

Background : In order to investigate the structural abnormalities in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), the volumes of the hippocampus and frontal lobe were measured. Methods : Nineteen JME patients and 19 age- and sex-matched normal controls underwent a 1.6 mm thick brain SPGR MRI. The volumes of the frontal lobe and hippocampus were measured with a volume of interest method. The differences of volumes between JME and normal groups were com- pared. The volumes were also compared between the early and late onset groups, and between the short and long seizure duration groups. The correlations between the volumes of the frontal lobe, hippocampus, or mid-sagittal area of the corpus callosum, and the age of seizure onset or the duration of disease were tested. Results : The cerebral volume was not found to be different between the JME and normal groups ( p=0.521). The left hippocampus was significantly smaller in the JME group ( p=0.032) while the left frontal lobe was significantly larger in the JME group ( p=0.004). The area of the rostral body of corpus callosum showed a significant positive correlation with the age of onset (r=0.561, p=0.012). The right frontal lobe volume showed a significant negative correlation with the duration of disease (r=- 0.511, p=0.025). Conclusions : These results imply that JME has volume changes in the frontal lobe and hippocampus. The volume reduction of the right frontal lobe in patients with a longer disease duration may suggest a progressive nature of JME. The smaller rostral body of the corpus callosum in patients with earlier seizure onset may suggest an ontogenic abnormality of JME. J Korean Neurol Assoc 21(1):54~61, 2003
Benzene Exposure and Hematotoxicity

In their Report “Hematotoxicity in workers exposed to low levels of benzene” (3 Dec. 2004, p. [1774][1]), Q. Lan et al. present data on blood cell counts and hematopoietic progenitor cell colony formation from sera of benzene-exposed workers (and controls) in China, from which they conclude that
Familial Skewed X Chromosome Inactivation in Adrenoleukodystrophy Manifesting Heterozygotes from a Chinese Pedigree

Background X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutations in the ABCD1 gene. Approximately 20% of X-ALD female carriers may develop neurological symptoms. Skewed X chromosome inactivation (XCI) has been proposed to influence the manifestation of symptoms in X-ALD carriers, but data remain conflicting so far. We identified a three generation kindred, with five heterozygous females, including two manifesting carriers. XCI pattern and the ABCD1 allele expression were assessed in order to determine if symptoms in X-ALD carriers could be related to skewed XCI and whether skewing within this family is more consistent with genetically influenced or completely random XCI. Results We found a high frequency of skewing in this family. Four of five females had skewed XCI, including two manifesting carriers favoring the mutant allele, one asymptomatic carrier favoring the normal allele, and one female who was not an X-ALD carrier. Known causes of skewing, such as chromosomal abnormalities, selection against deleterious alleles, XIST promoter mutations, were not consistent with our results. Conclusions Our data support that skewed XCI in favor of the mutant ABCD1 allele would be associated with the manifestation of heterozygous symptoms. Furthermore, XCI skewing in this family is genetically influenced. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be substantiated by further experiments.
Comparing linguistic information in treebank annotations

The paper investigates the issue of portability of methods and results over treebanks in different languages and annotation formats. In particular, it addresses the problem of converting an Italian treebank, the Turin University Treebank (TUT), developed in dependency format, into the Penn Treebank format, in order to possibly exploit the tools and methods already developed and compare the adequacy of information encoding in the two formats. We describe the procedures for converting the two annotation formats and we present an experiment that evaluates some linguistic knowledge extracted from the two formats, namely sub-categorization frames.
Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy.

Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and health services, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and cooperation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity.
Striking the Right Balance

This article explores how the exchange of social resources delivered by service employees and economic resources provided through service operations creates social and structural bonds that enhance business-to-business relationships. It describes an empirical study of experienced business customers of a large telecommunications company. The study shows that social bonds created by employee-delivered service have a greater influence on customers' satisfaction with company representatives and perceived value, whereas structural bonds created through the exchange of economic resources (financial or operational) have a stronger effect on their overall satisfaction with the organization. Business customers' responses to service design are moderated by the length, nature, and quality of customers' prior experiences with the service organization. Moreover, value mediates the effects of both service and satisfaction on behavioral intentions. The findings provide guidance for managers on how to “strike the right balance” in deploying service personnel and structuring service operations.
Dual alteration of limbic dopamine D1 receptor‐mediated signalling and the Akt/GSK3 pathway in dopamine D3 receptor mutants during the development of methamphetamine sensitization

The central dopamine system plays significant roles in motor activity and drug‐induced behavioural sensitization. Our goal was to determine the significance of dopamine D3 receptors in the development of behavioural sensitization to methamphetamine, assessed with D3 receptor mutant mice. The absence of D3 receptors significantly increased the behavioural responses to acute methamphetamine and evoked a faster rate of behavioural sensitization to chronic methamphetamine. In addition, both D3 receptor protein and mRNA levels in the limbic forebrain decreased in sensitized wild‐type mice. Further analyses indicated that D1‐dependent behavioural sensitization and the number of limbic D1 receptors increased in sensitized D3 mutants as compared with sensitized wild‐type mice. Consistent with this finding, we observed higher levels of D1 receptor‐evoked cAMP accumulation and basal phosphoDARPP‐32/Thr34 in the limbic forebrain of D3 mutants than wild‐type mice and the difference was more pronounced after chronic methamphetamine treatment. We also observed an increase in phospho‐extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 2 but a decrease in phosphoAkt/Ser473 and phosphoglycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3)‐α/β in the limbic forebrain of D3 mutants compared with wild‐type mice after methamphetamine treatment. The convergent results implicate D3 receptors as a negative regulator of the development of methamphetamine sensitization. A compensatory up‐regulation of D1 receptor‐mediated signals, in addition to an altered Akt/GSK3 pathway, could contribute to the accelerated development of behavioural sensitization.
Workload Pressures of Principals

This study is designed to understand how principals perceive the common stressors associated with leading an educational enterprise and propose strategies for relief from job-related stressors. As such, the same survey results from principals in 2009 and 2012 are analyzed. The results indicated increases in the perceived state of stress with regard to personal stress and factors that have been associated with new legislative demands on principals. To that end, the authors identified sources of renewal for principals experiencing workplace stress that include mindfulness practice to help school leaders thrive at work.
Using the verifiability lie detection approach in an insurance claim setting

In this experiment, we tested the verifiability approach in an insurance claim setting. Core of the verifiability approach is that truth tellers give more details that can be verified than liars. Fifty undergraduate students took part, who produced true and false insurance claim statements related to theft, loss, or damage. These statements were coded in terms of verifiability (the number of details that could be checked by an investigator) and witness factors (friends, police, other officials and CCTV cameras). Truth tellers provided more verifiable details than liars and liars provided more unverifiable details than truth tellers. In addition, truth tellers (versus liars) more frequently informed their friends about the incident or referred to CCTV footage of the incident. The potential and limitations of using the verifiability approach in insurance settings are discussed.
Concentric needle jitter on stimulated frontalis and extensor digitorum in 20 myasthenia gravis patients

Introduction: Our objective was to study jitter parameters using a concentric needle electrode (CNE) in the extensor digitorum (ED) and frontalis (FR) muscles. Methods: Twenty myasthenia gravis (MG) patients, mean age 44.5 years, were studied. Percutaneous (FR) and intramuscular needle (ED) stimulation approaches were used. Jitter was expressed as the mean consecutive difference (MCD). The filter settings were from 1000 HZ to 10 kHZ. Results: Abnormal MCD was found in 85% for both ED and FR and in 90% when combining the two muscles. An abnormal percentage of outliers was found in 90% for ED and 85% for FR. The mean MCD did not show a difference for ED and FR, but the percentage of outliers and blocking were higher in FR. Abnormality was found in 93.7% (generalized) and in 75% (ocular) of MG cases. For ED outliers abnormality was greater than the MCD. Conclusion: CNE jitter is reliable for investigation of MG, although borderline findings should be judged with caution. Muscle Nerve 2011