Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is cardiac function impaired in premotor Parkinson's disease? A retrospective cohort study

The objective of this study was to assess cardiovascular response during cardiac stress testing in neurologically asymptomatic individuals who developed motor features of Parkinson's disease several years after the cardiac stress testing. This was a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent cardiac stress testing between January 2001 and December 2010. Patients were followed until May 2012 to select those who developed Parkinson's disease. Heart rate and blood pressure both at rest and at peak exercise and heart rate variability at rest were recorded. For each patient who developed Parkinson's disease, 2 matched controls who did not develop Parkinson's disease at the end of the follow‐up period were selected. Patients who were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease the same day of cardiac stress testing also were selected for comparison purposes. After excluding participants who were lost to follow‐up, 2739 patients remained. From this cohort, 18 (11 men) had developed Parkinson's disease 4.27 ± 2.56 years after the cardiac stress test. Thirty‐six matched controls were selected. At peak exercise, the maximum heart rate and the percentage of theoretical maximum heart rate were significantly lower in patients who developed Parkinson's disease after cardiac stress testing compared with controls. The sensitivity of a maximum heart rate ≤ 143 beats per minute to predict a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease after a mean of 4.27 years was 83%, and the specificity was 62%. The results from this exploratory study demonstrate that chronotropic insufficiency may constitute an early sign of Parkinson's disease during the premotor phase, serving as potential risk factor for its diagnosis. Further investigations are needed in larger populations. © 2013 Movement Disorder Society
Dimensions of Uncertainty and Their Moderating Effect on New Product Development Project Performance

In this study, we measure the dimensions of uncertainty, starting from the definitions constructed for and generally used in innovation projects. We then evaluate their direct and indirect effects on the performance of product and service development projects. Four dimensions of uncertainty are delimited with satisfactory validity and reliability, suggesting a differential moderating effect of the four types of uncertainty (technical and project uncertainty, market uncertainty, fuzziness and complexity) depending on the performance dimension (effectiveness and efficiency) and co-moderator (project methods and human resource adequacy). Of the four dimensions explored, technical and project, and market uncertainty are true moderators and have the largest interactive effect, fuzziness has a strong direct effect on both performance dimensions whereas complexity weakly directly influences effectiveness. The latter two also influence the relations between performance and the factors related to human resources and project management methods.
Silence is Golden: Communication, Silence, And Cartel Stability

This paper studies how cartel stability is influenced by asymmetric information and communication about demand. Firms in a cartel face fluctuating demand in a repeated game framework. In each period, one randomly chosen firm knows current demand. In this context we consider two different equilibria -- one where the informed firm communicates its information to its partners and another where it does not. We show that cartels are extremely unstable when the informed firm communicates with the uninformed firms. However, when the informed firm does not communicate with the uninformed firms cartels can be as stable as when there are no demand fluctuations at all.
The Seasoned-Equity Issues of UK Firms: Market Reaction and Issuance Method Choice

This study examines the seasoned equity issues of companies traded on the London Stock Exchange. Recent regulatory changes have allowed UK firms more discretion in choice of issue approach, and this has led many firms to issue through placing in preference to a rights issue. Having first documented the trend towards increasing use of placings, we go on to identify an interesting subset of placings that are less likely to be anticipated by the market, and find a significant positive market reaction to such placings, which contrasts with the significant negative reaction we find for issues by rights. We also examine the choice of seasoned equity issuance method, focusing on the choice between placings versus rights issues. We develop a model to explain the choice of equity issue method that achieves a high level of predictive accuracy. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2006.
Environmental discourses and biodiversity: the construction of a storyline in understanding and managing an environmental issue

Although biodiversity is considered to be one of today's greatest environmental challenges, its definition remains open to interpretation. How biodiversity is understood and managed depends on the environmental discourses within which it is articulated. This paper examines how the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), one of the largest environmental NGOs in Sweden, describes biodiversity in its 2011 yearbook. The yearbook is aimed at a wide audience and is intended to improve the general public's understanding of biodiversity. Using discourse analysis, this study shows how the SSNC defines biodiversity by re-articulating three environmental discourses and integrating them into a single storyline. The analysis shows how these discourses offer different possibilities for different subject positions to speak about and act in relation to biodiversity. Finally, the study shows how normative implications for action are articulated as consequences of these definitions and who is responsible for performing these actions.
Fundamental uncertainty and stock market volatility

We provide empirical evidence on the link between stock market volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty. We show that US stock market volatility is significantly related to the dispersion in economic forecasts from participants in the Survey of Professional Forecasters over the period 1969 to 1996. This link is much stronger than that between stock market volatility and the more traditional time-series measures of macroeconomic volatility, but disappears from 1997 onwards. This coincides with a previously documented regime shift in stock volatility. Macroeconomic uncertainty is also able to explain and forecast the volatilities of the Fama and French factors SMB, HML and UMD.
Health‐related quality of life – using the 15D instrument – of young adults with type 1 diabetes since childhood. Population‐based Oulu cohort study of diabetic retinopathy

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) of young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) since childhood using the 15D instrument. The possible impact of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) on the HRQoL was focused on.
A New Alliance in New York State: A Progress Report on the Labor Movement’s Restructuring, Capacity Building, and Programmatic Work

The labor movement in New York State has undergone a dramatic restructuring that is part of a national AFL-CIO program called the New Alliance. The purpose of the New Alliance is to build the capacity of local labor movements and empower unions to help shape a region’s political and economic agenda. The restructuring in NYS led to the consolidation of 25 central labor councils into 5 area labor federations, each of which is developing the resources, staff and leadership to help grow labor’s regional power across the state. This article describes the origins of the New Alliance, the nature of the restructuring process, the ways in which the capacity of local labor movements are expanding, the programmatic work the restructured central bodies have undertaken in the last five years, and the impact of the national split on local and regional central bodies across New York State. Introduction In the summer of 1999, Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFLCIO, and Al Davidoff, NYS director for the national AFL-CIO, conducted a nine-city “listening tour” to confer with local union leaders and to learn more about the activities of the thirty-one central labor councils scattered across the state. The tour was part of a larger effort to develop a strategic plan for the state federation. In one small city, Hughes and Davidoff met with a long-time CLC president and asked him what he regarded as his central labor council’s greatest accomplishment during the past year. “Establishing a ‘labor hole’ at a local charity’s miniature golf tournament,” the CLC president responded. That may have been one of the first clear indications that changes in the structure and function of New York State’s central labor bodies might be necessary. The listening tour was the first decisive step in New York State’s New Alliance initiative, a national AFL-CIO program that eventually consolidated 25 central labor 1 Interview with Al Davidoff, September 29, 2005. Interview with Denis Hughes, April 26, 2006.
Factors associated with pathological gambling at 10-year follow-up in a national sample of middle-aged men.

BACKGROUND The present analyses will expand on previous reports by considering the impact of eight psychiatric disorders and genetic vulnerability to problem (P) and pathological gambling gambling (PG). methods: Diagnoses of DSM-III-R life-time P and PG were derived in 1992 and past-year P and PG in 2002 from 1675 individual twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. Logistic regression was used to predict past-year P and PG as a function of socio-demographics and life-time co-occurring psychiatric disorders including gambling problems measured in 1992. Co-twin analyses accounted for familial contributions to past-year gambling problems. RESULTS High school or greater educational attainment was associated with less likelihood of current P and PG. With the exception of alcohol dependence and generalized anxiety/panic, all disorders studied remained associated significantly with an increase risk of past-year P and PG after adjusting for 1992 gambling symptoms. Past-year P and PG was associated significantly with the number of pathological gambling symptoms reported in 1992. After controlling for genetic and family environmental factors, one or more 1992 symptoms were associated with 2002 symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Education and substance dependence, mood and antisocial personality disorders were associated with current gambling. A history of PG symptoms is the strongest predictor of past-year problem gambling.
Process Views of Trusting and Crises

The paper calls for research on 'trusting' as a process instead of 'trust' as an outcome. It highlights mental and social processes of trusting and outlines five process views of trusting as (1) continuing, (2) processing, (3) learning, (4) becoming, and (5) constituting. Methodological implications of these process views are discussed as well as new possibilities for making sense of crises.
Leveraging Micro‐ and Macro‐Structures of Embeddedness in Alliance Networks for Exploratory Innovation in Biotechnology

Researchers agree that alliance networks can be an important instrument in a firm's innovation process, but there is limited empirical evidence on actually how they facilitate the creation of new knowledge for exploratory innovation. The research question is what alliance network configuration is optimal for exploratory innovation. The present study investigated the interaction between a firm's alliance portfolio structure (the micro‐level) and the industry alliance network structure (the macro‐level), and it empirically tested how their interaction may be affecting the exploratory innovation outcome of network participating firms in the biotechnology industry. The paper uses data from exploratory patents filed by 455 dedicated biotechnology firms in 1986–1999 and an overall network comprising 2,933 technological alliances over the same period. The results indicate that, in the case of biotechnology, firms with high exploratory innovation output have short path indirect access to many other firms (micro‐level), and operate in dense industry alliance networks centralized around a few key firms (macro‐level), and that these effects are curvilinear.
When Should a Monopolist Improve Quality in a Network Industry?

Abstract This article identifies the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a monopolist, producing a network good, benefits from introducing a higher quality in the market. It is shown that, if the network externality is higher than the intrinsic quality differential, quality improvement is not optimal. Also, we obtain that, for low levels of the network effect, the monopolist prefers not to cover the market, whereas for higher levels, optimal prices are such that all consumers buy one of the two qualities. Finally, there is an introductory price strategy which is optimal for the good that benefits from network externalities.
Sacrifice Ratios: Some lessons from EMU countries, 1960-2001

This paper estimates the sacrifice ratios based on the Phillips curve. Using annual data, we estimate individual and common sacrifice ratios for EMU countries. In addition, we test whether the sacrifice ratio is stable for the whole period, which includes years of both high and low inflation rates, such as those observed after the European integration.
Analysis on the Performance of Vermifilter at Low Temperature in Winter

The performance of the vermifilter in winter was investigated. The experimental results indicated that the temperature of vermifilter bed in winter was 1~5°C higher than that of the ambient. However, the temperature was still a key factor for the vermifilter, low temperature could influence the activity of the earthworms. The filter bed temperature was positively correlated with the earthworm density. So was the unit-area biomass. Reversely, the filter bed temperature was negatively correlated with the density of the mature earthworms. The results also showed that the earthworms' relative ingestion and digestion abilities were only about 1/3 of those in summer under the same hydraulic loading. Moreover, the removal rates of the pollutants except BOD5 of the vermifilter effluent in winter was only half of that in summer under the same hydraulic loading. The average removal rates of TN and TP were both less than 10 %. Warmer area and better heat preservation medium are recommended to be provided for the vermifilter for its excellent operation performance.
Consistent Dividend Growth Investment Strategies

This article investigates whether firms in the United Kingdom that have a long, uninterrupted history of dividend growth outperform the broader equity market. It is observed that firms with more than 10 years of consistent growth have returned considerably more than the equity market as a whole, with the additional benefits of lower volatility and smaller drawdowns. A size effect exists among these firms, with lower market-capitalization firms demonstrating improved risk-adjusted returns.
Dual Labor Markets: A Macroeconomic Perspective

The labor market consists of two tiers. Workers in the upper tier enjoy high wages, good benefits, and employment security, and they are often unionized. Workers in the lower tier experience low wages, high turnover, job insecurity, and little chance of promotion. Until now, dual labor market theory has focused mainly on microeconomic factors such as discrimination, poverty, and public welfare. Dual Labor Markets considers the macroeconomic implications of the dual market. The book uses theoretical models derived from the author's research over the past six years to analyze such policy issues as the level and persistence of unemployment, the level of real wages, the accumulation of human capital, and the political viability of labor market reform in the United States and Europe.
Formal and Informal Employment in Europe

This article reveals that formal labour markets in the European Union are not always quite as pure, wholesome and legitimate as might be supposed. Until now, it has been commonly assumed that the formal economy is separate and discrete from the informal economy. To contribute to the emerging literature showing that this is not always the case and that the formal economy can be permeated by informal practices, a so far little discussed employment arrangement is here brought to the fore in which formal employers pay their formal employees two wages, one declared and the other an undeclared (`envelope') wage. Reporting a 2007 survey composed of 26,659 face-to-face interviews in the 27 EU member states, the finding is that some 5 percent of all formal employees receive such undeclared wages from their formal employers which amount on average to two-fifths of their wage packet. However, this employment practice is not evenly distributed across the EU. Such quasi-formal employment is markedly more prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where the undeclared wage is more likely to be paid for regular employment hours, while in Continental Europe and Nordic countries undeclared wages are less common and are received mostly for overtime or extra work conducted. Given the prevalence in the EU of this hybrid employment practice which is neither purely formal nor informal, the article concludes by calling for greater recognition of how formal and informal employment are sometimes intimately interlocked and entwined rather than separate and discrete spheres.
One hundred years of interstitial cells of Cajal

This review is a portrayal of the evolution of ideas involving the interstitial cells of Cajal in changing disguises as dull fibroblasts, not very exciting Schwann cells, or perhaps quite important, though primitive neurons. However, today unmasked (we believe), they reveal themselves as myoid cells, a role that, judging by current interest, is far more exciting than former ones.
Chemical and biological insecticides select distinct gene expression patterns in Aedes aegypti mosquito

Worldwide evolution of mosquito resistance to chemical insecticides represents a major challenge for public health, and the future of vector control largely relies on the development of biological insecticides that can be used in combination with chemicals (integrated management), with the expectation that populations already resistant to chemicals will not become readily resistant to biological insecticides. However, little is known about the metabolic pathways affected by selection with chemical or biological insecticides. Here we show that Aedes aegypti, a laboratory mosquito strain selected with a biological insecticide (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, Bti) evolved increased transcription of many genes coding for endopeptidases while most genes coding for detoxification enzymes were under-expressed. By contrast, in strains selected with chemicals, genes encoding detoxification enzymes were mostly over-expressed. In all the resistant strains, genes involved in immune response were under-transcribed, suggesting that basal immunity might be a general adjustment variable to compensate metabolic costs caused by insecticide selection. Bioassays generally showed no evidence for an increased susceptibility of selected strains towards the other insecticide type, and all chemical-resistant strains were as susceptible to Bti as the unselected parent strain, which is a good premise for sustainable integrated management of mosquito populations resistant to chemicals.
A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: Lessons for International Monetary Reform

At the close of the Second World War, when industrialized nations faced serious trade and financial imbalances, delegates from forty-four countries met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in order to reconstruct the international monetary system. Over the next 25 years, with currencies fixed to the American dollar, world trade expanded vigorously, inflation remained moderate, and national income in industrialized countries rose faster than during any other period. In this volume, three generations of scholars and policy makers, some of whom participated in the 1944 conference, consider how the Bretton Woods System contributed to economic stability and rapid growth between 1945 and 1971 and discuss the future of the international monetary system in light of the Bretton Woods experience. Since President Richard M. Nixon ended the Bretton Woods System in 1971, exchange rates have exhibited increasing flexibility. After twenty years of floating rates, however, there is considerable interest in once again limiting exchange rate flexibility. The apparent success of the European Monetary System, a fixed-rate arrangement loosely based on the postwar system, and the prospect of European monetary unification increase interest in a new internationally stable exchange rate. Moreover, some academics and government officials see fixed rates as a way to help Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union cope with pressing economic and political problems. The economists, historians, political scientists, and policy makers who contribute to this volume relate the Bretton Woods System to earlier fixed-rate schemes and consider the political background of the original New Hampshire meeting. Using recenteconomic theory - for example, work on time consistency and credibility - they explore adjustment, liquidity, and transmission under the System; the way it affected developing countries; and the role of the International Monetary Fund in maintaining a stable rate. The authors examine th
Employee Retention Factors For South African Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study

The success of the most competitive companies throughout the world, including higher education institutions, lies in their highly skilled employees on which these institutions spend millions to retain. Literature reveals the cost of losing best employees to be enormous – beyond monetary quantification. Also worth noting is that the loss of one competent employee to a competitor institution strengthens the competitor’s advantage. This case study analysed human resources turnover data, and interviewed academic managers and employees in order to examine the possible employee retention factors for a higher education institution in South Africa. The findings reveal different institutional interests between institutional managers and employees. The former are concerned more about profits, business sustenance and justification for spending, while the latter are driven by introverted interests such as development, monetary rewards and personal fulfilment.
Feasibility study of a nurse-led heart failure education program

Aims/Objectives: To assess the feasibility of a nurse-led heart failure (HF) education program using the Self-Care Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) instrument. Background: HF is a frequent and burdensome condition requiring support with self-care management strategies and education. Translating best practice to health services is important in improving health outcomes. Design: Longitudinal quasi-experimental design. Methods: A convenience sample of (N = 41) patients with HF. We implemented a nurse-led education program with 30-day post-discharge home-based telephone follow-up. The SCHFI was used to measure self-care behaviors. 30-day readmission rates were assessed. Results: A significant difference was found in scores for self-care maintenance (p ≤ .001) and self-care management (p ≤ .001) subscales, not self-care confidence. There was no statistically significant difference between 30-day HF readmission rates. Conclusions: Findings suggest that the nurse-led evidence-based HF education program improved self-care behaviors and decreased 30-day readmissions. There is a need for continued development of interventions focused on improving patient self-care confidence.