Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Chest Pain Protocols for Electrocardiography-Gated Dual-Source Cardiothoracic CT in Children and Adults: The Effect of Tube Current Saturation on Radiation Dose Reduction

Objective To compare radiation doses between conventional and chest pain protocols using dual-source retrospectively electrocardiography (ECG)-gated cardiothoracic computed tomography (CT) in children and adults and assess the effect of tube current saturation on radiation dose reduction. Materials and Methods This study included 104 patients (16.6 ± 7.7 years, range 5–48 years) that were divided into two groups: those with and those without tube current saturation. The estimated radiation doses of retrospectively ECG-gated spiral cardiothoracic CT were compared between conventional, uniphasic, and biphasic chest pain protocols acquired with the same imaging parameters in the same patients by using paired t tests. Dose reduction percentages, patient ages, volume CT dose index values, and tube current time products per rotation were compared between the two groups by using unpaired t tests. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results The volume CT dose index values of the biphasic chest pain protocol (10.8 ± 3.9 mGy) were significantly lower than those of the conventional protocol (12.2 ± 4.7 mGy, p < 0.001) and those of the uniphasic chest pain protocol (12.9 ± 4.9 mGy, p < 0.001). The dose-saving effect of biphasic chest pain protocol was significantly less with a saturated tube current (4.5 ± 10.2%) than with unsaturated tube current method (14.8 ± 11.5%, p < 0.001). In 76 patients using 100 kVp, patient age showed no significant differences between the groups with and without tube current saturation in all protocols (p > 0.05); the groups with tube current saturation showed significantly higher volume CT dose index values (p < 0.01) and tube current time product per rotation (p < 0.001) than the groups without tube current saturation in all protocols. Conclusion The radiation dose of dual-source retrospectively ECG-gated spiral cardiothoracic CT can be reduced by approximately 15% by using the biphasic chest pain protocol instead of the conventional protocol in children and adults if radiation dose parameters are further optimized to avoid tube current saturation.
The Insignificance of Auditor Selection in the Valuation of Private Companies Within the Public Acquisition Market

Previous research has set a firm position on quality and credibility of accounting information in the audit markets. Firth and Smith (1992), Firth and Liau-Tan (1998) and DeFranco et al. (2010) observed that brand name auditors provide higher assurance and credibility to the audited financial statements of companies with little or no trading history. However, in light of this reputable research, the established view from major professional accounting groups is that audits are the same regardless of the audit firm implying auditing homogeneity (Niskanen et al., 2010). The results from this analysis indicated that the price of a privately held company did not vary as a function of the audit firm performing the audit. Two analyses were performed comparing private companies audited by the largest ten accounting firms vs. all others, and Big 5(4) firms opposed to the remaining.
Error rates resulting from anemia can be corrected in multiple commonly used point-of-care glucometers.

BACKGROUND A point-of-care (POC) glucometer (G1) used for critical care at our institution is inaccurate in the presence of low hematocrit (HCT) values. The purpose of this study was to analyze error rates of three additional POC glucometer brands and determine mathematical correction formulas for each. METHODS Blood samples (n = 196) from a cohort of surgical, trauma, medical, cardiothoracic, and burn intensive care unit patients were tested on three commonly used POC glucometer brands (G2-G4). Results were compared with reference laboratory values, and correction compared with the validated formula for G1. A mathematical formula specific to each glucometer type was derived from glucose measurements, associated HCT values, and the degree of difference relative to laboratory results. RESULTS POC glucometer results were consistently elevated compared with reference laboratory values. Glucometer error rates for HCT </= 25% ranged from 15.4% to 22.3% for the three types. Error rates for 25% < HCT < 34% ranged from 16.4% to 18.4%. A correction formula for each glucometer based on the natural log transformation of the HCT predicted reference values with a mean error rate of -0.54% +/- 5.6% for G2, -0.6% +/- 5.5% for G3, and 0.2% +/- 8.0% for G4. Correction was similar to that previously established for G1 (-0.01% +/- 4.8). CONCLUSIONS Significant error rates because of HCT effect were found in all glucometer models tested with accurate prediction of reference values with a simple mathematical formula.
Free to Squander? Democracy, Institutional Design, and Economic Sustainability, 1975-2000

While democracy’s effect on economic growth has come under intense empirical scrutiny, its effect on economic sustainability has been noticeably neglected. We assess the effects of regime type and democratic institutional design on economic, or “weak” sustainability. Sustainability requires that stocks of capital do not depreciate in value over time. The World Bank gauges the rate of net investment in manufactured, human, and natural capital, a unified indicator of weak sustainability (the genuine savings rate). All four indicators of democracy we examine show that freer societies have higher genuine savings rates because they invest more in human capital, create less CO2 damage, and extract fewer natural resources per economic unit produced, even if they show lower net investment in manufactured capital. Democracies may trade off immediate material welfare gains for future pay-offs. This finding justifies why scholars should assess the effects of regime type on more than just immediate growth or the rate of change of manufactured capital. Among democracies, we find that pure parliamentary systems spend more on education than do presidential ones, but exhibit no statistically significant difference for the overall genuine savings rate. Proportional representation electoral systems fare worse than plurality when it comes to genuine and net national savings, even though they do better on education spending. The results taken together show that differences in regime type and democratic institutional design allow for different trade-offs. The results are robust to a range of specifications and a developing country only sub- sample.
Primary treatment failure in patients with malignant ovarian germ cell neoplasms

Between 1970 and 1990, 160 patients with malignant non-dysgerminomatous ovarian germ cell tumors have been treated at our own institution. Primary therapy failed in 42 of these patients, who constitute the basis for this study. Seventeen patients had stage I disease, 5 stage II, 17 stage III, and 3 stage IV. Histologic type included 13 immature teratomas, 8 endodermal sinus tumors, and 21 mixed germ cell tumors. Primary therapy for 14 patients was surgery alone, for 23, surgery plus chemotherapy, for 2, surgery plus radiotherapy and for 3, all three modalities. Median progression-free survival from initial diagnosis lasted 6.8 months (range, 0.9–24 months). Thirty-four patients received chemotherapy as part of salvage; 5/11 (45%) who received VAC are disease-free, and 6/11 (55%) who received cisplatin combinations are disease-free. When primary VAC failed, 3/7 (43%) were salvaged with cisplatin combinations. When primary cisplatin combinations failed, 2/5 (40%) were salvaged. Twelve of the 42 patients (29%) are currently alive disease-free. Primary treatment failure was attributed to surgery alone for 14 patients (7 because of misdiagnosis), radiotherapy for 5, and toxicity for 1. Of the 22 patients who failed chemotherapy, 12 did so because of a suboptimal regimen, 3 because of possible dose-intensity problems, one because of non-compliance, and 6 for unexplained reasons. Patients with ovarian germ cell tumors have an excellent probability of cure with aggressive primary therapy, but successful salvage may be difficult when primary treatment fails.
Segmenting Local Residents By Their Attitudes, Interests, and Opinions Toward Tourism

The present study was designed to assess and segment local residents with respect to their attitudes, interests, and opinions toward tourism. An analysis of AIO data from a mail survey of 415 Florida residents uncoveredfive clusters of differing degrees of attitudes toward the state's tourism efforts. A strong anti-tourism, anti-growth segment in the state seems to indicate that state government should devote a portion of the state's tourism promotion efforts toward enlightening the residents regarding the positive multiplier effects of tourism. Additionally, some recommendations are discussed that could encourage this effort.
An Examination of African American NCAA DI-FBS Football Coaches: A Five-Year Update

Past studies have concluded that institutional and access discrimination remain potential deterrents in achieving a more diverse and equal representation of racial minority head coaches in college football. This study sought to examine and compare the career paths of all DI-FBS coaches to determine the potential continued existence of discrimination and its impact. Findings revealed an overall positive shift in the representation of African American coaches, particularly at the assistant coach level. Thus, the coaching career paths of current head coaches and coordinators appear to be paving a more equitable path for assistant and future coaches. However, the data also portray the existence of both institutional and access discrimination. Such biases facilitate and maintain an underrepresentation of African American coaches; and while the increased acceptance of upper-level coaches with diverse racial, playing, and coaching backgrounds suggests a positive shift toward racial equality among coaches, the mo.
Stability Of Money Demand In A Developing Economy: Empirical Evidence From South Africa

A stable money demand function plays a vital role in the analysis of macroeconomics, especially in the planning and implementation of monetary policy. When investigating the theory of money demand, there are some important issues that need to be considered, such as the choice of the appropriate measure of money, the scale variable (income or wealth) and the opportunity cost variable (short- or long-term interest rates). This paper estimates a stable long-run equilibrium relationship between real money demand (RM2) and its explanatory variables in South Africa, using cointegration and error correction methods. The results obtained confirm the existence of such stable equilibrium relationships. The crucial results from the Error Correction model (ECM) indicate that monetary policy in South Africa is effective. However, in spite of its efficiency, monetary policy does not have a quick effect, needing at least four quarters (one year) from its inception to make a real difference. In other words, there might be difficulties in implementing monetary policy in an emergency situation. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are made in the paper.
Environmental Influences on Ethical Decision Making: Climate and Environmental Predictors of Research Integrity

It is commonly held that early career experiences influence ethical behavior. One way early career experiences might operate is to influence the decisions people make when presented with problems that raise ethical concerns. To test this proposition, 102 first-year doctoral students were asked to complete a series of measures examining ethical decision making along with a series of measures examining environmental experiences and climate perceptions. Factoring of the environmental measure yielded five dimensions: professional leadership, poor coping, lack of rewards, limited competitive pressure, and poor career direction. Factoring of the climate inventory yielded four dimensions: equity, interpersonal conflict, occupational engagement, and work commitment. When these dimensions were used to predict performance on the ethical decision-making task, it was found that the environmental dimensions were better predictors than the climate dimensions. The implications of these findings for research on ethical conduct are discussed.
THE COSTS OF RAISING CAPITAL

We report the average costs of raising external debt and equity capital for U.S. corporations from 1990 to 1994. For initial public offerings (IPOs) of equity, the direct costs average 11.0 percent of the proceeds. For seasoned equity offerings (SEOs), the direct costs average 7.1 percent. For convertible bonds, the direct costs average 3.8 percent. For straight debt issues, the direct costs average 2.2 percent, although they are strongly related to the credit rating of the issue. All classes of securities exhibit economies of scale, although they are less pronounced for straight debt issues. IPOs also incur a substantial indirect cost due to short‐run underpricing. Most large equity offers include an international tranche, although debt issues do not.
[Application study of totally laparoscopic distal gastrectomy with delta-shaped anastomosis].

OBJECTIVE To compare the short-term efficacy between totally laparoscopic distal gastrectomy(TLDG) with delta-shaped anastomosis (DS) and laparoscopic-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) with BrillrothI ( anastomosis (BI(), and to evaluate the application of DS. METHODS Between March 2013 and February 2014, 50 patients underwent TLDG with DS using linear staplers, and 43 patients underwent LADG with BI( using circular staplers. Clinical features and short-term efficacy of the two groups were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of demographic indicators, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, number of removal lymph node, time to first flatus, incidence of complication and postoperative discharge day(all P>0.05). First-day postoperative pain was milder (3.1 ± 1.0 vs. 4.6 ± 1.4), and operative incision was shorter [(3.4 ± 0.4) cm vs. (6.9 ± 0.8) cm] significantly in TLDG with DS group(P<0.05). CONCLUSION TLDG with DS is safe and feasible for patients with gastric cancer, and has more advantages in cosmetic and comfort level than LADG with BI.
Insider Trading in Financial Signaling Models

The authors study the impact of voluntary trade by the manager. They find that, in contrast to standard signaling models, an action is good news for some firms and bad news for others, depending on observable characteristics of the firm, its managers, and their compensation plans. Further, voluntary trade eliminates separating equilibria and, thus, the possibility of exactly inferring the manager's private information. This may cause the manager to take inefficient actions so as to earn trading profits. Such undesirable behavior can be more effectively constrained by compensation contracts based on phantom shares or nontradeable options instead of large stockholdings. Copyright 1992 by American Finance Association.
Soft Power, Religion and Anti-Americanism in the Middle East

This study presents the first systematic analysis of the public opinion dimension of soft power competition in the contemporary Middle East. Building on the scholarship on perceptions of foreign states and Arab public opinion, it proposes a series of hypotheses about sectarian identity, religious worldviews, and anti-Americanism as determinants of attitudes toward Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in the context of regional rivalry. It then presents multivariate probit estimations utilizing Pew Global Attitudes Survey to test these hypotheses. The findings suggest that religious identity and worldviews directly affect favorability ratings of these three powers in the Arab Middle East. While Sunnis favor Saudi Arabia and Turkey over Iran, religious individuals demanding Islamic law favor the Islamic Republic. Furthermore, anti-Americanism translates into lower support for Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but greater support for Iran. Democratic attitudes have no influence over perceptions of these three powers indicating the limits of democracy promotion as a foreign policy tool.
ESSAYS ON GROWTH ECONOMETRICS

En esta tesis doctoral se analizan los principales determinantes del crecimiento economico a largo plazo. La principal contribucion de la misma es atajar de forma simultanea los dos problemas mas importantes presentes en la literatura empirica de crecimiento economico: endogeneidad e incertidumbre de modelo. Por un lado propongo en la tesis un nuevo estimador para datos de panel que tiene en cuenta la endogeneidad de los regresores; y por otro lado combino el estimador propuesto con tecnicas de promediado de modelos para atajar la incertidumbre de modelo. El problema de la endogenidad surge porque cuando regresas crecimiento economico (del PIB) sobre, por ejemplo, educacion como determinante del crecimiento, no sabemos con seguridad si una mejor educacion causa un mayor crecimiento o si es el mayor crecimiento el que causa una mejor educacion. Por eso decimos que la educacion es endogena. En esta tesis propongo un nuevo estimador que es capaz de obtener estimaciones de efectos causales en la direccion relevante, de educacion a crecimiento. La incertidumbre de modelo aparece porque al estimar una regresion de crecimiento no sabemos que modelo llevar a los datos. Es decir, la teoria no ofrece suficiente guia para la estimacion empirica. El problema surge porque dependiendo del modelo que el investigador decida estimar los resultados seran unos u otros. Por eso no hay consenso en la literatura sobre cual son los principales determinantes del crecimiento. En esta tesis utilizo tecnicas de promediado de modelos con las que soy capaz de atajar el problema de incertidumbre de modelo, basicamente estimando todos los modelos posibles y construyendo una media ponderada de estimaciones. El principal resultado empirico de la tesis indica que solo la inversion parece ser un determinante robusto del crecimiento economico. Es decir, puede haber otros muchos determinantes del crecimiento, pero dada la evidencia empirica disponible, solo podemos estar seguros de que una mayor inversion va a generar un mayor crecimiento economico en el largo plazo.
Rewarding Failure: operating a performance-related pay system in pharmaceutical research

Suggests that heightening competition within the pharmaceutical sector means that improving performance in R&D is increasingly important. One approach to achieving this is to consider the introduction of financial incentives within reward systems. Considers the evidence for the success of performance‐related pay (PRP) systems arising from the relatively few empirical accounts available. Concludes that there is little concrete evidence that PRP improves the performance of either individuals or organizations. Concedes that where it can be demonstrated that employees are satisfied with a PRP system we might expect them to be motivated and this should have positive results on performance. Considers the operation of the PRP system within the research division of a major UK‐based multinational pharmaceutical company. Looks in detail at management operation of, and employee responses to, the system. Concludes that not only is it unpopular but it may have potentially serious dysfunctional side‐effects in an R&D environment.
Climate Change and Financial Performance in Times of Crisis

Over the past years there has been a debate on the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of businesses, but researchers have not reached any agreement. This research attempts to explore this relationship, especially as in recent years there has been controversy about how this relationship has been affected by the global economic crisis. Taking into account that successfully limiting global climate change to safe levels in the long term is likely to require connecting climate change policies to sustainable development strategies, this paper focuses on the performance of environmental policies. We used a sample of 855 international companies in sectors of intensive greenhouse gas/CO2 emissions. Specifically, we used data from the Forbes Global 2000 Index and Carbon Disclosure Project data from 2006 to 2009. The data analysis was performed using panel data methodology. The results obtained show that in times of economic crisis, the synergy between environmental and financial performance is higher, meaning that companies must continue to invest in sustainable projects in order to enhance relations with their stakeholders, leading to higher economic profits. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Characterization of sulfate, proline, and glucose transport systems in anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament cells.

The present study was undertaken to define the nature of key transport processes for sodium, glucose, proline, and sulfate in primary culture of canine anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) cells. Uptake studies using radiolabeled isotopes were performed and Na,K-ATPase activity was determined in cell lysates. At 25 degrees C both ACL and MCL cells showed a significant uptake of 86Rb. Ouabain inhibited Rb uptake by 55% in ACL cells and by 60% in MCL cells. The transport activity of Na,K-ATPase in intact cells was calculated to be 57 and 71 nmol. (mg protein)-1. (15 min)-1, respectively. The enzymatic activity of Na,K-ATPase in cell lysates was observed to be 104 for ACL cells and 121 nmol. (mg protein)-1. (15 min)-1 for MCL cells. Cytochalasin B, a known inhibitor of sodium-independent D-glucose transport, completely inhibited D-glucose uptake in ACL and MCL cells. Removal of Na+ or addition of 10-5 mol/L phlorizin, a potent inhibitor of the sodium-D-glucose cotransporter, did not alter D-glucose uptake, suggesting that glucose entered the cells using a sodium-independent pathway. Both ACL and MCL cells exhibited high sulfate uptake that was not altered by replacement of Na+ by N-methyl-D-glucamine, whereas DIDS, an inhibitor of sulfate/anion exchange abolished sulfate uptake in both cell types. Thus, neither cell type seems to possess a sodium-sulfate cotransport system. Rather, sulfate uptake appeared to be mediated by sulfate/anion exchange. Proline was rapidly taken up by ACL and MCL cells and its uptake was reduced by 85% when Na+ was replaced by N-methyl-D-glucamine, indicating that proline entered the cells via sodium-dependent cotransport systems. The data demonstrate that both ACL and MCL cells possess a highly active sodium pump, a secondary active sodium-proline cotransport system, and sodium-independent transport systems for D-glucose and sulfate.
Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor Enhances Peripheral Nerve Regeneration in Vivo

When added to a collagen-filled nerve guide, purified acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) increased the number of myelinated axons that regenerated across a 5-mm nerve gap distance. In addition, a greater number of primary sensory and motor neurons extended axons through the nerve guide in animals treated with aFGF. Thus the effect of aFGF on peripheral nerve regeneration is not simply an increase in axonal branching within the nerve guide tube. This is the first highly purified growth factor since nerve growth factor that has been shown to promote nerve regeneration in vivo. This experimental model provides a convenient and quantitative means to assess the effects of putative neuronotropic factors on peripheral nerve regeneration in vivo.