Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aid Effectiveness and Selectivity : Integrating Multiple Objectives into Aid Allocations

This paper surveys recent research on aid and growth. It also provides an overview of research on inter-recipient aid allocation. The overall focus of the paper is on the relevance of these issues for poverty-efficient aid, defined as a pattern of inter-recipient aid allocation which maximises poverty reduction. It identifies a range of povertyreducing criteria on which aid allocation or selectivity might be based, calling for a broader selectivity framework. The paper argues that this framework should be built on a recognition that the effectiveness of aid in increasing growth, and by implication in reducing poverty, is contingent on a range of factors in addition to the quality of recipient country policy regimes. These factors include political stability, democracy, post conflict reconstruction, and economic vulnerability.
The Economic Effects of Federal Regulation of the Market for New Security Issues

The maintenance of competition protects the community against the evils of monopoly. But it affords no protection against the harm that may be done by competitors. Competing sellers and competing buyers may not be equally well informed, and those who possess information may take advantage of those who lack it. Government is therefore concerned, not only with the preservation of competition, but also with the ways in which men compete. So laws have been enacted to equip traders with accurate information.1
Can direct spinal cord injury occur without paresthesia? A report of delayed spinal cord injury after epidural placement in an awake patient.

UNLABELLED We discuss the etiology of a delayed spinal cord injury after epidural anesthesia without paresthesia. The description of such a case in an awake, adult patient who underwent a Whipple resection is provided. An epidural was performed at approximately the T8-9 interspace with the patient in the sitting position after 1 mg of midazolam was administered. On the first attempt, a dural puncture occurred. The patient did not report any paresthesia or pain. The needle was withdrawn and a second attempt was made one interspace lower. At this level, the epidural catheter was advanced into the epidural space uneventfully. Postoperatively, the patient suffered decreased motor function in the right leg. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed high signal intensity within the spinal cord, indicating cord edema compatible with direct needle trauma. An extradural fluid collection consistent with a hematoma was also noted. Although it may be impossible to confirm if the spinal cord injury was a result of direct needle trauma, hematoma, or a combination of needle trauma and hematoma, these events clearly raise the important question of whether an awake patient will always report paresthesia secondary to spinal cord trauma. IMPLICATIONS This case reminds anesthesiologists that we should not simply assume paresthesia will always occur and be reported if a needle encroaches on the spinal cord even in an awake patient.
The impact of labour reallocation and competitive pressure on TFP growth: firm‐level evidence from crisis and transition ridden Bulgaria

This article uses the experiment of a macro‐financial crisis and radical liberalization in Bulgaria to explore the impact of labour reallocation and competitive pressure on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth in the manufacturing sector. Our results indicate that labour reallocated from less efficient to more efficient firms in virtually all industries but the influence of other within industry characteristics on TFP growth was significantly higher than the impact of between industry characteristics. Furthermore, while increased competitive pressure had a positive impact on TFP growth among relative laggards in the respective industries, this impact was more than overwhelmed by the inability of industrial leaders to leapfrog their competitors. This result is inconsistent with evidence from developed industrialized economies, but similar to that of less developed countries marked by credit crunch and institutional failure. It has potentially important policy implications.
An unexpected effect of Dermacyn on infected leg ulcers.

Dermacyn Wound Care (Oculus Innovative Sciences, California, US) is a superoxidised water proven capable of destroying bacteria, viruses, moulds and spores at an efficient rate in vitro, while studies undertaken by the manufacturer have found no toxic side-effects. The product’s promotional literature claims it can heal diabetic foot ulcers and facilitate faster hospital discharge of children with burn injuries.
Serum Deprivation Induces Glucose Response and Intercellular Coupling in Human Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma PANC-1 Cells

Objective This study aimed to investigate whether the previously described differentiating islet-like aggregates of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells (PANC-1) develop glucose response and exhibit intercellular communication. Methods Fura 2–loaded PANC-1 cells in serum-free medium were assayed for changes in cytosolic free calcium ([Ca]i) induced by depolarization, tolbutamide inhibition of K(ATP) channels, or glucose. Dye transfer, assayed by confocal microscopy or by FACS, was used to detect intercellular communication. Changes in messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of genes of interest were assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Proliferation was assayed by the MTT method. Results Serum-deprived PANC-1 cell aggregates developed [Ca]i response to KCl, tolbutamide, or glucose. These responses were accompanied by 5-fold increase in glucokinase mRNA level and, to a lesser extent, of mRNAs for K(ATP) and L-type calcium channels, as well as increase in mRNA levels of glucagon and somatostatin. Trypsin, a proteinase-activated receptor 2 agonist previously shown to enhance aggregation, modestly improved [Ca]i response to glucose. Glucose-induced coordinated [Ca]i oscillations and dye transfer demonstrated the emergence of intercellular communication. Conclusions These findings suggest that PANC-1 cells, a pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line, can be induced to express a differentiated phenotype in which cells exhibit response to glucose and form a functional syncytium similar to those observed in pancreatic islets.
Healthcare utilization following mild traumatic brain injury in female veterans

Abstract Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant problem for Veterans. Gender differences in mild TBI outcomes such as return-to-work, resolution of symptoms and mental health diagnoses have been reported. The purpose of the study is to characterize gender differences in VA healthcare utilization in the year following mild TBI diagnosis. Methods: This was a retrospective database study of 12 144 Veterans diagnosed with mild TBI in fiscal year 2008 and their healthcare utilization in the following year. Results: The mean age was 43.6 ± 17 and the majority were men (94.1%). Overall, women had more outpatient utilization than men with mild TBI (mean: 48 vs. 37 visits; p ≤ 0.001). Adjusted analyses indicated that women had a rate of outpatient utilization 25% higher than men (IRR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.17–1.33). It was found that 13.6% of the difference in outpatient utilization by gender could be explained by other factors such as race, age, marital status, geographic location and illness burden. Conclusion: Male Veterans had less outpatient utilization than females in the year following mild TBI diagnosis. Gender and other factors only accounted for a small portion of the differences observed; therefore, gender only partially accounts for differences in healthcare utilization following mild TBI.
Generalized Markov Dividend Discount Models

3N6). n our Hurley-Johnson [1994] dividend hscount model (DDM), lvidends are assumed to follow a simple Markov process. The firm is assumed to I either maintain the same dividend (with probability 1 p) or increase it (with probability p). Ths process appears to be consistent with the dividend policy of a large number of firms (see Lintner [1956]). We know, however, that not all firms are able to maintain a non-decreasing dividend payout. Many firms run into dfficulty and have to either lower dividends or suspend them entirely. Even if a dwidend stream is increasing, it is rarely the case that each increase can be described by a constant geometric growth rate. To model these and other contingencies, a more complicated Markov process is required. Hence, in this note, we extend the basic Hurley-Johnson approach to more general Markov processes. We also show how to calculate these valuations with a Monte Carlo simulation that is easily implemented on a spreadsheet. Here we employ EXCEL with the add-in @RISK.
Uganda: lessons for AIDS control in Africa.

Uganda has the one of the oldest recognised AIDS epidemics. The first people found to be sick with AIDS in 1982 in southwestern Uganda became infected in the mid-1970s. For several years, Uganda has been widely recognised as the first and most dramatic African success story, with estimated national HIV prevalence falling from about 15 per cent in 1992 to 5 per cent in 2001. This is truly good news! As the epidemic proceeds through its third decade, many observers suggest that Uganda's prevention efforts are a model to follow. What is the situation there, and what can we learn from Uganda?
Are Stock-for-Stock Acquirers of Unlisted Targets Really Less Overvalued?

Extant studies often assume that targets’ private ownership mitigates acquirers’ incentives and opportunities to finance acquisitions with inflated stocks. This view stems from the observation that, although the average stock-for-stock acquirer’s merger announcement abnormal return is negative when the target is listed, it is positive when the target is unlisted. Accordingly, extant studies suggest that announcements of stock-for-stock acquisitions of unlisted targets generally convey favorable private information about the acquirers. However, an analysis of stock-for-stock acquirers’ long-term stock performance, abnormal accruals, net operating assets, and insider trading suggests the opposite. Not only are acquirers of unlisted targets generally overvalued, but they also tend to be even more overvalued than acquirers of listed targets.
Editorial introduction to ‘Ownership’ by A. M. Honoré (1961)

Antony (Tony) M. Honoré was born in London in 1921 but was brought up in South Africa. He served in the British Army during the Second World War and was severely wounded in the Battle of El Alamein in 1942. After the war, he continued his studies at New College, Oxford, and he has lived and taught in Oxford for well over half a century, holding fellowships at several Oxford colleges. From 1971 to 1988, he was Regius Professor of Civil Law and a Fellow of All Souls College in Oxford. He is internationally known for his work on ownership, legal causation, and Roman law.
Fast Local Scrubbing for Field-Programmable Gate Array's Configuration Memory

Memory scrubbing is used tomitigate single event upsets on susceptible devices. In the case of field-programmable gate arrays, configuration memory scrubbing is generally used in conjunction with triple modular redundancy to increase reliability in spaceborne applications. Current solutions require a subsystemable to read andwrite from the configurationmemory and retrieve a safely stored golden bitstream for scrubbing whenever an error is detected. An alternative to this solution is to implement error detection and correction codes. These codes usually require redundant information to be embedded within the data that are being protected. This is particularly difficult in the case of a configuration bitstream, which is automatically created by CAD tools. In this paper, we present an alternative error correction and detection solution that overcomes such difficulties and allows fast, local scrubbing without the need to store a golden bitstream somewhere safe. This solution is a processing peripheral tied to a scrubber, labeled Femto, currently implemented in a radiation-hardened by design structured application-specific integrated circuit.
Variations in Regulatory Enforcement Styles

This paper examines intra- and inter-agency variations in the enforcement styles of three regulatory inspectorates in Great Britain. It is argued that the accommodative approach typically associated with regulatory enforcement is not a homogeneous and uniform concept, rather it embraces a range of strategies. These are described and a variety of organisational, social and political factors are considered as explanations of the variations which arise.
Paper Oil and Physical Oil: Has Speculative Pressure in Oil Futures Increased Volatility in Spot Oil Prices?

A number of authors have attributed the high and volatile oil prices experienced since the turn of the 21st century to increased speculative activities arising from a relaxation of regulations in futures markets. This study examined the effects of speculative pressure on the volatility of spot oil prices. I constructed two measures of speculative pressure and modelled the volatility in oil returns by using the GARCH autoregressive conditional jump intensity model of Chan and Maheu, which models the effects of extreme news events in returns. Empirical results showed a significant positive coefficient for speculative pressure, implying that increased speculative pressure has contributed to volatile oil prices. This result is robust to different GARCH estimators and measures of speculative pressure.
Income Inequality is Not Harmful for Growth: Theory and Evidence

The paper shows that income inequality may theoretically lead to higher economic growth if public consumption enters the utility function. Empirically, baseline estimations and a sensitivity analysis show that income inequality is positively, and most of the time significantly, associated with economic growth. These findings stand in sharp contrast to the negative association between inequality and growth propounded by Alesina and Rodrik and by Persson and Tabellini.
Short Circuit Tests on a Coreless HTS Synchronous Generator

A series of short circuit tests have been performed on a coreless (air-core) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) rotor, installed inside a conventional stator. The machine was driven like a generator using an 11 kW drive motor, to a maximum frequency of 20 Hz. The short circuit was activated at the stator terminals using a three-phase contactor switch and a remote trigger. Tests were conducted with a range of values for each of the following parameters: i) initial frequency, between 4 and 20 Hz; ii) operating field current, between 5 and 80 A; and iii) external resistance, between 14 and 160 mΩ. For each investigation, the other parameters were fixed. Large current surges were observed in both the stator (3 times its nominal current) and in the rotor (1/4 of the initial operating current). Some localized thermal measurements of a coil in the HTS winding were also recorded but, during the transient events, these measurements are invalidated by inductive voltages. The temperature is believed to remain steady during the short circuit event. The rotational kinetic energy of this rotor was almost half of its counterpart, but it was the power supply and the series resistor that absorbed most of the magnetomotive energy after the short-circuit. These components are essential parts of the HTS generators' overall system and their operating limits must also be considered in new designs.
The Ex‐Dividend Day Behaviour of Australian Share Prices Pre and Post Imputation

The corporate dividend decision has been of interest to researchers in finance for many years. Early theoretical and empirical work such as Graham and Dodd [1951], Lintner [1956], Miller and Modigliani [1961] and in part Ball and Brown [1968] concentrated upon the signalling properties of dividend announcements. As a result of this early work, a nexus between dividends and current or foreseeable corporate earnings was proposed.
The influence of community capital toward a community's capacity to respond to food insecurity

For many Americans, purchasing or acquiring food is a minor inconvenience rather than a major obstacle that must be overcome. In the United States, 17 million households (14.6%) were food insecure in 2008. Confronted with this vulnerability, some communities are attempting to re-localize many food system activities in an attempt to provide for healthier and more sustainable (socially, economically, and environmentally) food alternatives. Despite this rising movement, little research exists that examines which community-level characteristics are associated with a community's capacity to respond to food insecurity. Using data collected on 540 communities in the Northwest and Midwest, I examine the relationship between community capitals and food options available to residents of small to mid-sized communities. Findings show that communities with values and beliefs conducive for community betterment (cultural capital) coupled with acting on those beliefs through participation in civic groups and networking with outside communities and organizations (social capital) are much more likely to have a variety of sources of food than communities with low levels of cultural and social capitals.
Hypercoagulability and Migraine

A growing body of literature suggests that migraineurs, particularly those with aura, have an increased risk for ischemic stroke, but not via enhanced atherosclerosis. The theory that micro‐emboli induced ischemia provokes cortical spreading depression (ie, symptomatic aura) in migraineurs but transient ischemic attacks in others highlights a potential role for hypercoagulability as a link between migraine (with aura) and stroke.
The Informative Role of the Value Line Investment Survey: Evidence from Stock Highlights

Abstract I examine abnormal stock returns associated with “stock highlights” published by the Value Line Investment Survey. At the time of their publication, stock highlights elicit strong positive abnormal returns. They also have positive abnormal returns at the time of the earnings announcement preceding stock highlight publications. Post-earnings announcement drift is present, but is much too small to explain abnormal returns at the time of the publication of stock highlights. Thus, Value Line stock highlights provide useful information to investors. This information is rapidly reflected in stock prices, consistent with market efficiency.
European agencies and their boards: promises and pitfalls of accountability beyond design

European agencies have become an established part of the European Union's architectural set up and are the most proliferating institutional entities at the EU level. However, as their relevance and prevalence in the EU institutional landscape has increased, so have concerns about the possibility for such bodies to escape scrutiny. This article investigates a central element of agency accountability: their accountability vis-à-vis the management boards. The main and most direct confines on the grant of authority to agencies and their directors are represented by the management boards. Given the formal powers exercised by European agencies, it is important to observe to what extent boards are successful in exercising their scrutinizing roles. Based on interviews with agency directors and board representatives, this contribution unravels how these accountability ties operate in practice and identifies recurring weaknesses that seriously impinge upon their effectiveness. The contribution offers a potential explanation for the observed failings and reflects on the repercussions of these findings for agency accountability.
Intercapsomeric Disulfide Bonds in Papillomavirus Assembly and Disassembly

ABSTRACT In order to analyze bonding contacts that stabilize the virion or promote capsid assembly, bovine papillomavirus (BPV) virions were subjected to buffer conditions known to disrupt polyomavirus virions. At physiologic ionic strength, incubation with dithiothreitol (DTT), EGTA, or DTT plus EGTA did not disrupt BPV virions as determined by electron microscopy. However, incubation of virions with DTT rendered the BPV L1 protein susceptible to trypsin cleavage at its carboxy terminus and rendered the genome susceptible to digestion with DNase I. When DTT-treated BPV virions were analyzed by analytical ultracentrifugation, they sedimented at 230S compared with 273S for untreated virions, suggesting a capsid shell expansion. Incubation with EGTA had no effect on trypsin or DNase I sensitivity and only a small effect upon the virion S value. A single cysteine residue conserved among BPV and human papillomavirus (HPV) L1 proteins resides within the trypsin-sensitive carboxy terminus of L1, which is required for capsid assembly. A recombinant HPV type 11 L1 protein, which was purified after expression in Escherichia coli and which has a Cys-to-Gly change at this position (Cys424), formed pentamers; however, unlike the wild-type protein, these mutant pentamers could no longer assemble in vitro into capsid-like structures. These results indicate an important role for interpentamer disulfide bonds in papillomavirus capsid assembly and disassembly and suggest a mechanism of virus uncoating in the reducing environment of the cytoplasm.
The role of social networks in financing technology-based ventures: An empirical exploration

The focus of this study is on the role of networks in both identifying and accessing financial resource providers by technology-based ventures. We explore the role of networks by taking into account several specifications. We (1) acknowledge that new ventures can access financial resource providers both directly and through referral, (2) make an analytical distinction between the identification of financial opportunities and the access to financial resource providers, and (3) study the contingencies that influence the effectiveness of certain network positions and relationships in the new venture financing process. In order to explore the role of networks in financing, we conducted case studies in four technology-based ventures. Our findings show that for identifying financial opportunities and resource providers, a positional network that is rich in structural holes is favourable for new ventures. In a relational sense, for new ventures that directly access financial resource providers, having weak network ties are most effective. When new ventures use a referral to access a financial resource provider, referrals from referral sources that are strongly tied to the venture are the most effective. Furthermore, our results show that the effectiveness of certain network positions and relations largely depends on contingencies. Based on our findings, we shape several propositions that provide new directions for future research. The current study makes several contributions to theory and provides several interesting guidelines for start-up entrepreneurs.