Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High activity-related allele of MAO-A gene associated with depressed suicide in males

Abnormalities in brain monoamine oxidase A activity have been implicated in the pathogenesis of depressive illness and suicidal behavior. The present investigation was to determine whether there is an association between MAO-A gene polymorphism and depressed suicide. The Eco RV polymorphism in MAO-A gene with alleles associated with enzyme activity was studied in postmortem brain samples from 44 depressed suicide victims and 92 control subjects of the same ethnic background. We have found significant differences in genotype/allele distribution between depressed suicide victims and controls in males (p = 0.012) but not in females or the total sample. The odds ratio (OR) for the high activity-related allele of the MAO-A gene associated with depressed suicide in males was 3.1. Our finding suggests that MAO-A may be a susceptibility gene in depressed male suicide victims. The results thus provide further evidence that genetic factors can modulate risk for depression, suicide or both by influencing monoaminergic activity in sexually dimorphic manner.
Territorial Capital And Regional Growth: Increasing Returns In Knowledge Use

Knowledge drives the growth of nations and regions in a competitive space-economy. Hence, we would expect a strong correlation between investments in R&D, knowledge and learning processes, on the one hand, and productivity increases, on the other. However, the empirical evidence shows consistent discrepancies between knowledge inputs and economic performance across geographical units. This paper addresses this intriguing issue at the regional level, by highlighting theoretically and empirically the strategic importance played by intangible elements as part of "territorial capital" in mediating between knowledge production and regional growth. The main proposition of the paper, subject to empirical testing, is that intangible elements as part of territorial capital magnify the contribution of knowledge by determining the formation of increasing returns to knowledge exploitation. © 2010 The Authors. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2010 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.
An examination of the curvilinear relationship between capital intensity and firm performance for publicly traded US hotels and restaurants

Purpose – This study sets out to examine the potential curvilinear relationship between capital intensity and firm value for the US hospitality industry, specifically including publicly traded US hotels and restaurants, during the period 1990‐2008.Design/methodology/approach – This study performs a pooled regression analysis to examine the proposed relationship. The sampled companies are from the period 1990‐2008, consisting of 281 and 1,406 observations for the hotel and restaurant industries, respectively. The study additionally performs the analysis for the 1990s and the 2000s separately for a comparison purpose.Findings – The findings support the U‐shaped relationship between capital intensity and firm performance during the 2000s for both hotels and restaurants, while no relationship exists during the 1990s.Research limitations/implications – While the results may not be generalizable to private or non‐US hotels and restaurants, the findings should provide hotel and restaurant executives and managers.
DBSTexC: Density-Based Spatio-Textual Clustering on Twitter

Density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is the most commonly used density-based clustering algorithm, where it can discover multiple clusters with arbitrary shapes. DBSCAN works properly when the input data type is homogeneous, but the DBSCAN's approach may not be sufficient when the input dataset has textual heterogeneity (e.g., when we intend to find clusters from geo-tagged posts on social media relevant to a certain point-of-interest (POI)), thus leading to poor performance. In this paper, we present DBSTexC, a new density-based clustering algorithm using spatio--textual information on Twitter. We first define POI-relevant and POI-irrelevant tweets as the records that contain and do not contain a POI name or its coherent variations, respectively. By taking into account the fractions of POI-relevant and POI-irrelevant tweets, our DBSTexC algorithm shows a much higher clustering quality than the DBSCAN case in terms of the F1 score and its variants. DBSTexC can be thought of as a generalized version of DBSCAN due to the findings that it performs identically as DBSCAN when the inputs are homogeneous and far outperforms DBSCAN when the heterogeneous input data type is given.
New Survey Evidence on Recent Changes in UK Union Recognition

This paper reports results from a recent survey we conducted on the union status of over 650 firms in the private sector of the UK. Compared to earlier periods, the survey shows that since 1997 there has been a slight fall in derecognition, but a relatively large increase in union recognition. Almost 11% of firms report experiencing some new recognition, whilst 7% reported some derecognition. In the late 1980s new recognitions among similar firms were much lower (3% between 1985 to 1990 according to Gregg and Yates, 1991). In our survey, new recognitions were more prevalent in larger firms and in regions and industries where union membership was already high. New recognitions were less likely to have occurred in companies with higher wages, higher productivity and higher capital intensity. The ‘blip up’ in new recognitions is consistent with the idea that the incoming Labour government had a positive effect on the ability of unions to gain recognition, either through the 1999 legislation or more indirectly through changing the political climate.
High-Speed Hardware Implementation of Fixed and Runtime Variable Window Length 1-D Median Filters

Nonlinear digital filters play an important role in digital signal processing applications. In this brief, a novel architecture is proposed for the hardware implementation of fixed and runtime variable window length one-dimensional median filters. In the proposed architecture, the maximum working clock frequency is almost independent of the median filter window length, whereas the hardware complexity is proportional to the number of samples in the window. This feature enables the construction of filters with relatively large window lengths with negligible reduction in the maximum clock frequency, whereas in previous architectures, the maximum clock frequency significantly drops as the window length is increased. The benchmark results show the efficiency of the proposed architecture in comparison with state-of-the-art techniques.
The Shadow Economy and Work in the Shadow: What Do We (Not) Know?

In this paper the main focus lies on the shadow economy and on work in the shadow in OECD, developing and transition countries. Besides informal employment in the rural and non-rural sector also other measures of informal employment like the share of employees not covered by social security, own account workers or unpaid family workers are shown. The most influential factors on the shadow economy and/or shadow labor force are tax policies and state regulation, which, if they rise, increase both. Furthermore the discussion of the recent micro studies underline that economic opportunities, the overall burden of the state (taxes and regulations), the general situation on the labor market, and unemployment are crucial for an understanding of the dynamics of the shadow economy and especially the shadow labor force.
Functional outcomes after treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the base of the tongue.

OBJECTIVE To compare functional outcome and quality of life after various treatments for squamous cell carcinoma of the base of the tongue. DESIGN Retrospective survey using statistical comparison. SETTING Academic medical center, institutional practice. PARTICIPANTS Patients treated for squamous cell carcinoma of the base of the tongue between 1976 and 2000. Living patients 3 or more months after treatment were eligible. Questionnaire packets including validated site-specific quality-of-life instruments were mailed to 105 qualifying patients. Sixty-one patients participated, forming a volunteer sample. Patient responses were grouped according to treatment modality, operative vs nonoperative. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The planned outcome was that nonoperative therapy would result in better function than operative treatment. RESULTS Most comparisons indicated no statistical difference in outcome between operative and nonoperative groups. Significant differences (95% confidence interval) were calculated for age, interval since treatment, and T stage. Group comparisons of patient responses revealed significant differences only in xerostomia and days hospitalized. CONCLUSIONS The tongue remains dysfunctional after both surgical and nonoperative treatment. Nonoperative treatment might more adversely affect saliva. Surgery is associated with a longer hospital stay.
Variation in Timing of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Outbreaks: Lessons From National Surveillance

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants and children. Immune prophylaxis can reduce the risk of severe RSV disease among some high-risk infants. A summary and update of analyses using National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) data is provided to explore using surveillance data to better define the timing of RSV activity and RSV immune prophylaxis. The methodology used was that outlined in a study by Mullins et al (Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2003;22:857–862), which analyzed weekly antigen detection data reported by laboratories to NREVSS. Data reported to NREVSS between 1990 and 2006 were used to assess seasonality among regional, state, and local areas. Season onset, offset, and duration were calculated for each year and each laboratory, and compared with the U.S. Census region and national median measurements. Results demonstrated a distinct winter peak of RSV activity each year. The extent of variation in the timing of RSV activity in a community from year to year makes it difficult to predict the timing of RSV outbreaks. In addition, the onset timing can vary between communities, even those in close proximity, during the same year. There are, however, regional community patterns that may help guide timing of immune prophylaxis. For example, the South region exhibited an earlier median season onset and longer duration than the other regions, with median onset week 47 and duration 16 weeks. In contrast, the Midwest exhibited a significantly later median onset and shorter duration than the other regions, with median onset week 1 of the following year and duration 13 weeks. Therefore, analyses of NREVSS data show that using surveillance data to tailor the timing of immune prophylaxis precisely will be difficult. Surveillance data can, however, be used to determine how well national patterns represent local patterns. Further analyses are needed to determine how local surveillance data can be used to guide timing of immune prophylaxis.
Order Flow, Trading Costs and Corporate Acquisition Announcements

The bid-ask spread is an important element of investors' transactions costs. Theoretical papers decompose the spread into adverse selection, inventory cost, and order processing cost components. The order processing cost component compensates the stock exchange specialist for providing immediacy to buyers and sellers. The inventory cost component compensates the specialist for the risk of holding an inventory of a stock. The inventory component is larger for high-priced stocks, stocks which trade infrequently, and stocks with a relatively uncertain value. This study focuses on the adverse selection component of the spread, which compensates the specialist for losses to traders who have inside information. Prior theoretical work suggests that the adverse selection component will be larger, the greater the proportion of traders who have private information. The specialist will widen the spread in response to a perceived increase in the probability that the next trader is privately informed. Prior studies also suggest that privately informed traders will generally trade larger amounts than uninformed traders. Consequently, trade size should impart information about the probability that a trader is privately informed.
Biochemical differences between mutant propionyl-CoA carboxylases from two complementation groups.

by addition of 50 ,ul 10% trichloracetic acid. Following centrifugation at 100 g for 15 min, a 0.1 ml aliquot of the supernatant was placed in a scintillation vial and dried slowly under a heat lamp. The residue was dissolved in 0.3 ml water. Four ml of Aquasol (New England Nuclear) was added, and the samples were counted in a Packard liquid scintillation spectrometer. Protein concentrations were determined in a separate aliquot of the supernatant by the method of Lowry et al. [6], using bovine serum albumin as the standard. Enzyme specific activity is expressed as pmol 14C02 fixed per min/mg protein. The velocity of carboxylase activity was linear to 30 min with up to 0.4 mg cell extract protein.
Is Ricardian Equivalence a Good Approximation

Ricardian equivalence may be a good approximation even if all households have finite horizons, many households have short horizons, and an appreciable fraction of wage income is received by liquidity-constrained households. The approximation is likely to be better the more imperfect annuity markets are. Copyright 1991 by Oxford University Press.
Neuroendocrine Challenge Studies in Puerperal Psychoses

Subjects admitted to hospital with post-partum psychoses were compared with matched normal postpartum controls using two neuroendocrine challenge tests: dexamethasone suppression of Cortisol and TRH stimulation of TSH. Post-dexamethasone Cortisol levels were significantly elevated. There were less-clear hints of blunting of TSH response. In the small samples there was no obvious association of abnormalities with any particular diagnoses within the range of mania, psychotic depression and schizoaffective disorders.
A Framework for International Quality Management Research: Development and Validation of a Measurement Instrument

This paper reports the results of a study aimed at conceptualizing and developing valid measurements for key dimensions of quality management in the international context. The quality management framework is conceptualized in terms of 13 dimensions. Subsequently, operational indicators for the 13 dimensions are developed in terms of managerial perceptions. Data were collected from five countries: the US, India, China, Mexico and Taiwan. The sample was split into two random sets. Using structural equation modeling the constructs were tested and refined using the first set and were revalidated using the second set. The results of the study indicate that the operational measures developed here largely satisfy the criteria for unidimensionality, convergent, discriminant and predictive validity in all five countries. This study makes a contribution to the measurement stream of international quality management by providing a set of valid and reliable operational measures. These measures are expected to help res.
Genetics and breeding for fertility

Fertility as a fundamental trait in dairy breeding is under consideration for decades and gaining economic in recent years. As a complex trait it is difficult to be defined and recorded as well as to evaluate all contributing factors. Genetically it is influenced by male and female aspects of fertilization and conception and exhibits only low heritability. New developments in data recording and handling, advanced methodology in genetics and increasing computer power to evaluate sophisticated models resulted in new approaches in several countries. Problems connected to these efforts and strategies to overcome them are presented in a more general way via screening literature dealing with this topic. Most studies confirm that there is sufficient genetic variation in fertility for breeding purpose. It can be concluded that fertility should be accounted for in the selection index to prevent further deterioration in connection with strong selection for production traits. Nevertheless some research is left to be done to investigate carefully relationships between fertility and production, between male and female fertility, between fertility measurements in different parities and to derive appropriate economic weights which allows to optimize the overall genetic gain and to supply the breeders with the best rankings of sires and cows to achieve maximum benefit.
Linking core self-evaluations and work engagement to work-family facilitation

Purpose – This article aims to develop and test a research model that investigates work engagement as a mediator of the effect of core self-evaluations on work-family facilitation and family-work facilitation. Design/methodology/approach – The relationships were tested via structural equation modeling using data collected from a sample of full-time frontline hotel employees with a time lag of two weeks in Turkey. Findings – The results suggest that work engagement functions as a full mediator of the impact of core self-evaluations on work-family facilitation and family-work facilitation. Specifically, frontline employees with positive core self-evaluations are highly engaged in their work, and therefore, are capable of integrating their work (family) and family (work) roles successfully. Practical implications – Management of the hotels can utilize the core self-evaluations scale to hire the right person in frontline service jobs. They should invest in high-performance work practices (i.e. training and re.
Value Relevance of Book Value and Earnings: Evidence from Two Different Financial Reporting Regimes

This study aimed at investigating the value relevance of book value and earnings and the relationship between earnings and operating cash flow of two different financial reporting regimes in Malaysia. A market and nonmarket valuation approaches were utilised for that purpose. The result of market valuation approach of pool sample shows that book values and earnings are value relevant. We also observed that the change in financial reporting regime affects significantly the value relevance of book value and but not earnings. While book value and earnings are value relevant during the MASB period, only book value is value relevance during the FRS period. The result of non‐market valuation approach on the other hand, shows that the change in financial reporting regime has no significant effect on the relationship between earnings and operating cash flow. The result of market valuation approach implicates that the introduction of new or improved standards under FRS regime strengthen the position of book value thus leaving earnings behind in equity valuation. The result of non‐market valuation model implicates that the level of relationship between earnings and operating cash flow persists as long as operating cash flow comprise of cash and cash equivalent components whereas earnings comprise of cash and accruals components. The study contributes to the existing literature in the area of the effect of adoption of FRS on value relevance of accounting numbers in Malaysia.
Affordability in New Urbanist Development: Principle, Practice, and Strategy

ABSTRACT: This article investigates the question of social diversity by assessing affordability in New Urbanist developments. The article begins with a review of the principle of social mixing—specifically income mix—and how it is linked to physical planning and design. An assessment is made of the ways in which planning and design are enlisted in the effort to produce and support social mix, focusing especially on the goal of “affordability by design. ” The article next reviews the empirical record, and assesses whether there is evidence that New Urbanist developments are capable of accommodating income mix and promoting economic diversity. Data for 152 New Urbanist projects were obtained, and it was found that 23 out of 152 developments or 15% were affordable to someone making the Area Median Income. The evidence suggests that while design-based approaches to diversity in New Urbanism are within the realm of possibilities, the supply of developers willing to pursue a multi-pronged strategy composed of good location, creative financing, innovation, government support, and self-determination is necessarily limited. Finally, a framework is offered to help planners and New Urbanists conceptualize the problem of affordability in walkable neighborhoods and determine future courses of action.
A flexible cation binding site in the multidrug major facilitator superfamily transporter LmrP is associated with variable proton coupling

The multidrug major facilitator super‐family transporter LmrP from Lactococcus lactis mediates protonmotive‐force dependent efflux of amphiphilic ligands from the cell. We compared the role of membrane‐embedded carboxylates in transport and binding of divalent cationic propidium and monovalent cationic ethidium. D235N, E327Q, and D142N replacements each resulted in loss of electrogenicity in the propidium efflux reaction, pointing to electrogenic 3H+/propidium2+ antiport. During ethidium efflux, single D142N and D235N replacements resulted in apparent loss of electrogenicity, whereas the E327Q substitution did not affect the energetics, consistent with electrogenic 2H+/ethidium+ antiport. Different roles of carboxylates were also observed in fluorescence anisotropy‐based ligand‐binding assays. Whereas D235 and E327 were both involved in propidium binding, the loss of one of these carboxylates could be compensated for by the other in ethidium binding. The D142N replacement did not affect the binding of either ligand. These data point to the presence of a dedicated proton binding site containing D142, and a flexible proton/ligand binding site containing D235 and E327, the contributions to proton and ligand binding of which depend on the chemical structure of the bound ligand. Our findings provide the first evidence that multidrug transport by secondary‐active transporters can be associated with variable ion coupling. —Schaedler, T. A. , van Veen, H. W. A flexible cation binding site in the multidrug major facilitator superfamily transporter LmrP is associated with variable proton coupling. FASEB J. 24, 3653–3661 (2010). www.fasebj. org
Involvement of Social Media in Disaster Management during the Wenchuan and Ya`an Earthquakes

Social media is being increasingly utilized in disaster relief work to identify safety issues, locate displaced-victims, and seek or provide support for those who need help. The presence of social media in disaster management has changed significantly in recent years, as it was not prevalent in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, but had become a powerful force in the 2013 Ya`an earthquake. This paper discusses the development of social media in disaster management via making a comparison between how it functioned in the two earthquakes. It examines the following aspects: who are the stakeholders that use social media in the earthquake management; how do they adopt this means in response to the earthquakes; and what are the outcomes of adopting social media with regards to public engagement and collaboration in an emergency event. As Sina Weibo acts as the equivalent of China`s Twitter, the methodology relies on an analysis of posts in Weibo. The outcomes primarily show that: (1) authorities, celebrities and the public actively adopted social media for the purpose of information dissemination and resource mobilization; and (2) social media users are both content consumers and content generators in the times of earthquakes. The study concludes that social media as a backchannel communication tool is helpful for government institutions, corporations, and nonprofit organizations to build relationships with their stakeholders in the disaster management cycle. The result will interest academics and emergency management practitioners who are concerned with improving disaster communication.