Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Public Spending and Private Investment: Evidence From Greece

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether there is a link between disaggregated measures of government expenditures and private investment in Greece. A cointegration analysis of a multivariate system of equations is applied in order to empirically estimate the long run relationships between private investment and different measure of government expenditures. Subsequently IRF and VDC are estimated. Government investment is found to assert a positive effect on private investment, supporting in this way the capital accumulation process. On the other hand, government consumption appears to compete for the same resources with government investment, while it negatively affects private investment. [E62]
Estimating Dynamic Dual Models Under Nonstatic Expectations

In this paper we derive a system of equations depicting agents' dynamic decision rules under nonstatic price expectations. Based on the adjustment cost model of the firm, the integrability conditions which can serve to guide the specification of flexible functional forms are established. A two-stage econometric model permitting empirical examination of both the expectations formation process and the dynamic structure of the industry is estimated using two different data series for U.S. production agriculture. The estimation results suggest evidence of the presence of nonstatic price expectations in dynamic dual models for U.S. production agriculture. Copyright 1996, Oxford University Press.
Competition and bank efficiency in emerging markets: empirical evidence from Ghana

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between competition and efficiency in the Ghanaian banking industry. Design/methodology/approach - – Data on 26 banks from 2004 to 2011 is used to estimate technical and cost-efficiency scores by the data envelopment analysis while the Boone indicator is employed to proxy for competition. Controlling for bank size, lending, income diversification, tangibility, leverage and profitability, ordinary least squares, instrumental variables and fixed effects estimations are used to estimate the panel regression model. The authors also apply the growth convergence theory to examine the existence of efficiency convergence. Findings - – The results points to improvements in cost efficiency (CE) and competition within the banking industry. From the empirical estimations, the findings suggest that competition exerts a positive influence on CE. The authors also find evidence of convergence in both technical and CE. Research limitations/implications - – The study recommends that efforts at improving competitiveness of the banking industry will translate into lower interest rate spread through improved CE. This will ultimately improve access to bank credit and impact positively on economic growth. Future studies could also examine productivity changes and scale economies in the banking industry. Originality/value - – To the authors best knowledge, this is the first study to apply the Boone (2001) indicator in assessing the competitiveness of the Ghanaian banking industry. This is also the first study to examine efficiency convergence within the banking industry in Ghana.
Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a predictor of acute appendicitis.

BACKGROUND Accurately diagnosing appendicitis can be difficult. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the ability of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) to predict acute appendicitis pre-operatively and to differentiate between simple and complicated appendicitis. METHODS A database of 1067 patients who underwent surgery was evaluated. Based on postoperative histopathological examination, the patients were divided into two groups: acute appendicitis (G1) and normal appendix (G2). Patients in the acute appendicitis group were further divided into two subgroups: simple appendicitis (G1a) and complicated (gangrenous and perforated) appendicitis (G1b). RESULTS G1 included 897 patients and G2 included 170 patients. Among the 897 G1 patients, there were 753 G1a patients and 144 G1b patients. A NLR of 4.68 was associated with acute appendicitis (G1 vs G2, p<0.001). The sensitivity and specificity were 65.3% and 54.7%, respectively. A NLR of 5.74 was associated with complicated appendicitis (G1a vs G1b, p<0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of the two clinical features were 70.8% and 48.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION We suggest that preoperative NLR is a useful parameter to aid in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and differentiate between simple and complicated appendicitis, and can be used as an adjunct to the clinical examination.
Local action for climate change: transnational networks and the Irish experience

Climate change policies are informed by contributions from public, private and civil society organisations at a range of scales from the local to the global. Such policy formation has come to be termed multilevel governance. Transnational networks of local authorities are an emerging feature of multilevel governance and they have been heralded as a means to improve the implementation of climate change policy on the ground. However empirical evaluation of these transnational climate change networks is geographically limited and no research examining their impact in Ireland has been conducted. In response this paper considers the significance of European climate change networks within Ireland's climate change strategy. It concludes that these formal transnational networks have had limited impact to date due to ongoing negotiations about the politics of scale and responsibility with respect to climate change policies in Ireland.
The Predictive Value of Accruals and Consequences for Market Anomalies

In this article, the authors revisit the role of the cash and accrual components of accounting earnings in predicting future cash flows using out-of-sample predictions and market value of equity as a proxy for all future cash flows. They find that, on average, accruals improve upon current cash flow from operations (CFO) in predicting future cash flows. In the cross-section, accruals’ contribution is positively associated with proxies for quality of accruals and governance. Next, the authors investigate the implications of accruals’ predictive value for accrual-based market anomalies. They find that portfolios formed on stock return predictions using information from current CFO and accruals yield significantly positive returns on average, as opposed to CFO alone. They also find that Sloan’s accrual anomaly is related to our accrual contribution anomaly. Indeed, when accruals’ contribution to future cash flow prediction is the highest, the accrual anomaly vanishes. Collectively, the results suggest that the predictive value of accruals and market participants’ ability to process it are a significant driver of accrual-based anomalies.
Endogenous Adipose‐Derived Factors Diminish Coronary Endothelial Function via Inhibition of Nitric Oxide Synthase

Adipocytokines may be the molecular link between obesity and vascular disease. However, the effects of these factors on coronary vascular function have not been discerned. Accordingly, the goal of this investigation was to delineate the mechanisms by which endogenous adipose‐derived factors affect coronary vascular endothelial function. Both isolated canine coronary arteries and coronary blood flow in anesthetized dogs were studied with and without exposure to adipose tissue. Infusion of adipose‐conditioned buffer directly into the coronary circulation did not change baseline hemodynamics; however, endothelial‐dependent vasodilation to bradykinin was impaired both in vitro and in vivo. Coronary vasodilation to sodium nitroprusside was unaltered by adipose tissue. Oxygen radical formation did not cause the impairment because quantified dihydroethidium staining was decreased by adipose tissue and neither a superoxide dismutase mimetic nor catalase improved endothelial function. Inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) synthase with L‐NAME diminished bradykinin‐mediated relaxations and eliminated the subsequent vascular effects of adipose tissue. In vitro measurement of NO demonstrated that adipose tissue exposure quickly lowered baseline NO and abolished bradykinin‐induced NO production. The results indicate that adipose tissue releases factor(s) that selectively impair endothelial‐dependent dilation via inhibition of NO synthase‐mediated NO production.
Prevalence of Sexual Assault Victimization Among College Men, Aged 18–24: A Review

ABSTRACT Purpose: The current review provides summary and evaluation of prevalence data for the sexual victimization of college men ages 18 – 24. Methods: Potential studies were selected by searching electronic bibliographic databases. Studies were initially selected for inclusion if they (1) assessed prevalence rates of sexual victimization on college campuses and (2) were published in a scholarly journal (3) in the English language. Utilizing this strategy, 3,973 studies were initially identified, of which 5 underwent complete review. Results: All 5 studies returned results for sexual victimization of men on college campuses. However, identified prevalence data varies widely from 3.2% – 28.7% of the males surveyed. When incapacitation as a form of victimization was included in the study, college men as a whole appear to be most vulnerable to this form of sexual violence, though sexual minority males may have more heterogeneous experiences of victimization. Conclusions: Conceptualization of sexual victimization and wording of items attempting to assess prevalence rates likely lead to underestimation of true prevalence. Even with an incomplete understanding of prevalence, results suggest that continuing to assess prevalence may not be the most pressing need at this time. Research into the kinds of victimization college men face as well as education, prevention, and intervention within these areas may likely do more to positively advance the knowledge base.
Improving resolution of MR images with an adversarial network incorporating images with different contrast

Purpose The routine MRI scan protocol consists of multiple pulse sequences that acquire images of varying contrast. Since high frequency contents such as edges are not significantly affected by image contrast, down‐sampled images in one contrast may be improved by high resolution (HR) images acquired in another contrast, reducing the total scan time. In this study, we propose a new deep learning framework that uses HR MR images in one contrast to generate HR MR images from highly down‐sampled MR images in another contrast. Materials and Methods The proposed convolutional neural network (CNN) framework consists of two CNNs: (a) a reconstruction CNN for generating HR images from the down‐sampled images using HR images acquired with a different MRI sequence and (b) a discriminator CNN for improving the perceptual quality of the generated HR images. The proposed method was evaluated using a public brain tumor database and in vivo datasets. The performance of the proposed method was assessed in tumor and no‐tumor cases separately, with perceptual image quality being judged by a radiologist. To overcome the challenge of training the network with a small number of available in vivo datasets, the network was pretrained using the public database and then fine‐tuned using the small number of in vivo datasets. The performance of the proposed method was also compared to that of several compressed sensing (CS) algorithms. Results Incorporating HR images of another contrast improved the quantitative assessments of the generated HR image in reference to ground truth. Also, incorporating a discriminator CNN yielded perceptually higher image quality. These results were verified in regions of normal tissue as well as tumors for various MRI sequences from pseudo k‐space data generated from the public database. The combination of pretraining with the public database and fine‐tuning with the small number of real k‐space datasets enhanced the performance of CNNs in in vivo application compared to training CNNs from scratch. The proposed method outperformed the compressed sensing methods. Conclusions The proposed method can be a good strategy for accelerating routine MRI scanning.
The Impact of Rural Development Program on Poverty Alleviation: A Case of Bangladesh

Poverty alleviation through rural development programs (RDP) has significant implication for Bangladesh the world’s most densely populated country having 71 percent rural inhabitants. Considering the significance, the study examined various rural challenges and poverty reduction strategies of RDP underpinned by a quantitative research technique. 192 poor households were randomly selected from four study villages under Chittagong District. The result indicates that the RDP, housing and agriculture, health and education, significantly improved the poverty situation among poor people through economic capabilities, human capabilities, protective capabilities, and political capabilities of sample households
Child Sexual Abuse, Coping Responses, Self-Blame, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Adult Sexual Revictimization

The present study examined the psychological sequelae of child sexual abuse (CSA) and the factors that contributed to revictimization in the form of adult sexual assault (ASA) using a survey of 577 female college students. CSA characteristics, maladaptive coping in response to CSA, degree of self-blame at the time of the abuse and currently, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were examined as predictors of revictimization. Results indicated that individuals who reported both CSA and ASA had more PTSD symptoms, were more likely to use drugs or alcohol to cope, act out sexually, withdraw from people, and seek therapy services. In addition, the revictimized group reported more self-blame at the time of the abuse and currently. The only factor that predicted revictimization in this study was the number of maladaptive coping strategies used. Implications of these findings are discussed.
MOMS: formative evaluation and subsequent intervention for mothers living with HIV

Abstract The Making Our Mothers Stronger (MOMS) Project is a randomized controlled behavioral trial, comparing a stress-reduction and social support intervention (Healthy MOMS) to a parenting skills intervention (Parenting Skills for MOMS) for mothers living with HIV. Outcomes include maternal mental and physical health, parenting behaviors, and children's behavior. To ensure that these interventions were tailored to the needs of HIV + mothers, extensive formative work was conducted with members of the intended audience and relevant service providers. Findings from focus groups and semi-structured interviews highlighted the need for Healthy MOMS to: (1) include appropriate approaches to group discussion and problem solving; (2) address the stressors of being both a parent and a woman living with HIV; and (3) enhance social support. Six weekly group sessions focused on topics including coping with stress and anxiety; enhancing nutrition, exercise, and sexual health; improving medical adherence; improving communication with health care providers; and communicating health needs to family, friends, and co-workers. Initial anecdotal responses from participants suggest that the Healthy MOMS intervention addresses several salient issues for the growing population of HIV + mothers who can benefit from long-term support in adapting to this chronic disease.
Distribution of Power and Military R&D

Military technology plays an important role for national security and the international distribution of power. Yet it has received little formal attention in the literature. This article aims at filling this gap. We build a dynamic model that links the properties of military technology races (intensity and persistence) to the characteristics of the international environment (the distribution of power) and the types of weapons under development. The model is also used to discuss the implications of military technology races for power transition, the incentives countries may have to engage in arms control agreements and the circumstances under which it pays to engage in deception strategies. We find that the intensity of military R&D is higher when a dominant nation faces a potential challenger than under conditions of actual competition. The intensity of weapons development and also the speed of power transition depend on whether the challenger can be ‘intimidated’ through aggressive weapon development or not. We also find that when the stakes associated with the development of a weapon are high, then the optimal policy is to underplay one’s own success and exaggerate foreign accomplishments (threats).
An Affine Projection Algorithm with Two Numbers of Input Vectors

This paper presents an affine projection algorithm (APA) with a large number of input vectors at the first stage and with a small number of input vectors at the second stage, where the transition is performed by using the criterion for computing the optimum number of input vectors in the dynamic selection APA (DS-APA). The proposed algorithm has fast convergence at the first stage and a small steady-state estimation error at the second stage, which performs like APAs with the selective input vectors including DS-APA. However, the proposed algorithm has only two fixed numbers of input vectors and low complexity, which is more applicable for hardware implementation comparing to APAs with the selective input vectors. Simulations illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
Gas composition in controlled atmosphere stunning affects turkey meat quality traits

1. Investigations were made into the breast and leg muscle energy metabolism, and the quality of breast meat of turkeys after controlled atmosphere stunning or stun-killing (CAS) with various gas mixtures. In addition, the effect on meat quality of an increase in the chilling rate of turkey breast meat after hypercapnic or anoxic stun-killing was studied. 2. A total of 35 turkey toms within two replicate pens were individually stunned during consecutive weeks using one of 4 CAS methods. The stunning gases tested were high CO2 concentration (60% CO2 in air), high N2 concentration (98% N2, < 2% O2), a mixture of 76% N2 and 24% CO2, and a biphasic method (first minute in mixture containing 40% CO2, 30% N2, and 30% O2; followed by two minutes in a mixture containing 60% CO2 in air). 3. The birds stunned with N2 displayed the highest initial reduction in muscle pH, but after 4 h post mortem there were no differences in pH values associated with the various CAS methods. 4. The CAS method alone had no statistically significant effect on the quality of turkey breast muscle when the chilling speed was rapid (0°C for 4 h, followed by storage at 4°C). When the chilling rate was slowed (20°C for 4 h followed by storage at 4°C), a significant decrease in cooking loss and in Warner-Bratzler shear force was recorded for birds stun-killed with CO2. 5. This study shows that anoxic stun-killing with N2 had no adverse effects on meat quality despite the rapid post mortem pH decrease. The CAS with N2 allows rapid cooling of carcases without the risk of cold shortening, whereas with CO2-stun-killing of turkeys, the rate of chilling should be slower. Concerning meat quality, all the CAS methods tested were suitable for stunning turkeys.
Semantic Specialisation of Distributional Word Vector Spaces using Monolingual and Cross-Lingual Constraints

We present Attract-Repel, an algorithm for improving the semantic quality of word vectors by injecting constraints extracted from lexical resources. Attract-Repel facilitates the use of constraints from mono- and cross-lingual resources, yielding semantically specialised cross-lingual vector spaces. Our evaluation shows that the method can make use of existing cross-lingual lexicons to construct high-quality vector spaces for a plethora of different languages, facilitating semantic transfer from high- to lower-resource ones. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated with state-of-the-art results on semantic similarity datasets in six languages. We next show that Attract-Repel-specialised vectors boost performance in the downstream task of dialogue state tracking (DST) across multiple languages. Finally, we show that cross-lingual vector spaces produced by our algorithm facilitate the training of multilingual DST models, which brings further performance improvements.
Perceived Chewing Ability and Intake of Fruit and Vegetables

Edentulous individuals have reduced chewing ability and lower fruit and vegetable consumption compared with dentate individuals. It has been suggested that the two are causally related. However, psychosocial factors such as attitude, self-identity, and knowledge of recommendations are predictive of intake in non-edentulous persons. The aims of this study were to: determine if perceived chewing ability was predictive of fruit and vegetable intake; explore the predictive ability of knowledge, attitude, and self-identity; and compare intake between edentulous and dentate individuals. Full denture-wearing (N = 79) and dentate persons (N = 52) completed a three-day food diary. Perceived chewing ability, sociodemographic, and psychosocial factors were assessed via self-administered questionnaire. The dentate persons consumed significantly more fruit and vegetables, but differences were not significant when juices were excluded. Perceived chewing ability explained ~ 4% variance in intake. Attitude, self-identity, and knowledge explained a further ~ 20%. If the diet of denture-wearers is to be improved, psychosocial factors, as well as perceived chewing ability, must be addressed.
Employee Stock Ownership, Involvement, and Productivity: An Interaction-Based Approach

The authors use the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey to assess whether the combination of employee stock ownership (ESO) plans and participation in decision-making positively affect productivity or whether ESO alone affects employee productivity. By assessing the extent to which employees participate in ESOs and the quality of their decision-making, the authors provide a clearer and more nuanced picture of this relationship with productivity. On the one hand, results show that stock plans seem to need other forms of employee involvement and “voice” in the firm to be effective, especially when there is minority participation in the ESO plan. On the other hand, results indicate that majority participation in the plan has an independent effect on productivity. Overall, the authors' research challenges prevailing views about the complementarity of stock ownership and employee involvement practices.
Improving the Adversarial Robustness and Interpretability of Deep Neural Networks by Regularizing their Input Gradients

Deep neural networks have proven remarkably effective at solving many classification problems, but have been criticized recently for two major weaknesses: the reasons behind their predictions are uninterpretable, and the predictions themselves can often be fooled by small adversarial perturbations. These problems pose major obstacles for the adoption of neural networks in domains that require security or transparency. In this work, we evaluate the effectiveness of defenses that differentiably penalize the degree to which small changes in inputs can alter model predictions. Across multiple attacks, architectures, defenses, and datasets, we find that neural networks trained with this input gradient regularization exhibit robustness to transferred adversarial examples generated to fool all of the other models. We also find that adversarial examples generated to fool gradient-regularized models fool all other models equally well, and actually lead to more "legitimate," interpretable misclassifications as rated by people (which we confirm in a human subject experiment). Finally, we demonstrate that regularizing input gradients makes them more naturally interpretable as rationales for model predictions. We conclude by discussing this relationship between interpretability and robustness in deep neural networks.