Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CpG Oligonucleotides Enhance Proliferative and Effector Responses of B Cells in HIV-Infected Individuals1

Stimulation through TLR represents a new therapeutic approach for enhancing Ab responses to vaccination. Considering that Ab responses are decreased in HIV disease and that B cells express TLR9 and respond to TLR9 agonists, we investigated the responsiveness of B cell subpopulations from HIV-infected and uninfected individuals to the TLR9 agonist CpG oligonucleotide type B (CpG-B) in the presence and absence of BCR ligation and T cell help (CD40L). CpG-B was equally effective in stimulating the proliferation of naive B cells of HIV-infected individuals and HIV-negative individuals, and, when combined with BCR and CD40 ligation, cytokine secretion by naive B cells was also comparable in HIV-infected and uninfected individuals. In contrast, CD27+ memory/activated B cells of HIV-infected individuals with active disease were less responsive to CpG-B in terms of proliferation and cytokine secretion when compared with CD27+ B cells of HIV-negative and HIV-infected individuals whose viremia was controlled by antiretroviral therapy. These findings suggest that despite abnormalities in memory B cells of HIV-infected individuals with active disease, naive B cells of HIV-infected individuals, irrespective of disease status, can respond to TLR9 agonists and that the incorporation of such agents in vaccine formulations may enhance their Ab responses to vaccination.
Discount Rates in Risk V. Money and Money V. Money Tradeoffs

We use data from a survey of residents of five Italian cities conducted in late Spring 2004 to estimate the discount rates implicit in (a) money v. future risk reductions and (b) money v. money tradeoffs. We find that the mean personal discount rate is 2% in (a) and 8.7% in (b). The latter is lower than the discount rates estimated in comparable situations in many recent studies, greater than market interest rates in Italy at the time, and exhibits modest variation with age and gender. The discount rate implicit in money v. risk tradeoffs is in line with estimates from studies in the US and Europe, and does not depend on observable individual characteristics.
Variance (Non) Causality in Multivariate GARCH

This paper extends the current literature on the variance-causality topic providing the coefficient restrictions ensuring variance noncausality within multivariate GARCH models with in-mean effects. Furthermore, this paper presents a new multivariate model, the exponential causality GARCH. By the introduction of a multiplicative causality impact function, the variance causality effects becomes directly interpretable and can therefore be used to detect both the existence of causality and its direction; notably, the proposed model allows for increasing and decreasing variance effects. An empirical application evidences negative causality effects between returns and volume of an Italian stock market index future contract.
The velocity of money and per capita income in developing economies: Malaysia and Singapore

If the velocity of money is a negative function of per capita income, the capacity of money creating institutions to finance development increases. However, empirical support for this proposition has been weak. Thus, this paper investigates velocity's behaviour in the economy of West Malaysia and Singapore from 1951 to 1966. Results show velocity to be primarily a positive function of the number of bank offices and a negative function of per capita real GDP. The paper concludes that closer observation of underdeveloped economies in which velocity has paradoxically risen with per capita income, might reveal similar institutional changes which have overwhelmed the inverse relation between per capita income and velocity.
American murder mystery revisited: do housing voucher households cause crime?

Potential neighbors often express worries that Housing Choice Voucher holders heighten crime. Yet, no research systematically examines the link between the presence of voucher holders in a neighborhood and crime. Our article aims to do just this, using longitudinal, neighborhood-level crime, and voucher utilization data in 10 large US cities. We test whether the presence of additional voucher holders leads to elevated crime, controlling for neighborhood fixed effects, time-varying neighborhood characteristics, and trends in the broader sub-city area in which the neighborhood is located. In brief, crime tends to be higher in census tracts with more voucher households, but that positive relationship becomes insignificant after we control for unobserved differences across census tracts and falls further when we control for trends in the broader area. We find far more evidence for an alternative causal story; voucher use in a neighborhood tends to increase in tracts that have seen increases in crime, suggesting that voucher holders tend to move into neighborhoods where crime is elevated.
Regionalization Strategies of European Union Electric Utilities

As part of the debate about globalization and regionalization, this paper adds a perspective that has so far remained underexposed, that of (formerly state‐owned) firms in (previously) regulated industries, in order to better understand the (changing) role of the home country/region in internationalization processes in the context of regional market liberalization. We explore the global/regional orientations of the seven major European Union electric utilities from five different home countries, which are active in both fossil‐fuel and renewable energy generation. Using a multiple case study design, we collected internationalization/regionalization data from firms' annual reports for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010, supplemented with an analysis of secondary sources. Firms show a clear pattern of increasing internationalization away from the home‐country market, coupled with a home‐region orientation for traditional generation activities which differs from the more international, wider and often multiple regional presences in the newer renewables business for some firms. Institutional factors are argued to play an important role in both processes. Findings suggest distinct regionalization patterns for business units and different firm‐specific advantages, with strategic opportunities related to asset positions. Home‐country effects may be linked to a heterogeneous firm‐specific home‐region liability of foreignness, resulting in incomplete home‐region internationalization in most cases.
Value chain development

Describes the problems recorded between 1991 and 1995 when attempting to re‐engineer the value chains of a medium‐sized electrical equipment manufacturing company in the UK. To provide guidance during the re‐engineering process a time‐based framework for analysis has been developed; this is underpinned by throughput time reduction and time compression strategies. Development takes place within a post MRP environment with full kanban control of both internal and external supply chains in a cellular structure. Aims to provide researchers and practitioners with a diary of events and problems encountered during the restructuring process. Conclusions reveal a complex set of constraints which hinder development and little or no linkage to overall financial performance measurement.
Pedagogical reform and classroom reality: how teachers view teaching and discipline

Over the past decade Queensland schools and school curriculum have been the subject of considerable policy development and reform. The most notable of these has been the adoption and widespread acceptance of the Productive Pedagogies (Gore, Griffiths & Ladwig, 2001), teaching principles and practices which are used to guide curriculum design and classroom teaching. The Productive Pedagogies draw teachers and students into a new relationship of shared participation in the teaching-learning process. This relationship has implications for how teachers interact with students in other ways, including the day-to-day task of behaviour management. The research reported in this paper looks at the dual teacher responsibilities of teaching and discipline with the focus on the extent to which the two are aligned in primary school classrooms. The research reported here extends an earlier exploratory study of the alignment of teachers and student teachers views on teaching and behaviour management
Factors Affecting Japanese HPV-Vaccination: Findings from the Semi-Structured Interviews with Adolescent Girls and Caregivers

The objective of the present study was to qualitatively assess the obstructive and facilitative factors affecting adolescent girls and their caregivers when the adolescent had received or was considering receiving the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination. Using these data, we propose recommendations for medical and nursing staff concerned with HPV vaccination. Participants were 20 adolescent girls (aged 10 - 19 years) and their caregivers, who had visited any of the 3 pediatric clinics in the Tokyo metropolitan area during a specified period since HPV vaccination began in Japan. The girls and their caregivers were separately interviewed by 2 child and/or family nursing care specialists with a semi-structured interview. The responses were qualitatively analyzed by 2 specialists, and the obstructive and facilitative factors affecting participants’ decision to receive HPV vaccination were extracted from the responses. Among the 20 sets of participants, 7 adolescents had completed HPV vaccination, 9 were going to receive vaccination, and 4 had not received any vaccination. The obstructive/facilitative factors related to considering or receiving HPV vaccination and actual vaccination were extracted and 4 main categories of factors were identified. Facilitators toward HPV-vaccination of daughters included clear future self-image and visions, fear Cervical Cancer (CC) and desire to escape from CC, having discussion with mothers about HPV-vaccination and CC, and to have a boyfriend. Barriers toward vaccination included the mothers’ reluctance to explain the sexual matters about HPV-vaccination to their daughters and difficulty with find the appropriate clinic or hospital to HPV-vaccination. Relevant factors about vaccination included positive family attitudes toward vaccination, having family system allowing consultation and having a public financial support for vaccination for daughters. Our conceptual model adapted from the Katz, et al. conceptual framework integrated the key barriers and facilitators as factors within each of four domains. These four domains have an important link. Especially, the environmental factors and the structural and sociocultural factors domain affect the individual adolescent and the caregiver factors domain, respectively. The results of present study suggest that medical/nursing activities centered on promoting HPV vaccination in Japan should comprehensively cover CC/vaccination/sex education in an integrated fashion, while schools and public health centers should provide opportunities for caregivers and adolescents to jointly participate in awareness education on HPV vaccination.
Empirically Establishing Blood Glucose Targets to Achieve HbA1c Goals

OBJECTIVE To determine the average fasting, postprandial, and bedtime self-monitored blood glucose (SMBG) concentrations associated with specified HbA1c levels using data from the A1c-Derived Average Glucose (ADAG) study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The ADAG study was a multicenter observational study that used continuous glucose monitoring and SMBG testing to determine the relationship between mean average glucose and HbA1c. We used the SMBG data from 470 of the ADAG study participants (237 with type 1 diabetes and 147 with type 2 diabetes) to determine the average fasting, premeal, 90-min postmeal, and bedtime blood glucose (BG) for predefined target HbA1c groups between 5.5 and 8.5% (37–69 mmol/mol). t Tests were used to compare mean BG values between type 1 and type 2 diabetes groups. RESULTS The average fasting BG needed to achieve predefined HbA1c target levels of 5.5–6.49% (37–47 mmol/mol), 6.5–6.99% (48–52 mmol/mol), 7.0–7.49% (52–58 mmol/mol), 7.5–7.99% (58–64 mmol/mol), and 8.0–8.5% (64–69 mmol/mol) were 122 mg/dL with 95% CI 117–127, 142 mg/dL (135–150), 152 mg/dL (143–162), 167 mg/dL (157–177), and 178 mg/dL (164–192), respectively. Postmeal BG to achieve the HbA1c level of 6.5–6.99% (48–52 mmol/mol) and 7.0–7.49% (52–58 mmol/mol) were 164 mg/dL (159–169) and 176 mg/dL (170–183), respectively. Bedtime BG was 153 mg/dL (145–161) and 177 mg/dL (166–188), respectively. CONCLUSIONS We have determined the average BG at premeal, postmeal, and bedtime to achieve a variety of HbA1c targets. These results, based on empirical data, will help patients and providers set realistic day-to-day SMBG targets to achieve individualized HbA1c goals.
Boards of Directors' short-term perceptions and evidence of managerial short-termism in the UK

Some researchers argue that capital market pressures are increasingly directed towards short-term performance evaluation of managers and their operations; others deny this. However, the crucial issue, it is argued in this paper, is managers' perceptions of this: for if they perceive capital markets as short-termist, they will behave in a short-term manner. This paper begins by offering a theoretical model for studying the effects of management perceptions on short-term behaviour of firms. Five hypotheses were developed and tested. The hypotheses related to the degree of short-term performance pressures as perceived by the boards of directors and the degree of emphasis their companies put on short-term financial control measures in determining R&D budgets. All the five hypotheses were supported, and the results were explained through the 'model'. These results support the view that perceived short-term pressures influence firms' decisions to retain or adopt 'Financial Control' management styles in their R&D budget determination. They also show that perceptions are a valuable theoretical construct in exploring short-term behaviour in firms' Research and Development and related innovation activities.
Counting organized interests in the European Union: a comparison of data sources

ABSTRACT In contrast to large-n research on US interest organizations using lobby registration data, European Union (EU) scholars have used a variety of data sources, including registries maintained by the European Commission, directories of interest organizations active in Brussels, and data on access to the European Parliament (EP). This diversity of sources raises important questions about their comparability. To what extent do these different EU sources actually measure the same population of interest organizations? We find that the several data sources vary markedly over EU institution and publisher. The paper discusses the methodological and substantive causes of these differences and their implications for further development of large-n research on interest organization politics in the EU.1
Ancient to Recent-Past Runoff Harvesting Agriculture in Recharge Playas of the Hyper-Arid Southern Israel

Recharge playas are prevalent throughout the hyper-arid southern Negev and Arava Valley of Israel. While some of these playas are terminal, others were found to be not absolutely terminal, allowing, under extreme floods, the outlet of water from their beds to a draining, ephemeral channel. Indicators for ancient to recent-past agricultural practicing were recorded for two playas. In one of them, this included the archaeological remains of seven Byzantine-Age stone terraces across the playa bed, indicating ancient runoff harvesting agriculture. In another playa, the agricultural indicator included observations by key informants who reported the cropping of barley and wheat by Bedouin populations until the mid-1990s. This was supported by rare bibliographic sources, reporting the cropping of cereals at this site by Bedouins during the 1930s and 1940s. Agro-hydrological assessments of seven playas and their catchments were conducted, revealing a marginal agronomic potential under the current climatic conditions and only for a small number of them. The results highlight the profound environmental know-how of local populations that inhabited this harsh region. Furthermore, the results coincide with previous studies, which have reported drier climatic conditions at present compared to those in ancient times, and even compared to those during the mid-1990s.
Pamela, Shamela, and the Politics of the Pamela Vogue

There are Swarms of Moral Romances. One, of late Date, divided the World into such opposite Judgments, that some extolled it to the Stars, whilst others treated it with Contempt. Whence arose, particularly among the Ladies, two different Parties, Pamelists and Antiparnelists. Some look upon this young Virgin as an Example for Ladies to follow; nay, there have been those, who did not scruple to recommend this Romance from the Pulpit. Others, on the contrary, discover in it, the Behaviour of an hypocritical, crafty Girl, in her Courtship; who understands the Art of bringing a Man to her Lure. '
Utilization of Biomass for Iron Ore Sintering

Decrease of carbon dioxide emission is a serious subject in the steel works. Utilization of biomass as a carbon-neutral agent is an attractive one for iron ore sintering. Sinter pot tests were carried out with using raw biomass and biomass carbonized char. It is not good on yield and exhaust gas that raw biomass is used directly as carbon material for iron ore sintering. While, it is good on the productivity and the exhaust gas (NOx, SOx, dust, dioxins) that biomass carbonized char is used as carbon material. With using biomass char for the sintering, it is necessary to optimize operation (size control and moisture control of the biomass char), because combustion rate of the biomass char is too high. Biomass carbonized char is evaluated on sinter yield as similar as anthracite or coke. The biomass char is effective to decrease CO 2 , NOx, SOx, dust etc. emission in sinter exhaust gas.
Bullying Victimization, Parenting Stress, and Anxiety among Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Bullying victimization is commonly associated with anxiety among individuals with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and both bullying victimization and anxiety are more prevalent among youth with ASD than in the general population. We explored individual and contextual factors that relate to anxiety in adolescents and young adults with ASD who also experience bullying victimization. Participants included 101 mothers of adolescents and young adults diagnosed with ASD. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between bullying victimization and anxiety in children with ASD, as well as parenting stress as a potential moderator of that relationship. Findings indicate that parenting stress moderates the association between bullying victimization and anxiety. The severity of anxiety was most strongly associated with bullying victimization when mothers reported high levels of stress. Implications for interventions that assist parents with coping and address bullying victimization are discussed. Autism Res 2015, 8: 727–737. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Collective Secrecy Over the  $K$ -Transmitter Multiple Access Channel

This paper studies the problem of secure communication over a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-transmitter multiple access channel (MAC) in the presence of an external eavesdropper, subject to a collective secrecy constraint (i.e., information leakage rate to an eavesdropper on a collection of messages that are from a pre-specified subset of the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula> transmitters, say <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {S}\subseteq \mathcal {K}=\{1,2,\ldots, K\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, is made vanishing). Since secrecy is of concern only to transmitters <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\{i|i\in \mathcal {S}\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> but not to transmitters <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\{i|i\in \mathcal {S}^{c}\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {S}^{c}=\mathcal {K}\backslash \mathcal {S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, different transmission strategies could be employed at transmitters <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\{i|i\in \mathcal {S}^{c}\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Consider the following two scenarios: 1) transmitters <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\{i|i\in \mathcal {S}^{c}\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> use deterministic encoders (which are conventionally used for MAC without secrecy), competing for the channel resource (i.e., being competitive) and 2) transmitters <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\{i|i\in \mathcal {S}^{c}\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> use stochastic encoders, helping to hide other transmitters’ messages from the eavesdropper (i.e., being cooperative). As a result, we establish the respective <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-collective secrecy achievable rate regions and demonstrate the advantage of being cooperative theoretically and numerically. To this end, in addition to the standard techniques, our results build upon two techniques. The first is a generalization of Chia-El Gamal’s lemma on entropy bound for a set of codewords given partial information. The second is to utilize a compact representation of a list of sets that, together with submodular properties of mutual information functions involved, leads to an efficient Fourier-Motzkin elimination. These two approaches allow us to derive achievable regions in this work, and could also be of independent interest in other context.
Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on Capture Fishery in Nigeria, (1970-2000)

The major objective of the study was to analyze the impact of policies on capture fishery in Nigeria (1970 – 2000). The specific objectives were to assess the performance of capture fishery under different policy regimes; to identify factors that influence capture fishery output; and to draw policy implications of the Central Bank of Nigeria namely, the Statistical Bulletin, Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, Financial Review (various issues) and Nigeria Trade Summary published by Federal Office of the Statistics. The data obtained were analyzed using the Error Correction Model (ECM). The result of the ECM confirms the existence of longrun equilibrium between the dependent and independent variables. Available information reveals policy instability and duplication of programmes and projects under different policies. Analysis also shows fluctuation of capture fishery output over the years. Growth rates of fish output was found to be highest between 1996 – 2000. The ADF test indicates stationarity one-difference lagged length, except government expenditure. The policy variables included in the model were found to explain 34.8% of the variability in fish output.