Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tax Incidence and Tax Avoidance

Economists broadly agree that the economic burden of corporate taxes is not entirely borne by shareholders, but also borne in part by employees or consumers. We model corporate tax avoidance in a setting where shareholders do not bear the entire economic burden of the corporate tax. We show the relation between corporate tax incidence and corporate tax avoidance depends on the elasticity of labor supply, the productivity of capital relative to labor, and the tax deductibility of labor and capital. These forces have competing effects, making the association between tax avoidance and incidence an empirical question. Empirically, we find that firms whose shareholders bear less of the economic burden of corporate taxes engage in less avoidance, and that the results are strongest under conditions predicted by our model. Our findings suggest that maximizing after-tax profits might entail less tax avoidance if shareholders do not entirely bear the corporate tax burden.
Depression, Language, and Affect

Literature suggests that depression influences how individuals communicate. However, no studies examine the impact of affective state on language. The current study examined the influence of depression and affective state on linguistic style. Findings suggest that depression and temporary negative moods both affect pronoun use, but depression influences use of first-person pronouns, whereas negative affect influences use of third-person pronouns.
TLR Triggering on Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells Results in TLR2 Up-Regulation and a Reduced Proinflammatory Immune Program1

Tolerogenic dendritic cells (TDC) offer a promising therapeutic potential to ameliorate autoimmune diseases. Reported to inhibit adaptive immune responses, little is known about their innate immunity receptor repertoire. In this study, we compared three types of human TDC (IL-10-DC, dexamethasone (DX)-DC, and 1,25(OH)2D3-DC) by their TLR expression and response to a set of TLR ligands. TDC are endowed with the same TLR set as standard monocyte-derived dendritic cells but respond differentially to the TLR stimuli Pam3CSK4, polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid, LPS, and flagellin. TDC expressed low or no IL-12-related cytokines and remarkably elevated IL-10 levels. Interestingly, only TDC up-regulated the expression of TLR2 upon stimulation. This boosted the tolerogenic potential of these cells, because IL-10 production was up-regulated in TLR2-stimulated, LPS-primed DX-DC, whereas IL-12 and TNF-α secretion remained low. When comparing the TDC subsets, DX-DC and 1,25(OH)2D3-DC up-regulated TLR2 irrespective of the TLR triggered, whereas in IL-10-DC this effect was only mediated by LPS. Likewise, DX-DC and 1,25(OH)2D3-DC exhibited impaired ability to mature, reduced allostimulatory properties, and hampered capacity to induce Th1 differentiation. Therefore, both DX-DC and 1,25(OH)2D3-DC display the strongest tolerogenic and anti-inflammatory features and might be most suitable tools for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Effect of various doses of gestogens on micronuclei frequency in human peripheral blood lymphocytes of pregnant women.

BACKGROUND Since gestogens, in the form of hormonal substitution therapy, have been proposed to have a role in the prevention of threatened spontaneous abortions during the first three months of pregnancy, we decided to evaluate possible genotoxic effects of these preparations. METHODS A total of 30 pregnant women, with a diagnosis of threatened spontaneous abortions, received the gestogen therapy in the first 3 months, and a sample of 30 pregnant women without indication for hormonal therapy were included as the control group. For investigation of mutagenic effects of gestogens in vivo the cytokinesis block (CB) micronucleus (MN) test was applied. RESULTS Average MN frequency in the control group was 6.79 +/- 0.69 MN/1000 cells. The second analysed group included 12 patients with threatened spontaneous abortions, who received gestogen therapy in doses of 100-750 mg. Average MN frequency in these patients before therapy was 11.83 +/- 1.33 MN/1000 cells, and after therapy it was 16.50 +/- 1.32 MN/1000 cells (P < 0.001). The third analysed group comprised nine patients, who received gestogen therapy in doses of 750-2000 mg. Average MN frequency in these patients before therapy was 15.67 +/- 3.00 MN/1000 cells, and after therapy was 23.89 +/- 2.49 MN/1000 cells (P < 0.001). The fourth analysed sample comprised nine patients, treated with gestogen doses of 2000-8400 mg. The average MN frequency in these patients before therapy was 11.89 +/- 1.63 MN/1000 cells, and after therapy was 21.22 +/- 2.80 MN/1000 cells (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The increase of therapeutic gestogen doses was followed by an increase of average MN frequency. The greatest rise of MN frequency (1.8-fold) was observed in the group of patients who were treated with the highest gestogen doses (2000-8400 mg). The smallest increase (1.4-fold) of MN frequency was found in the group of patients whose therapeutic doses were the lowest (100-750 mg).
The impact of Catechol-O-Methyl transferase on working memory in psychometrically identified schizotypy

Patients with schizophrenia often exhibit impairment in working memory that is influenced by dopamine availability in the prefrontal cortex. Dopamine availability in the prefrontal cortex is regulated in part by the activity of the Catechol-O-Methyl transferase (COMT) gene. The COMT gene contains a functional polymorphism that results in a Valine (Val) to Methionine (Met) amino acid substitution that impacts dopamine availability. COMT impacts working memory performance in patients with schizophrenia such that Val allele load is associated with impaired working memory performance. The present study extended this literature by examining the relationship between COMT and spatial working memory (SWM), and their interactions, in psychometrically identified positive and negative schizotypy in a nonclinically ascertained sample of young adults. As hypothesized, negative schizotypy was associated with the Val allele in an allele dependent fashion. In addition, negative, but not positive, schizotypy was generally associated with deficits in SWM performance. Contrary to hypotheses, poorer SWM was not associated with Val allele load. Additionally, COMT generally did not moderate the relations between SWM and negative schizotypy. The findings support the idea that the neurodevelopmental vulnerability for schizophrenia is expressed across a continuum of impairment referred to as schizotypy, the construct validity of a multidimensional model of schizotypy, and the use of psychometric screening inventories as promising tools to help understand the etiology and development of schizophrenia.
Theoretical and Computational Guarantees of Mean Field Variational Inference for Community Detection

The mean field variational Bayes method is becoming increasingly popular in statistics and machine learning. Its iterative Coordinate Ascent Variational Inference algorithm has been widely applied to large scale Bayesian inference. See Blei et al. (2017) for a recent comprehensive review. Despite the popularity of the mean field method there exist remarkably little fundamental theoretical justifications. To the best of our knowledge, the iterative algorithm has never been investigated for any high dimensional and complex model. In this paper, we study the mean field method for community detection under the Stochastic Block Model. For an iterative Batch Coordinate Ascent Variational Inference algorithm, we show that it has a linear convergence rate and converges to the minimax rate within $\log n$ iterations. This complements the results of Bickel et al. (2013) which studied the global minimum of the mean field variational Bayes and obtained asymptotic normal estimation of global model parameters. In addition, we obtain similar optimality results for Gibbs sampling and an iterative procedure to calculate maximum likelihood estimation, which can be of independent interest.
New Users and Changing Traditions—(Re)Defining Sami Offering Sites

Sami are indigenous people of Northern Fennoscandia. Some Sami offering sites have been used for over a thousand years. During this time, the offering traditions have changed and various people have started using the places based on different motivations. Present day archaeological finds give evidence of both continuing traditions and new meanings attached to these sites, as well as to sites that were probably not originally used for rituals in the Sami ethnic religion. In some cases, the authenticity of the place seems to lie in the stories and current beliefs more than in a historical continuity or any specifically sacred aspects of the topography or nature it is situated in. Today's new users include, for example, local (Sami) people, tourists, and neo-pagans. This paper discusses what informs these users, what identifies certain locations as offering sites, and what current users believe their relationship to these places should be. What roles do scholarly traditions, heritage tourism, and internal culture have in (re)defining Sami offering sites and similarly what roles do ‘appropriate’ rituals have in ascribing meaning to particular places? How do we mediate wishes for multivocality with our professional opinions when it comes to defining sacredness?
İlköğretim Okulu Öğretmenlerinin Örgütsel Bağlılık Düzeyleri

Bu arastirmanin amaci, ilkogretim kurumlarinda gorev yapan ogretmenlerin orgutsel baglilik duzeyini belirlemektir. Arastirmanin orneklemini 2009 -2010 ogretim yili guz doneminde Izmir il merkezindeki ilkogretim kurumlarinda gorev yapan 353 ogretmen olusturmaktadir. Arastirmanin verileri, Meyer, Allen ve Smith (1993) tarafindan gelistirilen âUc Boyutlu Orgutsel Baglilik Olcegiâ araciligi ile toplanmistir. Arastirmada orgutsel baglilik; duygusal baglilik, devam bagliligi ve normatif baglilik olmak uzere uc farkli boyutta ele alinarak, ilkogretim ogretmenlerinin baglilik duzeyleri belirlenmeye calisilmistir. Ayrica ogretmenlerin baglilik duzeylerinin cinsiyetlerine, medeni durumlarina, yaslarina, alanlarina, kidemlerine, okullarinda calisma surelerine ve sendikaya uyelik durumlarina gore farklilik gosterip gostermedigine bakilmistir. Analizler sonucu elde edilen bulgulara gore ogretmenlerin en fazla gosterdikleri baglilik duzeyi duygusal baglilik bulunmustur.
QoS Adaptation in Service-Oriented Grids

Some applications utilizing Grid computing infrastructure require the simultaneous allocation of resources, such as compute servers, networks, memory, disk storage and other specialized resources. Collaborative working and visualization is one example of such applications. In this context, Quality of Service (QoS) is related to Grid services, and not just to the network connecting these services. With the emerging interest in service-oriented Grids, resources may be advertised and traded as services based on a Service Level Agreement (SLA). Such a SLA must include both general and technical specifications, including pricing policy and properties of the resources required to execute the service – to ensure QoS requirements are satisfied. A QoS adaptation algorithm is presented to enable the dynamic adjustment of behavior of an application based on changes in the pre-defined SLA. The approach is particularly useful if workload or network traffic changes in unpredictable ways during an active session. The proposed QoS adaptation scheme is used to compensate for QoS degradation and optimize resource utilization, by increasing the number of requests managed over a particular time.
Frequent expression of the natural killer cell receptor KLRG1 in human cord blood T cells: correlation with replicative history

The killer cell lectin‐like receptor G1 (KLRG1) belongs to the family of inhibitory C‐type lectins that are encoded in the NK gene complex. Similar to other inhibitory NK cell receptors, KLRG1 expression in adult peripheral blood lymphocytes is restricted to NK cells and to antigen‐experienced T cells. Umbilical cord blood T cells are thought to represent an homogenous pool of naive T cells. Surprisingly, we identified substantial subsets of CD4 (∼ 30%) and CD8 (∼ 20%) αβ T cells in cord blood that expressed KLRG1. In contrast to T cells in adult, KLRG1+ T cells in cord blood exhibited predominantly a naive CCR7+CD45RA+ and CD11alow phenotype. After birth, KLRG1 expression in T cells from peripheral blood decreased rapidly to reappear in effector/memory T cells in adults. KLRG1+ T cells in cord blood expressed a diverse T cell receptor β (TCRβ) repertoire and the cells proliferated normally, in contrast to KLRG1+ T cells from adults. Finally, examination of T cell receptor excision circles (TREC) indicated that KLRG1 expression discriminated between cord blood T cells that differed in their post‐thymic expansion rate. Thus, analysis of KLRG1 expression in cord blood revealed an unexpected heterogeneity of human T cells in newborns.
Exercise testing to estimate survival in pulmonary hypertension.

BACKGROUND : The 6-min walk distance (6MWD) predicts survival in pulmonary hypertension (PH). The peak oxygen consumption (V O2peak) measured during a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) also relates to survival in PH, and it is unknown how the prognostic information from measurements of ventilatory responses and gas exchange during CPET compares to the prognostic information obtained by the 6MWD alone. The aims of our study were to compare prognostic values of different exercise parameters in PH and to assess whether CPET adds prognostic value to the information from the 6MWD. METHODS : After baseline right-heart catheterization and exercise testing, survival was assessed in a cohort of 115 PH patients. RESULTS : During the 4 yr of follow-up, 18 patients died. At baseline, pulmonary arterial pressure was 49 +/- 17 mm Hg, the slope relating minute ventilation to carbon dioxide output (V E/V CO2slope) = 45 +/- 11, V O2peak = 15 +/- 6 mL.kg. min, increase in O2 pulse from rest to peak exercise (DeltaO2 pulse) = 5 +/- 2 mL.beat, and 6MWD = 445 +/- 128 m. For the prediction of mortality, the areas under the receiver operating curves were very similar for the different parameters and ranged from 0.69 to 0.74. Patients with a V E/V CO2slope < 48, V O2peak > 13.2 mL.kg. min, DeltaO2 pulse > 3.3 mL.beat, or a 6MWD > 399 m had a higher cumulative survival (P < 0.05). Multivariable Cox regression with a forward selection procedure showed that only DeltaO2 pulse improved the univariate 6MWD prediction model significantly (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION : CPET parameters predict survival in PH patients and add marginally to the prognostic value of the 6MWD.
Current Concepts Review: Risk Factors for Nonunions in Foot and Ankle Arthrodeses

Bony union occurs through a physiological cascade that includes numerous mediators and cellular elements interacting at a molecular level to exert their influence in concordance with physiological and biomechanical principles.4,31 Histologically, bone union begins with a period of vigorous cellular proliferation within the “osteogenic layer” of the periosteum. This external mass of cells undergoes further proliferation, with the actively osteogenic and chondroid cells beneath this “growing zone” laying down matrix and producing cartilage.48 On a temporal basis, McKibben63 described three phases of bone healing. There is an immediate inflammatory phase, followed by an osteogenic tissue phase with cellular proliferation and differentiation, and finally a prolonged remodeling phase. The failure of this dynamic process to progress in a time-expectant fashion results in delayed or failed healing. Numerous risk factors for the development of nonunion have been proposed (Table 1). These risk factors can be categorized into patient factors and surgical factors. The purpose of this current concept review is to discuss the risk factors for nonunion following an arthrodesis of the
Application of High-Resolution DNA Melting for Genotyping in Lepidopteran Non-Model Species: Ostrinia furnacalis (Crambidae)

Development of an ideal marker system facilitates a better understanding of the genetic diversity in lepidopteran non-model organisms, which have abundant species, but relatively limited genomic resources. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered within single-copy genes have proved to be desired markers, but SNP genotyping by current techniques remain laborious and expensive. High resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis represents a simple, rapid and inexpensive genotyping method that is primarily confined to clinical and diagnostic studies. In this study, we evaluated the potential of HRM analysis for SNP genotyping in the lepidopteran non-model species Ostrinia furnacalis (Crambidae). Small amplicon and unlabeled probe assays were developed for the SNPs, which were identified in 30 females of O. furnacalis from 3 different populations by our direct sequencing. Both assays were then applied to genotype 90 unknown female DNA by prior mixing with known wild-type DNA. The genotyping results were compared with those that were obtained using bi-directional sequencing analysis. Our results demonstrated the efficiency and reliability of the HRM assays. HRM has the potential to provide simple, cost-effective genotyping assays and facilitates genotyping studies in any non-model lepidopteran species of interest.
Osteophyte Formation in the Lumber Spine and Relevance to Low Back Pain

Vertebral osteophyte formation is a well-documented phenomenon that is associated with degeneration and altered mechanics of the spine, both of which have been considered to be the result of aging, a purely physiologic response to load bearing, or intrinsic spinal disease as etiologic factors. (Lane et al., 1993, O’Neill et al., 1999) They are recognized radiologically as hyperostosis at the region of the attachment of the annular fibers to the vertebral body and localized increases in bone mineral density. (Nathan et al., 1994) As the etiologic factors, the compressive forces on the vertebral endplates (Nathan et al., 1962), bone mineral density (Kinoshita et al., 1998), obesity (O’Neill et al., 1999) and genetic factors (Sambrook et al., 1999) have been reported as causes, although the absence of a single definitive factor causing spinal degeneration has led to a suggestion that several factors including both genetic and nongenetic ones contribute to the development of osteophyte formation. (Harada et al., 1998, Liu et al., 1997)
Research with Children: Perspectives and Practices

Introduction: researching children and childhood: cultures of communication, Pia Christensen and Allison James subjects, objects or participants? dilemma of psychological research with children, Martin Woodhead and Dorothy Faulkner the child as social actor in historical sources: problems of identification and interpretation, Harry Hendrick Zeitgeist research on childhood, Chris Jenks microanalyis of childhood, Jens Qvortrup children as respondents: the challenge of quantitative methods, Jacqueline Scott conversations with children: working with generational issues, Berry Mayall the development of participatory techniques: facilitating children's views about decisions which affect them, Claire O'Kane childhood diversity and commonality: some methodological insights, Pia Christensen and Allison James entering and observing in children's worlds: a reflection on longitudinal ethnography of early education in Italy, William A. Corsaro and Luisa Molinari learning to live the lives of disabled children, John David, Nick Watson and Sarah Cunningham-Burley listening to children and hearing them Helen Roberts children as researchers: the effects of participation rights on research methodology, Priscilla Alderson.
Pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma presenting with dysphagia: a rare presentation

A 25-year-old man presented with a 2-month history of dysphagia and past history of pulmonary and intestinal tuberculosis. A barium swallow showed a point of constriction 42 mm above the gastroesophageal junction. Computed tomography revealed large opacities in bilateral lung fields, encroaching more on the esophagus. The lesion progressively compressed the esophagus as it moved inferiorly. A right posterolateral thoracotomy was performed for sub-anatomical resection of the mass. A biopsy revealed homogenous whirling hyalinized collagen fibers, highly suggestive of pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma, with no evidence of malignancy. Pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of longstanding dysphagia.
Stochastic Greedy Methods with Sparse Constraints

Motivated by recent work on stochastic gradient descent methods, we develop two stochastic variants of greedy algorithms for optimization problems with sparsity constraints. We prove linear convergence in expectation to the solution within a specified tolerance. This framework applies to problems such as sparse signal recovery in compressed sensing and lowrank matrix recovery, giving methods with provable convergence guarantees that often outperform their deterministic counterparts. We include many numerical experiments which align with the theoretical analysis and demonstrate these improvements in several different settings.
Statistical properties of the method of regularization with periodic Gaussian reproducing kernel

The method of regularization with the Gaussian reproducing kernel is popular in the machine learning literature and successful in many practical applications. In this paper we consider the periodic version of the Gaussian kernel regularization. We show in the white noise model setting, that in function spaces of very smooth functions, such as the infinite-order Sobolev space and the space of analytic functions, the method under consideration is asymptotically minimax; in finite-order Sobolev spaces, the method is rate optimal, and the efficiency in terms of constant when compared with the minimax estimator is reasonably high. The smoothing parameters in the periodic Gaussian regularization can be chosen adaptively without loss of asymptotic efficiency. The results derived in this paper give a partial explanation of the success of the Gaussian reproducing kernel in practice. Simulations are carried out to study the finite sample properties of the periodic Gaussian regularization.
Extruded Soluplus/SIM as an oral delivery system: characterization, interactions, in vitro and in vivo evaluations

Abstract The aim of this study was to obtain a stable, amorphous solid dispersion (SD) with Soluplus, prepared by hot-melt extrusion (HME) as an effective and stable oral delivery system to improve the physical stability and bioavailability of the poorly water-soluble simvastatin (SIM), a drug with relatively low Tg. The drug was proved to be miscible with Soluplus by calculation and measurements. The solubility, dissolution, thermal characteristics, interactions and physical stability of the SIM/Soluplus SDs were investigated. The crystal state of simvastatin in the SD was found to change from crystalline to amorphous form during the HME process and also hydrogen bonds were observed between SIM and the extruded Soluplus. The phase solubility showed the solubilization effect of Soluplus was strong and spontaneous. The equilibrium solubility illustrated that Soluplus/SIM SDs gained much higher solubility than its corresponding physical mixtures (PMs). Both of the dissolution profiles and in-vivo performance showed that the SIM/Soluplus SD obtained a marked enhancement, compared with the PM. There was a little change in the SIM/Soluplus SD during a 3-month storage period (40 °C, 75%), indicating the good physicochemical stability. The extruded Soluplus system prepared by HME is a good alternative for the water-insoluble SIM to improve the stability and bioavailability.