Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TRADE WITH HETEROGENEOUS PRIOR BELIEFS AND ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION

'No trade' theorems have shown that new information will not lead to trade when agents share the same prior beliefs. This paper explores the structure of no trade theorems with heterogeneous prior beliefs. It is shown how different notions of efficiency under asymmetric information--ex ante, interim, ex post--are related to agents' prior beliefs as well as incentive compatible and public versions of those efficiency concepts. These efficiency results are used to characterize necessary and sufficient conditions on agents' beliefs for no trade theorems in different trading environments. Copyright 1994 by The Econometric Society.
Depression and other psychological risks following myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND There is consistent evidence that depression symptoms predict long-term mortality following a myocardial infarction, and recent results show a dose-related gradient. The importance of other psychological variables remains unclear. METHODS This study examines the relative importance of depression, anxiety, anger, and social support in predicting 5-year cardiac-related mortality following a myocardial infarction and assesses the role of any common underlying dimensions. The design of this cohort analytic study involves self-reports (Beck Depression Inventory, state scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, 20-item version of the General Health Questionnaire, Modified Somatic Perception Questionnaire, Anger Expression Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, number of close friends and relatives, and visual analog scales of anger and stress). The study was conducted in 10 Montreal-area hospitals. The patients included 896 persons who experienced a myocardial infarction, aged 24 to 88 years (232 were women), followed up for 5 years using Medicare records; baseline data were complete for 95.0% of the patients. The intervention was usual care, and the main outcome measure was 5-year cardiac-related mortality. RESULTS The Beck Depression Inventory (P<.001), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (P =.04), and the 20-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (P =.048) were related to outcome), but only depression remained significant after adjustment for cardiac disease severity (hazards ratio per SD, 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-1.79) (P<.001). Exploratory factor analysis revealed 3 underlying factors: negative affectivity, overt anger, and social support. There was also a covariate-adjusted trend between negative affectivity scores and outcome (P =.08). Furthermore, residual depression scores (P =.001) and negative affectivity scores (P =.05) were linked to cardiac-related mortality after adjustment for each other and cardiac covariates. CONCLUSIONS Negative affectivity and some unique aspect of depression predict long-term cardiac-related mortality following a myocardial infarction independently of each other and cardiac disease severity. Additional research is needed to characterize the mechanisms involved.
Prevalence and Correlates of Bacterial Vaginosis in Different Sub-Populations of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Clinical development of vaginally applied products aimed at reducing the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, has highlighted the need for a better characterisation of the vaginal environment. We set out to characterise the vaginal environment in women in different settings in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods A longitudinal study was conducted in Kenya, Rwanda and South-Africa. Women were recruited into pre-defined study groups including adult, non-pregnant, HIV-negative women; pregnant women; adolescent girls; HIV-negative women engaging in vaginal practices; female sex workers; and HIV-positive women. Consenting women were interviewed and underwent a pelvic exam. Samples of vaginal fluid and a blood sample were taken and tested for bacterial vaginosis (BV), HIV and other reproductive tract infections (RTIs). This paper presents the cross-sectional analyses of BV Nugent scores and RTI prevalence and correlates at the screening and the enrolment visit. Results At the screening visit 38% of women had BV defined as a Nugent score of 7–10, and 64% had more than one RTI (N. gonorrhoea, C. trachomatis, T. vaginalis, syphilis) and/or Candida. At screening the likelihood of BV was lower in women using progestin-only contraception and higher in women with more than one RTI. At enrolment, BV scores were significantly associated with the presence of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the vaginal fluid and with being a self-acknowledged sex worker. Further, sex workers were more likely to have incident BV by Nugent score at enrolment. Conclusions Our study confirmed some of the correlates of BV that have been previously reported but the most salient finding was the association between BV and the presence of PSA in the vaginal fluid which is suggestive of recent unprotected sexual intercourse.
Change in Ratio of Observed-to-Expected Deaths in Pediatric Patients after Implementing a Closed Policy in an Adult ICU That Admits Children

Backgrounds. We examined the effect on the prognosis of critically ill pediatric patients after a closed ICU policy was implemented into an adult ICU that admitted children. Materials and Methods. We assessed the Pediatric Index of Mortality 2 (PIM2) score of pediatric patients (≤15 y.o.) admitted to the ICU from 2001 to 2009. In our teaching hospital, the department for intensive care was established in January 2004. Since then, for critical care patients, we have followed a closed ICU policy with full-time intensivists. We subsequently compared PIM2 scores and the ratio of observed-to-expected deaths (O/E ratio) for three three-year periods: 2001–2003 (before closed policy), 2004–2006, and 2007–2009. Results. Data was collected from 532 pediatric patients. While the PIM2 score statistically significantly increased from 0.066 ± 0.130 for 2001–2003 to 0.114 ± 0.239 for 2004–2006 and 0.086 ± 0.147 for 2007–2009, the O/E ratio decreased from 1.49 for 2001–2003 to 0.82 for 2004–2006 and remained at 0.82 for 2007–2009. Conclusion. The O/E ratio for critically ill pediatric patients improved after the establishment of a closed policy in an adult ICU that admitted children.
Hepatocytes in collagen sandwich: evidence for transcriptional and translational regulation

The influence of extracellular matrix configuration on the tissue- specific function of cultured hepatocytes was investigated. Adult rat hepatocytes sandwiched between two layers of collagen gel were compared to cells cultured on a single layer of collagen gel for differences in the total RNA content, the level of albumin-specific mRNA, the rate of albumin gene transcription, and the rate of albumin mRNA translation. Adult hepatocytes in the sandwich system maintained the level of albumin mRNA similar to that found in the normal liver for at least six weeks, whereas the level of albumin mRNA declined rapidly in the single gel system. After one week of culture, hepatocytes in the single gel system could be induced to recover the high level of albumin mRNA and albumin production when a second layer of collagen gel was overlaid at that time. Furthermore, sandwiched hepatocytes maintained significantly higher transcriptional activity compared to cells in the single gel system. In addition to transcriptional control, the ultimate rate of albumin production was shown to depend on the rate of translation, which increased with culture time and reached a plateau in one to two weeks. This increase in translational activity over time in culture was observed in both the sandwich and the single gel systems and, thus, appeared to be independent of the configuration of extracellular matrix.
A WEB-BASED APPROACH TO ASSESSING ARTIST SIMILARITY USING CO-OCCURRENCES

In this paper, we present a similarity measure for music artists based on search results of Google queries. Co-occurrences of artist names on web pages are analyzed to measure how often two artists are mentioned together on the same web page. We estimate conditional probabilities using the extracted page count. These conditional probabilities give a similarity measure which is evaluated using a data set containing 224 artists from 14 genres. For evaluation, we use two different methods, intra-/intergroup-similarities and k-Nearest Neighbors classification. Furthermore, a confidence filter and combinations of the results gained from three different query settings are tested. It is shown that these enhancements can raise the performance of our similarity measure. Comparing our results to those of similar approaches show that our approach, though being quite simple, performs well and can be used as a similarity measure that incorporates “social knowledge”.
Total spondylectomy in chondrosarcoma arising from the seventh thoracic vertebra.

1. A forty-nine-year-old man had a chondrosarcoma arising from the body of the seventh thoracic vertebra. The tumour protruded into the mediastinum and also into the spinal canal where it displaced the spinal cord. 2. At operation all the seventh thoracic vertebra and parts of the sixth and eighth were removed together with the tumour. The thoracic spine was reconstructed by inserting two iliac bone-blocks between the cut bodies of the sixth and eighth vertebrae and by wiring two strong "A. O. " plates to the transverse processes of the third to the sixth and the eighth to the tenth vertebrae. 3. The patient was nursed in a plaster-of-Paris bed for three and a half months. 4. One year and three months after operation, the patient was walking and well, with no signs of recurrence or metastasis. Radiographs showed that a block-vertebra had been created from the iliac grafts and the two cut vertebrae.
A COMPACT UNIVERSAL ANTENNA DESIGN FOR UHF RFID HANDHELD READER

A compact wideband circularly polarized (CP) square slot antenna for universal ultra high frequency (UHF) RF identification (RFID) handheld reader applications is proposed, fabricated, and tested. The antenna is coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed by an inverted Z-shaped feeding line. By inserting four stubs in diagonal directions and two inverted T-shaped strips inside the square slot, broadband CP operation, wide axial ratio bandwidth, and good impedance matching are achieved. The measured < −10 dB impedance bandwidth is from 706 MHz to 1007 MHz (301 MHz, 35.1%). The measured 3-dB axial ratio (AR) is 427 MHz (745–1172 MHz, 44.5%). The maximum measured gain of the proposed antenna is 4.8 dBi. The proposed antenna has wide impedance bandwidth, wide axial ratio bandwidth, and small size. The dimensions of the antenna are only 120×120×1.6 mm3. The impedance bandwidth and AR bandwidth performances of the proposed antenna can easily cover the UHF RFID band as whole.
Strict Linearizability and the Power of Aborting

Linearizability is a popular way to define the concurrent behavior of shared objects. However, linearizability allows operations that crash to take effect at any time in the future. This can be disruptive to systems where crashes are externally visible. In such systems, an operation that crashes should either not happen or happen within some limited time frame—preferably before the process crashes. We define strict linearizability to achieve this semantics. Strict linearizability and wait-freedom are difficult to achieve simultaneously. For example, we show that it is impossible to obtain a strictly-linearizable wait-free implementation of objects as simple as multi-reader registers from single-reader ones. To address this problem, we augment our shared objects by allowing them to abort their operations in the presence of concurrency. An aborted operation behaves like an operation that crashes: it may or may not take effect (but if it does, it does before the abort). We show that with abortable operations, there are strictly-linearizable wait-free implementations of consensus and hence of any object.
Information production in credit relationship: On the role of internal ratings in commercial banking

This paper discusses the role of internal corporate ratings as a means by which commercial banks condense their informational advantage and preserve it vis-a-vis a competitive lending market. In drawing on a unique data set collected from leading universal banks in Germany, we are able to evaluate the extent to which non-public information determines corporate ratings. As a point of departure, the paper describes a sample of rating systems currently in use, and points at methodological differences between them. Relying on a probit analysis, we are able to show that the set of qualitative, or soft, factors is not simply redundant with respect to publicly available accounting data. Rather, qualitative information tends to be decisive in at least one third of cases. It tends to improve the firms' overall corporate rating. In the case of conflicting rating changes, i.e. when qualitative and quantitative rating changes have opposing signs, quantitative criteria dominate the overall rating change. Furthermore, the more restrictive the weighting scheme as part of the rating methodology is, the stronger is the impact of qualitative information on the firms' overall rating. The implications of our results underline the need to define stringent rating standards, from both a risk management and a regulatory point of view.
SOLUTION OF NONSMOOTH GENERALIZED COMPLEMENTARITY PROBLEMS

We consider an unconstrained minimization reformulation of the generalized complementarity problem GCP(f, g) when the underlying functions f and g are H-differentiable. We describe H-differentials of some GCP functions based on the min function and the penalized Fischer-Burmeister function, and their merit functions. Under appropriate semimonotone (E0), strictly semimonotone (E) regularity-conditions on the H-differentials of f and g, we show that a local/global minimum of a merit function (or a 'stationary point' of a merit function) is coincident with the solution of the given generalized complementarity problem. When specialized GCP(f, g) to the nonlinear complementarity problems, our results not only give new results but also extend/unify various similar results proved for C 1 , semismooth, and locally Lipschitzian.
They See Dead People (Voting): Correcting Misperceptions about Voter Fraud in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

The 2016 US Presidential election was unique for many reasons, especially the widespread endorsement of falsehoods about the candidates and the electoral process. Using a unique experiment fielded the week prior to the election, we examine whether correcting information can overcome misperceptions about election fraud. We find that providing counter information is generally ineffective at remedying misperceptions and can, depending on the source, increase endorsements of misperceptions among Republicans. Although information from a fact-checking source is generally unconvincing, when given with evidence from an unlikely source – in our experiment, Breitbart News – both Republicans and Democrats decrease beliefs in voter fraud.
Anti-Ro antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis.

BACKGROUND Some autoantibodies are associated with peculiar clinical findings. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may have anti-Ro antibodies. OBJECTIVE To study prevalence and clinical associations of anti-Ro antibodies in RA patients. METHODS We studied 385 patients with RA for anti-Ro by Elisa testing and for clinical profile, functional assessment, DAS-28 4v. (ESR), extra-articular manifestations, thyroid function, autoantibodies and treatment. RESULTS The prevalence of anti-Ro was 8.31%. There was no significant difference in sex distribution, HAQ, DAS-28 or functional classification in patients with positive anti-Ro (p=ns). Patients with anti-Ro were younger at diagnosis (p=0.02). Analyzing extra-articular disorders we found a greater prevalence of cardiac valvular lesions (p<0.001) in patients with anti-Ro antibodies. No differences were found in other extra-articular manifestations, associated hypothyroidism, amyloidosis, treatment requirements, presence of rheumatoid factor (RF) or anti citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that in RA patients with anti-Ro have disease onset at an earlier age. Anti-Ro may be a risk factor for the development of cardiac valvular lesions. There was no association between this antibody and thyroid disease, amyloidosis and treatment needs.
Institutions and Structural Unemployment: Do Capital-Market Imperfections Matter?

This paper analyses whether differences in institutional structures on capital markets contribute to explaining why some OECD-countries, in particular the Anglo-Saxon countries, have been much more successful over the last two decades in producing employment growth and in reducing unemployment than most continental-European OECD-countries. It is argued that the often-blamed labour market rigidities alone, while important, do not provide a satisfactory explanation for these differences across countries and over time. Financial constraints are potentially important obstacles against creating new firms and jobs and thus against coping well with structural change and against moving successfully toward the “new economy”. Highly developed venture capital markets should help to alleviate such financial constraints. This view that labour-market institutions should be supplemented by capital market imperfections for explaining differences in employment performances is supported by our panel data analysis, in which venture capital turns out to be a significant institutional variable.
Development of a Universal Anti-Adalimumab Antibody Standard for Interlaboratory Harmonization

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring of adalimumab (ADM) has been introduced recently. When no detectable ADM serum concentrations can be found, the formation of antidrug antibodies (ADA) should be investigated. A variety of assays to measure the occurrence of ADA have been developed. Results are expressed as arbitrary units or as a titration value. The aim was to develop a monoclonal antibody (MA) that could serve as a universal calibrator to quantify the amount of ADA in ADM-treated patients. Methods: Hybridoma technology was used to generate a MA toward ADM. The functionality of the MA was tested in a bridging enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) setup and in a cell-based assay. Sera from 25 anti–tumor necrosis factor naive patients with inflammatory bowel disease were used to determine the cutoff values. Sera from 9 ADM-treated patients with inflammatory bowel disease, with undetectable serum concentrations of ADM were used to quantify the ADA response. Results: In this study, MA-ADM6A10, an IgG1 that can be used as a calibrator in both an ELISA to quantify the amount of binding antibodies and in a cell-based assay to quantify the amount of neutralizing antibodies, was generated. Combining the results of both assays showed that the sera with high concentrations of anti-ADM binding antibodies also had the highest neutralizing capacity. Conclusions: The availability of a universal calibrator could facilitate the interlaboratory harmonization of antibody titers in patients who develop anti-adalimumab antibodies.
Physical, Thermal, and Spectroscopic Characterization of Biofield Energy Treated Potato Micropropagation Medium

Potato Micropropagation Medium (PMM) is the growth medium used for in vitro micropropagation of potato tubers. The present study was intended to assess the effect of biofield energy treatment on the physical, thermal and spectroscopic properties of PMM. The study was attained in two groups i.e. control and treated. The control group was remained as untreated, while the treated group was received Mr. Trivedi’s biofield energy treatment. Finally, both the samples (control and treated) were evaluated using various analytical techniques such as X-ray diffractometry (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis- differential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), UV-Vis spectrometry, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The XRD analysis showed the crystalline nature of both control and treated samples of PMM. The X-ray diffractogram showed the significant increase in the intensity of XRD peaks in treated sample as compared to the control. The XRD analysis revealed 6.64% increase in the average crystallite size of treated PMM with respect to the control. The DSC analysis showed about 8.66% decrease in the latent heat of fusion in treated sample with respect to the control. The TGA-DTA analysis exhibited about 4.71% increase in onset temperature of thermal degradation after biofield treatment with respect to the control, while the maximum thermal degradation temperature (Tmax) was also increased (5.06%) in treated sample with respect to the control. This increase in Tmax might be correlated with increased thermal stability of treated sample as compared to the control. The UV spectroscopic study showed the slight blue shift in λmax of treated sample with respect to the control. FT-IR spectrum of control PMM showed the peak at 3132 cm-1 (C-H stretching) that was observed at higher wavenumber i.e. at 3161 cm-1 in the treated sample. Other vibrational peaks in the treated sample were observed in the similar region as that of the control. Altogether, the XRD, DSC, TGA-DTA, UV-Vis, and FT-IR analysis suggest that Mr. Trivedi’s biofield energy treatment has the impact on physicochemical properties of PMM. This treated PMM might be more effective as a micropropagation medium as compared to the control.
The central engines of radio-loud quasars

We have assembled a sample of 37 radio-loud quasars that have been imaged with the Hubble Space Telescopein order to investigate their black hole masses, accretion rates, and the structure of their accretion disks. The black hole masses were estimated from the luminosities of the host galaxies, and the accretion powers were extrapolated from the emission-line luminosities. The majority of the quasars have masses in the range MBH 10 8 10 9 M. Their accretion rates, ˙ M 0:01 1 times the Eddington rate, suggest that most of the objects possess standard optically thick, geometrically thin accretion disks, in some cases perhaps accompanied by an optically thin advection-dominated component. The coexistence of strong radio emission and a standard disk conflicts with recent models for jet formation. We discuss modifications of the standard model that can resolve this discrepancy. We find there is a strong correlation between the accretion rate and the extended radio luminosity. This lends support to the idea that the extended radio emission is somehow linked to the accretion disk. Lastly, we combine the present sample of radio-loud quasars with the sample of BL Lac objects studied by Wang et al. (2002) to reevaluate the unification picture for radio-loud active galactic nuclei. Consistent with current ideas for the unification of radio-loud sources, we find that flat-spectrum radio quasars and FR II radio galaxies indeed seem to belong to the same population, as do BL Lac objects and FR I radio galaxies on the opposite end of the luminosity spectrum. However, some members of the low frequency- peaked BL Lac objects may be more closely associated with FR II rather than FR I radio galaxies. We describe how the various subclasses of radio-loud sources can be viewed as a continuous sequence of varying accretion rate.