Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why the DEA Stride Data are Still Useful for Understanding Drug Markets

In 2001, use of the STRIDE data base for the purposes of analyzing drug prices and the impact of public policies on drug markets came under serious attack by the National Research Council (Manski et al., 2001; Horowitz, 2001). While some of the criticisms raised by the committee were valid, many of the concerns can be easily addressed through more careful use of the data. In this paper, we first disprove Horowitz's main argument that prices are different for observations collected by different agencies within a city. We then revisit other issues raised by the NRC and discuss how certain limitations can be easily overcome through the adoption of random coefficient models of drug prices and by paying serious attention to drug form and distribution levels. Although the sample remains a convenience sample, we demonstrate how construction of city-specific price and purity series that pay careful attention to the data and incorporate existing knowledge of drug markets (e.g. the expected purity hypothesis) are internally consistent and can be externally validated. The findings from this study have important implications regarding the utility of these data and the appropriateness of using them in economic analyses of supply, demand and harms.
Combined waveform-cepstral representation for robust speech recognition

High-dimensional acoustic waveform representations are studied as a front-end for noise robust automatic speech recognition using generative methods, in particular Gaussian mixture models and hidden Markov models. The proposed representations are compared with standard cepstral features on phoneme classification and recognition tasks. While lower error rates are achieved using cepstral features at very low noise levels, the acoustic waveform representations are much more robust to noise. A convex combination of acoustic waveforms and cepstral features is then considered and it achieves higher accuracy than either of the individual representations across all noise levels.
Increased variability and abnormalities in pancreatic enzyme concentrations in otherwise asymptomatic subjects with type 2 diabetes

Background Recent studies have demonstrated an increased incidence of pancreatitis in patients with type 2 diabetes compared with obese nondiabetic individuals. Serum lipase and pancreatic amylase concentrations are used in conjunction with clinical findings to diagnose pancreatitis. Methods In two large clinical trials of overweight/obese nondiabetic and type 2 diabetic subjects, lipase and pancreatic amylase were measured at screening and 2–5 weeks later at baseline (prior to treatment with study medication). Results Lipase and pancreatic amylase concentrations were above the upper limit of normal (ULN) in 13% and 6% of type 2 diabetic subjects, respectively, and were approximately three-fold (3 ×) higher than the proportion of nondiabetic subjects with levels above ULN. Elevations exceeding ULN were seen in many subjects asymptomatic for pancreatitis; however, elevations >2 × ULN and >3 × ULN were uncommon, and elevations >3 × ULN were often associated with a history of dyslipidemia, hyperlipidemia, and gastrointestinal disorders. Additionally, enzyme concentrations varied within this 2–5-week screening period, including shifts between elevated and normal levels. Conclusion Results from this post hoc analysis suggest that, although pancreatic enzymes can be a useful marker for pancreatitis within the proper clinical context, diagnosis of pancreatitis may be confounded in populations known to have asymptomatic elevations associated with disease, such as type 2 diabetes. Further effort is needed to clarify the etiology and epidemiology of pancreatic enzyme elevations in type 2 diabetes.
Conditional stability estimation for an inverse boundary problem with non-smooth boundary in ℛ³

In this paper, we investigate an inverse problem of determining a shape of a part of the boundary of a bounded domain in R3 by a solution to a Cauchy problem of the Laplace equation. Assuming that the unknown part is a Lipschitz continuous surface, we give a logarithmic conditional stability estimate in determining the part of boundary under reasonably a priori information of an unknown part. The keys are the complex extension and estimates for a harmonic measure.
Using Reordering in Statistical Machine Translation based on Alignment Block Classification

Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) is based on alignment models which learn from bilingual corpora the word correspondences between source and target language. These models are assumed to be capable of learning reorderings of sequences of words. However, the difference in word order between two languages is one of the most important sources of errors in SMT. This paper proposes a Recursive Alignment Block Classification algorithm (RABCA) that can take advantage of inductive learning in order to solve reordering problems. This algorithm should be able to cope with swapping examples seen during training; it should infer properties that might permit to reorder pairs of blocks (sequences of words) which did not appear during training; and finally it should be robust with respect to training errors and ambiguities. Experiments are reported on the EuroParl task and RABCA is tested using two state-of-the-art SMT systems: a phrased-based and an Ngram-based. In both cases, RABCA improves results.
Emergency hospital admissions for the elderly: insights from the Devon Predictive Model.

BACKGROUND In the UK, people aged 85 and over are the fastest growing population group and are predicted to double in number by 2030. Emergency hospital admissions are also rising. METHODS All emergency admissions for the registered population in Devon to all English hospitals were analysed by age, and admission rates per thousand registered were calculated. The Devon Predictive Model (DPM) was built, using local data, to predict emergency admissions in the following 12 months. This model was compared with the Combined Predictive Model over five risk categories. RESULTS The registered Devon population on 31 March 2011 was 761 652 with 65 892 emergency admissions in 2010/2011. The DPM had 89 variables including several local factors which strengthened the model. Three of the four most powerful predictors were age 85-89, 90-94 and 95 and over. The positive predictive value for the DPM was better than the CPM's in all five risk categories. Half (49.6%) of all emergency admissions were from those aged 65 or over. Admissions rose progressively and significantly in each successive elderly age band. At age 85 and over there were 420 emergency admissions per thousand registered. CONCLUSIONS Age, especially 85 and over, has been undervalued as a risk factor for emergency hospital admissions.
Hepatitis C Infection Among Injecting Drug Users in England and Wales (1992–2006): There and Back Again?

Changes in hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence from 1992 to 2006 were examined by using 24,311 records from unlinked anonymous surveillance of injecting drug users in England and Wales. Bayesian logistic regression was used to estimate annual prevalence, accounting for changing recruitment patterns (age, gender, injecting duration, geographic region, interactions) and the sensitivity and specificity of different oral fluid testing devices. After controlling for these differences, the authors found that the adjusted HCV prevalence decreased from 70% (95% credible interval: 62, 78) in 1992 to 47% (95% credible interval: 43, 51) in 1998 before rising again to 53% (95% credible interval: 48, 58) in 2006. Women injecting drug users had a higher HCV risk than did men (odds ratio = 1.50, 95% credible interval: 1.31, 1.73). Two regions (London and North West) had a markedly higher HCV prevalence than did the rest of England and Wales. Among individuals who had injected for less than 1 year, the adjusted HCV prevalence in 2006 was higher than that in 1992 (28% vs. 19%, respectively). HCV infection can be prevented. The public health challenge in England and Wales is to increase action in order to regain a downward trend in HCV risk and the benefit that has been lost since 1998.
THE DOLLARIZATION OF THE ECONOMY AND SERVICE DELIVERY: A CASE STUDY OF MASVINGO MUNICIPALITY IN ZIMBABWE

The much heralded economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe impacted significantly on social service delivery offered by the municipal councils across the country. The quality and quantity of social services being offered by the city council has perpetually deteriorated due to this economic and political conundrum. The fundamental linchpin of this research is on establishing the impact of dollarization of the economy of municipal social service delivery. This research sought to asses local residents’ perceptions pertaining to the quality and quantity of municipal social services. The study also investigated the challenges faced by the local residents in accessing social services from the city council. The research further examined the strategies devised by the local residents in transcending these challenges as well as the sustainability of such strategies. The research findings indicates that dollarization of the economy is inundated with ambivalence, with some residents noting that dollarization exacerbated the quality and quantity of municipal social service delivery, while others noting marginal improvement in social service delivery, by the city council ever since the dollarization of the economy. Thus, the perceptions of the local residents are muddled in contradictions. This study utilized a purely qualitative methodology with a triangulation of data soliciting techniques being used. The study employed Norman Long’s ‘Actor – Oriented approach’ an ‘Interface analysis’ as the analytical insights in understanding the politics surrounding municipal service delivery.
Association between telomerase activity and outcome in patients with nonmetastatic Ewing family of tumors.

PURPOSE Telomerase is considered a molecular marker for malignancy. The aim of this study was to determine telomerase activity (TA) as a prognostic factor at diagnosis and as a marker for minimal residual disease during therapy and follow-up in nonmetastatic Ewing family of tumors (EFT). PATIENTS AND METHODS Primary tumor specimens and 97 peripheral blood (PBL) samples from 31 EFT patients were analyzed for TA by the Telomeric Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP assay). The telomerase catalytic subunit (human telomerase reverse transcriptase [hTERT]) gene expression was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and telomere length was determined by Southern blotting. The presence of the EFT chimeric transcripts was analyzed by RT-PCR. Correlations with progression-free survival were evaluated. RESULTS At diagnosis, TA in primary tumors did not correlate with outcome. During therapy and follow-up, highly significant correlation was observed between high TA in PBL samples and adverse prognosis (P <.0001). None of the patients harboring low TA progressed, with a long follow-up (median, 60 months) and a progression-free survival (PFS) of 100%. In nine patients, high TA actually could predict relapse, long before overt clinical relapse. The group of patients with high TA and positive RT-PCR had the most adverse outcome; PFS of 20% (P =.0025). TA was found to be a better prognostic factor than RT-PCR and histopathologic response at surgery. CONCLUSION The results suggest that TA is a significant prognostic variable, superior to the established clinical prognostic parameters during therapy and tumor surveillance. It could be used in combination with RT-PCR for a new risk classification.
Effects of Organic Amendment Application on Soil Quality and GarlicYield in Central-Western Argentina

We analyzed during two garlic crop cycles, the effects of chicken manure and vermicompost on soil chemical and biological properties in an agricultural farm irrigated with municipal wastewater of central-western Argentina. Also we evaluate garlic yield and possible health risks as resulting from the organic amendments and the wastewater use. We found that: a) different doses and types of amendments did not have any significant effects on soil fertility; b) chicken manure and soil before planting, had E. coli and Salmonella spp. ; and c) crop yields were quite similar in all treatments, only treatments with 8 Mg ha -1 of both amendments (chicken manure and vermicompost) without N fertilized, were significantly higher than control in both garlic assays. These results are probably the consequence of heavily tilled soils and poor quality of irrigation water with high abundance of enteric bacteria and labile organic matter content. We conclude that to obtain beneficial effects on soil fertility from organic amendment application, wastewater treatment systems must be improved and tillage practices must be reduced.
Moderating effects of governance on information infrastructure and e-government development

Drawing from the resource complementarity perspective of the resource-based view of a firm, this study examines the complementary role of governance dimensions—namely, voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption—on the relationship between information infrastructure in a country and its e-government development. Based on publicly available archival data from 178 countries, our results provide support for the hypothesized model. Specifically, whereas political stability, government effectiveness, and rule of law moderated the relationship of information infrastructure with e-government development in a positive direction, voice and accountability and control of corruption moderated the relationship negatively. Further, the relationship between information infrastructure and e-government development was not contingent on regulatory quality. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on e-government development by highlighting the complementary role of governance and provide suggestions for practice in managing e-government development by enhancing governance, thereby leveraging the effect of information infrastructure on e-government development. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Employee-management Techniques: Transient Fads or Trending Fashions?

In this theory development case study, we focus on the relations across recurrent waves in the amount and kind of language promoting and diffusing, and then demoting and rejecting, management techniques—techniques for transforming the input of organizational labor into organizational outputs. We suggest that rather than manifesting themselves as independent, transitory, and un-cumulative fads, the language of repeated waves cumulates into what we call management fashion trends. These trends are protracted and major transformations in what managers read, think, express, and enact that result from the accumulation of the language of these consecutive waves. For the language of five waves in employee-management techniques—management by objectives, job enrichment, quality circles, total quality management, and business process reengineering—we measure rational and normative language suggesting, respectively, that managers can induce labor financially or psychologically. The results reveal a gradual intensification in the ratio of rational to normative language over repeated waves, suggesting the existence of a management fashion trend across these techniques. Lexical shifts over time, however, serve to differentiate a fashion from its predecessor, creating a sense of novelty and progress from the earlier to the later fashions.
Economics Professors' Voting, Policy Views, Favorite Economists, and Frequent Lack of Consensus

A sample of 299 U.S. economics professors responded to our 2010 survey. This paper reports on their views on 17 policy issues. We relate attitude toward liberalization to political-party voting. Abortion and occupational licensing are among the questions novel to the survey. We also look at gender, favorite economists, the frequent lack of consensus on issues, and the percent of economics professors who firmly support the principles of free enterprise. The instrument, dataset, and all analyses are provided online (link).
Analyzing the Impact of Food Safety Information on Food Demand in China

This study analyzed the impact of food safety information on food demand in urban China. The LA/AIDS model was estimated by using national province level food consumption data and quantities of articles about food safety event on public media from 2000 to 2008. The results of the study show that urban Chinese consumer food demand was influenced by food safety information from daily newspapers and GM labeling policy. This paper also indicates food price elasticities, expenditure elasticities by categories and the effect of food safety information.
Gender and age differences in plasma carnitine, muscle strength, and exercise tolerance in haemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND Haemodialysis patients have impaired exercise tolerance that may be related to impaired carnitine availability and/or alterations in carnitine metabolism. As carnitine metabolism is sex- and age-related, we examined plasma free and esterified carnitine concentrations, muscle strength, and estimated exercise tolerance in female (n=51) and male (n=63) patients of different ages (18-86 years). METHODS Concentrations of free carnitine and acetylcarnitine were determined in the plasma of patients. Isometric handgrip strength was measured using a dynamometer while exercise tolerance was predicted from scores for self-reported walking distance on the level and on an incline. RESULTS Plasma total carnitine concentration in the females was significantly lower than that of males (35.4+/-1.3 and 42.4+/-1.4 micro mol/l, respectively, P<0.01). This was almost entirely due to the lower plasma free carnitine concentration of females when compared with the males (20.6+/-0.9 and 26.3+/-1.1 micro mol/l, respectively, P<0.05). Furthermore, plasma free carnitine concentrations were negatively correlated with age in females (r=-0.45, P<0.001) even when the linear effects of haemoglobin, albumin, body weight, time on dialysis, and muscle strength were removed from the regression analysis (partial correlation coefficient; pcc=-0.43, P=0.018), but not in the males (r=0.03, P>0.05). Isometric handgrip strength and estimated exercise tolerance on the level were lower in females than males (138.9+/-10.9 and 259.0+/-15.2 N, P<0.001; and 3.5+/-0.2 and 4.3+/-0.2, P<0.05, respectively). Isometric handgrip strength and estimated exercise tolerance (walking distance on the level and on an incline) were positively correlated with plasma free carnitine concentrations in females, but not in the males. CONCLUSIONS There was a strong relationship between plasma free carnitine concentrations and age in female patients, but not in males. It is unlikely that the reduction in plasma free carnitine in females was a direct causative factor in their reduced exercise tolerance, but probably reflects greater muscle de-conditioning/atrophy with age in female patients.
The acoustic to articulation mapping: non-linear or non-unique?

This paper studies the hypothesis that the acoustic-to-articulatory mapping is non-unique, statistically. The distributions of the acoustic and articulatory spaces are obtained by fitting the data into a Gaussian Mixture Model. The kurtosis is used to measure the non-Gaussianity of the distributions and the Bhattacharya distance is used to find the difference between distributions of the acoustic vectors producing non-unique articulator configurations. It is found that stop consonants and alveolar fricatives arc generally not only non-linear but also non-unique, while dental fricatives arc found to be highly non-linear but fairly unique. Two more investigations are also discussed: the first is on how well the best possible piecewise linear regression is likely to perform, the second is on whether the dynamic constraints improve the ability to predict different articulatory regions corresponding to the same region in the acoustic space.
Acute effects of amiodarone administration on thyroid function in patients with cardiac arrhythmia.

Because little has been published on early effects of treatment with amiodarone on thyroid function, we studied serum total and free thyroid hormone, reverse T3, and TSH levels in patients with cardiac arrhythmias during the first 10 days of treatment with a loading dose of amiodarone by iv infusion. Twenty-four patients were enrolled in the study. A standardized loading regimen for the i.v. infusion of amiodarone was used. The protocol provided the i.v. infusion of 20 mg/kg per day on day 1, the i.v. infusion of 10 mg/kg per day on day 2, then 600 mg/day per os for 7-10 days, and finally, in patients chronically treated with the drug, the dose was gradually reduced to 400-200 mg/day per os. Total and free concentrations of T4 tended to progressively and significantly increase (P < 0.0001 repeated measures ANOVA) starting from the fourth day of therapy, whereas total T3 decreased from the second day progressively (P < 0.0001) throughout the study; free T3 did not significantly change. TSH levels early and significantly (P < 0.001, by ANOVA) increased throughout the study, starting from the first day of therapy and reaching at 10 days a value 2.7 times higher than the basal value. Reverse T3 levels progressively and significantly (after 2 days of treatment) increased and paralleled the TSH values, reaching at the 10th day a value about 2 times higher than basal value. In conclusion, our data suggest that after i.v. treatment with amiodarone: 1) TSH is the first hormone to change significantly followed by reverse T3, T4, and T3; 2) the progressive fall of T3 levels reflects an inhibition of the peripheral conversion of T4 to T3; 3) the observed later increase of total and free T4 levels may be explained by a contribution of direct thyroidal stimulation by TSH and/or by a reduction in T4 clearance.
BASCOE Assimilation of Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide Observed by MIPAS and GOMOS: Comparison Between the Two Sets of Analyses

MIPAS (v4.61) and GOMOS (v6.0a) observations of O3 andNO2 have been assimilated separately by the Belgian Assimilation System of Chemical Observations from Envisat (BASCOE). In the first experiment, MIPAS observations have been assimilated from October 2002 to March 2004 (18 months) including also observations of HNO3, N2O, CH4 andH2O data. For the second experiment, which concerns GOMOS data, a reduced time period was considered, from mid–July to end of November 2003 (4.5 months) where only O3 andNO2 dark limb data are taken into account. The agreement with respect to HALOE and POAM–III data is good. However, comparison between assimilated MIPAS ozone data and the BASCOE MIPAS analyses shows a significant bias of about +20% at 0.5 hPa. We find that this bias has to be attributed to MIPAS data (v4.61).
PENGARUH PROFITABILITAS, SOLVABILITAS, REPUTASI KANTOR AKUNTAN PUBLIK PADA KETIDAKTEPATWAKTUAN PUBLIKASI LAPORAN KEUANGAN PERUSAHAAN DI BEI

ABSTRAK Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menguji pengaruh profitabilitas dan solvabilitas terhadap ketidaktepatwaktuan publikasi laporan keuangan dengan reputasi kantor akuntan publik sebagai variabel moderasi dan ukuran perusahaan digunakan sebagai variabel kontrol. Hasil pengujian hipotesis menunjukkan profitabilitas tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap ketidaktepatwaktuan publikasi laporan keuangan, sedangkan solvabilitas terbukti secara signifikan mempengaruhi ketidaktepatwaktuan publikasi laporan keuangan. Reputasi kantor akuntan publik sebagai variabel moderasi secara signifikan mampu memoderasi profitabilitas dan solvabilitas. Ukuran Perusahaan sebagai variabel kontrol dalam penelitian ini ternyata tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap ketidaktepatwaktuan publikasi laporan keuangan Kata Kunci: Profitabilitas, solvabilitas, reputasi kantor akunt an publik, ukuran perusahaan, ketidaktepatwaktuan