Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Socio-economic constraints to demand for borrowing among rural females of Pakistan

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how many rural women have access to finance. It also explores the additional constraint faced by them in accessing the credit. Design/methodology/approach - For the estimation purpose, multivariate logit regression is used, taking borrowing any credit as dependent variable. Findings - Results indicate that women lack easier access to formal credit and the socio-economic, cultural background of the family significantly impact probability of borrowing. More specifically, result indicates that female own age, marital status and employment bring self-confidence and reliability that encourage female borrowing. Research limitations/implications - In the absence of any recent nation-wide data about micro-credit, cross-section survey, the Practical implications - This paper proposes that government should implement education programmes in order to create awareness towards role of women in economic development. Moreover, to overcome the cultural constraints, information should also be disseminated through influential media. Originality/value - While it is widely recognized that, demand for credit is severely affected by socio-economic, cultural and personal characteristics, this has rarely been confirmed earlier. There are numbers of studies documented on borrowing all focus on the issue of formal and informal sources ignoring the above determinants. This paper attempts to do so.
Primary Lung Cancer in South Wales Coal-workers with Pneumoconiosis

Coal-workers in the southern part of Wales are particularly prone to pulmonary disease due to the inhalation of coal dust. In some men discrete foci of dust are scattered more or less uniformly throughout both lungs. This is called simple pneumoconiosis. In others there occur also one or more large localized masses of dust and dense fibrous tissue (Fig. 1). This manifestation is referred to as massive pneumoconiosis or progressive massive fibrosis. The literature contains many references to the coexistence of classical silicosis with primary lung cancer, but there are few accounts of coal-worker's pneumoconiosis with coexistent tumours. In a recent statistical study Kennaway and Kennaway (1953) have shown that primary cancer of the lung is less common in coal-workers than in the general male population. Their figures also show that in the South-Western Division of the British coalfields, where the incidence of pneumoconiosis is high, the incidence of lung tumour is low relative to that in other coalfields. In some other British coalfields where the pneumoconiosis incidence is low the tumour incidence is, for coal-workers, relatively high. The object of the present inquiry was to obtain evidence regarding the relationship, if any, of pneumoconiosis to lung cancer in South Wales coal-workers. The material was obtained during the six years 1947 to 1952 during which necropsies were made, in this department, on 1,827 coal-workers. During the same period post-mortem examinations were made of 1,531 South Wales males over the age of 21 not concerned with coal-mining. The pathological examinations of the miners were made on the instruction of coroners who had been told by the relatives that they considered death was due wholly or partly to dust disease. The symptoms of dust disease are well known to the mining community, and requests for necropsy are likely to be made by the relatives of men who have had chronic dyspnoea. This is shown by the high incidence of chronic lesions of the lung or cardiovascular system in this series. In many of the cases pneumoconiosis of varying degrees had been detected radiologically during life, and compensation had been paid. It was considered that useful information might be obtained by studying the material as follows: (1) Observation of the site of the cancer in relation to the site of the massive fibrosis in those in whom the two lesions coexisted; (2) comparing the cancer cases in the miners and non-miners in respect of the histological types of the tumours, the spread of metastases, and the age distributions at death; (3) by studying the incidence of cancer in relation to the severity of the dust lesion; (4) by comparing the cancer incidence in the miners with that found at necropsy in non-miners. At necropsy one of each pair of lungs was distended by formol-sodium-acetate solution with a view to the preparation of a large section by the technique of Gough and Wentworth (1949). The other lung was cut at the time of the necropsy and after naked-eye examination pieces were excised for microscopic study.
Primary molar pulp therapy--histological evaluation of failure.

OBJECTIVES Qualitative comparison of the clinical, radiographic and histological outcomes in a small sample of cariously exposed primary molars, extracted after unsuccessful pulp treatment by two vital pulpotomy methods. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The primary molars were extracted, because of treatment failure, during a longitudinal clinical investigation of the relative efficacy of 20% Buckley's Formocresol versus calcium hydroxide powder as pulp dressings in vital pulp therapy (in press). Fifty-two child patients were sequentially enrolled in the longitudinal clinical investigation, 26 boys and 26 girls. Primary molar teeth requiring vital pulp therapy were randomly allocated to either the formocresol group (F) or the calcium hydroxide group (C). Coronal pulp amputation was prescribed only in teeth with vital, cariously-exposed pulp tissue. All cases were reviewed using predefined clinical and radiological criteria. Seventy-nine cariously-exposed primary molars required vital pulp therapy. Forty-four teeth were included in group F and 35 in group C. Five per cent (n = 2) of teeth in group F and 11 per cent of teeth (n = 4) in group C were terminated from the trial due to clinical and/or radiographic failure. Of the six teeth extracted, five were sufficiently intact to be retained for histological evaluation. RESULTS Post-extraction radiographs taken before specimen preparation showed reactionary dentine barrier (bridge) formation in teeth treated with calcium hydroxide. However, the narrowing of root canals, indicative of appositional reactionary dentine deposition, was seen in both groups (F and C). Histological examination confirmed these findings and revealed that pus cells were evident in all specimens examined. There was also histological evidence of resorption of reactionary dentine within the root canal and that forming the calcified barrier (dentine bridge). CONCLUSION The clinical and radiographic outcomes for the five teeth correlate well with the reported findings from decalcified histological section. Although numbers are small, the histological findings may indicate possible reasons for treatment failure. There are few reports of this sort in the literature of this under-researched treatment modality.
Acupuncture for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Acupuncture was used to treat a 51-year-old ‘lollipop lady’ (school crossing patrol officer), with severe carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) affecting her dominant hand, and co-existing cervical spondylosis. I postulate that her symptoms were work related. She responded well to acupuncture, which provided good symptomatic treatment rather than cure and allowed her to continue working whilst she awaited surgical release.
An evaluation of the prospects of green entrepreneurship development using a SWOT analysis

This article employs a methodological framework based on SWOT analysis to identify the most important factors and concerns in order for public policy organisations to encourage local entrepreneurs to invest in sustainable development. A survey was conducted to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the Greek Development Agencies (DAs) consider important for encouraging local entrepreneurs to exploit new opportunities using local natural resources. The results indicate that institutional, structural, social and economic factors can play a critical role in whether entrepreneurs invest in new business ventures associated with natural resources.
Shareholder activism for corporate social responsibility: what do we know?

There is a growing body of research on shareholder activism for corporate social and environmental responsibility. This paper maps and synthesizes research on this topic during 1983-2007. Five key themes emerge. (1) Several studies address shareholder proposals in the US, including proposal topics, voting results, and typical targets for such activism. (2) Other studies focus on the effects of shareholder activism on corporate policy and practice. Further, studies have been conducted on shareholder activism by (3) NGOs, (4) unions and (5) pension funds respectively. Based on this review, missing perspectives are identified and suggestions are made for future research directions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
SEC24A deficiency lowers plasma cholesterol through reduced PCSK9 secretion

The secretory pathway of eukaryotic cells packages cargo proteins into COPII-coated vesicles for transport from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi. We now report that complete genetic deficiency for the COPII component SEC24A is compatible with normal survival and development in the mouse, despite the fundamental role of SEC24 in COPII vesicle formation and cargo recruitment. However, these animals exhibit markedly reduced plasma cholesterol, with mutations in Apoe and Ldlr epistatic to Sec24a, suggesting a receptor-mediated lipoprotein clearance mechanism. Consistent with these data, hepatic LDLR levels are up-regulated in SEC24A-deficient cells as a consequence of specific dependence of PCSK9, a negative regulator of LDLR, on SEC24A for efficient exit from the ER. Our findings also identify partial overlap in cargo selectivity between SEC24A and SEC24B, suggesting a previously unappreciated heterogeneity in the recruitment of secretory proteins to the COPII vesicles that extends to soluble as well as trans-membrane cargoes. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.00444. 001
Willingness of farmers to participate in agri-environmental auctions in Finland

Abstract Auctions have been applied in agri-environmental policy, serving as a key tool to overcome information asymmetries and generate important cost savings for governments. The efficiency of agri-environmental auctions depends on ensuring sufficient participation and avoiding a ‘learning by experience’ situation. In designing successful auctions, it is important to acknowledge farmer characteristics that might increase the adaptability of auctions and also recognize whether past experience affects future participation. This paper uses data from an auction experiment conducted in Nurmijärvi, Southern Finland. We account for socio-demographic, spatial and attitude variables and investigate their effect on the probability of past and future auction participation. Due to the small number of actual participants, we employ a relogit model to correct the coefficient estimates derived by a binary logit model. According to the analysis, large-scale farmers are more likely to have participated in the pilot auction, while older farmers, those engaged full time in farming and less well-trained farmers were less likely to be positive towards future auctions. Past participation was positively and significantly related to prospective auctions. Our findings suggest a strong relationship between attitudes and participation, particularly regarding specific environmental benefits attached to the auction scheme, novelty and financial features as well as the complexity of the auction mechanism. The predicted probability for both past and future participation elicited by the relogit model was consistent with the sample probability, and hence by applying a relogit to correct for rare-event bias we derived more reliable estimates.
Exact Analysis of Three-Phase Rectifiers With Constant Voltage Loads

In this paper, an exact solution of a circuit model for a three-phase rectifier with constant-voltage load and AC-side reactance that operates in the continuous conduction mode is presented. Obtained results are compared to the results provided applying sinusoidal approximation, published previously. It is shown that the sinusoidal approximation provides acceptable results at low output voltages, with the accuracy being decreased for the output voltages approaching to the discontinuous conduction mode boundary. Computational complexity of the exact solution is about the same as for the solution obtained applying sinusoidal approximation.
Performance-based wages in tax collection: The Brazilian tax collection reform and its effects

We use panel data from the Brazilian tax collection authority to examine the effects of a major incentive reform instituted in 1989 to improve tax enforcement. Beforehand, fine collections per inspection were relatively stable; however, a striking trend break occurred afterwards, which we attribute to the incentive reform not to changes in the macroeconomy or personal and corporate income tax rates. Our estimates suggest the growth in fines per inspection after the reform is about 75% above what it would have been without it and that there is substantial heterogeneity in the impact of the reform across tax regions.
Full-Text or Abstract? Examining Topic Coherence Scores Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation

This paper assesses topic coherence and human topic ranking of uncovered latent topics from scientific publications when utilizing the topic model latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) on abstract and full-text data. The coherence of a topic, used as a proxy for topic quality, is based on the distributional hypothesis that states that words with similar meaning tend to co-occur within a similar context. Although LDA has gained much attention from machine-learning researchers, most notably with its adaptations and extensions, little is known about the effects of different types of textual data on generated topics. Our research is the first to explore these practical effects and shows that document frequency, document word length, and vocabulary size have mixed practical effects on topic coherence and human topic ranking of LDA topics. We furthermore show that large document collections are less affected by incorrect or noise terms being part of the topic-word distributions, causing topics to be more coherent and ranked higher. Differences between abstract and full-text data are more apparent within small document collections, with differences as large as 90% high-quality topics for full-text data, compared to 50% high-quality topics for abstract data.
The Influence of Internet–Marketing Integration on Marketing Competencies and Export Performance

Internet technology is often considered to be fundamentally changing the business paradigm and increasingly integrated into the marketing function. The authors offer a conceptual model linking market orientation, marketing competencies, and export performance and investigate the role of the Internet technology in these relationships. On the basis of an analysis of survey data from 381 manufacturing firms involved in exporting, the authors find that firms' integration of Internet technology into marketing activities generally leverages the influence of market orientation on the firms' marketing competencies (compared with competitors), which in turn have a positive impact on their export performance. The authors identify competitive intensity, firm size, and degree of export dependence as additional moderating variables.
The Dynamic Linkages Among Exports, R&D and Productivity

type="main" xml:id="twec12160-abs-0001"> This paper estimates a dynamic model of a firm's decision to export and invest in RD in the second step, we estimate a bivariate dynamic model of the firm's decision to invest in R&D and export, in which we analyse the linkages among investing in R&D, exporting and productivity. Using a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1990–2009, we find that both export and R&D positively affect future productivity, which will drive more firms to self-select in those activities.
Walrasian Equilibrium Without Complementarities

In this paper we study the problem of ecient production and allocation of indi- visible objects among a set of consumers. We assume that the agents' preferences depend on the bundle of objects and the quantity of money they consume. Further- more, we assume that preferences are quasilinear in money, and that agents have a large endowment of money.
PROTEINURIA IN TOXAEMIA AND ABRUPTIO PLACENTAE

Differential protein clearances were carried out in 31 patients with toxaemia of pregnancy and in 21 non‐toxaemic patients with abruptio placentae. In 6 patients with toxaemia and in 7 with abruptio placentae, dextran clearance determinations were also performed. Results were expressed in terms of selectivity indices relating the clearances of these macromolecules to their molecular weights. In toxaemia, protein and dextran selectivity results were in the intermediate range, dextran values being slightly higher than the values obtained for protein. In abruptio placentae, however, the values obtained for protein selectivity were very low, while those obtained for dextran selectivity were very high.
Spatiotemporal Relationship of Brain Pathways during Human Fetal Development Using High-Angular Resolution Diffusion MR Imaging and Histology

In this study, we aimed to identify major fiber pathways and their spatiotemporal relationships within transient fetal zones in the human fetal brain by comparing postmortem high-angular resolution diffusion MR imaging (HARDI) in combination with deterministic streamline tractography and histology. Diffusion weighted imaging was performed on postmortem human fetal brains [N = 9, age = 18–34 post-conceptual weeks (PCW)] that were grossly normal with no pathologic abnormalities. After HARDI was performed, the fibers were reconstructed using Q-ball algorithm and deterministic streamline tractography. The position of major fiber pathways within transient fetal zones was identified both on diffusion weighted images and on histological sections. Our major findings include: (1) the development of massive projection fibers by 18 PCW, as compared to most association fibers (with the exception of limbic fibers) which have only begun to emerge, (2) the characteristic laminar distribution and sagittal plane geometry of reconstructed fibers throughout development, (3) the protracted prenatal development shown of the corpus collosum and its' associated fibers, as well as the association fibers, and (4) the predomination of radial coherence in the telencephalon (i.e., majority of streamlines in the telencephalic wall were radially oriented) during early prenatal period (24 PCW). In conclusion, correlation between histology and HARDI (in combination with Q-ball reconstruction and deterministic streamline tractography) allowed us to detect sequential development of fiber systems (projection, callosal, and association), their spatial relations with transient fetal zones, and their geometric properties.
Are Novice Private Equity Funds Risk-Takers? Evidence from a Comparison with Established Funds

This paper explores whether private equity firms that are new to the industry take excessive risks relative to funds from established firms. We use differences between the implicit incentives of managers of experienced and of novice funds as an identification strategy. We find that novice funds invest more slowly than experienced funds, contradicting the risk-taking hypothesis. However, the size of their investments, in value and as fraction of fund size, is larger; this could be consistent with risk-shifting by novice funds but also with alternative hypotheses. We find that the size difference increases over time and is absent from buyout investments. We also find that novice funds tend to underperform most dramatically for early large investments, and that the size of their investments increases after a first successful exit. These and other findings are in conflict with the excessive risk-taking hypothesis, but largely consistent with alternative explanations that emphasize differences in expertise.
Auxin Acts in Xylem-Associated or Medullary Cells to Mediate Apical Dominance Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.007542.

A role for auxin in the regulation of shoot branching was described originally in the Thimann and Skoog model, which proposes that apically derived auxin is transported basipetally directly into the axillary buds, where it inhibits their growth. Subsequent observations in several species have shown that auxin does not enter axillary buds directly. We have found similar results in Arabidopsis. Grafting studies indicated that auxin acts in the aerial tissue; hence, the principal site of auxin action is the shoot. To delineate the site of auxin action, the wild-type AXR1 coding sequence, which is required for normal auxin sensitivity, was expressed under the control of several tissue-specific promoters in the auxin-resistant, highly branched axr1-12 mutant background. AXR1 expression in the xylem and interfascicular schlerenchyma was found to restore the mutant branching to wild-type levels in both intact plants and isolated nodes, whereas expression in the phloem did not. Therefore, apically derived auxin can suppress branching by acting in the xylem and interfascicular schlerenchyma, or in a subset of these cells.
Rationality and the Role of Judgement in Macroeconomic Forecasting

This paper examines the effects of judgmental adjustments on the rationality of macroeconomic forecasts. Published forecasts based on large-scale models are rarely purely model-based but often include extensive adjustments. Forecasters' adjustments tend to improve forecast accuracy but there is no evidence of their impact on the rationality of forecasts. Using series of revisions to forecasts, the author finds little evidence that published forecasts are excessively smooth in the Nordhaus (1987) sense but intercept corrections do appear to reduce the variation over time in purely model-based forecasts and to alter the underlying output-inflation trade-off implicit in the model. Copyright 1995 by Royal Economic Society.
Measuring the service quality of internet banking: scale development and validation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a multiple item scale for measuring internet banking service quality.Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts the dimensions of electronic service quality (e‐service quality) and customer‐perceived service quality to develop a framework that can be used to measure internet banking service. Also, this research uses Taiwan's internet banking users as survey targets for its empirical studies.Findings – Through the process of factor analysis, the refined scale is identified. There are five dimensions and 17 items in the measurement scale for measuring the service quality of internet banking. The five dimensions are named customer service, web design, assurance, preferential treatment, and information provision.Research limitations/implications – Based on the understanding of the key service quality dimensions and the perception of customers toward e‐service quality, managers may discover methods to improve customer satisfaction, build customer trust,.