Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Beauty Contests and the Term Structure

A novel decomposition highlights the scope for information to influence the term structure of interest rates. Based on the law of total covariance, we show that real term premia in macroeconomic models contain a component that depends on covariances of realised stochastic discount factors and a component that depends on covariances of expectations of those stochastic discount factors. The impact of different informational assumptions can then be identified by looking at their effect on the second, expectational, component. If agents have full information about technology in a simple macro-finance model then the conditional covariance of expectations is low, which contributes to the real term premia implied by the model being at least an order of magnitude too small, a result that is unchanged if some components of technology are unobservable or observed with noise. To generate realistic term premia, we draw on the beauty contest literature by differentiating between private and public information and introducing the possibility of strategic complementarities in the formation of expectations. A quantitative version of the model is found to explain a significant proportion of observed term premia when estimated using data on expectations of productivity growth from the Survey of Professional Forecasters.
Skills, Occupations, and the Allocation of Talent over the Business Cycle

Business cycles have heterogeneous effects in the labor market. Workers with different characteristics and skills are not equally affected by the cyclical swings in the demand for labor of different occupations. This paper studies the employment and occupational decisions of workers with heterogeneous skill portfolios and how business cycle conditions affect the patterns of sorting of workers into occupations, the accumulation of skills, and earnings. For this I develop and estimate a dynamic general equilibrium Roy (1951) model with aggregate shocks and propose a new method to characterize the solution recursively. The estimation shows that workers’ comparative advantage strongly influence their occupational choices, but changes in business cycle conditions affect the sorting of workers into occupations and can have long lasting effect in the accumulation of skills. The model is able to capture the direction and cyclical patterns of occupational switching. I compute measures of the missallocation of talent and labor productivity losses from recessions.
Quality-of-Life Assessment When There Is a Loss of Income

Purpose. The current study aims to provide the first empirical evidence demonstrating whether people automatically consider morbidity costs when assessing the quality of life for a health state. Methods. One hundred eighty-one undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: 1) those participants who were not informed of morbidity costs and 2) those participants who were informed of morbidity costs. Students were asked to read a description of a health state and to assign an assessment of quality of life for the health state described by the use of the paper standard gamble. Results. The overall mean quality of life for the informed group was significantly lower than that of the uninformed group (P < 0.0001, F = 24.2, df = 1, 179). Similarly, there is a significant difference between illness severity levels in mean quality of life (P < 0.0001, F = 29.5, df = 2, 178). No statistically significant interaction between level of illness severity and prior knowledge was observed (P = 0.5904, F = 0.53, df = 2, 178). Therefore, the authors fit a model removing the interaction term. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that those subjects informed of morbidity costs score quality of life lower than do subjects unin-formed of morbidity costs. To accurately represent the effectiveness of an intervention, the authors argue that morbidity costs should be included in the description of health states.
Primary chemotherapy in operable breast cancer: eight-year experience at the Milan Cancer Institute.

PURPOSE Primary chemotherapy was administered to patients with tumors that measured > or = 2.5 cm in largest diameter to decrease the size of the primary tumor and allow for effective local and distant control while avoiding mastectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Two prospective nonrandomized studies were performed that used different regimens of primary chemotherapy followed by breast-sparing surgery in the presence of objective tumor remission. Additional postoperative chemotherapy was given to women at high risk of disease relapse. The median follow-up duration was 65 months. RESULTS A total of 536 assessable patients were enrolled, and the main characteristics were fairly comparable between the two trials. Following primary chemotherapy, 85% of patients could be subjected to breast-sparing surgery; in 14 patients (3%), surgical specimens failed to show any residual neoplastic cell. In the final multivariate analysis, the histologically assessed extent of axillary node involvement (P < .001), as well as degree of response to primary chemotherapy (P = .034), represented the significant variables able to influence 8-year relapse-free survival. In women subjected to a breast-conserving approach, the cumulative risk of local relapse as first event alone was 6.8% (95% confidence interval, 3.9% to 8.8%). CONCLUSION Current findings indicate that primary chemotherapy can be safely administered in women with large tumors (>5.0 cm) and can allow breast-sparing surgery in a high fraction of patients (62%). However, to assess effectively the worthiness of this approach on long-term results, properlyconceived large randomized studies with newer and more effective drug regimens are warranted.
Growth and development of abandoned babies in institutional care in Nairobi.

OBJECTIVE To determine the pattern of growth and development of institutionalised infants and to compare the outcome with that of infants living with their biological mothers. DESIGN A cross-sectional survey. SETTING Seven children's homes; Kenyatta National Hospital's New Born Unit and Well Baby Clinics in Nairobi, Kenya. PARTICIPANTS Eighty-two abandoned babies who fulfilled the selection criteria were recruited and for each abandoned baby two mothered babies matched for age and sex were selected from the well baby clinics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Anthropometric measures of weight, length, head circumference and left mid arm circumference (LUMAC) were taken and the mean values and Z scores determined to demonstrate growth pattern and nutritional status of the babies. The Revised Denver Development Screening Test (RDDST) was used to assess the development pattern of infants. RESULTS Seventy per cent of infants were below six months old and 73% were abandoned within the first week of life. Abandoned babies were significantly thinner with the mean LUMAC of 10.8 cm versus 12.3 cm (p = 0.02) Institutionalised babies were significantly wasted (p = 0.00001) and stunted (p = 0.00001). Abandoned babies were significantly delayed in development (p < 0.0001). In all the four sectors tested for, institutionalised babies showed significant delay, p < 0.0001 in each sector. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that infants under institutional care have poorer growth and development compared to mothered infants.
Ficolin 2 (FCN2) functional polymorphisms and the risk of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease

Ficolins are pattern‐recognition proteins involved in innate immunity, which upon binding to their specific pathogen‐associated molecular patterns on the microbial surfaces trigger the immune response either by binding to collectin cellular receptors or by initiating the complement lectin pathway. In humans, three ficolin genes have been identified, which encode ficolin‐1 (M‐ficolin), ficolin‐2 (L‐ficolin) and ficolin‐3 (H‐ficolin or Hakata antigen). Ficolin‐2 was shown to bind to lipoteichoic acid, a cell wall constituent in all Gram‐positive bacteria such as Streptococcus pyogenes, which is the aetiological agent of rheumatic fever (RF) and its most severe sequelae, chronic rheumatic heart disease (CRHD). Here we investigated polymorphisms in the promoter region of the FCN2 gene (at positions −986/−602 and +4) in 122 patients with RF and CRHD and in 210 healthy subjects from the same geographic region and socioeconomic background. The haplotype −986/−602/−4 G/G/A, which is related to low levels of L‐ficolin, was observed more frequently in the CRHD group when compared to the healthy subjects [99/162, 61·1% versus 211/420, 50·2%, odds ratio (OR) 1·6, confidence interval (CI) 95% 1·1–2·3, P = 0·021]. The haplotype −986/−602/−4 A/G/A was observed more frequently in the healthy group when compared to the affected (RF plus CRHD) subjects (31/420, 7·4% versus 6/244, 2·5%, OR 3·2, CI 95% 0·13–0·77, P = 0·008). Based on those findings, one can conclude that polymorphisms associated with low levels of L‐ficolin level may predispose an individual to recurrent and/or more severe streptococcal infection.
Contribution of Aromatic Moieties of Tyrosine 133 and of the Anionic Subsite Tryptophan 86 to Catalytic Efficiency and Allosteric Modulation of Acetylcholinesterase (*)

Substitution of Trp-86, in the active center of human acetylcholinesterase (HuAChE), by aliphatic but not by aromatic residues resulted in a several thousandfold decrease in reactivity toward charged substrate and inhibitors but only a severalfold decrease for noncharged substrate and inhibitors. The W86A and W86E HuAChE enzymes exhibit at least a 100-fold increase in the Michaelis-Menten constant or 100-10,000-fold increase in inhibition constants toward various charged inhibitors, as compared to W86F HuAChE or the wild type enzyme. On the other hand, replacement of Glu-202, the only acidic residue proximal to the catalytic site, by glutamine resulted in a nonselective decrease in reactivity toward charged and noncharged substrates or inhibitors. Thus, the quaternary nitrogen groups of substrates and other active center ligands, are stabilized by cation-aromatic interaction with Trp-86 rather than by ionic interactions, while noncharged ligands appear to bind to distinct site(s) in HuAChE. Analysis of the Y133F and Y133A HuAChE mutated enzymes suggests that the highly conserved Tyr-133 plays a dual role in the active center: (a) its hydroxyl appears to maintain the functional orientation of Glu-202 by hydrogen bonding and (b) its aromatic moiety maintains the functional orientation of the anionic subsite Trp-86. In the absence of aromatic interactions between Tyr-133 and Trp-86, the tryptophan acquires a conformation that obstructs the active site leading, in the Y133A enzyme, to several hundredfold decrease in rates of catalysis, phosphorylation, or in affinity to reversible active site inhibitors. It is proposed that allosteric modulation of acetylcholinesterase activity, induced by binding to the peripheral anionic sites, proceeds through such conformational change of Trp-86 from a functional anionic subsite state to one that restricts access of substrates to the active center.
Covering Wildfires: Media Emphasis and Silence after the Carlton and Okanogan Complex Wildfires

Abstract This article examines salient topics and textual silences in the media coverage of two major wildfires in Washington State. A significant body of research has examined the importance of media coverage in framing disaster events, yet gaps remain in scholarly understanding of wildfire media coverage. In this article, we explore the following questions: How did the print media cover the Carlton Complex and Okanogan Complex fires in Washington State? What topics and locations were generally featured or ignored, and why? How did wildfire media coverage change after firefighter deaths? To answer these questions, we draw on three sources of data: print media coverage, address-specific data of burned homes, and demographic descriptions of impacted towns. We find that media coverage largely overlooked sites of greatest loss, failed to provide a contextualized discussion of firefighter safety, and generally ignored issues of climate change and inequality.
article Visions, Enactments, Obstacles, and Negotiations: Case Studies of Two Novice Teachers Enrolled in a Graduate Literacy Course

Scholars suggest that through visioning, teachers may be more likely to overcome the challenges of teaching in today’s high-stakes educational climate. The goal of our study was to explore this hypothesis by documenting two in-service teachers’ visions, about how they enacted their vision, the obstacles they faced in enacting their vision, and how they negotiated the obstacles they faced. Findings from this study suggest teachers have visions of what they want their students to become and therefore they thoughtfully enact instruction that might afford opportunities to accomplish their visions. Although adapting to fit the needs of their students contradicted widely held school practices, the teachers in the study negotiated these constraints in order to teach according to their vision.
Molecular mechanisms underlying glutamatergic dysfunction in schizophrenia: therapeutic implications

Early models for the etiology of schizophrenia focused on dopamine neurotransmission because of the powerful anti‐psychotic action of dopamine antagonists. Nevertheless, recent evidence increasingly supports a primarily glutamatergic dysfunction in this condition, where dopaminergic disbalance is a secondary effect. A current model for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia involves a dysfunctional mechanism by which the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) hypofunction leads to a dysregulation of GABA fast‐ spiking interneurons, consequently disinhibiting pyramidal glutamatergic output and disturbing the signal‐to‐noise ratio. This mechanism might explain better than other models some cognitive deficits observed in this disease, as well as the dopaminergic alterations and therapeutic effect of anti‐psychotics. Although the modulation of glutamate activity has, in principle, great therapeutic potential, a side effect of NMDAR overactivation is neurotoxicity, which accelerates neuropathological alterations in this illness. We propose that metabotropic glutamate receptors can have a modulatory effect over the NMDAR and regulate excitotoxity mechanisms. Therefore, in our view metabotropic glutamate receptors constitute a highly promising target for future drug treatment in this disease.
Association between mitochondrial DNA copy number, blood cell counts, and occupational benzene exposure

Benzene is a recognized hematotoxicant and carcinogen that produces genotoxic damage. Benzene metabolites can produce reactive oxidative species. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number may be increased in response to oxidative stress to compensate for damaged mitochondria. We carried out a cross‐sectional study of 40 benzene‐exposed workers and 40 controls to evaluate the association between benzene exposure and mtDNA copy number. Copy number of mtDNA in leukocyte DNA was determined by real‐time PCR. Compared with controls, the copy number of mtDNA increased by 4% and by 15% in workers exposed to ≤10 ppm (n = 20) and >10 ppm (n = 20) benzene, respectively. After adjusting for recent infection, the factor that was significantly correlated with mtDNA, the increase of mtDNA was statistically significant in the high exposed group (P = 0.016) with a significant linear trend (P = 0.024). To our best knowledge, this is the first report that benzene exposure was associated with increased mitochondria DNA copy number. Benzene exposure may induce mtDNA amplification, possibly in response to oxidative stress caused by benzene. The finding needs to be replicated by other studies. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. , 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Modeling and Forecasting Commodity Market Volatility with Long-term Economic and Financial Variables

This paper investigates the time-varying volatility patterns of some major commodities as well as the potential factors that drive their long-term volatility component. For this purpose, we make use of a recently proposed GARCH-MIDAS approach which typically allows us to examine the role of economic and financial variables of different frequencies. Using commodity futures for crude oil (WTI and Brent), gold, silver and platinum, our results show the necessity of disentangling the short- and long-term components in modeling and forecasting commodity volatility. They also indicate that the long-term volatility of most commodity futures is significantly driven by the level of the general real economic activity as well as the changes in consumer sentiment, industrial production, and economic policy uncertainty. However, the forecasting results are not alike across commodity futures as no single model fits all commodities.
How to Pay Envious Managers – a Theoretical Analysis

This paper analyses how envy affects the decisions of competing managers and their optimal stockâ€ based compensation from the perspective of shareholder value. We consider a typical framework in which managers can induce effort to reduce production costs and make decisions regarding production volume. At first glance, envy between managers from competing firms appears to be an unfavorable characteristic because it does not align the interests of managers with those of shareholders. However, our model finds that envy is a powerful incentive mechanism. The model yields three key findings: (i) envious managers outperform selfâ€ interested managers, (ii) firms optimally hire envious managers, and (iii) shareholders do not grant any stockâ€ based compensation to envious managers.
Reduced incidence of gastroduodenal ulcers with celecoxib, a novel cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, compared to naproxen in patients with arthritis

OBJECTIVE:Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) block prostaglandin production by inhibiting cyclooxygenase (COX); they are believed to cause gastroduodenal damage by inhibiting the COX-1 isoform and to have analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting the COX-2 isoform. As compared to conventional NSAIDs, celecoxib, a COX-2 specific inhibitor, has been shown in previous single posttreatment endoscopy studies to be associated with lower gastroduodenal ulcer rates. In response to concerns that such studies may under-represent ulceration rates, the present serial endoscopy study was designed to compare cumulative gastroduodenal ulcer rates associated with the use of celecoxib to those of naproxen, a conventional NSAID.METHODS:In this double-blind, parallel-group, multicenter study, 537 patients with osteoarthritis (OA) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were randomized to treatment with celecoxib 200 mg b.i. d. (n = 270) or naproxen 500 mg b.i. d. (n = 267) for 12 wk. Gastroduodenal damage was determined from esophagogastroduodenoscopy after 4, 8, and 12 wk of therapy. Arthritis efficacy was evaluated with Patient's and Physician's Global Assessments.RESULTS:Gastroduodenal ulcer rates after celecoxib and naproxen treatment were 4% versus 19% in the 0–4 wk interval (p < 0.001), 2% versus 14% in the 4–8 wk interval (p < 0.001), and 2% versus 10% in the 8–12 wk interval (p < 0.001), respectively. After 12 wk of treatment, the cumulative incidence of gastroduodenal ulcers was 9% with celecoxib and 41% with naproxen. In the celecoxib group, gastroduodenal ulcers were significantly associated with Helicobacter pylori status (p < 0.05), concurrent aspirin usage (p = 0.001), and a history of ulcer (p = 0.010), but not with disease type (OA/RA), age, gender, other relevant medical histories, or concurrent corticosteroid or disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs usage (p > 0.05). Celecoxib produced a significantly lower incidence rate of both gastric (p < 0.001) and duodenal (p < 0.030) ulcers. The two agents produced similar improvements in Patient's and Physician's Global Assessments of arthritis efficacy. The incidence of adverse events and withdrawal rates did not differ significantly between treatments.CONCLUSIONS:As compared to naproxen (500 mg b.i.d.), use of celecoxib (200 mg b.i.d.), a COX-2 specific agent, at the recommended RA dose and twice the most frequently prescribed OA dose, was associated with lower rates of gastric, duodenal, and gastroduodenal ulcers but had comparable efficacy, in patients with OA and RA.
The Use of Single Incision Thoracoscopic Surgery in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Thoracic Surgical Procedures

Abstract Background : As a minimal invasive procedure, a standard threeportal videothoracoscopy may have complications such as chronic and residual pain. However, a single incision thoracoscopic surgery is a less invasive procedure with minimal complications. We present our series of patients who had single incision thoracoscopic surgical procedures. Patients and methods : A total of 49 patients, 29 (59.2%) male and 20 (40.8%) female with a mean age of 45.7 ± 17.6 years (range, 16 to 86 years) underwent a total of 59 single incision thoracoscopic surgical procedures. We most often made a 2–2.5 cm single incision on the seventh or eighth intercostal space at the midaxillary line. VAS (Visual analogue scale) scores for pain at postoperative day 1 and the mean of chest tube removal times were recorded for each procedure. The patients were discharged following chest tube removal. Results : We performed an overall of 59 procedures including 8 (13.7%) wedge resections for either histologic diagnosis or spontaneous pneumothorax, 4 (6.8%) pleural biopsies, 23 (38.9%) pleurectomies, 9 (15.2%) deloculation and decortications, 5 (8.6%) traumas in and 10 (17.5%) sympathectomies. No patient required an additional thoracoscopic port or conversion to thoracotomy. The overall mean of postoperative VAS scores for all procedures at postoperative day 1 and day 30 were 3.2 ± 0.9 and 1.4 ± 0.5, respectively (p < 0.0001). The overall mean of chest tube removal time was 2.3 ± 0.8 days (median; 2). We observed neither morbidity nor mortality. Conclusions : In selected patients, single incision thoracoscopic surgery is an effective and a safe procedure with lower levels of pain and shorter hospital stay. A wide spectrum of thoracic surgical procedures can be performed with the use of single incision thoracoscopic surgery.
Twin Analyses of Fatigue

Abstract Prolonged fatigue equal to or greater than 1 month duration and chronic fatigue equal to or greater than 6 months duration are both commonly seen in clinical practice, yet little is known about the etiology or epidemiology of either symptom. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), while rarer, presents similar challenges in determining cause and epidemiology. Twin studies can be useful in elucidating genetic and environmental influences on fatigue and CFS. The goal of this article was to use biometrical structural equation twin modeling to examine genetic and environmental influences on fatigue, and to investigate whether these influences varied by gender. A total of 1042 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs and 828 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs who had completed the University of Washington Twin Registry survey were assessed for three fatigue-related variables: prolonged fatigue, chronic fatigue, and CFS. Structural equation twin modeling was used to determine the relative contributions of additive genetic effects, shared environmental effects, and individual-specific environmental effects to the 3 fatigue conditions. In women, tetrachoric correlations were similar for MZ and DZ pairs for prolonged and chronic fatigue, but not for CFS. In men, however, the correlations for prolonged and chronic fatigue were higher in MZ pairs than in DZ pairs. About half the variance for both prolonged and chronic fatigue in males was due to genetic effects, and half due to individual-specific environmental effects. For females, most variance was due to individual environmental effects.