Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Getting Primaried: The Changing Politics of Congressional Primary Challenges

Each of the past few election cycles has featured at least one instance of "primarying," a challenge to an incumbent on the grounds that he or she is not sufficiently partisan. For many observers, such races signify an increasingly polarised electorate and an increasing threat to moderates of both parties. In Getting Primaried , Robert G. Boatright shows that primary challenges are not becoming more frequent; they wax and wane in accordance with partisan turnover in Congress. National fundraising efforts and interest group-supported primary challenges, however, have garnered media attention disproportionate to their success in winning elections. Such challenges can work only if groups focus on a small number of incumbents. Boatright's study makes three key contributions. First, it presents a history of congressional primary challenges over the past forty years, a history that not only measures the frequency of competitive challenges but also seeks to distinguish among types of challenges. Second, it provides a correction to accounts of the link between primary competition and political polarisation. Third, it provides a new theoretical lens for understanding the role of interest groups in congressional elections.
Competing for Life: Older People and Competitive Sport

In Western society competing in physically demanding sport is not considered the domain of older people. For the majority of the twentieth century older people were stereotyped as frail, socially withdrawn and dependent on health and social welfare systems. Competitive athletes on the other hand are commonly viewed as being young, strong, aggressive, physically competent and independent. Although today’s older generation are encouraged to be physically active, society does not recognise serious competition or physically intense sports as age-appropriate activities for them. If older people choose to participate in sport they are expected to be doing it to have fun, make friends and keep fit. The growing leisure phenomenon of older athletes who compete to win, achieve a personal best, break world records or push their bodies to the limit presents a challenge to these orthodoxies. The purpose of this thesis is to explain why competing in physically demanding sport is significant to some older people given the accepted view that it is not their domain. In particular, the thesis explores the multiple ways in which a group of older people negotiate conflicting discourses of both sport and ageing, as well as the contradiction between their identity as an athlete and their ageing bodies, as they talk about and experience competing in physically strenuous individual and team sports. The key themes through which this negotiation process is played out relate to friendship and fun, competition, youthfulness, and the ageing body. It is revealed that the process of competing in sport can be simultaneously empowering and problematic at both the individual and social levels. The thesis draws on insights from post-structural theories of resistance and empowerment, traditional and postmodern understandings of identity management in later life, and life-stage theories to interpret the phenomenon of older people competing in physically demanding sport. To achieve the above aims, a qualitative study exploring the experiences of a group of Masters athletes aged over 55 years who regularly compete in physically strenuous individual or team sports was undertaken. It was found that despite age-appropriate norms, competition is significant to many of the participants. Study participants embrace the ideologies and practices of competitive sport and use them to define ageing in terms of youthfulness, physical ability and personal empowerment. Simultaneously however, a denial of, or desperate resistance to, the physical ageing process accompanies this feeling of empowerment. The participants in this study were not only competing in sport, but also "competing for life". It is argued that a multi-faceted and conflicting interplay of resistance and conformity, empowerment and denial, identity and the ageing body is embedded in the phenomenon of older people competing in physically demanding sport. These contradictory findings expose alternative ways of understanding sport, competition, ageing and older people in the West and raise many questions…
Seroprevalence of hepatitis A virus infection among schoolchildren and adolescents in Kaduna, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND Hepatitis A is an infectious viral disease, caused by hepatitis A virus (HAV), endemic in many developing countries. A recent review of the global prevalence of HAV infection and susceptibility by the WHO had few data on the seroprevalence of HAV in Nigeria. This study was designed to determine the seroprevalence of HAV among schoolchildren and adolescents in Kaduna State and to identify factors associated with seropositivity. METHODS Questionnaires were administered to 403 participants aged 2-19 years, and blood samples were collected during April-July 2009 and screened for anti-HAV IgG using an anti-HAV IgG enzyme immunoassay kit. χ(2) and Fisher's exact tests were used to identify variables associated with the presence of anti-HAV IgG. RESULTS The mean ± SD age of the study population was 11.7 ± 3.2 years. Of the 403 serum samples, 29 were positive for HAV, giving an overall seroprevalence of 7.2% (95% CI 4.9-10.2%) among the study population. Seropositivity with respect to age ranged from 4.6% (10/218; 95% CI 2.2-8.3%) in the 11-15 years age group to 30% (3/10; 95% CI 6.7-65.3%) in the ≤5 years age group. Anti-HAV seropositivity was associated with sewage disposal methods and parents' educational level (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION This study shows that the majority of the study population lacked natural immunity (anti-HAV IgG). This low HAV exposure may be attributed to improvements in sanitary conditions and socioeconomic status. Further research involving an older population in different parts of the country is required to determine the current epidemiological pattern of HAV.
The Effect of 'Other Information' on Equity Valuation: Kuwait Evidence

Previous studies on the value relevance of accounting information adopt Ohlsons linear information dynamics which, if other information is ignored, leads to a theoretical valuation model solely involving earnings, book value, and net shareholder cash flows or (net dividends). The lack of analysis of other value-relevant data may defeat the effectiveness of the Ohlsons model since the current accounting data cannot fully account for future earnings. The potential implication of ignoring other information is that it could introduce bias into estimated coefficients (e.g. Ohlson, 1995; Hand and Landsman, 2005). This study examines the effect of introducing other information proxied by lagged valuation error on equity valuation, utilizing a sample of non-financial companies listed at the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) over the period 2003 to 2009. Empirical results of this study reveal that our proxy for other information appears to capture valuation implications of information other than current variables in the linear information dynamic setting. Results also reveal that adding other information to the valuation model clearly reduces the coefficients on earnings and dividends, and increases the coefficient of book value; however, book value and earnings remain significantly associated with stock prices. As a consequence, current accounting variables appear to be capturing some, but not all, of other information when this variable is omitted. We conclude that other information is an important factor in determining the market value of firms and hence should not be omitted in studies examining the value relevance of accounting information.
A Hierarchical Bayesian Mixture Model Approach for Analysis of Resting-State Functional Brain Connectivity: An Alternative to Thresholding

This article proposes a Bayesian hierarchical mixture model to analyze functional brain connectivity where mixture components represent “positively connected” and “non-connected” brain regions. Such an approach provides a data-informed separation of reliable and spurious connections in contrast to arbitrary thresholding of a connectivity matrix. The hierarchical structure of the model allows simultaneous inferences for the entire population as well as for each individual subject. A new connectivity measure, the posterior probability of a given pair of brain regions of a specific subject to be connected given the observed correlation of regions' activity, can be computed from the model fit. The posterior probability reflects the connectivity of a pair of regions relative to the overall connectivity pattern of an individual, which is overlooked in traditional correlation analyses. This article demonstrates that using the posterior probability might diminish the effect of spurious connections on inferences, which is present when a correlation is used as a connectivity measure. In addition, simulation analyses reveal that the sparsification of the connectivity matrix using the posterior probabilities might outperform the absolute thresholding based on correlations. Therefore, we suggest that posterior probability might be a beneficial measure of connectivity compared with the correlation. The applicability of the introduced method is exemplified by a study of functional resting-state brain connectivity in older adults.
Governança corporativa, criação de valor e desempenho econômico-financeiro: evidências do mercado brasileiro com dados em painel, 2005-2011

RESUMO O objetivo deste artigo e verificar se a adesao voluntaria a padroes mais elevados de governanca corporativa (acoes negociadas nos Niveis Diferenciados de Governanca Corporativa e no Novo Mercado da BM&FBovespa) por parte de companhias brasileiras resultou na criacao de valor e em desempenho economico-financeiro superior apos a adesao e comparativamente as companhias com acoes listadas no mercado tradicional. A pesquisa empirica foi realizada em uma amostra nao probabilistica de 66 companhias listadas na BM&FBovespa, 25 das quais do mercado tradicional (grupo de referencia), 25 ja listadas em algum nivel de governanca diferenciada antes de 2005 e 16 que migraram durante o periodo analisado. Foram analisados dados trimestrais de 2005 a 2011, compondo-se em um painel balanceado com 1.848 observacoes. Os testes foram realizados em seis modelos com dados em painel (efeitos fixos e aleatorios) para as variaveis de criacao de valor ( q de Tobin e Market-to-book ratio ) e de desempenho economico-financeiro ( ROA, ROE , Lucro Liquido e EBIT ). Foram inseridas tambem variaveis de controle (alavancagem, tamanho, concentracao de propriedade, tipo de controle e emissao de ADRs). Os resultados encontrados permitem concluir que as empresas que adotaram praticas diferenciadas de GC sao mais suscetiveis de criar valor para os acionistas do que as do mercado tradicional, mas apresentam desempenho economico-financeiro pior ( EBIT e lucro liquido).
Ten-Year Relative Survival for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

OBJECTIVE: Most patients with epithelial ovarian cancer who are alive at 5 years have active disease. Thus, 10-year survival rather than 5-year survival may be a more appropriate endpoint. Relative survival adjusts for the general survival of the United States population for that race, sex, age, and date at which the diagnosis was coded. Our objective was to estimate relative survival in epithelial ovarian cancer over the course of 10 years. METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results 1995–2007 database, epithelial ovarian cancer cases were identified. Using the actuarial life table method, relative survival over the course of 10 years was calculated, stratified by stage, classification of residence, surgery as the first course of treatment, race, and age. RESULTS: There were 40,692 patients who met inclusion criteria. The overall relative survival was 65%, 44%, and 36% at 2, 5, and 10 years, respectively. The slope of decline in relative survival was reduced for years 5–10 as compared with years 1–5 after diagnosis. Relative survival at 5 years was 89%, 70%, 36%, and 17%, and at 10 years relative survival was 84%, 59%, 23%, and 8% for stages I, II III, and IV, respectively. At all stages, patients with nonsurgical primary treatment and those with advanced age had reduced relative survival. CONCLUSIONS: The 10-year relative survival for stage III is higher than expected. This information provides the physician and the patient with more accurate prognostic information. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III
Induction of atypical EAE mediated by transgenic production of IL‐6 in astrocytes in the absence of systemic IL‐6

Interleukin (IL)‐6 is crucial for the induction of many murine models of autoimmunity including experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis. While IL‐6‐deficient mice (IL‐6 KO) are resistant to EAE, we showed previously that in transgenic mice with astrocyte‐targeted production of IL‐6‐restricted to the cerebellum (GFAP‐IL6), EAE induced with MOG35–55 was redirected away from the spinal cord to the cerebellum. To further establish the importance of IL‐6 produced in the central nervous system, we have generated mice producing IL‐6 essentially only in the brain by crossing the GFAP‐IL6 mice with IL‐6 KO mice. Interestingly, GFAP‐IL6‐IL‐6 KO mice showed a milder but almost identical phenotype as the GFAP‐IL6 mice, which correlated with a lower load of inflammatory cells and decreased microglial reactivity. These results indicate that not only is cerebellar IL‐6 production and eventual leakage into the peripheral compartment the dominating factor controlling this type of EAE but that it can also facilitate induction of autoimmunity in the absence of normal systemic IL‐6 production. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Study to determine the efficacy of topical morphine on painful chronic skin ulcers.

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of the topical application of morphine on painful chronic skin ulcers. METHOD A prospective bi-centric controlled double-blind randomised study was conducted involving 24 patients with painful chronic skin ulcers using topically applied morphine versus placebo. Ten milligrams of morphine hydrochloride with Intrasite Gel or Intrasite Gel with placebo were applied daily for five days. All patients were treated with a level II analgesic treatment. A numeric pain scale lower than 4/10 and no need for a 'rescue' treatment (morphine sulphate) indicated that the treatment was successful. Local and systemic tolerance of the treatments was analysed daily. RESULTS Twenty-four patients were included in the study, but only 18 started the protocol. Only 2/11 patients were completely relieved in the morphine group compared with 1/7 in the placebo group. Local and general tolerance of morphine was good. The peripheral efficacy of morphine is under discussion. CONCLUSION The results suggest that topical morphine cannot be an alternative to morphine administered by other routes (subcutaneously or orally) in painful chronic skin ulcers. Stimulation of peripheral morphine receptors by systemic morphine could explain the difference between these results and those of previous studies.
Antigenic analysis of Campylobacter flagellar protein and other proteins

Outer membrane proteins of Campylobacter jejuni and other campylobacter species were analyzed for their antigenic potentials by immunoblotting. Polypeptides were resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, transferred electrophoretically, and reacted with rabbit antisera to C. jejuni. Each Campylobacter species analyzed demonstrated a unique outer membrane protein antigenic profile; interspecies antigen sharing was observed to be compatible with the degree of DNA relatedness between the species. The most highly conserved outer membrane protein antigen was the flagellum (molecular weight, 62,000). An aflagellate mutant was found to be untypable with the heat-labile system, in contrast to its parental isolate. The immunogenic potentials of C. jejuni proteins were examined by immunoblot analysis of sera from infected humans. Sera of convalescent patients, reacted with their homologous C. jejuni isolates, recognized a variety of campylobacter proteins. The most consistent immunogen in human infection was the flagellar protein. Patient sera assayed by the immunoblot technique were easily distinguished from control sera, which did not recognize specific campylobacter antigens. These findings suggest that the campylobacter flagellar protein is an essential determinant of the heat-labile antigen typing scheme and is the dominant immunogen recognized during C. jejuni infections in humans.
Business' corporate social responsibility : theory, opinion and evidence from Ghana

This article reports the findings of a study which sought to document the extent of recognition, nature and content of socially responsible actions by firms located in Ghana. The justification for the study is derived from the increasing concern expressed by policy makers about corporate social responsibility CSR and the pressure exerted on firms to demonstrate high ethical standards locally and abroad in order to be competitive. The study compared CSR perceptions of companies listed in the Ghana Club 100 database, which is an annual ranking of the top performing locally and internationally connected firms in Ghana. The key findings of the study were that, internationally connected firms subscribe more to the contemporary notion of CSR; are more strategic, more moral and ethical in their approach to CSR than the local companies.
Intercomparison of four methods for measuring cortisol production.

ABSTRACT Four methods of measuring the daily cortisol production rate were intercompared in 49 patients with production rates varying between 2 and 60 mg per day: a. “Urinary” production rate by isotope dilution; b. “Urinary” production rate by quantitating the excretion of endogenous THF + ATHF + THE and multiplying their sum by an empirically derived constant; c. Plasma production rate by multiplying the MCR by the 24-hr mean plasma cortisol concentration; d. Plasma production rate by summation of incremental secretion, calculated from the episodic secretory peaks defined by the 72 sample 24-hr study technique previously reportd from this laboratory. It was found that these four methods yield values whose relationships, on the average, are completely predictable: a. The two “urinary” production rates yield identical values; b. Plasma production rate by summation of incremental secretion very slightly underestimates plasma production rate by MCR, because of the small proportion (less than 19%) of the dai.
Reduced alloreactive T-cell activation after alcohol intake is due to impaired monocyte accessory cell function and correlates with elevated IL-10, IL-13, and decreased IFNgamma levels.

BACKGROUND Immunosuppression associated with chronic alcohol use is characterized by reduced antigen-specific T-cell response and impaired delayed type hypersensitivity. Increasing evidence suggests in chronic alcohol consumption models that reduced antigen-specific T-cell proliferation is due to insufficient accessory cell function. Accessory cell function, a critical step in recognition of viral antigens, is reduced in chronic hepatitis C. The severity of hepatitis C is increased by alcohol consumption. Thus, we investigated the effects of alcohol consumption on accessory cell activity of monocytes in supporting alloreactive T-cell proliferation. METHODS Alloreactive T-cell proliferation was evaluated in a one-way mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). Mononuclear cells were isolated by Ficoll density gradient and monocytes by adherence. Alcohol (0.8 g/kg body weight, an equivalent of approximately three drinks) was given to nonalcohol-consuming individuals and blood samples were collected before, 4 hr, or 18 hr after alcohol consumption. Alcohol in vitro was administered at concentrations of 25-100 mM. RESULTS T-cell proliferation in MLR was significantly reduced in the presence of physiologically relevant concentrations of alcohol in vitro (25-100 mM ethanol) (p < 0.05). In vivo alcohol consumption also depressed proliferation in the MLR when stimulator cells were obtained 4 hr after alcohol consumption. MLR was not decreased, however, in the presence of alcohol-exposed responder cells and normal stimulator cells, suggesting that the accessory cell population and not T cells are affected by alcohol. Decreased accessory cell function was further evidenced by reduced superantigen-induced (SEB) but not mitogen-induced (PHA) T-cell proliferation in samples obtained 18 hr after alcohol intake (35% reduction). Reduced accessory cell function was not due to changes in surface expression of monocyte costimulatory molecules (HLA class I, HLA-DR, CD80, CD86, CD40). We found reduced IFNgamma, elevated IL-10, and unchanged IL-4 levels during T-cell proliferation in samples obtained 18 hr after alcohol consumption. Acute alcohol treatment resulted in increased IL-13 in the MLR. CONCLUSION These data suggest that even on one occasion moderate alcohol intake can reduce allostimulatory T-cell activation via decreasing accessory cell function. Increased IL-10 and IL-13 plus the reduced IFNgamma production after acute alcohol use are likely to contribute to both the reduced T-cell proliferation and monocyte accessory cell function. These accessory cell mediated defects in T-cell activation may result in impaired antiviral and antitumor immunity after moderate acute alcohol use.
An Analysis of the Political Economy for Bidding for the Summer Olympic Games: Lessons from the Chicago 2016 Bid

Chicago bid for, and was ultimately selected by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), the right to become an applicant city to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) subsequently approved Chicago as one of four candidate cities. This paper examines Chicago’s ultimately failed bid in light of the multi-dimensional intersecting political and economic considerations on the part of the IOC, USOC, the Chicago2016 committee and the city as each pursued separate agendas shaped by their political economies. Disputes between the IOC and USOC relating to the appropriation of broadcast and sponsorship revenues and the character of Chicago’s bid in light of the commercial emphasis and character of the Games by previous host U.S. host cities played prominent roles in explaining Chicago’s failure. Other cities can learn from the Chicago experience, and this article is a primer on strategies applicant cities should avoid in the pursuit of Olympic gold.