Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of anaerobic bacteria in perinephric and renal abscesses in children.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the aerobic and anaerobic microbiology of renal abscesses in children. PATIENTS AND METHODS Aspirates from six children with perinephric and four with renal abscess were cultured for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. RESULTS A total of 20 organisms were recovered, 8 aerobic or facultative bacteria and 12 anaerobic bacteria. Aerobic or facultative bacteria only were recovered in one patient, anaerobic bacteria only in two, and mixed aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in seven. Anaerobic bacteria were isolated in perinephric abscesses that were associated with previous abdominal surgery and renal transplant and in renal abscesses that were related to malignancy, pyelonephritis, and orodental infection. CONCLUSION This study highlights the importance of anaerobic bacteria in perinephric and renal abscesses in children.
Association between leptin, adiponectin and resistin and long-term progression of hand osteoarthritis

Objective To investigate the association between baseline serum adipokines levels—leptin, adiponectin and resistin—and long-term progression of hand osteoarthritis (HOA). Methods Baseline and 6-year radiographs of 164 patients (mean age 60 years, 81% women) with HOA (defined as a Kellgren and Lawrence score ≥2 in at least two hand joints) were assessed for joint space narrowing (JSN) in 32 hand joints using the Osteoarthritis Research Society International atlas. Progression was defined as a change in the sum of the JSN score above the smallest detectable change of 2, reflecting change above measurement error. Serum adipokines were measured at baseline and patients were categorised by adipokine tertiles. RRs (and 95% CI) of HOA progression for patients in the second and third tertiles were calculated relative to the first tertile, using generalised estimating equations. Adjustments were made for age, sex and body mass index. Results Patients in the two highest tertiles of adiponectin had a decreased risk of 70% (RR=0.3 (0.2 to 0.7)) for HOA progression in comparison with patients in the lowest tertile. Leptin and resistin levels were not associated with progression. Conclusion Adiponectin levels are associated with progression of HOA, suggesting that adiponectin may be involved in the pathophysiology of OA.
Causal Change Detection in Possibly Integrated Systems: Revisiting the Money-Income Relationship

This paper re-examines changes in the causal link between money and income in the United States over the past half century (1959–2014). Three methods for the data-driven discovery of change points in causal relationships are proposed, all of which can be implemented without prior detrending of the data. These methods are a forward recursive algorithm, a rolling window algorithm, and a recursive evolving algorithm all of which utilize subsample tests of Granger causality within a lag-augmented vector autoregressive framework. The limit distributions for these subsample Wald tests are provided. Bootstrap methods are developed to control family-wise size in the implementation of the recursive testing algorithms. The results from a suite of simulation experiments suggest that the recursive evolving window algorithm provides the most reliable results, followed by the rolling window method. The forward expanding window procedure is shown to have the worst performance. Both the rolling window and recursive evolving approaches find evidence of Granger causality running from money to income during the Volcker period in the 1980s. The forward algorithm does not find any evidence of causality over the entire sample period.
The Operating Performance of Private Equity Exits -The search for a long-term private equity effect

This thesis assesses the existence of a post-exit private equity effect on operating performance. Previous studies have mostly focused on U.S. based companies exited through reversed leveraged buyouts which could cause selection bias. By studying the Swedish market of private equity exits, we mitigate this bias by studying exits regardless of the new ownership form. Our dataset consists of 40 exits occurring between 1996 and the first half of 2006 and we measure the post-exit development up to six years after the exit. We find that previously private equity owned companies continue to significantly outperform their competitors up to three years post exit. Subsequently, the difference in performance starts to decrease and is almost completely gone six years after the exit. We also find that the post-exit ownership has no significant effect on the post-exit operating performance. Our findings are in line with some previous research conducted on U.S. data, which also finds the fading pattern of the post-exit private equity effect. However, our findings are contrary to a similar previous study conducted on Swedish data. We explain this mainly through the richer dataset with more included measures, companies and a longer event window, as well as the fact that we control for post-exit ownership. The cause of the post-exit private equity effect is argued to be related to the efficiency measures and governance structure applied by the previous private equity owner.
Do acquirers make intrinsically bad deals? A study of European transactions in the recent takeover wave

We assess whether European acquirers make intrinsically bad deals and identify a number of the drivers of inferior M&A quality. Hereby, we distinguish between too low expected synergies and a too high takeover premium. We explore this issue for a sample of 356 intra-European M&As between listed firms during the period 1997–2007. Our findings suggest that managerial hubris and herding behavior negatively affect the value of synergies, while bid offers are also more aggressive after a period of excellent acquirer stock performance. Conversely, we document no support as to the agency theory or the market-timing theory of acquisitions. We further consider the role of financial advisors in European M&As and find that expected synergies are larger for deals where the acquiring firm is assisted by a top-tier financial advisor. Yet, when synergies are positive, acquirers that are assisted by top-tier advisors pay out a larger fraction of the total gains to target shareholders.
Pulmonary hypertension in patients with hemoglobinopathies: could a mechanism for dysfunction provide an avenue for novel therapeutics?

Advances in the care of patients with thalassemia, sickle cell disease, and other hemolytic disorders through early detection, education, improvements in red cell transfusion and iron chelation therapy, penicillin prophylaxis, vaccination, and hydroxyurea therapy have led to a significant prolongation of the life expectancy of such patients. As this patient population ages, new chronic complications of these hemoglobinopathies develop. In this context, pulmonary hypertension is emerging as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in adult sickle cell and thalassemia patients. Retrospective and prospective studies estimate a pulmonary hypertension prevalence of 20-40% in patients with sickle cell disease, 40-50% in patients with thalassemia intermedia, and 10-75% in patients with thalassemia major. In addition, post-mortem studies in patients with sickle cell disease have revealed obliterative pulmonary vasculopathy with medial and intimal hyperplasia and plexogenic dilations of pulmonary vessels in one-third of patients. A study by Derchi and colleagues, published in this issue of the journal (see page 450) adds important new data on the use of sildenafil in this at risk population. In Derchi’s case series, seven patients with thalassemia intermedia (n=4), thalassemia major (n=2), and sickle thalassemia (n=1) and severe pulmonary hypertension were treated with 50 mg of sildenafil twice daily for a period ranging from 4 weeks to 48 months. Pulmonary pressures decreased in all patients and functional status and six-minute walked distance improved. We will now attempt to frame these therapeutically provocative findings in the context of emerging data on the prognosis, pathophysiology, and therapy of pulmonary hypertension in patients with chronic hemolytic anemias.
The Impact of Dividend Policy on Shareholders Wealth

The present paper is aimed at analyzing the impact of dividend policy of shareholders’ wealth in Textile sector of Pakistan during 2004 to onwards. To measure the impact of dividend policy on shareholders’ wealth multiple regression method and stepwise regression models will be used by taking (Dividend per Share), RE it (Retained Earnings per Share), Pet-1 (Lagged Price Earning Ratio) and MPSit-1 (Lagged Market Price) (MVit-1) as independent variable, and MPSit (Market Price per Share) as dependent variables. To determine the proportion of explained variation in the dependent variable, the co-efficient of determination (R2) will be tested with the help of F value. The previous study done in this field study proved that the wealth of the shareholders is greatly influenced mainly by five variables viz., Growth in sales, Improvement of Profit Margin, Capital Investment Decisions (both working capital and fixed capital), Capital Structure Decisions, Cost of Capital (Dividend on Equity, Interest on Debt) etc. The previous study was done on organic and inorganic chemical industries of India. The author found a significant impact of dividend policy on shareholders’ wealth in Organic Chemical Companies while the shareholders’ wealth is not influenced by dividend payout as far as Inorganic Chemical Companies are concerned. This study aims to apply the previous research on textile sector of Pakistan.
Novel Co-Design of NAND Flash Memory and NAND Flash Controller Circuits for Sub-30 nm Low-Power High-Speed Solid-State Drives (SSD)

As the cell size of the NAND flash memory has been scaled down by 40%-50% per year and the memory capacity has been doubling every year, a solid-state drive (SSD) that uses NAND as mass storage for personal computers and enterprise servers is attracting much attention. To realize a low-power high-speed SSD, the co-design of NAND flash memory and NAND controller circuits is essential. In this paper, three new circuit technologies, the selective bit-line precharge scheme, the advanced source-line program, and the intelligent interleaving, are proposed. In the selective bit-line precharge scheme, an unnecessary bit-line precharge is removed during the verify-read and consequently the current consumption decreases by 23%. In the advanced source-line program scheme, a hierarchical source-line structure is adopted. The load capacitance during the program pulse is reduced by 90% without a die size overhead. As a result, the current consumption is reduced by 48%. Finally, with the intelligent interleaving, a current peak is suppressed and a high-speed parallel write operation of the NAND flash memories is achieved. By using these three technologies, both the NAND flash memory and the NAND controller circuits are best optimized. At the sub-30 nm generation, the current consumption of the NAND flash memory decreases by 60% and the SSD speed improves by 150% without a cost penalty or circuit noise.
Internet Recruiting: The Effects of Website Features on Viewers' Perceptions of Organizational Culture

BRADDY, PHILLIP WAYNE. Internet Recruiting: The Effects of Website Features on Viewers’ Perceptions of Organizational Culture. (Under the direction of Joan J. Michael, Ph.D., and Adam W. Meade, Ph.D.) This study examined the effects that features (pictures, testimonials, organizational policies, and awards won) on “careers” websites had on shaping people’s perceptions of nine organizational culture attributes. Results indicated that these website features can be used to effectively convey these different aspects of culture to job seekers. Specifically, participants formed stronger impressions of outcome-orientation, diversity, supportiveness, and teamorientation when exposed to “careers” websites containing culture-specific, or culturerelevant, pictures and testimonials than when exposed to websites containing null, or cultureneutral, pictures and testimonials. These findings indicated that the attention-to-detail culture attribute was strongly portrayed by using either culture-specific pictures or culture-specific testimonials; however, using both features simultaneously did not more strongly convey this culture attribute than did relying exclusively on culture-specific testimonials. While culturespecific testimonials effectively conveyed innovation, culture-specific pictures did not. In addition, the use of culture-specific organizational policies and testimonials more strongly portrayed decisiveness and emphasis on rewards than did null policies and testimonials; however, the use of testimonials and policies only conveyed emphasis on rewards slightly better than when relying exclusively on culture-specific testimonials. Websites including culture-specific awards won and testimonials better depicted aggressiveness than did websites containing no awards and null testimonials. Finally, this study found support for a partial mediated-moderation model. This model illustrated that individuals with low preferences for a culture attribute formed lower person-organization (P-O) fit impressions as they perceived an organization to more strongly convey that culture attribute, whereas individuals with high preferences for a culture attribute formed stronger P-O fit perceptions as they perceived an organization to more strongly portray the culture attribute under consideration. Regardless of culture preferences, individuals with stronger P-O fit perceptions also reported stronger organizational attraction. INTERNET RECRUITING: THE EFFECTS OF WEBSITE FEATURES ON VIEWERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE by PHILLIP WAYNE BRADDY A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Three essays on managerial behavioral biases

We examine the impact of managerial optimism on the inclusion of performancepricing provisions in syndicated loan contracts (PSD). Optimistic managers may view PSD as a relatively cheap form of financing given their upwardly biased expectations about the firm’s future cash flow. Indeed, we find that optimistic managers are more likely to issue PSD, and choose contracts with greater performance-pricing sensitivities than rational managers. Consistent with their biased expectations, firms with optimistic managers perform worse than firms with rational managers after issuing PSD, which implies that ex-pot PSD was an expensive form of financing for optimistic managers. Our results show for the first time that behavioral aspects can affect contract design in the market for syndicated loans.
Video instruction with explanation to another person for intellectually disabled students

Intellectually disabled (ID) students in secondary education are often taught in an individual setting where video instruction is used. Especially, when the instruction is about complex assignments, many students may forget parts of it. In this study, we tried to find out if prompting ID students to explain video instruction would help them to improve their performance. Research with regular students indicated that explaining instructional materials can be effective (Roy & Chi, 2005). In a first experiment with 41 ID students in Dutch secondary education, we varied the complexity of assignments and compared students who first watched and then explained video instruction of assignments (n=21) with students who watched twice but were not required to explain (n=20). It turned out that only for complex assignments, explaining to another person was more effective for students' task performance than just watch video instruction. In the second experiment with 58 ID students, we repeated the study with complex assignments. The students in the experimental group (n=29) improved more after explaining video instructions than the students who only watched videos (n=29). The experimental group also had a more complete mental representation of an assignment and could better assess how well they had performed it.
Classification of Willow Species Using Large-Scale Aerial Photography

Abstract The distribution characteristics of willow (genus Salix) can be evaluated with the use of remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) technologies, and spatial analysis. This information can be used to better understand willow ecology, such as willow community composition, species relationships, and associations with other landscape attributes (i.e., soils, elevation gradients, water sources, and landscape position). Aerial photographs of a willow-dominated riparian area located in southeastern Oregon were taken in November 1999 at a 1:2 400 scale. Four basic techniques were used to separate willow species from each other in both color and infrared images using ERDAS Imagine® GIS. Willow species included Geyers willow (Salix geyeriana Anderson), Booth willow (Salix boothii Dorn), and Lemmon's willow (Salix lemmonii Bebb). The techniques used to analyze aerial photographs included image resampling (degrade), image filtering (smoothing), unsupervised classification, and supervised classification. Highest accuracy was obtained using a supervised classification of the color images smoothed with a low-pass convolution filter (84.6% accuracy). Spectral samples were collected using a polygon digitizing method, which had superior results compared to the seed or region growing method. The infrared image was least effective in separating the plants into species classes (58.6% accuracy). This may be due to the lack of the blue band in the infrared image.
Earnings and Balance-Sheet Properties and the Interplay of Tax Incentives and Tax Enforcement

This paper analyzes the joint association of tax incentives and tax law enforcement strictness on earnings and balance sheet properties of private firms. It answers a call for additional research on why "there is (.) substantial within-country variation in managers' incentives to [manage] earnings" (LaFond et al. (2007), p. 14). There is some evidence that something as homogeneous as tax law seems to be enacted differently within a country's legal framework. The key results are that stricter enforcement seemingly impairs managers' ability or willingness to engage in income-decreasing accrual earnings management. On the downside, managers instead seem to resort to real earnings management choices which are associated with potentially negative long-term real business impact.
Personalized Security Messaging: Nudges for Compliance with Browser Warnings

Decades of psychology and decision-making research show that everyone makes decisions differently; yet security messaging is still one-size-fits-all. This suggests that we can improve outcomes by delivering information relevant to how each individual makes decisions. We tested this hypothesis by designing messaging customized for stable personality traits— specifically, the five dimensions of the General Decision-Making Style (GDMS) instrument. We applied this messaging to browser warnings, security messaging encountered by millions of web users on a regular basis. To test the efficacy of our nudges, we conducted experiments with 1,276 participants, who encountered a warning about broken HTTPS due to an invalid certificate under realistic circumstances. While the effects of some nudges correlated with certain traits in a statistically significant manner, we could not reject the null hypothesis—that the intervention did not affect the subjects’ behavior—for most of our nudges, especially after accounting for participants who did not pay close attention to the message. In this paper, we present the detailed results of our experiments, discuss potential reasons for why the outcome contradicts the decision-making research, and identify lessons for researchers based on our experience.
Making (Small) Firms Happy. The Heterogeneous Effect of Trade Facilitation Measures

This paper considers the asymmetric effect of Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) policies on heterogeneous exporters, based on matching a detailed panel of French firm exports to a new database of Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFIs) released recently by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We analyze the effect of these TFIs on three trade-related outcomes: (i) exported value (firm intensive margin), (ii) number of products exported (product extensive margin) and (iii) average export value per product exported (product intensive margin). We find strong evidence of a heterogeneous effect of trade facilitation across firm size. While better information availability, advance ruling and appeal procedures mainly benefit small firms, the simplification of documents and automation tend to favor large firms’ trade. This is coherent with the idea that while some elements of the TFA simply reduce the fixed cost of exporting (favoring small firms in particular), other chapters in the TFA reduce the scope for corruption at borders, making large firms less reluctant to serve corrupt countries.
Vectorial Transport of Enalapril by Oatp 1 a 1 / Mrp 2 and OATP 1 B 1 and OATP 1 B 3 / MRP 2 in Rat and Human Livers

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (L.L., K.S.P.), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Division of Tumor Biochemistry (Y.C., D.K.), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany; Protein Core Facility (A.Y.C.), University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; Department of Biopharmaceutics (Y.Sh.), Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; and Department of Molecular Pharmacokinetics (Y.Su.), Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan JPET Fast Forward. Published on April 20, 2006 as DOI:10.1124/jpet.106. 103390
Prognostic factors in stroke rehabilitation: the possible role of pharmacological treatment

Objectives – The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of commonly used and potentially detrimental drugs on rehabilitation results and to clarify their role as prognostic factors. Material and methods – The study included 154 patients admitted to a rehabilitation hospital for sequelae of a first stroke. Multivariate analyses were performed using effectiveness of treatment, evaluated by both the Barthel Index (BI) and the Rivermead Mobility Index (RMI) and low response on both of these indexes as dependent variables. Independent variables were medical, demographic and pharmacological factors. Results – The use of detrimental drugs was negatively associated with effectiveness on both BI and RMI. Severity of stroke (Canadian Neurological Scale score at admission) and hemineglect were the other negative prognostic factors that significantly entered the analyses. On the other hand, the presence of Broca's aphasia positively influenced the recovery, essentially due to prolonged length of stay. The presence of detrimental drugs and hemineglect were associated with a higher risk of low response on both BI and RMI. Conclusion – These findings confirm that the use of some drugs can influence rehabilitation results. Therefore, the choice of pharmacological treatment of stroke patients should be carefully evaluated by considering the potential detrimental effects of some drugs commonly used for the treatment of coincidental medical conditions.
Traumatic bilateral globe avulsion (case report)

Avulsion of the globe is a rare event, and there are only a few reports of true total enucleation of the globes in the literature. We report a 20-year-old man who was a victim of car accident, with bilateral enucleation of the globe. This is the third reported case of bilateral subluxated globes that were successfully repositioned in the orbits. Although the patient had no light perception vision, preserving his one eye reduced the psychological stress of sudden traumatic loss of vision for him and his relatives.