Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mega-Sporting Events in Developing Nations: Playing the Way to Prosperity?

Supporters of mega-sporting events such as the World Cup and Olympics claim that these events attract hoards of wealthy visitors and lead to lasting economic benefits for the host regions. Developing countries have become increasingly vocal in demanding a share of the economic benefits of these international games. The specialized infrastructure and operating expenses required to host these events, however, can be substantial. Independent researchers have found that boosters’ projections of the economic impact of sporting events exaggerate the true economic impact of these competitions, and these events are an even worse investment for developing countries than for industrialized nations.
Incidence and survival of Swedish patients with differentiated thyroid cancer

Papillary (PTC) and follicular (FTC) thyroid cancers are rare disorders but are, nevertheless, among the most common cancers in individuals below 40 years of age. From the population‐based Swedish Cancer Registry we identified 3,588 individuals with PTC and 1,966 with FTC during 1958–87. Histopathology was determined by examining the original histopathology reports. The relative survival ratio (RSR) was used as the measure of patient survival. Incidence of both PTC and FTC was higher among women, especially for PTC and particularly during the fertile part of female life. Incidence of PTC increased significantly over time, a trend that was not observed for FTC. Five‐year relative survival appeared to be higher for patients diagnosed with PTC compared to FTC, although this difference was almost completely explained by the confounding effect of age. Patients with PTC experience lower mortality during the period 7–20 years after diagnosis. Excess mortality was lower among women, although the magnitude of the difference varied with age and histopathology. In contrast to our perceptions based on clinical practice, we observed no difference in excess mortality between patients diagnosed with PTC and FTC during the years immediately after diagnosis (where the majority of deaths occur). Our data suggest that there may exist a subgroup of thyroid tumors with superior prognosis diagnosed in women during the fertile part of female life. Sex hormones may play a role in the etiology of these tumors. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Th17: Contributors to Allograft Rejection and a Barrier to the Induction of Transplantation Tolerance?

T helper (Th) type 17 cells are a recently described CD4+ T-cell subset that may contribute to allograft rejection and act as a barrier to the induction of transplant tolerance. This review examines the involvement of Th17 cells in transplant rejection, how immunosuppressive medication may affect their induction and maintenance and the potential plasticity of developing Th17 cells. It also addresses the complex interplay between the Th17 and regulatory T-cell developmental pathways and the susceptibility of Th17 cells to regulation. Despite accumulating evidence, the precise impact of Th17 cells on transplant rejection and the induction of tolerance require further clarification.
Evidence-based medicine: the fourth revolution in American medicine?

SUMMARY The use of evidence has become a force in American medicine to improve the quality of health care. Funding decisions from payers will demand studies with high-level evidence to support many of the costly interventions in medicine. Plastic surgery is certainly not immune to this national tidal wave to revamp the health care system by embracing evidence-based medicine in our practices. In scientific contributions of plastic surgery research, application of evidence-based principles should enhance the care of all patients by relying on science rather than opinions. In this article, the genesis of evidence-based medicine is discussed to guide plastic surgery in this new revolution in American medicine.
Communication and Incentive Mechanisms Based on Group Performance: An Experimental Study of Nonpoint Pollution Control

This article considers whether communication can improve the efficacy of incentive mechanisms designed to correct the problem of moral hazard in groups. In particular, we use experimental economics methods to study environmental targeting instruments proposed by Segerson (1988) for regulating a group of nonpoint source polluters based on ambient concentrations. We find that communication greatly affects group performance, enhancing the efficiency of instruments involving fixed fines but leading to overcompliance, and hence inefficiency, in marginal tax/subsidy instruments. These results have implications for future theoretical development of group performance mechanisms as well as the design of public policies. (JEL H23, C92) Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
How much do we understand when skim reading?

The World Wide Web and other technological advances have meant rapid reading or "skimming" of text is increasingly common in our information-rich time-limited society. This study investigates the effectiveness of skimming as a strategy for understanding a text. A replication and extension of Masson's (1982) work found that recognition of important, unimportant and inferable information declined equally when readers were required to skim rather than read text normally. This indicates that readers struggle to focus on important information when skimming. Moreover, a response bias suggests skimmers are more likely to over-interpret complicated information as consistent with the text. Thus, designers including large amounts of text should be aware that skimming is a limited strategy for achieving understanding.
The inverted-U: what does it mean?

And it would have been helpful if this group of distinguished authors had cautioned against counting resource depletion as economic growth in the developing countries, and if they had lent their support to better measurements of macroeconomic aggregates, more accurate economic analysis and more relevant and appropriate macroeconomic policies. However, this short and well-written article understandably has a limited carrying capacity. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the same group will complement their admirable initial effort with further excursions that would help bring about needed reforms in the way many economists look at the problems of economic and social development, seemingly oblivious to the changes occurring in the surrounding physical environment.
Firm Resources, Quality Signals and The Determinants of Corporate Environmental Reputation: Some UK Evidence

Using the example of the creation of corporate environmental reputation, the article offers a theoretical extension of the resource-based view of the ®rm to include quality signaling via the channel of accounting disclosure. The proposed framework is then tested via an empirical survey into the relationship between environmental disclosure and environmental reputation. The results suggest that implementation, monitoring and disclosure of environmental policies and their disclosure in annual reports contribute significantly to the creation of environmental reputation. Diverse institutional share ownership and low systematic risk are also associated with positive environmental reputation. Prior financial performance has no impact and there is no evidence that environmental reputation is created by a financial halo effect or by the availability of slack financial resources.
Characterization of 5-Fluorouracil Release from Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose Compression-Coated Tablets

Hydrogel compression-coated tablets are able to release the core drug after a period of lag time and have potential for colon-specific drug delivery based on gastrointestinal transit time concept. This study investigated the factors influencing in vitro release characteristics of a model drug 5-fluorouracil from hydroxypropylmethycellulose (HPMC) compression-coated tablets. The core tablet, prepared by a wet granulation compression method, was designed to disintegrate and dissolute quickly. To prepare the compression-coated tablets, 50% of the HPMC/lactose coat powder was precompressed first, followed by centering the core tablet and compressing with the other 50% of the coat powder. Release characteristics were evaluated in distilled water by using a Chinese Pharmacopoeia rotatable basket method. Effect of HPMC viscosity, lactose content in outer shell, and overall coating weight of outer shell on release lag time (Tlag), and zero-order release rate (k) were studied. Release of drug from compression-coated tablets began after a time delay as a result of hydrogel swelling/retarding effect, followed by zero-order release for most of the formulations studied. HPMC of higher viscosity (K4M and K15M) provided better protection of the drug-containing core, showing increased release lag time and slower release rate. Incorporating lactose in outer shell led to decrease of Tlag and increase of k. Tlag and k are exponentially and linearly correlated to lactose content, expressed as weight percentage of the outer shell. Larger coating weight (W) of outer shell produced larger coating thickness (D) around core tablet, which resulted in increase in Tlag and decrease in k. There was good fitting of a linear model for each of the four variables W, D, Tlag, and k. Hardness of the compression-coated tablets and pHs of the release media had little effect on drug release profile. It is concluded that the release lag time and release rate are able to be tailored through adjusting the formulation variables to achieve colon-specific drug delivery of 5-fluorouracil.
Dynamic Option Pricing Model based on the Realized-GARCH-NIG Approach

In this paper, we take the advantage of high frequency data to develop option pricing model and select the Realized GARCH model to describe the volatility of assets, use NIG distribution to describe the distribution of underlying assets, and also build the Realized-GARCH-NIG model to price the option. Finally, we obtain the dynamic option pricing model based on the Realized-GARCH-NIG approach. To verify the effect of the dynamic option pricing model based on the Realized-GARCH- NIG approach, this paper provides the empirical analysis between the dynamic option pricing model based on the Realized-GARCH-NIG approach and the B-S option pricing model. The results show that the option value obtained from the dynamic option pricing model based on the Realized-GARCH-NIG approach is more accurate and effective than the B-S option pricing model.
Spatiotemporal frequency and speed tuning in the owl visual wulst

The avian visual wulst is hodologically equivalent to the mammalian primary visual cortex (V1). In contrast to most birds, owls have a massive visual wulst, which shares striking functional similarities with V1. To provide a better understanding of how motion is processed within this area, we used sinusoidal gratings to characterize the spatiotemporal frequency and speed tuning profiles of 131 neurones recorded from awake burrowing owls. Cells were found to be clearly tuned to both spatial and temporal frequencies, and in a way that is similar to what has been reported in the striate cortex of primates and carnivores. Our results also suggest the presence of spatial frequency tuning domains in the wulst. Speed tuning was assessed by several methods devised to measure the degree of dependence between spatial and temporal frequency tuning. Although many neurones were found to be independently tuned, a significant proportion of cells showed at least some degree of dependence, compatible with the idea that some kind of initial transformation towards an explicit representation of speed is being carried out by the owl wulst. Interestingly, under certain constraints, a higher incidence of spatial frequency‐invariant speed tuned profiles was obtained by combining our experimentally measured responses using a recent cortical model of speed tuning. Overall, our findings reinforce the notion that, like V1, the owl wulst is an important initial stage for motion processing, a function that is usually attributed to areas of the tectofugal pathway in lateral‐eyed birds.
Auctions of Divisible Goods: On the Rationale for the Treasury Experiment

We compare a sealed-bid uniform-price auction (the Treasury's experimental format) with a sealed bid discriminatory auction (the Treasury's format heretofore), assuming the good is perfectly divisible. We show that the auction theory that prompted the experiment, which assumes single-unit demands, does not adequately describe the bidding game for Treasury securities. Collusive strategies are self-enforcing in uniform-price divisible-good auctions. In these equilibria, the seller's expected revenue is lower than in equilibria of discriminatory auctions. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Socioeconomic position and self-rated health: the contribution of childhood socioeconomic circumstances, adult socioeconomic status, and material resources.

OBJECTIVES We examined socioeconomic inequalities in self-rated health by analyzing indicators of childhood socioeconomic circumstances, adult socioeconomic position, and current material resources. METHODS We collected data on middle-aged adults employed by the City of Helsinki (n=8970; 67% response rate). Associations between 7 socioeconomic indicators and health self-ratings of less than "good" were examined with sequential logistic regression models. RESULTS After adjustment for age, each socioeconomic indicator was inversely associated with self-rated health. Childhood economic difficulties, but not parental education, were associated with health independently of all other socioeconomic indicators. The associations of respondents' own education and occupational class with health remained when adjusted for other socioeconomic indicators. Home ownership and economic difficulties, but not household income, were the material indicators associated with health after full adjustment. CONCLUSIONS Own education and occupational class showed consistent associations with health, but the association with income disappeared after adjustment for other socioeconomic indicators. The effect of parental education on health was mediated by the respondent's own education. Both childhood and adulthood economic difficulties showed clear associations with health and with conventional socioeconomic indicators.
On elicitable risk measures

Informally, a statistical functional T on a set of probability measures M on the real line is elicitable if it can be defined as the minimizer of a suitable expected scoring function. The simplest examples of elicitable functionals are the mean that minimizes a quadratic score and the quantiles that are the set of minimizers of a piecewise linear score. Despite this notion finds its roots in decision theory, see for example Savage (1971), the term ‘elicitable functional’ seems to have been introduced in Osband (1985). See also Lambert et al. (2008), Gneiting (2011) and the reference therein for an early history of the notion of elicitability. We refer to the recent paper of Gneiting (2011) for the formal definition. Let T : M → 2 be a possibly set-valued functional, where 2 is the power set of R. T is elicitable relative to the class M if there exists a scoring function S :
Impaired outcome of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis in immunosuppressed patients.

BACKGROUND Although immunodeficiency predisposes to CAPD peritonitis with fungal or unusual organisms, the role of immunosuppression as a predisposing factor for CAPD peritonitis, as well as the outcome of such episodes, remains uncertain. METHODS The incidence, spectrum of infectious organisms, and outcome of CAPD peritonitis was retrospectively reviewed in 39 immunosuppressed and 146 non-immunosuppressed patients treated with CAPD over the calendar year 1993. RESULTS Immunosuppressed patients were younger (mean 44 vs 57 years, P<0.001) and had an increased incidence of previous transplantation, glomerulonephritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and vasculitis. Immunosuppressed patients had more episodes of peritonitis (69/29 patients vs 99/147, P<0.001), required more frequent hospital admission (25/39 vs 33/146, P<0.001), had more days off CAPD (331 vs 242, P<0.001), and required more laparotomies to remove infected CAPD catheters (11/39 vs 14/146, P<0. 01). Immunosuppression was associated with increased infection due to S.aureus and fungi, which may have contributed towards increased morbidity in this group. Current immunosuppression or a recent history of immunosuppression appeared to be equally potent risk factors for infection. There was a trend for the incidence of infection to parallel the aggressiveness of immunosuppression. CONCLUSIONS Immunosuppression is an important risk factor for CAPD peritonitis. A high index of suspicion for infection and aggressive chemotherapy are mandatory. CAPD may not be the initial therapy of choice in this high-risk group.
Identification of CCR2 and CD180 as Robust Pharmacodynamic Tumor and Blood Biomarkers for Clinical Use with BRD4/BET Inhibitors

Purpose: AZD5153 is a novel BRD4/BET inhibitor with a distinctive bivalent bromodomain binding mode. To support its clinical development, we identified pharmacodynamic (PD) biomarkers for use in clinical trials to establish target engagement. Experimental Design: CCR2 and CD180 mRNAs, initially identified from whole transcriptome profiling, were further evaluated by quantitative PCR in hematologic cell lines, xenografts, and whole blood from rat, healthy volunteers, and patients with cancer. MYC and HEXIM1 mRNAs were also evaluated. Results: RNA-sequencing data showed consistent decreases in CCR2/CD180 expression across multiple hematologic cell lines upon AZD5153 treatment. Evaluation of dose dependence in MV4,11 cells confirmed activity at clinically relevant concentrations. In vivo downregulation of CCR2/CD180 mRNAs (>80%) was demonstrated in MV4,11 and KMS-11 xenograft tumors at efficacious AZD5153 doses. Consistent with in vitro rat blood data, an in vivo rat study confirmed greater inhibition of CCR2/CD180 mRNA in whole blood versus MYC at an efficacious dose. Finally, in vitro treatment of whole blood from healthy volunteers and patients with cancer demonstrated, in contrast to MYC, almost complete downregulation of CCR2/CD180 at predicted clinically achievable concentrations. Conclusions: Our data strongly support the use of CCR2 and CD180 mRNAs as whole blood PD biomarkers for BRD4 inhibitors, especially in situations where paired tumor biopsies are unavailable. In addition, they can be used as tumor-based PD biomarkers for hematologic tumors. MYC mRNA is useful as a hematologic tumor-based biomarker but suboptimal as a whole blood biomarker. Utility of HEXIM1 mRNA may be limited to higher concentrations. Clin Cancer Res; 23(4); 1025–35. ©2017 AACR.
Export–led growth and structural change: evidence from Malaysia

Many studies have tried to establish the causal link between export expansion and economic growth. This contribution is to recognize that structural changes will change the sources of growth and this will affect the export-growth relationship. A country case study approach is used focusing on Malaysia, a country with one of the world's highest sustained growth rates and a long history of commodity trade. We use VAR analysis of Malaysian quarterly trade and GDP growth from 1965 to 1996. Trade data are disaggregated into primary and manufactures exports and causality tests are applied to the entire period as well as two subperiods #150 the 1965 #1501980 period when policy emphasis was on import substitution and the 1981#1501996 period when policies favoured export-led growth. Statistical tests confirm export-led growth for the full period and for the period to 1980 but tests on the 1981#1501996 period show growth causing exports. Primary exports had a stronger direct impact on economic growth than manufactures. The weakening support for export-led growth after Malaysia shifted to an export-oriented development strategy is associated with structural changes associated with industrialization. Interaction among trade and growth variables becomes more complex with a broadening export base and more diverse sources of growth.
Impact of employer brand-equity promotion for effective talent recruitment of fresh graduates in Pakistan

The current study was an attempt to investigate the impact of employer brand equity towards effective talent recruitment in telecommunication companies of Pakistan. As suggested by Ting and Paul (2011), the study also sought to test the mediating role of educational institutions. Two types of survey questionnaires, adapted (with slight modifications) from the study of Collins and Stevens, were used to obtain the data from 200 fresh university graduates and 273 employees of the five cellular companies located in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. SPSS 18 and AMOS 18 software were used for data analyses. Data received from the university graduates was used for rating these companies against different parameters, for which cross tabulation was used to statistically test the results. Whereas, the data collected from the employees was used to measure the mediating effect of educational institutions in relationship between employer brand equity and effective talent recruitment. The results of structural equation modelling show that the educational institutions play partially mediating role in hypothesized relationship. The study recommends that the organizations should seek help from the educational institutions to improve effectiveness of their brand equity and talent recruitment. The study has implication for organizations as well as the academicians for further research on the topic, including other variables. Key words: Employer brand equity, fresh talent, recruitment, universities, Pakistan.
Refugee Movements and Aid Responsiveness of Bilateral Donors

Abstract This article analyses the impact of refugee migration movements on the long-term and short-term aid allocation decisions of bilateral donors. We distinguish between different types of forced migrants: internally displaced persons (IDPs) that stay in their country of origin, cross-border refugees that flee to neighboring countries, and asylum seekers in Western donor states. For the period 1992 to 2003, empirical evidence on 18 donor and 148 recipient countries suggests that short-term emergency aid is given to all types of refugee situations, but is predominantly directed towards the countries of origin. For long-term development aid, Western donor states allocate aid funds primarily to the sending-countries of asylum seekers.