Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Curcumin, myrecen and cineol modulate the percentage of lymphocyte subsets altered by 2,3,7, 8-Tetracholorodibenzo-p-dioxins (TCDD) in rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the toxic effects of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), a persistent environmental pollutant, on the percentage of T-cell subsets and B-lymphocyte and effectiveness of curcumin, β-myrcene (myrcene) and 1,8-cineole (cineol) on this toxicity in rats. Rats (n = 112) were divided randomly into 8 equal groups. One group was kept as control and given corn oil as carrier. TCDD was orally administered at the dose of 2 µg/kg/week. Curcumin, myrcene and cineol were orally administered by gavages at the doses of 100, 200 and 100 mg/kg/day, respectively, dissolved in corn oil with and without TCDD. The blood samples were taken from half of the rats on day 30 and from the rest on day 60 for the determination of lymphocyte subsets (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD161+, CD45RA, CD4+CD25+ and total lymphocyte). The results indicated that although TCDD significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the percentage of CD3+, CD4+, CD161+, CD45RA, CD4+CD25+ and total lymphocyte, it caused a significant increase in the percentage of CD8+ cells. In contrast, curcumin, myrcene and cineol significantly decreased CD8+ cells levels but increased CD3+, CD4+, CD161+, CD45RA, CD4+CD25+ and total lymphocyte cells populations. The beneficial effects of curcumin, myrcene and cineol and the toxic effects of TCDD were increased at day 60 compared to day 30. In conclusion, curcumin, myrcene and cineol showed immunomodulatory effects and eliminated TCDD-induced immune suppressive effects in rats.
Nonparametric Estimation of Sample Selection Models

Sample selection models provide an important way of accounting for economic decisions that combine discrete and continuous choices and of correcting for nonrandom sampling. Nonparametric estimators for these models are developed in this paper. These can be used for estimating shapes and important economic quantities, as in standard nonparametric regression. Endogeneity of regressors of interest is allowed for. Series estimators for these models are developed, which are useful for imposing additivity restrictions that arise from selection corrections. Convergence rates and asymptotic normality results are derived. An application to returns to schooling among Australian young females is given. Copyright 2003, Wiley-Blackwell.
The Existence of Pure-Strategy Nash Equilibrium in Games with Payoffs that are Not Quasiconcave

Thia paper characterizes pure-strategy Nasó equilibrium in noncooperatíve games. Conditions which are called 0-genetalized quasiconcavity and uniform generalized quasiconcavity, togethet with aome "regular" topological conditiona, are ahown to be necessary and sufficient for the exiatence of pure-strategy and dominant-strategy Nash equilibrium. We also províde theorems for existence under weakened topological conditiona. Thue our results, which require neither the continuity nor quasiconcavity of individual utility functions, generalize many of the existence theorema on pure-strategy Nash equilibrium in the literature, including those of Nash (1950, 1951), Debreu (1952), Nikaido and Isoda (1955), and Dasgupta and Maskin (1986). we demonstrate that quasiconcavity and upper semi-continuity are not necessary for the existence of a pure-strategy Nash equilibrium. Then we
Are Ghanaian MFIs' performance associated with corporate governance?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine whether in Ghana, corporate governance, outreach to clients, reduced dependence on subsidies and use of modern technology (together called corporate governance plus) are associated with the performance of rural and community banks (RCBs), which are microfinance institutions (MFI), in the context of newly adopted codes of conduct and regulations, ownership rules and quality of management.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 30 randomly sampled RCBs were categorized into four groups based on analysis of several dimensions of financial performance. Next, RCBs were again categorized into four groups based on their corporate governance plus. A chi‐squared test of independence between the two groupings was performed.Findings – The authors found no association between RCBs' categories based on corporate governance plus and their categories based on financial performance.Practical implication – To enhance performance, corporate governance plus must impact fi.
Calcification Moderates the Increased Susceptibility to UV Radiation of the Coccolithophorid Gephryocapsa oceanica Grown under Elevated CO2 Concentration: Evidence Based on Calcified and Non‐calcified Cells

The physiological performance of calcified and non‐calcified cells of Gephyrocapsa oceanica (NIES‐1318) and their short‐term responses to UV radiation were compared for cultures grown under present‐day (LC, 400 μatm) and high pCO2 (HC, 1000 μatm) conditions. Similar growth rates and Fv/Fm values were observed in both types of cell under LC conditions, indicating that the loss of calcification in the non‐calcified cells did not lead to a competitive disadvantage under such conditions. Detrimental effects of elevated pCO2 were observed in both cell types, with the growth rate of non‐calcified cells decreasing more markedly, which might reflect a negative impact of higher cytoplasmic H+. When exposed to short‐term UV radiation, similar trends in effective quantum yield were observed in both cell types acclimated to LC conditions. Elevated pCO2 and associated seawater chemical changes strongly reduced effective quantum yield in non‐calcified cells but no significant influence was observed in calcified cells. Based on these findings and comparisons with previous studies, we suggest that the negative impact of elevated cytoplasmic H+ would exacerbate the detrimental effects of UV radiation while the possession of calcification attenuated this influence.
Degradation of Potentially Biodegradable Plastic Mulch Films at Three Diverse U.S. Locations

For widespread adoption of biodegradable plastics as agricultural mulches, dependable biodegradation across contrasting conditions is necessary. The in situ degradation of four potentially biodegradable mulches (two commercially available starch-based films, one commercially available cellulose paper mulch, and one experimental spunbond polylactic acid mulch) were evaluated by measuring percentage of area remaining (PMAR) after burial for 6, 12, 18, and 24 months in high tunnel and open field tomato production systems at three geographically distinct U.S. locations (Knoxville, TN; Lubbock, TX; Mount Vernon, WA). The PMAR of the mulches did not differ between high tunnel and open field systems at any location, and PMAR of cellulose mulch was 0% within 12 months but >90% for experimental spunbond at 24 months. The PMAR of the two starch-based products did vary by location and was lowest at Lubbock (˜2%) compared to Knoxville (49%) or Mount Vernon (89%). Relative to the other two locations, Lubbock had the greatest soil diurnal temperature range, maximum daily soil temperature, an alkaline soil pH, and a microbial community structure characterized by a relatively high abundance of fungi. Mulch type and geographic location exerted a greater influence on PMAR than did production system, and abiotic and biotic variables influenced degradation.
A novel hidden Markov model-based pattern discrimination method with the anomaly detection for EMG signals

This paper proposes a novel sequential pattern recognition method enabling calculation of a posteriori probability for learned and unlearned classes. In this approach, probability density functions of unlearned classes are incorporated in a hiddenMarkov model to classify undefined classes via model parameter estimation using given learning samples. The technique can be applied to various pattern recognition problems such as motion classification with electromyogram (EMG) signals and in support for disease diagnosis. In the experiments conducted, motion classification from EMG signals was implemented with three subjects for eight learned/unlearned forearm motions. The proposed method produced higher levels of classification performance (learned motions: 90.13%; unlearned motions: 91.25%) than previous approaches. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the technique.
House prices, the supply of collateral and the enterprise economy

This paper investigates the extent to which the supply of collateral affects business formation in the United Kingdom. Bank loans are typically secured on the entrepreneur's house. Using a variety of data and formulations, evidence is found that a 10 percent rise in the value of unreleased net housing equity increases the number of new VAT registrations by some 5 percent. Since the authors find that businesses formed in response to increases in the value of housing assets seem to be of at least average quality as measured by survival chances, there appears to be a large pool of untapped entrepreneurial talent. Copyright 1996 by Royal Economic Society.
The Effects of Monetary Policy on Expenditures in Specific Sectors of the Economy

1. Monetary policy influences interest rates, which affect spending. Interest rates may alter the desire to consume or save. They also determine the cost of borrowing, which influences the profitability of investment. Higher rates may limit the ability to borrow. 2. Spending is a function of the wealth or the assets of individual units. Monetary policies have an impact on wealth. The measurement of policy movements, for this purpose, can be performed in many ways. Some consider movements of the money supply narrowly defined as a measure or proxy for such changes. Others use broader definitions including other commercial-bank deposits, deposits in all financial institutions, all liquid assets, or all wealth. 3. Expenditures may be influenced through the creation or intermediation of credit. Monetary authorities through their creation of reserves and their impact on relative interest rates influence the amount and type of credit creation, of lending, and of borrowing. Policy effects are multiplied by legal and other institutional forces. Because of usury laws, ceiling rates, limits on types of lending, and similar forces, when interest rates rise entire sets of institutions and groups of customers may be completely eliminated from the market. Their re-entry will depend on changes in long-standing laws, regulations, and contracts. This availability or rationing of credit will affect spending by individual units of the economy. 4. Shifts in monetary policy cause changes in attitudes and expectations. These in turn may influence the spending of particular units.
Imports as Product and Labour Market Discipline

This article tests the pro-competitive effect of trade in the product and labour markets of UK manufacturing sectors between 1988 and 2003 using a two-stage estimation procedure. In the first stage, we use data on 11,799 firms from 20 manufacturing sectors to simultaneously estimate mark-up and workers' bargaining power parameters according to sector, firm size and period. We find a significant drop in both the mark-up and the workers' bargaining power in the mid-1990s. In the second stage, we relate our parameters of interest to trade variables. Our results show that imports from developed countries have significantly contributed to the decrease in both mark-ups and workers' bargaining power.
Adverse outcomes in patients with community acquired pneumonia discharged with clinical instability from Internal Medicine Department

There are well established admission criteria for patients suffering from community-acquired pneumonia, yet the clinical tool for decision to discharge the hospitalized patient is lacking. Continuous pressure to reduce hospital expenditures can lead to a premature discharge of unstable patients. The current study assessed the impact of clinical instability at discharge on short-term outcomes. Demographic data, background disease, laboratory tests results and PORT score were assessed prospectively. On the last day of the hospitalization 7 physiological parameters of instability were evaluated. 60 d composite mortality and readmission rate was a primary outcome measure. Of the 373 patients, 22% were discharged with 1 or more instabilities, of whom 26.8% reached primary outcome within 60 d, compared to 8.2% of patients with no instabilities. 60 d death rate was 2.1% in the former group, compared to 14.6% in the unstable patients (p<0.001). Instability on discharge remained a significant prognosticator of adverse outcome (odds ratio 3.5; 95% CI 1.8–6.8) after adjustment for pneumonia severity and baseline comorbidity. We concluded that discharging an unstable patient hospitalized with pneumonia is associated with elevated risk of death or readmission within 60 d. Pneumonia guidelines should include objective criteria for judging patients’ stability and promptness for discharge.
Assessment of a short phylogenetic marker based on comparisons of 3’ end 16S rDNA and 5’ end 16S-23S ITS nucleotide sequences of the Bacillus cereus group

A short phylogenetic marker previously used in the reconstruction of the Order Bacillales and the genus Bacillus was assessed here at a lower taxa level: species in the Bacillus cereus group: B. anthracis, B. cereus, B. thuringiensis and B. weihenstephanensis. This maker is 220 bp in length. It is a combination of 150 bp at the 3’ end of the 16S rDNA and 70 bp at the 5’ end of the 16S-23S ITS sequence. Three additional Bacillus species, B. halodurans, B. licheniformis and B. subtilis, and Clostridium tetani were included for comparison purposes. A total of eight bacterial species and 12 strains were analyzed. A boot- strapped neighbor-joining tree was inferred from comparative analyses of all allelic sequences of the bacterial species and strains under study. Based on its topology, four major Groups were revealed at the 90% nucleotide sequence identities, Group I to IV. Group I contains all al-leles of the Bacillus cereus group. Group II con-tains all alleles of B. halodurans. Group III con-tains all alleles of B. licheniformis and B. subtilis. Group IV contains all alleles of Clostridium tetani. The 220 bp phylogenetic marker used here could resolve different species from different genera. At the genus level, distant species could be dis-tinguished. Very closely-related species, however, were undistinguishable. Species in the B. cereus group, most notably B. cereus, B. anth- racis and B. thuringiensis, could not be distin- guished. After successfully inferring the phylo- genies of the Order Bacillales and the genus Bacillus, we have met the resolving limit of this short phy-logenetic marker: B. cereus, B. anthracis and B. thuringiensis.
Emotional intelligence and employee creativity in travel agencies

Every country in the world is developing its tourism industry. Related enterprises not only face problems regarding the use of environmental resources and the development of new products, but also pay much attention to human resources that are beyond capital, technology, or tangible property, with a view to promoting innovation and competition. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the effect of the emotional intelligence of employees of travel agencies in Taiwan on their innovative performance. The sample comprised 170 travel agency employees in Taiwan. Reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, and path analysis were utilised to analyse the data. The results demonstrate that travel agency employees who exhibit highly regulated emotions and extensive use of those emotions also display substantial creativity. The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are considered and a future research direction proposed.
How Does Chunking Help Working Memory?

Chunking is the recoding of smaller units of information into larger, familiar units. Chunking is often assumed to help bypassing the limited capacity of working memory (WM). We investigate how chunks are used in WM tasks, addressing three questions: (a) Does chunking reduce the load on WM? Across four experiments chunking benefits were found not only for recall of the chunked but also of other not-chunked information concurrently held in WM, supporting the assumption that chunking reduces load. (b) Is the chunking benefit independent of chunk size? The chunking benefit was independent of chunk size only if the chunks were composed of unique elements, so that each chunk could be replaced by its first element (Experiment 1), but not when several chunks consisted of overlapping sets of elements, disabling this replacement strategy (Experiments 2 and 3). The chunk-size effect is not due to differences in rehearsal duration as it persisted when participants were required to perform articulatory suppression (Experiment 3). Hence, WM capacity is not limited to a fixed number of chunks regardless of their size. (c) Does the chunking benefit depend on the serial position of the chunk? Chunks in early list positions improved recall of other, not-chunked material, but chunks at the end of the list did not. We conclude that a chunk reduces the load on WM via retrieval of a compact chunk representation from long-term memory that replaces the representations of individual elements of the chunk. This frees up capacity for subsequently encoded material.
Financial Restatements and Shareholder Ratifications of the Auditor

SUMMARY: Regulators and legislators have focused significant attention on financial statement restatements in recent years, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and financial statement users view restatements as audit failures. The SEC (2000, 2003a) suggests that shareholder voting on auditor ratification will be impacted by perceptions of audit quality. In this paper we examine shareholder voting on auditor ratifications in 2005 or 2006 following restatement announcements by SEC registrants. We find that shareholders are more likely to vote against auditor ratification after a restatement when compared with votes at (1) firms without restatements or (2) restating firms in the preceding period. Overall, the results provide empirical support to the SEC's assertion that shareholder voting on auditor ratification will be related to perceptions of audit quality, and also support recent actions by shareholder activists to require all firms to submit the selection of the auditor for a ratificat.
A New Data Set on Monetary Policy: the Economic Forecasts of Individual Members of the FOMC

This paper describes a new data set of the forecasts of output growth, inflation, and unemployment prepared by individual members of the Federal Open Market Committee. The paper discusses the scope of the data set, possibilities for extending it, and some potential uses. It offers a preliminary examination of some of the cross-sectional features of the data.
Directionality analysis and Rayleigh wave tomography of ambient seismic noise in southern Norway

SUMMARY We process seismic broad-band data from southern Norway by cross correlation of ambient seismic noise in view of getting a better image of the crustal structure in the area. The main data set sterns from the temporary MAGNUS network which operated continuously from 2006 September to 2008 June. Additionally, data from permanent stations of the National Norwegian Seismic Network, the NORSAR array and GSN stations in the region are used. We compute vertical component cross-correlation functions using 41 receivers for 3-month time windows. Evaluation of the azimuthal and temporal variation of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and f–k analysis of data from NORSAR array between 3 and 25 s period shows that the dominant source areas of seismic noise are located to the west and north of the network during most of the measurement time, which corresponds well to the Norwegian coast line. During summer months, the SNRs decrease but the azimuthal distribution becomes more uniform between 7 and 12 s period, suggesting a more diffuse character of the wavefield. Primary ocean microseisms above 12 s show different dominant source azimuths during this time period compared to the winter months. Time–frequency analysis is applied to measure Rayleigh wave group velocity dispersion curves between each station pair for each 3-month correlation stack and the mean and variance of all dispersion curves is computed for each path. After rejection of low-quality data, a careful analysis shows that the group velocities are not biased by noise directionality. We invert the data for group velocity maps at period bands between 3 and 25 s. At short periods, we find an average Rayleigh wave group speed of about 3 km s−1 and velocity anomalies that correlate very well with local surface geology. While higher velocities (+5 per cent) can be associated with the Caledonian nappes in the central part of southern Norway, the Oslo Graben is reflected by negative velocity anomalies (−3 to −5 per cent). At longer periods, group velocities correlate well with the variation of Moho depths beneath southern Norway.
Intravenous diltiazem is superior to intravenous amiodarone or digoxin for achieving ventricular rate control in patients with acute uncomplicated atrial fibrillation*

Objectives: To compare the clinical efficacy of intravenous diltiazem, digoxin, and amiodarone for acute ventricular rate (VR) control in patients with acute symptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) necessitating hospitalization. Design: Randomized control trial. Setting: Acute emergency medical admission unit in a regional teaching hospital in Hong Kong. Patients: One hundred fifty adult patients with acute AF and rapid VR (>120 bpm). Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned in 1:1:1 ratio to receive intravenous diltiazem, digoxin, or amiodarone for VR control. Measurements and Main Results: The primary end point was sustained VR control (<90 bpm) within 24 hours; the secondary end points included AF symptom improvement and length of hospitalization. At 24 hours, VR control was achieved in 119 of 150 patients (79%). The time to VR control was significantly shorter among patients in the diltiazem group (log-rank test, p < 0.0001) with the percentage of patients who achieved VR control being higher in the diltiazem group (90%) than the digoxin group (74%) and the amiodarone group (74%). The median time to VR control was significantly shorter in the diltiazem group (3 hours, 1–21 hours) compared with the digoxin (6 hours, 3–15 hours, p < 0.001) and amiodarone groups (7 hours, 1–18 hours, p = 0.003). Furthermore, patients in the diltiazem group persistently had the lowest mean VR after the first hour of drug administration compared with the other two groups (p < 0.05). The diltiazem group had the largest reduction in AF symptom frequency score and severity score (p < 0.0001). In addition, length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the diltiazem group (3.9 ± 1.6 days) compared with digoxin (4.7 ± 2.1 days, p = 0.023) and amiodarone groups (4.7 ± 2.2 days, p = 0.038). Conclusions: As compared with digoxin and amiodarone, intravenous diltiazem was safe and effective in achieving VR control to improve symptoms and to reduce hospital stay in patients with acute AF.
Social Benefits of Education

The majority of research on the outcomes of education has focused on the effect of educational attainment on individuals' wages and on the level of skill in the economy as a whole. In this article, however, Nevzer Stacey argues that examining the social benefits of education beyond its economic impact would provide a more comprehensive informational basis for developing national educational policies. She reviews the literature that examines the impact of educational attainment on four areas of potential intervention: health; family structure, fertility, and child care; the environment; and crime. Although these studies report some statistics on education, virtually none uses measures of learning or inputs related to the learning process to estimate the effect of education. Stacey concludes that a more systematic analysis is needed to improve our under-standing of the full effect of education on society in order to determine appropriate public policy.