Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Irreversible Investment in Durable Capacity on the Incentive for Horizontal Merger

Until recently, the literature on horizontal merger had been almost exclusively concerned with two issues. The first issue, which has long historical roots, is the timing of merger activity. Of particular interest has been to understand the causes of the great merger wave. Lamoreaux [5] represents the most recent addition to this literature and provides a very good review of past work. The second issue is the welfare implications of horizontal merger of which Williamson [12] is a case in point. With the exception of Stigler [8], what had generally not been at issue in this literature was the private incentives for horizontal merger. This was true in spite of the insight provided by Stigler that the non-participants of a merger are typically made better off by a merger than are the participants. Since the firms which engage in merger reduce supply, all firms benefit from the resulting higher price but the non-merging firms benefit most because they receive a higher price without having had to reduce supply. There is then the potential for a free-rider effect in merger activity as each firm wishes it to be the other firms which merge. The first suggestion that the private incentives for horizontal merger may not only be weak but that merger may be simply unprofitable arose in a numerical example by Szidarovszky and Yakowitz [9] in which they show in a three-firm Cournot model that a merger between two firms is unprofitable. Then a study by Salant, Switzer, and Reynolds [7], hereafter S-S-R, examined this issue in considerable detail and found very weak incentives for firms to merge together unless there are considerable savings in terms of fixed costs. Using the standard linear Cournot model, S-S-R show that only merger for monopoly, or close-to-monopoly, is privately optimal when there are zero fixed costs. The basis for this surprising result is that when the merged firm reduces output below the combined level of its pre-merger supply, the non-merged firms react by expanding output. Though price goes up in response to the merger, the market share of the merged firm declines. The latter effect can dominate so that the firms are made worse off by merging. In response to this result, Perry and Porter [6] argue that the standard Cournot model is inappropriate for analyzing the incentive to merge as mergers are not well-defined. Since firms do
Lectin binding to human colonocytes is predictive of colonic neoplasia

OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to determine whether lectin binding to exfoliated human colonocytes could be used as a noninvasive test for colorectal polyps or cancer.METHODS:Colonocytes were harvested from 31 patients (10 controls, 10 with adenomatous polyps, and 11 with cancer), incubated with a panel of fluorescent-labeled lectins, and assayed by flow cytometry.RESULTS:The lectins jacalin (JAC) and wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) were useful in predicting the presence of a colorectal neoplasm (p= 0.0018 for JAC and p= 0.0099 for WGA). For JAC, sensitivity reached 81% with a specificity of 80%, and for WGA the sensitivity and specificity were both 75%. CONCLUSIONS:Lectin binding to human colonocytes can predict the presence of malignant and premalignant lesions of the colon, and has potential as a noninvasive screening tool for colorectal neoplasms.
G protein‐gated inwardly rectifying potassium (KIR3) channels play a primary role in the antinociceptive effect of oxycodone, but not morphine, at supraspinal sites

Oxycodone and morphine are μ‐opioid receptor agonists prescribed to control moderate‐to‐severe pain. Previous studies suggested that these opioids exhibit different analgesic profiles. We hypothesized that distinct mechanisms mediate the differential effects of these two opioids and investigated the role of G protein‐gated inwardly rectifying potassium (KIR3 also known as GIRK) channels in their antinociceptive effects.
CEO Power and Firm Performance under Pressure

Are powerful chief executive officers (CEOs) more effective in responding to pressure from the economic environment? Concentrating decision-making power may facilitate rapid decision making; however, the quality of decision making may be compromised, with severe consequences for the firm if a powerful CEO is less likely to receive independent advice or to have her decisions scrutinized. We empirically investigate the performance of firms with powerful CEOs when industry conditions deteriorate. We focus on industry downturns as these represent an exogenous shock to a firm's environment and on settings in which CEO power and access to quality information is likely more consequential: innovative firms, firms with relatively little related-industry board expertise, firms operating in competitive industries, and firms operating in industries characterized by relatively greater managerial discretion. In each of these settings we find powerful CEOs perform significantly worse than other CEOs, suggesting contexts in which centralized decision making is potentially of greater concern.
Professional financial advice, self‐control and saving behavior

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of professional financial advice (PFA) and selfcontrol ability on saving behavior, as well as the interaction of PFA and self-control on saving behavior. Professional financial advisors can use their financial expertise to help households make better informed financial decisions. Also, professional financial advisors may help households achieve better self-control in implementing financial plans, such as recommending commitment devices, arrangements that restrict the future choice set by setting plans or even penalties. We extend the dual-self model of impulse control (Fudenberg & Levine, 2006) and derive three hypotheses: (a) people with higher levels of self-control save more than those with lower levels of self-control, (b) professional financial advice has a positive effect on saving behavior, and (c) people with lower levels of self-control benefit more from getting PFA than those with higher levels of self-control. We use a German household panel dataset SAVE, which was collected annually from 2005 to 2009. Respondents are asked whether they have discussed financial matters with financial advisors in banks, insurance companies or financial service providers. Using a number of behavioral proxies of self-control, we create an aggregate measure of self-control through factor analysis. We estimate a fixed-effects model to identify the effects of PFA and self-control on saving behavior. Empirical results show that both PFA and self-control have a significant positive relationship with financial assets and emergency funds. The interaction term for PFA and self-control has a significant effect on financial assets and emergency funds.
Addition of sildenafil in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension with inadequate response to bosentan monotherapy.

BACKGROUND Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) remains a progressive disease despite improvement when using one of three medication classes: prostanoids, endothelin receptor antagonists or phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors. Combination therapy has been proposed for patients with unsatisfactory response to monotherapy. OBJECTIVES To examine the effect of adding sildenafil to bosentan on 6 min walk distance (6MWD) and New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification in patients with PAH who achieved inadequate improvement with bosentan monotherapy. METHODS Patients with idiopathic PAH or connective tissue disease-associated PAH, and who had either self-reported inadequate improvement in exercise tolerance or a decline in 6MWD after initial improvement, were included in the study (n=10). Data on 6MWD and NYHA class at baseline (before initiation of bosentan), three and six months after baseline, second baseline (before initiation of combination therapy with sildenafil), and three and six months after second baseline were analyzed for any changes. RESULTS Mean time from initiation of bosentan monotherapy to initiation of combination therapy was 558 days (range 150 to 900 days). Six months after initiation of bosentan, 6MWD increased by 57.2 m above the baseline of 314.4 m. Six months after combination therapy, 6MWD was 62.80 m higher than the baseline before initiation of combination therapy of 339 m (P<0.02). The overall increase in 6MWD six months after combination therapy was higher than the first baseline by 87.4 m (P not significant). NYHA functional class did not improve with combination therapy in all patients. DISCUSSION Initiating combination therapy in patients who achieve an inadequate improvement in exercise tolerance with monotherapy may result in further improvement in exercise tolerance.
Delay-dependent piecewise control for time-delay t-s fuzzy systems with application to chaos control

This paper concerns with the delay-dependent piecewise control problem for a class of time-delay T-S fuzzy systems based on a novel delay-dependent piecewise Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (DPLKF). A new partition approach for the premise variable space of the fuzzy model is presented to facilitate the piecewise feedback controller design. It is then shown that the global stabilization can be established for the closed-loop system if a DPLKF can be constructed by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. Meanwhile, the piecewise controller gains can be obtained. Application to chaos control is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed method
Somatic Gene Transfer: Implications for Cardiovascular Control

There is a great need for closer integration between physiologists and molecular biologists. These two research fields might soon form a single research discipline under the umbrella of molecular physiology. One of the areas where this interaction may be particularly fruitful is with somatic gene transfer using replication‐deficient viral vectors. We applied this approach to study the central control of the cardiovascular system at the level of the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). We assess critically this new methodology as applied to experiments in an integrative environment (such as the whole animal). The usefulness of in vivo gene transfer is illustrated by an experiment where viral gene delivery helped to circumvent the problem imposed by an absence of a specific pharmacological blocker of the enzyme, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). The pros and cons of using adenoviral vectors as opposed to conventional pharmacological approaches are discussed. We conclude that the use of adenoviruses to manipulate genes offers a new avenue for physiologists studying neuronal mechanisms in integrative models.
Increased physical activity is not enough to recover astrocytic population from dark-rearing. Synergy with multisensory enrichment is required

Elimination of sensory inputs (deprivation) modifies the properties of the sensory cortex and serves as a model for studying plasticity during postnatal development. Many studies on the effects of deprivation have been performed in the visual cortex using dark-rearing as a visual deprivation model. It induces changes in all cellular and molecular components, including astrocytes, which play an important role in the development, maintenance, and plasticity of the cortex, mediated by cytokines which have been termed angioglioneurins. When one sense is deprived, a compensatory mechanism called cross-modal plasticity increases performance in the remaining senses. Environmental enrichment is so far the best-known method to compensate sensorial deprivation. The aim of this work is to study the effects of exercise alone, and of an enriched environment combined with exercise, on astroglial population in order to observe the effects of exercise by itself, or the potential synergistic effect during the rat visual system development. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were raised in one of the following rearing conditions: in total darkness and enriched environment conditions with physical exercise, and in total darkness with voluntary physical exercise. Astrocytic density was estimated by immunohistochemistry for S-100β protein and quantifications were performed in layer IV. The somatosensorial cortex barrel field was also studied as control. Our main result shows that an enriched environment combined with voluntary physical exercise manages to reverse the negative effects induced by darkness over the astroglial population of both the visual and the somatosensory cortices. On the other hand, exercise alone only produces effects upon the astroglial population of the somatosensory cortex, and less so when combined with an enriched environment.
Composition and transport properties of human ankle and knee cartilage

The incidence of osteoarthritis is significantly higher in the knee as compared to the ankle, suggesting that differences in the properties of cartilage from these joints may contribute to the development of osteoarthritis. As an avascular tissue, articular cartilage depends primarily upon diffusion for molecular transport. The goal of this study was to determine if differences in the structure and composition between ankle and knee cartilage were also reflected as differences in solute transport properties. The diffusion coefficient and partition coefficient of a 70‐kDa dextran molecule were measured in human ankle and knee articular cartilage using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and were compared to the proteoglycan, collagen, water, and DNA contents within each zone. The mean partition coefficient was significantly lower in the ankle compared to the knee (0.010 ± 0.002 vs. 0.022 ± 0.003, p < 0.01), but no differences in the diffusion coefficients were observed (34.6 ± 0.9 µm2s−1 vs. 35.4 ± 2.4 µm2s−1, p = 0.70). Ankle cartilage exhibited higher proteoglycan content as well as a trend toward lower water content, suggesting that ankle cartilage has a smaller effective pore size than knee cartilage. These findings suggest that differences in the composition of ankle and knee cartilage contribute to a difference in the partition coefficient. The results of this study provide further support for the hypothesis that the transport properties of cartilage may play a role in the differences in the incidence of osteoarthritis in these joints by altering the effective concentration of growth factors and cytokines to which chondrocytes are exposed. © 2005 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res
Academic motivations of Yi youths in China: Classmate support and ethnic identity

Abstract To enhance the academic achievements of Yi ethnic minority youths in rural school settings, the authors examined the effect of classmate support and the meditating role of ethnic identity in promoting their academic motivation. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from Yi youths sponsored by a philanthropic organization to attend local schools in Liangshan, rural China (n = 657; 7–12 years old; 52% boys). Results of structural equation modelling showed that classmate support positively affected ethnic identity-commitment and ethnic identity-exploration, which then had positive impacts on three academic motivation outcomes: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation-external and identified regulation, and extrinsic motivation-introjected regulation. The mediating effects of ethnic identity-exploration and ethnic identity-commitment were statistically significant, except for the pathway from classmate support to extrinsic motivation-introjected regulation via ethnic identity-commitment. The authors found that ethnic identity can be facilitated through building supportive classroom environment for positive academic motivations in Yi youths. Cross-cultural significance of this study is also discussed.
Developments in Psychotraumatology: A Conceptual, Biological, and Cultural Update

This report discusses recent developments of psychotraumatology mainly related to the recently published ICD-11, but also from a societal point of view.The selected aspects of the development of this field will be presented as a scoping review.In the first section, the new concept of disorders specifically associated with stress and its relevant diagnostic groups (posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], complex PTSD, prolonged grief disorder, and adjustment disorder) are presented, with an emphasis on PTSD. The second section embeds these diagnostic concepts within a broader context. In particular, the concept of psychotraumatology is applied to the impact of adverse childhood experiences. More specifically, recent scientific developments are discussed with respect to biological stress research. In a third section, a global perspective is applied that reflects psychotraumatology as embedded in culturally-specific concepts. Lastly, societal developments are taken into consideration. This section focusses on recent processes of victim acknowledgement and compensation taking place in Europe and beyond. Examples are provided for how traumatic stress is perceived and processed in society. Concepts such as continuous stress and historical trauma are also discussed.Demands and opportunities of basic research and psychological interventions with a global focus are outlined.Psychotraumatology is an expanding field including both basic research and intervention-related research.Starting points of this new research area are not only potential traumatic events but also adverse childhood experiences.In a globalized world, cultural and societal factors play an increasingly important role in psychotraumatology.Psychotraumatology is an expanding field including both basic research and intervention-related research.Starting points of this new research area are not only potential traumatic events but also adverse childhood experiences.In a globalized world, cultural and societal factors play an increasingly important role in psychotraumatology.
Interaction and Stoichiometry of the Peripheral Stalk Subunits NtpE and NtpF and the N-terminal Hydrophilic Domain of NtpI of Enterococcus hirae V-ATPase*

The vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase) is composed of a soluble catalytic domain and an integral membrane domain connected by a central stalk and a few peripheral stalks. The number and arrangement of the peripheral stalk subunits remain controversial. The peripheral stalk of Na+-translocating V-ATPase from Enterococcus hirae is likely to be composed of NtpE and NtpF (corresponding to subunit G of eukaryotic V-ATPase) subunits together with the N-terminal hydrophilic domain of NtpI (corresponding to subunit a of eukaryotic V-ATPase). Here we purified NtpE, NtpF, and the N-terminal hydrophilic domain of NtpI (NtpINterm) as separate recombinant His-tagged proteins and examined interactions between these three subunits by pulldown assay using one tagged subunit, CD spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance, and analytical ultracentrifugation. NtpINterm directly bound NtpF, but not NtpE. NtpE bound NtpF tightly. NtpINterm bound the NtpE-F complex stronger than NtpF only, suggesting that NtpE increases the binding affinity between NtpINterm and NtpF. Purified NtpE-F-INterm complex appeared to be monodisperse, and the molecular masses estimated from analytical ultracentrifugation and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) indicated that the ternary complex is formed with a 1:1:1 stoichiometry. A low resolution structure model of the complex produced from the SAXS data showed an elongated “L” shape.
Origin and Distribution of Thiophenes and Furans in Gas Discharges from Active Volcanoes and Geothermal Systems

The composition of non-methane organic volatile compounds (VOCs) determined in 139 thermal gas discharges from 18 different geothermal and volcanic systems in Italy and Latin America, consists of C2–C20 species pertaining to the alkanes, alkenes, aromatics and O-, S- and N-bearing classes of compounds. Thiophenes and mono-aromatics, especially the methylated species, are strongly enriched in fluids emissions related to hydrothermal systems. Addition of hydrogen sulphide to dienes and electrophilic methylation involving halogenated radicals may be invoked for the formation of these species. On the contrary, the formation of furans, with the only exception of C4H8O, seems to be favoured at oxidizing conditions and relatively high temperatures, although mechanisms similar to those hypothesized for the production of thiophenes can be suggested. Such thermodynamic features are typical of fluid reservoirs feeding high-temperature thermal discharges of volcanoes characterised by strong degassing activity, which are likely affected by conspicuous contribution from a magmatic source. The composition of heteroaromatics in fluids naturally discharged from active volcanoes and geothermal areas can then be considered largely dependent on the interplay between hydrothermal vs. magmatic contributions. This implies that they can be used as useful geochemical tools to be successfully applied in both volcanic monitoring and geothermal prospection.
Active Aging in Very Old Age and the Relevance of Psychological Aspects

Background Active aging encompasses a socially and individually designed mix of different domains that range from personal and familial, to social and professional. In being a key policy concept often focused on the young-old individuals, efforts in studying its dimensions in advanced ages have seldom been made. Nevertheless, there is a recognized need to promote adequate responses to the growing number of individuals reaching advanced ages and to recognize their specific dependability on health-related aspects, services attendance, social interactions, or on psychological characteristics for what it means to “age actively. ” Objective and methods This study provides a secondary analysis of data and follows the preceding work on the operationalization of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) active aging model by means of an assessment protocol to measure which variables, within the model’s determinants, contribute the most for an active aging process (1). Authors used the achieved model (composed by six factors: health, psychological component, cognitive performance, social relationships, biological component, and personality) and performed multi-group analysis of structural invariance to examine hypothetical differences between age groups (<75 years vs. ≥75 years) and to contrast obtained findings with the originally achieved model for the total sample (1,322 individuals aged 55 +). Results The structural covariances for the two age groups were statistically different. The comparison of components between age groups revealed a major relevance of the psychological component for the older age group. Conclusion These findings reinforce the importance of psychological functioning in active aging in oldest old, and the need for further research on specific psychological features underlying the subjective meaning of active aging in more advanced ages.