Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Taxes and Expenditures in the U.S.: Public Opinion Surveys and Incidence Analysis Compared

The usefulness of surveys for eliciting fiscal opinions of voters is investigated. Using data from the U.S. Advisory Commission in Intergovernmental Relations annual surveys of attitude toward government and taxes, the survey responses are related to economic and political factors and the survey results compared to those predicted by incidence analysis. The results from this analysis and a review of previous studies of this type suggest that there is often no consistent economic foundation for answers to fiscal survey questions. It also appears that some standard survey questions are too general to produce precise estimates of the factors influencing responses.
Polytrauma Increases Susceptibility to Pseudomonas Pneumonia in Mature Mice

ABSTRACT Pneumonia is the most common complication observed in patients with severe injuries. Although the average age of injured patients is 47 years, existing studies of the effect of injury on the susceptibility to infectious complications have focused on young animals, equivalent to a late adolescent human. We hypothesized that mature adult animals are more susceptible to infection after injury than younger counterparts. To test this hypothesis, we challenged 6 to 8-month-old mature mice to a polytrauma injury followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia and compared them to young (8–10-week-old) animals. We demonstrate that polytrauma injury increases mortality from pneumonia in mature animals (sham-pneumonia 21% vs. polytrauma-pneumonia 62%) but not younger counterparts. After polytrauma, pneumonia in mature mice is associated with higher bacterial burden in lung, increased incidence of bacteremia, and elevated levels of bacteria in the blood, demonstrating that injury decreases the ability to control the infectious challenge. We further find that polytrauma did not induce elevations in circulating cytokine levels (TNF-alpha, IL-6, KC, and IL-10) 24 h after injury. However, mature mice subjected to polytrauma demonstrated an exaggerated circulating inflammatory cytokine response to subsequent Pseudomonas pneumonia. Additionally, whereas prior injury increases LPS-stimulated IL-6 production by peripheral blood leukocytes from young (8–10-week-old) mice, injury does not prime IL-6 production by cell from mature adult mice. We conclude that in mature mice polytrauma results in increased susceptibility to Pseudomonas pneumonia while priming an exaggerated but ineffective inflammatory response.
Modelling Transparency in Disclosure: The Case of Foreign Exchange Risk Management

When managers choose not to disclose all the relevant information in their possession in their financial statements, there is an information gap between the managers and users and consequently a lack of transparency. We model the degree of transparency observed when disclosures of foreign exchange (FX) risk management in financial statements are compared to managerial information on FX risk management policy, as evidenced in questionnaire responses. In this comparative study of US and UK firms we find incomplete disclosure in both samples but with differing aspects. In the US case, the information gap is lower where the information has higher relevance or firms with higher financial risk (greater leverage) are signalling the extent of risk, but the gap is greater where firms are in competitive product markets. For the UK sample, the information gap is significantly lower where firms have higher financial risk or higher liquidity but the gap is greater where the shares are more closely held. We conclude that modelling and explaining this aspect of incomplete accounting disclosure in an international setting must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate national differences in managerial behaviour.
Ultra Short Term Analysis of Heart Rate Variability for Monitoring Mental Stress in Mobile Settings

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is commonly used as a quantitative marker depicting the activity of autonomous nervous system (ANS) that may be related to mental stress. For mobile applications, short term ECG measurement may be used for HRV analysis since the conventional five minute long recordings might be inadequately long. Short term analysis of HRV features has been investigated mostly in ECG data from normal and cardiac patients. Thus, short term HRV features may not have any relevance on the assessment of acute mental stress. In this study, we obtained ultra short term HRV features from 24 subjects during baseline stage and Stroop color word test. We validated these HRV features by showing significant differences in HRV features existed between the two stages. Our results indicated that ultra short term analysis of heart rate and RR intervals within 10 s, RMSSD and PNN50 within 30 s, HF within 40 s, LF/HF, normalized LF, and normalized HF within 50 s could be reliably performed for monitoring mental stress in mobile settings.
A stochastic frontier analysis of firm efficiency in China

This paper uses stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to examine whether and to what extent ownership structure and corporate governance affect firm efficiency in a sample of 744 publicly listed manufacturing firms in China during 1999 and 2006. The paper finds that firm efficiency decreases with state ownership of shares while increases with public and employee share ownership. In addition, the relationship between ownership concentration and firm efficiency is U-shaped. As the identity of the largest shareholder changes from government, government-controlled legal entity to other types of legal entity, firm efficiency significantly improves. However, the paper finds no evidence that board independence, supervisory committee structure and provincial market development affect firm efficiency. The results suggest that ownership structure is more important in determining firm efficiency than corporate governance mechanisms. Key words: Firm efficiency, stochastic frontier analysis, corporate governance, ownership structure, China.
Internal Corporate Governance Discipline and the HRM System in Large Japanese Companies

In terms of both corporate governance and human resource management the past decade was not a lost one for large Japanese companies. Local and foreign institutional and individual investors with an explicit profit-seeking objective slowly emerged. Globalization fostered the investment activities of Japanese and foreign pension funds and influenced the investment decisions of industrial and service companies as well as banks. As a result, market share is not the main criterion of corporate success any more. Nowadays, top managers in large companies recognize the necessity of maximizing shareholder profits and of formulating policies in conformity with capital efficiency (RIAL, 2000). At the same time, large Japanese companies pursued a multi-pronged HRM strategy with early retirement schemes, growing use of outsourcing and flattening of the organization hierarchy, during the first part of the 1990s. From the second part of the 1990s onwards, the pace of change accelerated notably and new concepts appeared. Initiatives departing more distinctly from the traditional HRM principles were taken in the evaluation and reward systems, further reducing the role of seniority and age in wage setting and promotion schemes. Nowadays, after a few years of maturation and trial and errors types of experimentation an HRM system more clearly based on market principles is slowly emerging in large companies.
International Knowledge Flows and Economic Performance: A Review of the Evidence

An empirical analysis of the microeconomic links between trade and knowledge diffusion is useful for singling out some of the key predictions of the theory of endogenous growth in open economies. This literature postulates that total factor productivity is higher when trade gives countries access to a wider or more sophisticated range of technologies. The articles reviewed here find considerable evidence that imported technologies raise total factor productivity in importing countries, particularly developing countries and particularly when technologies are acquired by way of imports of intermediate goods. They also provide some support for the argument that exports and foreign direct investment are channels for learning. Although access to foreign technologies has a positive impact on developing countries' total factor productivity, overall these countries are shown to purchase older and simpler machines than industrial countries. Relative factor and machinery costs and skill and technology endowments affect the choice of imported technologies. However, government attempts to limit or guide the selection of technologies are likely to have a negative effect on growth because they discourage producers from purchasing the most appropriate and efficient machines. Rather, policies aimed at promoting technological development should strengthen the absorptive capacity of importing countries and address the complementarity between human and physical capital in a broader context.
Allocation of quality improvement targets based on investments in learning

Purchased materials often account for more than 50% of a manufacturer's product nonconformance cost. A common strategy for reducing such costs is to allocate periodic quality improvement targets to suppliers of such materials. Improvement target allocations are often accomplished via ad hoc methods such as prescribing a fixed, across‐the‐board percentage improvement for all suppliers, which, however, may not be the most effective or efficient approach for allocating improvement targets. We propose a formal modeling and optimization approach for assessing quality improvement targets for suppliers, based on process variance reduction. In our models, a manufacturer has multiple product performance measures that are linear functions of a common set of design variables (factors), each of which is an output from an independent supplier's process. We assume that a manufacturer's quality improvement is a result of reductions in supplier process variances, obtained through learning and experience, which require appropriate investments by both the manufacturer and suppliers. Three learning investment (cost) models for achieving a given learning rate are used to determine the allocations that minimize expected costs for both the supplier and manufacturer and to assess the sensitivity of investment in learning on the allocation of quality improvement targets. Solutions for determining optimal learning rates, and concomitant quality improvement targets are derived for each learning investment function. We also account for the risk that a supplier may not achieve a targeted learning rate for quality improvements. An extensive computational study is conducted to investigate the differences between optimal variance allocations and a fixed percentage allocation. These differences are examined with respect to (i) variance improvement targets and (ii) total expected cost. For certain types of learning investment models, the results suggest that orders of magnitude differences in variance allocations and expected total costs occur between optimal allocations and those arrived at via the commonly used rule of fixed percentage allocations. However, for learning investments characterized by a quadratic function, there is surprisingly close agreement with an “across‐the‐board” allocation of 20% quality improvement targets. © John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 48: 684–709, 2001
Bringing the Context Back In: Settings and the Search for Syndicate Partners in Venture Capital Investment Networks

Most existing theories of relationship formation imply that actors form highly cohesive ties that aggregate into homogenous clusters, but actual networks also include many “distant” ties between parties that vary on one or more social dimensions. To explain the formation of distant ties, we propose a theory of relationship formation based on the characteristics of “settings,” or the places and times in which actors meet. We posit that organizations form relations with distant partners when they participate in two types of settings: unusually faddish ones and those with limited risks to participants. In an empirical analysis of our thesis in the formation of syndicate relations between U.S. venture capital firms from 1985 to 2007, we find that the probability that geographically and industry distant ties will form between venture capital firms increases with several attributes of the target-company investment setting: (1) the recent popularity of investing in the target firm's industry and home region, (2) the target company's maturity, (3) the size of the investment syndicate, and (4) the density of relationships among the other members of the syndicate.
NITRIC OXIDE, ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION AND BETA‐BLOCKER TREATMENT (MR NOED STUDY): BENEFIT OF NEBIVOLOL VERSUS METOPROLOL IN HYPERTENSIVE MEN

1 Hypertensive men treated with beta‐blockers frequently complain of erectile dysfunction. The present study investigated the effects of two β1‐adrenoceptor‐selective antagonists, namely nebivolol and metoprolol, on erectile function in hypertensive men. 2 Male out‐patients (age range 40–55 years) with newly diagnosed or existing stage 1 essential hypertension (mean seated systolic blood pressure 140–159 mmHg; diastolic blood pressure 90–99 mmHg) were enrolled in the study. All patients lived in a stable, heterosexual partnership and had no history of sexual dysfunction. After a 2 eek placebo run‐in period, patients were randomized double‐blind to either Treatment group A (comprising nebivolol 5 mg once daily for 12 weeks, followed by placebo for 2 weeks and then metoprolol succinate 95 mg once daily for 12 weeks) or Treatment group B (comprising metoprolol succinate 95 mg for 12 weeks, placebo for 2 weeks and then nebivolol 5 mg for 12 weeks). An international index of erectile function (IIEF) questionnaire and a diary documented patients’ sexual function and activity. 3 Nebivolol and metoprolol lowered blood pressure to a similar extent. Metoprolol, but not nebivolol, significantly decreased the IIEF erectile function subscore by 0.92 in the first 8 weeks after onset of beta‐blocker treatment. In contrast with metoprolol, nebivolol improved secondary sexual activity scores and other IIEF subscores. 4 Despite similar antihypertensive efficacy of the cardioselective β1‐adrenoceptor antagonists nebivolol and metoprolol, nebivolol may offer additional benefits by avoiding erectile dysfunction in male hypertensive patients on long‐term β‐adrenoceptor antagonist therapy.
Tests of the efficiency of racetrack betting using bookmaker odds

The objective of this study is to evaluate the informational efficiency of the market for betting on horse races. Whereas the price data used in previous studies have been drawn largely from totalizator parimutuel odds, the data used in this study are derived from bookmaker odds. The availability of a series of prices throughout betting facilitates the use of filter tests to evaluate market efficiency. We conclude that this gambling market is efficient in the use of information supplied via both the movements in odds during the course of betting and the selections of newspaper tipsters. However, there is evidence to suggest that those with access to private information can earn positive returns from gambling.
Politics and Struggles for Access to Land: ‘Grants from Above’ and ‘Squatters’ in Coastal Kenya

In Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa generally, there has been little systematic discussion of post-colonial struggles for land rights. Studies have ignored the fact that the ‘land question’ is not about production alone and have, thus, failed to assess its wider consequences for society. This raises questions about the current socio-political dimension of the land question and the consequences of the interplay between the ‘land question’ and other changes under way in the country. This study addresses these questions by discussing popular struggles of access to land in the coastal region of Kenya where the land question has a distinct political history. The analysis is based on a survey conducted in Kilifi district, Coast provinces, between September 1995 and November 1996.
Seasonal behaviour of the consumer price index of Turkey

In this study, the seasonal properties of the consumer price index (CPI) of Turkey are investigated with the use of Hylleberg et al. (HEGY) and Canova-Hansen (CH) seasonal unit root tests. According to the test results, there is evidence of nonstationary stochastic seasonality as well as deterministic seasonality in the Turkish consumer prices.
Efficiency and its determinants in pharmaceutical industries: ownership, R&D and scale economy

The purpose of this article is to measure the efficiency of pharmaceutical firms and identify their determinants using Korean and American samples from 1992 to 2004. We document some stylized facts in the patterns and sources of efficiency change in Korean and American pharmaceutical firms. The evidence shows that ownership structure can substantially influence the efficiency of pharmaceutical firms. Especially, institutional ownership rate affects corporate efficiencies negatively, corroborating the myopic institutional investor hypothesis. The hypothesis is supported by both Korean and American samples. However, we find evidence that foreign ownership in Korea promotes efficiency of pharmaceutical firms. It is shown that R&D intensity is positively related to contemporaneous largest ownership rate and prior foreign ownership rate in Korean pharmaceutical firms. In contrast, little evidence is found on the relationship between ownership structure and R&D intensity in the American pharmaceutical industry. These empirical results are robust even after we check the causal links among efficiency, R&D and ownership.
Dietary fatty acid intake, its food sources and determinants in European adolescents: the HELENA (Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence) Study

Dietary fatty acids (FA) play a role in several (patho)physiological processes at any age, and different FA have different effects on lipid status and health outcome. The present study aims to describe the FA intake and its main food sources in a population of healthy European adolescents and to assess the variation in intake as a function of non-dietary factors. FA intake was assessed with 24 h recall interviews in 1804 adolescents aged 12·5–17·5 years. Usual intakes were calculated using the multiple source method. Multilevel analyses, adjusting for study centre, were used to investigate the influence of non-dietary factors. The mean total fat intake was 33·3 (sd 1·2) % of total energy intake (%E). The mean SFA intake was 13·8 (sd 1·2) %E, with 99·8 % of the population exceeding the recommendations. SFA was mainly delivered by meat and cake, pies and biscuits. In most adolescents, the PUFA intake was too low, and 35·5 % of the population did not achieve the minimum recommended intake for α-linolenic acid (ALA). The main determinants of FA intake in the present study population were age and sex, as well as physical activity in the male subgroup. No contributions of body composition, socio-economic status or sexual maturation to the variance in FA intake were observed. In conclusion, the most important public health concerns regarding FA intake in this adolescent population were the low intake of ALA and the high intake of SFA, mainly seen in the younger-aged boys. In this group the major contributor to SFA was meat.
Uniform resource locator decay in dermatology journals: author attitudes and preservation practices.

OBJECTIVES To describe dermatology journal uniform resource locator (URL) use and persistence and to better understand the level of control and awareness of authors regarding the availability of the URLs they cite. DESIGN Software was written to automatically access URLs in articles published between January 1, 1999, and September 30, 2004, in the 3 dermatology journals with the highest scientific impact. Authors of publications with unavailable URLs were surveyed regarding URL content, availability, and preservation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Uniform resource locator use and persistence and author opinions and practices. RESULTS The percentage of articles containing at least 1 URL increased from 2.3% in 1999 to 13.5% in 2004. Of the 1113 URLs, 81.7% were available (decreasing with time since publication from 89.1% of 2004 URLs to 65.4% of 1999 URLs) (P<.001). Uniform resource locator unavailability was highest in The Journal of Investigative Dermatology (22.1%) and lowest in the Archives of Dermatology (14.8%) (P=.03). Some content was partially recoverable via the Internet Archive for 120 of the 204 unavailable URLs. Most authors (55.2%) agreed that the unavailable URL content was important to the publication, but few controlled URL availability personally (5%) or with the help of others (employees, colleagues, and friends) (6.7%). CONCLUSIONS Uniform resource locators are increasingly used and lost in dermatology journals. Loss will continue until better preservation policies are adopted.
The reverberations of traumatized primary dentition: a practitioner's perspective.

UNLABELLED The traumatized primary teeth have a great clinical significance because it not only have consequences on itself but also on its succedaneous developing permanent teeth due to its close anatomical relationship. The extent of severity is adjudged by the type of trauma and the age of the child at the time of trauma. For instance, avulsion and intrusive injuries present with high percentage of developmental disturbances in permanent teeth than subluxation and extrusive injuries. When considering the age of the child at the time of trauma, consequences are less severe in children over 4 years of age than in the younger age group. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE It highlights the sequelae of trauma to primary teeth with the aim of aiding in detection of probable alterations in the traumatized primary teeth and its succedaneous permanent teeth.
Understanding Predictors of Postdischarge Deaths: A Prospective Evaluation of Children 5 Years and Younger Discharged From Philippine District Hospitals

Background. Factors that increase likelihood of readmission or mortality postdischarge from diarrhea and pneumonia cases among children is less understood. Methods. This study investigated the deaths of 24 children from a cohort of 3275. Using logistic regression, the authors compared data from those who survived with those who died to estimate the determinants of mortality in the study population. The authors also analyzed the hospital charts and completed mortality interviews with families of the deceased children. Results. Poor quality of care significantly increased the likelihood of mortality. Sicker children, those born to less-educated mothers, and those who had longer lengths of stay also had a higher likelihood of mortality. Hospital charts corroborated findings from clinical vignettes. The mortality interviews revealed delays in seeking care from onset of symptoms. Conclusion. Quality of care contributes to postdischarge mortality and that clinical vignettes are an effective means to identify where quality can be improved.
Electron Transfer in Dye-Sensitized Nanocrystalline TiO2 Solar Cell

The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been regarded as one of the most promising new generation solar cells. Tremendous research efforts have been invested to improve the efficiency of solar energy conversion which is generally determined by the light harvesting efficiency, electron injection efficiency and undesirable electron lifetime. In this review, various characteristics of dye- sensitized nanostructured TiO2 solar cells, such as working principle, electron transport and electron lifetime, were studied. The review avoids detailed mathematical and spectroscopic discussion, but rather tries to summarize the key conclusions relevant to materials design.