Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strategic alliances and firm value creation in China

This study investigates the impact of 306 strategic alliances on the increment of firm value in the case of China. I apply the event study methodology using OLS market model to examine the abnormal returns of sample firms. The results show that the announcements of strategic alliance in China generate significant positive average abnormal return on the announcement date (0.96%) which reaches 1% significance level, suggesting a sizable increment in firm value by the formation of strategic alliance. The findings referring to alliance-specific characteristics are as follows: The abnormal return for firms entering policy alliance with local governments is significantly higher than the average level of abnormal return of total alliances (1.60% for policy alliances compared with 0.96% for the overall alliances on the announcement date). More specifically, the higher one government is indexed in Chinese administrative ranking, the higher abnormal return its partnering firm can achieve. As for financing alliance, the results provide evidence that the abnormal return of private firms (1.02%) is much greater than the abnormal return of state-owned enterprises (0.25%). Furthermore, there are no significant differences for abnormal returns between domestic alliances and international alliances. On considering the impact of firm-specific characteristics, the results indicate that the firm value increment by strategic alliance announcements has an inverse relationship with firm size but does not show any correlation with firm’s growth opportunity. Contrast to the cases of firms in developed countries, the strategic alliances to low-tech companies contribute to increasing firm value more than the alliances to high-tech do (0.74% compared to 1.11% on the announcement date) in China. In addition, this study shows further evidence that for the firms involving alliances, the average abnormal return for private firms collaborating with state-owned partners reaches 1.15%, which is significantly positive at 1% level.
High genetic barrier antiretroviral drugs in human immunodeficiency virus-positive pregnancy.

Suppression of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication during pregnancy is a key factor to decrease the risk of mother to child transmission (MTCT) [1]. Contrary to the wide experimentation with many different antiretroviral drug combinations performed in the general HIV-positive population over the past years, treatment regimens used in pregnant women to prevent MTCT have been explored to a much lesser extent. Reasons for such limited use of the antiretroviral armamentarium in this context include drug safety concerns and, most importantly, the fact that the vast majority of the HIV-positive pregnancies occur in the developing world, where access to antiHIV drugs has been and is still limited. Most studies have evaluated strategies combining antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum zidovudine (a nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor) and/or nevirapine (a nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor [NNRTI]), both of which are relatively well-tolerated and low-cost drugs [2]. Although treatment
Students' Choice of Occupational Therapy as a Second Degree

There has been little research in the United Kingdom into the recruitment of occupational therapy students. This study focused on one aspect and surveyed students already holding a degree, in order to ascertain the factors that attracted them to occupational therapy and why they chose a further 3-year degree course in preference to postgraduate alternative routes to qualification. Sixty-four students, holding degrees predominantly in the human sciences and the arts, were motivated to study occupational therapy at Brunel University through a desire to obtain a vocational qualification and to pursue a career that helped others and offered variety and personal satisfaction. The majority of the students learned of the profession through working in health and social care environments, and chose to study at Brunel University owing to its location in London and its reputation for attracting mature students. Although 90% of the students had been aware of the 2-year accelerated postgraduate diplomas in occupational therapy, more than a third preferred to undertake a 3-year degree course because it allowed more time for study and part-time employment. The need to target recruitment at school leavers, graduates in related degrees and those already working in health or social care was identified.
Feasibility of CT angiography acquired with low tube voltage and low iodine retrospective evaluation of radiation dose, image quality and iodine load

Poster: "ECR 2015 / C-1347 / Feasibility of CT angiography acquired with low tube voltage and low iodine retrospective evaluation of radiation dose, image quality and iodine load" by: "R. Bavaharan1, A. Bherwani2, R. Anand Kumar3; 1Trichy/IN, 2Mumbai/IN, 3Erode/IN"
Prolonged Fasting Hypoglycemia Due to Insulin Antibodies in Patient With Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus: Effect of Insulin Withdrawal on Insulin-Antibody—Binding Kinetics

Fasting hypoglycemia, which persisted for 3 days after insulin treatment was stopped,occurred in a patient with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus who had inappropriate plasma free-insulin levels (18–25 μU/ml) and extremely high antibody-bound insulin (>20,000 μU/ml) but normal counterregulatory hormone secretion and plasma C-peptide levels. The amount of antibody-bound insulin decreased in a biphasic pattern over13 mo of observation with an initial half-life of 35 days and a more gradual decrease with a half-life of 160 days. The number of high-affinity antibody binding sites was virtually identical to the amount of antibody-bound insulin in the patient's plasma. We conclude that the patient's fasting hyperinsulinemia and hypoglycemia were due to release of antibody-bound insulin.
Racial differences in breast cancer stage at diagnosis in the mammography era.

OBJECTIVES We assessed racial differences in breast cancer mortality by stage at diagnosis, since mammography became available. METHODS We calculated adjusted odds of distant (versus local or regional) tumors for 143,249 White and 13,571 Black women aged 50 to 69 years, diagnosed with breast cancer between 1982 and 2007 and living in a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results region. We compared linear trends in stage at diagnosis before and after 1998. RESULTS Distant-stage cancer was diagnosed in 5.8% of White and 10.2% of Black participants. The Black-White disparity in distant tumors narrowed until 1998 (1998 adjusted difference = 0.65%), before increasing. Between 1982 and 1997, the proportion of distant tumors decreased for Blacks (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]/y = 0.973; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.960, 0.987) and Whites (AOR/y = 0.978; 95% CI = 0.973, 0.983), with no racial differences (P = .47). From 1998 to 2007, the odds of distant versus local or regional tumors increased for Blacks (AOR/y = 1.036; 95% CI = 1.013, 1.060) and Whites (AOR/y = 1.011; 95% CI = 1.002, 1.021); the rate of increase was greater for Blacks than Whites (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS In the mammography era, racial disparities remain in stage at diagnosis.
Plantar Pressures During Level Walking Compared with Other Ambulatory Activities

This study was designed to determine the magnitude of plantar pressures during level walking in comparison to other activities. These activities included climbing up stairs, going down stairs, a simple pivot while walking, and a crossover pivot while walking in normal individuals. Twelve volunteers, six men and six women, mean age 28 years, served as subjects. Data were collected on the dominant foot with an EMED-SF pressure sensor platform as each subject walked barefoot and did each of the five activities. Maximum plantar pressure (MPP) and pressure-time integral (PTI) was found in the metatarsal and heel regions. The results of repeated-measures analysis of variance tests showed that the five experimental conditions were statistically different for both MPP and PTI in the metatarsal and heel regions. Post hoc analysis indicated that MPP and PTI were decreased during the going down stairs condition in the heel and increased during the crossover pivot while walking and pivot while walking conditions for the metatarsal region.
Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies.

Male undergraduates found themselves in a smoke-filling room either alone, with 2 nonreacting others, or in groups of 3. As predicted, Ss were less likely to report the smoke when in the presence of passive others (10%) or in groups of 3 (38% of groups) than when alone (75%). This result seemed to have been mediated by the way 5s interpreted the ambiguous situation; seeing other people remain passive led Ss to decide the smoke was not dangerous.
Shielding Effectiveness of Composite Materials: Effect of Inclusion Shape

The use of composite materials for electromagnetic shielding applications contributes to the effort of structure lightening in aerospace industry. In these materials the strong interaction between the electromagnetic field and the microstructure makes the standard numerical tools difficult to implement. Indeed these methods would involve an excessive number of degrees of freedom to describe details of the microstructure. An efficient way to overcome this problem is the use of homogenization techniques providing the effective properties of heterogeneous materials. These effective properties can then be introduced in standard numerical tools to estimate the behavior of shielding enclosures. A recent paper proposes an extension to microwave frequencies of quasistatic homogenization methods. It introduces a characteristic length for the microstructure in the case of a square array of circular 2-D conductive phases embedded in a dielectric matrix. In this paper, a method to identify this length parameter is proposed for random microstructures.
CHANGING STAFF ATTITUDES AND EMPATHY FOR WORKING WITH PEOPLE WITH PSYCHOSIS

Seventy-seven mental health professionals completed a 3-day cognitive behavioural training course for managing hallucinations and delusions in schizophrenia. A questionnaire measuring attitudes and empathy towards working with people who have these symptoms was administered before and after the course. Significant increases in feelings of adequacy, legitimacy, employment related self-esteem, and expectations of work satisfaction were observed after the course and participants displayed high levels of motivation for working with this clinical population at both time points. In addition, the participants showed significant increases in perceived empathy for the experience of hallucinations and delusions. This was a predicted outcome as the course included exercises designed to enhance therapists' understanding of the subjective experience of psychotic symptoms. Empathy is recognized in the wider psychotherapy outcome literature as a therapeutically important variable that influences the formation of a therapeutic alliance but it is a relatively unexamined construct in CBT for psychosis. Further investigations in this area will potentially enhance psychological treatment delivery and subsequent outcomes for people who experience hallucinations and delusions. Furthermore, explication of such “non-specific” therapeutic factors may help to explain some of the transient but beneficial effects of unstructured “control” therapies observed in recent CBT for psychosis outcome trials.
Tumor producing fibroblast growth factor 23 localized by two-staged venous sampling.

BACKGROUND Tumor-induced osteomalacia is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome characterized by hypophosphatemia, renal phosphate wasting, suppressed 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D production, and osteomalacia. It is caused by a usually benign mesenchymal tumor producing fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23). Surgical excision of the tumor is the first choice of treatment because complete resection is curative. Unfortunately, localization often fails due to the small size of these neoplasms. According to the current standards, supportive care with oral phosphate and calcitriol is the only feasible option in such cases. CASE In this report, we describe the diagnostic value of two-staged venous sampling to localize the FGF-23 secreting tumor in a case where conventional imaging failed. In addition, we examined the effect of dipyridamole on renal phosphate excretion, explored the efficacy of octreotide and calcitonin to suppress the FGF-23 production, and closely evaluated the hormonal changes following successful removal of the tumor. The latter observations indicate that calcitonin may be useful to suppress tumor-FGF-23 production and that FGF-23 may be a clinically relevant inhibitor of parathyroid hormone secretion in man.
On the feedback information in stabilization over unreliable channels

Abstract We consider the remote stabilization of linear systems using shared communication channels where transmitted messages may randomly be lost. We extend the results on the limitations arising in such systems and study the case where there is no feedback information from the actuator side to the controller side. The proposed control scheme utilizes a protocol shared by the actuator and the controller to carry out state and input estimation.
Relation Between Quality of Life and Chronic Illnesses in Elderly Living in Residential Homes: A Prospective Study

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) was investigated in 211 inhabitants of five residential homes in The Netherlands and was assessed again 1 year later. It was examined (a) if HRQL was related to the presence of specific general medical illnesses, (b) if comorbidity resulted in poorer HRQL, independent of the type of illness, and (c) if HRQL remained stable over time (1 year). We found that the illnesses we investigated contributed only little power to the prediction of HRQL, although some coefficients were significant. Comorbidity was also found to be a significant predictor of several aspects of HRQL, but did not contribute much power either. Several aspects of HRQL (bodily pain, health perceptions, and social functioning) remained stable over time, whereas other aspects (role functioning, activities of daily living) deteriorated. There was a trend indicating that mental health improves over time. Improvement and deterioration on aspects of HRQL were relatively strongly related to the scores on these aspects 1 year earlier, but not to specific illnesses or comorbidity.
A Physically Consistent Speckle Model for Marine SLC SAR Images

A new physically based speckle model for marine single-look complex (SLC) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is here presented and investigated. The model allows using full-resolution SAR images instead of multilook SAR images, in which, at the expense of a coarser spatial resolution, the speckle is mitigated. The model is based on the three-parameters generalized-K (GK) probability density function (pdf). GK pdf is a suitable physically-based speckle model for marine SAR images ensuring a continuous and physically consistent transition among different scattering scenarios. This speckle model embodies Rayleigh, K, and Rice scattering scenes which are typical of marine scenes. The use of the three parameters, related to the GK pdf ones, is able to highlight the presence of both low backscattering areas and areas in which a small dominant scatterer is present. This is operationally interesting in SAR oil spill detection procedures.
Composition Operators and Schroder's Functional Equation

In Schroder’s equation, φ is the given quantity, a holomorphic selfmap of the unit disc U = {z ∈ C : |z| < 1}, and the goal is to find λ ∈ C and f holomorphic on U so that (1) is satisfied. Schroder’s equation is, of course, the eigenvalue equation for the composition operator Cφ, defined by Cφf = f ◦φ, where, at least for now, f is allowed to range through the entire space H(U) of functions holomorphic on U . The study I want to describe begins with a question that has long intrigued me:
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding rabies in Filipinos following implementation of the Bohol Rabies Prevention and Elimination Programme

SUMMARY Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding rabies in Bohol, Philippines were assessed following introduction of the Bohol Rabies Prevention and Elimination Programme. A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to 460 households chosen utilizing the WHO's Expanded Programme on Immunization coverage cluster survey technique with population proportionate to size. Scores for KAP were evaluated using linear regression. The majority of households had heard of rabies (94%); however, specific knowledge of rabies was limited. Only 18% knew to report a suspected rabid dog to the authorities. In multivariate analyses, having known someone with rabies had the greatest effect on knowledge scores. Employment (professional or non-professional) had the greatest effect on attitudes scores, and only the knowledge score was significantly associated with higher practices scores. Several factors, notably, personal experience with rabies, affect KAP in Bohol. The programme should continue to focus on education and include personal accounts to underscore why rabies prevention and control is so important.
Functional characterization of the Ca z +-gated Ca 2 + release channel of vascular smooth muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum

The Ca 2 +-gated Ca 2 § release channel of aortic sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) was partially purified and reconstituted into planar lipid bilayers. Canine and porcine aorta microsomal protein fractions were solubilized in the detergent 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]l -propane sulphonate (CHAPS) in the presence and absence of 3[H]-ryanodine and centrifuged through linear sucrose gradients. A single a[H]-ryanodine receptor peak with an apparent sedimentation coefficient of 30 s was obtained. Upon reconstitution into planar lipid bilayers, the unlabelled 30 s protein fraction induced the formation of a Ca 2§ and monovalent-ion-conducting channel ( l l 0 p S in 100mM Ca 2§ 360pS in 250 mM K+). The channel was activated by micromolar Ca 2 § modulated by millimolar adenosine triphosphate, Mg 2+ and the Ca2+-releasing drug caffeine, and inhibited by micromolar ruthenium red. Microto millimolar concentrations of the plant alkaloid ryanodine induced a permanently closed state of the channel. Our results suggest that smooth muscle SR contains a Ca 2 4_ gated Ca 2 § release pathway, with properties similar to those observed for the skeletal and cardiac ryanodine receptor/Ca 2+ release channel complexes.
Differential effect of damp housing on respiratory health in women.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of exposure to damp housing on respiratory symptoms in women and men. METHOD We examined sex differences in the relationship between damp housing and respiratory symptoms in a cross-sectional survey of 1988 adults, 18 to 74 years of age, using a self-administered questionnaire. We used chi (2) and t-tests to test associations between potential risk factors and respiratory symptoms in men and women. We used multiple logistic regression modelling to determine adjusted odds ratios for several possible symptoms and home dampness. All multivariate analyses were stratified by sex. RESULTS Men had a significantly higher prevalence of chronic wheeze compared with women. The prevalence of chronic wheeze, wheeze with shortness of breath, and allergy were higher for women reporting damp housing compared with those not reporting damp housing. No significant associations between damp housing and respiratory symptoms were found in men. CONCLUSION These data raise the possibility that women may be more susceptible to the effects of damp housing than men are.
Phosphorylation of Munc18 by Protein Kinase C Regulates the Kinetics of Exocytosis*

Protein phosphorylation by protein kinase C (PKC) has been implicated in the control of neurotransmitter release and various forms of synaptic plasticity. The PKC substrates responsible for phosphorylation-dependent changes in regulated exocytosisin vivo have not been identified. Munc18a is essential for neurotransmitter release by exocytosis and can be phosphorylated by PKCin vitro on Ser-306 and Ser-313. We demonstrate that it is phosphorylated on Ser-313 in response to phorbol ester treatment in adrenal chromaffin cells. Mutation of both phosphorylation sites to glutamate reduces its affinity for syntaxin and so acts as a phosphomimetic mutation. Unlike phorbol ester treatment, expression of Munc18 with this phosphomimetic mutation in PKC phosphorylation sites did not affect the number of exocytotic events. The mutant did, however, produce changes in single vesicle release kinetics, assayed by amperometry, which were identical to those caused by phorbol ester treatment. Furthermore, the effects of phorbol ester treatment on release kinetics were occluded in cells expressing phosphomimetic Munc18. These results suggest that the dynamics of vesicle release events during exocytosis are controlled by PKC directly through phosphorylation of Munc18 on Ser-313. Phosphorylation of Munc18 by PKC may provide a mechanism for the control of exocytosis and thereby synaptic plasticity.
Investor Beliefs and State Price Densities in the Crude Oil Market∗

Standard asset pricing theory suggests that state price densities (SPDs or the pricing kernel) monotonically decrease with returns. We find that the SPDs implicit in the crude oil market display a time varying U-shape pattern. This implies that investors assign high state prices to both negative and positive returns. We use data of the crude oil derivatives market, where speculation and short sales are not regulated, to document how the SPDs are dependent on investor beliefs. Investors’ preferences over return states are reflected in belief dispersions in options and underlying futures contracts. Investors overall assign higher state prices to negative returns when there are higher demands for out-of-the-money put options, and when there are increased speculations in the crude oil market after 2004-2005. JEL Classification: G12, G13