Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognitive control factors in vascular stress responses.

In a 2 × 2 factorial experiment, 24 internal and 24 external locus of control subjects underwent an aversive shock-avoidance procedure. Half of the subjects were permitted to temporarily escape the situation whenever they wished by requesting a rest period, while the remaining subjects had comparable rest periods imposed on them by the experimenter. Control over initiation of the rest periods had an arousal-reducing effect on systolic blood pressure. Diastolic pressure indicated an interaction of locus of control with the situational availability of a self-initiated escape response, with blood pressure elevations the lowest where the personality and situational control factors were congruous.
Factors Enhancing Effective Management of Household-based Enterprises in Osun State, Nigeria

The study was conducted in Sheikan Locality, North Kordofan State. It investigated the contribution of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) to welfare of different beneficiary stakeholders. Primary data were collected using two types of questionnaires prepared for 20 traders and 105 household heads. Direct interviews were carried out by involving the staff of relevant governmental institutions. The secondary data were obtained from records and books, reports and relevant studies. The results showed that considerable number of respondents use NWFPs for household consumption; Balanites aegyptiaca (51.4%), Acacia nilotica (49.5%), Grewia tenax (42.0%), Tamarindus indica (41.0%), Adansonia digitata (40.0%) and Ziziphus spini-christi (31.4%). While those involved in selling NWFPs constitute respective percentages of 94.0, 30.5, 30.5, 20.0, 20.0 and 10.0 for Acacia senegal, Tamarindus indica, Acacia nilotica, Ziziphus spini-christi, Balanites aegyptiaca and Grewia tenax. It was revealed that 81.0% of the respondents consider NWFPs as a source of income, 100% as sources of food, 60.0% as fodder and medical remedies, while 11.4% believe that NWFPs are important for soil conservation and fertility improvement. About 59% of respondents sell their products at the forest gate, village markets and weekly markets. Fees issued on NWFPs include Zakat, Local Council, Forests National Corporation and Crops Market Services. Relevant governmental institutions are recommended to improve market conditions of NWFPs and consider combination of taxes and fees with involvement of all concerned stakeholders.
Friday Earnings Announcements and the Earnings-Returns Relation: A Temporal Analysis

In this paper we study the distributional properties of the earnings surprise and the properties of the earnings-returns relation and their evolution over time. We distinguish between Friday and non-Friday announcements to control for a "Friday effect," reported in numerous studies. Our major findings are as follows. First, we find that during the period 1989-2006 firms tended to report more "bad" news on Friday than during the rest of trading days. Second, we report a temporal shift in the earnings-return relation with stock returns becoming more sensitive to Friday earnings announcements compared to announcements released during the rest of the week. The shift is substantially more pronounced for the negative earnings surprises. Finally, we find that the relative sensitivity of stock returns to Friday versus the non-Friday earnings announcements is related to the quality of the informational disclosure by the firms' management. Overall, our findings suggest that investors have learned about the firms' management strategy to report "bad" news on Fridays. As a result, the benefits from following this strategy have disappeared over time.
Debt Market timing: Evidence from Bank-based Systems

Several studies make evidence that market timing becomes the factor that shapes financing policies. However, debt market timing still less developed compared to equity market timing. This paper investigates the relevance of market timing considerations on the debt issuance using a panel of 30 Tunisian listed firms and 100 French firms of the stock market index SBF 120. Consistent with the market timing theory, we find that firms tend to issue debt when interest rate are low and are less likely to take debt issuance decisions when they perceive equity market conditions as more favorable. This evidence suggests that borrowing policies are shaped by market timing considerations.
Exporting Spillovers: Firm-Level Evidence from Argentina

We investigate whether exporting firms generate possibilities for productivity enhancement by other firms through spillovers. While spillovers have been analyzed when domestic learn from foreign-owned firms, we consider the possibility of learning from firms that export, irrespective of ownership origin. We find evidence consistent with learning from exporters to upstream producers. Foreign-owned firms that do not export do not generate spillovers. Therefore, our results suggest that export activity, as opposed to foreign direct investment (FDI) per se, is associated with knowledge diffusion to input suppliers. Indeed, the results suggest that FDI subsidies to foster technology spillovers may well be dominated by certain export promotion strategies. In addition, removing barriers to exports can prove less costly than removing barriers to FDI inflows.
Interleukin‐6 induces prostate cancer cell growth accompanied by activation of Stat3 signaling pathway

Interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) is a pleiotropic cytokine that regulates growth and differentiation of various types of malignant tumors, including prostate carcinomas. The levels of IL‐6 are elevated in sera of patients with metastatic prostate cancer. In this study, we evaluate the role of IL‐6 in the growth regulation of prostate cancer cells.
Niche-Specific Features of the Intestinal Bacteroidales

ABSTRACT By analyzing the genomic sequences of 12 Bacteroidales species, we found that all intestinal species have numerous polysaccharide biosynthesis loci, many with promoters that we demonstrate undergo DNA inversion. This feature is not conserved in the Bacteroidales order as a whole, as oral species do not share these genetic features.
Juvenile granulosa cell tumour with hepatocyte‐like cells and raised serum alpha‐fetoprotein

Institute, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, Amsterdam, Division of Woman & Baby, Gynaecological Oncology, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands, Cancer Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA, Department of Pathology, University Medical Centre, Utrecht and Department of Clinical Genetics, VU University Medical Centre, Van der Boechorststraat 7, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Transgender health care in Germany: Participatory approaches and the development of a guideline

Health care of individuals who experience their gender not, not completely and/or not continuously in line with their sex assigned at birth has been organized for a long time in an area of conflict between the right for self-determination of transgender individuals and the fear of incorrect decisions among mental health professionals. The German Standards for the Treatment and Diagnostic Assessment of Transsexuals, published in 1997, were an attempt to regulate this area of conflicts within the German health system. Meanwhile, in view of the seventh version of the international Standards of Care published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) as well as based upon recent judgments of the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany, the German standards must be exigently revised. In consequence, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sexualforschung (DGfS, German Society for Sex Research) has begun to substitute the above-mentioned standards with an evidence-based guideline aiming at an improvement of the service quality. This article introduces the history of transgender care in Germany, describes the background and the procedures of the current guideline development, and discusses how participatory approaches might improve the health care situation for transgender peeople in Germany.
The Dirichlet problem for the biharmonic equation in a Lipschitz domain

On etudie le probleme de Dirichlet pour l'operateur biharmonique Δ 2 , dans un domaine borne lipschitzien quelconque D dans R n , et on donne des bornes optimales. On demontre des resultats d'existence et d'unicite quand les valeurs au bord ont des derivees dans L 2 ∂D), et la derivee normale appartient a L 2 (∂D). La solution obtenue prend les valeurs au bord dans le sens de la convergence non tangentielle, et la fonction maximale non tangentielle du ⊇u appartient a L 2 (∂D)
Bank derivative activity in the 1990s

This paper tries to grasp banks' motivation for entering derivative markets. The motivation question is interesting for the following reason: if banks' main motivation for using derivatives is speculation, derivatives are likely to increase the risk to banks' capital and thus increase the cost of deposit insurance. ; The first major finding of the paper is that currently available data are not informative of banks' usage of derivatives. We find no evidence that derivatives are mainly used for speculation purposes. There is some indication that users of derivatives are interested in expanding into non-traditional banking activities for the purpose of revenue enhancement. On the other hand, the data also indicate that these users tend to be more avid commercial lenders. A possible explanation for these relationships is that banks are using derivatives as hedging instruments. We search for evidence of such hedging activity as well as for measures of derivative users' risk attitude. Based on our assumptions, the results of this paper give little support to this hedging hypothesis. Furthermore, derivative users tend to be less risk averse than nonusers judging from the credit risk that they undertake. We note that banks which are newcomers to the derivative industry tend to be more growth oriented than banks that have a longer history of derivative use. They also seem to be less interested in their traditional business. These newcomer banks bear watching. ; To summarize, the current Call Reports provide little information on how and why derivatives are being used in the banking industry. We see no obvious warning signs in the data, but we also find little supporting evidence from the data that derivatives have contributed to the safety and soundness of the banking industry. We conclude that better data are needed in this area.
INOS 2 DR and Neurocardiogenic Syncope : First Experiences in Four Cases

Malignant vasovagal syndrome is a much discussed indication for pacemaker implantation. Nevertheless, the incidence of cardiac inhibition with pauses exceeding 5 s during the head-up tilt test is low (about 4.5%). With most patients responsive to drug therapy [1-4], pacemaker implantation does not have to be the first solution. Pacemaker implantation for vasovagal syncope, also known as vasodepressor syncope and neurocardiogenic syncope, is beginning to be studied. The physiopathologic mechanism underlying these cases of syncope is not well known, but it is related to the medullar centers. A recent study shows that a high pacing rate controlled by a special algorithm that can analyze the cardiac rate decrease could be of benefit to a large portion of highly symptomatic patients with positive head-up tilt test results (and also with bradycardia) [5-8]. We tested the eventual benefit of a new physiologic sensor for treating neurocardiogenic syncope. This pacemaker seems to be able to evaluate the sympathetic tone by analyzing the heart contractility caused by the catecholamine release. The pacemaker evaluates the differences in intracardiac impedance values during the contraction and ejection phases of the myocardium [9-13]. Materials and Methods
Intellectual Capital: Realizing Your Company's True Value by Finding Its Hidden Brainpower

Intellectual capital is a phrase covering corporate brainpower, information technology, and relationships with customers and suppliers, all of which influence a company's ability to make money. They are all factors which tend to get overlooked because they are intangible and do not show up on a balance sheet. Yet without them, a good company can founder. This guide shows how to measure, manage and grow these hidden values as if they were money and takes accounting to a new level. It establishes the need for identifying hidden assets, develops principles for intellectual accounting, explains the metrics, applies the model with real examples and provides an action plan for managing development and growth of intellectual capital.
The Impact of Maternal Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy and Short-Course Combination Antiretrovirals for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission on Early Infant Infection Rates at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, January 2007 to May 2009

Background:Early HIV infant diagnosis and treatment have been shown to dramatically improve survival in infants. Despite these findings, infants accessing HIV diagnosis and treatment remain low in Uganda. We describe the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs given in the Mulago Hospital prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program from January 2007 to May 2009 and its impact on early infant HIV infection rates. Methods:Pregnant women identified as HIV infected in the Mulago antenatal clinics received one of the following regimens: short-course ARV prophylaxis plus single-dose nevirapine (sdNVP) in labor, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), or sdNVP if they presented in labor. Infants received sdNVP and zidovudine (ZDV) for 1 week. Infants HIV diagnosis was done from 6 weeks after delivery. Results:62.3% of HIV-infected women received combination ARVs, including HAART. Early infection rates were highest among infants with no maternal ARV [36.4; 95% confidence interval (CI): 17.2 to 59.3] or only sdNVP (11.2; 95% CI: 8.1 to 14.8). Similar rates were observed for the group that took short-course ARVs, ZDV/sdNVP (4.6; 95% CI: 3.2 to 6.4), and ZDV/lamivudine/sdNVP (4.9; 95% CI: 3.1 to 7.2) and lowest rates for those that took HAART (1.7: 95% CI: 0.8 to 2.8). Overall infection rate was 5.0% (95% CI: 4.1 to 5.9). Conclusions:Findings indicate low rates of infant infection for mothers receiving combination ARVs. These findings demonstrate that provision of combination ARV for PMTCT is feasible and effective in busy referral hospital's PMTCT programs in resource-limited settings.
Bones of Contention - What Drives Mergers and Acquisitions in Emerging Markets?

The objective of the paper is to offer an evaluation of existing theories towards understanding the increase in mergers and acquisitions in an emerging market such as Turkey. A review of the existing theoretical and applied literature suggests that the neoclassical hypothesis (the q theory of investment) lacks in its content both when it comes to accounting for the role of the firm in production and the role of institutions in the process of industrial restructuring. The (revised) q theory is therefore not sufficient towards offering a general theory of mergers and acquisitions that can extend to explain the phenomena in emerging markets. The different available theoretical hypotheses are confronted with information about acquisitions and financial data for Turkey. There is no evidence that acquirers targeted specific industries (except banking) because of the large firm bias in the sampled transactions. There is also no evidence that acquirers targeted specific firms (high or low performing). Also, there is no evidence that Turkish acquirers came from specific firms (high or low performing or relatively larger firms). The only patterns that emerge from the analysis is that the institutional hypothesis of clustering in time and by industry is confirmed also for Turkey and that asset matching in Turkey (whether the assets sold went to local or foreign owners) was synergistic in nature except during episodes of financial crisis. Based on the ex-ante characteristics of firms (including poor performance of vendors and frequent trading of same targets) involved in these events the research suggests that the Turkish M&A market is more a rope pulling contest in a seller’s market than a beauty contest in a buyer’s market.
The prevalence of the extensor digitorum communis tendon and its insertion variants: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

The tendons of the Extensor Digitorum Communis (EDC) are frequently injured in hand trauma. Dislocation and spontaneous rupture can also occur during the course of wrist osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The EDC exhibits many variations including splitting of its individual slips to the medial four fingers or their absence. The aim of this systematic review is to assemble evidence about the prevalence of the EDC and its variants on the dorsum of the hand. Twenty‐four cadaveric studies met the inclusion criteria, providing data from a total of 2,005 hands. Meta‐analysis yielded the following results: (a) for EDC‐II (Index), the pooled prevalence estimates (PPEs) were 99.8, 98, 1.8, and 0.2% for the total, single, double, and triple slips, respectively; (b) for EDC‐III (Middle), the PPEs were 100, 67.7, 24.2, 6, and 0.42% for the total, single, double, triple, and quadruple slips, respectively; (c) for EDC‐IV (Ring), the PPEs were 100, 58.6, 29.1, 7.1, and 1.3% for the total, single, double, triple, and quadruple slips, respectively; (d) for EDC‐V (Little), the PPEs were 63.2, 58.5, 10.4, 0.94, and 25% for the total, single, double, triple, and common 4th–5th slips, respectively. There were no significant differences in relation to hand side. Many EDC slip variants demonstrated some interaction with ancestry. A sound knowledge of EDC variants and their prevalences is paramount for assessing and treating hand injuries and disorders. Clin. Anat. 27:1284–1290, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Environmental and genetic regulation of the phosphorylcholine epitope of Haemophilus influenzae lipooligosaccharide

In response to environmental signals in the host, bacterial pathogens express factors required during infection and repress those that interfere with specific stages of this process. Signalling pathways controlling virulence factors of the human respiratory pathogen, Haemophilus influenzae, are predominantly unknown. The lipooligosaccharide (LOS) outer core represents a prototypical virulence trait of H. influenzae that enhances virulence but also provides targets for innate and adaptive immunity. We report regulation of the display of the virulence‐associated phosphorylcholine (PC) epitope on the LOS in response to environmental conditions. PC display is optimal under microaerobic conditions and markedly decreased under conditions of high culture aeration. Gene expression analysis using a DNA microarray was performed to begin to define the metabolic state of the cell under these conditions and to identify genes potentially involved in PC epitope modulation. Global gene expression profiling detected changes in redox responsive genes and in genes of carbohydrate metabolism. The effects on carbohydrate metabolism led us to examine the role of the putative H. influenzae homologue of csrA, a regulator of glycolysis and gluconeogenesis in Escherichia coli. A mutant containing an in‐frame deletion of the H. influenzae csrA gene showed increased PC epitope levels under aerobic conditions. Furthermore, deletion of csrA elevated mRNA expression of galU, an essential virulence gene that is critical in generating sugar precursors needed for polysaccharide formation and LOS outer core synthesis. Growth conditions predicted to alter the redox state of the culture modulated the PC epitope and galU expression as well. The results are consistent with a multifactorial mechanism of control of LOS‐PC epitope display involving csrA and environmental signals that coordinately regulate biosynthetic and metabolic genes controlling the LOS structure.
Evaluation of financial policy : credit allocation in Bangladesh

The Bangladesh government has used a variety of policies to influence the allocation of credit to specific borrower groups like poor farmers, uses such as housing, and sectors such as agriculture. These policies have also been used to reduce allocation for certain uses such as inventory holding, i.e. speculative purposes. The policies used have included interest controls credit guarantees, refinancing, and margin requirements. This paper attempts a systematic analysis of all the policies used by the Bangladesh government in the light of the explicit or implicit objectives of the government. The effect of each of the policies used, alone or in combination, is analyzed with a view to evaluating their usefulness and efficiency. The analysis then provides the basis for suggested policy changes in Bangladesh, as well as lessons for financial policy makers in other countries.
Phonological Neighborhood Effects in Spoken Word Production: An fMRI Study

The current study examined the neural systems underlying lexically conditioned phonetic variation in spoken word production. Participants were asked to read aloud singly presented words, which either had a voiced minimal pair (MP) neighbor (e.g., cape) or lacked a minimal pair (NMP) neighbor (e.g., cake). The voiced neighbor never appeared in the stimulus set. Behavioral results showed longer voice-onset time for MP target words, replicating earlier behavioral results [Baese-Berk, M. , & Goldrick, M. Mechanisms of interaction in speech production. Language and Cognitive Processes, 24, 527–554, 2009]. fMRI results revealed reduced activation for MP words compared to NMP words in a network including left posterior superior temporal gyrus, the supramarginal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and precentral gyrus. These findings support cascade models of spoken word production and show that neural activation at the lexical level modulates activation in those brain regions involved in lexical selection, phonological planning, and, ultimately, motor plans for production. The facilitatory effects for words with MP neighbors suggest that competition effects reflect the overlap inherent in the phonological representation of the target word and its MP neighbor.
The Role of Soft Contact Lenses as an Adjunct to the Boston Keratoprosthesis

After the implantation of the Boston keratoprosthesis (KPro), the corneal surface becomes vulnerable to evaporative forces. Epithelial defects, stromal thinning, dellen formation, and melt can occur, especially in eyes with an underlying inflammatory disease such as Stevens Johnson Syndrome and ocular cicatricial pemphigoid. In an effort to protect the ocular surface from drying and to promote a healthy and hydrated tissue, soft contact lenses (SCL) have been routinely used at the conclusion of KPro surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) since the year 2000 and worn indefinitely. The purpose of this study is to further evaluate the long-term use of SCL in the postoperative management of KPro patients in terms of prolonging retention time, enhancing cosmesis, and correcting refractive errors.