Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating betas in thinner markets: "the case of the Athens Stock Exchange"

This paper examines the impact of the return interval on the beta estimate known as the "interval effect" which causes securities that are thinly traded to give biased OLS beta estimates. The present study covers a 5-year period, from January 2002 through to December 2006, using three different return intervals: daily, weekly and monthly data for 60 continuously listed thinly-traded stocks on the main market of the Athens Stock Exchange. Results generally support findings from earlier studies [(Diacogiannis, Makri - 2008) & (Brailsford, Josev - 1997)] that beta estimates rise as the return interval is lengthened, yet the effect is not observed for the period chosen given the statistically insignificant differences between all different pairs of return intervals for the mean estimate.
Predictive Biomarkers and Personalized Medicine Speci fi c Lymphocyte Subsets Predict Response to Adoptive Cell Therapy Using Expanded Autologous Tumor-In fi ltrating Lymphocytes in Metastatic Melanoma Patients

Purpose: Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) using autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) is a promising treatment for metastatic melanoma unresponsive to conventional therapies. We report here on the results of an ongoing phase II clinical trial testing the efficacy of ACT using TIL in patients with metastatic melanoma and the association of specific patient clinical characteristics and the phenotypic attributes of the infused TIL with clinical response. Experimental Design: Altogether, 31 transiently lymphodepleted patients were treated with their expanded TIL, followed by two cycles of high-dose interleukin (IL)-2 therapy. The effects of patient clinical features and the phenotypes of the T cells infused on the clinical response were determined. Results: Overall, 15 of 31 (48.4%) patients had an objective clinical response using immune-related response criteria (irRC) with 2 patients (6.5%) having a complete response. Progression-free survival of more than 12 months was observed for 9 of 15 (60%) of the responding patients. Factors significantly associatedwith the objective tumor regression included a higher number of TIL infused, a higher proportion of CD8þ T cells in the infusion product, a more differentiated effector phenotype of the CD8þ population, and a higher frequency of CD8þ T cells coexpressing the negative costimulation molecule "Band Tlymphocyte attenuator" (BTLA). No significant difference in the telomere lengths of TIL between responders and nonresponders was identified. Conclusion: These results indicate that the immunotherapy with expanded autologous TIL is capable of achieving durable clinical responses in patients with metastatic melanoma and that CD8þ T cells in the infused TIL, particularly differentiated effectors cells and cells expressing BTLA, are associated with tumor regression. Clin Cancer Res; 18(24); 1–13. 2012 AACR.
Calycosin as a Novel PI3K Activator Reduces Inflammation and Fibrosis in Heart Failure Through AKT–IKK/STAT3 Axis

Aim: Inflammation and fibrosis have been shown to be critical factors in heart failure (HF) progression. Calycosin (Cal) is the major active component of Astragalus mongholicus Bunge and has been reported to have therapeutic effects on the cardiac dysfunction after myocardial infarction. However, whether Cal could ameliorate myocardial infarction (MI)-induced inflammation and fibrosis and precise mechanisms remain uncertain. The aim of this study is to explore the role of Cal in HF and to clarify the underlying mechanisms. Methods: For in vivo experiments, rats underwent left anterior descending artery ligation for heart failure model, and the cardioprotective effects of Cal were measured by echocardiographic assessment and histological examination. RNA-seq approach was applied to explore potential differential genes and pathways. For further mechanistic study, proinflammatory-conditioned media (conditioned media)-induced H9C2 cell injury model and TGFβ-stimulated cardiac fibroblast model were applied to determine the regulatory mechanisms of Cal. Results: In the in vivo experiments, echocardiography results showed that Cal significantly improved heart function. GO and reactome enrichment revealed that inflammation and fibrosis pathways are involved in the Cal-treated group. KEGG enrichment indicated that the PI3K–AKT pathway is enriched in the Cal-treated group. Further experiments proved that Cal alleviated cardiomyocyte inflammatory responses evidenced by downregulating the expressions of phosphorylated IκB kinase α/β (p-IKKα/β), phosphorylated nuclear factor kapa B (p-NFκB), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). Besides, Cal effectively attenuated cardiac fibrosis through the inhibitions of expressions and depositions of collagen I and collagen III. In the in vitro experiments, the phosphatidylinositol three kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY294002 could abrogate the anti-inflammation and antifibrosis therapeutic effects of Cal, demonstrating that the cardioprotective effects of Cal were mediated through upregulations of PI3K and serine/threonine kinase (AKT). Conclusion: Cal inhibited inflammation and fibrosis via activation of the PI3K–AKT pathway in H9C2 cells, fibroblasts, and heart failure in postacute myocardial infarction rats.
Impact of Organizational Dehumanization on Employee Knowledge Hiding

Knowledge hiding has become an alarming issue for the organizations. Knowledge hiding is an employee’s intentional attempt to conceal knowledge requested by others at the workplace. Employee knowledge hiding significantly influences an organization’s effective functioning. This research is an attempt to extend previous work on antecedents of knowledge hiding. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, it is proposed that receiving poor treatment by organizations in the form of organizational dehumanization creates psychological distress among employees toward the organization. Distress among workers in turn intervenes the path and increases the likelihood of engaging in knowledge hiding behaviors. An employee’s felt obligation for constructive change (FOCC) may moderate the relationship between organizational dehumanization and employee psychological distress. Data for the current study were collected from 245 employees of the telecommunication sector in three-time lags. The results support the direct and indirect effect of organizational dehumanization on employee knowledge hiding behaviors through the mediation of psychological distress. The results also support the moderation of FOCC between organizational dehumanization and psychological distress. Furthermore, the findings of the study may help organizational practitioners and managers about the value of effective organizational climate and practices for better organizational functioning through knowledge sharing and providing insight into undesirable repercussions of organizational dehumanization. Implications for organizations and practitioners are discussed.
A Descriptor for Voxel Shapes Based on the Skeleton Cut Space

Two-dimensional medial axes and three-dimensional curve skeletons have been long used for shape retrieval tasks. In contrast, and despite their ability to fully capture shape geometry and topology, three-dimensional surface skeletons have seen much less usage in this context. We present here a framework for shape matching and retrieval based on such surface skeletons. To this end, we construct a space of cuts generated by the surface skeleton, which has desirable invariance properties with respect to shape size, rotation, translation, pose, and noise. Next, we extract a histogram-based descriptor from this cut space, and discuss three different metrics to compare such histograms for shape retrieval. We illustrate our proposal by showing our descriptor's effectiveness in shape retrieval using a known shape-database benchmark.
Cortical network dynamics during source memory retrieval: Current density imaging with individual MRI

We investigated the neural correlates of source memory retrieval using low‐resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) with 64 channels EEG and individual MRI as a realistic head model. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 13 healthy subjects performed the source memory task for the voice of the speaker in spoken words. The source correct condition of old words elicited more positive‐going potentials than the correct rejection condition of new words at 400–700 ms post‐stimulus and the old/new effects also appeared in the right anterior region between 1,000 and 1,200 ms. We conducted source reconstruction at mean latencies of 311, 604, 793, and 1,100 ms and used statistical parametric mapping for the statistical analysis. The results of source analysis suggest that the activation of the right inferior parietal region may reflect retrieval of source information. The source elicited by the difference ERPs between the source correct and source incorrect conditions exhibited dynamic change of current density activation in the overall cortices with time during source memory retrieval. These results indicate that multiple neural systems may underlie the ability to recollect context. Hum Brain Mapp 2009. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Impact of an Early Career Recession on Schooling and Lifetime Welfare

This paper evaluates the long-term welfare consequences from experiencing a recession as youths, taking into account the impact on schooling, future job mobility, human capital accumulation, labor supply and wages. The paper also explores the mechanisms that account for lifetime wage changes by decomposing those changes into different channels: changes from schooling, from work experience, and from job mobility. To achieve these goals, this paper develops and estimates a search equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents and aggregate shocks. The model is an extension of a directed search model, the Block Recursive Equilibrium framework of Menzio and Shi (2010), which remains tractable when it is solved outside of the steady state. The counterfactual analysis shows that experiencing the 1981-1982 recession at age 16-22 causes a 2.2% to 3.0% loss in lifetime welfare. Endogenizing schooling decision avoids overestimation of the welfare loss for two reasons: first, there exists the selection of labor market entry timing and high ability individuals are more likely to postpone entry into the labor market during a recession; second, the additional schooling caused by an early career recession increases future wages and employment rate. The wage decomposition shows that the loss from job mobility explains the majority of the wage loss during the recession, and the loss in experience and tenure persists long after the recession.
Distribution and associated determinants of high out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure in Bangladesh : evidence from Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2010

Objectives: Like many low and middle income countries, out-of-pocket payments by patients or their families are a key healthcare financing mechanism in Bangladesh that leads to economic burden of household. The objective of the study was to focus whether and to what extent socio-economic, demographic and behavioral factors of the population have impact on OOP expenditure in Bangladesh. Method: A total of 12,400 patients who spent for receiving any type of healthcare services were analyzed from Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey data, 2010. We employed a regression analysis for find out the factors influencing OOP health expenditure using ordinary least square method. Results: The mean total out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure was US$ 27.66; while cost of medicines (US$ 16.98) was the highest cost driver. In addition, the study identifies some significant factors influencing higher out-of-pocket health expenditure, namely, age, sex, marital status, place of residence, rich families. In contrary, unemployed and with no social financial safety were inversely associated. Conclusions: Findings of the study can help the decision makers by stating the determinants of OOP, discussing the mechanisms driving them and thus underscoring the need to develop policy options for the building stronger financial protection mechanisms. The government should consider devoting more resources to providing free or subsidized care. Parallel to government action, the development of other prudential and sustainable risk pooling mechanism and so may be most enthusiastic subscribers to community-based health insurance schemes.
Comparative Advantage of Value Added in Exports: The Role of Offshoring and Transaction Costs

This study tests whether Ricardian comparative advantage is valid for value added in exports that does not include intermediate inputs imported from various industries in a number of countries. Using a panel data on valued added contents of bilateral exports, we find that changes in the labor productivity lead to growth of value added in exports. This implies that Ricardian comparative advantage is an important determinant of exports in longitudinal changes. The estimated coefficients of the observed productivity turn out to be larger than those of CDK (2012), implying that Ricardian comparative advantage has greater influence on determining the patterns of trade in a world with global value chains. This study also investigates the role of offshoring and transaction costs in comparative advantage. We use data on value added in exports, offshoring in materials and services, and transaction costs at the country and industry-level for the period 1995-2009 calculated from World Input-Output Table which covers 40 countries and 14 manufacturing industries. Employing a system GMM estimator to alleviate the potential endogeneity problem, we find that services offshoring has positive effects on comparative advantage while material offshoring affects it negatively. We also find that transaction costs have a negative effect on comparative advantage. Moreover, it turned out that there is a magnification effect of transaction costs on the induced value added in exports.
Syncytial-Type Cell Plates: A Novel Kind of Cell Plate Involved in Endosperm Cellularization of Arabidopsis

Cell wall formation in the syncytial endosperm of Arabidopsis was studied by using high-pressure-frozen/freeze-substituted developing seeds and immunocytochemical techniques. The endosperm cellularization process begins at the late globular embryo stage with the synchronous organization of small clusters of oppositely oriented microtubules (∼10 microtubules in each set) into phragmoplast-like structures termed mini-phragmoplasts between both sister and nonsister nuclei. These mini-phragmoplasts produce a novel kind of cell plate, the syncytial-type cell plate, from Golgi-derived vesicles ∼63 nm in diameter, which fuse by way of hourglass-shaped intermediates into wide (∼45 nm in diameter) tubules. These wide tubules quickly become coated and surrounded by a ribosome-excluding matrix; as they grow, they branch and fuse with each other to form wide tubular networks. The mini-phragmoplasts formed between a given pair of nuclei produce aligned tubular networks that grow centrifugally until they merge into a coherent wide tubular network with the mini-phragmoplasts positioned along the network margins. The individual wide tubular networks expand laterally until they meet and eventually fuse with each other at the sites of the future cell corners. Transformation of the wide tubular networks into noncoated, thin (∼27 nm in diameter) tubular networks begins at multiple sites and coincides with the appearance of clathrin-coated budding structures. After fusion with the syncytial cell wall, the thin tubular networks are converted into fenestrated sheets and cell walls. Immunolabeling experiments show that the cell plates and cell walls of the endosperm differ from those of the embryo and maternal tissue in two features: their xyloglucans lack terminal fucose residues on the side chain, and callose persists in the cell walls after the cell plates fuse with the parental plasma membrane. The lack of terminal fucose residues on xyloglucans suggests that these cell wall matrix molecules serve both structural and storage functions.
Tunable DFB Laser Array Integrated With Mach–Zehnder Modulators for 44.6 Gb/s DQPSK Transmitter

A tunable distributed feedback (DFB) laser array integrated with Mach-Zehnder modulators (TLA-MZMs) for a 44.6 Gb/s differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) transmitter has been developed. The TLA-MZMs covers 98 wavelength channels with the 50 GHz ITU-T grid in the L-band. The side-mode suppression ratio for all channels was over 47 dB. DC extinction ratios over 25 dB were achieved for the MZMs. Our design achieves both the low modulation voltage (2 Vπ) less than 3 Vpp and the low-excess loss less than 1 dB. 44.6 Gb/s DQPSK modulation with a low driving voltage of 3 V was successfully demonstrated.
Induced Matchings in Subcubic Graphs

We prove that a cubic graph with $m$ edges has an induced matching with at least $m/9$ edges. Our result generalizes a result for planar graphs due to Kang, Mnich, and Muller (SIAM J. Discrete Math., 26 (2012), pp. 1383--1411) and solves a conjecture of Henning and Rautenbach.
Prognostic factors in lupus nephritis

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous disorder and its renal manifestations are protean. The course and prognosis of lupus nephritis is dependent on a large number of demographic, histopathological, serological, racial, socioeconomic and time dependent factors. Moreover, the initial and maintenance therapeutic regimens may also influence the long term renal outcome. This article reviews the important prognostic factors that have been reported in literature. The management strategy of lupus nephritis should be individualized and based on a composite of these parameters.
Increasing uptake of physical activity: a social ecological approach

Aims: Increasing population physical activity (PA) is a public health priority. An approach to increasing PA in an urban community, based on the social ecology model, is presented and evaluated. Methods: A quasi-experimental (non-equivalent control group) design was chosen to test whether this approach can increase, significantly, the population proportion that is physically active. Two deprived inner-city electoral ward areas of Sheffield, UK, with similar socio-demographic and health profiles were selected. Implementation was carried out in five phases over 21 months: preparation and piloting, initial survey estimates, community awareness campaign, PA intervention and evaluation. Impact was evaluated by recording uptake and attendance at all sessions, and using a post-intervention postal survey. At follow-up, questionnaires were sent to 2500 randomly selected addresses in both areas, which assessed changes in PA, health and PA participation over the last year. Results: A pilot baseline survey confirmed similar proportions taking some form of PA on most days: intervention 36% (25—47), control 33% (21—45). At follow-up, 38 different activity groups were in place and 1275 individuals had attended at least one activity. Satisfactorily completed responses were received from 1532 (31%), 55% (846) intervention, 45% (686) control. Relative to the control, the intervention sample demonstrated trends towards: being more physically active compared with one year ago, greater readiness to take up PA, better general health and improved health compared with one year ago (p ≤ 0.001). Further, 30.6% (intervention) vs 18.3% (control) reported an increase in PA compared with one year ago, while 13.7% (intervention) vs 24.5% (control) reported no intention to exercise. These differences in proportions translated to an overall effect size estimate of 0.23 for the intervention. Relative to those whose PA had remained the same, intervention area residents were more likely to report being more active (odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.79 (1.38—2.32), p < 60; 0.001). Conclusion: These results suggest that, even within one of the most deprived inner-city areas in the UK, a community-based social ecological approach can positively change PA behaviour and attitudes.
Tacrolimus is not associated with gingival overgrowth in renal transplant patients.

BACKGROUND Cyclosporin A is used extensively to prevent the rejection of allogenic renal transplants. However, it is associated with a variety of undesirable side effects including gingival overgrowth. Tacrolimus (FK506), has been marketed as an effective alternative immunosuppressant to cyclosporin A and recent subjective reports suggest patients taking it complain infrequently of gingival problems. This clinical investigation was undertaken to confirm whether or not tacrolimus adversely affected the gingival health of renal transplant recipients. METHODS Renal transplant patients (RTPs) under the care of the Renal Transplantation Service at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, who had received a renal allograft at least 18 months earlier, were recruited for this study. All but one of the RTPs had been taking tacrolimus since transplantation. The other had commenced tacrolimus therapy two months after receiving her allograft. A hospital based control group was recruited from non transplanted individuals attending the Turner Dental School, Manchester. Each patient underwent a detailed dental assessment and had dental impressions taken. The extent of gingival overgrowth was determined from plaster models. RESULTS 25 renal transplant recipients and 26 control patients were included in the study. None of the individuals in either the tacrolimus or control groups had clinically significant overgrowth. The patients in the tacrolimus group with the highest overgrowth scores were those also taking calcium antagonists as treatment for hypertension. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that tacrolimus has no adverse effects on the gingival tissues and thus has potential as an alternative immunosuppressant for individuals susceptible to developing cyclosporin A-induced gingival overgrowth.
Antithyroid medications and psychosis

Introduction: Antithyroid drugs (ATDs) are used in the treatment of hyperthyroidism. Very rarely ATDs were reported to trigger acute psychosis in patients with no history of psychiatric disturbances. Our aim is to review the literature on psychosis as a side effect of ATD and to give a personal opinion on this issue. Areas covered: The cases of acute psychosis elicited by ATD are few and most were reported many years ago, before radioimmunoassay for thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroid hormones was introduced. Most of those cases lack a description of serum thyroid hormone profile before, during and after the appearance of the psychiatric disorder; hence, an abrupt shift from hyperthyroidism to euthyroidism or hypothyroidism cannot be excluded. In addition, patients underwent specific psychiatric therapy, so that it is difficult to attribute the disappearance of the mental disorders to the withdrawal of ATD per se. Expert opinion: Patients who develop mental disorders while under ATD should be followed by an accurate evaluation of TSH, free triiodothyronine (FT3), and free thyroxine (FT4) levels throughout the course of the psychiatric disease. The use of new imaging techniques could be helpful in ruling out the encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroid diseases and other cerebral pathologies that might be possible causes of these mental disorders.