Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RECONSIDERING SOCIAL EQUITY IN PUBLIC TRANSIT

Over the course of this century, public transit systems in the U.S. have lost most of the market share of metropolitan travel to private vehicles. The two principal markets that remain for public transit systems are downtown commuters and transit dependents - people who are too young, too old, too poor, or physically unable to drive. Despite the fact that transit dependents are the steadiest customers for most public transit systems, transit policy has tended to focus on recapturing lost markets through expanded suburban bus, express bus, and fixed rail systems. Such efforts have collectively proven expensive and only marginally effective. At the same time, comparatively less attention and fewer resources tend to be devoted to improving, well-patronized transit service in low-income, central-city areas serving a high proportion of transit dependents. This paper explores this issues through an examination of both the evolving demographics of public transit ridership, and the reasons for shifts in transit policies towards attracting automobile users onto buses and trains. We conclude that the growing dissonance between the quality of service provided to inner-city residents who depend on local buses and the level of public resources being spent to attract new transit riders as both economically inefficient and socially inequitable. In light of this, we propose that transportation planners concerned with social justice (and economic efficiency) should re-examine current public transit policies and plans.
The Impact of Liberalizing Barriers to Foreign Direct Investment in Services: The Case of Russian Accession to the World Trade Organization by Jesper Jensen, Copenhagen Economics

In this paper we employ a computable general equilibrium model of the Russian economy to assess the impact of accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which encompasses improved market access, tariff reduction and reduction of barriers against multinational service providers. We assume that foreign direct investment in business services is necessary for multinationals to compete well with Russian business service providers, but cross-border service provision is also present. The model incorporates productivity effects in both goods and services markets endogenously, through a Dixit-Stiglitz framework. The ad valorem equivalent of barriers to foreign direct investment have been estimated based on detailed questionnaires completed by specialized research institutes in Russia. We estimate that Russia will gain about 7.2 percent of the value of Russian consumption in the medium run from WTO accession and up to 24 percent in the long run. We estimate that the largest gains to Russia will derive from liberalization of barriers against multinational service providers. Piecemeal and systematic sensitivity analysis shows that our results are robust. Corresponding author: David Tarr MSN 3-303 The World Bank 1818 H. St. NW, Washington DC 20433 telephone: (1-202) 473-7677 fax (1-202) 522-1159 Email DTARR@Worldbank.org We thank Ekaterina Krivonos, Sergei Ovechin, S.P. Baranov, Eshref Trushin, Fukunari Kimura, Mitsuyo Ando, Takamune Fujii and Jan Strelka for help with the data and estimates of parameters in this paper and Maria Kasilag for help with the logistics. We thank seminar participants at the CEFIR and New Economic School conferences in Moscow and the ASSA meetings in Washington for helpful comments. Financial support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the World Bank or its Executive Directors P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed
REFRACTION IN ADULT WEST GREENLAND ESKIMOS

Refractive error (RF) was determined, using subjective technique and Snellen chart, in a West Greenland Eskimo population, in the district of Umanaq. Both eyes of 483 and one eye of 25 persons were refracted, in age groups above 15 years. Spherical equivalents of any astigmatic errors were included in RF values.
THE EFFECT OF ESTROGEN ON ENDOTHELIAL PERMEABILITY OF AORTA AND THE LEVEL OF SERUM NITRITE CONCENTRATION IN CHOLESTEROL?FED OVARIECTOMIZED RABBIT

Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) in postmenopausal women may decrease the risk of Coronary Artery Diseases (CAD). We hypothesized that Nitric Oxide (NO) releasing due to ERT may be the essential factor by which endothelial permeability decreases. Four groups of ovariectomized rabbits were under investigation for five weeks . Groups 1 & 4 received high cholesterol diet and oth er two groups (2 & 3) had normal diet. Estradiol valerate (5 mg) was injected weekly in groups 1 & 2. Blood samples were taken before and after the experiment. Finally, the animals were sacrificed for endothelial permeability determination and pathologica l investigation of aortae. After five weeks, the total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL and LDL were significantly different between high cholesterol -fed and normal diet groups (P<0.05). In cholesterol-fed groups, triglycerides concentration was also different significantly (P<0.05). Nitrite concentration was increased significantly in group 1, and it was different from other groups (P<0.05). A considerable decrease of aorta permeability was obtained in group 1 but it was not significantly different from gro up 4 (P<0.1). The considerable existence of fatty streaks was observed in the animals aortae of group 4, and it was significantly different from group 1 (P<0.05). It suggests that prevention of intimal collection of foam cells and fatty streak in aorta by estrogen may be exerted by NO production. Iran. Biomed. J. 6 (2 & 3): 77-82, 2002
Understanding the Swedish Venture Capital market - and what determines the success of investments

The main findings of this study are that the likelihood of achieving a successful exit increases if the investing firm is private and if the geographical distance between investing firm and investee is limited. Furthermore, it is possible to conclude that the Swedish Venture Capital industry share several features with international counterparts, although the importance of the IPO for the overall funding of the industry is negligible. Instead the Swedish Venture Capital industry has been and will likely continue to be driven by governmental intervention
Managers’ understanding of theoretical concepts: the case of market orientation

Managers are frequently exposed to abstract, theoretical concepts, of which some are attended to while others are neglected. To become meaningful for managers, new abstract concepts must be reflected upon and given content. In this paper, we explore how and to what extent managers understand and make use of the exemplar concept of “market orientation”. The reported findings indicate that managers’ understanding and use of the concept of market orientation, in their goal‐directed effort to perform, are influenced by the actual context in which they are embedded and operate. Our findings also indicate that managers’ understanding of market orientation can deviate substantially from the meaning reflected in the academic literature.
Corporate Jets and Private Meetings with Investors

We use corporate jet flight patterns to identify private meetings with investors that are ex ante unobservable to non-participants. Using approximately 400,000 flights, we proxy for private meetings with “roadshows,” defined as three-day windows that include flights to money centers and to non-money centers in which the firm has high institutional ownership. Roadshows exhibit greater abnormal stock reactions, analyst forecast activity, and absolute changes in local institutional ownership than other flight activity. We also find positive trading gains in firms with more complex information and infrequent private meetings, suggesting that roadshows provide participating investors an advantage over non-participating investors.
The Status of Financial Education in Africa

While the African situation displays disparities both within and between countries in terms of economic and human development, on average, many African countries have relatively low school enrolment ratios, highly informal labour markets, high poverty rates, as well as low financial inclusion and financial literacy levels. Against this backdrop, it is desirable to improve the level of financial literacy among the most vulnerable parts of the African population. Well-designed financial education initiatives can reduce demand-side barriers to more effective financial inclusion and can empower vulnerable individuals economically, so that they can better manage household resources and develop income generating activities. This report provides an overview of the status of financial education programmes developed in Africa, discusses their rationale, and offers initial guidance for policy makers. In recent years public authorities, as well as the non-profit and the private sector, engaged in the development of financial education programmes in several African countries. These programmes typically aim at improving financial knowledge and skills, raising awareness of financial issues, and improving financial inclusion. They usually target vulnerable groups, including low-income people, women, and youth, and sometimes deliver financial literacy training in combination with access to financial products.
Supplementary feeding in the maternity ward shortens the duration of breast feeding

In a prospective study, feeding routines of a maternity unit and the subsequent feeding patterns of 521 newborns were analysed. During the stay in the maternity unit, 69% of newborns were exclusively breast fed and 1% received only donor's milk from the milk bank and/or formula. Nine percent received their mothers' milk by bottle at least once and 21% received one or more supplementary feedings with donor's milk from the milk bank. One‐quarter of the children received supplementary feeds on the third day of life, the indications for this being birth weight less than 3.0 kg, maternal diabetes or gestational diabetes, “insufficient amounts” of milk or fussiness. At three months, 65% were being exclusively breast fed and 15% partially breast fed. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, the potential determinants (neonatal feeding, maternal characteristics, characteristics of the delivery and the child) for the duration of breast feeding were included. The adjusted relative risk (estimated as odds ratios, OR) of not being breast fed at three months was associated with maternal age (< 25 years, OR 4.2), maternal smoking (OR 4.0), neonatal feeding (supplements given, OR 3.9) and initial weight loss (10% or more, OR 2.8). Thus the administration of supplementary donor's milk or formula during the early neonatal period was associated with an increased risk of a short duration for breast feeding, even after adjustment for a number of potential confounders.
Understanding Service Convenience

The subject of service convenience is important in service economies, yet little is known about this topic. The consumer convenience literature—strong in certain respects, underdeveloped in other respects—gives insufficient attention to service convenience. The prevailing pattern is either to treat service convenience generally or to lump services and goods together into an overall convenience construct. The authors seek to stimulate a higher level of research activity and dialogue by proposing a more comprehensive and multidimensional conceptualization of service convenience and a model delineating its antecedents and consequences. The authors build their case by systematically examining the convenience literature, explicating the dimensions and types of service convenience, developing the overall model and related research propositions, and presenting directions for further research.
Attenuation of miR-34a protects cardiomyocytes against hypoxic stress through maintenance of glycolysis

MiRNAs are a class of endogenous, short, single-stranded, non-coding RNAs, which are tightly linked to cardiac disorders such as myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. MiR-34a is known to be involved in the hypoxia-induced cardiomyocytes apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanisms are unclear. In the present study, we demonstrate that under low glucose supply, rat cardiomyocytes are susceptible to hypoxia. Under short-time hypoxia, cellular glucose uptake and lactate product are induced but under long-time hypoxia, the cellular glucose metabolism is suppressed. Interestingly, an adaptive up-regulation of miR-34a by long-time hypoxia was observed both in vitro and in vivo, leading to suppression of glycolysis in cardiomyocytes. We identified lactate dehydrogenase-A (LDHA) as a direct target of miR-34a, which binds to the 3′-UTR region of LDHA mRNA in cardiomyocytes. Moreover, inhibition of miR-34a attenuated hypoxia-induced cardiomyocytes dysfunction through restoration of glycolysis. The present study illustrates roles of miR-34a in the hypoxia-induced cardiomyocytes dysfunction and proposes restoration of glycolysis of dysfunctional cardiomyocytes by inhibiting miR-34a during I/R might be an effectively therapeutic approach against I/R injury.
Decreased Metallation and Activity in Subsets of Mutant Superoxide Dismutases Associated with Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis* 210

Over 90 different mutations in the gene encoding copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause ∼2% of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases by an unknown mechanism. We engineered 14 different human ALS-related SOD1 mutants and obtained high yields of biologically metallated proteins from an Sf21 insect cell expression system. Both the wild type and mutant “as isolated” SOD1 variants were deficient in copper and were heterogeneous by native gel electrophoresis. By contrast, although three mutant SOD1s with substitutions near the metal binding sites (H46R, G85R, and D124V) were severely deficient in both copper and zinc ions, zinc deficiency was not a consistent feature shared by the as isolated mutants. Eight mutants (A4V, L38V, G41S, G72S, D76Y, D90A, G93A, and E133Δ) exhibited normal SOD activity over pH 5.5–10.5, per equivalent of copper, consistent with the presumption that bound copper was in the proper metal-binding site and was fully active. The H48Q variant contained a high copper content yet was 100-fold less active than the wild type enzyme and exhibited a blue shift in the visible absorbance peak of bound Cu(II), indicating rearrangement of the Cu(II) coordination geometry. Further characterization of these as-isolated SOD1 proteins may provide new insights regarding mutant SOD1 enzyme toxicity in ALS.
Ultimate Control and Corporate Value: Evidence from the UK

This paper investigates the importance of ultimate control in determining corporate value in a sample of UK firms. Specifically, it examines the value relevance of three aspects: shareholdings with higher voting rights than cash flow rights; individual ultimate controllers; and mechanisms to exercise control. The results suggest that firm values fall only when a shareholder has at least twice as much voting rights than cashflow rights. Ultimate control exerted by institutional investors was shown to reduce firm values, as opposed to other types of investors or widely held firms. There was no significant evidence of an association between controlling mechanisms and value discounts.
A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management

In this article, the authors develop a conceptual framework for customer relationship management (CRM) that helps broaden the understanding of CRM and its role in enhancing customer value and, as a result, shareholder value. The authors explore definitional aspects of CRM, and they identify three alternative perspectives of CRM. The authors emphasize the need for a cross-functional, process-oriented approach that positions CRM at a strategic level. They identify five key cross-functional CRM processes: a strategy development process, a value creation process, a multichannel integration process, an information management process, and a performance assessment process. They develop a new conceptual framework based on these processes and explore the role and function of each element in the framework. The synthesis of the diverse concepts within the literature on CRM and relationship marketing into a single, process-based framework should provide deeper insight into achieving success with CRM strategy and implementation.
Measurement Malaise in Strategic Management Studies

We adopt a construct validity lens to provide a critical reexamination of established corporate governance research. In particular, we focus on the body of work relying on the theoretical bases of agency theory and involving boards of directors’ independence, CEO duality, equity holdings, and their relationships to corporate financial performance. We offer a five-step protocol involving the following components: (1) establishing the base rate for the phenomenon in question, (2) evaluating the extent to which the dependent variables are germane, (3) evaluating the extent to which the independent variables are germane, (4) determining whether explanatory power is improved as a consequence of improved measurement, and (5) concluding whether previously established estimates should be revised. We implemented the proposed protocol and used alternative measures that reduce threats to construct validity. Results yielded substantially higher estimates of relationships in corporate governance research. Future research can adopt the proposed protocol to understand whether a similar improvement in explanatory power could be achieved in other research domains.
Joining the gang and becoming a broder: the violence of ethnography in contemporary Nicaragua

The fact that anthropologists ‘construct’ the field in which they conduct their ethnographic research has long been recognised, but less considered are the ways in which the field can ‘construct’ both the anthropologist and fieldwork practices. In many ways, this process is a natural corollary of the fact that researchers must always adapt and sensitise themselves to the realities of their field locations, and more importantly, the inherently dialogical nature of ethnographic research. At the same time, this ‘construction’ can potentially have more singular ramifications, particularly when fieldwork is carried out in situations characterised by chronic violence. In such circumstances, the ethnographic process almost inevitably exposes the anthropologist to violence, but can also become intrinsically imbued with violence, to the extent that it can make sense to talk of the ‘violence’ of ethnography. This article illustrates this idea through a consideration of the author’s doctoral fieldwork experiences in Managua, Nicaragua, including his ritual initiation into an urban youth gang, and considers some of the ethical and practical ramifications of this experience.
Acoustic analysis of speech as a promising instrument for monitoring and differential diagnosis of Parkinsons's disease

parkinsonian speech is characterized by abnormally low voice intensity, with vocal decay, poor voice quality, reduced prosodic pitch and loudness inflection, imprecise vowels and consonants, dysrhythmia and short rushes of speech, mumbling, and reduced speech intelligibility. recently, there have been new acoustic analysis methods to capture different aspects of these speech abnormalities. in this review, selected studies are summarized in order to illustrate the application of acoustic analysis of speech for the objective measurement and quantification of different aspects of parkinsonian dysarthria.
Analysis of Solvent Effects on the Menshutkin Reaction

The reaction between ammonia and methyl bromide, which has been taken as a model for the Menshutkin reaction, has been studied through ab initio methods in the gas phase and in solution using discrete and continuum representations of the solvent. The solvent effect on this reaction bears a resemblance with other sN2 reactions but also exhibits some differences with them. The main results turn out to be, on one hand, a decrease in the energy barrier upon increase in solvent polarity, and, on the other hand, the transition state is found earlier along the reaction coordinate. , showing . the participation of solvent parameters in the reaction coordinate. The polarization of the solute by the reaction field created by the solvent polarization is one of the most important aspects of the coupling between the solvent and the chemical system. This translates into an increase of the weight of the charge-transfer configuration with respect to the weight in the gas phase. Likewise, fluctuations increasing the reaction field are stabilized by instantaneous changes in the electronic distribution of the solute.
Reemergence of Splenectomy for ITP Second-line Treatment?

Introduction: Corticosteroids are still the standard first-line treatment for immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). As second-line therapy, splenectomy and Rituximab are both recommended. The aim of our study was to compare the efficacy of Rituximab to splenectomy in persistent or chronic ITP patients. Methods: Between January 1999 and March 2015, we retrospectively selected all consecutive patients who underwent an ITP second-line treatment: Rituximab or splenectomy. The distinction between open (OS) and laparoscopic splenectomy (LS) was analyzed. Primary outcome was composite: hospitalization for bleeding and/or thrombocytopenia and death from hemorrhage or infection. Secondary outcomes were based on response (R) and complete response (CR) rates as defined by the American Society of Hematology. Results: Ninety-six patients were included: 30 patients received Rituximab, 37 underwent OS, and 29 underwent LS. The follow-up was 30, 60, and 120 months in Rituximab, LS, and OS groups, respectively. At 30th month, the primary outcome-free survival rate was higher in splenectomy groups (84% for OS, 86% for LS) than Rituximab group (47%) (P = 0.0002). Similarly, at 30th month, R and CR rates were higher for OS (86.5% and 75.7%, respectively) and LS groups (93.1% and 89.7%) than Rituximab (46.7% and 30%) (P = 0.0001). Moreover, R rates remained elevated at 60th month for OS and LS groups (83.7% and 89.6% respectively) and 78.4% at 120th month for OS group. Conclusion: We observed that splenectomy for ITP second-line treatment was more effective than Rituximab regarding maintenance of R, CR, and overall response rates. OS and LS had similar efficacy.
Interim Report IR-13-021 Hybridization and speciation

Richard Abbott, Dirk Albach, Stephen Ansell, Jan Arntzen, Stuart J.E. Baird, Nicolas Bierne, Jenny Boughman, Alan Brelsford, C. Alex Buerkle, Richard Buggs, Roger Butlin, Ulf Dieckmann (dieckmann@iiasa.ac.at), Fabrice Eroukhmanoff, Andrea Grill, Sara Helms Cahan, Skeie Jo Hermansen, Godfrey Hewitt, Alan G. Hudson, Chris Jiggins, Julia Jones, Barbara Keller, Tobias Marczewski, Jim Mallet, Paloma Martinez-Rodriguez, Markus Möst, Sean Mullen, Richard Nichols, Arne W. Nolte, Cristian Parisod, Karin Pfennig, Amber M. Rice, Michael G. Ritchie, Bernhard Seifert, Carole Smadja, Rike Stelkens, Jacek M. Szymura, Risto Väinölä, Jochen Wolf, Dietmar Zinner