Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Duration and Recidivism in IMF Programs

Quarterly evidence on participation in IMF programs for the period 1974-2003 is examined statistically using the techniques of hazard analysis and error-correction estimation. Three hypotheses are proposed and tested, and the results support a “revolving door” explanation of participation in IMF programs. First, an increase in cumulative prior participation in IMF programs is found to cause a reduction on average in the length of a new spell of participation. Second, the length of time between participation spells is reduced significantly with an increase in cumulative prior participation in IMF programs. Third, the evolution of reserve adequacy is shown to be significantly and positively affected by participation in IMF programs. The results are shown to depend critically upon the mixture of countries considered: the increase in recidivism is a phenomenon most strongly observed among the least developed countries, while the reduction in duration is more strongly observed in the emerging and transition economies. These results are derived while controlling for country-specific unobserved heterogeneity, yearspecific demand effects, external shocks, and pre-existing policy distortions.
Prevalence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and its Related Metabolic Risk Factors in Isfahan, Iran

Background: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its related risk factors among the general population of Isfahan city located in the central part of Iran. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the prevalence of NAFLD among 483 general adult populations was determined using ultrasonography. Anthropometric and biochemical variables were compared in groups with and without NAFLD and their predictive value for occurrence of NAFLD was investigated also. Results: Prevalence of NAFLD was 39.3%. Frequency of focal fatty infiltration (FFI), Grade I, Grade II, and Grade III of NAFLD was 9.5%, 21.1%, 7.2%, 1.4%, respectively. Prevalence of different types of NAFLD and FFI, was not different between female and male participants (P = 0.238). Ordinal regression was determined that all of the studied variables have significant predictive value for NAFLD (P < 0.001, γ = 0.615). Spearman correlation indicated that there was a significant relationship between NAFLD and BMI (r = 0.37, P< 0.001), age (r = 0.15, P = 0.001), FBS (r = 0.20, P< 0.001), cholesterol (r = 0.19, P< 0.001), triglyceride (r = 0.20, P< 0.001), LDL (r = 0.16, P< 0.001), AST (r = 0.17, P< 0.001), and ALT (r = 0.31, P< 0.001). Conclusions: Considering the high prevalence of NAFLD specially its lower grades among Isfahani adult general population and their association with studied variables, it seems that interventional studies which target-related mentioned risk factors could reduce the overall occurrence of NAFLD.
Production of 5‐hydroxyindoleacetic acid from serotonin by cultured endothelial cells

Endothelial cells from bovine aorta and human umbilical vein and fibroblasts from human foreskin were cultured and subsequently evaluated for ability to metabolize serotonin (5‐HT) to 5‐hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5‐HIAA). Cells were incubated for three hours with 4 × 10−6 M [14C] 5‐HT creatinine sulfate. [14C] 5‐HIAA was separated from labeled 5‐HT by column chromatography and measured by scintillation counting. Production of 5‐HIAA by bovine aorta cells was 39.0 ± 7.5 (S.E.M., n = 6) nmoles per 109 cells per hour. Production of 5‐HIAA was markedly inhibited by the presence of 10−4 M iproniazid (an inhibitor of monoamine oxidase) or 10−4 M imipramine (an inhibitor of amine transport). 5‐HIAA was the only product of 5‐HT metabolism detected by thin layer chromatography. Production of 5‐HIAA by human umbilical vein endothelial cells was 5.4 ± 2.0 nmoles per 109 cells per hour (n = 5) and by human foreskin fibroblasts was 3.9 ± 1.4 nmoles per 109 cells per hour (n = 5). The results obtained during incubation in the presence and absence of inhibitors indicate that bovine aorta endothelial cells maintained in tissue culture are able to transport serotonin with subsequent production of 5‐HIAA. By contrast, human umbilical vein endothelial cells and fibroblasts exhibited relatively low rates of 5‐HT uptake and metabolism.
Substrate-integrated-waveguide signal-interference bandpass filters

This paper demonstrates the first experimental development of transversal signal-interference bandpass filters (BPFs) in substrate-integrated-waveguide (SIW) technology. They consist of bi-path transversal filtering sections (TFSs) that are based on 3-dB hybrid rings that are loaded with short-ended stubs in two of their ports. To attain circuit-size reduction in the overall TFS, a T-septum-ridge SIW is utilized as a transmission-line medium for its constituent modules. Furthermore, in order to allow excitation through conventional RF connectors, a broadband microstrip-to-T-septum-ridge-SIW transition is developed. For practical validation, a 6-GHz SIW TFS prototype featuring 3-dB bandwidth (BW) of 1.1 GHz-i.e., 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) ≈18% — and minimum in-band insertion loss (IL) of 1.28 dB is constructed and characterized. In addition, measured results of a manufactured 5.25-GHz higher-order BPF (two series-cascaded SIW TFSs) with 790-MHz 3-dB BW-i.e., 3-dB FBW ≈15% — and 1.26-dB minimum in-band IL, are also shown.
Do Chinese listed firms actively alter the design of pay–performance sensitivity following financial restatement?*

Abstract The high sensitivity of management compensation to accounting performance could be an important driver of financial restatement, due to strong management incentives to manipulate earnings. This paper examines whether restating firms rearrange management’s annual compensation following restatement announcements to decrease management’s incentives to misreport. Based on observations between 2003 and 2011 in the Chinese capital market, this paper finds that accounting-based pay–performance sensitivity decreases and market-based pay–performance sensitivity increases in restating firms following restatement announcements. These findings indicate that active corporate governance in Chinese listed firms can redesign compensation packages to constrain management’s incentives to misreport. Furthermore, we find that the effect of financial restatement on pay–performance sensitivity is weaker in state-owned enterprises than in non–state-owned enterprises, indicating that compensation design as a tool to alleviate agency costs could, to some extent, lose its effectiveness in reducing management’s opportunistic behavior in state-owned enterprises.
DOES BALANCE IMPROVE AFTER THE APPLICATION OF TAI CHI EXERCISE PROGRAM IN POST- MENOPAUSAL WOMEN WITH OSTEOPOROSIS?

Background. Osteoporosis is an emerging medical and socioeconomic threat characterized by a systemic impairment of bone mass, strength, and microarchitecture. Due to degenerative changes in morphology and structure, the amount of bone fragility and fractures increases affecting balance function. Tai Chi is a traditional Chinese mind-body exercise that has the potential to overcome the impairments associated with frailty. Methods. The study involved 13 post-menopausal women with osteoporosis. All subjects participated in Tai Chi exercise program which lasted for eight weeks. Two, one-hour group training sessions were taught per week. Balance assessment was performed three times: before Tai Chi exercise program, after four weeks and after eight weeks of the application of Tai Chi exercise program. Balance measurements were conducted using platform “Sigma Balance Pad” and BESS test. Results. Research findings of “Sigma Balance Pa” showed statistically significant changes ( p < .05) in eyes opened condition while in eyes closed condition no significant changes were observed ( p ≥ .05). Results of BESS test revealed statistically significant improvement of static balance after Tai Chi exercise program ( p = .033). Conclusions. Research results demonstrated balance improvement: body sway and center of pressure displacement speed decreased after Tai Chi exercise program. Further future research of reliability and validity of the BESS in subjects with osteoporosis should be considered.
Usage, adherence and attrition: how new mothers engage with a nurse-moderated web-based intervention to support maternal and infant health. A 9-month observational study

Objectives To identify factors predicting use, adherence and attrition with a nurse-moderated web-based group intervention designed to support mothers of infants aged 0–6 months. Design 9-Month observational study. Setting Community maternal and child health service. Participants 240 mothers attending initial postnatal health checks at community clinics who were randomly assigned to the intervention arm of a pragmatic preference randomised trial (total randomised controlled trial, n=819; response rate=45%). Intervention In the first week (phase I), mothers were assisted with their first website login by a research assistant. In weeks 2–7 (phase II), mothers participated in the web-based intervention with an expectation of weekly logins. The web-based intervention was comparable to traditional face-to-face new mothers’ groups. During weeks 8–26 (phase III), mothers participated in an extended programme at a frequency of their choosing. Primary outcome measures Number of logins and posted messages. Standard self-report measures assessed maternal demographic and psychosocial characteristics. Results In phase II, the median number of logins was 9 logins (IQR=1–25), and in phase III, it was 10 logins (IQR=0–39). Incident risk ratios from multivariable analyses indicated that compared to mothers with the lowest third of logins in phase I, those with the highest third had 6.43 times as many logins in phase II and 7.14 times in phase III. Fifty per cent of mothers logged-in at least once every 30 days for 147 days after phase I and 44% logged-in at least once in the last 30 days of the intervention. Frequency of logins during phase I was a stronger predictor of mothers’ level of engagement with the intervention than their demographic and psychosocial characteristics. Conclusions Mothers’ early use of web-based interventions could be employed to customise engagement protocols to the circumstances of individual mothers with the aim of improving adherence and reducing attrition with web-based interventions. Trial registration number ACTRN12613000204741; Results.
A MULTIOBJECTIVE APPROACH FOR REAL TIME TASK ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM IN HETEROGENEOUS MULTIPROCESSORS

Effective assignment of real-time tasks in heterogeneous multi-processor systems to achieve high performance is said to be an NP-hard problem. This paper addresses the problem of real-time task assignment in heterogeneous multiprocessor systems with the goal of maximizing the number of task assigned and decreasing the energy consumption. A heuristic-based Multi-objective Hybrid Max-Min Ant Colony Optimization algorithm (MO-HMMAS) on the heterogeneous multiprocessor system is proposed to analyze the tradeoffs between resource utilization of all assigned tasks and cumulative energy consumption. Also, we have constructed pareto fronts to illustrate different task allocations, which can cause a heterogeneous multiprocessor system to consume significantly different amounts of energy. The proposed algorithm has been implemented and evaluated using randomly generated problem instances.It was found that the proposed algorithm outperforms the Multi-objective ACO (MO-ACO) in terms of number of the tasks assigned and cumulative energy consumption of all assigned tasks.
The Relation Among Capital Markets, Financial Disclosure, Production Efficiency, and Insider Trading

The purpose of this paper is to establish a link among (1) the nature of the capital market from which a firm secures its investment funds, (2) the firm's chosen level of financial disclosure, (3) the firm's cost of capital, (4) the extent of its residual agency problems, and (5) the extent of insider trading in its shares, in a model in which the costs and benefits associated with disclosure are endogenous. The nature of the capital market is characterized in our discussion by the potential liquidity needs of investors from whom capital is raised. The level of disclosure is determined by trading off a production efficiency effect and a compensation subsidy effect, both of which fall with increased disclosure, against a market illiquidity effect and its effect on the cost of capital, both of which also fall with increased disclosure. Production efficiency falls because more disclosure means less information about the manager's action is impounded in price, so that price-based
Multiple control systems, accrual accounting, and earnings management

This paper examines the coordination of a financial reporting system and a contracting system in a principal-agent model with managerial reporting incentives and moral hazard. The manager privately observes both economic earnings and the available reporting discretion. A tradeoff between the firm's financial reporting system and the contracting system determines whether the owner will find it optimal to induce the manager to report the firm's economic earnings or to manage the reported earnings by exercising reporting discretion. We refer to the former as "truthful reporting" and the latter as "earnings management," where earnings management incorporates any accruals-based manipulation of economic earnings by the manager. We find that the principal uses the contracting system primarily to deal with moral hazard over managerial
Correlation between p53, c‐erbB‐2, and topoisomerase IIα expression, DNA ploidy, hormonal receptor status and proliferation in 356 node‐negative breast carcinomas: prognostic implications

Various new prognostic indicators have been identified for mammary carcinomas, but the issue of their significance remains unsettled. The prognostic impact of p53, c‐erbB‐2, and topoisomerase IIα expression was investigated in relation to standard prognostic factors for carcinomas of the breast and to the tumour cell growth fraction. Paraffin‐embedded specimens of 356 node‐negative infiltrating ductal carcinomas were stained immunohistochemically using a polyclonal antiserum to c‐erb B‐2, and the monoclonal antibodies DO‐1 (p53), Ki‐S4 (topoisomerase IIα), and Ki‐S5 (Ki‐67). The patients were followed for a median duration of 99 months. Both p53 and c‐erb B‐2 were significantly associated with high tumour grade, large tumour size, DNA aneuploidy, lack of steroid hormone receptors, young age, and increased topoisomerase IIα and Ki‐67 expression levels. The correlation of p53 and c‐erb B‐2 was not significant. Topoisomerase IIα and Ki‐67 scores closely paralleled each other, indicating that both reflect the proliferative activity of tumour cells. A univariate analysis of overall (OS), specific (SS), and disease‐free survival (DFS) revealed all the above‐mentioned parameters to be statistically significant except patient age, which was relevant only to overall survival. Multivariate analysis with inclusion of all covariates selected tumour size and proliferation (topoisomerase IIα and Ki‐67) indices as independent predictors of survival in all three models. No additional information was gained by p53 or c‐erb B‐2. It is concluded that the proliferative activity, as assessed by topoisomerase IIα or Ki‐67 immunostaining, is the most useful indicator of breast cancer prognosis, except for tumour size. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Bologna agreement is not suitable for medical education: a German view

Central elements of the Bologna declaration have been implemented in a huge variety of curricula in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering sciences at German universities. Overall the results have been nothing less than disastrous. Surprisingly, this seems to be the perfect time for German universities to talk about introducing a curriculum that is fully compatible with the Bologna declaration for medical education as well. However, German medical education does not have problems the Bologna declaration is intended to solve, such as quality, mobility, internationalization and employability. It is already in the Post-Bologna age.
Capabilities of liposomes for topological transformation

Dynamic behaviors of liposomes caused by interactions between liposomal membranes and surfactant were studied by direct real-time observation by using high-intensity dark-field microscopy. Solubilization of liposomes by surfactants is thought to be a catastrophic event akin to the explosion of soap bubbles in the air; however, the actual process has not been clarified. We studied this process experimentally and found that liposomes exposed to various surfactants exhibited unusual behavior, namely continuous shrinkage accompanied by intermittent quakes, release of encapsulated liposomes, opening up, and inside–out topological inversion.
Productivity and quality of malt barley (Hordeum vulgare) as affected by sowing date, rate and stage of nitrogen application

A field experiment was carried out during rabi season of 2006-07 and 2007-08 with a objective to find out optimum time of sowing, rate and proper stage for application of nitrogen to get good quality of malt barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) for higher malt and grain yield. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three dates of sowing (20, 30 October and 10 November ) and three levels of nitrogen as 62.5, 78.5 and 93.75 kg N/ha (100, 125 and 150 per cent of recommended N, respectively) in main plots and three stages of nitrogen application {whole of nitrogen before pre sowing irrigation (S ), half of nitrogen before pre sowing irrigation + half 1 at(45 days) maximum tillering stage (S ) and half of nitrogen before pre sowing irrigation + 1/4 at (25 days) tillering 2 stage + 1/4 at (65 days) boot stage (S )}in sub plots. The results of mean of two years revealed that 10 November 3 sowing gave the significantly higher grain yield, effective tillers, number of grain ear, harvest index and malt yield than 20 October and 30 October due to minimum lodging. Barley crop responded significantly up to 78.5 kg N/ha. Application of nitrogen in three split (S ) increased significantly plant height, dry matter accumulation, effective 3 tillers, ear length, number of grains/ear, grain, straw and malt yield as compared to two splits (S ) and single 2 application (S ). It can be concluded that barley crop for higher malt recovery, malt and grain yield, can be sown 1 on 10 November with the application of 78.5 kg N/ha in three splits (half nitrogen before pre sowing irrigation, 1/4 at tillering stage and 1/4 at boot stage).
A roadmap for successful applications of clinical proteomics

Despite over 30 000 publications on proteomics in the last decade, and the accumulation of extensive interesting information on the human proteome in diverse observations, the clinical translation of proteomics to‐date has had major setbacks. I review here a roadmap for improving the success rate of clinical proteomics. The roadmap includes steps for improvements that need to be made in analytical tools, discovery, validation, clinical application, and post‐clinical application appraisal. It is likely that most if not all of the components that are necessary for clinical success are either readily available, or should be possible to put in place with more rigorous research standards and concerted efforts of the research community, clinicians, and health agencies. Enthusiasm for the clinical impact of proteomics may need to be tempered currently until robust evidence can be obtained, but some clinical successes should eventually be feasible.
More Accurate Entity Ranking Using Knowledge Graph and Web Corpus

Recent years have witnessed some convergence in the architecture of entity search systems driven by a knowledge graph (KG) and a corpus with annotated entity mentions. However, each specific system has some limitations. We present AQQUCN, an entity search system that combines the best design principles into a public reference implementation. AQQUCN does not depend on well formed question syntax, but works equally well with syntax poor keyword queries. It uses several convolutional networks (convnets) to extract subtle, overlapping roles of query words. Instead of ranking structured query interpretations, which are then executed on the KG to return unranked sets, AQQUCN directly ranks response entities, by closely integrating coarse grained predicates from the KG with fine grained scoring from the corpus, into a single ranking model. Over and above competitive F1 score, AQQUCN gets the best entity ranking accuracy on two syntax rich and two syntax poor public query workloads amounting to over 8,000 queries, with 16 to 18 percent absolute improvement in mean average precision (MAP), compared to recent systems.
Health-related physical fitness according to chronological and biological age in adolescents. The AVENA study.

AIM Physical fitness has been proposed as a major marker of health status at any age. The aim of the present study was to determine the levels of several health-related physical fitness components with respect to chronological and biological age (sexual maturation status) in Spanish adolescents. METHODS Physical fitness was measured in a sample of Spanish adolescents (N. = 2859; 1357 males, 1502 females) from the AVENA study, by means of the following tests: sit and reach, handgrip, standing broad jump, bent arm hang, 4 x 10 m shuttle run, and 20 m shuttle run. Percentage body fat, fat free mass and leisure-time physical activity were used as confounders. Adolescents were classified according to chronological age and biological age (measured by Tanner stages). All the analyses were adjusted for the above- mentioned confounders. RESULTS Muscular fitness was higher in older adolescents than in younger adolescents. Cardiorespiratory fitness was higher in younger compared to older females, as well as in early puberty compared to late puberty. In males, cardiorespiratory fitness was higher in younger adolescents, but no differences were observed when it was analysed according to sexual maturation status. CONCLUSION Normative data for several health-related physical fitness components according to chronological and biological age are provided in this report. Discrepancies between biological and chronological age analysis were higher for cardiorespiratory fitness than for muscular fitness.
Vascular Oxidative Stress Induced by Diesel Exhaust Microparticles: Synergism With Hypertension

Background: Epidemiological and clinical studies have shown that traffic-related air pollution and, particularly, diesel exhaust particles (DEP) are strongly linked to cardiovascular mortality. Methods: Vascular toxicity was studied by assessing vasomotor responses of aortas isolated from normotensive Wistar rats exposed in vitro to DEP (DEP suspension and aqueous DEP extract). In vivo experiments were performed on Wistar rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) exposed for 4 weeks via intratracheal instillation to either DEP or saline vehicle. After killing, vascular responses to acetylcholine (ACh) or sodium nitroprusside were assessed in vitro and the expression of p22phox, a major nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase subunit, was studied by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results: In aortas from Wistar rats, in vitro DEP incubation (both preparations) markedly inhibited the relaxations to ACh and slightly to sodium nitroprusside; this effect was reversed in the presence of superoxide dismutase. In contrast, in aortas from in vivo–exposed animals, ACh-induced relaxations were only significantly impaired in the SHR group, accompanied with a significant upregulation of p22phox and no change in systolic blood pressure. Conclusions: Although in vitro exposure to DEP produces a vascular oxidative stress, repeated in vivo exposures to DEP only impair vascular function in SHR, via an upregulation of p22phox. This suggests a synergistic effect on endothelial dysfunction between particulate air pollution and hypertension.