Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Employment Contracts, Influence Activities, and Efficient Organization Design

When changing jobs is costly, efficient employment contracts usually fail to compensate workers for the effects of posthiring events and decisions. Then, when there are executives and managers with authority to make discretionary decisions, affected employees will be led to waste valuable time trying to influence their decisions. Efficient organization design counters this tendency by limiting the discretion of decisions makers, especially for those decisions that have large distributional consequences but that are otherwise of little consequence to the organization.
The A8296G mtDNA mutation associated with several mitochondrial diseases does not cause mitochondrial dysfunction in cybrid cell lines

Transmitochondrial cybrid cell lines homoplasmic for the A8296G mtDNA transition, a mutation associated with several mitochondrial diseases, have a normal oxidative phosphorylation function, as shown by oxygen consumption, lactate production, respiratory enzyme activities, and growth using galactose as the only source of energy. The synthesis of mitochondrial proteins is also similar in mutant and wild‐type cybrids. Our results suggest that the A8296G mutation is a polymorphism and reinforce the necessity of performing functional studies to assess the pathogenicity of mtDNA mutations. Hum Mutat 19:234–239, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Open management of the abdomen and planned reoperations in severe bacterial peritonitis.

OBJECTIVE To assess the results of open management of the abdomen and planned re-operations in severe bacterial peritonitis after perforation or anastomotic disruption of the digestive tract. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING University Hospital, The Netherlands. SUBJECTS 67 consecutive patients. INTERVENTIONS Open management of the abdomen and planned reoperations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Hospital morbidity and mortality, long-term follow-up. RESULTS 38 patients developed multiple organ failure (MOF), but 29 needed only ventilatory and inotropic support. The mean number of re-operations was nine. 16 patients developed severe bleeding and 16 fistulas. In-hospital mortality was 42% (n = 28). Long-term morbidity, particularly the number of abdominal wall defects (n = 10), was considerable. CONCLUSION Despite open management of the abdomen and planned re-operations, mortality of severe bacterial peritonitis still continues to be too high, and both short and long-term morbidity are appreciable. The value of open management of the abdomen and planned re-operations rests only on the clinical observation that other conventional surgical treatments of severe bacterial peritonitis often fail.
Optimal Financial Contracting: Debt versus Outside Equity

This article presents a theory of outside equity based on the control rights and the maturity design of equity. I show that outside equity is a tacit agreement between investors and management supported by the equity-holders' right to dismiss management regardless of performance and by the lack of a prespecified expiration date on equity. As a tacit agreement outside equity is sustainable despite management's potential for manipulating the cash flows and regardless of how costly it is for equity-holders to establish a case against managerial wrongdoing. I establish that the only outside equity that investors are willing to hold in equilibrium is that with unlimited life, the very outside equity that corporations issue. Consistent with empirical evidence, this model predicts that debt-equity ratios are higher (lower) in industries with low (high) cash flow variability. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Other stabilisation objectives within an inflation targeting regime: Some stochastic simulation experiments

We use the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's macroeconomic model (FPS) to look at the feasibility of using monetary policy to reduce variability in output, the exchange rate and interest rates while maintaining an inflation target. Our experiment suggests that policy could be altered to increase the stability of interest rates, the exchange rate, inflation, or output, relative to the base case reaction function in FPS, but such a policy would incur some cost in terms of the variability of the other variables. In particular, we find that greater exchange rate stability would have relatively large costs in terms of the stability of all three other variables, primarily because monetary policy that leans too dramatically against exchange rate disturbances can create significant real economy variability. Relative to West (2003), we find larger costs of operating monetary policy to achieve exchange rate stabilisation. We attribute this finding to the relatively inertial inflation expectation process in FPS.
The effect of cyclopiazonic acid on excitation‐contraction coupling in guinea‐pig ureteric smooth muscle: role of the sarcoplasmic reticulum

1 We have investigated the effect of cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), an inhibitor of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+‐ATPase on excitation‐contraction (EC) coupling in guinea‐pig ureter, by measuring membrane currents, action potentials, intracellular [Ca2+] and force. 2 CPA (20 μm) significantly enhanced the amplitude and duration of phasic contractions of ureteric smooth muscle associated with action potentials. This was accompanied by an increase in the duration of the intracellular Ca2+ transient in intact tissue and single cells but not their amplitude. However, CPA also slowed the rate of rise, and fall, of the force and Ca2+ transients. 3 Membrane potential recordings showed that CPA produced a small depolarization and a large increase in the duration of the plateau phase of the action potential. 4 Patch‐clamp studies showed marked inhibition of outward potassium current in the presence of CPA and an inhibition of spontaneous transient outward currents (STOCs). CPA had no effect on inward Ca2+ current. 5 These data suggest that the SR plays a major role in modulating the excitability of the ureter, particularly via curtailing the action potential duration. This in turn will shorten the Ca2+ transient and decrease force. This negative action on developed force predominates over any small role it may play in initiating force in the guinea‐pig ureter.
Oxidative stress: oxidants and antioxidants

An imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants in favour of the oxidants, potentially leading to damage, is termed ‘oxidative stress’. Oxidants are formed as a normal product of aerobic metabolism but can be produced at elevated rates under pathophysiological conditions. Antioxidant defense involves several strategies, both enzymatic and non‐enzymatic. In the lipid phase, tocopherols and carotenes as well as oxy‐carotenoids are of interest, as are vitamin A and ubiquinols. In the aqueous phase, there are ascorbate, glutathione and other compounds. In addition to the cytosol, the nuclear and mitochondrial matrices and extracellular fluids are protected. Overall, these low molecular mass antioxidant molecules add significantly to the defense provided by the enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidases.
Selective Serotonergic (SSRI) Versus Noradrenergic (SNRI) Reuptake Inhibitors with and without Acetylsalicylic Acid in Major Depressive Disorder.

BACKGROUND Antidepressant medication efficacy remains a major research challenge. Here, we explored four questions: whether noradrenergic antidepressants are more effective than serotonergic antidepressants; whether the addition of 100 mg acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) changes antidepressant efficacy; whether the long-term efficacy differs depending on the antidepressant and the addition of ASA; and whether serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are clinically informative. SUBJECTS AND METHODS In a two-year study, forty people with major depressive disorder were randomly assigned to groups that received an SSRI (escitalopram) or an SNRI (duloxetine), each group received concomitant ASA (100 mg) or a placebo. Sociodemographic data were recorded and patients under went regular assessments with the Hamilton depression scale (HDS) and clinical global impression (CGI) scale. Serum levels of BDNF were measured four times per year. RESULTS There was no significant difference in efficacy between the two antidepressants or between antidepressant treatment with and without ASA. However, subgroup comparisons revealed that the duloxetine + ASA (DASA) subgroup showed a more rapid improvement in HDS score as early as 2 months (t=-3.114, p=0.01), in CGI score at 5 months (t=-2.119, p=0.05), and a better remission rate (χ2=6.296, p 0.012) than the escitalopram + placebo (EP) subgroup. Serum BDNF before treatment was also higher in the DASA subgroup than in the EP subgroup (t=3.713; p=0.002). CONCLUSION This suggest two hypotheses: either a noradrenergic agent combined with ASA is more effective in treating depression than a serotonergic agent alone, or the level of serum BDNF before treatment is a precursor marker of the response to antidepressants. Further research is needed to test these hypotheses.
Appropriateness of orthodontic referrals: self-perceived and normative treatment needs of patients referred for orthodontic consultation.

OBJECTIVES The aims of this prospective study were to evaluate the self-perceived and normative orthodontic treatment needs of children referred for orthodontic consultation and to determine the proportion of children who were inappropriately referred. METHODS The sample consisted of 257 children with a mean age of 12.0 years (SD = 2.4). An orthodontist assessed the children's normative treatment need using the dental health component (DHC) of the index of orthodontic treatment need (IOTN), and for patients in the mixed dentition the need for interceptive treatment was assessed. Questionnaires were answered by both the child and the parent to assess satisfaction with dental appearance and desire for treatment. RESULTS The distribution of the IOTN grades showed that 73% of the children had definite need while 27% had borderline/no need for orthodontic treatment. Twenty-six per cent of children and 17% of parents did not express orthodontic concern, even though more than half of these children were in definite need of treatment as assessed by IOTN. The children's orthodontic concern was significantly related to the DHC scores. Out of the 103 children who were in the mixed dentition, only about 16% required interceptive treatment. CONCLUSIONS The results indicated that a significant number of children were inappropriately referred for orthodontic treatment. Referring dentists need to assess the normative treatment needs of the children as well as the children's and parents' commitment and desire for orthodontic treatment before deciding on the need for referral.
Globalization and the Inequality of Nations

A monopolistically competitive manufacturing sector produces goods used for final consumption and as intermediates. Intermediate usage creates cost and demand linkages between firms and a tendency for manufacturing agglomeration. How does globalization affect the location of manufacturing and gains from trade? At high transport costs all countries have some manufacturing, but when transport costs fall below a critical value, a core-periphery spontaneously forms, and nations that find themselves in the periphery suffer a decline in real income. At still lower transport costs there is convergence of real incomes, in which peripheral nations gain and core nations may lose.
The effectiveness of using geometrical features for facial expression recognition

Facial expressions play an important role in diverse disciplines ranging from entertainment (video games) to medical applications and affective computing. For tackling the problem of expression recognition, various approaches were proposed over the last two decades. These approaches are primarily divided into two types: geometry and appearance based. In this paper, we address the geometry based approaches to recognize the six basic facial expressions (happiness, surprise, anger, fear, disgust, and sadness). We provide answers to three major questions regarding the geometrical features: 1. What is the minimum number of facial points that could provide a satisfactory recognition rate? 2. How this rate is affected by prior knowledge of person-specific neutral expression? 3. How accurate should a facial point detector be to achieve an acceptable recognition rate? To assess the reliability of our approach, we evaluated it on two public databases. The results show that a good recognition rate could be achieved by using just eight facial points. Moreover, the lack of prior knowledge of person-specific neutral state causes more than 7% drop in the recognition rate. Finally, the recognition rate is adversely affected by the facial point localization error.
Contagion effects in the electric utility industry following the Fukushima nuclear accident

This article examines intra-industry information transfers in the European and Japanese electric industry in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident. For European conventional utilities, the downward price drift is relatively small and transient in nature. Yet, we find positive and lingering effects of the accident on the shares of alternative electric utilities. Japanese utilities were hit the hardest and the shock seems to be long-lasting. An interesting finding of this article is the abrupt increase (decrease) in the systematic risk of conventional (alternative) electric utilities following the event. In Europe, we could only document a decrease in the idiosyncratic risk of conventional utilities, pointing to enhanced return synchronicity in the conventional power industry. In turn, total risk seems to be stationary around the accident. In rebuttal, idiosyncratic and systematic risks (and consequently total risk) have substantially risen in Japan since the event. Finally, intercept values related to European utilities remained stable around the accident while Japanese utilities incurred a substantial decline in their daily average returns as captured by alpha shifts.
The Streetscape: Effects on Shopping Tourists’ Product/Service Quality Inferences and Their Approach Behaviors

When tourists enter a shopping district, they usually do not possess complete information about merchandise or service quality. Judgments and choices, are therefore, based on inferences made from multiple sources of information, including the product and service quality cues available in the external environment. While exterior environment is one critical attribute by which tourists judge the quality of the total service process, only a few studies have examined exterior environment from the perspective of the informational value that it offers to consumers. The results of the structural equation modeling in this study revealed that exterior shopping environment could act as a surrogate of service and merchandise quality. Tourists’ patronage intentions were strongly influenced by service quality inferences as compared with inferences about merchandise quality. Implications for retailers at tourist destinations are discussed.
Early hepatitis B viral DNA clearance predicts treatment response at week 96

AIM To investigate whether hepatitis viral DNA load at 24 wk of treatment predicts response at 96 wk in patients with chronic hepatitis B. METHODS A total of 172 hepatitis B envelope antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B patients who received initial treatment at 16 tertiary hospitals in Hunan Province, China were enrolled in this study. All patients received conventional doses of lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil, telbivudine, entecavir dispersible tablets, or entecavir tablets for 96 wk. Patients who used other antiviral drugs or antitumor and immune regulation therapy were excluded. Patients were stratified into three groups according to their viral DNA load at 24 wk: < 10 IU/mL (group 1), 10-103 IU/mL (group 2), and > 103 IU/mL (group 3). Correlations of 24-wk DNA load with HBeAg negative status and HBeAg seroconversion at 96 wk were analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to test the predictive value of the HBV DNA load at 24 wk for long-term response. RESULTS The rates of conversion to HBeAg negative status and HBeAg seroconversion rates were 53.7% and 51.9%, respectively, in group 1; 35.21% and 32.39% in group 2; and 6.38% and 6.38% in group 3. The receiver operating characteristic curves for the three subgroups revealed that the lowest DNA load (< 10 IU/mL) was better correlated with response at 96 wk than a higher DNA load (10-103 IU/mL). Nested PCR was used for amplifying and sequencing viral DNA in patients with a viral DNA load > 200 IU/mL at 96 wk; resistance mutations involving different loci were present in 26 patients, and three of these patients had a viral DNA load 10-103 IU/mL at 96 wk. CONCLUSION Hepatitis B viral DNA load at 24 wk of antiviral treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis B is a predictor of the viral load and response rate at 96 wk.
Learning in High Stakes Ultimatum Games: An Experiment in the Slovak Republic

In an ultimatum game experiment, financial incentives were varied by a factor of twenty-five. Consistent with prior results, changes in stakes had only a small effect on play for inexperienced players. However, rejections were less frequent the higher the stakes and proposals in the high stakes declined slowly as proposers gained experience. The lower rejection frequency when stakes were higher can be explained by the added power of multiple observations per subject in this experiment. A model of learning suggests that the lower rejection frequency is the reason proposers in higher stakes learn to make lower offers.
The contribution of corporate social responsibility to sustainable development

This paper considers the motivations for and nature of business contributions to sustainable development though the medium of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It compares CSR with sustainable development, given that they are both 'essentially contested concepts'; it introduces CSR's changing meaning and it explains why there has been a recent increase in CSR with reference to the increasing socialization of markets as a result of narrow market drivers, along with other social, governmental and globalization drivers. It uses Hart's 'A natural-resource-based view of the firm' to explain the way in which these drivers give rise to sustainable development agendas in companies and provides illustration of these. The concluding discussion identifies some limitations to CSR as a vehicle for sustainable development and signals important avenues of research for policy-makers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
THE TURKISH CURRENT ACCOUNT, REAL EXCHANGE RATE AND SUSTAINABILITY: A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

Embarked on an accession path to the European Union (EU), Turkey needs higher investment ratios to sustain high growth rates for a prolonged period so as to sustain convergence with the EU. In a fast medium-term growth scenario, pressures on the current account are likely to emerge as investment will need to increase while fast income growth will also boost consumption and imports. However, in the case of Turkey, large current account (CA) deficits are also likely to be combined with an appreciating real exchange rate, as in the past few years, in response to robust capital inflows as Turkey gets closer to EU accession. A “convergence play”, similar to those seen in other EU accession countries and Eurozone members, where expected declines in domestic interest rates to levels closer to the EU average generate expectations of significant capital gains, is likely to make portfolio investments to Turkey particularly attractive. This could intensify pressures on the current account and leave the country vulnerable to possible swings in market sentiment and capital flow reversals. In this context, it is important to keep the current account deficit at sustainable levels. During the last three and half decades Turkey has experienced four balance of payments crises. These crises highlighted the danger of having excessively large current account deficits which are associated with a high probability of a balance of payments crisis.
Three explanations for the Kahneman-Tversky Programme of the 1970s

Abstract This article provides a historical description of the background and development of Kahneman and Tversky's collaborative research of the 1970s and advances three explanations for their success. A first reason for the two psychologists' triumph in economics is that they provided a friendly criticism of economics based on a re-interpretation of normative and descriptive. A second reason for their success was the new type of experiments they could use. A third reason was their effective use of intuitively appealing examples, to which not only the experimental subjects but also the readers of the articles could relate.
Characteristics of adults with substance use disorders expected to be eligible for Medicaid under the ACA.

OBJECTIVES Provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are likely to expand access to substance use disorder treatment for low-income individuals. The aim of the study was to provide information on the need for substance use disorder treatment among individuals who may be eligible for Medicaid under the ACA. METHODS The 2008 and 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health provided data on demographic characteristics, health status, and substance use disorders for comparison of current low-income Medicaid enrollees (N=3,809) with currently uninsured individuals with household incomes that may qualify them for Medicaid coverage beginning in 2014 (N=5,049). The incomes of the groups compared were 138% of the federal poverty level (133% provided in the ACA plus a 5% income "disregard" allowed by the law). RESULTS The rate of substance use disorders among currently uninsured income-eligible individuals was slightly higher than the rate among current Medicaid enrollees (14.6% versus 11.5%, p=.03). Although both groups had significant unmet need for substance use disorder treatment, the treatment rate among those who needed treatment was significantly lower in the income-eligible group than in the currently enrolled group (31.3% versus 46.8%, p<.01). When the analysis excluded informal care received outside the medical sector, treatment rates among those with treatment needs were much lower in both groups (12.8% in the income-eligible group and 30.7% among current enrollees). CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that Medicaid insurance expansions under the ACA will reduce unmet need for substance use disorder treatment.
Economic Consequences of the Great Recession: Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

The paper uses micro-survey data from successive waves of the Panel Study on Income Dynamics to investigate the distribution of wealth and job losses during the 2007-09 recession for difference segments of the population and the effect of the recession on the retirement decisions of older workers. Estimates of wealth losses are constructed for major socioeconomic group and compared with those of the Survey of Consumer Finances. The panel dimension of the data is used to measure change in the labor force status of workers and to estimate the determinants of the decision to transition from participation in the labor force to retirement. the study concludes that retirement decisions are influenced both by variations in labor market conditions and by the value of household wealth but that labor market exerts a larger impact.