Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-resolution CT Findings Suggest a Developmental Abnormality Underlying Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome

Objective--Patients with superior canal dehiscence (SCD) syndrome experience vertigo and oscillopsia with loud sounds and/or stimuli that result in changes in middle ear or intracranial pressure. Findings on temporal bone CT were analyzed to determine if a developmental abnormality is associated with the syndrome. Material and methods--Temporal bone CT scans [0.5 mm collimation and projections into the superior semicircular canal (SC) plane] were used to compare the bone overlying the SC in patients with SCD syndrome (20 unilateral, 7 bilateral) and in 88 patients without SCD syndrome who had undergone temporal bone CT for evaluation of other otologic disorders (controls). Results--The thickness of bone overlying the SC in the controls measured 0.67±0.38 mm (mean±SD). For individual control subjects, the thickness of bone on one side was correlated with that on the other side (r=0.43; p<0.0001). The thickness of bone overlying the SC on the intact side in patients with unilateral dehiscence measured 0.31±0.23 mm, and was thinner than that noted in the controls (p<0.0001). Conclusions--These findings support the notion that there is a developmental abnormality underlying SCD syndrome. When dehiscence is found on one side, the contralateral side is likely to be thin.
An Introduction to the New Zealand Treasury Model

The Treasury is the New Zealand government’s lead advisor on economic and financial issues. Part of this advice consists of providing the government with forecasts of economic and fiscal variables. Economic forecasts are important, not only as a basis for forecasts of tax revenue, but also in informing the government of the macroeconomic environment in which proposed fiscal policy settings will operate. The New Zealand Treasury Model (NZTM) is an important part of the economic forecasting process at the Treasury. This paper has three purposes. The first is to give readers an idea of the key features of NZTM. The second is to detail major changes to the model since the last published documentation of the model (Szeto, 2002). These model developments have enhanced NZTM to provide more detailed forecasts. Key changes include the disaggregation of deflators into the various expenditure GDP components, the introduction of consumption and capital goods imports into the model (rather than just treating them as intermediate imports) and the disaggregation of the inflation equation into tradable and non-tradable components. The final purpose of this paper is to outline briefly NZTM’s role in the Treasury’s forecasting process.
Fibrinolytic Activators and Inhibitors in Terminal Renal Insufficiency and in Anephric Patients

Summary Fibrinolytic factors were measured before and after DDAVP- infusion in 18 patients on chronic, regular haemodialysis, 11 of whom underwent bilateral nephrectomy, and in 7 patients in whom non-functioning kidneys were still present. Baseline fibrinolytic activity was normal or high in all but two cases. Before haemodialysis, the response to DDAVP-infusion was greatly reduced in the majority of patients as compared with healthy controls, irrespective of the baseline level. This was in accordance with mean t-PA-antigen levels which increased only slightly after DDAVP. When DDAVP was given after haemodialysis, previous non-responders showed a normal increase in fibrinolytic activity. The level of free t-PA-inhibitors was normal in most cases as were levels of α2-antiplasmin. and α2-macroglobulin.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Inducible BCL-3 Expression Antagonizes the STAT/IRF and NF-κB Signaling Pathways by Inducing Histone Deacetylase 1 Recruitment to the Interleukin-8 Promoter

ABSTRACT Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a paramyxovirus that produces airway inflammation, in part by inducing interleukin-8 (IL-8) expression, a CXC-type chemokine, via the NF-κB/RelA and STAT/IRF signaling pathways. In RSV-infected A549 cells, IL-8 transcription attenuates after 24 h in spite of ongoing viral replication and persistence of nuclear RelA, suggesting a mechanism for transcriptional attenuation. RSV infection induces B-cell lymphoma protein -3 (Bcl-3) expression 6 to 12 h after viral infection, at times when IL-8 transcription is inhibited. By contrast, 293 cells, deficient in inducible Bcl-3 expression, show no attenuation of IL-8 transcription. We therefore examined Bcl-3's role in terminating virus-inducible IL-8 transcription. Transient expression of Bcl-3 potently inhibited virus-inducible IL-8 transcription by disrupting both the NF-κB and STAT/IRF pathways. Although previously Bcl-3 was thought to capture 50-kDa NF-κB1 isoforms in the cytoplasm, immunoprecipitation (IP) and electrophoretic mobility shift assays indicate that nuclear Bcl-3 associates with NF-κB1 without affecting DNA binding. Additionally, Bcl-3 potently inhibited the STAT/IRF pathway. Nondenaturing co-IP assays indicate that nuclear Bcl-3 associates with STAT-1 and histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC-1), increasing HDAC-1 recruitment to the IL-8 promoter. Treatment with the HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A blocks attenuation of IL-8 transcription. A nuclear targeting-deficient Bcl-3 is unable to enhance HDAC-1-mediated chemokine repression. Finally, small inhibitory RNA-mediated Bcl-3 “knockdown” resulted in enhanced RSV-induced chemokine expression in A549 cells. These data indicate that Bcl-3 is a virus-inducible inhibitor of chemokine transcription by interfering with the NF-κB and STAT/IRF signaling pathways by complexing with them and recruiting HDAC-1 to attenuate target promoter activity.
The Random Utility Hypothesis and Inference in Demand Systems

In this paper, the authors examine the consequences of adopting the random utility hypothesis as an approach for randomizing a system of demand equations. Random utility models are appealing since they allow the usual assumption of deterministic utility-maximizing behavior by each consumer to coexist with the apparent randomness across individuals that is exhibited by data. Their results show that the use of random utility models implies that the disturbances of the demand equations may not be homoskedastic, but must be functions of prices and/or income. Copyright 1989 by The Econometric Society.
The effect of the perception of organizational trust and organizational support on intention to quit and individual performance: An empirical study of the Turkish state universities

This study conducts a survey on 1043 faculty member working for the Turkish state universities on the effect of the perception of organizational trust and organizational support on job quits and academic performances. We find that the perceptions of support and trust are significant variables in explaining intention to quit and individual performances. These results provide important findings for the university administrations to deal with these issues within the universities in which especially the employee turnover rate is very high. Multiple regression analysis shows that the effect of the organizational support has a significant effect on individual performance. Our results indicate that the perceptions of both organizational trust and organizational support have negative effect on intention to quit. Key words: Perception of organizational trust, perception of organizational support, individual performance, intention to quit.
Impact of stress on paranoia: an experimental investigation of moderators and mediators

Background Vulnerability–stress models ascribe stress a pivotal role in the development of psychosis. However, moderating and mediating mechanisms translating stress into psychosis and the specificity of the association are not clearly established. It is hypothesized that stress will trigger paranoid ideation in vulnerable individuals through an increase in negative emotion. Method Using a repeated-measures design, 64 healthy participants with varying levels of vulnerability [psychosis symptoms assessed by the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE)] were assigned to a stress and a non-stress condition in random order. Stress was induced by exposing participants to building-site noise (75 dB) applied concurrently with difficult knowledge questions. Symptoms of paranoia, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) were assessed by state-adapted versions of clinical scales. Results In the stress condition there was an increase in paranoia, depression and negative emotion. Multilevel linear modeling (MLM) revealed the increase in paranoia under stress to be moderated by the level of vulnerability and mediated by anxiety. Although participants generally showed an increase in anxiety under stress, anxiety was more strongly related to paranoia in participants with higher baseline symptomatology. Conclusions The results support and specify the role of emotional reactions to stressors on the pathway from vulnerability to psychosis and highlight the relevance of anxiety.
How Much New Information is There in Earnings?

We quantify the relative importance of earnings announcements in providing new information to the share market, using the R2 in a regression of securities' calendar‐year returns on their four quarterly earnings‐announcement “window” returns. The R2, which averages approximately 5% to 9%, measures the proportion of total information incorporated in share prices annually that is associated with earnings announcements. We conclude that the average quarterly announcement is associated with approximately 1% to 2% of total annual information, thus providing a modest but not overwhelming amount of incremental information to the market. The results are consistent with the view that the primary economic role of reported earnings is not to provide timely new information to the share market. By inference, that role lies elsewhere, for example, in settling debt and compensation contracts and in disciplining prior information, including more timely managerial disclosures of information originating in the firm's accounting system. The relative informativeness of earnings announcements is a concave function of size. Increased information during earnings‐announcement windows in recent years is due only in part to increased concurrent releases of management forecasts. There is no evidence of abnormal information arrival in the weeks surrounding earnings announcements. Substantial information is released in management forecasts and in analyst forecast revisions prior (but not subsequent) to earnings announcements.
Merger propensity and merger outcomes among British unions, 1986‐1995

This article focuses on the relationship between merger propensity and merger success in British trade unions. Using survey data it reveals that more unions seek merger than achieve it; most mergers in the period are accounted for by few unions. However, some merger discussions are protracted and the determinants of propensity are distinct from those of success.
HR factors affecting repatriate job satisfaction and job attachment for Japanese managers

With the well-established presence of the global marketplace, the need for managers who are globally competent and have knowledge about global business practices, cultures and networks is increasing. Researchers have shown that firms can acquire such knowledge through their human resources, particularly by building a cadre of repatriate managers who have been on international assignments. While it may seem obvious to assert that firms must retain these repatriates if they are to be an important internal resource for remaining globally competitive, prior studies have shown that most firms do not effectively reintegrate their repatriates, who then become dissatisfied and often leave, taking their human capital with them. Researchers have also suggested that such dissatisfaction often stems from both limited employee self-adjustment capabilities and inadequate HR practices that could otherwise help repatriates adjust and find a good fit with the firm when they return home. However, much of the research in this area has been anecdotal or based on simplistic empirical research. Consequently, this study strives to present a more rigorous look at the effect of a firm's HR practices and the repatriates' self-adjustment on their job satisfaction and job attachment. Results confirmed our hypotheses that both HR practices and the level of repatriate self-adjustment are positively associated with satisfaction and attachment.
Greening Growing Giants

if another 60% of the world population joined in with the material consumption patterns of the 20% of the world population currently in wealthy industrial countries, this would not only be disastrous for the climate, but also for the supply of world resources and in terms of environmental pollution . finding another more sustainable development pathway would constitute an entirely new challenge for industrial ecology. The idea for a special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology (JIE) on greening growing giants (GGG) dates back a number of years and originated from the confluence of two motivations. One motivation came from the JIE editors: they observed that there was increasingly lively interest in industrial ecology on the part of Chinese authors and readers. Various measures were considered to satisfy this interest and to strengthen the capacity of JIE to address this new audience.1 The other motivation came from the then president of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE), Marina Fischer-Kowalski. From her analyses of sociometabolic transitions (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl 2007; Krausmann et al. 2008), and discourse in environmental policy, it was obvious that a new “wave” of countries was about to enter a critical stage of fossil fuel-based industrial development, among them some of the largest countries in the world. Fossil fuel-based industrial development clearly implies a pathway toward a level of resource use, production, and consumption—in short, a level of socioeconomic metabolism— that is far above the level of the traditional agrarian societies from which it starts. Since the 1970s, many mature industrial countries have reached a stage of high but stable metabolic rates2 (see, e.g., Krausmann et al. 2009; OECD 2008), with productivity increases largely compensating for the resource consumption arising from (continuing) economic growth; this had contributed to a global stability of materials use. From about the year 2000 onward, a new global growth trend in materials use became apparent. This was suspected to be caused by rapid sociometabolic growth of precisely these “growing giants” in transition. It seemed clear that the different trends—sociometabolic stag-
Community Behavior and Sustainable Rural Tourism Development

Community-based action as a positive impact of tourism development is examined and connected to a community’s capacity to protect itself from outside threats by negotiating the quality of tourism development. Five communities in Jeju Island, South Korea, are studied through interviews with community members and analysis of a regional newspaper archive. Tourism development is depicted as an interaction between outside developers and local residents that ultimately builds a sustainable dialogue for growth of tourism. In five communities, the partnerships established between local community residents and outside tourism developers began with initial resistance from residents and led to the following sequence of behavior: town meetings, formal organization of residents, petitioning, public demonstration, and legal action. By examining collective action narratives in the five study communities, a framework for sustainable rural tourism development is built to understand relationships between tourism impacts and community identity.
Body type and composition differences between placers and nonplacers in an AIAW gymnastics meet.

Abstract To determine whether Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) gymnasts competing at the regional level differ significantly from nonathletes (NA) on body composition and somatotype and to determine whether meet placers (P) differ from nonplacers (NP) on the same measurements, anthropometric somatotype and percent fat from skinfold measurements were determined in 71 gymnasts (14 P and 57 NP) at the 1974 AIAW Region VI Championships. The same measurements were made on a reference group of 54 NA. The gymnasts were shorter and lighter in weight with less body fat than the NA. Percent body fat differences (NA = 21.45%; NP = 18.41%; P = 16.82%) were significant (p = .05) among all three groups. Since the two gymnast groups were almost identical in height and weight, the higher relative fat in the NP must have been offset by a lower relative fat-free body weight. Plots for the mean somatotypes of the three groups on standard somatocharts showed distinctly separate positions, with the N.
Differentiated Duopoly with Asymmetric Costs

In this paper, we compare Bertrand and Cournot equilibria in a differentiated duopoly with linear demand and cost functions. We extend the Singh and Vives (1984) model by allowing for a wider range of cost and demand (product quality) asymmetry between firms. Focusing on the case of substitute goods, we show that both the efficient firm's profits and industry profits are higher under Bertrand competition when asymmetry is strong and/or products are weakly differentiated. Therefore, Singh and Vives's ranking of profits between the two modes of competition is reversed in a sizeable portion of the relevant parameter space. Contrary to the standard result with symmetric firms, we also show that product differentiation can reduce both the efficient firm's and industry profits, implying that a local incentive towards less differentiation may arise.
Estimating the Impact of a Policy Reform on Benefit Take-Up: The 2001 Extension to the Minimum Income Guarantee for UK Pensioners

In 2001 the Minimum Income Guarantee for UK pensioners was reformed, changing the structure and level of benefits. We evaluate the behavioural response to this reform, using nonparametric analysis comparing a sample of pensioners interviewed before and another interviewed after the reform, matching their simulated pre- and post-reform entitlements and other characteristics. We compare the results with conventional parametric methods and also ex ante matching, and we consider the effect of measurement error in simulated entitlements. The response of take-up to the reform is found to be significant and positive, with evidence of larger impacts from the nonparametric analysis.
MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT-SEEKING BEHAVIORS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Review of Literature 5 Health Disparities 6 Disparities of Treatment 8 Racism, Stress, and Anthropological Theory 9 Religion and Social Integration 14 Mistrust of Medicine 15 Social Support and Stigma 17 Mental Illness, Social Stigma and Religion 18 Explanatory Models of Mental Disorder 19 New Questions and Research 24 Chapter 3: Setting and Methods 27 Work Sites 28 Description of the Sample 29 The Interviews 33 Statistical Tests 35 Chapter 4: Qualitative Analysis 39
Asynchronous detection of kinesthetic attention during mobilization of lower limbs using EEG measurements

Objective. Attention is known to modulate the plasticity of the motor cortex, and plasticity is crucial for recovery in motor rehabilitation. This study addresses the possibility of using an EEG-based brain–computer interface (BCI) to detect kinesthetic attention to movement. Approach. A novel experiment emulating physical rehabilitation was designed to study kinesthetic attention. The protocol involved continuous mobilization of lower limbs during which participants reported levels of attention to movement—from focused kinesthetic attention to mind wandering. For this protocol an asynchronous BCI detector of kinesthetic attention and deliberate mind wandering was designed. Main results. EEG analysis showed significant differences in theta, alpha, and beta bands, related to the attentional state. These changes were further pinpointed to bands relative to the frequency of the individual alpha peak. The accuracy of the designed BCI ranged between 60.8% and 68.4% (significantly above chance level), depending on the used analysis window length, i.e. acceptable detection delay. Significance. This study shows it is possible to use self-reporting to study attention-related changes in EEG during continuous mobilization. Such a protocol is used to develop an asynchronous BCI detector of kinesthetic attention, with potential applications to motor rehabilitation.
Technical progress and pollution abatement: an economic view of selected technologies and practices

The paper first presents evidence from the engineering literature on air and water pollution control, which shows that, when the pollution abatement technologies are in place, large reductions in pollution have been achieved at costs that are small relative to the costs of production. A simulation model is then developed to study the effects of technical progress on pollution abatement, and applied to particular cases in developing countries. The results are compared with the projections of an environmental Kuznets curve: they reproduce the latter if policies were not to be introduced until per capita incomes reached levels comparable to those of the industrial countries when they first introduced their policies; but show dramatically lower and earlier peaks if policies were to be introduced earlier. The conclusion is shown to apply more generally, and it is argued that developing countries can aspire to addressing their environmental problems at a much earlier phase of development than the industrial countries before them.
Optimal sampling in array-based image formation

In some types of imaging, the signal is strictly limited in one domain while sampling takes places in another. If sampling is done in a rectangular array pattern at sub-Nyquist density, the array must be dithered to sample the image at the Nyquist density in each dimension. However, the Nyquist density oversamples the image due to the nonrectangular support in the transform domain. We present an efficient algorithm for optimizing the dithering pattern so that the image can be reconstructed as reliably as possible from a periodic nonuniform set of samples, which can be obtained from a dithered rectangular-grid array. Taking into account the transform support of the image, we sequentially eliminate the least informative array recursively until the minimal number of arrays remain.
Voriconazole Prophylaxis in Lung Transplant Recipients

Lung transplant recipients have one of the highest rates of invasive aspergillosis (IA) in solid organ transplantation. We used a single center, nonrandomized, retrospective, sequential study design to evaluate fungal infection rates in lung transplant recipients who were managed with either universal prophylaxis with voriconazole (n = 65) or targeted prophylaxis (n = 30) with itraconazole ± inhaled amphotericin in patients at high risk (pre‐ or posttransplant Aspergillus colonization [except Aspergillus niger]). The rate of IA at 1 year was better in lung transplant recipients receiving voriconazole prophylaxis as compared to the cohort managed with targeted prophylaxis (1.5% vs. 23%; p = 0.001). Twenty‐nine percent of cases in the targeted prophylaxis group were in patients colonized with A. niger who did not receive itraconazole. A threefold or higher increase in liver enzymes was noted in 37–60% of patients receiving voriconazole prophylaxis as compared to 15–41% of patients in the targeted prophylaxis cohort. Fourteen percent in the voriconazole group as compared to 8% in the targeted prophylaxis group had to discontinue antifungal medications due to side effects. Voriconazole prophylaxis can be used in preventing IA in lung transplant recipients. Regular monitoring of liver enzymes and serum concentrations of calcineurin inhibitors are required to avoid hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity.