Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
China: The Effects of Bank Reform on Structure and Performance

This paper investigates the relationship between market structure and performance in China's banking system over the period 1985-2002. Using panel data and employing a random effects estimating procedure, both the market-power and efficient-structure hypotheses are tested. In addition, the model is extended to consider issues such as the impact of bank size/ownership effect and whether the big four banks enjoy a "quiet life". The results suggest the strategy of gradual reform affected the structure of China's banking market, but new policies should be directed at increasing the market share of the most efficient banks. No evidence was found to support the quiet life hypothesis, probably because strict interest rate controls prevented the state banks from earning monopoly profits. Thus the ongoing liberalization of interest rates should be accompanied by policies to reduce concentration.
Boundaries and Barriers: A Study of Managers in Career Transition

This paper reports on the career transition experiences of a group of mid-level to senior managers from a range of industry sectors undergoing an outplacement program. Using in-depth interviews the study explored their career histories and their current job search experiences. The findings indicated that, to some extent, people in management positions were pursuing careers characterised by psychological or physical boundarylessness, yet they still faced significant barriers when attempting to cross job, organisation, industry or professional boundaries. Career history, skills and experience, age, qualifications, networks and recruiters were identified as creating barriers that limited opportunities for pursuing more flexible careers. The paper concludes with suggestions for managing career transitions and areas for further research.
Effects of nonesterified fatty acid availability on tissue-specific glucose utilization in rats in vivo.

The pathophysiological significance of the glucose-fatty acid cycle in skeletal muscle in vivo is uncertain. We have examined the short term effects of increased availability of nonesterified FFA on tissue-specific glucose uptake and storage in rat tissues in vivo basally and during a hyperinsulinemic (150 mU/liter) euglycemic clamp. Circulating FFA were elevated to 2 mmol/liter (FFA 1) or 4 mmol/liter (FFA 2). Elevated FFA produced a dose-dependent inhibition of myocardial glucose utilization in both basal (FFA1, 42%; FFA2, 68%; P less than 0.001, by analysis of variance) and clamp groups (FFA1, 39%; FFA2, 49%; P less than 0.001) and also suppressed brown adipose tissue glucose utilization during the clamp (-42%, P less than 0.001). In contrast to heart, glucose utilization in skeletal muscle was suppressed by FFA only in the FFA1 basal group (-36%, P less than 0.001); in other groups (e.g., FFA2 clamp) elevated FFA produced increased skeletal muscle glucose utilization (+68%, P less than 0.001) that was directed toward glycogen (+175%, P less than 0.05) and lipid deposition (+125%, P less than 0.005). FFA stimulated basal glucose utilization in white (e.g., FFA2, +220%, P less than 0.005) and brown adipose tissue (e.g., FFA2, +200%, P less than 0.005). Thus elevated FFA can acutely inhibit glucose utilization in skeletal muscle in addition to cardiac muscle in vivo supporting a possible role for the glucose-fatty acid cycle in skeletal muscle in acute insulin resistance. However, at high levels or with elevated insulin, FFA stimulates glucose utilization and storage in skeletal muscle. By promoting accumulation of glucose storage products, chronic elevation of FFA may lead to skeletal muscle (and therefore whole body) insulin resistance.
Transportation: A Supply Chain Perspective

PART I. 1. Transportation: Critical Link in the Supply Chain. 2. Transportation: Critical Link in the Economy. 3. Transportation Regulation and Public Policy. 4. Costing and Pricing for Transportation. PART II. 5. Motor Carriers. 6. Railroads. 7. Airlines. 8. Water Carriers and Pipelines. PART III. 9. Transportation Risk Management. 10. Global Transportation Planning. 11. Global Transportation Execution. 12. Third Party Logistics. 13. Private Transportation and Fleet Management. 14. Issues and Challenges of Global Supply Chains.
Emerging new clinical patterns in the presentation of celiac disease.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate changes in the clinical presentation of celiac disease in southeastern Wisconsin. DESIGN Retrospective medical record review. SETTING Clinical specialty practice in pediatric gastroenterology. Patients The medical records of all patients diagnosed with celiac disease at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin between 1986 and 2003 were reviewed. Data extracted from the medical records included year of diagnosis, demographics, indications for endoscopy and biopsy, signs, symptoms, and laboratory data. Biopsy specimens were read by the pediatric pathologist and graded according to the Marsh criteria. Main Exposure Date of initial diagnosis of celiac disease. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Presenting symptoms of patients with newly diagnosed celiac disease. RESULTS One hundred forty-three patients were diagnosed with celiac disease. The number of patients diagnosed with celiac disease increased from 1 in 1986 to 93 in 2003. The mean age at diagnosis increased from 5.32 years for patients diagnosed before 1995 to 8.70 years for patients diagnosed after 1995. Gastrointestinal symptoms dominated in children younger than 3 years, whereas in children older than 3 years, the majority presented with non-gastrointestinal indications. The percentage of patients presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms alone decreased during the study period; 11.2% of patients diagnosed with celiac disease were overweight (body mass index > 90). CONCLUSIONS Our study provides a unique longitudinal follow-up of clinical practice over a 17-year period. Currently, patients with celiac disease usually do not present with classic symptoms; they are more likely to be asymptomatic school-aged children who belong to a high-risk group.
Public-Private Partnerships: Risk Allocation and Value for Money

This paper reviews the literature on the allocation and valuation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). First, the paper discusses why governments pursue PPPs and how value for money (VfM) is achieved. Second, the paper reviews the principles of risk allocation and valuation from an academic and public sector perspective. Both the private and public sector consider risk allocation to be a critical issue with respect to PPPs and VfM generation, although governments adopt a less complex approach to risk measurement. This paper analyses papers, case-studies, and reports concerning VfM from PPPs and concludes that, from an academic perspective, the majority of PPPs do not create VfM (government reports usually reach the opposite conclusion).
Antioxidant supplementation effects on low-density lipoprotein oxidation for individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVE This study compared susceptibility to oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) of non-diabetic and diabetic (Type 2) men and examined the response of diabetic men to antioxidant supplementation (alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene and ascorbate). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Twenty adult non-diabetic and 20 diabetic men were recruited. Oxidation of LDL was assessed by four different assay systems, and the extent of oxidation was assessed by four different measurements. Diabetic men received eight weeks of placebo ("baseline"), twelve weeks of antioxidant supplements ("treated") and eight weeks of placebo ("post-treatment"). Supplements provided 24 mg of beta-carotene, 1000 mg of ascorbate and 800 IU of alpha-tocopherol daily. RESULTS With Cu oxidation at 37 degrees C, thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARS) formation was significantly higher (p=0.032) and loss of free amine groups was significantly greater (p=0.013) in the LDL from diabetic subjects than controls. Antioxidant supplementation of diabetic subjects significantly decreased all parameters of LDL oxidation with Cu at 30 degrees C and 37 degrees C. At 30 degrees C the lag phase increased from 55 to 129 minutes (p<0.0001); conjugated diene formation decreased from 1.23 to 0.62 OD units (p<0.0001); TBARS formation decreased from 78 to 33 nmoles MDA/mg LDL protein (p<0.0001); and free amine loss decreased from 41 to 12% (p<0.0001). With Cu oxidation at 37 degrees C, similar changes occurred. CONCLUSIONS These studies indicate that the LDL from diabetic subjects are more susceptible to oxidation than LDL from non-diabetic subjects. Supplementation of diabetic subjects with antioxidant vitamins significantly decreases susceptibility of LDL to oxidation by Cu. These studies are consistent with epidemiological and intervention studies suggesting that antioxidant vitamin use significantly decreases risk for coronary heart disease.
Conditionality as an Instrument of Borrower Credibility

Fund member countries that adopt market-friendly policies often encounter a credibility problem—market-friendly policies are not effective in stimulating private investment as long as there remains a significant risk of policy reversal. The root of this risk lies in the discretionary policy-making authority of governments. Committing to a program with the Fund, and endorsing its conditionality, is one instrument available to governments to overcome this difficulty. The paper develops this interpretation of conditionality and indicates some of its operational implications for Fund programs.
Map-aided fingerprint-based indoor positioning

The objective of this work is to investigate potential accuracy improvements in the fingerprint-based indoor positioning processes, by imposing map-constraints into the positioning algorithms in the form of a-priori knowledge. In our approach, we propose the introduction of a Route Probability Factor (RPF), which reflects the possibility of a user, to be located on one position instead of all others. The RPF does not only affect the probabilities of the points along the pre-defined frequent routes, but also influences all the neighbouring points that lie at the proximity of each frequent route. The outcome of the evaluation process, indicates the validity of the RPF approach, demonstrated by the significant reduction of the positioning error.
Print and Internet catalog shopping: assessing attitudes and intentions

The use of print catalogs for direct marketing has a long history of success. Today, telecommunication networks, such as the Internet, offer the potential to reach a larger market through the use of online catalogs that could be dynamic, flexible, and consumer‐responsive. This paper reports the results of an empirical study that compared individuals’ attitudes and intentions to shop using print and Internet catalogs. The findings suggest that individuals perceived differences between the two catalog media on the shopping factors of reliability, tangibility, and consumer risk. Further, product value, pre‐order information, post‐selection information, shopping experience, and consumer risk emerged as the factors that influenced attitudes and intentions to shop using print and Internet catalogs.
X‐Linked Agammaglobulinemia: A Survey of 33 Iranian Patients

In order to determine the clinical and laboratory features of X‐linked agammaglobulinemia, the records of 33 male patients with XLA were reviewed during 22 years (1980–2002) in the Iranian referral center of primary immunodeficiency disorders. The patients' ages ranged from 20 to 360 months (median 113 months). The median age at the onset of the disease was 8 months and the median age of diagnosis was 48 months, with a median diagnosis delay of 33 months. Almost all of the patients presented common infectious diseases, which were: pneumonia, otitis, diarrhea, sinusitis, and arthritis. During the course of illness, infections in the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system, and musculoskeletal system were seen in 93.9%, 75.8%, 33.3%, and 21.2% of XLA patients, respectively. The most common complications of these patients were chronic infections in 75.8% of them, including: chronic otitis media, chronic sinusitis, chronic diarrhea, and bronchiectasis.
An unstable dicentric Robertsonian translocation in a markedly discordant twin

Karyotypes from independent amniocenteses reflected a rare, unstable, functionally dicentric Robertsonian translocation chromosome in most cells in male Twin B who grew more slowly than the chromosomally normal female sib (Twin A). Twin B's balanced de novo Robertsonian translocation dic(13;14)(p11.1;p11.1), present in 81% of cells, underwent recurrent centromeric fission in 6 out of 30 independent colonies that explains a balanced 46,XY,‐13,+fis(13)(p11.1),‐14,+fis(14)(p11.1) karyotype. Aneuploidy for chromosomes 13q or 14q was present in 5% of cells. Instability of the Robertsonian translocation was evident because nine of the 30 colonies (30%) grown from single amniocytes had metaphase cells with more than one chromosome complement. Although uniparental disomy was excluded and a targeted ultrasound was normal, the couple was advised of the uncertain but real risk of abnormalities in Twin B and the risk to Twin A of terminating Twin B. The pregnancy proceeded and at 31 weeks gestation Twin A was in the 33rd percentile for size and Twin B in the 1st percentile. At 32 weeks, chromosome analysis revealed a balanced 45,XY,dic(13;14)(p11.1;p11.1) karyotype in all of Twin B's newborn cord blood cells with no evidence of fission or aneuploidy. Selection against unbalanced mitotic products of the unstable, functionally dicentric chromosome in early fetal development is proposed to result in Twin B's highly discordant small birth size.
Media Coverage and the Stock Price Bubbles

This paper uses the intensity of media coverage and trading records of retail investors to investigate the effect of media coverage on stock price bubbles. My analysis is based on a sample of intraday transactions from Chinese stock market and China Core Newspapers Full-text Database. In the first part of the study, I show that media coverage is positively correlated to stock price. In addition I also find that media coverage is positively correlated to the divergence of opinion, which in turn induces the stock price bubbles. In the second part of the study, I measure changes in investor sentiment based on the intraday retail transactions, and evaluate the joint impact of retail investor sentiment and media coverage on stock price bubbles.
Impact of Specialist Home-Based Palliative Care Services in a Tertiary Oncology Set Up: A Prospective Non-Randomized Observational Study

BACKGROUND Home-based specialist palliative care services are developed to meet the needs of the patients in advanced stage of cancer at home with physical symptoms and distress. Specialist home care services are intended to improve symptom control and quality of life, enable patients to stay at home, and avoid unnecessary hospital admission. MATERIALS AND METHODS Total 690 new cases registered under home-based palliative care service in the year 2012 were prospectively studied to assess the impact of specialist home-based services using Edmonton symptom assessment scale (ESAS) and other parameters. RESULTS Out of the 690 registered cases, 506 patients received home-based palliative care. 50.98% patients were cared for at home, 28.85% patients needed hospice referral and 20.15% patients needed brief period of hospitalization. All patients receiving specialist home care had good relief of physical symptoms (P < 0.005). 83.2% patients received out of hours care (OOH) through liaising with local general practitioners; 42.68% received home based bereavement care and 91.66% had good bereavement outcomes. CONCLUSION Specialist home-based palliative care improved symptom control, health-related communication and psychosocial support. It promoted increased number of home-based death, appropriate and early hospice referral, and averted needless hospitalization. It improved bereavement outcomes, and caregiver satisfaction.
The Productive Tension of Trust and Distrust: The Coexistence and Relative Role of Trust and Distrust in Online Banking

This study examines the effects of trustworthiness perceptions and trustor dispositions on trust and distrust as well as the downstream influence of trust and distrust on intention to use online banking. More than 500 college students located across two universities completed a survey to provide data for the study. The findings from this study suggest that the “blind trust” and “blind distrust” perspectives used in isolation are incomplete and that a more comprehensive model of trust requires the inclusion of both perspectives. As hypothesized, results also support the assertion that trust and distrust are distinct constructs and that the established e-retailing trust nomological network holds in an online banking context. The study also contributes to the literature by establishing several distrust antecedents, as well as illustrating distrust's negative effect on intention to use online banking. Finally, the study illustrates how the influence of trust can overwhelm the effect of distrust in an online banking context.
Fluidity of HIV-1-Specific T-Cell Responses during Acute and Early Subtype C HIV-1 Infection and Associations with Early Disease Progression

ABSTRACT Deciphering immune events during early stages of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection is critical for understanding the course of disease. We characterized the hierarchy of HIV-1-specific T-cell gamma interferon (IFN-γ) enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay responses during acute subtype C infection in 53 individuals and associated temporal patterns of responses with disease progression in the first 12 months. There was a diverse pattern of T-cell recognition across the proteome, with the recognition of Nef being immunodominant as early as 3 weeks postinfection. Over the first 6 months, we found that there was a 23% chance of an increased response to Nef for every week postinfection (P = 0.0024), followed by a nonsignificant increase to Pol (4.6%) and Gag (3.2%). Responses to Env and regulatory proteins appeared to remain stable. Three temporal patterns of HIV-specific T-cell responses could be distinguished: persistent, lost, or new. The proportion of persistent T-cell responses was significantly lower (P = 0.0037) in individuals defined as rapid progressors than in those progressing slowly and who controlled viremia. Almost 90% of lost T-cell responses were coincidental with autologous viral epitope escape. Regression analysis between the time to fixed viral escape and lost T-cell responses (r = 0.61; P = 0.019) showed a mean delay of 14 weeks after viral escape. Collectively, T-cell epitope recognition is not a static event, and temporal patterns of IFN-γ-based responses exist. This is due partly to viral sequence variation but also to the recognition of invariant viral epitopes that leads to waves of persistent T-cell immunity, which appears to associate with slower disease progression in the first year of infection.
Low Cost Carriers effect of entry on airfare and passenger traffic within US Airline Industry

This study analyzes how the presence of a low cost carrier is going to affect the airfares and the passenger traffic. The present structure of the US carriers market is also overviewed, in order to determine the share of incumbent carrier market power. A number of factors such as distance, number of passengers, market concentration, income, low cost presence, type of travel (leisure or not) playing an essential role in analyzing ticket fares and helped in providing a reliable outcome. Most of the findings in previous research reveal that the entry effect of a low cost carrier decreases the airfares and leads to an increase in the passenger traffic. The regressions essentially determine if the fares strategy is different taking into account the presence of a low cost carrier on a specific route. Based on fixed effects and an instrumental variable approach over 2000 to 2014 it can be concluded that the entry of low cost aviation companies do indeed diminish the airfares though at a lower level and in the same time the passenger traffic will rise due to a cut down in ticket price. Precisely, the findings of this paper according to the panel instrumental variable method reveal a 6.3% drop in airfares concomitant with a 6.7% increase in the passengers’ traffic once the entry is established.
Financial Literacy and Portfolio Diversification

In this paper we focus on poor financial literacy as one potential factor explaining lack of portfolio diversification. We use the 2007 Unicredit Customers’ Survey, which has indicators of portfolio choice, financial literacy and many demographic characteristics of investors. We first propose test-based indicators of financial literacy and document the extent of portfolio under-diversification. We find that measures of financial literacy are strongly correlated with the degree of portfolio diversification. We also compare the test-based degree of financial literacy with investors’ self-assessment of their financial knowledge, and find only a weak relation between the two measures, an issue that has gained importance after the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID) has required financial institutions to rate investors’ financial sophistication through questionnaires.
Pregnant Women in the Workplace

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2001 that 51% of married women return to the work force before their children are 1 year old (Rojjanasrirat, 2004). Women's roles in the United States are rapidly changing, and the workplace environment is also changing to meet the added demands of women in the work force. Many women assimilate the multiple roles of wife, mother, and working professional into a cohesive unit; however, this is often difficult. Occupational health nurses play a vital role advocating for women in the work force. A critical area of advocacy (and education) focuses on providing necessary support to pregnant employees.
Arithmetic toric varieties

We study toric varieties over a field k that split in a Galois extension K/k using Galois cohomology with coefficients in the toric automorphism group. Part of this Galois cohomology fits into an exact sequence induced by the presentation of the class group of the toric variety. This perspective helps to compute the Galois cohomology, particularly for cyclic Galois groups. We use Galois cohomology to classify k‐forms of projective spaces when K/k is cyclic, and we also study k‐forms of surfaces.
Evaluation of a direct fluorescein-conjugated monoclonal antibody for detection of cytomegalovirus in centrifugation culture

A fluorescein-conjugated murine monoclonal antibody (MAb) reactive with cytomegalovirus (CMV) was evaluated for the detection of CMV in centrifugation culture. Of 188 specimens, 90 were positive for CMV in centrifugation culture. The fluorescein-conjugated MAb detected CMV in 86 of 90 (95%) specimens at 16 h postinoculation, and 88 of 90 (98%) were positive at 36 h. The fluorescein-conjugated MAb can be used in a direct immunofluorescence assay that can be completed in 15 min following cover slip fixation. Use of this antibody in centrifugation culture provides a convenient and rapid assay for the identification of CMV.