Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consumption response to expected future income

This paper shows empirical evidence in favor of forward-looking household consumption--that consumption today depends directly on household-specific ex-ante expectations of future income. This analysis is unique in using a direct consumption measure combined with an ex-ante household-specific measure of expected future income, constructed from detailed survey and administrative data on Social Security, pensions, and retirement plans. Households with high expected future income spend more today than households that have lower future income but identical current income and net worth. Omitting household-specific future income can cause mis-estimation of key consumption questions. Furthermore, when all three resources for consumption (current income, net worth, and future income) are accounted for, the average propensity to spend out of current income is similar to predictions of optimal consumption under uncertainty in a dynamic stochastic model, although the propensities to spend out of accumulated net worth and expected future income are notably lower in the data than the optimal model. Finally, these data also provide evidence on the effect of risk on consumption while controlling for all three resources. Households with high measured risk aversion consume less out of future income. All households, on average, consume more out of the more predictable sources of future income, such as future Social Security benefits.
Cancer risk among patients with condylomata acuminata

Condylomata acuminata have been shown to increase the risk of anogenital cancers. However, previous studies have been of limited sample size and/or short follow‐up duration, which prevent precise estimates of long‐term excess risk, especially for specific cancer sites. We estimated the risk of specific cancers in a large cohort of hospitalized patients with condylomata acuminata, as recorded in the Swedish Inpatient Register between 1965 and 1999. Altogether, 10,971 patients (1,685 men and 9,286 women) were followed through 1999 for a median of 13 years. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR)—the ratio of the observed number of cancers to the number expected on the basis of the incidence in the Swedish population at large—was used as a measure of relative risk. After excluding the first‐year of follow‐up, we observed 43 cases of anogenital cancer in women, and 7 cases in men. Risks were elevated for cancers of the vulva (N = 13, SIR = 10.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 5.4–17.4), vagina (N = 4, SIR = 12.0, 95% CI = 3.3–30.7) and penis (N = 5, SIR = 21.9, 95% CI = 7.1–51.2). There was a moderate excess risk of cervical cancer in situ (N = 259, SIR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.7–2.1), but not invasive cervical cancer. Excess risks of esophageal, buccal cavity, nonmelanoma skin, lung and bladder cancers, and Hodgkin and non‐Hodgkin lymphoma, were also observed in both men and women. In conclusion, condylomata acuminata are strongly associated with increased risk of cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis and anus, as well as some nonanogenital malignancies, but not invasive cervical cancer. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
STD-/HIV-related sexual risk behaviors and substance use among U.S. rural adolescents.

OBJECTIVES The present study aims to examine the relationship between substance use and HIV/sexually transmitted disease (STD)-related sexual risk behaviors among a national sample of sexually active adolescents in rural settings. METHODS Participants included 9th-12th grade rural adolescents (N=5,745) who completed the 2003 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The independent variables were six substance use behaviors, including alcohol, marijuana, tobacco and cocaine use. The dependent variables were unprotected sex and the number of recent sexual partners. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were examined. RESULTS Smoking > or =3 days during the past 30 days was associated with unprotected sex. Alcohol or drug use before last sexual intercourse, having ever used marijuana, having ever used cocaine and drinking alcohol during the past 30 days were associated with having multiple sexual partners. CONCLUSIONS Results from the current study highlighted the need to provide youth with increased STD/HIV prevention knowledge in rural areas. Our finding confirmed that in order to achieve more effective STD/HIV prevention among high-risk substance-abusing youth, more intensive and better-tailored efforts will be needed to promote sexual risk reduction.
A prospective study of acute pancreatitis

All 78 patients with acute pancreatitis admitted to one hospital in a 2‐year period were included in a prospective survey of conservative management. The overall mortality rate was 11.5 per cent, being 46 per cent for 11 patients subjected to early laparotomy and only 6 per cent for patients managed without operation. Twenty‐six patients were considered to have severe acute pancreatitis and all 9 deaths occurred in this group.
An Empirical Examination of the Relationship between Central Bank Intervention and Exchange Rate Volatility: Some Australian Evidence

Arguably, market stability is one of the primary reasons behind government intervention in the foreign exchange market. Whether or not the authorities achieve this goal is an empirical matter and testing of this issue is made difficult by the fact that government intervention and exchange rate volatility may be jointly determined. In this paper, the extent to which volatility drives intervention is considered using PROBIT analysis. The results suggest that while support for the hypothesis exists, volatility on its own does not to provide enough information to allow us to accurately forecast government intervention. A modified GARCH model is then tested which incorporates the impact of government intervention in the mean and conditional variance equation. The evidence presented suggest that the dynamics of market are different on the days where the central bank is active in the market.
Multi-assets real options

Real options present a wide topic in investment litterature nowadays. However, despite big advances in the single asset investment pricing, the theory is miser of informations about problems involving more than one asset. We show in this paper that using dynamic programming, one can find an analytic trigger for a three assets simple exchange problem. Although we get a forward investment rule, one can not find the precise option value ex ante but only an average value. The precise option value depends on the first exit time from the continuation region which is stochastic. This is a quite intuitive effect of the course of dimensionality of the problem. Valuating a single asset project gives a single condition for the optimal decision rule. The same holds for the simple exchange problem with two assets since the value of the project just depends on the price over cost ratio. In a three assets problem, as the project don't depend anymore of a single state variable, one can't region.
Effect of prerigor freezing and postrigor calcium chloride injection on the tenderness of callipyge longissimus.

The effect of rapid prerigor freezing and postrigor freezing and postrigor calcium chloride injection on the tenderness of callipyge longissimus was studied. Ewe and wether lambs (n = 49; 1/2 Dorset x 1/2 Romanov) were grain-fed and slaughtered at approximately 250 d of age. Based on leg conformation scores, 23 of the carcasses had the callipyge phenotype. Within each phenotype, approximately one-half of the carcasses were chilled conventionally (24 h at -2 degrees C). At approximately 17 min postmortem, the remaining carcasses were submersed in liquid nitrogen for 15 min and then held at -2 degrees C for 4 d. At 1 d postmortem for carcasses chilled conventionally and at 4 d postmortem for carcasses frozen in liquid nitrogen, the longissimus muscles from both sides were removed. The longissimus from one side of each carcass was vacuum-packaged and aged (1 degrees C) conventionally for 7 or 14 d. The remaining muscles were injected with a 2.22% solution of food-grade calcium chloride at 5% by weight, vacuum-packaged, and aged as above. Liquid nitrogen freezing was effective in limiting sarcomere shortening (1.99 vs 1.63 microm; P < .05). Warner-Bratzler shear force values of callipyge longissimus were 222 and 232% of that of normal longissimus after 7 and 14 d postmortem, respectively (P < .001). Also, trained panel tenderness rating was decreased by 49.4% in untreated callipyge longissimus after 14 d postmortem. Liquid nitrogen, calcium chloride injection and their combination did not affect d-14 longissimus shear force and sensory tenderness for normal lambs because untreated muscles were already tender. Liquid nitrogen freezing improved the shear force and sensory tenderness rating of callipyge longissimus by 30 and 86.2% after 14 d postmortem, respectively. Calcium chloride injection improved the shear force and sensory tenderness of callipyge longissimus by 36.7 and 86.2% after 14 d postmortem, respectively (P < .001). The most effective treatment for mitigating the callipyge effect on tenderness was the combination (freezing and calcium chloride injection) treatment, which improved the shear force and sensory tenderness by 51.2 and 124.2% after 14 d postmortem, respectively (P < .001). We conclude that either treatment can effectively mitigate the negative effect of callipyge phenotype on longissimus tenderness. Callipyge lamb carcasses subjected to the combination of prerigor liquid nitrogen freezing, postrigor calcium chloride injection, and 14 d postmortem storage had tenderness similar (P > .05) to that of normal, untreated carcasses after 14 d of postmortem storage.
Bringing Darkness to Light: The Influence of Auditor Quality and Audit Committee Expertise on the Timeliness of Financial Statement Restatement Disclosures

SUMMARY: This study investigates whether auditor quality and audit committee expertise are associated with improved financial reporting timeliness as measured by the duration of a financial statement restatement's “dark period. ” The restatement dark period represents the length of time between a company's discovery that it will need to restate financial data and the subsequent disclosure of the restatement's effect on earnings. For a sample of dark restatements disclosed between 2004 and 2009, we find that companies that engage Big 4 auditors have shorter dark periods than companies that do not engage Big 4 auditors. We also find that companies with more financial experts on the audit committee have shorter dark periods, but only when such financial expertise relates specifically to accounting. Finally, companies with audit committee chairs that have accounting financial expertise provide the most timely disclosures, as the dark periods for these firms are reduced by approximately 38 percent. Our results .
Global and Local Youth Unemployment: Dislocation and Pathways

������ We know that a person’s chance of finding employment depends largely on their employment history. This is especially true for youth. National studies have shown that early employment experiences shape youth’s earning potential for the rest of their lifetime [1]. Youth unemployment rates, however, have recently reached highs that have not been seen since 1948. Youth unemployment rates for workers ages 16-24 peaked at 19.2% in September of 2009 [2]. Youth are now two times more likely to be unemployed than adult workers, and although youth only comprise 13.5% of the workforce, they represent 26.4% of the unemployed [2]. We know that the recession will not last forever, but today’s youth may feel its effects for the rest of their working lives.
The Effect of Institutional Factors on Discontinuities in Earnings Distribution

Previous studies have shown that, compared with earnings distributions in other countries, there are clear discontinuities at zero in the distribution of earnings levels in Japanese firms. We predict that two unique institutional factors in Japan—(a) the alignment between financial and tax accounting and (b) the tight relationship between firms and their banks—cause the discontinuities in earnings distribution. Consistent with this prediction, we find that firms with high marginal tax rates and tight relationships with their banks are more likely to manage earnings to report slightly positive earnings. We also find that this relationship is more pervasive for private firms than public firms. We contribute to the literature by examining a significant research setting that has features of both institutional factors and loss-avoidance behaviors to enable deeper consideration during hypothesis development.
Profiling Physician Practice Patterns Using Diagnostic Episode Clusters

Health plans and providers need to profile current practice patterns to understand better the resources used in managing medical conditions. A profiling system is presented that groups International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9-CM) codes into 125 diagnostic clusters based on clinical homogeneity with respect to physician treatment response. For each diagnostic cluster, diagnostic episode clusters (DECs) are formulated. A DEC links all services incurred in treating a patient's medical condition within a specific period of time. Each DEC is marked with a severity-of-illness, comorbidity, and age indicator. To test the validity of the diagnostic cluster methodology, claims were analyzed from a preferred provider organization (PPO) and an independent practice association (IPA), PPO and IPA DEC charges and utilization were compared with t-tests. Physician practice patterns differed based on patient severity of illness, comorbidities, and age. Both PPO and IPA physicians delivered significantly more resources to patients in higher severity-of-illness categories. PPO physicians generally treated older patients with more resources than younger patients. Patient age did not have the same impact on IPA physicians' practice patterns. IPA physicians' average treatment pattern was about 22% less expensive than that of PPO physicians. IPA physicians decreased average expenses by reducing hospital days by about 73% (P < 0.01) and hospital outpatient visits by about 89% (P < 0.01) compared to the rates of PPO physicians. Ambulatory services among IPA physicians were not significantly higher than rates for PPO physicians. The DEC methodology is a valid approach for profiling patterns of treatment. The style of medicine in the IPA was less hospital intensive and, consequently, less expensive than that practiced by PPO physicians. PPO physicians also had greater practice pattern variations than IPA physicians.
Baseline Estimates of Adherence to American Society of Clinical Oncology/American Board of Internal Medicine Choosing Wisely Initiative Among Patients With Cancer Enrolled With a Large Regional Commercial Health Insurer.

PURPOSE The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)/American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Choosing Wisely (CW) measures aim to reduce the use of interventions that lack evidence of benefit in cancer care. The study presented here characterized adherence to the 2012 ASCO/ABIM CW recommendations by linking health plan claims data with a regional cancer registry and sought to identify areas for research interventions to improve adherence. METHODS SEER records for patients diagnosed with cancer in Western Washington State between 2007 and 2014 were linked with enrollment and claims from a large regional commercial insurance plan. Using claims and SEER records, algorithms were developed to characterize adherence to each CW measure. In addition, we calculated differences in total reimbursements and procedure-specific reimbursements for patients receiving adherent and nonadherent care. RESULTS A total of 22,359 unique individuals with cancer were linked with insurance enrollment records and met basic eligibility criteria. Overall adherence varied from 53% (breast surveillance) to 78% (breast staging). Within each measure, adherence varied substantially by stage at diagnosis and by cancer site in situations in which the CW measure affected multiple types of cancer. The difference in reimbursements between adherent and nonadherent populations across all five measures was approximately $29 million. CONCLUSION Adherence to the ASCO/ABIM CW measures varies widely, as does the cost implication of nonadherence. A structured approach to evaluating adherence and cost impact is needed before developing programs aimed at improving adherence to the ASCO/ABIM CW measures.
A service discovery approach in support of Web service integration

Modern biological studies rely on life science Web databases as well as sophisticated Web-based software tools (e.g., homology search tools, modeling and visualization tools). These tools or Web services often have to be combined and integrated in order to support a given study (i.e. an in-silico experiment). The large number of the available Web services makes a service discovery process that can identify the set of services that satisfy a given number of constraints from the pool of all the available Web services crucial. Without such an automated service discovery process the user will have to have a thorough knowledge of all of the existing Web services, a task-which is impractical in the life science domain. In this paper, a scalable approach to service discovery in the biological domain is presented. The approach is based on and guided by a domain ontology.
MACRO-LEVEL DETERMINANTS OF THE PARTICIPATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS IN THE FORMER COMMUNIST EU MEMBER STATES

The paper analyzes the role of some societal lev el factors which determine citizens' participation in environmental non-governmental organizations in the case of ten former communist European countries, now members of the European Union, based on the data of the 62.2 Special Eurobarometer. The analysis practically re-verifies on the case of these countries previous considerations made on the level of very different states of the world regarding the macro-level determinants of participation, respectively adds to these previous findings the possible role of opportunity structures (number of ENGOs) and that of societal trust. Results confirm the role of the classical factors (national wealth, democratisation and environmental conditions) on participation. No matter participation have declined compared to the beginning of the transition period, democratisation still constitutes a helping force for participation in these countries as far as it creates the climat e and opportunity structures for involvement. It is howev er interesting that ENGO participation is much more dependent on a country's democratic climate than on the number of opportunity structures, in spite of the fact that the latter is correlated with democra tisation.
Effects of dioxins on the quantitative levels of immune components in infants

Dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDD)=polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDF)) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are potentially hazardous compounds and have structural similarity with thyroid hormones. Animal studies have demonstrated that PCDDs, PCDFs and PCBs can alter immune functions. However, in humans it is not yet elucidated whether dioxins contained in breast milk have any effects on the immune functions in infants. To investigate the effects of dioxins on the immune system, we compared the quantitative levels of immune components between a breast-fed group and bottle-fed group, in which dioxin concentration is almost zero. Ratios of immune cells, such as CD4= and CD8= T-lymphocytes, as well as B-lymphocytes (CD19= and/or CD20=) and NK cells (CD16=, CD56=) in peripheral blood lymphocytes, serum immunoglobulin level, and level of specific IgE antibody to allergens in the venous blood at 12 months of age were assessed in a subgroup of 281 infants. The relationship of post-natal dioxin exposure via breast feeding with the ratio of immunological markers and the level of humoral antibodies up to 12 month of age was not demonstrated. In conclusion, it would appear that the content of dioxins in breast milk in the Japanese general population is not enough to induce any change in theses-examined immunological parameters during the first year of life, although long-term effects remain to be evaluated.
On the “Net Impact” of Europeanization

This article examines the outcome of the EU policy process from various comparative perspectives in an effort to distinguish the “net effects” of EU membership and EU-level regimes from more general—perhaps global—processes of change. It argues that the major features of liberalization would have been diffused to most if not all member states even in the absence of the European Commission, other agents of supranationalism, and EU-level intergovernmental commitment to liberalize. This is not to suggest that Europeanization does not matter but that it matters in less obvious and perhaps in less critical ways than is frequently assumed. The argument is supported by comparative empirical analysis of the spatial and temporal diffusion of liberalization since the 1980s and of nationalization since the late 19th century.
Do Girls Have a Higher School Drop-out Rate than Boys? A Hazard Rate Analysis of Evidence from a Third World City

This paper estimates gender-specific conditional probabilities of drop-out from the schools in Karachi, a large metropolitan city of Pakistan. The analysis is based on the socio-economic and demographic data of family members extracted from a large sample survey of households in the city. Studies in urban Pakistan have found a lower participation rate (unconditional probability) for girls than boys. In contrast, our results indicate that the probability of drop-out of females is lower than boys at institutionally established 'exit' points in the schooling system of Karachi.
THE T LYMPHOCYTE STRUCTURE CD60 CONTAINS A SIALYLATED CARBOHYDRATE EPITOPE THAT IS EXPRESSED ON BOTH GANGLIOSIDES AND GLYCOPROTEINS

The CD60 antigen is expressed on a majority of T cells in autoimmune lesions, and anti-CD60 can activate T lymphocytes. CD60 has been defined as the GD3 ganglioside, and subsequently as the 9-O-acetylated form of GD3. However, other evidence suggests that anti-CD60 recognizes a glycoprotein or family of glycoproteins expressed by T lymphocytes. The current studies were undertaken to better define the identity of the CD60 antigen on both T cells and non-T cells. Treatment of intact cells with neuraminidases of various specificities confirmed that detection of the CD60 epitope depends on expression of an α2, 8-disialic acid carbohydrate linkage, as is found in GD3 and related gangliosides. However, the sialic acid polymer colominic acid inhibited anti-GD2 and anti-GD3, but not anti-CD60 from binding to cell surfaces. Expression of CD60 did not correlate with expression of GD3 on a variety of cell lines and T cell populations. Expression of CD60 and 9-O-acetyl-GD3 was roughly parallel on some non-T cell lines such as melanoma cells, but on T cells expression of CD60 was consistently greater. Antibodies to GD2,GD3 and 9-O-acetyl-GD3 were inefective at inhibiting binding of anti-CD60 to CD60+ cells. Activation responses of T cells to anti-CD60 were inducible in either the presence or absence of a response to anti-GD3. A novel inhibitor of glucosyl ceramide synthesis, D-threo-1-phenyl-2-palmitoylamino-3-pyrrolidino-1-propanol (D-t-P4) reduced expression of GD3 much more than CD60 on activated T lymphocytes. Following biotinylation of HUT78 T cells, anti-CD60 immunoprecipitated a 70 kDa antigen. Taken together, the present data and previous findings suggest that anti-CD60 can recognize both a modified form of the GD3 ganglioside and a carbohydrate-dependent complex epitope present on one or more glycoproteins. This glycoprotein epitope may be the more abundant and functionally significant CD60 antigen on T lymphocytes, while 9-O-acetyl-GD3 is likely to be the principal structure recognized by anti-CD60 on melanoma cells. These findings emphasize the complexity of understanding the functional roles of carbohydrate epitopes in cell activation.