Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The binaural auditory pathway: membrane currents limiting multiple action potential generation in the rat medial nucleus of the trapezoid body

In this paper we describe the membrane currents of neurons in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), which serves as an inverting relay in the binaural auditory pathway. In the following paper (Forsythe & Barnes-Davies (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 251, 151 (1993))) we describe the synaptic inputs to the MNTB and discuss the significance of these results for transmission through this nucleus, where the fidelity of information transfer will depend on the integration of synaptic responses with the intrinsic postsynaptic membrane properties. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings were made from MNTB neurons using a thin-slice preparation of the rat brain stem. Resting potentials were —70 mV with a neuronal input resistance of 250 MΩ and a membrane time constant of 14 ms. Voltage-clamp studies showed that MNTB neurons possess an inward sodium current, an outward current similar to a delayed rectifier and an inward rectifier. In addition, a novel transient outward current exhibiting rapid kinetics and a sustained current are present, which are both blocked by micromolar concentrations of 4-aminopyridine (4AP). Current-clamp recording showed that MNTB neurons respond to depolarization with a single overshooting action potential (AP) ; 4AP blocked a fast after-hyperpolarization, increased AP duration, and converted the single AP response on depolarization to a train of action potentials.
Stock changes or fluxes? Resolving terminological confusion in the debate on land-use change and forestry

Abstract This article collates definitions of some key terms commonly used in greenhouse gas reporting and accounting for the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector, and highlights areas of ambiguity and divergent interpretations of key concepts. It uses the example of harvested wood products to demonstrate the impact of different interpretations. The objective is to facilitate clear communication amongst negotiators and practitioners in relation to the terms emissions, removals, sources and sinks. Confusion and misunderstandings that have arisen in the past are rooted in diverging interpretations of the terms ‘emissions’ and ‘removals’ in the context of land use and wood products. One interpretation sees emissions and removals to be approximated by a change in carbon stocks in a number of selected carbon pools that may include or exclude harvested wood products. Another interpretation views emissions and removals as gross fluxes between the atmosphere and the land/wood products system. The various alternative approaches that have been proposed for reporting for harvested wood products are applicable to one or the other of these interpretations: the stock-change and production approaches, focused on stock changes, are applicable to the first interpretation; whereas the atmospheric flow and simple decay approaches focus on fluxes, as in the second interpretation. Whether emissions/removals are approximated by stock change or from gross fluxes, it is critical that a consistent approach is applied across the whole LULUCF/AFOLU sector. Approaches based on stock change are recommended over those based on fluxes.
Technical efficiency of carp pond culture in South Asia: An application of a stochastic meta‐production frontier model

Abstract A stochastic meta‐production frontier model is estimated to examine the inter‐country differences in levels of technical efficiency of semi‐intensive/intensive and extensive carp pond culture systems among the major carp producing countries in South Asia, namely India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. The mean technical efficiencies for semi‐intensive/intensive farms vary from 0.68 for Nepal to 0.79 for India, with an overall average of 0.75 and those for extensive farms vary from 0.48 for Bangladesh to 0.62 for Pakistan, with an overall mean of 0.57. Differences in efficiency levels are explained in terms of various farm‐specific and country‐specific factors by estimating a model for technical inefficiency effects. The adoption of recommended fish, water, and feed management practices is found to be critical for improved performance of carp producers. For each country, the study also compares the efficiency scores based on its own production frontier with those obtained from the meta‐production frontier.
Relational Venture Capital Financing of Serial Founders

I study how often and why a serial founder receives financing for his new company from a venture capital (VC) firm that also invested in his previous company. One in 10 VC investments leads to a repeated relationship and one in three serial founders enters into a repeated relationship with any previous VC firm. A repeated relationship is more likely when the relational VC firm has acquired more private information about the founder, but less likely if the founder’s new venture has a bad fit with the VC firm’s geographic or industry focus. My findings add to the literature on relational financing by showing that the preservation of information is an important motivation for relational financing when screening and monitoring costs are high. Yet, repeated relationships are discontinued because investors also respond to information problems by specializing in certain types of firms. Finally, I find evidence of non-relational investments being passed onto trusted VC syndication partners.
On the effectiveness of returns policies in the price‐dependent newsvendor model

We study in this paper the price‐dependent (PD) newsvendor model in which a manufacturer sells a product to an independent retailer facing uncertain demand and the retail price is endogenously determined by the retailer. We prove that for a zero salvage value and some expected demand functions, in equilibrium, the manufacturer may elect not to introduce buybacks. On the other hand, if buybacks are introduced in equilibrium, their introduction has an insignificant effect on channel efficiency improvement, but, by contrast, may significantly shift profits from the retailer to the manufacturer. We further demonstrate that the introduction of buybacks increases the wholesale price, retail price, and inventory level, as compared to the wholesale price‐only contract, and that the corresponding vertically integrated firm offers the lowest retail price and highest inventory level. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005.
Benefits and Costs of Auditor's Assurance: Evidence from the Review of Quarterly Financial Statements

Even though there is a worldwide consensus as to the necessity of an audit of annual financial statements for public companies, there is divergence of views as to the review of interim financial statements. While some jurisdictions make it mandatory (e.g., Australia, France, US), others allow the review without requiring it (e.g., Canada, UK). Using a sample of companies listed in Canada, we examine the costs associated with these reviews and the benefits they generate in terms of improvement in the quality of interim financial statements for the years 2004 and 2005. Controlling for the decision to purchase the reviews, we find that audit fees are 18 percent higher for firms with interim reviews and, contrary to many regulators’ assumption, we find no evidence that this cost increase is proportionally higher for smaller firms. Regarding the benefits of interim reviews, we find no significant association between either accruals- or non accruals-based measures of earnings management and the fact that the interim statements are reviewed by the auditor, neither in the interim reports nor in those of the fourth quarter. The results suggest that auditors’ involvement with interim reports may not be as effective as previously thought at controlling the quality of interim financial statements.
Testosterone, Aggression, Physical, and Personality Dimensions in Normal Adolescent Males

&NA; Fifty‐eight normal adolescent Swedish boys, aged 16, provided two sets of blood samples for plasma testosterone assays as well as data on a number of personality inventories and rating scales assessing aggression, inpulsiveness, lack of frustration tolerance, extraversion, and anxiety. Physical variables such as pubertal stage, height, weight, chest circumference, and physical strength were measured. There was a significant association (r = 0.44) between plasma testosterone levels and self‐reports of physical and verbal aggression, mainly reflecting responsiveness to provocation and threat. Lack of frustration tolerance was also related to testosterone levels. About 40% of the variance in perfectly reliable testosterone measurements could be predicted from equally reliable Physical + Verbal Aggression and Lack of Frustration Tolerance scales. Pubertal stage was correlated with testosterone (r = 0.44), but the above‐mentioned relationships could not be accounted for by pubertal stage as a third common variable. Previous hypotheses relating testosterone to strong body build and antisocial behavior, respectively, received only weak or no support.
The Forward-Rate Bias

The forward-rate bias offers investors an opportunity to profit from a seemingly naive strategy—buying currencies that sell at a discount to current spot rates and selling currencies that sell at a premium to current spot rates—and thus increase portfolio returns. Several tests confirm the presence of the forward-rate bias, but will it persist or will it fade away? Several explanations—time-varying risk premiums, altruistic central banks, and behavioral finance—attempt to provide the answer. This presentation comes from the Managing Currency Risks in Investment Portfolios conference held in New York, New York, on November 19-20, 1998.
Overweight and Obese Prevalence Rates in African American and Hispanic Children: An Analysis of Data from the 2003–2004 National Survey of Children's Health

Background: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was examined in African-American and Hispanic children compared with white children. Methods: Multivariate analyses were performed on cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Children's Health collected in 2003 to 2004. Results: Analyses found that overweight children were more likely to be African American and Hispanic than white, be male, live in households with incomes below 150% of the Federal poverty level, watch television 3 or more hours daily, and not have received preventive care in the past 12 months. Overweight children were less likely to get minimum levels of moderate physical activity or have participated on a sports team. Conclusions: Poverty impacts childhood body mass index in at least 2 specific ways: unsafe neighborhoods and the cost and accessibility of healthy foods in low income communities. Addressing these issues require the concerted efforts of policy makers. The same is true for resolving the issues of children not receiving preventive care. Increasing the number of well child check-ups mandated by the government and required by school systems may be a beneficial policy. Furthermore, policymakers concerned with issues of childhood obesity may pursue the creation of school-based health clinics in schools where at least 50% of the student body live in households with incomes <150% of the Federal poverty level.
Managing a network by utilizing performance measurement information

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how different network members utilize and use network‐level performance measurement information. This is an important approach when discussing the management and development of a network by utilizing a performance measurement system.Design/methodology/approach – The study is a single‐case study, where a collaborative network forms the case. The data of the study have been gathered from an action research process of network performance measurement system design and its implementation phase in 2009, interviews in 2010, and discussions with the interviewees in 2012 to re‐evaluate the results.Findings – The results of the study reveal that the use of the network‐level performance measurement system increased communication, trust, and commitment in the whole network, as well as in a single reselling unit. The performance measurement information also helped the companies create better alignment with their network partners.Practical implications – The paper prese.
Synthesizing Filamentary Structured Images with GANs

This paper aims at synthesizing filamentary structured images such as retinal fundus images and neuronal images, as follows: Given a ground-truth, to generate multiple realistic looking phantoms. A ground-truth could be a binary segmentation map containing the filamentary structured morphology, while the synthesized output image is of the same size as the ground-truth and has similar visual appearance to what have been presented in the training set. Our approach is inspired by the recent progresses in generative adversarial nets (GANs) as well as image style transfer. In particular, it is dedicated to our problem context with the following properties: Rather than large-scale dataset, it works well in the presence of as few as 10 training examples, which is common in medical image analysis; It is capable of synthesizing diverse images from the same ground-truth; Last and importantly, the synthetic images produced by our approach are demonstrated to be useful in boosting image analysis performance. Empirical examination over various benchmarks of fundus and neuronal images demonstrate the advantages of the proposed approach.
Tobacco industry attempts to influence and use the German government to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Background Germany has been identified as one of a few high-income countries that opposed a strong Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the WHO's first global public health treaty. This paper examines whether the tobacco industry had influenced the German position on the FCTC. Methods Analysis of previously confidential tobacco industry documents. Results The tobacco industry has identified Germany as a key target within its global strategy against the FCTC. Building on an already supportive base, the industry appears to have successfully lobbied the German government, influencing Germany's position and argumentation on key aspects of the FCTC. It then used Germany in its efforts to weaken the FCTC. The evidence suggests that the industry enjoyed success in undermining the Federal Health Ministry's position and using Germany to limit the European Union negotiating mandate. The tactics used by the tobacco industry included the creation of controversy between the financial, trade and other ministries on one side and the health ministry on the other side, the use of business associations and other front groups to lobby on the industry's behalf and securing industry access to the FCTC negotiations via the International Standardization Organization. Conclusion The evidence suggests that Germany played a major role in the tobacco industry's efforts to undermine the FCTC. Germany's position consistently served to protect industry interests and was used to influence and constrain other countries. Germany thus contributed significantly to attempts to weaken an international treaty and, in doing so, failed in its responsibility to advance global health.
Search Frictions, Unemployment, and Housing in Cities: Theory and Policies

type="main"> We propose an urban search-matching model with land development. Wages, unemployment, prices of housing and land are endogenously determined. We characterize the steady-state equilibrium and then discuss the issue of efficiency. To explore interactions among markets, we implement comparative static analysis. We also consider three policies: an entry-cost policy that reduces firms' entry, a transportation policy that reduces commuting costs, and a housing policy that decreases rental prices. We find that the transportation and housing policies are more efficient if the unemployment rate is low, while the entry-cost policy is more efficient if the unemployment rate is high.
Implementation, utilization and influence of a community-based participatory nutrition promotion programme in rural Ethiopia: programme impact pathway analysis

Abstract Objective A community-based participatory nutrition promotion (CPNP) programme, involving a 2-week group nutrition session, attempted to improve child feeding and hygiene. The implementation, utilization and influence of the CPNP programme were examined by programme impact pathway (PIP) analysis. Design Five CPNP programme components were evaluated: (i) degree of implementation; (ii) participants’ perception of the nutrition sessions; (iii) participants’ message recall; (iv) utilization of feeding and hygiene practices at early programme stage; and (v) participants’ engagement in other programmes. Setting Habro and Melka Bello districts, Ethiopia. Subjects Records of 372 nutrition sessions, as part of a cluster-randomized trial, among mothers (n 876 in intervention area, n 914 in control area) from a household survey and CPNP participants (n 197) from a recall survey. Results Overall, most activities related to nutrition sessions were successfully operated with high fidelity (>90 %), but a few elements of the protocol were only moderately achieved. The recall survey among participants showed a positive perception of the sessions (~90 %) and a moderate level of message recall (~65 %). The household survey found that the CPNP participants had higher minimum dietary diversity at the early stage (34·0 v. 19·9 %, P=0·01) and a higher involvement in the Essential Nutrition Action (ENA) programme over a year of follow-up (28·2 v. 18·3 %; P<0·0001) compared with non-participants within the intervention area. Conclusions Our PIP analysis suggests that CPNP was feasibly implemented, promoted a sustained utilization of proper feeding behaviours, and enhanced participation in the existing ENA programme. These findings provide a possible explanation to understanding CPNP’s effectiveness.
Perinatal Outcomes Associated With the Diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Made by The International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups Criteria

OBJECTIVE: To assess perinatal outcomes with Carpenter-Coustan criteria for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), those with normal glucose testing, and those who would be added to GDM by The International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) criteria. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of women who underwent screening and diagnostic testing for GDM. Patients were divided into nonoverlapping groups: GDM by Carpenter-Coustan (Carpenter-Coustan), IADPSG GDM criteria but not Carpenter-Coustan (IADPSG), and normal GDM screening or testing (control). Outcomes included newborn birth weight, birth weight z-score, Ponderal Index, and large for gestational age. Data were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance, t tests, or &khgr;2. RESULTS: There were 8,390 women who met inclusion criteria: 338 Carpenter-Coustan; 281 IADPSG; and 7,771 women in the control group. Mean birth weight (3,411 compared with 3,240 g, P<.01), birth weight z-score (0.477 compared with 0.059, P<.01), Ponderal Index (2.79 compared with 2.73 g/cm3, P=.014), and large for gestational age (19.9% compared with 8.8%, relative risk 2.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.76–2.88) were higher in IADPSG compared with women in the control group. The IADPSG group had greater birth weight (3,411 compared with 3,288 g, P<.01) than Carpenter-Coustan neonates with no difference in large for gestational age (19.9% compared with 16.0%, relative risk 1.25 95% CI 0.88–1.75), Ponderal Index (2.78 compared with 2.79 g/cm3, P=1), or birth weight z-score (0.477 compared with 0.330, P=.30). CONCLUSIONS: Newborns of women who would be added to the diagnosis of GDM by IADPSG criteria have greater measures of fetal overgrowth than those in the control group and greater birth weight in comparison with Carpenter-Coustan GDM neonates. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
Law, Property Rights and Growth

This paper investigates how different legal frameworks not only affect the amount of external financing available, but also the allocation of resources among different type of assets. Using a simple model, we show that a firm will get less financing, and thus invest less, in a weak law and order environment. We also show that weaker property rights can lead to an asset substitution effect with firms investing less in intangible assets. Empirically, these two effects appear to be equally important drivers of growth in sectoral value added for a large number of countries. Using individual firm data, we also show that weaker legal frameworks are associated with relatively more fixed assets, but less long-term financing for a given amount of fixed assets.
Stigma Effects of Nonemployment

Do longer past spells of nonemployment cause longer future spells? If so, what is the likely cause, stigma or human capital decay? The author examines a sample of 10,245 spells of nonemployment experienced by 2,184 young men. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, he finds an increase in the duration of previous nonemployment lengthens the expected duration of future nonemployment. But the lower the local unemployment rate was when past nonemployment occurred, the larger is this effect. The finding supports the stigma hypothesis that workers who experience nonemployment when proportionately fewer are nonemployed are more severely stigmatized. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.
A Note on Polish Bank Consolidation

Abstract This note compares the possible results of creating the different consolidated banking groups discussed in Bonin and Leven (1996, J. Comp. Econom. 23, 52–72) with those actually engineered by the Ministry of Finance. A translog cost function is used to apprise the cost increase or decrease resulting from consolidation. The results of these calculations support generally the Polish bank consolidations proposed by Bonin and Leven. J. Comp. Econom. , December 1997, 25 (3), pp. 441–447. School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, Great Britain.
Valuing Volunteers: An Economic Evaluation of the Net Benefits of Hospital Volunteers

The use of volunteers in hospitals has been an age-old practice. This nonmarket community involvement is a distinctive aspect of North American life. Hospitals may be attracted to increase the use of volunteers, both to provide increased quality of care and to contain costs. Hospitals rely on the use of professional administrators to use the donated time of volunteers efficiently. This study examines the benefits and costs of volunteer programs and derives an estimate of the net value of volunteer programs that accrue to the hospitals and volunteers. In particular, the costs and benefits to hospitals are detailed. Using 31 hospitals in and around Toronto and surveying hospital volunteer administrators, hospital clinical staff members, and volunteers themselves, a striking pay-off for hospitals was found: an average of $6.84 in value from volunteers for every dollar spent—a return on investment of 684%. Civic and community participation is indeed valuable.