Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forearm Pronation Osteotomy for Supination Contracture Secondary to Obstetrical Brachial Plexus Palsy: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: Obstetrical brachial plexus palsy can lead to fixed forearm supination contracture. Fixed supination may lead to functional deficits as the affected hand cannot be positioned optimally for activities on a desk such as writing and typing, or for using tools including utensils, which require a neutral or pronated forearm. Forearm pronation osteotomy has been used to address this problem, although the functional benefit over nonoperative management has not been clearly defined. Potentially deleterious consequences on hand function that requires supination or fine motor skills are also uncertain. Methods: Patients with fixed forearm supination contracture were selected from our institutional brachial plexus database. Those who underwent both bone forearm rotational osteotomy were analyzed for age at time of surgery, preoperative forearm resting position, active and passive supination and pronation, and preoperative function assessed by the brachial plexus outcome measure (BPOM) and active movement scale (AMS). Preoperative results were compared with values obtained at follow-up at least 12 months postoperatively. A matched cohort of children with fixed forearm supination contracture that were treated nonoperatively and followed for at least 12 months, was also selected. For this group, forearm resting position, movement, AMS, and BPOM scores were analyzed at a baseline clinic visit and the most recent follow-up. Changes in forearm resting position, AMS, and BPOM activity scale scores were then compared between groups. Results: Records were obtained for 14 cases and 10 controls. Study groups were similar with respect to resting forearm position, hand function, and time from initial to final evaluation. Groups differed with respect to age and active supination. We observed a statistically significant change in resting position among operative patients compared with their preoperative status and compared with controls. Hand-specific AMS score did not change significantly in the operative group as compared with controls. The BPOM score for drums, reflective of function in neutral rotation to mild pronation, improved in the operated patients as compared with controls. There was no loss of plate holding ability (reflective of supination function, putty (grasp), or bead placement (fine motor) among the operated patients as compared with controls. Conclusions: By pronating resting forearm position by about 90 degrees to near neutral, osteotomy resulted in improved neutral to mild pronation-dependent function without loss of supination-dependent function or hand motor skills. Level of Evidence: Level III—retrospective cohort study.
Stock Market Liberalization and Operating Performance at the Firm Level

I use firm-specific measures of openness to foreign investors to study the impact of stock market liberalization on firm-level operating performance. In a sample of over 1,100 firms from 28 countries, firms with stocks that are open to foreign investors experience higher growth, greater investment, greater profitability, greater efficiency, and lower leverage. Strategies to address potential endogeneity suggest that the observed relationship, at least in part, reflects a causal effect of openness on operating performance.
Bounded choices in work and retirement in Australia

Australia, together with most other developed and developing countries, faces a difficult demographic pattern in the first half of the twenty‐first century, due to a low and declining birth rate and an ageing population. This has led to an ageing workforce, with a relative shortage of younger entrants. One issue for government is what further steps they could initiate to persuade more people to remain in the labour force beyond the currently median retiring age of around 55 years. Employers will need to consider the degree to which they are prepared to reverse present negative attitudes towards employment of older staff, and workers need to resolve whether they need or desire to keep working and under what conditions. Boundaries constructed by government policy and employer actions, and their resolution by older individuals, form the content of this paper. The paper concludes that employers now face the management of up to four generational groups and resolving their intergenerational differences will present as a major future challenge. Revisiting practices for managing older workers will be essential and the paper offers suggestions for employers towards more effective utilisation of their older staff and more effective integration of workers of all age groups.
Do investors benefit from good corporate governance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the continuing search for evidence that good corporate governance leads to positive organizational outcomes, and it presents a unique perspective on this issue based on firm size.Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized a comprehensive measure of governance as well as a risk‐adjusted measure of share price in its comparisons between companies known for good governance and broader markets composed of similar‐sized firms.Findings – The findings show evidence of better risk‐adjusted performance across all recent sub‐periods (three‐, five‐, and ten‐year) for the firms in the smallest market capitalization category. Better risk‐adjusted returns were earned for only the ten‐year period for the largest firms and the overall US market. Mid‐cap stocks were not significant in any of the three periods studied. The fact that the small cap stocks showed significance for all three sub‐periods indicates the relationship between good corporate governance practices.
Unprotected Resources and Voracious World Markets

The Theory of the Second Best implies that any country with less-than-ideal resources can lose from international trade. Recently it has been suggested this means the South (poor countries) are better off suppressing trade with the North, especially trade in natural resource products, since the North has better developed rights to protect its natural resources. Here we show that the suppression of such trade may also impede the development of property rights in the South, but that even taking this into account, trade liberalization need not improve Southern welfare. We find that within a cone of world prices on the boundary of which lies the South’s autarky price vector, welfare losses still occur even when local governments in the South make optimal choices to enclose the hinterlands. Corollary to the losses, the South can gain from tariffs or quotas and, within a proper subset of the cone of loss, can suffer when the prices of its exports rise.
Influences on Deficit Spending in Industrialized Democracies

ABSTRACT Since 1945, there has been substantial variation among the OECD countries and within them over time in central-government deficits. This paper surveys and assesses the literature on deficit spending in these industrialized democracies, emphasizing positive theories and the empirical support, or lack thereof, for each of them. We begin by considering the degree to which theories about the size of government and empirical tests of these theories about the level of overall government spending can explain deficits. We then survey theories pertaining to the political economy of fiscal deficits per se, including the ‘tax smoothing’ hypothesis, the neo-Keynesian countercyclical hypothesis, the public choice perspective, the ‘left-right ideology’ hypothesis, Roubini and Sachs' (1989) ‘strength of government’ hypothesis, and the importance of divided government in non-parliamentary systems.
Downward stickiness of interest rates in the Australian credit card market

This paper measures the full extent of downward stickiness in credit card interest rates by testing for the amount and adjustment asymmetries. We found that lenders behave asymmetrically in response to changes in the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) cash rate. The RBA's rate rises are passed on to borrowers much faster than rate cuts and the aggregate credit card interest rate showed a very resilient degree of downward rigidity. Overall, based on the estimated short-run dynamic model, banks immediately pass on 112% of any RBA's rate rises, but only 53.7% of any rate cut. In other words, the short-run effects of rate cuts were not only less than half of the rate rises but also were delayed on average by two months. As far as changes in the credit card interest rate are concerned, an expansionary monetary policy is thus less effective than a contractionary policy.
The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investments: Sensitivity Analyses of Cross‐Country Regressions

A vast empirical literature has used ad hoc linear cross-country regressions to search for the determinants of FDI. The literature is extensive and controversial. Can policy-makers use this body of research to learn anything that can help them stimulate FDI? In this paper I use Extreme Bound Analysis (EBA) to examine if any of the conclusions from the existing studies is robust to small changes in the conditioning information set. The EBA upholds the robustness of the correlation between FDI and market-size, as measured by per-capita GDP, but indicates that the relations between FDI and many of the controversial variables (namely, tax, wage, openness, exchange rate, tariff, growth, and trade balance) are highly sensitive to small alterations in the conditioning information set. I also study the distribution of the estimated coefficients of the controversial explanatory variables to rank them in order of the likelihood of their being correlated with FDI. Copyright 2001 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG
Do we practise quality principles in the performance measurement of critical success factors

Abstract During the 1980s, many companies introduced management and production control initiatives, such as total quality management, self-directed work teams, just-in-time, manufacturing resource planning, flexible manufacturing systems, etc. All too frequently, operational improvements attributed to these initiatives are not reflected by similar financial improvements. This paper outlines some probable reasons for this apparent incongruency of outcomes. A non-quality approach to performance measurement is identified as a major contributor to this lack of financial improvement. A generic model for linking performance measures that achieve the strategic objectives of an organization is presented. A methodology is proposed to identify critical success factors, and for the set-up and implementation of a performance measurement system. A number of key issues related to the application of available information for decision-making processes are also identified. A strategic and integrated approach to the measur.
Effects of Rifampicin, Dexamethasone, St. John's Wort and Thyroxine on Maternal and Foetal Expression of Abcb1 and Organ Distribution of Talinolol in Pregnant Rats

It is well accepted that ABCB1 plays a critical role in absorption, distribution and elimination of many xenobiotics and drugs. Only little is known about the regulation and function of ABCB1 during pregnancy. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate maternal, placental and foetal Abcb1 expression and function in pregnant rats after induction with rifampicin, dexamethasone, St. John's wort (SJW) or thyroxine. Wistar rats were orally treated with rifampicin (250 mg/kg), SJW (1.0 g/kg), thyroxine (9 μg/kg), dexamethasone (1 mg/kg) or 0.5% methylcellulose suspension (control) for 9 days during late pregnancy (each N = 5). Afterwards, organ mRNA expression and protein content of Abcb1a were determined. Tissue concentrations of the ABCB1 probe drug talinolol were measured after repeated administration of the drug (100 mg/kg, 9 days) and after induction with oral rifampicin (250 mg/kg, 9 days, N = 5). Abcb1 expression was substantially lower in foetal than in maternal organs. Abcb1 was significantly induced by SJW in the maternal jejunum and placenta, by dexamethasone in foetal brain and liver and by thyroxine in the placenta and maternal and foetal brain. Rifampicin induced Abcb1 in all maternal and foetal organs. However, organ distribution of talinolol was not influenced by comedication of rifampicin. In conclusion, maternal and foetal Abcb1 organ expression in pregnant rats is inducible by nuclear receptor agonists. Although rifampicin regulates maternal and foetal Abcb1 expression, organ distribution of talinolol remains unchanged most likely caused by the known inhibitory effect of rifampicin on Abcb1 function.
Money, Price Level and Output in the Chinese Macro Economy

Abstract This paper studies the stability of monetary relations in the course of China's economic development. An error-correction model to explain inflation from 1954 to 2002 is presented that passes the Chow test of parameter stability in spite of substantial institutional changes. AVAR explaining the logs of the changes in the price level, output and money supply yields impulse responses that support the Friedman proposition that output reacts to money shocks first but the effect is short-lived and prices react later but the effect lasts longer. A similar VAR using US data shows the same pattern of impulse responses as the Chinese case, confirming the universality of the Friedman proposition.
The Trans-Supraorbital Approach

The trans-supraorbital approach represents the advantage of combining the keyhole principle and skull base surgery. In cadaveric work the author shows the anatomic fields visualized with this procedure, advantages and potential surgical applications. The experimental surgical procedure was performed on 8 adult skulls and on 3 cadavers with intact cerebral structures. First, a 2 cm supraorbital approach for endoscopic exploration was used. The basic anatomic landmarks and corresponding dimensions of the microsurgical field were recorded and then compared with those from the trans-supraorbital approach, after removing the orbital arch and other parts of the orbital ceiling. This technique offers a 0.5 cm average increase in surgical field from the craniotomy. The surgical distance that results is shorter (about 2 cm), as well as the length of the surgical instruments required. A better microscope illumination in the deep fields, and the possibility of access to the intraorbital region, the superior orbital fissure, the optic foramen, and the cavernous sinus through the clinoid space are also obtained, with minimal cerebral retraction and similar advantages as through the pterional trans-sylvian approach. The author concludes that by extending the craniotomy and decreasing the surgical distance, the microsurgical field is more convenient for microscope-assisted surgery without totally relying on the endoscope, and with minimal brain retraction. It also provides multiple options to approach vascular and tumor lesions found in these microsurgical corridors, combining principles of minimal invasion and skull-base surgery.
The Diffusion of Accounting Practices in the New 'Managerial' Public Sector

In the past two decades the public sector has experienced a transformation. A major feature of this change has been the displacement of the old style public administration by a “new public management” which focuses on results and measurement and in which accounting has a central role. This study reports on a survey of accountants in the public sector to determine the extent to which the changing public sector is accompanied by changes in accounting practices and to explore the process by which such changes are effected.
Environmental factors influencing the relationship between optical density and cell count for Listeria monocytogenes

Aims: The effect of temperature (2–30°C), pH (4·8–7·4) and water activity (0·946–0·995) on the relationship between optical density (OD) at 600 nm and the plate count (CFU ml−1) was investigated for Listeria monocytogenes.
Enzymatic Degradation Protects Neurons from Glutamate Excitotoxicity

Abstract: Several enzymes with the capacity to degrade glutamate have been suggested as possible neuroprotectants. We initially evaluated the kinetic properties of glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT; also known as alanine aminotransferase), glutamine synthetase, and glutamate dehydrogenase under physiologic conditions to degrade neurotoxic concentrations of glutamate. Although all three enzymes initially degraded glutamate rapidly, only GPT was able to reduce toxic (500 μM) levels of glutamate into the physiologic (<20 μM) range. Primary cultures of fetal murine cortical neurons were subjected to paradigms of either exogenous or endogenous glutamate toxicity to evaluate the neuroprotective value of GPT. Neuronal survival after exposure to added glutamate ranging from 100 to 500 μM was improved significantly in the presence of GPT (≥1 U/ml). Cultures were also exposed to the glutamate transporter inhibitor L‐trans‐pyrrolidine‐2,4‐dicarboxylate (PDC), which produces neuronal injury by elevating extracellular glutamate. GPT significantly reduced the toxicity of PDC. This reduction was associated with a reduction in the PDC‐dependent rise in the medium concentration of glutamate. These results suggest that enzymatic degradation of glutamate by GPT can be an alternative to glutamate receptor blockade as a strategy to protect neurons from excitotoxic injury.
How Would Capital Account Liberalisation Affect China’s Capital Flows and the Renminbi Real Exchange Rates?

In this paper we study the determinants of gross capital flows, project the size of China’s international investment positions in 2020 and analyse the implications for the renminbi real exchange rates. We assume in this exercise that the renminbi will have largely achieved capital account convertibility by the end of this decade, a timetable consistent with recent proposals by the People’s Bank of China. Our analysis shows that China’s gross international investment positions would grow significantly, and inflows and outflows would become much more balanced. The private sector would turn its net liability position into a balanced position, and the official sector would reduce its net asset position significantly, relative to the country’s GDP. Because of the increasing importance of private sector foreign claims and the decreasing importance of official foreign reserves, China would be able to earn higher net investment incomes from abroad. Overall, China would continue to be a net creditor, with the net foreign asset position as a share of GDP remaining largely stable through this decade. These findings suggest that the renminbi real exchange rate would not be particularly sensitive to capital account liberalisation as capital flows are expected to be two-sided. The renminbi real exchange rate would likely be on a path of moderate appreciation as China is expected to maintain a sizeable growth differential with its trading partners.
The monetary approach to the exchange rate: empirical observations from Korea

This note re-examines the flexible-price monetary approach to the exchange rate between the Korean won and the three key currencies: the US dollar, the German mark and the Japanese yen. The note reports the important findings. First, at least one cointegrating vector exists, which indicates that an unrestricted flexible-price monetary model is a valid framework for analysing the long run exchange rate. Second, it is found that some popular monetary restrictions on this model are valid for the Korean won-German mark rate and the Korean won-Japanese yen rate: especially all variables in the model are correctly signed and mostly statistically significant for the Korean won-German mark rate.
Child Labor in Bangladesh

This article uses data from the Bangladesh Labor Force Survey 2000 to analyze the magnitude, nature and determinants of child labor in Bangladesh. The magnitude of the ‘child labor’ problem is large in Bangladesh, with around 5.4–7.9 million, or about one-fifth of all Bangladeshi children between the ages of 5 and 14 years, being classified as child workers in 2000. Most of these child workers work in the agricultural sector. Among the poorest quintile of households, the share of family income contributed by child workers reaches nearly 50 percent. The article finds support for the widely-held hypothesis that poverty compels children to work. The analysis of links between adult employment and child labor also lends support to the hypothesis that children are the last economic resource of the household. Children are much more likely to work when they live in a household where the potential of income generation is low and where this potential has already been used up.
Ownership Patterns and Control in Turkish Listed Companies

The purpose of this paper is to document the prevalent ownership concentration, structure and control in the top 100 companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The results are discussed in the context of emerging corporate governance trends in Turkey. Where appropriate, comparisons with other countries are provided. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.
Vulnerabilities and adaptation of ports to climate change

Climate change is anticipated to have a significant impact on coastal infrastructure, including navigational aids and ports. This paper presents the results of a vulnerability assessment of ports in Australia to climate change. Results reveal variable vulnerability in ports in the short and long term in relation to their exposure to climate change. However, this is offset by inherent adaptive capacity both in current climate change initiatives driven by ports, and in the self-confidence of the industry to be able to adapt. We conclude with a reflection on the implications of these results for future ports analyses.
The Effect of Institutional Ownership on Board and Audit Committee Composition

We investigate the relationship between institutional shareholdings and the firm's corporate governance by looking at changes in the composition of the board of directors and audit committee while institutional ownership increases over time. Our comparison of 74 firms showing increased institutional ownership with a matched control group of 62 firms finds that increased institutional ownership is positively associated with a higher proportion of outsiders on the board and with audit committee and board members who are less entrenched. These factors are widely regarded as signs of a strengthened system of corporate governance and control, underscoring the important role that institutional ownership may play in the firm's corporate governance structure.
The Association between Auditor Choice, Ownership Retained, and Earnings Disclosure by Firms Making Initial Public Offerings

Using a system of three simultaneous equations, we test the predictions of Datar, Feltham, and Hughes 1991 and Hughes 1986 between auditor choice, earnings disclosures, and retained ownership in U.S. firms making initial public offerings of securities. Using a sample of initial public offerings between 1990 and 1997, we find that the demand for high-quality auditors increases with firm risk. Additionally, we find that auditor choice, earnings disclosure, and risk are determinants of retained ownership, which is consistent with the predictions of Datar et al. and Hughes that auditor choice and direct disclosure are substitute signals for ownership retention. Further, our results suggest that the signals chosen (Le., retained ownership, auditor choice, and disclosure) are related through their cost structures and are chosen jointly to minimize the overall cost to the entrepreneur.