Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
COMPARISON OF PERMANENT STAINING METHODS FOR THE LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS OF TRICHOMONIASIS

Trichomonas vaginalis is the etiologic agent of trichomoniasis, the most common non-viral sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the world. The diagnosis is based on wet mount preparation and direct microscopy on fixed and stained clinical specimens. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of different fixing and staining techniques used in the detection of T. vaginalis in urine. The smears were fixed and submitted to different methods of permanent staining and then, the morphological aspects of the parasites were analyzed and compared. The Papanicolaou staining with ethanol as the fixative solution showed to be the best method of permanent staining. Our data suggest that staining techniques in association with wet mount examination of fresh specimens contribute to increase the sensitivity in the diagnosis of trichomoniasis.
Studies on contagious skin necrosis and trypanosomosis in camels.

Camels showed clinical signs of contagious skin necrosis (CSN), with or without trypanosomosis, were subjected to study. The following samples were collected; sterile bacteriological swabs from skin necrosis area, whole blood samples for hematological analysis and for diagnosis of trypanosomosis, and serum for measuring lipid peroxidation product (Malondialdehyde, MDA). The bacteriological examination of collected swabs from dermal lesion of CSN revealed that Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant bacterial isolate alone in 6 cases and coupled with other bacteria in the remained 4 cases, coupled with coagulase negative staphylococci 3 cases and coupled with Streptococcus agalactiae in one case. Trypanosoma evansi infection was identified using polymerase chain reaction in 5 camels that had CSN. Malondialdehyde showed significant increase in camels affected with CSN that associated with trypanosomosis. The current study revealed that Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant bacterial isolate, camels may be infected with both trypanosomosis and CSN, lipid peroxidation products increased in the blood of camels with CSN that associated with trypanosomosis, it is recommended to supply camels with antioxidants to overcome the deterioration of blood antioxidants.
The welfare cost of inflation in Italy

This paper follows Lucas (2000), and Serletis and Yavari (2004) and estimates the welfare cost of inflation in Italy. It uses recent advances in the field of applied econometrics to estimate the interest elasticity of money demand in Italy and reports welfare cost estimates close to those reported by Serletis and Yavari for Canada and the USA, but an order of magnitude smaller than those reported by Bullard and Russell (2004) for the US economy.
(S,s) Inventory Policies in General Equilibrium

We study the aggregate implications of (S,s) inventory policies in a dynamic general equilibrium model with aggregate uncertainty. Firms in the model's retail sector face idiosyncratic demand risk, and (S,s) inventory policies are optimal because of fixed order costs. The distribution of inventory holdings affects the aggregate outcome in two ways: variation in the decision to order and variation in the rate of sale through the pricing decisions of retailers. We find that both mechanisms must operate to reconcile observations that orders are more volatile than, and inventory investment is positively correlated with, sales, while remaining consistent with other salient business cycle characteristics. The model exhibits strong amplification for some shocks, and persistence to a limited extent.
Re-thinking the Southern British Oppida : Networks, Kingdoms and Material Culture

This article examines the role of a range of large settlements in late Iron Age and early Roman southern Britain (c. 100 BC–AD 70) conventionally described as oppida. After reviewing current perspectives on the function and chronology of British oppida, new insights are provided through the statistical analysis of assemblages of brooches and imported ceramics at a broad sample of sites. Analysis of material culture reveals distinct similarities and differences between several groups of sites, often transcending regional traditions and supposed tribal boundaries. This patterning is primarily explained by the emergence of new forms of political organization prior to Roman annexation, particularly the creation of the Southern and Eastern Kingdoms.
Vicissitudes of Desire

Recent research on subliminal persuasion has documented effects primarily when people have a preexisting need related to the target of influence. Based on the situated inference model of priming effects (Loersch & Payne, 2011), we propose a novel matching mechanism and describe how it expands the circumstances under which subliminal primes can produce persuasive effects, doing so without a consideration of preexisting need states. In two studies, we alter the desirability of various products by selecting subliminal primes that address the basic questions participants consider while judging product desirability. Subliminal persuasion depends on the precise match between the subliminal primes and the question under consideration. These results are evident when the question participants consider varies naturally due to the type of product that is judged, and when the core question is directly manipulated by altering the aspect of a product on which participants focus.
Success factors for eco-innovations and other innovations

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors which can contribute to the explanation of why eco-innovations have a poorer market development than other innovations. We based our study on 285 innovations that moved on to the finals in three Swedish innovation contests: the Environmental Technology Competition (ETC), the Venture Cup (VC) and the Innovation Cup (IC). We analysed four groups of factors related respectively to (1) the innovator, (2) the innovation, (3) the development process and (4) certain aspects of the surroundings with importance to development. One conclusion is that there are many factors in which eco-innovations differ from other innovations. The eco-group is older, mainly male, with lower technical or other education; they are more innovative and their network has a stronger connection to family. Eco-innovations are less geared towards industrial customers and currently have no major competition, according to the innovators. The development process for these innovations is different from that of other innovations; the time that has been invested in the process is much shorter and the access to risk capital and contacts with business angels are rare. The eco-innovators view the general surroundings more positively than others.
Increasing the Stability of CNNs using a Denoising Layer Regularized by Local Lipschitz Constant in Road Understanding Problems

One of the challenges in problems related to road understanding is to deal with noisy images. Especially, recent studies have revealed that ConvNets are sensitive to small perturbations in the input. One solution for dealing with this problem is to generate many noisy images during training a ConvNet. However, this approach is very costly and it is not a certain solution. In this paper, we propose an objective function regularized by the local Lipschitz constant and train a ReLU layer for restoring noisy images. Our experiments on the GTSRB and the Caltech-Pedestrian datasets show that this lightweight approach not only increases the accuracy of the classification ConvNets on the clean datasets but it also increases the stability of the ConvNets against noise. Comparing our method with similar approaches shows that it produces more stable ConvNets while it is computationally similar or more efficient than these methods.
Familiarity, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Consumer Responses Toward Online Advertising in China and the United States

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationships among consumers' familiarity with online advertising, beliefs about online advertising effectiveness, attitudes toward online advertising (ATOA), and consumer responses across the United States and China. Results indicated, for U.S. consumers, familiarity was a positive predictor of online shopping but not a significant predictor of persuasion. For Chinese consumers, familiarity was a positive predictor of persuasion but not a significant predictor of online shopping. Familiarity did not influence any belief factors in the U.S. sample but emerged as a significant predictor of all five belief factors in the Chinese sample. For both samples, ATOA positively predicted persuasion, which by default positively predicted online shopping. Multiple group comparison further showed that the influence of ATOA on persuasion for U.S. consumers was stronger than that for Chinese consumers.
Finance and Growth for Microenterprises: Evidence from Rural China

Using a survey dataset of Chinese rural households, we find that access to external finance is positively associated with the decision to become entrepreneur and the initial investment for microenterprises. Also, we find that use of informal finance, especially financing from friends and family, is positively associated with sales growth of microenterprises with employees, but not of self-employed. We do not find any significant relationship between the use of formal finance and firm growth. Our findings underline the importance of finance for entrepreneurship and microenterprise growth, and the role of informal finance in the absence of efficient formal financial institutions.
Statistical noise reduction for robust human activity recognition

Noise and variability in accelerometer data collected using smart devices obscure accurate human activity recognition. In order to tackle the degradation of the triaxial accelerometer data caused by noise and individual user differences, we propose a statistical noise reduction method using total variation minimization to attenuate the noise mixed in the magnitude feature vector generated from triaxial accelerometer data. The experimental results using Random Forest classifier prove that our noise removal approach is constructive in significantly improving the human activity recognition performance.
The Information Content of IPO Prospectuses

Using word content analysis, we decompose information in the initial public offering prospectus into its standard and informative components. Greater informative content, as a proxy for premarket due diligence, results in more accurate offer prices and less underpricing, because it decreases the issuing firm's reliance on bookbuilding to price the issue. The opposite is true for standard content. Greater content from high reputation underwriters and issuing firm managers, through Management's Discussion and Analysis, contribute to the informativeness of the prospectus. Our results suggest that premarket due diligence and disclosure by underwriters and issuers can serve as a substitute for costly bookbuilding. The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org. , Oxford University Press.
How Effective are Capital Controls in Asia?

This study examines the effects of capital account restrictions on capital flows in nine Asian economies over the period 1995–2005 using panel regressions with fixed effects. The results show that capital controls significantly affect capital flows when such flows are disaggregated by asset type and direction of flow. Tests for the presence of possible asymmetric effects, substitution effects, and endogeneity of capital controls are conducted.
The Dynamics of Competitive Insurance Markets

According to convention theory, insurance premiums should be informationally efficient predictors of the present value of policy claims and expenses. This paper develops an alternative theory of insurance market dynamics based on two assumptions. First, insured risks are dependent. Under this assumption, insurers' net worth determines the market capacity since it is necessary to back the contractual promises to pay claims. Second, in raising net worth, external equity is more costly than internal equity. The theory explains the variation in premiums and insurance contracts over the "insurance cycle" and is supported by tests on postwar data.
Delaware farmers' adoption of GE soybeans in a time of uncertain U.S. adoption

Soybeans genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide Roundup became available to farmers in 1996 and rapidly became the most popular of the new biotechnology crops. However, rising concerns over consumer acceptance late in 1999 created a climate of uncertainty over national markets and put continuing adoption in question. This study models Delaware farmers' adoption patterns and decisions, and examines accompanying changes in their operations at the start of the 2000 season. Model results show adoption to have continued upward in terms of farmers and acreage, with age, soybean income, computer use, and labeling opinion identifying major adopters. Adopters were expanding operations and utilizing accompanying new techniques at a high rate. With much of the state farmers' market assured by the local broiler industry, farmers appeared unconcerned over national market uncertainties. The research thus demonstrates the need to consider local conditions and potential for variations in adoption patterns and adopter characteristics. lEconLit citations: Q160, O330r. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 20: 81-94, 2004.
A calcium-channel blocker, amlodipine, attenuates insulin antinatriuresis but does not modulate insulin-mediated attenuation of cardiovascular reactivity in healthy man.

BACKGROUND Insulin exerts an antinatriuretic effect when administered acutely in vivo. Interestingly, insulin fails to reduce sodium excretion in rats receiving verapamil. The present study was undertaken in order to investigate whether the calcium-channel blocker amlodipine attenuates the antinatriuretic effect of insulin in humans. METHODS Eight healthy lean men (32 +/- 2 years) were investigated on three different occasions; i.e. time-control, insulin infusion alone, and insulin infusion following pretreatment with amlodipine (5 mg x 1 during 10 days). During the experiments renal haemodynamics (insulin and PAH clearances) and segmental tubular sodium handling (sodium and lithium clearances) were investigated. The cardiovascular reactivity was also assessed by a graded noradrenaline infusion at the end of each experiment. RESULTS Insulin infusion alone was accompanied by a significant 50% reduction in urinary sodium excretion. Following amlodipine pretreatment, euglycaemic insulin infusion was associated with an attenuated antinatriuretic response and the cumulative sodium excretion following 135 min of insulin infusion was significantly higher (24 +/- 4 vs 18 +/- 3 mmol; P < 0.05) as compared to insulin infusion alone. No significant differences in the proximal and distal tubular sodium handling respectively, were seen following CCB pretreatment. The results also show that the doses of noradrenaline required to increase the basal mean arterial blood pressure by 10 mmHg (262 +/- 38 vs 150 +/- 25 ng/kg/min; P < 0.05) and by 20 mmHg (431 +/- 36 vs 250 +/- 38 ng/kg/ min; P < 0.05) respectively, were significantly higher during the insulin infusion than during the time-control experiment. Pretreatment with amlodipine did not further modulate the cardiovascular reactivity. CONCLUSION Pretreatment with a calcium-channel blocker, amlodipine, attenuates the antinatriuretic effects of insulin leading to a significantly higher cumulative sodium excretion at the end of insulin infusion, which may be of clinical importance. Moreover, insulin attenuates the cardiovascular reactivity to a graded noradrenaline infusion, suggesting that insulin causes vasodilatation in healthy man.
Dynamic Interactions of the MMC-HVDC Grid and its Host AC System Due to AC-Side Disturbances

This paper investigates the dynamic interactions of a modular multilevel converter (MMC) -based HVDC grid and its host ac system during ac-side disturbances. The HVDC grid is composed of five MMC stations that are interconnected through a network of cables and overhead lines. The ac grid includes ten turbine generators. The studies are conducted in the PSCAD platform, including the detailed models of the ac and dc subsystems. The reported case studies indicate that without the HVDC supplementary control functions and based on the conventional dq-frame control structure: 1) each MMC behaves as almost a fixed sink/source of power during the ac-side electromechanical transient oscillations; 2) the MMC-HVDC grid effectively improves dynamic interactions between ac subsystems that are connected only by the HVDC grid; 3) without appropriate provisions, the embedded MMC-HVDC grid can aggravate the transients of the host ac system, for example, interarea oscillations. The observations also contradict the widely accepted notion that even without supplementary controllers, the MMC-HVDC grid necessarily improves the dynamics of the ac system. The study results provide a comprehensive insight into the transient behavior of the MMC-based HVDC-AC grid. Such an understanding is essential to design the protection and control systems of the future HVDC-AC grids.
Monopolistic or Imperfect Competition

Some misconceptions examined relative to: marginal revenue, 558; increasing returns, 560; tangency of demand and cost curves, 561; large numbers and divisibility, 562; restriction of entry, 566; differentiation of product, 568. — The nature of monopolistic competition, 570; contrast with imperfect competition, 573. — Significance of the difference with respect to: profits, 576; "competitive" norms, 576; "exploitation," 577.
Migration, Urbanization and Urban Social Movements in Twentieth Century India and South Africa

This article compares patterns of urbanization and the forms assumed by urban social movements in twentieth-century India and South Africa. It highlights the prevalence and persistence of single male labour migration to and from the major industrial centres in both countries and seeks to identify their respective compulsions. It emphasises the importance of the white settler political project of segregation in South Africa in shaping patterns of migrancy as well as ways of urban living. In addition, and critically, it pinpoints often neglected social and cultural factors as influencing the forms and dynamics of labour migrancy in both countries, drawing attention to relatively unstable patterns of urbanization along with gender and generation ruptures and conflict in South Africa, as contrasted to the greater family and generational stability in cities in India. Finally, it compares the emergence of ethnic and communal identities in both places.
Work arrangements and firm innovation: is there any relationship?

This study investigates the relationship between labour market flexibility—proxied by the proportion of workers with different contractual arrangements and other indicators of flexible work relations—and firms' innovative ability, as measured by the percentage of new products in total sales. On the one hand, 'more flexibility' (e.g. a higher labour turnover) might be favourable to a firm's innovation potential. Aside from having (potential) wage savings, a larger inflow of new personnel may enrich the pool of firm innovative ideas. On the other hand, higher work flexibility may also have some drawbacks: a permanently high turnover rate may diminish social cohesion and trust and increase the probability of opportunistic behaviour. Results suggest that internal flexibility is positively associated with innovation for both high-tech and low-tech firms. Especially for high-tech firms, however, greater external flexibility might hinder innovation. Copyright , Oxford University Press.
An Empirically Derived Model for the Adoption of Customer‐based Interorganizational Systems*

Information systems (IS) researchers are now calling for the need to draw from the empirically rich field of organizational innovation. As the impact of strategic systems is increasingly being felt by organizations, the view that these systems are innovations or innovative uses of technology is becoming prevalent. Customer based interorganizational systems (CIOS) represent one of the most prominent types of such systems. This research investigates CIOS adoption. A model is constructed based on significant studies in innovation to identify factors facilitating the adoption decision of a CIOS. Data are gathered from 226 senior executives. Discriminant analysis is used to identify factors that distinguish adopters from nonadopters. Factor analysis of significant variables yielded a parsimonious model of CIOS adoption. The five factor model includes (1) a proactive technological orientation and (2) an internal push for the system as the two most significant sets of facilitators. Implications for research and practice are then discussed.
The importance of capabilities for strategic direction and performance

This paper re‐visits the perennial question “Why do some firms perform better than others? ” by focusing on the resource‐based view of strategy and in particular the role of generic organisational capabilities in the achievement of overall performance and competitive advantage. Presents findings based on data collected from 194 manufacturing small to medium‐sized enterprises. The analysis confirms the authors’ contention that generic organisational capabilities have a positive impact on strategy deployment and on the achievement of overall performance. The findings indicate that generic capabilities enable firms to manage for the future by focussing on customer’s needs and requirements, while at the same time managing crises and problems arising in their operating environment. A further analysis comparing the emphasis on generic capabilities by both high and low performing firms found that high‐performing firms emphasised capabilities to a far greater extent than low‐performing firms. This implies that generic capability is one of the main drivers of performance. The analysis suggests that firms seeking high overall performance would be well advised to ensure that they actively consider their generic capabilities as the basis of their strategic direction. In short, alignment of the generic capabilities and strategic planning is a prerequisite for high performance.
Pricing of Innate and Discretionary Accruals in Australian Debt

type="main" xml:lang="en"> This paper addresses the conflicting evidence on the role of accruals in debt pricing. We show that the two subcomponents of accruals quality, innate and discretionary accruals, both impact the debt pricing. Higher innate accruals increases cost of debt, consistent with the prior evidence ( Francis et al., 2005 ; Gray et al., 2009 ). However, we also find that higher discretionary accruals reduce the cost of debt. This contrasts with the prior evidence of a positive association between discretionary accruals and cost and debt ( Francis et al., 2005 ), and no association ( Gray et al., 2009 ). We show that noisy measurement of cost of debt reconciles these results.