Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Fast Relaxation During BTI Stress in Conventional and Advanced CMOS Devices With $\hbox{HfO}_{2}/\hbox{TiN}$ Gate Stacks

We evaluate the performance of a novel fast characterization methodology for NBTI and PBTI measurements. We show that the use of a programmable PCI card in combination with linear current amplifiers provides the following means: (a) to perform short BTI stresses down to ~ 30 mus; (b) to perform fast sensing with delay times tdelay ~ 30 mus and a voltage resolution of ~ 1 mV; and (c) to use arbitrary programmable stress-and-sense sequences covering many decades in time. We used the fast PCI card-based measurement system for fast NBTI-relaxation measurements in SiON/poly-Si gate stacks, as well as for a systematic study of PBTI relaxation with HfO2/ TiN gate stacks. We show for the first time that the Vt relaxation after PBT stress in nFETS with HfO2/TiN gate stacks and the Vt relaxation after NBT stress in pFETs with SiON/poly-Si gate stacks exhibit strong similarities: We found the time dependence of both types of relaxation to exhibit to first order a log(t) dependence over seven orders of magnitude in time, suggesting that both phenomena are governed by charge removal by tunneling and that tunneling front-based modeling may be used to quantify the observations.
Contemporary and traditional localism: a conceptualisation of rural local food

The increasingly popular local food movement in the US has experienced wide-scale buy-in on behalf of the general public as well as in academic arenas. However, there have been recent efforts to critique this movement, typically for being inequitable and unfairly geared towards those with above-average financial means. In this article, I examine local food efforts and present a new conceptualisation of food localism. While geographically localised food consumption activities are taking place, some have ideological labels attached to them, whereas others do not. What I have termed contemporary and traditional localisms exist in the same physical but different social space. The contemporary local is represented by current local food initiatives and corresponding aspirations to support local farmers and to promote sustainability through local purchasing behaviour. The traditional local, on the other hand, is similar in that it represents food growing activities that are in close geographical proximity to consumption, but lacks the motivation associated with the contemporary local's programmatic literature; instead, it is guided by a motivation to obtain fresh and affordable food. I substantiate the contemporary/traditional localism framework with qualitative fieldwork findings from Grafton County, New Hampshire, USA, and describe the practical as well as conceptual implications of this framework.
The cisplatin, epirubicin, 5‐fluorouracil, gemcitabine (PEFG) regimen in advanced biliary tract adenocarcinoma

Biliary tract adenocarcinoma (BTA) is an uncommon tumor with a poor prognosis and no standard, systemic chemotherapy. The combined cisplatin, epirubicin, 5‐fluorouracil, and gemcitabine (PEFG) regimen is an effective, upfront treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer. In this study, the authors assessed the activity and safety of this combination regimen in patients with advanced BTA.
Barriers and Motivators for Referral of Patients with Suspected Lynch Syndrome to Cancer Genetic Services: A Qualitative Study

This article explores the views of general practitioners and specialists on their referral of patients with suspected Lynch syndrome to cancer genetic services. Using a purposive maximum variation sampling strategy, we conducted semi-structured interviews face-to-face with 28 general practitioners and specialists in public or private hospitals and specialist clinics between March and August 2011. General practitioners and specialists were recruited in a major metropolitan area in Australia. Interview transcripts were reviewed by two independent researchers, and thematic analysis was performed using NVivo10 software. The main barriers and motivators identified were: (1) clinician-related (e.g., familiarity with Lynch syndrome and family history knowledge); (2) patient-related (e.g., patients’ interests and personal experience with cancer); and (3) organizational-related (e.g., access to services, guidelines and referral pathway). Referral of patients with suspected Lynch syndrome to cancer genetic services is motivated and hindered by a range of individual, interpersonal and organizational factors. In order to improve the care and quality of life of patients and family with suspected Lynch syndrome, further research is needed to develop supportive tools for clinicians.
Single-cell protein induction dynamics reveals a period of vulnerability to antibiotics in persister bacteria

Phenotypic variability in populations of cells has been linked to evolutionary robustness to stressful conditions. A remarkable example of the importance of cell-to-cell variability is found in bacterial persistence, where subpopulations of dormant bacteria, termed persisters, were shown to be responsible for the persistence of the population to antibiotic treatments. Here, we use microfluidic devices to monitor the induction of fluorescent proteins under synthetic promoters and characterize the dormant state of single persister bacteria. Surprisingly, we observe that protein production does take place in supposedly dormant bacteria, over a narrow time window after the exit from stationary phase. Only thereafter does protein production stop, suggesting that differentiation into persisters fully develops over this time window and not during starvation, as previously believed. In effect, we observe that exposure of bacteria to antibiotics during this time window significantly reduces persistence. Our results point to new strategies to fight persistent bacterial infections. The quantitative measurement of single-cell induction presented in this study should shed light on the processes leading to the dormancy of subpopulations in different systems, such as in subpopulations of viable but nonculturable bacteria, or those of quiescent cancer cells.
Using psychometric techniques to improve the Balance Evaluation Systems Test: the mini-BESTest.

OBJECTIVE To improve, with the aid of psychometric analysis, the Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest), a tool designed to analyse several postural control systems that may contribute to poor functional balance in adults. METHODS Performance of the BESTest was examined in a convenience sample of 115 consecutive adult patients with diverse neurological diagnoses and disease severity, referred to rehabilitation for balance disorders. Factor (both explorative and confirmatory) and Rasch analysis were used to process the data in order to produce a new, reduced and coherent balance measurement tool. RESULTS Factor analysis selected 24 out of the 36 original BESTest items likely to represent the unidimensional construct of "dynamic balance". Rasch analysis was then used to: (i) improve the rating categories, and (ii) delete 10 items (misfitting or showing local dependency). The model consisting of the remaining 14 tasks was verified with confirmatory factor analysis to meet the stringent requirements of modern measurement. CONCLUSION The new 14-item scale (dubbed mini-BESTest) focuses on dynamic balance, can be conducted in 10-15 min, and contains items belonging evenly to 4 of the 6 sections from the original BESTest. Further studies are needed to confirm the usefulness of the mini-BESTest in clinical settings.
Bank Capital Regulation with Asymmetric Countries

When financial markets are global, the impacts of national banking regulations extend beyond national borders. While lax regulatory enforcement improves the profitability of home banks, it also increases loan supply, which in turn reduces the global interest rate spreads. In a two-country model we show that each regulator's enforcement choice is affected by the relative size of the national financial market. An authority regulating a smaller market has a smaller impact on global interest rates and therefore a stronger incentive to relax regulatory enforcement.
Community Quality of Life in Low-Income Neighborhoods: Findings From Two Contrasting Communities in Toronto, Canada

An inquiry into community quality of life was carried out in a framework that recognizes the role that community structures play in individual health and well-being. Through use of focus groups and key informant interviews, community members, service providers, and elected representatives in a housing-geared-to-income Toronto community considered aspects of their community that affect quality of life. Findings about the importance of access to amenities, caring and concerned people, community agencies, low-cost housing, and public transportation were similar to those obtained in another Toronto community. Differences between these communities were apparent and related to the physical and demographic make-up of the community and the presence of community agencies and services. The relationship of these findings to the social determinants of health and social capital literature was considered, as were implications for community developers.
Sibling correlations and segregation analysis of age‐related maculopathy: The beaver dam eye study

Sibling correlations were evaluated and segregation analysis was performed on age‐dependent maculopathy scores of the right and left eyes of individuals from 564 families in the Beaver Dam Eye study. There is evidence of significant sibling correlations. The data fit a mixture of two normal distributions, especially after undergoing the Box and Cox power transformation. In each eye, the hypothesis of mendelian transmission of a major effect cannot be rejected under the τ'AB free model, but is rejected under the τ's free model. The hypothesis of a random environmental major effect is rejected. Similar major gene parameter estimates are found for both eyes. The results are consistent with a major effect accounting for 62% and 59%, in the right and left eyes, respectively, of the determination of age‐related maculopathy scores. A single major gene can account for about 89% and 97% of this variability due to a major effect, or for about 55% and 57% of the total variability, in the right and left eyes, respectively. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Performance and reward practices of multinational corporations operating in Australia

This paper examines the performance management and reward practices of multinational corporations operating in Australia. Drawing on a representative sample of 211 multinational corporations, we examine the uptake and determinants of performance management and reward practices used by multinational corporations in Australia. We investigate the influence of established contextual and organisational factors on performance management and rewards and explore the use of such practices amongst managers relative to the largest occupational group. Our findings suggest that overall multinational corporations operating in Australia use a wide range of performance management and reward practices. Findings indicate that multinational corporations are higher users of such practices for managers relative to the largest occupational group. Logistic regression results demonstrate that multinational corporations with higher use of human resource-shared services and global human resource integration are more likely to use the measured performance management and reward practices for both the largest occupational group and managers, suggesting some level of global integration around human resource activities. There is also greater likelihood of the use of these practices where there is low union recognition for the purpose of collective bargaining for the largest occupational group. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Rural - Urban Migration: Selectivity, Determinants and Destination

Massive rural outmigration is a common phenomenon especially in the developing countries of the world. This paper is an attempt to examine the different determinants of migration in a coastal region of Orissa state, India . Migration is not the outcome of single factor. It is essentially selective and propensity to migrate is influenced by both micro and macro variables.
Insurance Companies' Trading Behaviour During the European Sovereign Debt Crisis: Flight Home or Flight to Quality?

This paper empirically investigates if insurers exhibited a flight home or flight to quality during the European sovereign debt crisis and other stages of the financial crisis. Our dataset consists of over sixty insurance companies, for which we separately observe trading behaviour and portfolio revaluations at a quarterly frequency during 2006-2013. When explaining insurers' trading behaviour we explicitly control for country risk and momentum strategies. The results show that insurers exhibited a flight to quality during the European sovereign debt crisis, while we find no evidence of a flight home. The observed flight to quality was not present before the European sovereign debt crisis and disappeared after ECB chairman Draghi's speech mid-2012.
Switching Regression Models with Imperfect Sample Separation Information-With an Application on Cartel Stability

An exogenous switching regression model with imperfect reginme classificationi information is specified and applied to a study of cartel stability. An efficient estimation method is proposed which takes this imperfect information into account. The consequences of misclassification are analyzed. The direction of the least squares bias is derived. An optimal regime classification rule is obtained and compared theoretically and empirically with other classification rules. We then examine the Joint Executive Committee, a railroad cartel in the 1880's. The econometric evidence indicates that reversions to noncooperative behavior did occur for the firms in our sample, and these reversions involve a significant decrease in market price. THIS ARTICLE IS CONCERNED WITH the possibility of estimating a switching regression model and its application to a study on cartel stability. The switching regression model is the exogenous switching model proposed by Quandt [24], which generalized a problem of mixture distributions (Day [4]). The sample in this model is generated from distinct regression equations or regimes for each time period. If the investigator has a priori information on how the sample is partitioned into the underlying regimes, it is a switching regression model with known sample separation; otherwise, it is a model with unknown sample separation. Estimation of these latter models has been considered by Quandt [24]. Goldfeld and Quandt [8], and Kiefer [14, 16], among others. A switching regression model is appropriate for the study of cartel behavior when there are price wars, as firms will revert from cooperative to noncooperative behavior, and so the industry supply function shifts occasionally. This model will allow us to exploit the fact that there will be periodic stochastic switches or reversions between cooperative and noncooperative conduct, in order to identify collusive episodes.
Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman

Originally published in 1978, this book caused a storm of controversy as Micheke Wallace blasted the masculinist bias of the black politics that emerged from the sixties. She described how women remained marginalized by the patriarchal culture of Black Power and the ways in which a genuine female subjectivity was blocked by the traditional myths of black womanhood. In 1990 the author added a new introduction examining the debate the book had sparked between intellectuals and political leaders; an extensive bibliography of contemporary black feminist studies was also added. Black Macho raised issues and arguments that framed the terms of current feminist and black theory and continues to be relevant today.
The relationship between inflation and different sources of inflation uncertainty in Turkey

The relationship between inflation and different sources of inflation uncertainty is investigated in Turkey during the period of 1995:3–2000:12. A time-varying parameter model of inflation with heteroscedastic disturbances is used to generate different sources of inflation uncertainty and then Granger methods are employed to test for causality between inflation and different sources of inflation uncertainty. The findings show that there is a causative influence of inflation on its uncertainty arising due to time-varying parameters of the inflation model. No evidence is found on the correlation between inflation and inflation uncertainty arising due to heteroscedasticity in the disturbance terms.
The Information Content of Goodwill Impairments and SFAS 142

Accounting standard setters face a perpetual challenge in balancing relevance and reliability when establishing generally accepted accounting principles. This tension is especially heightened when the nature of the economic information concerns intangible assets. This article presents exploratory evidence about standard setters’ response to this challenge by examining whether Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142 (SFAS 142): Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets altered the information content of goodwill write-offs. To more accurately capture the information of goodwill write-offs, the authors first create a model to estimate expected impairments. The difference between actual write-offs and expected write-offs represents write-off surprises or unexpected goodwill write-offs. The authors document a negative and significant stock market reaction to unexpected goodwill write-offs. On a cross-sectional basis, they find that the market reaction is attenuated for firms with low information asymmetry (their proxy is a high analyst following) and for firms that find it relatively costly to implement impairment tests (their proxy is the inverse of firm size). The authors find no variation in market reaction based on firm complexity (their proxy is the number of firm segments). The negative reaction for the high information asymmetry and larger firms weakens following the adoption of SFAS 142. The latter result is consistent with SFAS 142 critics’ claims that more relevant accounting information, captured by fair value methods, is difficult to implement reliably and thus can reduce the information content of accounting reports.
Reaction of Glycidamide with 2′-Deoxyadenosine and 2′-Deoxyguanosine—Mechanism for the Amide Hydrolysis

2′-Deoxyadenosine (dA) and 2′-deoxyguanosine (dG) were reacted with the mutagenic epoxide glycidamide (GA, Scheme 1). The reactions yielded three GA-dA adducts (N1-GA-dA, N6-GA-dA and N1-GA-dI) and two GA-dG adducts (N1-GA-dG I and N1-GA-dG II) (Scheme 2). The structures of the adducts were characterized by spectroscopic and spectrometric methods (1H-, 13C, and 2D NMR, MS, UV). The mechanism of the amide hydrolysis taking place during formation of the adducts N1-GA-dA and N1-GA-dG I was studied. We propose a mechanism where a transamidation is the key step in the hydrolysis of the amide function of GA.
Ownership Structure, Corporate Governance and Analyst Following: A Study of French Listed Firms

This study investigates the effects of some characteristics of the French corporate governance model - deemed to foster entrenchment and facilitate private benefits extraction - on the extent of analyst following. The results show that analysts are more likely to follow firms both with high discrepancy level between ownership and control and those controlled through pyramiding. These findings provide empirical support to the argument that minority shareholders value private information on firms with high expropriation likelihood, asking thence for more analyst services. Additional findings show that analysts are reticent to follow firms managed by controlling family members. This is, in part, explained by these firms' reliance on private communication channels rather than public disclosure, producing a poor informational environment.
Electronic health record adoption and quality improvement in US hospitals.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the relationship between quality improvement and electronic health record (EHR) adoption in US hospitals. STUDY DESIGN National cohort study based on primary survey data about hospital EHR capability collected in 2003 and 2006 and on publicly reported hospital quality data for 2004 and 2007. METHODS Difference-in-differences regression analysis to assess the relationship between EHR adoption and quality improvement for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia care. RESULTS Availability of a basic EHR was associated with a significant increase in quality improvement for heart failure (additional improvement, 2.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0%-4.1%). However, adoption of advanced EHR capabilities was associated with significant decreases in quality improvement for acute myocardial infarction and heart failure. We observed 0.9% (95% CI, -1.7% to -0.1%) less improvement for acute myocardial infarction quality scores and 3.0% (95% CI, -5.2% to -0.8%) less improvement for heart failure quality scores among hospitals that newly adopted an advanced EHR, and 1.2% (95% CI, -2.0% to -0.3%) less improvement for acute myocardial infarction quality scores and 2.8% (95% CI, -5.4% to -0.3%) less improvement for heart failure quality scores among hospitals that upgraded their basic EHR. CONCLUSIONS Mixed results suggest that current practices for implementation and use of EHRs have had a limited effect on quality improvement in US hospitals. However, potential "ceiling effects" limit the ability of existing measures to assess the effect that EHRs have had on hospital quality. In addition to the development of standard criteria for EHR functionality and use, standard measures of the effect of EHRs on quality are needed.
Dynamics, Disequilibrium, and Marxian Economics: A Formal Analysis of Temporal Single-System Marxism

This article analyzes the temporal single-system interpretation (TSSI) of Marx’s economics. From a methodological viewpoint, the TSSI lacks both a clear definition of equilibrium and a rigorous analysis of disequilibrium dynamics, and the dynamic framework is incomplete. From a substantive viewpoint, temporal single-system (TSS) claims are trivially obtained by assuming that goods exchange at values, apart possibly from out-of-steady-state random deviations. Finally, the proof of the law of the tendential fall in the profit rate is tautologically true, but its theoretical relevance is unclear.
The Response of Stock Prices to Permanent and Temporary Shocks to Dividends

Abstract This paper investigates the response of stock prices to dividend shocks in a bivariate model of stock prices and price-dividend spreads. Dividend process is modeled as the sum of a permanent component and a temporary component. By using the stock price valuation (present value) model, the two components are related to stock prices. The stock market responds significantly not only to permanent shocks to dividends, but also to temporary shocks to dividends. Furthermore, initial responses of stock prices to the temporary shocks are as strong as those to the permanent shocks. As a result, substantial variation in stock prices is due to the temporary shocks. This finding provides empirical support for the imperfect information hypothesis that emphasizes the failure of investors to clearly distinguish between the two components of dividends, and also suggests that the observed mean-reverting behavior of stock returns should be explained by incorporating a significant temporary component into stockprices. The price-dividend spreads are primarily accounted for by the temporary shocks to dividends, and respond strongly to them, suggesting that, in response to the temporary shocks to dividends, stock prices respond excessively relative to dividends.