Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-resolving Information Markets: An Experimental Case Study

On traditional information markets (TIMs), rewards are tied to the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of events external to the market, such as some particular candidate winning an election. For that reason, they can only be used when it is possible to wait for some external event to resolve the market. In cases involving long time-horizons or counterfactual events, this is not an option. Hence, the need for a self-resolving information market (SRIM), resolved with reference to factors internal to the market itself. In the present paper, we first offer some theoretical reasons for thinking that, since the only thing that can be expected to be salient to all participants on a SRIM is the content of the question bet on, a convention will arise of taking that question at face value, and betting accordingly, in which case trading behaviour on SRIMs can be expected to be identical to that on TIMs. This is the ‘face value’ hypothesis. If this hypothesis holds, SRIMs have the potential of incorporating the accuracy of TIMs while shedding their limitations in relation to long-term predictions and the evaluation of counterfactuals. We then report on a laboratory experiment that demonstrates that trading behaviour can indeed come out highly similar across SRIMs and TIMs. As such, the study can be thought of as an experimental case study on SRIMs. Finally, we discuss some limitations of the study, and also points towards fruitful areas of future research in light of our results.
The Role of LGL/NK Cells in Surgery-Induced Promotion of Metastasis and Its Attenuation by Morphine

Painful stress such as surgery has been shown both to suppress immune function and to promote metastasis, although the degree to which alterations in immunity underlies the tumor-enhancing effects of surgery remains unclear. We recently reported that an experimental laparotomy results in a twofold increase in the number of lung metastases following iv injection of MADB106 tumor cells, a natural killer (NK)-sensitive mammary adenocarcinoma cell line, syngeneic to the Fischer 344 rats we studied. Further, the administration of an analgesic dose of morphine prevented these metastatic-enhancing effects of surgery. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of NK cells in both the metastatic-enhancing effects of surgery and the attenuation of these effects by morphine. Using a simple 2 x 2 experimental design (surgery with anesthesia vs anesthesia only, and morphine vs vehicle), we found that surgery resulted in a decrease in both whole blood NK cytotoxic activity and number of circulating LGL/NK cells assessed 4 h postoperatively. In a second experiment involving an 18-h lung clearance assay, we used the mAb 3.2. 3 to deplete rats of LGL/NK cells with the following rationale: if LGL/NK cells are necessary to mediate an event, then in their absence, that event should not occur. Normal and LGL/NK-depleted animals were assigned to the same four experimental groups, and radiolabeled MADB106 tumor cells were injected iv 4 h after surgery. In normal animals, there was a significant interaction between surgery and morphine such that morphine attenuated the surgery-induced increase in tumor cell retention without affecting tumor cell retention in the anesthesia groups. In the LGL/NK-depleted animals, however, although the tumor-enhancing effects of surgery remained evident, morphine did not mitigate this outcome. These results suggest that: (a) both LGL/NK cell activity and other factors independent of LGL/NK cells play a role in the surgery-induced increase in tumor cell retention; and (b) LGL/NK cells play a critical role in morphine's attenuating effects on this outcome. Finally, these results reinforce concern about the pathogenic consequences of unrelieved pain.
Structural investigations of a new familial dysalbuminemic hyperthyroxinemia genotype.

BACKGROUND In a previous study, we found that the amino acid substitution R218H in human serum albumin (HSA) was the cause of familial dysalbuminemic hyperthyroxinemia (FDH) in several Caucasian patients. Subsequently the substitution R218P was shown to be the cause of FDH in several members of a Japanese family. This study attempts to resolve discrepancies in the only other study of R218P HSA and identifies two new Japanese R218P FDH patients unrelated to those described previously. METHODS AND RESULTS Recombinant R218H, R218P, and wild-type HSA were synthesized in yeast, and the affinities of these HSA species for l- and d-thyroxine were determined using fluorescence spectroscopy. The dissociation constants for the binding of wild-type, R218P, and R218H HSA to l-thyroxine were 1.44 x 10(-6), 2.64 x 10(-7), and 2.49 x 10(-7) mol/L, respectively. The circular dichroism spectra of thyroxine bound to R218H and R218P HSA were markedly different, indicating that the structure of the thyroxine/HSA complex is different for either protein. CONCLUSIONS The K(d) values for l-thyroxine bound to R218P and R218H HSA determined in this study were similar. The extremely high serum total-thyroxine concentrations reported previously for R218P FDH patients (10-fold higher than those reported for R218H FDH patients) are not consistent with the K(d) values determined in this study. Possible explanations for these discrepancies are discussed.
The Small House Phenomenon and Polygyny in Zimbabwe: A Problematic Context for Child Socialisation and Development

The study juxtaposes the small house marital relationship with polygyny and explores the former as a context for child socialisation and development. This study was conducted in units O and N residential suburbs in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. The purposive sampling technique was adopted to acquire research participants. In collecting the qualitative data, in-depth interviews and document analysis were used. The juxtaposition of the small house phenomenon with polygyny illuminated numerous continuities and discontinuities of the traditional polygynous marital practice. The study reveals that polygyny remains a contested terrain, although women would like to ensure its total demise; and in contrast, men clandestinely perpetuate polygyny albeit disguised as the small house. However, the general perceptions were that polygyny is no longer compatible with the contemporary political and socio-economic dispensations. The study also established that the small house family structure tends to be a problematic context for child socialisation and development as a result of absent fatherhood and lone parenthood and that the girl child’s situation is worse-off, and thus, children from such households tend to experience a myriad of challenges at school, culminating in poor academic performance. Key Terms: polygyny, small house, hegemonic masculinity, absent fatherhood, lone parenthood.
Estimates of Fiscal Multipliers using MEDSEA

This paper documents the fiscal extension to MEDSEA, the Central Bank of Malta DSGE model. The model contains a relatively rich fiscal sector. Decisions made by the agents in the model are affected by distortionary taxes on labour income, capital income and consumption. On the expenditure side, the model distinguishes between public sector expenditure on final goods and services, public investment, public employment as well as transfers to households. The model is used to assess the size of fiscal multipliers in a very open and small open economy such as Malta. Both transitory and permanent shocks are considered. It also allows for changes in the instrument used to finance the change in fiscal policy.
Effect of tramadol as an adjuvant to local anesthetics for brachial plexus block: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Tramadol, a 4-phenyl-piperidine analog of codeine, has a unique action in that it has a central opioidergic, noradrenergic, serotonergic analgesic, and peripheral local anesthetic (LA) effect. Many studies have reported contradictory findings regarding the peripheral analgesic effect of tramadol as an adjuvant to LA in brachial plexus block (BPB). This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effects of tramadol as an adjunct to LA in BPB during shoulder or upper extremity surgery. Methods We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, KoreaMed databases, and Google Scholar for eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared BPB with LA alone and BPB with LA and tramadol. Primary outcomes were the effects of tramadol as an adjuvant on duration of sensory block, motor block, and analgesia. Secondary outcomes were the effects of tramadol as an adjuvant on time to onset of sensory block and motor block and on adverse effects. We performed the meta-analysis using Review Manager 5.3 software. Results We identified 16 RCTs with 751 patients. BPB with tramadol prolonged the duration of sensory block (mean difference [MD], -61.5 min; 95% CI, -95.5 to -27.6; P = 0.0004), motor block (MD, -65.6 min; 95% CI, -101.5 to -29.7; P = 0.0003), and analgesia (MD, -125.5 min; 95% CI, -175.8 to -75.3; P < 0.0001) compared with BPB without tramadol. Tramadol also shortened the time to onset of sensory block (MD, 2.1 min; 95% CI, 1.1 to 3.1; P < 0.0001) and motor block (MD, 1.2 min; 95% CI, 0.2 to 2.1; P = 0.010). In subgroup analysis, the duration of sensory block, motor block, and analgesia was prolonged for BPB with tramadol 100 mg (P < 0.05) but not for BPB with tramadol 50 mg. The quality of evidence was high for duration of analgesia according to the GRADE system. Adverse effects were comparable between the studies. Conclusions In upper extremity surgery performed under BPB, use of tramadol 100 mg as an adjuvant to LA appears to prolong the duration of sensory block, motor block, and analgesia, and shorten the time to onset of sensory and motor blocks without altering adverse effects.
Does Public News Decrease Information Asymmetries? Evidence from the Weekly Petroleum Status Report

I argue that the arrival of a public signal, regardless of its content, can yield an increase in adverse selection costs in financial markets. To explain its occurrence, I propose a dynamic model with a public signal and risk-averse informed investors. In this set-up, the public signal induces informed investors to participate in the market as it reduces uncertainty. While it increases adverse selection costs, the increase in participation results in more informative prices. Apart from the static effects, the model's dynamics deliver testable hypotheses about price and liquidity before and after the signal's release. Using transaction-level data, I estimate the effect of the release of the Weekly Petroleum Status Report on the bid-ask spread, volume, and midpoint returns via a difference-in-difference strategy. I find that the mean bid-ask spread doubles immediately after the release and that volume increases by 32 percent. Moreover, this effect persists over time, and is independent of the report's content whereas prices react to this information immediately. Nevertheless, liquidity at the end of the trading session is not affected by the report.
Purification of lysozyme using ultrafiltration.

This article examines the separation of lysozyme from chicken egg white by ultrafiltration with 25 kDa and 50 kDa MWCO polysulfone membranes. The effects of pH, system hydrodynamics, feed concentration, and transmembrane pressure on permeate flux, lysozyme transmission, purification factor, and productivity have been discussed. With both types of membranes, higher permeate flux and lysozyme transmission were observed at higher pH. Higher lysozyme purity was generally obtained with the 25 kDa MWCO membrane. Purity of lysozyme decreased when the feed concentration was increased. With the 50 kDa MWCO membrane permeate flux, productivity and the purity of lysozyme were found to increase with increase in transmembrane pressure. The possibility of using a two-step ultrafiltration process for achieving high productivity along with high purity of lysozyme was also investigated.
Prevalence of Epilepsy in Adults in Northern Sweden

Summary: A multisource medical register review identified persons with active epilepsy in northern Sweden. Seven hundred thirteen persons aged ≥17 years with epilepsy were determined on the prevalence day, December 31, 1985. The overall prevalence was 553 in 100,000 (566 in 100,000 if adjusted to the 1980 U.S. population). The ratio of males to females was 1.1, with a male prevalence of 575 and a female prevalence of 530 in 100,000. Age‐specific prevalences varied between 530–644 in 100,000 except in persons aged ≥70 years, for whom the prevalence was 321 in 100,000. Partial seizures were most common, 333 in 100,000, of whom the majority (250 in 100,000) had seizures that occasionally were secondarily generalized. Mental retardation was the foremost coexistent disorder, noted in 23%. The mean yearly seizure frequency was higher in persons with mental retardation than in nonretarded persons. Seventeen percent had seizures during the last week, 57% during the last year, whereas 16% had ≥5 years' freedom from seizures. Most had onset of epilepsy before age 20 years. A presumed etiology was noted in 35%, more often in men than in women. Cerebrovascular disease was the most commonly identified presumed cause. Other nonepileptic diseases/disabilities were noted in 47%.
Convergent In Vivo and In Vitro Selection of Ceftazidime Resistance Mutations at Position 167 of CTX-M-3 β-Lactamase in Hypermutable Escherichia coli Strains

ABSTRACT We report on a novel CTX-M extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL), designated CTX-M-42, with enhanced activity toward ceftazidime. CTX-M-42 was identified in a hypermutable Escherichia coli nosocomial isolate (isolate Irk2320) and is a Pro167Thr amino acid substitution variant of CTX-M-3. By molecular typing of ESBL-producing E. coli strains previously isolated in the same hospital ward, we were able to identify a putative progenitor (strain Irk1224) of Irk2320, which had a mutator phenotype and harbored the CTX-M-3 β-lactamase. To reproduce the natural evolution of CTX-M-3, we selected for ceftazidime resistance mutations in blaCTX-M-3 gene in vitro both in clinical isolate Irk1224 and in laboratory-derived hypermutable (mutD5) strain GM2995. These experiments yielded CTX-M-3Pro167Ser and CTX-M-3Asn136Lys mutants which conferred higher levels of resistance to ceftazidime than to cefotaxime. CTX-M-3Asn136Lys had a level of low activity toward ampicillin, which may explain its absence from clinical isolates. We conclude that the selection of CTX-M-42 could have occurred in vivo following treatment with ceftazidime and was likely facilitated by the hypermutable background.
Community as idea and community practices: tensions and consequences for urban communal growing in Glasgow

In an era of ‘community empowerment’ and the devolution of welfare responsibilities to local groups, it is important to understand what community comes to mean in everyday life. Through two growing projects in Glasgow, this thesis discusses such meanings in local processes of exclusion and urban land development, and uses the sites to explore too the politics of collective growing. To do so, I consider the meanings, tensions and contradictions that emerge between the practices of being communal and the naming of such as community. I draw on a multi-sited ethnography and in depth interviews to elucidate the emergence of that which comes to be called community as a situated, empirical phenomenon. As an overburdened concept, I suggest community is not necessarily the most helpful analytical term to describe the collective activity in both case studies. Instead, I argue for seeing community primarily as a frame that guides and makes sense of communal practices. Whilst some hope has been located in community gardens and similar urban interventions as potential sources of renewal and collective resistance to the harsher vagaries of neoliberal capitalism, this thesis argues that communal growing does not present a systematic alternative, although it does appropriate urban land in occasionally subversive ways. Communal growing does however offer insights into the complexities of creating places for autonomy and survival in austere conditions. I reflect on the selective reproduction of class and social exclusions in growing spaces, and the tentative production of a time and space outwith the logics of the capitalist city, and yet within its bounds. Ultimately this thesis argues that community is not an anodyne or empty concept, but rather a dynamic and symbolically important idea shaping local urban life.
An examination of the factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in a neurorehabilitation inpatient sample

Abstract The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) is widely used for assessing depression in neurorehabilitation. Given the concern that the somatic items might be misleading, we examined its factor structure in 353 inpatients. Exploratory factor analysis was undertaken to compare two- to five-factor solutions. Confirmatory factor analysis was then used to test the best exploratory solutions for goodness of fit on a subsample. Both provided strong support for a general depression factor and two specific factors, one somatic and one cognitive/affective. The BDI-II provides a meaningful score of overall depression, and it can also yield two subscores—one measuring somatic symptoms and the other measuring psychological symptoms of depression. To avoid confusing the common symptoms of neurological disability with depression in neurorehabilitation, clinicians need to consider all three scores carefully. (JINS, 2009, 15, 142–147.)
Early healing events in a porcine model of contaminated wounds: effects of nanocrystalline silver on matrix metalloproteinases, cell apoptosis, and healing

A porcine model of wound healing was employed to examine the impact of nanocrystalline silver–coated dressings on specific wound healing events. Full‐thickness wounds were created on the backs of pigs, contaminated with an experimental inoculum containing Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Fusobacterium sp. , and coagulase‐negative staphylococci, and covered with dressing products either containing silver or not. Nanocrystalline silver‐coated dressings promoted rapid wound healing, particularly during the first several days post‐injury. Healing was characterized by rapid development of well vascularized granulation tissue that supported tissue grafting 4 days post‐injury, unlike control dressed wounds. The proteolytic environment of wounds treated with nanocrystalline silver was characterized by reduced levels of matrix metalloproteinases. Matrix metalloproteinases have been shown to be present in chronic ulcers at abnormally high levels, as compared with acute wounds, and may contribute to the nonhealing nature of these wounds. Cellular apoptosis occurred at a higher frequency in the nanocrystalline silver–treated wounds than in wounds dressed with other products. The results suggest that nanocrystalline silver may play a role in altering or compressing the inflammatory events in wounds and facilitating the early phases of wound healing. These benefits are associated with reduced local matrix metalloproteinase levels and enhanced cellular apoptosis. (WOUND REP REG 2002;10:)
Public Good Provision Financed by Nonlinear Income Tax Under Reduction of Envy

Abstract We examine optimal taxation and public good provision by a government that considers reduction of envy as a constraint. We adopt the extended envy-freeness proposed by Diamantaras and Thomson (1990. “A Refinement and Extension of the No-Envy Concept.” Economics Letters 33: 217–22), called λ-equitability. We derive the modified Samuelson rule under an optimal nonlinear income tax and show, using a constant elasticity of substitution utility function, that the direction of distorting the original Samuelson rule to relax the λ envy-free constraint is crucially determined by the elasticity of substitution. Furthermore, we numerically show that the optimal level of provision increases (decreases) in the degree of envy-freeness when the original Samuelson rule is upwardly (downwardly) distorted.
Market State and Investment Strategies: Evidence from the Indian Stock Market

This study contributes to the growing literature on momentum and overreaction effect by investigating the same within the framework of the Indian stock market. Based on the most adopted methodology that employs monthly data, the empirical results derived confirm the existence of momentum and long-term overreaction effect in the Indian stock market. The overall results from the study are consistent with DeBondt and Thaler (1985) and Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) findings for the US stock market. In addition, we tested the profitability of momentum and contrarian strategies under different market states. The results indicated a strong relationship between the state of the market and momentum profitability, wherein strong momentum profits were observed following an ‘up’ market. On the contrary, long-term contrarian strategies were found to be stronger following a ‘down’ market in the Indian stock market. The market-dependent asset pricing model failed to explain excess momentum profits in the Indian stock market. The evidence from the study provides partial support to various behavioural models to explain these effects in the Indian stock market. However, there exists a need to develop a single behavioural model that could explain these anomalies completely in the emerging markets like India.
Electric spring for voltage and power stability and power factor correction

Electric Spring, a new smart grid technology, has earlier been used for providing voltage and power stability in a weakly regulated/stand-alone renewable energy source powered grid. It has been proposed as a demand side management technique to provide voltage and power regulation. Buildings provide a great avenue to implement electric spring effectively. In this paper, a new control scheme is presented for the implementation of electric spring, in conjunction with non-critical building loads like central air conditioning system. This control scheme would be able to provide power factor correction of the system, voltage support, and current balance for the critical loads, such as the building's security system, in addition to the existing characteristics of electric spring of voltage and power stability. Thus, the improvised control scheme opens new avenues for utilization of the electric spring to a greater extent by providing voltage and power stability and enhancing the power quality in the renewable energy powered microgrids.
Differences in Returns to Education in Jordan: Gender and Public-private Sector Analysis

Education is an investment and its returns in terms of increased wage can be used as an indicator for productivity in an economy. This paper analyses the relationship between education and earnings in Jordan in relation with gender and sector of employment (private versus public). Returns to education are estimated relying on a modification of the Mincer equation that takes into consideration gender and private versus public sector employment. The econometric analysis is based on the estimation of fixed effects models on a set of pseudo panel data covering the period between 2000 and 2015. The findings reveal that returns to education for male employees are higher than for female (the wage premium from one additional year of schooling is 6.8 percent for males and 5.5 percent for females) and that females get on average 74 percent of what males earn. We explain this result based on some peculiarities of female participation to the labour market in Jordan. It further emerges from the study that for male employees, wages in the private sector are 90 percent of the public sector, whereas for females, the private sector’s wages are 74 percent of those in the public sector.