Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical and histological predictors of response to medical therapy in collagenous colitis

OBJECTIVE:Collagenous colitis (CC) is an uncommon form of inflammatory bowel disease. The response to typical medical therapies (antimotility agents, 5-aminosalicylic acid [5-ASA], and corticosteroids) is variable. We aimed to determine if there are clinical or histological variables that can predict response to medical therapy.METHODS:All cases of CC were identified in three tertiary care medical centers. All charts of included patients were reviewed and clinical variables (age, gender, duration of symptoms, frequency of bowel movements, and the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs]) were recorded. Available histology slides were reviewed by one GI pathologist. Intraepithelial inflammation, epithelial loss or detachment, inflammation in the lamina propria, presence of eosinophilia, crypt inflammation, Paneth's cell metaplasia, and collagen layer thickness were recorded. Depending on their response to therapy, patients were divided into three groups: 1) spontaneous recovery or response to antidiarrheal agents alone, 2) response to 5-ASA agents, and 3) response to corticosteroids after failure of antidiarrheal agents and 5-ASA.RESULTS:Ninety-four patients with CC were identified. Of these, 62 patients were included. The median age was 58 (range = 20–85), and 88% were female. Among the histological parameters only the degree of inflammation in the lamina propria significantly differed between the three response groups (p = 0.007). Patients who required corticosteroids had greater inflammation. Among the clinical parameters age at presentation and use of NSAIDs significantly differed between groups. In the antidiarrheal group, patients tended to be more elderly, and in the corticosteroid group, more patients were on NSAIDs.CONCLUSIONS:1) The degree of lamina propria inflammation can be used as a histological predictor to guide treatment in patients with CC. 2) Patients who responded to antidiarrheal agents or had spontaneous remissions were significantly older than those patients requiring 5-ASA compounds or corticosteroids. 3) Patients who were taking NSAIDs were more likely to require corticosteroid therapy, presumably reflecting more severe disease.
Stock Price Reactions to Earnings Announcements: Evidence from India

In this study we examine the stock price reaction around earnings announcement for India. The data are used for 469 companies and the study period spans from December 2002 to December 2011 covering 37 quarterly periods. Significant pre-event abnormal returns are observed for 32 out of 37 quarters which may be an outcome of superior analysis coupled with information asymmetry. Significant post-event abnormal returns are observed for 35 out of 37 quarters implying strong rejection of semi strong efficiency with regards to earning announcements. There are strong continuation patterns in earnings suggesting that investors are able to anticipate the informational contents of earnings. Post-event abnormal returns are higher for financial vis-à-vis non-financial closing quarters. A large part of abnormal returns is observed over an elongated event window rather than very close to event date. Lower post-event abnormal returns are reported for periods of high aggregate earnings and vice versa. The findings shall be useful for market regulator, investment managers, companies as well as researchers. The study contributes to stock market efficiency and behavioural finance literature for an emerging market.
Taking Managerial Context Seriously: Public Management and Performance in U.S. and Denmark Schools

ABSTRACT While recent research has shown that management matters, we know very little about the role of national contexts in shaping management effects on performance. We address this issue by comparing the impact of management of similar organizations—schools—in very different national contexts, the unitary and corporatist Denmark and the fragmented, adversarial Texas. We hypothesize that external as well as internal management matter more in Texas than Denmark. This is because Texas principals can gain power by negotiating the adversarial system, while the corporatist influence of teachers reduces the decision authority of principals in Denmark through collective agreements and important shop stewards. Based on combinations of parallel surveys of school principals and archival data on student performance, we confirm that aspects of both external and internal management matter substantially in Texas while having virtually no effect in Denmark. We therefore suggest that public management research should pay more attention to the role of context.
Anal Versus Rectal Melanoma: Does Site of Origin Predict Outcome?

BACKGROUND: Anatomic site is a predictive factor in subtypes of cutaneous and mucosal melanoma. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the clinical relevance of location of origin of anorectal melanoma as a prognostic factor. DESIGN: With the use of a prospectively maintained database, clinical characteristics, management, and outcomes were compared according to the site of origin. SETTINGS, PATIENTS, INTERVENTIONS: A retrospective review was conducted of patients diagnosed with anorectal melanoma from 1994 to 2010. Tumors were defined as anal, anorectal, or rectal melanoma according to their anatomic relationship to the dentate line. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinicopathologic factors were compared by &khgr;2 test. Time-to-event analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier analysis. RESULTS: Of the 96 patients included (41 with anal melanoma, 32 with anorectal melanoma, 23 with rectal melanoma), patients with rectal and anorectal mucosal melanoma had advanced primary tumors (median Breslow thickness, 12 mm and 8 mm, p = 0.002), whereas anal lesions could be found at earlier depths (median thickness, 6.5 mm). Patients with anal tumors more commonly underwent transanal excision (p < 0.02) and sentinel lymph node biopsy (p = 0.004) versus anorectal and rectal tumors. Patterns of recurrence were also distinct; nearly two-thirds of anorectal and rectal tumors recurred systemically, whereas anal melanoma more often recurred within the lymph nodes first (63%; p < 0.02). Recurrence occurred in 24 (59%) patients with anal tumors, 23 (72%) patients with anorectal tumors, and 16 (70%) patients with rectal tumors. Median overall survival was 22 months for anal melanoma, 28 months for anorectal melanoma, and 27 months for rectal melanoma. Recurrence and survival were not statistically different between the groups. LIMITATIONS: This study is limited by small sample size and its retrospective nature. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents the only series describing the outcomes of anorectal melanoma by anatomic location. Lesions at or proximal to the dentate line present with more advanced disease, possibly related to a delay in diagnosis. Lesions distal to the dentate line more commonly recur within lymph nodes, which may represent differences in nodal drainage. Irrespective of location, the long-term prognosis remains poor for all cases of anorectal melanoma.
Relationship between tourism and economic growth

The main goal of this paper is to determine whether tourism activity stimulates economic growth. The study indicates the main variables affecting tourism activity and shows a feedback effect between income and tourism. Findings indicate that tourism not only supplies necessary funds to finance firms' activities, but also stimulates the local firms' productivity and creates new job opportunities that increase the country's welfare. Variables that have important effects on tourism activity, such as entrepreneurship and prices have also been considered.
Deep scattering convolution network based features for ultrasonic fatty liver tissue characterization

Accumulation of excess fat in the liver tissue is the leading cause for dysfunction of liver, which can lead to the diseases from fibrosis to end stage cirrhosis. Hence, early detection of fatty liver becomes crucial in avoiding the liver from permanent failure. Depending on the concentration of fat in the tissue, the liver is classified as Normal, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 respectively. The texture of liver tissue in ultrasound image is so specific to the concentration of fat, hence classifying the fatty liver is formulated as a texture discrimination problem. In this paper, we present an automated algorithm for grading the tissue of a fatty liver based on the features obtained from the invariant scattering convolution network (ISCN). ISCN, which involves cascade of modulus complex wavelet transforms and averaging operations results in scattering coefficients (SC), these coefficients will give stable invariant representations and also maps the texture of fatty liver image to a discriminative manifold giving good features for classification. SC are of high dimension and hence a compact representation feature is obtained by summing all the SC coefficients. Summed SC features along with cubic SVM classifier gave an accuracy of 96.6% in automatically categorizing the fatty content present in the tissue of a liver.
From Bottom to Top: The Entire Income Distribution in Germany, 1992–2003

We analyze the distribution of market income in Germany in the period 1992 to 2003 on the basis of an integrated dataset that encompasses the whole spectrum of the population, from the very poor to the very rich. We find a modest increase of the Gini coefficient, a substantial drop of median income and a remarkable growth of the income share accruing to the economic elite, which we define as the richest 0.001 percent of persons in the population. While the elite mainly obtains its income from business and capital, the income share that it receives in the form of wage income has been increasing. We also show that the dramatic decline of market income in the bottom half of the distribution is very much mitigated by income transfers within private households and by governmental redistribution.
A hybrid data analytic approach to predict college graduation status and its determinative factors

Purpose The prediction of graduation rates of college students has become increasingly important to colleges and universities across the USA and the world. Graduation rates, also referred to as completion rates, directly impact university rankings and represent a measurement of institutional performance and student success. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort by federal and state governments to increase the transparency and accountability of institutions, making “graduation rates” an important and challenging university goal. In line with this, the main purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid data analytic approach which can be flexibly implemented not only in the USA but also at various colleges across the world which would help predict the graduation status of undergraduate students due to its generic nature. It is also aimed at providing a means of determining and ranking the critical factors of graduation status. Design/methodology/approach This study focuses on developing a novel hybrid data analytic approach to predict the degree completion of undergraduate students at a four-year public university in the USA. Via the deployment of the proposed methodology, the data were analyzed using three popular data mining classifications methods (i.e. decision trees, artificial neural networks, and support vector machines) to develop predictive degree completion models. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the relative importance of each predictor factor driving the graduation. Findings The sensitivity analysis of the most critical factors in predicting graduation rates is determined to be fall-term grade-point average, housing status (on campus or commuter), and which high school the student attended. The least influential factors of graduation status are ethnicity, whether or not a student had work study, and whether or not a student applied for financial aid. All three data analytic models yielded high accuracies ranging from 71.56 to 77.61 percent, which validates the proposed model. Originality/value This study presents uniqueness in that it presents an unbiased means of determining the driving factors of college graduation status with a flexible and powerful hybrid methodology to be implemented at other similar decision-making settings.
Festivalisation and urban renewal in the Global South: socio-spatial consequences of the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Sports mega events increasingly take place in the metropolises of emerging economies. As a city-marketing tool, these events are said to make the host cities more visible in the international competition for foreign and domestic investments. Infrastructural upgrades and fast tracking of urban development projects, as well as giving focus and legitimation to urban policy makers, are supposedly the further benefits of hosting mega events. This recalls the ‘Festivalisation of Urban Policy’ hypothesis by Häußermann and Siebel, which describes the instrumentalisation of large-scale cultural and sports events to support image building and to catalyse urban development in European and US cities. Given that socio-economically very heterogeneous nations increasingly host these events, it is necessary to extend the debate and to investigate whether the political, economic and social effects in these countries of the Global South – conventionally labelled as the developing world – can be explained with the festivalisation hypothesis: Are the urban development effects qualitatively comparable and, if so, are they more strongly or weakly pronounced than in the Global North? The 2010 International Federation of Football Association World Cup in South Africa is a fitting example to explore the characteristics and dynamics of mega events in the host cities of the Global South.
Collaborative Federalism: Economic Reform in Australia in the 1990s

1. National problems, federal solutions 2. The theory and practice of cooperative federalism 3. SPC, COAG and the politics of collaboration 4. Achieving cooperation: players and processes 5. The machinery of intergovernmental relations: an institutional analysis 6. The institutions of collaborative federalism 7. Duplication and overlap: new roles, old battles 8. The future of collaborative federalism List of references Index.
Effort-Limited Treadmill Walk Test: Reliability and Validity in Subjects with Postpolio Syndrome

Finch LE, Venturini A, Mayo NE, Trojan DA: Effort-limited treadmill walk test: Reliability and validity in subjects with postpolio syndrome. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2004;83:613–623. Objective:To determine the reliability and construct validity of an effort-limited treadmill walk test to measure functional ability in subjects with postpolio syndrome in an outpatient postpolio clinic. Design:Functioning and distance walked on a treadmill to a Borg “hard” effort level were measured three times, a week apart, by two blinded raters in 15 subjects with postpolio syndrome, aged 37–67 yrs, with new weakness, fatigue, and pain but with no other cause of symptomatology or condition-limiting walking. One rater tested them twice. Fatigue activity level, mobility, and health-related quality of life (Medical Outcome Study Short Form Health Survey [SF-36]) defined functioning. Generalizability correlation coefficients determined intrarater, test-retest and interrater reliability. The correlations relating the distance walked and functioning determined construct validity. Results:Reliability for generalizability correlation coefficients were: intrarater, 0.91; test-retest, 0.85; and interrater, 0.58. Interrater reliability improved to 0.91 with adherence to a standardized protocol. Validity was established with correlations between the distance walked and SF-36 physical component score (0.66), physical role (0.60), bodily pain (0.60), and vitality (0.55). Conclusions:The treadmill walk test provides a reproducible and valid measure of ability in persons with postpolio syndrome with a single rater, but a standardized protocol is essential for reliability.
Parent-Daughter Discrepancies in Perception of Family Function in Bulimia Nervosa

Abstract Eating disorders have traditionally been associated with disturbed family function. Most empirical data regarding this issue, however, were gathered from eating disorders patients. Attitudes, function, and inter-personal relationships were examined within 16 families with a member suffering from bulimia nervosa (BN) and compared to 16 matched healthy families. Perception of family function was significantly more derogatory in bulimic subjects than in their parents, while in control subjects and parents, perception was largely congruent. Subjects suffering from BN perceived their families as less cohesive, adaptable, and supportive than did healthy subjects. No such difference in perception of family function was observed between parents of respective groups. This preliminary study shows that parent-daughter discrepancy in perception of family function may prove more characteristic of eating disorder families than any particular deficit. Future research should aim to replicate these findings, incorporate them into treatment paradigms, and employ them to monitor treatment outcome.
An Analysis of Segment Disclosures under SFAS No. 131 and SFAS No. 14

The purpose of this paper is to compare the segment reporting disclosures under SFAS No. 131 with those reported the previous year under SFAS No. 14. Under SFAS No. 131, firms are required to report segments consistent with the way in which management organizes the business internally. In addition, the accounting items disclosed for each segment are defined consistent with internal segment information used to assess segment performance. For many companies, this represents a significant change from the approach used to report segments under SFAS No. 14. Under SFAS No. 14, firms were required to disclose segment information by both line‐of‐business and geographic area with no specific link to the internal organization of the company or the measurements that were used for internal decision making. As a result, many complained that the resulting disclosures were highly aggregated and of limited use for decision‐making purposes. We find that the change in segment reporting requirements under SFAS No. 131 has m.
Why Do Companies Not Produce Sustainability Reports

Sustainability reporting emerged on the corporate scene nearly 30 years ago as a key mechanism through which business organisations would manage a transition to a new business landscape dominated by greater concern and consciousness about sustainability. While it has become something of a feature on the corporate agenda in some parts of the world, the majority of business organisations do not undertake this type of reporting. This paper explores why 23 of Australia's top 200 companies do not undertake sustainability reporting. The study is situated in the context of a considerable literature that promised numerous benefits to be derived from this type of reporting. The paper uncovers various social and organisational factors that raise some new questions about legitimacy theory, corporate accountability and the spread and uptake of this organisational practice. Sustainability reporting emerged on the corporate scene nearly 30 years ago as a key mechanism through which business organisations would manage a transition to a new business landscape dominated by greater concern and consciousness about sustainability. While it has become something of a feature on the corporate agenda in some parts of the world, the majority of business organisations do not undertake this type of reporting. This paper explores why 23 of Australia's top 200 companies do not undertake sustainability reporting. The study is situated in the context of a considerable literature that promised numerous benefits to be derived from this type of reporting. The paper uncovers various social and organisational factors that raise some new questions about legitimacy theory, corporate accountability and the spread and uptake of this organisational practice.
CdiA promotes receptor‐independent intercellular adhesion

CdiB/CdiA proteins mediate inter‐bacterial competition in a process termed contact‐dependent growth inhibition (CDI). Filamentous CdiA exoproteins extend from CDI+ cells and bind specific receptors to deliver toxins into susceptible target bacteria. CDI has also been implicated in auto‐aggregation and biofilm formation in several species, but the contribution of CdiA–receptor interactions to these multi‐cellular behaviors has not been examined. Using Escherichia coli isolate EC93 as a model, we show that cdiA and bamA receptor mutants are defective in biofilm formation, suggesting a prominent role for CdiA–BamA mediated cell–cell adhesion. However, CdiA also promotes auto‐aggregation in a BamA‐independent manner, indicating that the exoprotein possesses an additional adhesin activity. Cells must express CdiA in order to participate in BamA‐independent aggregates, suggesting that adhesion could be mediated by homotypic CdiA–CdiA interactions. The BamA‐dependent and BamA‐independent interaction domains map to distinct regions within the CdiA filament. Thus, CdiA orchestrates a collective behavior that is independent of its growth‐inhibition activity. This adhesion should enable ‘greenbeard’ discrimination, in which genetically unrelated individuals cooperate with one another based on a single shared trait. This kind‐selective social behavior could provide immediate fitness benefits to bacteria that acquire the systems through horizontal gene transfer.
Decreased immunorejection in unmatched blood transfusions by attachment of methoxypolyethylene glycol on human red blood cells and the effect on D antigen

BACKGROUND: Pegylation of red blood cells (RBCs) has been the primary focus of research on the immunocamouflage of cell. The aim of this study was to demonstrate pegylation homogeneity, its shielding effect on D antigens, and its storage stability. In addition, methoxypolyethylene glycol (mPEG)‐modified RBCs (mPEG‐RBCs) were tested serologically against a panel of serum samples that was difficult to match to find a solution to the difficulty in matching.
Foreign direct investment and prospects for the northern region

This paper's purpose is to review the recent experience of foreign direct investment (FDI) in North East England, and to explore the implications of this for the region's prospective economic development. Foreign-owned plants are reckoned to account for more than half the North East's employment in manufacturing, so that the future economic prospects of the region rest heavily on the performance of this stock of FDI plants. Further, the attraction of FDI continues to be a vital component of the region's economic strategy (One NorthEast, 2005), while the Regional Development Agency (RDA) supports initiatives to both develop and "embed" these plants in the region.
State Policy Innovativeness Revisited

How do the American states vary in their propensity for innovativeness, or their willingness to adopt new policies sooner or later relative to other states? Most studies today use event history analysis (EHA) to focus almost exclusively on one policy area at a time at the expense of a broader understanding of innovativeness as a characteristic of states. To return to the concept of innovativeness more broadly, our study revisits and updates the original approach taken by Walker by updating his average innovation scores with new data covering more than 180 different policies. We use these data to construct a new, dynamic measure of innovativeness that addresses biases and shortcomings in the original measure and we provide measures of uncertainty for both. These new scores build on the logic of EHA to address issues such as right-censoring and to facilitate measuring changes in innovativeness over time. We then compare the two measures of innovativeness and evaluate differences across states, spatial patterns, and changes in innovativeness over time.