Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowingly taking risk: investment decision making in real estate development

Knowingly taking risk is essential to the success of the real estate development business. Investing in real estate development projects, which are characterised by complexity and uncertainty, implies that high risks are taken. Interestingly, little is known about how real estate development organisations have incorporated the skills and procedures necessary to deal successfully with the risky nature of the business. This thesis offers insight into the investment decision making process of three prominent Dutch real estate development companies. The result is an explanatory framework that demonstrates that making good investment decisions is not restricted to analysing risks to support the justification of decisions, but it is also necessary to address decision problems in time, and to ensure that someone is accountable for the decision. The framework offers an innovative perspective on risk management and decision making. Additionally, the thesis presents management practices used to ensure that risks are taken knowingly. These practices are of relevance to senior management of real estate development organisations to design and improve its own decision making procedures.
A Recombined Haplotype in the Major Histocompatibility Region Contains a Cluster of Genes Conferring High Susceptibility to Ulcerative Colitis in the Spanish Population

Background: The most consistently described associations in ulcerative colitis (UC) have been with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles. Our aim was to look for associations among distinct genetic polymorphisms in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) that might play a role in determining the susceptibility to UC and especially to the extensive form of the disease. Methods: A case‐control study was performed with a total of 253 patients with UC and 315 healthy controls recruited from a single Spanish center. All the samples and 4 cell lines carrying DRB1*0103 or DRB1*1501 alleles were typed for the HLA‐DRB1 class II gene and for a panel of HLA class III markers (D6S273, BAT_2, TNFa, b, c, d, e, IKBL+738, MICA). Results: The frequency of the alleles DRB1*0103, IKBL+738(C) (extending our previous results) and BAT_2‐8 (newly typed) was increased in patients compared with controls (P = 0.00001, odds ratio [OR] = 5.90; P = 0.002, OR = 2.42; and P = 0.0001, OR = 3.04, respectively), and these associations were greatest in patients with extensive disease compared with patients with distal disease (P = 0.02, OR = 2.53; P = 0.002, OR = 3.06; and P = 0.03, OR = 2.08, respectively). The allelic combination DRB1*0103/D6S273‐5/BAT_2‐8/TNFa11b4c1d3e3/IKBL+738(C)/MICA5.1 that includes the telomeric class III markers of the 7.1 ancestral haplotype is highly increased in patients with UC (P = 0.0001, OR = 10.57), especially in those with the extensive form of the disease (P = 0.02, OR = 3.41 extensive versus distal). Conclusions: The above‐mentioned pattern, most likely formed by recombination of the telomeric fragment of the MHC 7.1 ancestral haplotype, seems to be the most important genetic determinant of susceptibility to the extensive form of UC in our population.
Differential behavioral effects of lesions of the median or dorsal raphe nuclei in rats: open field and pain-elicited aggression.

Electrolytic lesions were placed in either the dorsal or median raphe nuclei of adult male albino rats. Both lesions produced significant reductions in forebrain serotonin levels. Lesions of the dorsal nucleus produced a long-lasting increase in pain-elicited aggression, whereas median lesions were without effect. By contrast, lesions of the median nucleus produced significant increases in open-field activity, which began immediately and lasted for at least 3 mo, whereas lesions of the dorsal nucleus had no such effect. Similarly, when animals with dorsal or sham lesions were tested in an open field and then given a brief noncontingent footshock, their open-field activity was markedly reduced on the following day. Median animals, however, showed little or no decrease in open-field activity on the day after footshock. These results suggest that the serotonin-containing neurons of the median raphe nucleus may exert an influence over the emotional responsivity of the rat. The overall results of these experiments extend our previous reports that lesions specific to the dorsal nucleus produce markedly different behavioral effects than lesions confined to the median nucleus. They also challenge the utility of manipulations that fail to take this into account, e.g., lesions of more than one nucleus or depletion of serotonin throughout the central nervous system.
French Banks Amid the Global Financial Crisis

This paper runs the gamut of qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine the performance of French banks during 2006-2008 and the financial support measures taken by the French government. French banks were not immune but proved relatively resilient to the global financial crisis reflecting their business and supervision features. An event study of the impact of government measures on CDS, debt, and equity markets points to the reduction of credit risk and financing cost as well as the redistribution of resources. With the crisis still unfolding, uncertainties remain and challenges lie ahead, calling for continued vigilance and enhanced risk management.
Do IT investments really pay off

Subtitle: The answer is yes -- but only if solid business processes are in place. Conversely, implementing and IT system without those supporting processes can be a waste of money. Intuitively, we've probably known this all along. But now there's quantitative research that clearly links business processes and IR systems to supply chain performance.
Preliminary: Please do not cite or circulate without permission DELEGATION IN MULTI-ESTABLISHMENT FIRMS: THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF I.T. PURCHASING AUTHORITY

A rare large-scale empirical study of delegation within firms, this paper investigates how decision rights over information technology investments are allocated within multi-establishment firms. The core results indicate that a relatively high contribution to firm sales is highly correlated with authority being delegated to the local establishment. Firm-wide operational complexity and local information advantages are also associated with local discretion for IT purchases. Certain IT investments are also positively correlated with delegation. On the other hand, significant operational interdependencies evince a positive correlation with centralization, as do productive similarities among establishments. Surprisingly, absolute size of the firm and having a large IT budget are also correlated with centralized IT decision-making. With the exception of these latter effects, the results are consistent with models of organizational design that predict delegation where there is great demand for locally adapted choices and centralization where firm-wide coordination is most important. The findings document and make sense of widespread heterogeneity in decision rights across a range of firm and industry settings – even among establishments belonging to the same parent firm. Finally, they suggest important considerations for future empirical and theoretical research into the determinants of delegation.
Evaluation of six fluoroquinolones for their capabilities in restricting the selection of resistant salmonellae.

of a fluoroquinolone. 4,5 The MICs of the six fluoroquinolones for the strains tested (shown to be clonally unrelated by PFGE) are shown in Table 1. All were highly susceptible to the six fluoroquinolones tested with MICs as much as 64-fold lower than the susceptible breakpoints recommended by the CLSI 6 or the BSAC. 4 However, when the strains were subcultured in the presence of a fluoroquinolone, resistant strains developed at 1·–32· MIC at a frequency ranging from10 –11 to10 –6 . Gemifloxacincouldselectresistantstrainsatthe highest frequencies (10 –10 –1 0 –6 ), indicating that both Salmonella
Does the choice of bottle nipple affect the oral feeding performance of very‐low‐birthweight (VLBW) infants?

Background: There is a continuous debate regarding the best bottle nipple to be used to enhance the bottle‐feeding performance of a preterm infant. Aim: To verify that feeding performance can be improved by using the bottle nipple with the physical characteristics that enhance infants’ sucking skills. Methods: Ten “healthy” VLBW infants (941±273 g) were recruited. Feeding performance was monitored at two time periods, when taking 1–2 and 6–8 oral feedings/d. At each time and within 24 h, performance was monitored using three different bottle nipples offered in a randomized order. Rate of milk transfer (ml/min) was the primary outcome measure. The sucking skills monitored comprised stage of sucking, suction amplitude, and duration of the generated negative intraoral suction pressure. Results: At both times, infants demonstrated a similar rate of milk transfer among all three nipples. However, the stage of sucking, suction amplitude, and duration of the generated suction were significantly different between nipples at 1–2, but not 6–8 oral feedings/d.
Increased Levels of Soluble Fas Ligand in Serum inPlasmodium falciparum Malaria

ABSTRACT Levels of soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) in serum were elevated in patients with Plasmodium falciparum malaria and showed a significant decline during disease course. sFasL levels that were elevated before antimalarial treatment began correlated significantly with depressed total lymphocyte and T-cell counts. These data suggest that Fas-induced apoptosis might play a role in malaria-associated lymphopenia.
Men with Health Insurance and the Women Who Love Them: The Effect of a Husband's Retirement on His Wife's Health Insurance Coverage

Health insurance coverage in the years prior to retirement is particularly important because it protects the household from the financial risks of uninsurance as well as the health consequences of delaying care while uninsured. While results from the retirement "job lock" literature show that those who would lack coverage after retirement continue to work to maintain benefits, little work has explored the types of health insurance choices made by couples after retirement. It may be difficult for a married man to coordinate continuous coverage for a younger wife whose primary source of coverage has been from the husband, and thus households may pay more for non-group coverage or be exposed to the risks of uninsurance. This paper studies a panel of married couples from the 1992-2004 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to study the types of health insurance decisions households make around the time of retirement. Results indicate that households seem to do well at avoiding uninsurance at the time of retirement, but may make high cost choices in order to insure the wife. Men switch into Medicare or coverage from their wife at retirement if they lose their own coverage, but a large fraction of women take-up privately purchased coverage. In fact, the transition from husband’s coverage to privately purchased coverage is twice as large in periods when the husband retires than otherwise. Transitions to uninsurance are lower in periods of retirement than at other times, suggesting that men continue to work if either spouse would lose coverage. Though less risky, insurance purchased in the non-group market is expensive relative to employer-sponsored coverage. Thus, married households may need to increase savings to pay for health insurance that bridges the gap until the wife can claim Medicare at age 65.
Measurements of Waves in Landfast Ice Using Inertial Motion Units

Inertial motion units (IMUs) are used to perform measurements of waves in water covered by landfast ice close to the ice edge in Svalbard. The effective noise level of the instruments is assessed in controlled wave tank experiments. A set of measurements collected in Tempelfjorden, Svalbard in March 2015 is presented, and the ability of the sensors to operate in the field is validated. Several characteristics of the recorded signals, including correlation between the different sensors, are analyzed. Horizontal and vertical motions are of the same order of magnitude. A clear transition in the signal properties is observed in relation with changes in incoming wave field and the development of cracks in the ice layer. We show that complex physics takes place when waves propagate in landfast ice and that the use of times series containing information on the full three-dimensional linear acceleration, rather than spectra, is required to capture the underlying phenomena.
A first look at retirement migration trends in 2000.

PURPOSE This brief report takes a look at the preliminary estimates of the number and proportion of migrants over the age of 60 who moved to and from states between 1995 and 2000 and compares these estimates with those who made the same kind of move one decade earlier. DESIGN AND METHODS The 2000 census 1-in-100 public-use microdata sample, released in the summer of 2003, and the 1-in-20 sample from the 1990 census, were compared in this analysis. Point estimates of 100% were created for the inflows and outflows for the top 10 states in these two census decades. Net migration was also considered. RESULTS The total estimated number of older interstate migrants increased to over 2 million during the 1995-2000 migration period. Florida declined slightly in its position as the dominant destination for a second decade, indicating a downward trend for the first time. Arizona became the second largest receiving state, next to Florida, and California approached New York's dominance as a migration origin, or sending, state. Nevada entered the top ranking retirement states for the first time. IMPLICATIONS Long-term migration dynamics of the older population may reflect perceived shifts in quality of life in destination states. Nonetheless, the next two decades will see a substantial rise in the number of older migrants.
Audit Market Concentration in Malaysia: A Descriptive Analysis of the Top 10 Audit Firms in Malaysia from 2009-2013

While the global auditing services market is presently dominated by a group of four auditing firms (Big Four) namely Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the auditing profession in Malaysia offers several exceptions in the audit of public-listed companies (PLCs). In this study of the top ten auditing firms in Malaysian PLCs audit market for the period 2009 to 2013, it was found that BDO has overtaken Deloitte as the fourth largest auditing firm in Malaysia PLCs market segment, measured by audit fee income, clients’ market capitalisation and the turnover of their audit clients. Nevertheless, Deloitte remain strong in the referral audit of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia as globally, Deloitte has overtaken PwC as the world largest accounting firm since 2013. As such, studies comparing the global Big Four versus non-Big Four auditing firms in Malaysia has to be treated with more caution to ensure comparability of the composition of the Big Four in the global arena. Also, Pareto 80:20 rule can be used to describe the audit market concentration issue in Malaysia as the top 10 audit firms in Malaysia audit 80% of the public listed companies in Malaysia.
On the Validity of M-SWOT for Innovation Climate Development

The idea behind M-SWOT is to assess the organization by way of mapping the participants' responses to open and general questions onto specific, research based models in a particular domain; in this case innovation climate. The present article attempts to conceptually validate SWOT by way of providing a link to the Organizational Climate Measure (OCM), and to demonstrate discriminatory validity of SWOT towards other related, but unspecific models (the Job Characteristics Model (JCM)), based on SWOT interviews with 15 managers in two highly innovative Norwegian companies. The hypotheses are that there will be a positive correlation between the OCM dimensions and the SWOT statements; that the four quadrants of OCM will cover the SWOT statements in a particular order, and that more SWOT statements will be aligned with OCM than JCM. All hypotheses were confirmed. The results indicate that an M-SWOT approach to innovation climate development is viable with respect to the type of content that the SWOT interviews elicit.
Birth weight distribution of Hospital Geral do Grajaú population compared to São Paulo city population.

OBJECTIVE To compare the growth curves from a population from a large city suburban hospital with those of the city of São Paulo, São Paulo State, Brazil. METHODS At Hospital Geral do Grajaú, that serves the high pregnancy risk population lacking health facilities, of low education level and smaller number of prenatal visits and great morbidity, a growth curve was built for the newborns, as the Hospital is provided with updated equipment and personnel. The curve was built from the database available containing information on live births during the 2003 to 2007 period and totaling 9,952 newborns, as their weight at birth and gestational age were taken as parameters. The distribution curves of 3%, 10%, 50% and 90% of the Grajaú were compared to those of the city of São Paulo curve. RESULTS The curves did not significantly differ from those of the São Paulo curve percentiles, as shown by the mean deviation (Z score) calculation, notwithstanding the higher rates for prematurity, low weight, teenager mothers and lack of prenatal visits among the Grajaú population as compared to those of São Paulo. CONCLUSIONS The São Paulo city curve showed to be appropriate for the suburban population despite the existing differences.
Consideration of Helicobacter pylori infection in childhood: Immune response, endoscopic and morphological findings

Seventy‐five children (aged 9–14 years) infected with Helicobacter pylori were studied endoscopically and morphologically for the signs of infection and immune response by ELISA technique (total IgE and specific IgG against H. pylori); a control group of 36 children (not infected with H. pylori) were studied simultaneously. Helicobacter pylori positive children examined endoscopically revealed a number of mucous membrane changes including erythema, erosions, lymphoid nodular hyperplasia and ulcers. Gastritis was confirmed by histology in 58 children; 6% were termed ‘active’, others were ‘non‐active’. When studying the concentrations of anti‐H. pylori IgG in children from the control group they were considered to be seronegative but in children infected with H. pylori a considerable increase was noted. An evaluation of the interaction between anti‐H. pylori IgG titers and age, endoscopic signs and histology was carried out. Suppositions were made about the presence of links between these characteristics. Children with H. pylori infection showed a considerable increase of total IgE titers in comparison with the control group. The role of IgG and IgE in the development of chronic gastroduodenal diseases associated with H. pylori is discussed.
Microvascular head and neck reconstruction after (chemo)radiation: facts and prejudices

Purpose of reviewThis article critically analyzes the recent literature on microvascular head and neck reconstruction after (chemo)radiation [(C)RT], taking into consideration both the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms and their clinical consequences. Recent findingsMicrovascular reconstruction has gradually become a mainstay in the management of head and neck cancer both in primary and salvage scenarios. However, limited data are available concerning the influence of previous radiotherapy/chemoradiation therapy (CRT) on free flap survival and surgical complications. Molecular studies show that the effects of radiotherapy/CRT may be essentially reduced to three components: inflammation, a prothrombotic state and fibrosis. From a clinical point of view, this is reflected in a moderate increase in free flaps failure and surgical complications. Nevertheless, free flaps continue to offer clear advantages even in such an unfavorable condition. SummaryRadiotherapy/CRT induce a less favorable tissue environment, potentially leading to a higher risk of complications. In this scenario, however, free tissue transfer still plays the role of favoring wound healing bringing well vascularized tissue to less vascularized microenvironments.
Understanding the mechanisms of paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction

• Paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction is a clinically relevant complication of large-volume paracentesis. • Paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction is related to an accentuation of arteriolar vasodilatation, already present in patients with advanced cirrhosis. • The origin of arteriolar vasodilatation occurring after paracentesis is probably multifactorial and includes the dynamics of paracentesis, increased synthesis of nitric oxide from the vascular endothelium and mechanical changes secondary to mechanical decompression. • Although, to date, plasma volume expanders are the only effective treatment for the prevention of paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction, other approaches are under evaluation. Large-volume paracentesis induces early beneficial haemodynamic changes that may be shortly followed by a disorder known as paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction, characterized by a marked activation of the renin–angiotensin axis. Evidence is accumulating however that this disorder is secondary to an accentuation of an already established arteriolar vasodilatation. The causes of this syndrome are probably multiple and may include the dynamics of paracentesis (the rate of ascitic fluid extraction), release of nitric oxide from the vascular endothelium and mechanical modifications due to abdominal decompression. Patients developing this syndrome are prone to a faster reaccumulation of ascites, renal impairment and shorter survival. Plasma volume expansion after paracentesis reduces the incidence of this disorder. Preliminary evidence suggests that other approaches, such as the use of splanchnic vasoconstrictors or modulating the rate of ascitic fluid extraction, could be also effective, although more studies are needed.
Distinct Microbiotas are Associated with Ileum-Restricted and Colon-Involving Crohn's Disease

Background:The etiology of inflammatory bowel disease is believed to involve a shift in the microbiota toward more proinflammatory species. Crohn's disease (CD) usually manifests as one of three phenotypes, involving inflammation of the terminal ileum, the colon, or both. However, what determines the particular phenotype and the level of disease activity remains unknown. In this study, we aim to characterize the intestinal microbiota associated with different CD phenotypes. Methods:DNA was extracted from biopsies of 31 patients with ileal, ileocolic, or colon-restricted CD, and also from 5 non–inflammatory bowel disease control subjects, and analyzed by 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing. Data were processed using the Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology pipeline and analyzed using linear discriminant analysis with effect size estimation and PICRUSt algorithms. Two additional recently published cohorts were also analyzed in this study. Results:Highly significant separation was observed between bacterial composition of ileal CD compared with CD with colonic involvement (genus level Bray–Curtis P = 0.005, R = 20%). This separation was unaffected by the biopsy's location or its inflammatory state, or by the patients' condition (remission or relapse). Faecalibacterium was strongly reduced in ileal CD compared with CD with colonic involvement, whereas Enterobacteriaceae were more abundant in the former. Fusobacterium relative abundance was strongly correlated with disease activity in patients with ileal-involving, but not in colon-involving, CD. Conclusions:Ileal and colon-involving CD sustain distinct microbiotas, suggesting that different mechanisms underlie the two major manifestations of CD. The potential contribution of Fusobacterium to inflammation in ileal CD should be further investigated.