Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Theory of Free Trade Areas

We utilize a three-country trade model to determine the effect of the formation of a free trade area (FTA) on equilibrium tariffs and welfare under the assumption that countries choose tariffs independently to maximize national welfare. We show that the liberalization of internal trade by symmetric member countries causes their optimal external tariff (at constant nonmember tariffs) to fall below its Kemp-Wan (1976) level thereby raising the nonmember country’s welfare. If the nonmember country also behaves strategically then, in the Nash equilibrium, this country adopts a more aggressive stance in its policy and induces FTA members to reduce their external tariff even more. For these reasons, the nonmember country benefits from integration; in contrast, member countries benefit only if the combined size of the FTA is sufficiently large.
Variability of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 group O strains isolated from Cameroonian patients living in France

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) nucleotide sequences encoding p24Gag and the Env C2V3 region were obtained from seven patients who were selected on the basis of having paradoxical seronegativity on a subset of HIV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detection kits and having atypical Western blot (immunoblot) reactivity. Sequence analyses showed that all of these strains were more closely related to the recently described Cameroonian HIV isolates of group O (HIV-1 outlier) than to group M (HIV-1 major). All seven patients had Cameroonian origins but were living in France at the time the blood samples were taken. Characterization of a large number of group M strains has to date revealed eight distinct genetic subtypes (A to H). Genetic distances between sequences from available group O isolates were generally comparable to those observed in M intersubtype sequence comparisons, showing that the group O viruses are genetically very diverse. Analysis of sequences from these seven new viral strains, combined with the three previously characterized group O strains, revealed few discernable phylogenetic clustering patterns among the 10 patients' viral sequences. The level of diversity among group O sequences suggests that they may have a comparable (or greater) age than the M group sequences, although for unknown reasons, the latter group dispersed first and is the dominant lineage in the pandemic.
Painful limbs/moving extremities

Painful limbs/moving extremities (PLME) is a disorder characterized by spontaneous, complex, slow (1–2 Hz) involuntary toe or finger movements. The movements that can be bilateral or unilateral are usually accompanied by pain in the affected limbs. Painless variants are less common. PLME has been associated with peripheral and central nervous system disease although idiopathic cases have been reported. Its etiopathogenesis is unknown and treatment approaches remain largely empirical. Nerve blocks and botulinum toxin type A injections as well as oral medication have had some measure of success. Current theories suggest that central oscillator(s) at the spinal or supraspinal levels may be involved. Future research in PLME should include prospective electrophysiological and functional imaging studies as well as clinical trials with botulinum toxin injections and oral pharmacological agents.
Cytopathological grading, as a predictor of histopathological grade, in ductal carcinoma (NOS) of breast, on air‐dried Diff‐Quik smears

Fine‐needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a widely practiced technique in the diagnosis of breast carcinoma, and it is the only diagnostic procedure performed before definitive treatment, at most institutions. While the histological grading of breast carcinoma has become routine in many centers worldwide, the cytopathological grading of breast carcinoma is not commonly used. Grading of breast carcinoma, while the tumor is still in vivo, would be the most ideal and desirable situation, as it would be helpful in the selection of patients for appropriate therapy. The objective of this study, therefore, was to devise a simple system for grading breast carcinoma, based on the cytological features alone. We reviewed 125 cases of breast carcinoma retrospectively, which were initially diagnosed by FNAC, with subsequent histopathological confirmation. These included 105 ductal, 6 lobular, 2 tubular, 1 papillary, and 1 medullary carcinoma. There was 1 ductal carcinoma in situ. Nine cases were rendered insufficient for grading. Thus 105 cases of ductal carcinoma (NOS) were evaluated for final cytological grading. Air‐dried Diff‐Quik‐stained smears were reviewed at least twice independently by four histopathologists and were then compared with the original histological grades. Six cytological features used for grading were found to be statistically significant: cellular pleomorphism, nuclear size, nuclear margin, nucleoli, naked tumor nuclei, and mitoses. A scoring system based on these six essential parameters was used, to classify ductal carcinoma into three cytological grades, which showed close correlation with the established histological grades. In addition, two less consistent, but still important, features were the presence or absence of necrosis and stromal invasion. Another six parameters, including smear cellularity, degree of cell dispersion or clustering, lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate, presence of tubular structures, cytoplasmic appearance of the tumor cells, and smear background, were not statistically significant. However, these additional parameters were found helpful in assigning the correct grade, in cases with borderline scores. The concordance rate with histology was 100% for grade 1, 98% for grade 2, and 93% for grade 3. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2003;29:185–193. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Forgotten Side of Partisanship

Early studies of electoral behavior proposed that party identification could be negative as well as positive. Over time, though, the concept became mostly understood as a positive construct. The few studies that took negative identification into account tended to portray it as a marginal factor that went “hand-in-hand” with positive preferences. Recent scholarship in psychology reaffirms, however, that negative evaluations are not simply the bipolar opposite of positive ones. This article considers negative party identification from this standpoint, and evaluates its impact in recent national elections in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Our findings highlight the autonomous power of negative partisanship. They indicate as well that ideology has an influence on positive and negative partisan identification.
The World of Cross-Listings and Cross-Listings of the World: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

There has long prevailed a conventional wisdom rationalizing why firms pursue overseas listings. It argues that firms seek such opportunities to benefit from a lower cost of capital that arises because their shares become more accessible to global investors. Much recent evidence challenges this conventional wisdom. In fact, several new research initiatives have been proposed that factor into the overseas listing decision many more complex risks that globalization can create at the firm level, such as agency conflicts, transparency and disclosure concerns, and other corporate governance problems. The goal of this article is to survey, synthesize and critically review this new literature and to identify yet unresolved questions to answer. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Telehealth Behavior Therapy for the Management of Type 1 Diabetes in Adolescents

Background: Poor management of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) may result in serious medical complications. Psychological intervention may improve adherence to medical regimens; however, access to trained professionals is limited, particularly in rural communities. Telehealth interventions may address this by allowing families to access services at home; however, little is known about the efficacy of such services. Method: This study presents results from a pilot trial of a randomized waitlist controlled trial of Telehealth Behavioral Therapy (TBT) for youths with T1DM. Primary outcome measures were adherence to the diabetes regimen, glycemic control, and level of family discord. Thirty-two youths (23 female) with T1DM (aged 9 to 17 years) and one parent or caregiver participated. Telehealth Behavioral Therapy sessions were conducted thrice weekly for 12 weeks by phone and lasted an average of 15 min each. Results: Results indicated that youths in treatment decreased their hemoglobin A1c by 0.74 compared to 0.09 in the waitlist, though this was not statistically significant. Youths in treatment reported increased unsupportive and decreased caring parental behaviors. Conclusion: Telehealth Behavioral Therapy improves access to knowledgeable providers and results in a clinically significant improvement in glycemic control. Despite some youths experiencing an increase in unsupportive parental behaviors, TBT is a promising method of service delivery that warrants further investigation.
Accounting Conservatism in International Financial Reporting Standards and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

During the past five years, the number of US. citizens who own foreign securities has increased by thirty percent. This trend has led to the need for a uniform accounting system that would increase the comparability and consistency of financial statements across countries in the world Today, over I 00 countries have adopted International Financial Reporting Standards (! FRS) as their primary accounting system. The European Union required the use of ! FRS in 2005. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering the adoption of! FRS in 2014. FRS and US. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are different in many ways. U.S. GAAP is more detailed, with strict ntles and guidelines to follow. In contrast, ! FRS allows more room for accountants to make judgments in preparing financial statements and auditing them. This has led to the assumption that ! FRS would open the door to earnings management and decrease the conservatism of financial statements. Conservatism is "the accountant's tendency to require a higher degree of verification to recognize good news as gains than to recognize bad news as losses" (Basu, 1997). Conservatism helps prevent managers from manipulating income and earnings per share (EPS). While there are many studies on accounting conservatism in U.S. GAAP,few or no studies have been done to determine the impact of conservatism in ! FRS. This study was conducted to determine whether JFRS is more conservative than US. GAAP by comparing the bookto-market value (BTM) between JFRS.firms and U.S. GAAP firms. Lower BTAf values are associated with greater firm conservatism.
Explicit Solution of a Stochastic, Irreversible Investment Problem and Its Moving Threshold

We consider a firm producing a single consumption good that makes irreversible investments to expand its production capacity. The firm aims to maximize its expected total discounted real profit net of investment on a finite horizonT. The capacity is modeled as a controlled ItA´ process where the control is the real investment, which is not necessarily a rate, but more generally a monotone process. The result is a singular stochastic control problem. We introduce the associated optimal stopping problem, that is "the optimal cost of not investing. " Its variational formulation turns out to be a parabolic obstacle problem, which we explicitly solve in the case of Constant Relative Risk Aversion CRRA production functions. The moving free boundary is the threshold at which the shadow value of installed capital exceeds the capital's replacement cost. Then we use the equation of the free boundary to evaluate the optimal investment policy and its corresponding optimal profits.
How Constraining Are Limits to Arbitrage?

We document the existence of a strategy designed to circumvent limits to arbitrage. Faced with short-sale constraints and noise trader risk, small arbitrageurs publicly reveal their information to induce the target’s shareholders ("the longs") to sell, thereby accelerating price discovery. Using data for 124 short-sale campaigns in the United States between 2006 and 2011, we show that investors respond strongly to the information, with spikes in SEC filing views, volatility, order imbalances, realized spreads, turnover, and selling by the longs. Share prices fall by an aggregate $14.8 billion. Our findings imply that even extreme short-sale constraints need not constrain arbitrage. Received June 18, 2014; accepted March 11, 2016 by Editor Andrew Karolyi.
E-Government for Arab Countries

Abstract This article focuses on the potential of instigating an e-government system within and possibly throughout the Arab world. E-government is currently being adopted in many countries throughout the world to bring more information and at a greater facility to their citizens. Despite its advantages, we analyze the problems and difficulties encountered in promoting the concept of e-government in the Middle East and also highlight the potential opportunities. These prospects are evaluated, along with the adoption of the technology to render advantages to the Arab world. Many countries have and continue to benefit from the acceptance of e-government; understanding its applicability and effectiveness beyond and within the Arab countries is of vital importance to increase and promote its use. Our analysis presents a perspective on regional e-government and utilization of technology within and among Arab countries. We also propose the E-Government System Framework that solves many problems associated with the adoption of e-government in the Arab world
Fast, Exact Bootstrap Principal Component Analysis for p > 1 Million

Abstract Many have suggested a bootstrap procedure for estimating the sampling variability of principal component analysis (PCA) results. However, when the number of measurements per subject (p) is much larger than the number of subjects (n), calculating and storing the leading principal components (PCs) from each bootstrap sample can be computationally infeasible. To address this, we outline methods for fast, exact calculation of bootstrap PCs, eigenvalues, and scores. Our methods leverage the fact that all bootstrap samples occupy the same n-dimensional subspace as the original sample. As a result, all bootstrap PCs are limited to the same n-dimensional subspace and can be efficiently represented by their low-dimensional coordinates in that subspace. Several uncertainty metrics can be computed solely based on the bootstrap distribution of these low-dimensional coordinates, without calculating or storing the p-dimensional bootstrap components. Fast bootstrap PCA is applied to a dataset of sleep electroencephalogram recordings (p = 900, n = 392), and to a dataset of brain magnetic resonance images (MRIs) (p ≈ 3 million, n = 352). For the MRI dataset, our method allows for standard errors for the first three PCs based on 1000 bootstrap samples to be calculated on a standard laptop in 47 min, as opposed to approximately 4 days with standard methods. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Norharmane matrix enhances detection of endotoxin by MALDI-MS for simultaneous profiling of pathogen, host and vector systems

The discovery of novel pathogenic mechanisms engaged during bacterial infections requires the evolution of advanced techniques. Here, we evaluate the dual polarity matrix norharmane (NRM) to improve detection of bacterial lipid A (endotoxin), from host and vector tissues infected withFrancisella novicida (Fn). We evaluated NRM for improved detection and characterization of a wide range of lipids in both positive and negative polarities, including lipid A and phospholipids across a range of matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization-coupled applications. NRM matrix improved the limit of detection (LOD) for monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) down to picogram level representing a 10-fold improvement of LOD versus 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid and 100-fold improvement of LOD versus 9-aminoacridine (9-AA). Improved LOD for lipid A subsequently facilitated detection of theFn lipid A major ion (m/z 1665) from extracts of infected mouse spleen and the temperature-modifiedFn lipid A atm/z 1637 from infectedDermacentor variabilis ticks. Finally, we simultaneously mapped bacterial phospholipid signatures within anFn-infected spleen along with an exclusively host-derived inositol-based phospholipid (m/z 933) demonstrating coprofiling of the host-pathogen interaction. Expanded use of NRM matrix in other infection models and endotoxin-targeting imaging experiments will improve our understanding of the lipid interactions at the host-pathogen interface.
One-year follow-up of mild traumatic brain injury: cognition, disability and life satisfaction of patients seeking consultation.

OBJECTIVE To investigate cognitive function, symptoms, disabilities and life satisfaction of patients with mild traumatic brain injury who accepted consultation one year post-trauma. DESIGN Prospective study. PATIENTS Sixty-nine patients (16 accepted the consultation offered, 53 declined). METHODS At follow-up, the patients answered questionnaires about symptoms, disabilities (RHFUQ) and life satisfaction (LiSat-11). The patients who underwent consultation and their healthy control subjects were administered a neuropsychological evaluation. RESULTS In the group undergoing consultation, the number of cognitive tests with outcomes below cut-off limits (-1.5 SD) was statistically significantly higher compared with a control group (21 tests in 11 patients vs 8 tests in 7 control subjects; p=0.025). The number of patients with one or more disability was statistically significantly higher among patients with consultation than without (94% and 34%, respectively; p<0.001). Total RHFUQ score was statistically significantly higher for the group with consultation than without (5.9 +/- 3.7 and 1.1 +/- 2.3, respectively, p<0.001). The group with consultation exhibited a lower level of life satisfaction (41.5 +/- 10.4 vs 45.8 +/- 13.8 for the non-consulting group; p=0.057). CONCLUSION The high frequency of occurrence of disabilities and lower cognitive functioning, together with the lower level of life satisfaction, appear to characterize patients choosing consultation 1 year post-injury. This highlights the importance of offering consultation for persons suffering mild head injuries.
Multidimensional Types: The Case with Heterogeneous Behavioral Responses

This paper develops a general method to solve the optimal nonlinear income tax model with one action (individual pre-tax income) and multidimensional characteristics. Individuals differ in terms of skills and belong to different groups. A group is a subset of individuals with the same vector of characteristics but distinct skill levels. Assuming the Spence-Mirrlees single-crossing condition (with respect to the level of skill) in each group,we first derive the optimal second-best allocation. We then show how this optimality condition leads to a tax formula in terms of behavioral responses, social welfare weights and income density in the vein of Saez (2001). However, our multidimensional context implies that all these terms are averaged across individuals who earn the same income. We also show how our method can be used to solve a large set of policy relevant problems for which it is crucial to introduce multidimensional heterogeneity, e.g., joint taxation of households,nonlinear pricing of a monopoly.
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells control T-cell response to chronic viral infection

Infections with persistent viruses are a frequent cause of immunosuppression, autoimmune sequelae, and/or neoplastic disease. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are innate immune cells that produce type I interferon (IFN-I) and other cytokines in response to virus-derived nucleic acids. Persistent viruses often cause depletion or functional impairment of pDCs, but the role of pDCs in the control of these viruses remains unclear. We used conditional targeting of pDC-specific transcription factor E2-2 to generate mice that constitutively lack pDCs in peripheral lymphoid organs and tissues. The profound impact of pDC deficiency on innate antiviral responses was revealed by the failure to control acute infection with the cytopathic mouse hepatitis virus. Furthermore, pDC-deficient animals failed to clear lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) from hematopoietic organs during persistent LCMV infection. This failure was associated with reduced numbers and functionality of LCMV-specific CD4+ helper T cells and impaired antiviral CD8+ T-cell responses. Adoptive transfer of LCMV-specific T cells revealed that both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells required IFN-I for expansion, but only CD4+ T cells required the presence of pDCs. In contrast, mice with pDC-specific loss of MHC class II expression supported normal CD4+ T-cell response to LCMV. These data suggest that pDCs facilitate CD4+ helper T-cell responses to persistent viruses independently of direct antigen presentation. Thus pDCs provide an essential link between innate and adaptive immunity to chronic viral infection, likely through the secretion of IFN-I and other cytokines.
Trimethyltin initially activates the caspase 8/caspase 3 pathway for damaging the primary cultured cortical neurons derived from embryonic mice

The organotin trimethyltin (TMT) is well known to cause neuronal damage in the central nervous system. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying the toxicity of TMT toward neurons, we prepared primary cultures of neurons from the neocortex of mouse embryos. A continuous exposure to TMT produced a decrease in cell viability as well as an increase in the number of cells with nuclear condensation/shrinkage at the exposure time window up to 24 hr. In addition to the events at the early time window, lactate dehydrogenase released was significantly elevated at the later exposure time from 36 to 48 hr. With a 3‐hr exposure to TMT, a significant increase was observed in the activity of caspase 8, but not in that of caspase 9. TMT exposure produced no elevation in the level of cytochrome c released from mitochondria until 12 hr of exposure, with a significant facilitation of cytochrome c release at the exposure times of 16 and 24 hr. After the activation of caspase 8 by TMT exposure, caspase 3 activation and nuclear translocation of caspase‐activated DNase were caused by exposure for 6 hr or longer. However, nuclear DNase II was elevated at the later time window of exposure. A caspase inhibitor completely prevented TMT from damaging the cells in any time window. Taken together, our data are the first demonstration that TMT toxicity is initially caused by activation of the caspase 8/caspase 3 pathway for nuclear translocation of DNases in cortical neurons in primary culture. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Experimental Investigation of Consumer Willingness to Pay for Non-GM Foods When an Organic Option Is Present

This research compared bids that consumers placed on non genetically modified (GM), organic, and conventional versions of food products in order to determine if the organic market well serves those seeking to avoid GM foods. Auction experiments using potato chips, tortilla chips, and milk chocolate were conducted with 79 subjects. Bids were modeled as a function of consumer demographics using a heteroskedastic tobit regression model. Results with the non-GM attribute nested into the organic characteristic showed that the latter's marginal effects were insignificant. This suggested the potential to further develop non-GM products for consumers not willing to pay extra for the remaining organic attributes.