Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding Intergovernmental Coercion: Explaining American State Administrators’ Perceptions of National Regulatory Influences

Empirical research has not adequately explained how intergovernmental actors develop their perceptions, attitudes, or images of other actors in an intergovernmental context. This article investigates how American state administrator’s perceptions of the national government are shaped in American state-national relationships. The research question addressed is what factors contribute to state administrators’ perceptions of national regulatory influences on state governments. Data from the 2004 American State Administrators Project surveys are used to measure state administrators’ perceptions of national regulatory influences. A structural equation model was employed to test several hypotheses. It is found that political partisanship, formal position, agency dependency on federal aid, and the amount of federal land in each state played significant roles as determinants of the attitudes of state administrators toward national government regulatory (or coercive) actions.
A 16‐year follow‐up study of schizophrenia and related disorders in Sofia, Bulgaria

A total of 60 patients with functional non‐affective psychoses were assessed 16 years after their inclusion in the WHO co‐ordinated study on reduction and assessment of psychiatric disability. All patients at inclusion had a recent onset of a psychotic disorder. About one‐third of the patients had a good outcome. The rest showed moderate to severe psychiatric symptoms and social disability. Comparison with other similar studies suggested that our results show a low mortality rate, high levels of clinical symptoms, high levels of social disability and a low percentage of institutionalized patients. These findings are discussed in the context of the high level of family involvement in patients' care, which could reflect a cultural factor.
Comparing the Value Relevance, Predictive Value, and Persistence of Other Comprehensive Income and Special Items

ABSTRACT: Gains and losses reported as other comprehensive income (OCI) and as special items (SI) are often viewed as similar in nature: transitory items with little ability to predict future cash flows and minimal implications for company value. However, current accounting standards require SI gains and losses to be recognized in net income, while OCI gains and losses are deferred until realized. This study empirically compares OCI and SI gains and losses using a model that jointly estimates value relevance, predictive value, and persistence. Results show that both SI and OCI gains and losses are value-relevant, but SI gains and losses exhibit zero persistence (i.e., are transitory), while OCI gains and losses exhibit negative persistence (i.e., partially reverse over time). Further, we find that SI gains and losses have strong predictive value for forecasting both future net income and future cash flows, while OCI gains and losses have weaker predictive value. Data Availability: All data are publicly av.
Polypodium leucotomos as an Adjunct Treatment of Pigmentary Disorders.

INTRODUCTION Extracts of the tropical fern Polypodium leucotomos appear to possess beneficial properties for the skin attributed to the presence of numerous compounds within the extract that have antioxidant and photoprotective properties. Orally administered Polypodium leucotomos may provide protection against the detrimental photoaging effects of sunlight and can also help reduce the frequency and severity of polymorphous light eruption. Polypodium leucotomos has also been shown to be beneficial for the prevention and potential treatment of several aesthetically relevant conditions. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this review is to investigate the beneficial role of Polypodium leucotomos as an adjunct treatment for vitiligo, melasma, and postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. RESULTS Based on a review of relevant literature including the results of a randomized, placebo-controlled study, the oral administration of Polypodium leucotomos significantly improved the severity of melasma in women after 12 weeks. Three randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies have demonstrated significant improvements in vitiligo when oral Polypodium leucotomos therapy was combined with psoralens plus ultraviolet A and narrowband ultraviolet B. No controlled studies have assessed the efficacy of Polypodium leucotomos for the treatment of postinflammatory hyperpigmentation; however, its known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and demonstrated effectiveness for melasma support its use for treating this condition. No adverse events have been associated with the use of Polypodium leucotomos. CONCLUSION In addition to preventing many harmful effects associated with sunlight exposure, orally administered Polypodium leucotomos also appears to provide adjunctive benefits in treating vitiligo, melasma, and may have the potential to help with postinflammatory hyperpigmentation.
Corporate Governance and Disclosure Quality

Abstract The effectiveness of control exercised over executive remuneration and the quality of information disclosed in financial statements have given rise to concern and have led to proposals for the reform of corporate governance. A model of the optimal disclosure decision is presented in terms of managerial incentives and the impact of corporate governance structures. An investigation into the quality of share option disclosure in financial statements is used as the basis for testing hypotheses derived from the model and for assessing alternative policy options. The results support the need for guidance on the duties and responsibilities of audit committees and non-executive directors but fall short of providing a basis for deciding whether regulatory action is required. The evidence also supports the view that a threat to monitoring quality exists where the roles of chief executive and chairman are combined.
Non-Audit Services, Auditor Quality and the Value Relevance of Earnings

This paper tests the hypothesis that there is an inverse relation between non-audit services (NAS) provided by a firm auditor and the value relevance of earnings (measured as the earnings response coefficient) and that this relation is weaker for firms with Big 6 auditors. The hypothesis is based on anecdotal evidence and previous research that suggests that the provision of NAS by the external auditor is likely to adversely affect investors' perceptions of the credibility of financial reports, and that Big 6 auditors, because of reputational capital and litigation costs, are likely to mitigate the adverse effects of NAS. Results using 840 firm-year observations of Australian companies document a statistically significant inverse relationship between NAS and the value relevance of earnings, and this inverse relationship is weaker for Big 6 auditors, therefore supporting the hypothesis. Copyright (c) The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2006 AFAANZ.
Recurrent herpes labialis in US children and youth.

OBJECTIVE This study reports data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, 1988-1994 (NHANES III). METHODS NHANES III was a complex, multistage sample of 33 994 civilian, non-institutional individuals from 19 528 households. Dentist examiners were trained to recognize, classify oral mucosal lesions to include recurrent herpes labialis (RHL). Subjects >or=8 years of age were asked if they had cold sores in the past year and serologic tests for herpes virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) were performed on blood of youth >12 years of age. RESULTS Examinations were performed on 10 032 individuals 2-17 years of age. Overall point prevalence was 1.42% (0.69-2.15); annual prevalence in individuals 8-17 years of age was 14.77% (12.74-16.80); and serologic prevalence of HSV-1 in youth 12-17 years of age was 43.18% (38.88-47.48). When the data were subset to youth 12-17, annual prevalence for seropositives was 24.13% (20.44-27.82) compared with 16.87 (14.16-19.57) for all subjects. Approximately 25% of the seropositive youth had at least one recurrence in the past year. CONCLUSION As RHL is a recurrent infection, prevalence in a population will be related to the proportion of the population that has been infected with herpes simplex virus. When lesion-specific prevalences are cited in the literature, they should be stratified by covariates known to be associated with them. Future studies should examine RHL prevalence in infected individuals.
Brain activation induced by voluntary alcohol and saccharin drinking in rats assessed with manganese‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

The neuroanatomical and neurochemical basis of alcohol reward has been studied extensively, but global alterations of neural activity in reward circuits during chronic alcohol use remain poorly described. Here, we measured brain activity changes produced by long‐term voluntary alcohol drinking in the alcohol‐preferring AA (Alko alcohol) rats using manganese‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI). MEMRI is based on the ability of paramagnetic manganese ions to accumulate in excitable neurons and thereby enhance the T1‐weighted signal in activated brain areas. Following 6 weeks of voluntary alcohol drinking, AA rats were allowed to drink alcohol for an additional week, during which they were administered manganese chloride (MnCl2) with subcutaneous osmotic minipumps before MEMRI. A second group with an identical alcohol drinking history received MnCl2 during the abstinence week following alcohol drinking. For comparing alcohol with a natural reinforcer, MEMRI was also performed in saccharin‐drinking rats. A water‐drinking group receiving MnCl2 served as a control. We found that alcohol drinking increased brain activity extensively in cortical and subcortical areas, including the mesocorticolimbic and nigrostriatal dopamine pathways and their afferents. Remarkably similar activation maps were seen after saccharin ingestion. Particularly in the prelimbic cortex, ventral hippocampus and subthalamic nucleus, activation persisted into early abstinence. These data show that voluntary alcohol recruits an extensive network that includes the ascending dopamine systems and their afferent connections, and that this network is largely shared with saccharin reward. The regions displaying persistent alterations after alcohol drinking could participate in brain networks underlying alcohol seeking and relapse.
On Equity in Providing Public Services

The performance of public services is determined to a large extent by the spatial distribution of facilities and resources that provide the service. Three measures of performance are discussed: efficiency, effectiveness, and equity. The last of these, equity, is recognized as being of growing importance, but has been generally neglected by management scientists. Different equitable formulas can be used for the spatial distribution of public services within a community. They are based on four general principles: equal payments, equal outputs, equal inputs, and equal satisfaction of demand. The application of these principles is illustrated by reference to municipal services. Mutual inconsistency among these formulas is evident, and is shown caused by the different values which underlie the choice of formulas. The choosing of values is, ultimately, a political process.
Evaluating Human Embryonic Germ Cells: Concord and Conflict as Pluripotent Stem Cells

The realization of cell replacement therapy derived from human pluripotent stem cells requires full knowledge of the starting cell types as well as their differentiated progeny. Alongside embryonic stem cells, embryonic germ cells (EGCs) are an alternative source of pluripotent stem cell. Since 1998, four groups have described the derivation of human EGCs. This review analyzes the progress on derivation, culture, and differentiation, drawing comparison with other pluripotent stem cell populations.
Effect of impaired recognition and expression of emotions on frontocingulate cortices: an fMRI study of men with alexithymia.

OBJECTIVE Although the brain areas involved in emotional response and in the recognition of others' emotions have been reported, the neural bases of individual differences in affective style remain to be elucidated. Alexithymia, i.e., impairment of the ability to identify and communicate one's emotional state, influences how emotions are regulated. Alexithymia has been hypothesized to involve anterior cingulate dysfunction. Therefore, the authors searched for differential cerebral regional activation in response to emotional stimuli in subjects with alexithymia. METHOD Two groups of eight men each were selected from 437 healthy subjects on the basis of high or low scores on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the authors compared the two groups for their regional cerebral activation in response to the presentation of pictures with validated positive or negative arousal capabilities. RESULTS Men with alexithymia demonstrated less cerebral activation in the left mediofrontal-paracingulate cortex in response to highly negative stimuli and more activation in the anterior cingulate, mediofrontal cortex, and middle frontal gyrus in response to highly positive stimuli than men without alexithymia. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide direct evidence that alexithymia, a personality trait playing a role in affect regulation, is linked with differences in anterior cingulate and mediofrontal activity during emotional stimuli processing.
All Politics Are Local

Inquiries into the domestic determinants of international behavior, including democratic peace arguments, build on the pioneering work of Mueller by presupposing that individuals in a democracy are extremely sensitive to casualties. The authors hypothesize that this relationship is, in part, dependent on the rate at which casualties accumulate and the local variation in these costs. Employing, for the first time, spatially disaggregated “killed in action” data, the authors offer a multivariate logit model of individual opinion on the administration's policies in Vietnam as a function of both local- and national-level casualties. The authors find that recent county-level losses and partisanship are important predictors of individual opinion on the president's policies early in the war as marginal casualties increased but are less helpful in understanding opinion in the war's later years when marginal casualties declined. Conversely, a number of individual-level variables that had minimal explanatory power at the beginning of the conflict become more important.
Price and Quantity Competition Revisited

By enlarging the parameter space originally considered by Singh and Vives (1984) to allow for a wider range of cost asymmetry, Zanchettin (2006) finds that the Singh and Vives result that firms always make larger profits under quantity competition than under price competition fails to hold. This paper shows that while profit ranking between price and quantity competition can be (partially) reversed the celebrated result by Singh and Vives that firms always choose a quantity contract in a two-stage game continues to hold in the enlarged parameter space.
Fluorescence resonance energy transfer to probe human M1 muscarinic receptor structure and drug binding properties

Human M1 muscarinic receptor chimeras were designed (i) to allow detection of their interaction with the fluorescent antagonist pirenzepine labelled with Bodipy [558/568], through fluorescence resonance energy transfer, (ii) to investigate the structure of the N‐terminal extracellular moiety of the receptor and (iii) to set up a fluorescence‐based assay to identify new muscarinic ligands. Enhanced green (or yellow) fluorescent protein (EGFP or EYFP) was fused, through a linker, to a receptor N‐terminus of variable length so that the GFP barrel was separated from the receptor first transmembrane domain by six to 33 amino‐acids. Five fluorescent constructs exhibit high expression levels as well as pharmacological and functional properties superimposable on those of the native receptor. Bodipy‐pirenzepine binds to the chimeras with similar kinetics and affinities, indicating a similar mode of interaction of the ligand with all of them. From the variation in energy transfer efficiencies determined for four different receptor‐ligand complexes, relative donor (EGFP)‐acceptor (Bodipy) distances were estimated. They suggest a compact architecture for the muscarinic M1 receptor amino‐terminal domain which may fold in a manner similar to that of rhodopsin. Finally, this fluorescence‐based assay, prone to miniaturization, allows reliable detection of unlabelled competitors.
The metrology of time

Measuring time is a continuous activity, an international and restless enterprise hidden in time laboratories spread all over the planet. The Bureau International des Poids et Mesures is charged with coordinating activities for international timekeeping and it makes use of the world's capacity to produce a remarkably stable and accurate reference time-scale. Commercial atomic clocks beating the second in national laboratories can reach a stability of one part in 1014 over a 5 day averaging time, compelling us to research the most highly performing methods of remote clock comparison. The unit of the international time-scale is the second of the International System of Units, realized with an uncertainty of the order 10−15 by caesium fountains. Physicists in a few time laboratories are making efforts to gain one order of magnitude in the uncertainty of the realization of the second, and more refined techniques of time and frequency transfer are in development to accompany this progress. Femtosecond comb technology will most probably contribute in the near future to enhance the definition of the second with the incorporation of optical clocks. We will explain the evolution of the measuring of time, current state-of-the-art measures and future challenges.
Clinical implications of serum levels of soluble CD23 and tumor necrosis factor alpha in low‐grade non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma

Abstract: In the last few years the research for new biological features in low‐grade non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma has provided important results. Several biological parameters are under evaluation and, in particular, cytokines and soluble receptors levels are showing their importance as prognostic parameters. In the present study, serum levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) and soluble CD23 (sCD23) were measured at the time of diagnosis and after induction polychemotherapy in 40 patients with newly diagnosed low‐grade non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (LG‐NHL). The treaments were CIOP (cyclophosphamide, idarubicin, vincristine, prednisone) regimen for 28 patients and FMP (fludarabine, mitoxantrone, prednisone) scheme for 12 patients. Pretreatment levels of TNF‐α were highly elevated in patients with LG‐NHL compared with healthy controls (p=0.005) and were significantly correlated with the Ann Arbor stage (p=0.001). sCD23 was detected in 35 patients at diagnosis and were markedly increased in LG‐NHL patients when compared to healthy controls (p=0.005); patients with advanced stage presented higher values than those with early stage disease (p=0.002). All the complete responders (20/40, 50%) showed a decrease of TNF‐α and sCD23 levels. By contrast, the combination of high levels of TNF‐α and sCD23 correspond to a group of non‐responders. Our results suggest that TNF‐α and sCD23 are specific prognostic parameters for LG‐NHL, and that they could be used as tumor markers within a potential biological prognostic index.
Resurrecting the Size Effect: Firm Size, Profitability Shocks, and Expected Stock Returns

Recent studies report that the size effect in the cross-section of stock returns has disappeared after the early 1980s. This paper shows that the disappearance of the size effect from realized returns can be attributed to unexpected shocks to the profitability of small and big firms. We find that small firms experience large negative profitability shocks after the early 1980s, while big firms experience large positive shocks. As a result, realized returns of small and big firms over this period differ substantially from expected returns. After adjusting for the price impact of profitability shocks, we find that there still is a robust size effect in the cross-section of expected returns. Our results highlight the importance of in-sample cash flow shocks for understanding cross-sectional return predictability.
AN EXTRACELLULAR MATERIAL ELABORATED BY MICROCOCCUS SODONENSIS

Campbell, J. N. (American Meat Institute Foundation, Chicago, Ill.), James B. Evans Jerome J. Perry, and C. F. Niven, Jr. An extracellular material elaborated by Micrococcus sodonensis. J. Bacteriol. 82:828–837. 1961. —When actively growing in a yeast extract-tryptone broth, Micrococcus sodonensis produced rather large quantities of an extracellular material. On a dry weight basis, this material consisted of approximately 80% deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), 6% ribonucleic acid, 13% protein, and a small quantity of a cell pigment which contained an associated iron porphyrinlike compound. The extracellular material was not produced in other complex or synthetic media. Removal of cells from the appropriate growth medium and suspension in distilled water resulted in the prevention of formation of the material if it had not already begun, or its immediate cessation in those cells which had been actively producing the material. Cells producing the extracellular material exhibited an increasingly higher concentration of intracellular DNA as incubation proceeded, whereas cells growing under conditions not supporting such production showed a decline in intracellular DNA as the culture aged. A similar increase of intracellular DNA, but not release of extracellular material, could be effected by addition of yeast extract or high levels of purine compounds to a medium which did not support the production of extracellular material. The base composition and ratios of both extracellular and intracellular DNA produced under all conditions tested were compared and found to be similar or identical, and to correspond to the classical Watson-Crick structure for DNA.
Root Causes of Project Abandonment in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

This article explores the root causes of project abandonment in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were distributed to targeted officials playing a role in the administration of project management in the Institutions, namely, bursars, internal auditors, directors of works, directors of physical planning, quantity surveyors in the physical planning and works Units. Four hundred and seventy five completed questionnaires returned were analyzed and tested using relative important index (R.I.I.) and simple percentages. The result from the study showed that the root causes of project abandonment in tertiary Institutions in Nigeria like any other government establishment are, the lack of articulated vision and objectives, lack of adequate planning for the project at inception, lack of adequate funds and budgetary allocation before projects are embarked upon, Inefficient and effective legal system, poor contract documentation, corruption and compromises, lack of municipal services, non release of government white papers on investigations carried out on abandonment of projects, lack of true leadership, lack of continuity and Institutions’ long term strategic plans to drive the Institutions, ambiguity in contract documentations. The study concludes that any reason for project abandonment can be related directly or remotely to compromises on the above root causes.