Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlation of basal ganglia magnetic resonance spectroscopy with Apgar score in perinatal asphyxia.

BACKGROUND Brain metabolite levels are measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) and include N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr), choline (Cho), and lactate and the ratios NAA to Cho and Cr (NAA-ChoCr), NAA-Cr, NAA-Cho, and Cho-Cr. Brain metabolite levels may correlate with the degree of neonatal asphyxia. OBJECTIVE To determine which brain metabolite ratios have the strongest correlation with the Apgar scores in infants with possible asphyxia; whether the correlation is stronger with basal ganglia (BG) or anterior border-zone metabolites; and whether a combined approach using routine MR imaging (MRI), diffusion-weighted MRI, and MRS can be used to evaluate the severity of neonatal asphyxia. METHODS Twenty infants with 1-minute Apgar scores of 6 or less were studied at 2 to 28 days of age. The MRS variables were compared with routine and diffusion-weighted brain MRI. Clinical variables and MRS findings were subjected to factor analysis and stepwise multiple regressions to determine interrelationships. RESULTS The BG region NAA-Cho and NAA-ChoCr ratios correlated with the 1-minute (P<.001) and 5-minute (P = .01 for NAA-Cho; P = .006 for NAA-ChoCr). There was no correlation between metabolite levels and the 10-minute Apgar scores. The stongest predictions exist between the 1-minute Apgar scores and the NAA-Cho and NAA-ChoCr ratios. In the anterior border zone, the only correlation was between the 1-minute Apgar score and the NAA-Cho ratio, but there was a strong age effect in these data. Lactate was found in the BG of 3 infants, all of whom had 5-minute Apgar scores of 6 or less. Three patients had focal lesions on MRI; 2 of these had elevated lactate levels in the abnormal region; and the third, who had an intrauterine stroke, had no lactate in the region. CONCLUSIONS Correlations between NAA-Cho and NAA-ChoCr ratios and the 1- and 5-minute Apgar scores are stronger in the BG region than in the frontal border zone. The presence or absence of lactate may indicate the severity of the brain insult, and the combination of MRS, MRI, and diffusion-weighted MRI may assist in localizing and predicting a long-term brain injury.
Academic freedom of faculty members at Kuwait University: issues of understanding and freedom of research and publishing

This study examines the academic freedom of academics in Kuwait University. Academic freedom at Kuwait University remains ambiguous, with a lack of understanding in the absence of an institutional definition. This has led to infringement on the rights of academics to freely pursue research and publication. This study attempts to identify Kuwait University faculty members' understanding, and explore the extent of academic freedom available to them in research and publishing. It investigates the obstacles, and recommends ways of improving the space of academic freedom. A mixed approach of quantitative questionnaire distributed to a sample of 384 academics using stratified random sampling, and qualitative interviews were used. Academics offered six different definitions for academic freedom, covering freedom of research and publication, and that of teaching, research, and publication, with differing criteria. Academic freedom was considered by some to be absolute, while others cumulatively added one, two or all three conditions of being limited to specialisation without interference by external parties, taking into account prevailing values in society, and respecting the laws enacted by the State. The obstacles to freedom of research and publication included bureaucracy and lengthy administrative procedures in securing approval of research, and absence of clear policy defining what is sensitive, what can be addressed in research, and what conflicts with the values of society. Limited funding for research projects, lack of reference materials, and equipment, and interference of funding bodies were cited. The limited time allocated for research due to high teaching load, and limited training in research skills and languages, added to lack of sufficient cooperation between researchers in the absence of a coordinating framework. Finally, lack of practical implementation of research and benefit to society, which isolates researchers and research from society's needs. The questionnaire also revealed core differences in responses illustrating weakness in the extent of faculty members' freedom in conducting research, and publishing. The study recommended that Kuwait University move to address the shortcomings revealed by the study instruments, in particular, to formulate a comprehensive definition for academic freedom for academics.
The long-run gains from international equity diversification: Australian evidence from cointegration tests

The benefits available from international equity diversification to Australian investors for the period 1970–92 are analysed using monthly index data for 16 countries supplied by Morgan Stanley Capital International. The cointegration framework is utilized and results from the standard Engle—Granger two-step ordinary least squares procedure are compared with those from the Johansen (1988) maximum likelihood procedure. It is found that, as in other recent work (Taylor and Tonks, 1989; Andrade, Clare and Thomas, 1991), the two techniques lead to different conclusions in certain cases. It is also found that, as in Kasa (1992), there is evidence of cointegration among a subset of the indices considered. A further finding of interest to the applied worker is that the results in the Johansen procedure are sensitive to the VAR specification and we believe that Hall's (1991) warning regarding the reporting of tests from this procedure is valid.
Impact of co-occurring birth defects on the timing of newborn hearing screening and diagnosis.

PURPOSE Early detection of hearing loss in all newborns and timely intervention are critical to children's cognitive, verbal, behavioral, and social development. The initiation of appropriate early intervention services before 6 months of age can prevent or reduce negative developmental consequences. The purpose of this study was to assess, using large, population-based registries, the effect of co-occurring birth defects (CBDs) on the timing and overall rate of hearing screening and diagnosis. METHOD The authors linked statewide data from newborn hearing screenings, a birth defects registry, and birth certificates to assess the timeliness of newborn hearing screening and diagnosis of hearing loss (HL) for infants with and without CBDs in 485 children with confirmed HL. RESULTS Nearly one third (31.5%) of children with HL had 1 or more CBDs. The presence of CBDs prolonged the time of the initial infant hearing screening, which contributed to further delays in the subsequent diagnosis of HL. CONCLUSIONS Better coordination of HL assessment into treatment plans for children with CBDs may enable earlier diagnosis of HL and provide opportunities for intervention that will affect long-term developmental outcomes for these children.
The Impact of Unexpected Maternal Death on Education: First Evidence from Three National Administrative Data Links

The death of a parent is undoubtedly one of the most traumatic incidents that can happen to a school-age child. Children who have lost one or both parents (hereafter called “orphans”) are vulnerable in many ways. If the orphans’ extended families fail to fully insure the loss incurred, then losing a parent can reduce private investment in human capital (Susan Dynarski 2003) and have a long-lasting impact on cognitive ability and socioemotional development, particularly in cases of maternal deaths (Jere Behrman 1999). Unfortunately, the number of orphans has increased dramatically over recent decades, mostly because of wars and the global AIDS epidemic. A quarter of a century after the initial spread of AIDS, the number of children orphaned exceeds 15 million, according to statistics published by the United Nations in 2004. In 2008, the Iraq Body Count reported the deaths of more than 88,800 Iraqi civilians and nearly 5,000 coalition soldiers during the war. Adult males account for about 90 percent of the military deaths, leaving their children with only one parent. Although the growing number of orphans is regarded as a major social issue, empirical evidence of the impact of parental death on education is surprisingly thin and mixed. For example, using data from subSaharan Africa, where AIDS is prevalent, Anne Case, Christina Paxson, and Joseph Ableidinger (2004) and Case and Cally Ardington (2006) The Impact of Unexpected Maternal Death on Education: First Evidence from Three National Administrative Data Links
Why Men Might 'Have it All' While Women Still Have to Choose between Career and Family in Germany

This study used data from the German Socio-economic Panel to examine gender differences in the extent to which self-reported subjective well-being was associated with occupying a high-level managerial position in the labour market, compared with employment in non-leadership, non-high-level managerial positions, unemployment, and non-labour market participation. Our results indicated that a clear hierarchy exists for men in term of how status within the labour market was associated with subjective life satisfaction. Unemployed men were the least satisfied, followed by men who were not in the labour market, while men in leadership positions reported the highest level of subjective life satisfaction. For women, no statistically significant differences were observed among women in high-level managerial positions, women who worked in non-high-level positions, and women who specialized in household production, with no market work. Only women who were unemployed reported lower levels of life satisfaction, compared with women in other labour-market statuses. Our results lend evidence to the contention that men can "have it all", but women must still choose between career and family in Germany. We argue that interventions need to address how the non-pecuniary rewards associated with high-level managerial and leadership positions can be increased for women. Such policies would also likely serve to mitigate the "pipeline" problem concerning the number of women who are available to move into high positions in the private sector.
Mitogenic effect of prostaglandin E1 in Swiss 3T3 cells: Role of cyclic AMP

Addition of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) to quiescent cultures of Swiss 3T3 cells rapidly elevates the intracellular levels of cAMP and increases the activity of adenylate cyclase in particulate fractions of these cells. In the presence of insulin, PGE1 stimulates the reinitiation of DNA synthesis. Both effects (increase in cellular cAMP and stimulation of DNA synthesis) are markedly potentiated by 1‐methyl‐3‐isobutyl xanthine (IBMX) or by 4‐(3‐butoxy‐4 methoxy benzyl)‐2‐imidazolidine (Ro 20–1724), both of which are potent inhibitors of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase activity. In the presence of 50 μM IBMX, PGE1 caused a dose‐dependent increase in cAMP levels and in [3H]thymidine incorporation into acid‐insoluble material at concentrations (5–50 ng/ml) that are orders of magnitude lower than those used in previous studies (50 μg/ml) to demonstrate growth‐inhibitory effects. Thus, the inhibitory effects produced by adding high concentrations of PGE1 on the initiation of DNA synthesis in Swiss 3T3 cells are not mediated by cAMP and should be regarded as nonspecific. In contrast, the mitogenic activity of PGE1 parallels its ability to increase the intracellular levels of cAMP. The findings support the propostion that a sustained increase in the level of this cyclic nucleotide acts as a mitogenic signal for confluent and quiescent Swiss 3T3 cells.
High-Efficiency LLC Resonant Converter With High Voltage Gain Using an Auxiliary LC Resonant Circuit

To design an LLC resonant converter optimally in the wide input voltage range, the LLC resonant converter with high efficiency and high voltage gain using an auxiliary LC resonant circuit is proposed. In this paper, the auxiliary LC resonant circuit operates as a variable inductor according to the change of the switching frequency, and it is presented as an effective magnetizing inductance. In the nominal state, since the effective magnetizing inductance increases, the primary circulating current is decreased. Thus, the turn-off switching loss of the primary switches and the primary conduction loss are minimized. During the hold-up time, the effective magnetizing inductance decreases so that the proposed converter has a high voltage gain. As a result, an optimal design of the LLC resonant converter over the wide input voltage range is possible. The proposed converter is verified by experimental results with a 330-390 V input and 350 W(56 V/6.25 A) output prototype.
War, terror, and the tourism market in Israel

A supply and demand model of the Israeli hotel industry is developed, distinguishing between its domestic and foreign sectors. Model simulations are employed to examine the impacts of war and terrorist incidents on tourist activity and hotel revenues. Foreign demand for Israeli hotel stays is highly price-elastic and income-inelastic, and moderately sensitive to terrorist events. Domestic demand is price-inelastic, income-elastic, and terror-insensitive. In the wake of terror attacks, hotels' supply or minimum prices to Israeli tourists shift downward, reducing local market prices and encouraging more local tourism. However, the magnitude of these shifts is minor, and the local market thus provides little buffer for dropoffs in foreign tourism. By permitting excess capacity in such fashion, hotels respond rationally to the price inelasticity of local demand.
Comparing proportional hazards and accelerated failure time models for survival analysis

This paper describes a method proposed for a censored linear regression model that can be used in the context of survival analysis. The method has the important characteristic of allowing estimation and inference without knowing the distribution of the duration variable. Moreover, it does not need the assumption of proportional hazards. Therefore, it can be an interesting alternative to the Cox proportional hazards models when this assumption does not hold. In addition, implementation and interpretation of the results is simple. In order to analyse the performance of this methodology, we apply it to two real examples and we carry out a simulation study. We present its results together with those obtained with the traditional Cox model and AFT parametric models. The new proposal seems to lead to more precise results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Product policy and the East-West productivity gap

After 20 years of transition from an economy integrated in an exchange scheme of planned economies towards an open market economy based on the ideas of competition, we ask whether East German firms succeeded in finding their place in the international division of labour. We concentrate on the question, to what extent they have caught up with the productivity level of their Western counterparts of similar size and sector and how this productivity difference is related to changes in their product policy. We analyse these questions with a unique data set provided by Statistics Germany that contains both product policy and productivity information for individual manufacturers from both parts of the country. Using a decomposition approach suggested by Nopo (2008) as a nonparametric extension of the widely-used Oaxaca-Blinder methodology (Blinder 1973; Oaxaca 1973) we find that the time span from 1995-2004 has two component periods: a period of adaptation from 1995 to 2001and a period of branding from 2002 to 2004. The initial period is characterized by a smaller share of Eastern firms that modify their product range and by a large productivity gap of Eastern non-modifiers if compared to Western non-modifiers of comparable size and sector. The evidence for the second period, however, points to a more active and established role of East German manufacturers: more of them alter their product range and step up their productivity performance.
Detection and Mapping of Widespread Intermolecular Protein Disulfide Formation during Cardiac Oxidative Stress Using Proteomics with Diagonal Electrophoresis*

Regulation of protein function by reversible cysteine-targeted oxidation can be achieved by multiple mechanisms, such as S-glutathiolation, S-nitrosylation, sulfenic acid, sulfinic acid, and sulfenyl amide formation, as well as intramolecular disulfide bonding of vicinal thiols. Another cysteine oxidation state with regulatory potential involves the formation of intermolecular protein disulfides. We utilized two-dimensional sequential non-reducing/reducing SDS-PAGE (diagonal electrophoresis) to investigate intermolecular protein disulfide formation in adult cardiac myocytes subjected to a series of interventions (hydrogen peroxide, S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine, doxorubicin, simulated ischemia, or metabolic inhibition) that alter the redox status of the cell. More detailed experiments were undertaken with the thiol-specific oxidant diamide (5 mm), a concentration that induces a mild non-injurious oxidative stress. This increase in cellular oxidation potential caused global intermolecular protein disulfide formation in cytosolic, membrane, and myofilament/cytoskeletal compartments. A large number of proteins that undergo these associations were identified using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry. These associations, which involve metabolic and antioxidant enzymes, structural proteins, signaling molecules, and molecular chaperones, were confirmed by assessing “shifts” on non-reducing immunoblots. The observation of widespread protein-protein disulfides indicates that these oxidative associations are likely to be fundamental in how cells respond to redox changes.
High-Technology Intangibles and Analysts' Forecasts

This study examines the association between firms' intangible assets and properties of the information contained in analysts' earnings forecasts. We hypothesize that analysts will supplement firms' financial information by placing greater relative emphasis on their own private (or idiosyncratic) information when deriving their earnings forecasts for firms with significant intangible assets. Our evidence is consistent with this hypothesis. We find that the consensus in analysts' forecasts, measured as the correlation in analysts' forecast errors, is negatively associated with a firm's level of intangible assets. This result is robust to controlling for analyst uncertainty about a firm's future earnings, which we also find to be higher for firms with high levels of internally generated (and expensed) intangibles. Given that analyst uncertainty increases and analyst consensus decreases with the level of a firm's intangible assets, we also expect and find that the degree to which the mean forecast aggregates private information and is more accurate than an individual analyst's forecast increases with a firm's intangible assets. Finally, additional analysis reveals that lower levels of analyst consensus are associated with high-technology manufacturing companies, and that this association is explained by the relatively high R&D expenditures made by these firms. Overall, our results are consistent with financial analysts augmenting the financial reporting systems of firms with higher levels of intangible assets (in terms of contributing to more accurate earnings expectations), particularly R&D-driven high-tech manufacturers.
From service quality to experience – and back again?

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the movement in the focus on customers within service management and marketing theories and service research that has taken place during the past three decades. The paper addresses the question: How did we, in service research, change from emphasizing quality to emphasizing experience? Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses developments in service and experience theories. Experience has come onto the theoretical agenda, both in its own right and as a concept within service marketing and management theory. Findings – Experience has increasingly been a concept that has replaced quality in service marketing theories. However, an independent experience economy paradigm has also emerged. Recently, the societal emphasis on productivity may lead back to functional quality re-emerges in theories; however, it will most likely be in a new version. Originality/value – This analysis is a profound theory-critical analysis of the actually very widely used concept experienc.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Protease Inhibitor Drug-Resistant Mutants Give Discordant Results When Compared in Single-Cycle and Multiple-Cycle Fitness Assays

ABSTRACT The replication fitness of HIV-1 drug-resistant mutants has been measured using either multiple-cycle or single-cycle assays (MCAs or SCAs); these assays have not been systematically compared. We developed an MCA and an SCA that utilized either intact or env-deleted recombinant viral vectors, respectively, in which virus-infected cells were detected by flow cytometry of a reporter gene product. Fitness was measured using each assay for 11 protease mutants, 9 reverse transcriptase mutants, and two mutants with mutations in gag p6, which is important for the release of virus particles from the cell membrane. In the SCA, fitness (replication capacity [RC]) was defined as the proportion of cells infected by the mutant compared to the wild type 40 h after infection. MCA fitness (1+s) was determined by comparing the changes in the relative proportions of cells infected by the mutant and the wild type between 3 and 5 days after infection. Five protease mutants showed statistically different fitness values by the MCA versus the SCA: the D30N, G48V, I50V, I54L, and I54M mutants. When all the mutants were ranked in order from most to least fit for both assays, 4 protease mutants moved more than 5 positions in rank: the D30N, I54L, I54M, and V82A mutants. There were no significant differences in fitness for the gag p6 or reverse transcriptase mutants. We propose that discordant results in the MCA and SCA are due to alterations in late events in the virus life cycle that are not captured in an SCA, such as burst size, cell-to-cell transmission, or infected-cell life span.
Autocorrelation in Daily Short-Sale Volume

While Diether, Lee, and Werner (2009) find that daily shorting activity is serially correlated, this study uses more formal tests and finds significant first-order autocorrelation in daily short volume. Contrary to prior research that suggests that autocorrelation in total trade volume is explained by the flow of information into prices, our tests indicate that the information contained in short sales is decreasing in the level of autocorrelation. In additional tests, we do not find that short-sale constraints explain the presence of autocorrelation. However, our tests do provide evidence that the level of autocorrelation in daily short volume is highest in stocks that are least liquid suggesting that illiquidity might explain the presence of autocorrelation.
Political Risk in Emerging and Developed Markets

Political risk represents a more important determinant of stock returns in emerging than in developed markets. Using analyst estimates of political risk, we show that average returns in emerging markets experiencing decreased political risk exceed those of emerging markets experiencing increased political risk by approximately 11 percent a quarter. In contrast, the difference is only 2.5 percent a quarter for developed markets. Furthermore, the difference between the impact of political risk in emerging and developed markets is statistically significant. We also document a global convergence in political risk. During the past 10 years, political risk has decreased in emerging markets and increased in developed markets. If this trend continues, the differential impact of political risk on returns in emerging and developed markets may narrow.