Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of ankle support on joint range of motion before and after exercise: a meta-analysis.

STUDY DESIGN Meta-analysis. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of different types of ankle support on ankle and foot joint range of motion before and after activity using meta-analysis procedures. BACKGROUND The effects of ankle support on joint range of motion before and after exercise has been extensively studied, but the results among studies are not consistent. Obtaining knowledge from synthesizing the available literature with a meta-analysis can provide a greater understanding of these effects. METHODS AND MEASURES A total of 253 cases from 19 studies were examined and included in this analysis. The treatment variables were ankle support with 3 levels (tape, lace-up, and semirigid) and time with 2 levels (before exercise and after exercise). Standardized effect sizes were computed for inversion, eversion, dorsiflexion, and plantar flexion range of motion to measure the difference between control and treatment groups at each point in time. Effect sizes were analyzed using a mixed-model factorial analysis of variance. RESULTS Before exercise, the semirigid condition (-2.97 +/- 0.63) demonstrated greater restriction compared with the tape (-2.33 +/- 0.38) and lace-up conditions (-2.18 +/- 0.86) for inversion range of motion. After exercise, the semirigid condition (-3.85 +/- 0.64) restricted inversion range of motion more than the tape (-1.07 +/- 0.20) and lace-up (-1.56 +/- 0.29) conditions. No differences were found between the mean effect sizes for the tape and lace-up conditions before and after exercise. With respect to eversion range of motion, the semirigid support (-2.69 +/- 0.43) provided greater restraint compared with the tape (-1.00 +/- 0.21) and lace-up (-1.40 +/- 0.47) conditions. The lace-up condition also displayed greater support compared with tape alone. For dorsiflexion range of motion, greatest overall support was provided by the tape condition (-0.94 +/- 0.06) compared with the lace-up condition (-0.51 +/- 0.06). CONCLUSIONS The greatest restriction of motion in the frontal plane was offered by the semirigid support condition, whereas taping offered the most support for limiting dorsiflexion range of motion. The results of this study may help clinicians make rational decisions concerning the selection of ankle appliances for preventing acute or chronic reinjury.
Risk, Leverage, and Profitability: An Industry Analysis

T HIS study investigates the effect of financial leverage, or relatively greater use of debt capital, on industry profitability. Recently at least two cross-section studies have yielded the surprising result that systematically higher rates of return are earned by firms with relatively low leverage. Measuring leverage inversely as the ratio of equity to assets,' one would expect the rate of return on equity and this ratio to vary in opposite directions, lower values of equity/assets and the associated riskier bond intensive capital structures implying higher equilibrium profit rates, ceteris paribus.2 But so far the evidence has gone the other way. Fred D. Arditti (1967) calculated expected profit rates for firms as a geometric average of past rates of return and regressed this variable on the ratio of debt to equity.3 His measure of leverage appeared with a negative sign in all of his regressions. And in a paper dealing with the determinants of firm profitability, Marshall Hall and Leonard Weiss (1967) found that equity/assets, which is inversely related to leverage, had a significantly positive effect on profits on equity when market structure conditions were held constant.4 They noted, ". a possible after-the-fact explanation is that relatively profitable firms take some of the exceptional returns in the form of reduced risks. " (1967, p. 328.) Thus profitability may affect leverage, and leverage may affect profitability. On grounds that the direction of causation between leverage and profitability may run in both directions, this paper develops and tests a model consisting of two equations, one explaining industry profitability in terms of the usual market structure variables plus leverage and the other a new equation incorporating risk variables to explain leverage.
Head Circumference, Education and Risk of Dementia: Findings from the Nun Study

To examine the prevalence of dementia associated with having a smaller brain, lower education or both of these characteristics, 294 Catholic sisters were assessed annually for dementia. Sixty participants died and their brains were evaluated to determine fulfillment of neuropathological criteria for Alzheimer‘s disease (AD). Lower educational attainment and the interaction of smaller head circumference with lower education were associated with the presence of dementia, controlling for age and the presence of one or more apolipoprotein E-e4 alleles. By contrast, neither low educational attainment nor head circumference was significantly associated with fulfillment of neuropathological criteria for AD. Individuals having both low education and small head circumference were four times as likely to be demented as the rest of the sample. The findings suggest that higher education and larger head size, alone or in combination, may reduce the risk of expressing dementia in late life.
Cross-Cultural Evaluation of Factors Driving Intention to Purchase New Food Products Beijing, China and South-East England

It has been reported that consumers in different countries have distinctive perceptions of, and attitudes to, products. This study investigated consumers thoughts on new food products in south-east England (n=222) and Beijing, China (n=139), using a questionnaire-based largely on the Theory of Reasoned Action. Results indicated that consumers in both countries believe it is necessary for the food industry in their respective countries to introduce new food products and they would like to try new products. There appears to be great interest in new products among the Beijing Chinese, with most interest in new healthy food products. The influences on choices suggest that a marketing focus on quality, utility and health benefits would be most fruitful, as personal beliefs were more important in intention to purchase than the influence of other people. Results point away from the expected result that the Chinese, as a collectivist culture, would place more emphasis on others opinions than their own beliefs. This may be linked to food not being an item of conspicuous consumption, or to a cultural shift among urban Chinese.
A Study of Teacher Perceptions of Instructional Technology Integration in the Classroom

Teachers focus on teaching students technology skills, which include making the technology work, but many teachers are not comfortable with the skills of integration and active learning using technology. An important factor for effective integration of technology is the teachers' ability to integrate instructional technology activities to meet students' needs. The purpose of this study was to determine teacher perceptions of instructional technology integration in the classroom. The study was designed to explore how teachers were currently using and integrating technology for teaching and learning in the classroom. Teachers were compared in their integration of technology based on gender, age, number of years in the teaching field, grade level taught, content area, and education level. Findings suggest that teachers who use technology regularly are more likely to integrate technology in the classroom. Major conclusions were that significant differences existed for technology use and integration based on grade level while there were no differences based on gender, age, teaching experience, content area, and educational level.
The Advantages of Single-Sex Education.

Traditionally, single-sex education has been provided in the form of private schooling. Title IX regulations have loosened as a result of the No Child Left Behind Legislation; therefore, public school districts now have the legal right to create single-sex classes or single-sex schools if they deem it to be in the best interest of their students. In public school single-sex environments, student achievement improves, especially for minority students or students in poverty, as a result of improved behaviors and teacher focus on learning-style differences. The author of this article concludes that school districts should give parents the choice of single-sex education or coeducation by offering singlesex classes or single-sex schools along with coeducation.
The Capital Growth Model: An Empirical Investigation

Modern micro-capital theory offers three major alternative choice theoretic approaches from which a set of market equilibrium prices can be derived. These approaches are: 1. Time-state preference theory of Arrow [1] and Debreu [6], 2. The capital asset pricing model (hereafter CAPM) of Sharpe [34], Lintner [23], and Fama [7], 3. The capital growth model of Kelly [16], Breiman [5], and Latané [17]
ApoE isoform‐dependent deficits in extinction of contextual fear conditioning

The three major human apoE isoforms (apoE2, apoE3 and apoE4) are encoded by distinct alleles (ϵ2, ϵ3 and ϵ4). Compared with ϵ3, ϵ4 is associated with increased risk to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD), cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD), and other conditions. In contrast, a recent study indicated an increased susceptibility to the recurring and re‐experiencing symptom cluster of Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as well as related memory impairments, in patients carrying at least one ϵ2 allele. Contextual fear conditioning and extinction are used in human and animal models to study this symptom cluster. In this study, acquisition (day 1, training), consolidation (day 2, first day of re‐exposure) and extinction (days 2–5) of conditioned contextual fear in human apoE2, apoE3 and apoE4 targeted replacement and C57BL/6J wild‐type (WT) mice was investigated. Male and female apoE2 showed acquisition and retrieval of conditioned fear, but failed to exhibit extinction. In contrast, WT, apoE3 and apoE4 mice showed extinction. While apoE2 mice exhibited lower freezing in response to the context on day 2 than apoE3 and apoE4 mice, this cannot explain their extinction deficit as WT mice exhibited similar freezing levels as apoE2 mice on day 2 but still exhibited extinction. Elevating freezing through extended training preserved extinction in controls, but failed to ameliorate extinction deficits in apoE2 animals. These data along with clinical data showing an association of apoE2 with susceptibility to specific symptom clusters in PTSD supports an important role for apoE isoform in the extinction of conditioned fear.
THE EFFECTS OF OPEN MARKET INTEREST RATES ON MALAYSIAN COMMERCIAL BANKS’ INTEREST RATE SPREAD: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

In this paper we investigate the effect of changes in open market interest rates on the interest rate spread of Malaysian commercial banks. This is performed by examining the causality and patterns of reactions of banking rates with respect to variation in open market rates. Based on vector autoregression analysis we show that there is one-way causation running from the open market rates to banking rates. Changes in open market rates significantly cause changes in the spread and deposit rates. However, no significant causation is identified for lending rates. The impulse response functions indicate that spread declines following positive innovation in open market rates and this is mainly due to the greater sensitivity of deposit rates to open market rates. The response of lending rates is shown to be low and to occur with some lag, thus, contributing to the decline in spread. We also provide evidence of a dichotomy between banks’ asset and liability rates by failing to support causality between the two rates. It is argued that this imbalance of sensitivity is partly due to the uneven process of interest rate liberalization that frees deposit rates more than lending rates. These results suggest that for the Malaysian banking firms, increase in open market rates hindered their activities and could affect bank performance. The findings are consistent with the role of banks as brokers as well as asset transformers.
A geometric study of Wasserstein spaces: ultrametrics

We study the geometry of the space of measures of a compact ultrametric space X, endowed with the L^p Wasserstein distance from optimal transportation. We show that the power p of this distance makes this Wasserstein space affinely isometric to a convex subset of l^1. As a consequence, it is connected by 1/p-Holder arcs, but any a-Holder arc with a>1/p must be constant. This result is obtained via a reformulation of the distance between two measures which is very specific to the case when X is ultrametric; howeverthanks to the Mendel-Naor Ultrametric Skeleton it has consequences even when X is a general compact metric space. More precisely, we use it to estimate the size of Wasserstein spaces, measured by an analogue of Hausdorff dimension that is adapted to (some) infinite-dimensional spaces. The result we get generalizes greatly our previous estimate that needed a strong rectifiability assumption. The proof of this estimate involves a structural theorem of independent interest: every ultrametric space contains large co-Lipschitz images of \emph{regular} ultrametric spaces, i.e. spaces of the form {1,. ,k}^N with a natural ultrametric. We are also lead to an example of independent interest: a space of positive lower Minkowski dimension, all of whose proper closed subsets have vanishing lower Minkowski dimension.
Optimal Energy Management of Combined Cooling, Heat and Power in Different Demand Type Buildings Considering Seasonal Demand Variations

In this paper, an optimal energy management strategy for a cooperative multi-microgrid system with combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) is proposed and has been verified for a test case of building microgrids (BMGs). Three different demand types of buildings are considered and the BMGs are assumed to be equipped with their own combined heat and power (CHP) generators. In addition, the BMGs are also connected to an external energy network (EEN), which contains a large CHP, an adsorption chiller (ADC), a thermal storage tank, and an electric heat pump (EHP). By trading the excess electricity and heat energy with the utility grid and EEN, each BMG can fulfill its energy demands. Seasonal energy demand variations have been evaluated by selecting a representative day for the two extreme seasons (summer and winter) of the year, among the real profiles of year-round data on electricity, heating, and cooling usage of all the three selected buildings. Especially, the thermal energy management aspect is emphasized where, bi-lateral heat trading between the energy supplier and the consumers, so-called energy prosumer concept, has been realized. An optimization model based on mixed integer linear programming has been developed for minimizing the daily operation cost of the EEN while fulfilling the energy demands of the BMGs. Simulation results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Influence of the business technological compatibility on the acceptance of innovations

Purpose – The objective of this study is to analyse the influence exerted by technological compatibility upon the intensity of use of the new online management programs made by information technology (IT) sector (new technology companies). Design/methodology/approach – The concept of perceived compatibility, first defined by Rogers, has been adapted to the specific characteristics of the company as the user of technology, subsequently testing its dimensionality through confirmatory analyses. Additionally, a causal study was made in order to determine the importance of technological compatibility in the intensity of use of online business management. The statistical techniques employed are based on structural equation methodology.Findings – The results demonstrate that the concept of technological compatibility is composed of several dimensions, which these differentiate the technologies previously applied by the company on the basis of their level of complexity; the overall concept achieves an explanatory .
Primary Care Physicians' Evaluation and Treatment of Depression

Little is known about how patient and primary care physician characteristics are associated with quality of depression care. The authors conducted structured interviews of 404 randomly selected primary care physicians after their interaction with CD-ROM vignettes of actors portraying depressed patients. Vignettes varied along the dimensions of medical comorbidity, attributions regarding the cause of depression, style, race/ethnicity, and gender. Results show that physicians showed wide variation in treatment decisions; for example, most did not inquire about suicidal ideation, and most did not state that they would inform the patient that there can be a delay before an antidepressant is therapeutic. Several physician characteristics were significantly associated with management decisions. Notably, physician age was inversely correlated with a number of quality-of-care measures. In conclusion, quality of care varies among primary care physicians and appears to be associated with physician characteristics to a greater extent than patient characteristics.
Oil demand, oil prices, economic growth and the resource curse : an empirical analysis

It is generally accepted that oil has been vitally important to the global economy and the world has experienced growth in oil consumption for the majority of years since the early 1900s. In all probability, this trend will continue with the majority of the growth coming from the emerging economies - hence the global importance of oil is likely to continue. Against this backdrop, this thesis aims to analyse empirically the relationship between oil and the level of growth in economic output (or income) from a number of different angles. The thesis begins by investigating oil demand; in particular, the relationship between oil consumption and income (as well as prices) across six regions of the world by applying the Structural Time Series Modelling (STSM) technique. Furthermore, the estimates are used to produce different forecast scenarios of oil demand for each of the regions up to 2030. According to the reference case assumption, global oil demand is projected to rise from about 87 mb/d in 2010 to 110.27 mb/d in 2030 consisting of strong growth in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, compared to a marginal growth in Europe and Eurasia while North American oil consumption is projected to decline. The thesis also investigates the co-movements and causality relationship between oil prices and GDP of non-OECD countries, grouped depending on whether a country is a net oil exporter or net oil importer using both time-series and panel data models. The results suggest that there is a long-run cointegrating relationship between oil prices and GDP and that oil prices ‘Granger-causes’ GDP for the group of net oil exporting countries but fails to ‘Granger-cause’ GDP for the net oil importing countries. This implies that oil prices have a strong influence on economic output of net oil exporting countries with little or no influence on the economic output of net oil importing countries. Finally, the research considers the resource curse hypothesis debate by employing recently developed heterogeneous panel analysis to investigate the long-term effect of oil abundance on economic growth. It is concluded that oil as a resource, cannot be attributed to the poor economic performance of most oil rich countries, but perhaps might have come about by weak institutional base and oil price volatility which usually has an adverse effect on long-term economic performance.
A Post-Keynesian View of Central Bank Independence, Policy Targets, and the Rules-Versus-Discretion Debate

This paper addresses three issues surrounding monetary policy formation: policy independence, choice of operating targets, and rules versus discretion. According to the New Monetary Consensus, the central bank needs policy independence to build credibility; the operating target is the overnight interbank lending rate, and the ultimate goal is price stability. This paper provides an alternative view, arguing that an effective central bank cannot be independent as conventionally defined, where effectiveness is indicated by ability to hit an overnight nominal interest rate target. Discretionary policy is rejected, as are conventional views of the central bank's ability to achieve traditional goals such as robust growth, low inflation, and high employment. Thus, the paper returns to Keynes's call for low interest rates and euthanasia of the rentier.
Economic Growth in Latin America: Sources and Prospects

This paper examines the growth experience of Latin America and discusses future prospects. For this purpose we use alternative approaches. We first perform growth decompositions to look at the behavior of total factor productivity and examine differences across regions of the world and within Latin America. Then, we use cross-country growth regressions to compare the relative performance of Latin American countries vis-a-vis the rest of the world. This approach allows us to go beyond the traditional, and perhaps misleading, straightjacket of attributing growth to productivity or investment. It highlights the role of human resources, and institutional and policy factors. With this framework we show high inflation and inward looking development strategy are the main reason for the low growth of Latin America. But, as reforms have advanced within the region, growth prospects have improved.
HRM and Performance: Achievements, Methodological Issues and Prospects

Twenty years ago Guest (1987) published his normative framework describing the essence of HRM. He presented HRM as a new approach to personnel management, emphasizing its strategic contribution, its closer alignment to business, the involvement of line management, and focusing on HRM outcomes like commitment, flexibility and quality. The achievement of these human resource outcomes was, in turn, expected to contribute to a range of positive organizational outcomes, including high job performance, low turnover, low absence and high cost-effectiveness through the full utilization of employees, now relabelled as human resources. Put this way, it is not difficult to understand the wide appeal that the notion of HRM had (and still has) to academics and practitioners alike. It led to the renaming of chairs/departments within universities and to changed job titles in the business community. The attractiveness of the concept of HRM increased considerably when Huselid, in 1995, published a ground-breaking paper in the Academy of Management Journal in which he demonstrated a correlation between the degree of sophistication of HR-systems and the market value per employee among a range of publicly quoted companies in the USA. The paper generated admiration, criticism and an abundance of 'me too' research, trying to replicate the proclaimed relationship between HRM and Performance (Delery and Doty, 1996; Guthrie, 2001; Koch and McGrath, 1996; Wright et al., 2003). Since then many academics on both sides of the Atlantic have become active in this field, with a special focus on the relationship between HRM and Performance. Within this rapidly expanding field of study, the HRM–Performance relationship has been approached from a variety of perspectives rooted in organizational behaviour, sociology, economics, industrial relations and organizational psychology, with a particular emphasis placed on the impact of various combinations of human resource practices on a range of performance outcomes at the individual and organizational level of analysis.