Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Assessment Using Scanning Laser Polarimetry

There is mounting evidence that retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) loss precedes detectable visual field loss in early glaucomatous optic neuropathy. However, examination and photography of the RNFL is a difficult technique in many patients, is subjective, qualitative, variably reproducible, time consuming, operator dependent, and has limited sensitivity and specificity. Scanning laser polarimetry provides automated, objective, and quantitative measurements of the RNFL. Such assessments are highly reproducible and show good agreement with clinical estimates of optic nerve head structure and visual function. This report will review the historical development, technological principles, reproducibility, sensitivity and specificity, capacity to detect glaucomatous progression, strengths, and limitations of this technology.
Overexpression of Interleukin-2 by a Recombinant Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Attenuates Pathogenicity and Enhances Antiviral Immunity

ABSTRACT The expression of interleukin-2 (IL-2) has been implicated in the modulation of the outcome of ocular infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1); however, its effects remain controversial. To clarify the role of IL-2, we constructed a recombinant HSV-1 (HSV-IL-2) that expresses two copies of the murine IL-2 gene under the control of the latency-associated transcript (LAT) promoter of HSV-1 in a LAT-negative virus. In tissue culture, the replication of the HSV-IL-2 was 100-fold lower than that of the wild-type virus at a low multiplicity of infection (MOI). Addition of recombinant anti-IL-2 polyclonal antibody markedly enhanced HSV-IL-2 replication in tissue culture. In the 7-day period after ocular infection of BALB/c mice, the replication of HSV-IL-2 was significantly lower than that of wild-type virus in tear cultures, whole eyes, and brain, but was equivalent to wild-type replication in the trigeminal ganglia. Ocular challenge of BALB/c mice with HSV-IL-2 alone, at an MOI that resulted in only 13% survival when parental virus was used, was associated with 90% survival. This decrease in virulence was further shown to be attributable to the expression of IL-2 by coinfection of mice with HSV-IL-2 and the parental virus. This resulted in a decrease in virulence of the parental virus (5% survival when administered alone versus 50% survival on coinfection with HSV-IL-2). The survival of HSV-IL-2-infected mice was compromised by depletion of either IL-2, CD4+, or CD8+ T cells (50% survival) and abolished completely by depletion of both T-cell subtypes. Moreover, depletion of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, or both increased the titers of HSV-IL-2 in the tears, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, and brains of infected mice, so that titers were equivalent to or higher than that of the parental virus. These results suggest that IL-2 expression by recombinant HSV-1 reduces virulence and that depletion of IL-2 or T cells increases virulence in HSV-1-infected mice.
The dynamic relationship between earnings volatility, concentration, stability and size in the Turkish banking sector

This article investigates the causal relationship between earnings volatility, concentration, stability and bank size in the Turkish banking sector in the period 2002 to 2011. A relatively new empirical methodology, dynamic panel Granger-causality test, is used to analyse the causal relationship between these variables. The empirical result shows that bank size and concentration negatively Granger-cause earnings volatility, suggesting that larger banks and more concentrated banking market decrease earnings volatility. Moreover, the result also indicates that concentration in the banking sector increases bank stability and supports the ‘concentration-stability’ hypothesis.
Social Context and Economic Biases in Representation

This article explores the role of political context in shaping economic biases in representation—the degree to which wealthy citizens’ views are more strongly represented than poorer citizens’ views in the choices of policymakers. I develop a general model that explains why poorer citizens will be better represented relative to the rich in certain political contexts than others, arguing that the relative representation of the poor will be stronger in contexts that make the views of the poor relevant and accessible to policymakers. I then derive several specific hypotheses that flow from this model and test these hypotheses through a study of the dyadic relationships between citizens and their representatives in the U.S. Congress. The results show that poorer citizens are better represented relative to the rich in Congressional districts that are electorally competitive, have low median incomes, have relatively equal distributions of incomes, have a significant organized labor presence, and are represented by Democrats.
Labor Market Openness, H‐1b Visa Policy, and the Scale of International Student Enrollment in the United States

International students have long comprised an important part of U.S. higher education. However, little is known regarding the factors that encourage students from across the world to enroll in U.S. colleges and universities each year. This paper examines the relationship between international enrollment and the openness of the United States' skilled labor market, currently regulated by the H-1B program. Gravity regressions reveal that H-1B visa issuances to a country are positively and significantly related to the number of international students from that country. Causal estimates of the impact of labor market openness are achieved by exploiting a dramatic fall in the H-1B visa cap in October 2003. Triple difference estimates show that the fall in the cap lowered foreign enrollment by 10%. (JEL F22, I21, J11)
Strategic response to mandatory reporting legislation in the U.S. livestock and meat industries: Are collusive opportunities enhanced?

Recent federal legislation requires U.S. meat packers to report detailed information about livestock and meat transactions. The goal of this legislation is to improve competitiveness within the livestock sector and improve decision making within the marketing channel. We discuss the effect of industry structure and market transaction information on the competitive behavior of participant firms and why this legislation may actually reduce the price paid to livestock producers. lJEL Classification: L100, L110, L120r © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Monetary Policy, Banking, and Growth

There is ample empirical evidence suggesting that countries with high inflation tend to grow slower than countries with low inflation. Based on the regression evidence, the inflation-rate effect is fairly large; on average, per-capita real GDP grows between $71 and $76 percentage points slower in a country in which the average inflation rate is 10 percent as compared with a country in which inflation is 0 percent. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether a model economy that is reasonably calibrated can account for such large inflation-rate effects. The answer is yes. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.
The role of culture compatibility in successful organizational marriage

Executive Overview Despite the initial optimism, many organizational marriages prove to be financially disappointing. Given the consistently high rate of merger and acquisition failure, the selection of a suitable organizational bedfellow is a major financial decision. Selection decisions are generally driven by financial and strategic considerations, yet many organizational alliances fail to meet expectations because the cultures of the partners are incompatible. Based on recent research, this article examines the role of culture compatibility in determining venture outcomes. It focuses on the complex interaction between the existing type of premarital culture of the partners and the terms and interpretation of the type of marriage contract the parties believed they had entered.
Some Hypotheses on Commonality in Liquidity: New Evidence from the Chinese Stock Market

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine four specific hypotheses relating to commonality in liquidity on the Chinese stock markets. These hypotheses are (1) that market-wide liquidity determines liquidity of individual stocks; (2) that liquidity varies with firm size; (3) that sectoral-based liquidity affects individual stock liquidities differently; and (4) that commonality in liquidity has an asymmetric effect. Drawing on a two-year data set on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges comprising over 34 million and 48 million transactions, respectively, we find strong support for commonality in liquidity and a greater influence of industry-wide liquidity in explaining liquidity of individual stocks. Moreover, our results suggest that of the three main sectors—financial, industrial, and resources—the industrial sector’s liquidity is most important in explaining individual stock liquidities. Finally, we do not find any evidence of size effects and document an asymmetric effect of market-wide liquidity on liquidity of individual stocks.
Does the Internet make us lonely

The Internet and its potential effects on society receive much attention in public discussions. Many discussants expect that the World Wide Web will enhance global trade of products and services and thus will increase economic wealth. However, social scientists are concerned with possible social side-effects of the Internet. Specifically, a recent experimental study by Robert Kraut et al. (1998) found that greater use of the Internet decreases communication within the family, diminishes the size of the subjects' local social networks, and increases feelings of loneliness and depression. This study sheds doubt on the generality of these findings. Results from a survey of 15 842 Internet users and a control group of 1196 non-users conducted in Switzerland suggest that Internet use neither decreases respondents' network size nor the time spent with friends. The study also shows that electronic mail is widely used and has positive effects on people's social networks. The study uses many socio-demographic control variables and statistical methods to control for simultaneity
Research and theory on high-performance work systems: progressing the high-involvement stream

The notion of a high-performance work system (HPWS) constitutes a claim that there exists a system of work practices for core workers in an organisation that leads in some way to superior performance. In this article, we dissect this fuzzy notion and examine its companion terminology: high-involvement work systems and high-commitment management. We argue that a focus on the high-involvement stream usefully grounds HPWS studies in an important area of workplace change in the current context and takes us away from eclectic and contentious selections of ‘best practices’. We review research models and findings in this stream. The path to better research lies in examining the underpinning processes experienced by workers when management seeks to pursue high-involvement systems, and charting their links to employee and operational outcomes.
Monitoring an Input-Output Model for Production. I. The Control Charts

Control charts are given for monitoring an input-output model against changes in form, against changes in its coefficients, and against changes in process variance. When a process is not in control due to changes in some coefficients, monitoring shifts to a diagnostic mode to identify the altered coefficients and thus the needed adjustments to the process. Control limits from special aid tables are used; these are considered along with the choice of design. Operating characteristics of the charts are summarized under standard assumptions.
Conjugate-Prior-Penalized Learning of Gaussian Mixture Models for Multifunction Myoelectric Hand Control

This paper presents a new learning method for Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) to improve their generalization ability. A traditional maximum a posterior (MAP) parameter estimate is used to achieve regularization based on conjugate priors. Plus, a model order selection criterion is derived from Bayesian-Laplace approaches, using the conjugate priors to measure the uncertainty of the estimated parameters. As a result, the proposed learning method avoids the possibility of convergence toward the boundary of the parameter space, and is also capable of selecting the optimal order for a GMM with more enhanced stability than conventional methods using a flat prior. When applying the proposed learning method to construct a GMM classifier for electromyogram (EMG) pattern recognition, the proposed GMM classifier achieves a high generalization ability and outperforms conventional classifiers in terms of recognition accuracy.
Rural tourism and the development of Internet-based accommodation booking platforms: a study in the advantages, dangers and implications of innovation

Over the past decade, the use of global Internet-based reservation systems for accommodation has grown massively. This development appears particularly relevant for rural properties, empowering even very small enterprises to reach a large global customer base cheaply and easily. However, a limited number of reservation platforms now dominate the market, with consequences for existing, often locally owned non-profit, national and regional reservation systems. Price comparability listings, ratings and customer reviews (key features of online booking platforms) could impact inter-business competition, quality management, marketing strategies and revenue flows. This paper reviews these issues and researches their impacts on rural accommodation providers in Western Norway, using a series of semi-structured interviews to determine when and why they became involved with Booking.com, the world's largest reservation platform, and how this affected their operations. Results indicate that Booking.com now has a significant role in reservations in rural Norway, with a range of implications for destinations and businesses. While individual businesses seem to benefit overall, Internet-based booking platforms abstract revenues from national and regional booking organisations which also provide advice, training, lobbying and image-enhancing destination marketing. Ideas are presented for new roles for national and regional organisations.
Evaluating the Total Factor Productivity Growth of National Parks in China with Data Enveloped Analysis

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of national parks in China. The method of Malmquist Productivity Index based on data enveloped analysis is used. The result shows that 58.33% of national parks in China improved their TFP, and their mean score reached 3.42 in 2001–2005. When the decompositions are considered, 90.28% of them decreased their efficiency and 98.59% of them increased their technology. Correlation analysis indicates that these national parks' TFP is more constrained by their efficiency change than technology change. The correlation coefficients of them with Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) reach to 0.7834 and 0.9367, respectively. Overall, the authors hold the opinion that most national parks in China increased their TFP during this period, but hindered by their inputs scale for preservation function, the efficiency of them deteriorated but the technology increased, further influencing the TFP. Finally, some methods to improve the performance of national parks for the governments and managers are discussed.
A COMPARISON OF PLASMA PROSTAGLANDIN LEVELS IN TERM AND PRETERM LABOUR

Peripheral plasma levels of 13,14‐dihydro‐15‐keto‐prostaglandin F (PGFM) were determined in women during pregnancy and in term and preterm labour. The PGFM concentrations at term were not significantly different from the levels between 26 and 34 weeks gestation. In both term and preterm labour there was a rise in PGFM levels with increasing cervical dilatation although the mean values tended to be lower during preterm labour. These findings may provide an explanation for the effectiveness of prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors in suppressing myometrial activity in preterm labour.
Expected Interruptions in Labor Force Participation and Sex Related Differences in Earnings Growth

The paper analyzes the joint determination of wives' earnings and labor force participation over the life cycle given the interruptions in wives' work careers. The interruptions affect the profitability of the investment in human capital, which in turn determines earnings. The earnings prospects feed back into the participation decision, namely, the decision whether and for how long to drop out of the labor force. The formal analysis compares the age-earnings profiles of persons who drop out of the labor force with those who do not during the pre- and post-interruption period. The comparison is carried out where interruptions are assumed to be exogenous and when they are endogenous. The effect of productivity at home, the initial stock of human capital and its rental value on the length of the interruption is investigated.
Tonic Inhibitory Control of Dentate Gyrus Granule Cells by α5-Containing GABAA Receptors Reduces Memory Interference

Interference between similar or overlapping memories formed at different times poses an important challenge on the hippocampal declarative memory system. Difficulties in managing interference are at the core of disabling cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders. Computational models have suggested that, in the normal brain, the sparse activation of the dentate gyrus granule cells maintained by tonic inhibitory control enables pattern separation, an orthogonalization process that allows distinct representations of memories despite interference. To test this mechanistic hypothesis, we generated mice with significantly reduced expression of the α5-containing GABAA (α5-GABAARs) receptors selectively in the granule cells of the dentate gyrus (α5DGKO mice). α5DGKO mice had reduced tonic inhibition of the granule cells without any change in fast phasic inhibition and showed increased activation in the dentate gyrus when presented with novel stimuli. α5DGKO mice showed impairments in cognitive tasks characterized by high interference, without any deficiencies in low-interference tasks, suggesting specific impairment of pattern separation. Reduction of fast phasic inhibition in the dentate gyrus through granule cell-selective knock-out of α2-GABAARs or the knock-out of the α5-GABAARs in the downstream CA3 area did not detract from pattern separation abilities, which confirms the anatomical and molecular specificity of the findings. In addition to lending empirical support to computational hypotheses, our findings have implications for the treatment of interference-related cognitive symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly considering the availability of pharmacological agents selectively targeting α5-GABAARs. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Interference between similar memories poses a significant limitation on the hippocampal declarative memory system, and impaired interference management is a cognitive symptom in many disorders. Thus, understanding mechanisms of successful interference management or processes that can lead to interference-related memory problems has high theoretical and translational importance. This study provides empirical evidence that tonic inhibition in the dentate gyrus (DG), which maintains sparseness of neuronal activation in the DG, is essential for management of interference. The specificity of findings to tonic, but not faster, more transient types of neuronal inhibition and to the DG, but not the neighboring brain areas, is presented through control experiments. Thus, the findings link interference management to a specific mechanism, proposed previously by computational models.
Board composition, corporate ownership and market performance: evidence from Taiwan

This article examines the effects of ultimate controlling shareholders’ ownership and board involvement on market liquidity and volatility using data from the Taiwan's market. We find that when a firm's ultimate controlling shareholder holds more control rights and is more involved on the board, and when there is a larger divergence between ultimate control and ownership as well as a larger divergence between controlling shareholders’ cash-flow rights and their board representation, the governance function would be less effective, leading to lower stock liquidity and higher idiosyncratic volatility. We also find that firms controlled by business groups have poor performance of the two market metrics. Furthermore, outside independent directors do not have significant effects on market liquidity and volatility, probably due to too small representation on the board to have effective monitoring.
Tumor cell apoptosis, lymphocyte recruitment and tumor vascular changes are induced by low temperature, long duration (fever‐like) whole body hyperthermia

A single treatment of low‐temperature, long‐duration, whole‐body hyperthermia of either severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice bearing human breast tumor xenografts or Balb/c mice bearing syngeneic tumors for 6–8 hr can cause a temporary reduction of tumor volume and/or a growth delay. In both animal model systems, this inhibition is correlated with the appearance of large numbers of apoptotic tumor cells. Because this type of mild heat exposure, comparable to a common fever, is not itself directly cytotoxic, other explanations for the observed tumor cell death were considered. Our data support the hypothesis that this hyperthermia protocol stimulates some component(s) of the immune response, which results in increased antitumor activity. In support of this hypothesis, increased numbers of lymphocyte‐like cells, macrophages, and granulocytes are observed in the tumor vasculature and in the tumor stroma immediately following this mild hyperthermia exposure. In Balb/c mice, an infiltrate persists in the tumor for at least 2 weeks. Using the SCID mouse/human tumor system, we found that both host natural killer (NK) cells and injected human NK cells were increased at the site of tumor following hyperthermia treatment. Experiments using anti‐asialo‐GM1 antibodies indicate that the tumor cell apoptosis seen in the SCID mouse appears to be due largely to the activity of NK cells, although additional roles for other immunoeffector cells and cytokines appear likely in the immunologically complete Balb/c model. Another interrelated hypothesis is that immunoeffector cells may have greater access to the interior of the tumor because we have observed that this treatment causes an obvious expansion in the diameter of blood vessels within the tumor and an increase in nucleated blood cells within the vessels, which persists as long as 2 weeks after treatment. Further study of the mechanisms by which mild hyperthermia exerts antitumor activity could result in this treatment protocol being used as an effective, nontoxic adjuvant to immunotherapy and/or other cancer therapies. J. Cell. Physiol. 177:137–147, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.