Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Tight are Malthusian Constraints

We provide a methodology to estimate the elasticity of agricultural output with respect to land - the Malthusian constraint - using variation in rural densities across different locations. We use district-level data from around the globe on rural densities and inherent agricultural productivity to estimate the elasticity for various sub-samples. We find the elasticity is highest in areas that are suitable for temperate crops such as wheat or rye, and loosest in areas suitable for (sub)-tropical crops such as cassava or rice. We show theoretically that a higher elasticity results in greater sensitivity of non-agricultural employment and real income per capita to shocks in population size and productivity, and confirm this with evidence from the post-war mortality transition.
Exploring the impact of resilience, self-efficacy, optimism and organizational resources on work engagement.

BACKGROUND The German health care system has undergone radical changes in the last decades. These days health care professionals have to face economic demands, high performance pressure as well as high expectations from patients. To ensure high quality medicine and care, highly intrinsic motivated and work engaged health care professionals are strongly needed. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine relations between personal and organizational resources as essential predictors for work engagement of German health care professionals. METHODS This investigation has a cross-sectional questionnaire study design. Participants were a sample of hospital doctors. Personal strengths, working conditions and work engagement were measured by using the SWOPE-K9, COPE Brief Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Questionnaire, COPSOQ and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. RESULTS Significant relations between physicians' personal strengths (e.g. resilience, optimism) and work engagement were evaluated. Work related factors showed to have a significant influence on work engagement. Differences in work engagement were also found with regard to socio-demographic variables. CONCLUSION Results demonstrated important relationships between personal and organizational resources and work engagement. Health care management needs to use this information to maintain or develop work engaging job conditions in hospitals as one key factor to ensure quality health care service.
Amniotic fluid and cord plasma erythropoietin levels in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia, pregnancy-induced hypertension and chronic hypertension

Abstract Aims: The purpose of the present study was to compare fetal and neonatal outcomes with amniotic fluid erythropoietin (EPO) levels obtained in the antepartum period in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia, pregnancy-induced hypertension or chronic hypertension. Methods: Erythropoietin concentrations were measured in amniotic fluid within 2 days before delivery and in cord blood at birth in 75 hypertensive women and in 23 healthy controls delivered by cesarean section before labor contractions. Erythropoietin levels did not influence clinical decisions. Results: Amniotic fluid erythropoietin levels correlated highly significantly with cord plasma EPO levels and were significantly higher in pregnancies complicated by hypertension than in control pregnancies. Umbilical arterial pH, acid-base and blood gas values at birth were not different from controls. Both cord plasma and amniotic fluid erythropoietin levels correlated with cord blood pH, acidbase and blood gas values at birth in the study group. Newborn infants admitted to the newborn intensive care unit had significantly higher fetal erythropoietin levels and were more acidotic, hypoxemic and hypoglycemic than infants admitted to the normal care nursery. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that elevated amniotic fluid erythropoietin levels are markers of chronic or subchronic fetal hypoxia and are associated with neonatal morbidity in pregnancies complicated by hypertension.
Determinants of Capital Structure of Agricultural Firms in Kenya

This paper contributes to the capital structure literature by investigating the determinants of capital structure of agricultural firms in Kenya, using annual data for the period 2010-2015. An empirical model to analyze the determinants was specified and estimated using both fixed and random effects estimation techniques. The estimation results provide evidence that profitability, liquidity, age and size of the firm are significant determinants of capital structure. Specifically, the results reveal a negative relationship between profitability and long term debt and a positive relationship between age of the firm and long term debt. We also established a positive influence of age on short term debt, while a negative link is evident between liquidity, the size of the firm and short term debt. The evidence adduced is important for forming credit markets policies for agricultural firms both at the macro and the micro level.
Moderated mediation of the relationships between masculinity ideology, outcome expectations, and energy drink use.

OBJECTIVE The consumption of energy drinks is a growing health-risk behavior for young men in the United States. The present study investigated the relationship between masculinity ideology, outcome expectations, energy drink use, and sleep disturbances. METHOD The authors recruited 467 adult males from universities and the Internet who provided data on their endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology, outcome expectations for use of energy drinks, use of energy drinks, and sleep disturbances. A theoretical model positing moderated mediation was tested using structural equation modeling and conditional process modeling. RESULTS The results supported the hypothesized model in which endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology was linked with increased outcome expectations for benefits of energy drinks, which in turn was linked with increased energy drink consumption, and which finally was linked with greater sleep disturbance symptoms. The relationship between masculinity ideology and energy drink outcome expectations was moderated by age (significant for younger men but not for older men), and the relationship between energy drink outcome expectations and energy drink use was moderated by race (significant for White men but not for racial minority men). CONCLUSION The present study adds to the literature on potential negative health implications of the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology by offering a link between predictors of energy drink use (masculinity ideology, outcome expectations) and health outcomes of energy drink use (e.g., sleep disturbance).
An Ontological Characterization of Time-Series and State-Sequences for Data Mining

Time-series and sequences are important patterns in data mining. Based on an ontology of time-elements, this paper presents a formal characterization of time-series and state-sequences, where a state denotes a collection of data whose validation is dependent on time. While a time-series is formalized as a vector of time-elements temporally ordered one after another, a state-sequence is denoted as a list of states correspondingly ordered by a time-series. In general, a time-series and a state-sequence can be incomplete in various ways. This leads to the distinction between complete and incomplete time-series, and between complete and incomplete state-sequences, which allows the expression of both absolute and relative temporal knowledge in data mining.
Contribution of multidomain titanomagnetite to the intensity and stability of Mars crustal magnetic anomalies

Two basalts with compositions relevant to the crusts of Mars and Earth were synthesized at igneous temperatures and held at 650°C for 21 to 257 days under quartz‐fayalite‐magnetite fO2 buffer conditions. The run products are germane to slowly cooled igneous intrusions, which might be a significant volumetric fraction of the Martian crust and carriers of magnetic anomalies in the Southern Highlands. Both basalts acquired intense thermoremanent magnetizations and intense but easily demagnetized anhysteretic remanent magnetizations carried by homogeneous multidomain titanomagnetite. Hypothetical intrusions on Mars composed of these materials would be capable of acquiring intense remanences sufficient to generate the observed anomalies. However, the remanence would be easily demagnetized by impact events after the cessation of the Mars geodynamo. Coercivity enhancement by pressure or formation of single domain regions via exsolution within the multidomain grains is necessary for long‐term retention of a remanence carried exclusively by multidomain titanomagnetite grains.
Directed Search with Complementarity and Adverse Selection

I study a model in which firms invest in capital and post wages, and heterogeneous workers, who have private information about their skills, choose where to apply. Workers and firms match bilaterally. Each matched agent gets an exogenous payoff from the match before wages are paid. Each of these payoffs displays complementarity in capital and skill. I derive conditions under which the market exhibits PAM, positive assortative matching. Under these conditions, the firms over-invest in capital compared to the first best, because capital is used as a screening device.I show that the fact that firms need to screen workers in the presence of private information changes the predictions of the model compared to that in the presence of complete information. In particular, I show that the market economy exhibiting PAM is not necessary nor sufficient for the complete information allocation to exhibit PAM.
Temporal Trends in Stroke Severity and Prior Antithrombotic Use Among Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients in Japan.

BACKGROUND Few existing stroke registries allow for evaluation of stroke severity, stroke subtype and antithrombotic usage prior to stroke onset over a given time period. The present study aimed to elucidate temporal trends in initial presenting stroke severity, stroke subtype and prior antithrombotic use over a 12-year period in a Japanese multicenter stroke registry. METHODSANDRESULTS We included 71,017 acute ischemic stroke patients (72±12 years old; 27,445 women) from the Japan Standard Stroke Registry Study (JSSRS) who were admitted to 94 hospitals between 2001 and 2012. The mean age of stroke onset increased gradually over time (P<0.001). Cardioembolic stroke patients (n=19,247) exhibited more severe NIHSS scores when compared with those with non-cardioembolic stroke (n=50,427). The proportion of cardioembolic stroke patients tended to increase over time, rising from 25.9% in 2001-2002 to 30.2% in 2011-2012 (P<0.001). Among the cardioembolic stroke patients, the frequency of prior anticoagulant use significantly increased from 15.6% in 2001-2002 to 24.8% in 2011-2012 (P<0.001). The frequency of prior antiplatelet use increased from 2001-2002 to 2007-2008 but decreased after 2007-2008. Among both cardioembolic and non-cardioembolic stroke patients, initial stroke severity at admission decreased over time, particularly after 2008. CONCLUSIONS In this Japanese study, the mean age of ischemic stroke onset increased, while the initial neurological severity at presentation decreased, over a 12-year period. (Circ J 2016; 80: 2033-2036).
HCV‐specific T‐cell responses in injecting drug users: evidence for previous exposure to HCV and a role for CD4+ T cells focussing on nonstructural proteins in viral clearance

Summary. In order to understand the parameters associated with resolved hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐infection, we analysed the HCV‐specific T‐cell responses longitudinally in 13 injecting drug‐users (IDUs) with a prospectively identified acute HCV infection. Seven IDUs cleared HCV and six IDUs remained chronically infected. T‐cell responses were followed in the period needed to resolve and a comparable time span in chronic carriers. Ex vivo T‐cell responses were measured using interferon‐γ Elispot assays after stimulation with overlapping peptide pools spanning the complete HCV genome. CD4+ memory‐T‐cell responses were determined after 12‐day stimulation with HCV proteins. The maximum response was compared between individuals. The T‐cell responses measured directly ex vivo were weak but significantly higher in resolvers compared to chronic carriers, whereas the CD4+ memory‐T‐cell response was not different between resolvers and chronic carriers. However, HCV Core protein was targeted more often in chronic carriers compared to individuals resolving HCV infection. CD4+ T‐cell responses predominantly targeting nonstructural proteins were associated with resolved HCV infection. Interestingly, observation of memory‐T‐cell responses present before the documented HCV‐seroconversion suggests that reinfections in IDUs occur often. The presence of these responses however, were not predictive for the outcome of infection. However, a transition of the HCV‐specific CD4+ memory‐T‐cell response from targeting Core to targeting nonstructural proteins during onset of infection was associated with a favourable outcome. Therefore, the specificity of the CD4+ memory‐T‐cell responses measured after 12‐day expansion seems most predictive of resolved infection.
Modulation of c‐fms Proto‐Oncogene Expression in Human Blood Monocytes and Macrophages

The gene product of the c‐fms proto‐oncogene is a transmembrane protein with tyrosine‐kinase activity that is obviously related to the receptor for the colony‐stimulating‐factor CSF‐1. By Northern blot analysis, we investigated the expression of the cellular counterpart of v‐fms in purified normal human blood mononuclear cells and different macrophage populations. The proto‐oncogene c‐fms expression was demonstrable in blood monocytes but not in blood lymphocytes. Short‐term cultivated blood monocytes exhibited an increased expression of c‐fms in comparison to freshly isolated blood monocytes, possibly due to a temporary down regulation of c‐fms during the separation procedure of blood monocytes. A comparably high rate of fms‐RNA expression was found in most of the analyzed samples of resident peritoneal macrophages, while resident alveolar macrophages showed a considerably lower level of c‐fms expression. In this, alveolar macrophages resembled long‐term cultivated adherent blood monocytes, which showed a down regulation of c‐fms expression. By correlating these data obtained by Northern blot analysis with phenotypic properties of the analyzed monocyte/macrophage populations, it is concluded that different levels of c‐fms expression in monocytes/macrophages correspond to their stage of differentiation and maturity.
Information Technology and Business-Level Strategy: Toward an Integrated Theoretical Perspective

Information technology matters to business success because it directly affects the mechanisms through which they create and capture value to earn a profit: IT is thus integral to a firm's business-level strategy. Much of the extant research on the IT/strategy relationship, however, inaccurately frames IT as only a functional-level strategy. This widespread under-appreciation of the business-level role of IT indicates a need for substantial retheorizing of its role in strategy and its complex and interdependent relationship with the mechanisms through which firms generate profit. Using a comprehensive framework of potential profit mechanisms, we argue that while IT activities remain integral to the functional-level strategies of the firm, they also play several significant roles in business strategy, with substantial performance implications. IT affects industry structure and the set of business-level strategic alternatives and value-creation opportunities that a firm may pursue. Along with complementary organizational changes, IT both enhances the firm's current (ordinary) capabilities and enables new (dynamic) capabilities, including the flexibility to focus on rapidly changing opportunities or to abandon losing initiatives while salvaging substantial asset value. Such digitally attributable capabilities also determine how much of this value, once created, can be captured by the firm--and how much will be dissipated through competition or through the power of value chain partners, the governance of which itself depends on IT. We explore these business-level strategic roles of IT and discuss several provocative implications and future research directions in the converging information systems and strategy domains.
Closing the gender pay gap: A review of the issues, policy mechanisms and international evidence

Closing the gender pay gap is an aspiration found in many international policy documents. The principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, as set out in the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), needs to be implemented if gender equality and decent work for all is to be achieved. However, while the principle of equal pay for work of equal value has been widely endorsed, and is included under Goal 8 in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, a key problem is that the policy mechanisms needed to achieve this objective are not well understood and in fact are both multifaceted and vary according to the institutional context. Specific gender equality policies are certainly required, but these are only likely to be effective if embedded within a general policy environment which is promoting equal and inclusive labour markets. For example, trends towards greater inequality in wage structures, more individualised pay determination and more variable working hours in higher level jobs are likely to be increasing the gender pay gap, offsetting to some extent the more beneficial effects of women’s rising educational attainment and more continuous participation in employment. While the gender pay gap is difficult to measure, the ILO estimates that if the current trends prevail, it will take more than 70 years before the gender wage gap is closed completely (ILO 2016). This paper aspires to review key issues, policy mechanisms and international evidence with respect to closing the gender pay gap. Furthermore, as the gender wage gap is unrelated to a country’s economic development, research is needed to understand how an equitable distribution of economic growth can be achieved (ILO 2016).
Linear free‐energy relationship analysis of the fate of chlorinated 1‐ and 2‐carbon compounds by redox‐manipulated smectite clay minerals

This paper expands on earlier work on the effect of molecular structure on the fate of a series of chlorinated 1‐and 2‐carbon compounds (RCl), including carbon tetrachloride, 1,1,1‐trichloroethane, 1,1,2,2‐tetrachloroethane, pentachloroethane, hexachloroethane, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, trichloronitromethane, and trichloroacetonitrile, in the presence of unaltered (SWa‐U) and reduced (SWa‐R) ferruginous smectite. A linear free‐energy relationships (LFERs) analysis was conducted to explain kinetic data for RCl adsorption and dechlorination. Correlation analyses based on RCl hydration energies, hydrolysis rate constants, or bond dissociation energies were significant (r2 > 0.87) for RCl adsorption by SWa‐R but not so for RCl adsorption by SWa‐U (r2 < 0.5). The most statistically significant relationships describing RCl kinetic data were achieved using multivariable regression analysis including RCl hydration energies (or hydrolysis rate constant) and bond dissociation energies for RCl heterolysis. The outcome of this study indicates that the oxidation state of structural Fe in the clay strongly influences RCl hydration. A mechanism consistent with the present LFERs analysis corresponds to RCl hydration as the limiting step for adsorption and dechlorination by redox‐manipulated smectites.
Detection of early cardiac dysfunction in patients with severe beta-thalassemia and chronic iron overload.

To detect early left ventricular dysfunction, we used radionuclide cineangiography to determine left ventricular ejection fraction during exercise in 24 patients with transfusion-dependent, congenital anemias, 21 of whom had severe beta thalassemia. Ejection fraction at rest was normal in 21 patients (greater than 45 per cent) and in all patients was 53 +/- 2 per cent (mean +/- S.E.M.)--not significantly different from the value in normal subjects. However, ejection fraction during exercise was normal in only 11 patients (53 +/- 3 per cent in all patients, P less than 0.001 as compared with the normal value). All eight patients who had received fewer than 100 transfusions but only three of 16 (19 per cent, P less than 0.001) who had received 100 or more transfusions had normal responses during exercise. Whereas echocardiographic fractional shortening at rest was normal in 16 of 19 patients studied, eight patients with normal fractional shortening had abnormal ejection-fraction responses to exercise. Thus, radionuclide cineangiography during exercise is a highly sensitive technique for detecting preclinical myocardial dysfunction in patients with systemic iron overload.
Postsynaptic Action of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Attenuates α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor-Mediated Responses in Hippocampal Interneurons

Nicotinic mechanisms acting on the hippocampus influence attention, learning, and memory and constitute a significant therapeutic target for many neurodegenerative, neurological, and psychiatric disorders. Here, we report that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (1–100 ng/ml), a member of the neurotrophin gene family, rapidly decreases α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor responses in interneurons of the hippocampal CA1 stratum radiatum. Such effect is dependent on the activation of the TrkB receptor and involves the actin cytoskeleton; noteworthy, it is compromised when the extracellular levels of the endogenous neuromodulator adenosine are reduced with adenosine deaminase (1 U/ml) or when adenosine A2A receptors are blocked with SCH 58261 (2-(2-furanyl)-7-(2-phenylethyl)-7H-pyrazolo[4,3-e][1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidin-5-amine) (100 nm). The intracellular application of U73122 (1-[6[[(17β)-3-methoxyestra-1,3,5(10)-trien-17-yl]amino]hexyl]-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione) (5 μm), a broad-spectrum inhibitor of phospholipase C, or GF 109203X (bisindolylmaleimide I) (2 μm), a general inhibitor of protein kinase C isoforms, blocks BDNF-induced inhibition of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor function. Moreover, in conditions of simultaneous intracellular dialysis of the fast Ca2+ chelator BAPTA (10 mm) and removal of extracellular Ca2+ ions, the inhibitory action of BDNF is further prevented. The present findings disclose a novel target for rapid actions of BDNF that might play important roles on synaptic transmission and plasticity in the brain.