Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skeletal muscle membrane lipid composition is related to adiposity and insulin action.

The cellular basis of insulin resistance is still unknown; however, relationships have been demonstrated between insulin action in muscle and the fatty acid profile of the major membrane structural lipid (phospholipid). The present study aimed to further investigate the hypothesis that insulin action and adiposity are associated with changes in the structural lipid composition of the cell. In 52 adult male Pima Indians, insulin action (euglycemic clamp), percentage body fat (pFAT; underwater weighing), and muscle phospholipid fatty acid composition (percutaneous biopsy of vastus lateralis) were determined. Insulin action (high-dose clamp; MZ) correlated with composite measures of membrane unsaturation (% C20-22 polyunsaturated fatty acids [r= 0.463, P < 0.001], unsaturation index [r= -0.369, P < 0.01]), a number of individual fatty acids and with delta5 desaturase activity (r= 0.451, P < 0.001). pFAT (range 14-53%) correlated with a number of individual fatty acids and delta5 desaturase activity (r= -0.610, P < 0.0001). Indices of elongase activity (r= -0.467, P < 0.001), and delta9 desaturase activity (r= 0.332, P < 0.05) were also related to pFAT but not insulin action. The results demonstrate that delta5 desaturase activity is independently related to both insulin resistance and obesity. While determining the mechanisms underlying this relationship is important for future investigations, strategies aimed at restoring "normal" enzyme activities, and membrane unsaturation, may have therapeutic importance in the "syndromes of insulin resistance. "
The American Keiretsu and Universal Banks: Investing, Voting and Sitting on Nonfinancials' Corporate Boards

There has been a great deal of interest among researchers on the voting rights of nonfinancial firms' stock controlled by Japanese and German banks. In the United States, little attention has been devoted to this issue because banks traditionally have been barred from making equity investments in nonfinancial firms for their own account. Despite this prohibition, American banks control important stakes of the voting rights of nonfinancial firms. The source of these voting rights is the trust business. This paper investigates the equity investments and voting rights that American banks control through their trust business. Following the evidence that German banks use the proxy voting rights they control to place their representatives on the firm's board of directors, we also study whether the voting rights American banks control through their trust business help explain their presence on the boards of nonfinancial firms. We find that, on average, the largest 100 American banks control 10% of the voting rights of S&P 500 nonfinancial firms. We also find that there are several nonfinancial firms in the S&P 500 index in which the top banks altogether control more than 20% of their voting rights and several nonfinancial firms in the country in which they control more than 60% of the firm's voting rights. Our investigation into the presence of American bankers on the boards of nonfinancial corporations shows that, ceteris paribus, bankers are more likely to join the board of a firm in which their bank controls a large voting stake through its trust business.
Oil, Democracy, and Context

A considerable debate precludes drawing conclusions about oil’s effect on democracy. This article challenges this stalemate by significantly expanding the scope of the previous research and using meta-regression analysis to examine the integrated results of extant scholarship. While the results suggest a nontrivial negative association between oil and democracy across the globe, they also indicate a notable variation in this relationship across world regions and institutional contexts. A conditioning effect of institutions may lie more in a broader set of economic and political institutions, less so in previous political regime, but not in institutions associated with British colonial past. Finally, while oil does not seem to impede democracy by retarding two key channels of modernization—income and urbanization—it may have an indirect negative effect on democracy through its adverse impact on education.
Banks' Liquidity and the Cost of Liquidity to Corporations

We consider the liquidity shock banks experienced following the collapse of the asset‐backed commercial paper (ABCP) market in the fall of 2007 to investigate whether banks' liquidity conditions affect their ability to provide liquidity to corporations. We find that banks that borrowed more from the Federal Home Loan Bank system or the Federal Reserve's discount window following that liquidity shock passed a larger portion of their borrowing costs onto corporations seeking access to liquidity when compared to the precrisis period. This increase is larger among banks with a bigger exposure to the ABCP market, credit lines that pose more liquidity risk to banks, and borrowers that are likely dependent on the credit‐line provider. Our findings show that the crisis that affected the banking system had a negative effect not only on the price of credit to corporations, but also on the price corporations pay to guarantee access to liquidity.
The Power of Giving Feedback: Outcomes from Implementing an Online Peer Assessment System

ABSTRACT: This paper describes an online system that facilitates peer assessment of students' course work and then uses data from individual case writing assignments in introductory financial accounting to empirically examine associations between peer assessment and case writing performance. Through this description and empirical analysis, the paper addresses the following questions: (1) Why use peer assessment? (2) How does online peer assessment work? (3) Is student peer assessment reliable? (4) What do students think of peer assessment? (5) Does student peer assessment contribute to academic performance? Three key findings from this study are that students at the sophomore level were able to generate reasonably reliable feedback for peers, they valued the experiences involved in providing peer feedback, and giving quality feedback had a more significant and enduring impact on students' accounting case analyses than did receiving quality feedback, after controlling for differences in accounting knowledg.
Relationships between Innovation Stimulus, Innovation Capacity, and Innovation Performance

This paper examines the integration of the human and technological aspects of innovation management by modelling the innovation stimulus – innovation capacity relationship in determining innovation performance. The research framework developed in this study was tested amongst 194 managers of Australian firms. The survey responses indicate that both the relationships between innovation stimulus and innovation capacity and between innovation capacity and innovation performance are significant and strong. However, innovation stimulus does not show any direct effect on innovation performance, suggesting that its effect is mediated through innovation capacity. The overall practical implication that can be drawn from the findings is that to achieve high innovation performance, organizations first need to develop the behavioural and cultural context and practices for innovation (i.e. stimulus), and only within such conducive environments is it possible for organizations to develop innovative capacity in research and development and technology so as to more effectively deliver innovation outcomes and performance.
Corporate Disclosure of Environmental Liability Information: Theory and Evidence*

The decision to disclose information concerning a firm's environmental liabilities is modeled as a sequential game involving the firm, a capital market and outside stakeholders who can impose proprietary (political) costs on the firm. A partial disclosure equilibrium is derived in which firms reveal information strategically, maximizing share value net of expected political costs. Inherent uncertainty regarding the existence and size of the liabilities creates a setting where outsiders are uncertain if management is informed about them, so firms can plausibly withhold bad news, i.e., they do not disclose liabilities that exceed a threshold level. Three novel hypotheses are that a firm is more likely to disclose as (1) its pollution propensity increases; (2) outsiders' knowledge of its environmental liabilities increases; and (3) the risk of incurring proprietary costs decreases. Empirical support is found for the hypotheses, based on the accounting disclosures made by sample firms selected from the records of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Energy. Improved accounting and auditing standards for environmental disclosure would build on at least three implications of the study: 1. To the extent that inherent uncertainty leaves managers with discretion as to what to disclose, our partial disclosure equilibrium result suggests that not all firms will comply with disclosure standards. 2. Publishing broad environmental performance-indicators for companies in non-accounting outlets would increase public awareness of a manager's private information endowment, making voluntary accounting disclosures of the liability more likely. 3. If a significant decline in stakeholder tolerance of pollution occurs, the expected proprietary costs of disclosing increase and companies become less likely to disclose.
A confirmatory factor analysis of a self-report version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale.

One of the most popular measures of social phobia is the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS; Liebowitz, 1987). The LSAS is a 24-item semi-structured interview measure of fear and avoidance experienced in a range of social and performance situations. Recently, the LSAS has been modified to a self-report version (LSAS-SR) by several independent groups (Cox, Ross, Swinson, & Direnfeld, 1998; Fresco et al., 2001; Mancini, Van Ameringen, & Oakman, 1999). A self-report version offers ease of administration, but it may differ from the structured interview version in its psychometric properties. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses of the self-report version of the LSAS using data from a sample of 188 outpatients with anxiety disorders. The structure and psychometric properties of the LSAS-SR are highly similar to that of the LSAS and robust across groups of patients with a variety of primary anxiety disorders. We argue in favor of adopting the 4-factor model for the LSAS proposed by Safren et al. (1999) instead of the models implied by the scoring instructions for the LSAS.
The Impact of Economic Conditions On the Voting Behavior of Blacks

1989: Table 746; see also Oliver and Shapiro 1989) and a median family income $14,000 more than blacks (Statistical Abstract, 1990: Table 720). The relatively low income and asset level in the black community might encourage attention to economic perceptions, especially egocentric and group-based ones. Some supporting evidence for this general idea was found by Alford (1982) who showed that the more prosperous the aggregate economic conditions, the less voters will be influenced by individual egocentric financial perceptions. The logic here is that when the economy slumps, it is easy to blame personal economic troubles on the government; when the economy booms, it is much more difficult to blame personal troubles entirely on the government. Blacks, many of whom are part of a more marginal economy than most whites, might be inclined to use economic
The Impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure on Information Asymmetry and Trading: An Intraday Analysis

This study examines the impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) on liquidity, information asymmetry, and institutional and retail investors trading behavior. Our main findings suggest three conclusions. First, Regulation FD has been effective in improving liquidity and in decreasing the level of information asymmetry. Second, retail trading activity increases dramatically after earnings announcements but there is a significant decline in institutional trading surrounding earnings announcements, particularly in the pre-announcement period. Last, the decline in information asymmetry around earnings announcements is closely associated with a lower participation rate in the pre-announcement period and more active trading of retail investors after earnings releases. Copyright 2004 by the Eastern Finance Association.
Development and pilot testing of an Organizational Information Technology/Systems Innovation Readiness Scale (OITIRS)

Empirical evidence indicates that healthcare organizational readiness for new information technology/systems (IT/S) is crucial to successful innovation. Despite this evidence, limited research has been done to define innovation readiness, and develop and test metrics to measure it. This presentation reports on the third phase in a multi-phased research program focused on healthcare organizational change related to IT/S innovation. In the initial two phases, the concept of IT/S innovation readiness was explored and its sub-dimensions identified and validated. In the third phase, findings from the first two phases were used to develop and pilot test an Organizational Information Technology/Systems Innovation Readiness Scale (OITIRS) for use in healthcare settings. The specific aims of this presentation are to 1) provide background information on the development of the OITIRS, and 2) report pilot testing results that support use of the OITIRS in healthcare informatics research.
New Insights Into Dinosaur Jaw Muscle Anatomy

Jaw muscles are key components of the head and critical to testing hypotheses of soft‐tissue homology, skull function, and evolution. Dinosaurs evolved an extraordinary diversity of cranial forms adapted to a variety of feeding behaviors. However, disparate evolutionary transformations in head shape and function among dinosaurs and their living relatives, birds and crocodylians, impair straightforward reconstructions of muscles, and other important cephalic soft tissues. This study presents the osteological correlates and inferred soft tissue anatomy of the jaw muscles and relevant neurovasculature in the temporal region of the dinosaur head. Hypotheses of jaw muscle homology were tested across a broad range archosaur and sauropsid taxa to more accurately infer muscle attachments in the adductor chambers of non‐avian dinosaurs. Many dinosaurs likely possessed m. levator pterygoideus, a trait shared with lepidosaurs but not extant archosaurs. Several major clades of dinosaurs (e.g., Ornithopoda, Ceratopsidae, Sauropoda) eliminated the epipterygoid, thus impacting interpretations of m. pseudotemporalis profundus. M. pseudotemporalis superficialis most likely attached to the caudoventral surface of the laterosphenoid, a trait shared with extant archosaurs. Although mm. adductor mandibulae externus profundus and medialis likely attached to the caudal half of the dorsotemporal fossa and coronoid process, clear osteological correlates separating the individual bellies are rare. Most dinosaur clades possess osteological correlates indicative of a pterygoideus ventralis muscle that attaches to the lateral surface of the mandible, although the muscle may have extended as far as the jugal in some taxa (e.g., hadrosaurs, tyrannosaurs). The cranial and mandibular attachments of mm adductor mandibulae externus superficialis and adductor mandibulae posterior were consistent across all taxa studied. These new data greatly increase the interpretive resolution of head anatomy in dinosaurs and provide the anatomical foundation necessary for future analyses of skull function and evolution in an important vertebrate clade. Anat Rec, 292:1246–1265, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
WELFARE GAINS FROM REMOVING LAND‐USE DISTORTIONS: AN ANALYSIS OF URBAN CHANGE IN POST‐APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA*

This paper analyzes the effect of eliminating apartheid land-use restrictions in South Africa using a simplified version of the standard urban model. When freedom of residential location is granted, black township residents compete for land near the center of the core cities, pushing white residents to less accessible locations. Black consumption rises and white consumption falls in response, but the increase in total land rent is sufficient to compensate for white losses. The resulting aggregate welfare gain is a natural consequence of eliminating the distortion imposed by the apartheid system. These conclusions are robust to a number of modifications of the basic model.
A survey of orthodontists’ perspectives on the timing of treatment: A pilot study

Objectives: This study aimed to outline orthodontists’ perspectives at what stage they would initiate orthodontic treatment and also sought to assess the relationship between orthodontists’ views and their genders, types of practice, and experience levels. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was sent electronically to 165 practicing orthodontists at different regions in Saudi Arabia. The orthodontists were asked to consider at what stage they would initiate orthodontic treatment for a child with one of 29 different types of occlusal deviations, functional problems, and temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) listed in the questionnaire as their main orthodontic problem. Frequency distributions of all the variables were derived, and comparisons were made using the Chi-square tests. Results: Fifty-two electronically completed questionnaires were returned (31.5% response rate). The majority of the respondents were males (63.5%). The majority of respondents (90%) reported that they would treat most of the occlusal deviations in the mixed dentition stage. Anterior cross-bite was the most frequent indication for treatment during the early mixed dentition stage (73.7%). Conditions rated as best treated during the late mixed, or the permanent dentition stages were; overjet > 6 mm with interdental spacing, maxillary midline diastema >2 mm and deep bite >5 mm without palatal impingement. The majority of respondents (86.6%) preferred to treat most of the functional problems in the deciduous or early mixed dentition stage. Orthodontists with more than 15 years of experience preferred to treat patients with TMDs, whereas those with <15 years of experience opted to refer such patients to TMD specialists. Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest that orthodontists should consider many factors, such as the risks, benefits, duration, and costs of early and late intervention, when deciding the best timing to begin orthodontic treatment.
Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and lipid levels differ by gender and family history of diabetes: the Rancho Bernardo Study

Association between apolipoprotein E (apoE) gene polymorphism and lipid levels was studied in 164 nondiabetic first‐degree relatives of persons with diabetes and 962 nondiabetic persons with no family history of diabetes. Sex‐specific genotypic distribution of apoE polymorphism did not differ between persons with and without a family history of diabetes. In first‐degree relatives, lipid levels did not differ among persons with apoE2 (E2/2, E2/3), apoE3/3, and apoE4 (E4/4, E3/4) after adjusting for age, waist circumference, smoking, and alcohol and estrogen use. In persons without a family history of diabetes, both men (p<0.01) and women (p<0.001) with apoE2 showed lower levels of total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol compared with persons with apoE3/3 and apoE4. In women with a family history of diabetes, persons with apoE4 had larger waist circumference (p<0.05). ApoE2 allele is associated with more favorable levels of total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol in men and women without a family history of diabetes. ApoE4 allele is associated with obesity independent of dyslipidemia in women but not men with a family history of diabetes. ApoE polymorphism is not associated with lipids in men or women with a family history of diabetes.
An asymmetric DCC analysis of correlations among bank CDS indices

This study explores the time-varying correlations among the bank industry Credit Default Swap (CDS) indices for the EU, the UK and the US, using the asymmetric Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) model developed by Cappiello et al. (2006). The main findings of the study include: (i) The correlations between each pair of bank CDS indices vary substantially over time. (ii) There is evidence of asymmetric dynamic correlations between the EU and the UK bank CDS indices. The correlations between them tend to be higher when responding to joint downward shocks. (iii) The conditional correlations between the US bank CDS and the UK and the EU bank CDS, respectively, exhibited significant drops immediately after the collapse of Lehman Brothers during the global financial crisis. (iv) The sovereign debt crisis dummy in Autoregressive (AR) models, applied to the estimated DCCs, is significantly positive for the UK and US bank CDSs, as shown by the increased correlations after the onset of the debt crisis.
Autotransporter Protein-Encoding Genes of Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Are Found in both Typical and Atypical Enteropathogenic E. coli Strains

ABSTRACT Autotransporter (AT) protein-encoding genes of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) pathotypes (cah, eatA, ehaABCDJ, espC, espI, espP, pet, pic, sat, and tibA) were detected in typical and atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) in frequencies between 0.8% and 39.3%. Although these ATs have been described in particular DEC pathotypes, their presence in EPEC indicates that they should not be considered specific virulence markers.
Duration of trade of former communist countries in the EU market

This article analyses the duration of exports of individual products of former communist countries to the enlarged European Union (EU25) employing survival analysis. The results show that the duration of trade differs across EU10 and EU15 markets: for the majority of countries the length of trade is greater in EU10 markets than in EU15 markets. The estimations suggest that differentiated products are traded for more extended periods than homogeneous products. In addition, trade relationships starting with large initial sales are more likely to survive the observed five-year period than those starting with small values. Finally, the estimations are robust to both markets segments.