Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tariffs, Habit Persistence, and the Current Account

This paper emphasizes the importance of habit persistence in determining the effect of a permanent distortionary tariff on the current account. A distortionary tariff reduces real permanent income, requiring a fall in the standard of living. If the marginal utility of real consumption is strongly increasing in the habitual standard of living, then aggregate savings falls and the country runs a current account deficit. However, if the marginal utility of real consumption is not sufficiently strongly increasing (or is decreasing) in the habitual standards, then the tariff leads to a rise in savings and a current account surplus.
Identification of 23 TGFBR2 and 6 TGFBR1 gene mutations and genotype‐phenotype investigations in 457 patients with Marfan syndrome type I and II, Loeys‐Dietz syndrome and related disorders

TGFBR1 and TGFBR2 gene mutations have been associated with Marfan syndrome types 1 and 2, Loeys‐Dietz syndrome and isolated familial thoracic aortic aneurysms or dissection. In order to investigate the molecular and clinical spectrum of TGFBR2 mutations we screened the gene in 457 probands suspected of being affected with Marfan syndrome or related disorders that had been referred to our laboratory for molecular diagnosis. We identified and report 23 mutations and 20 polymorphisms. Subsequently, we screened the TGFBR1 gene in the first 74 patients for whom no defect had been found, and identified 6 novel mutations and 12 polymorphisms. Mutation‐carrying probands displayed at referral a large clinical spectrum ranging from the Loeys‐Dietz syndrome and neonatal Marfan syndrome to isolated aortic aneurysm. Furthermore, a TGFBR1 gene mutation was found in a Shprintzen‐Goldberg syndrome patient. Finally, we observed that the yield of mutation detection within the two genes was very low : 4.8% for classical MFS, 4.6% for incomplete MFS and 1% for TAAD in the TGFBR2 gene; 6.2%, 6.2% and 7% respectively in the TGFBR1 gene; in contrast to LDS, where the yield was exceptionally high (87.5%). © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting in China

What is the current state of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and what is the relation between ESG reporting and the financial performance of Chinese companies? This study analyses corporate ESG disclosure in China between 2005 and 2012 by analysing the members of the main indexes of the biggest Chinese stock exchanges. After discussing theories that explain the ESG performance of firms such as institutional theory, accountability and stakeholder theory we present uni- and multivariate statistical analyses of ESG reporting and its relation to environmental and financial performance. Our results suggest that ownership status and membership of certain stock exchanges influence the frequency of ESG disclosure. In turn, ESG reporting influences both environmental and financial performance. We conclude that the main driver for ESG disclosure is accountability and that Chinese corporations are catching up with respect to the frequency of ESG reporting as well as with respect to the quality. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Path Dependent Options: "Buy at the Low, Sell at the High"

exercise prices is solely dependent on the distribution of the terminal price of the underlying stock. This paper examines the properties of European options with exercise prices that are functions of the realized sample path of the stock. In particular, the commonplace shareholder desire to "buy at the low" and sell at the high" can be satisfied with a combination of a call on the stock with an exercise price equal to mino.T S(r) and a put with exercise price equal to maxo,TS(T) where S is the stock price and T is the term of the option. ' Strictly speaking, the creation of these new options in a frictionless context would not expand the investor's opportunity set. However, in a realistic market setting such new options might very well acquire substantial popularity. The appeal would be threefold: (1) the options would guarantee the investor's fantasy of buying at the low and selling at the high, (2) the options would, in some loose intuitive sense, minimize regret, and (3) the options would allow investors with special information on the range (but possibly without special information on the terminal stock price) to directly take advantage of such information. In this paper we analyze the hedging, pricing, and economic properties of these options. Wherever possible we compare and contrast these options with their traditional counterparts. In section two we establish that these options can be hedged and that closed-form valuation equations exist. Particular emphasis here centers on the hedgeability of these options when the stock is at an extremum (i.e., equal to its current maximum or minimum). In section three, by analysis and simulation, we establish the properties of these options and contrast them with those of their traditional counterparts. In particular we examine: (1) the functional dependence of these options with respect to two state variables-stock price and time to expiration, and (2) the pricing of these options relative to the stock and traditional options at the time of inception. Due to the ungainliness of the general pricing relations developed in section two, we found it convenient throughout section three to provide detailed analyses and explicit derivations of the properties of these options for the particularly intuitive case where the logarithm of the adjusted geometric mean return of the stock is zero. We then illustrate by simulation that, qualitatively, the results of our specific example carry over to the general case. We conclude in section four with a general discussion of path-dependent options.
Proteomic identification of human neutrophil alpha‐defensins in chronic lung allograft rejection

Chronic allograft rejection remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in lung transplant recipients. Currently, diagnosis is based on lung biopsies or the presence of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). To identify a biomarker of rejection we performed a proteome survey of archived bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) acquired from lung transplant recipients between 1993 and 1996 using mass spectrometry (MS). A total of 126 BALF samples from 57 individuals were tested. Initial MS assessment revealed numerous differences in a majority of individuals who experienced BOS, but three unusually intense peaks at m/z = 3373, 3444, and 3488. These were identified as human neutrophil peptides 1–3 (HNP). Quantification by enzyme‐linked immunoabsorbent assay showed an elevated HNP level (>0.3 ng/µg protein) in 89% of patients who developed BOS2–3 within 15 months, reaching as high as 6% of the total BALF protein. In control patients, 35% demonstrated a slightly elevated HNP level that declined in all who had subsequent BALF available for testing. HNP levels did not correlate with episodes of acute rejection, cytomegalovirus or fungal infection. In conclusion, elevated HNP levels are associated with the onset of BOS and can predate the clinical onset of disease up to 15 months.
Reject analysis in direct digital radiography

Background Reject analysis can be used as a quality indicator, and is an important tool in localizing areas where optimization is required. Reducing number of rejects is important yielding reduced patient exposure and increased cost-effectiveness. Purpose To determine rejection rates and causes in direct digital radiography. Material and Methods Data were collected during a three-month period in spring 2010 at two direct digital laboratories in Norway. All X-ray examinations, types, numbers, and reasons for rejections were obtained using automatic reject analysis software. Thirteen causes for rejection could be selected. Results Out of the 27,284 acquired images, 3206 were rejected, yielding an overall rejection rate of 12%. Highest rejection rates were found for examination of knees, shoulders, and wrist. In all, 77% of the rejected images arose from positioning errors. Conclusion An overall rejection rate of 12% indicates a need for optimizing radiographic practice in the department.
Corruption in International Sports and Sport Management: Forms, Tendencies, Extent and Countermeasures

Abstract In the first documented case of corruption in sports, the fist fighter Eupolos bribed three of his competitors at the Olympic Games of 388 BC. Among many other instances, the case of the IOC in 1998–1999, which was concentrated around the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, proves that the problem is still relevant today. This article provides an overview of the extent of corruption in modern sports and sports management, systematises its manifestations and tendencies and illustrates the countermeasures that have been taken in reaction. It shows that an economic analysis can supply useful insights for an efficient anti-corruption programme. Measures that reduce the economic rents in sports and enhance transparency are especially efficient, as are monetary disincentives.
DISCLOSURE IN JAPANESE CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORTS

This paper reports the results of a survey of disclosure in the annual reports of unlisted and listed corporations in Japan, a country that many argue has a unique environment. The paper attempts to investigate differences between companies in the extent of disclosure in their Commercial Code (CC) and Securities and Exchange Law (SEL) accounts respectively. The survey finds that there is a significant difference in disclosure by multiple listed companies in their CC accounts compared with domestically listed corporations and unlisted enterprises. It is also found that there is a significant difference in disclosure between multiple listed and domestically listed entities in their SEL accounts. However, there was no significant difference in disclosure between the TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange) group and the unlisted group in their CC accounts.
An update on apocrine lesions of the breast

Apocrine change occurs in a spectrum of benign lesions in the female breast and is also demonstrated in a subgroup of in situ and invasive carcinomas. Recent research has focused on the molecular phenotype of both benign and malignant apocrine lesions. This review will briefly summarize the morphological characteristics and risk associations of the spectrum of apocrine proliferations, but will focus on the updated molecular studies of both in situ and invasive apocrine carcinomas.
RESOURCE SCHEDULING AND PRICING IN A CENTRALISED ENERGY MARKET

This paper presents a generation scheduling algorithm in which the objective is to minimise the total customers' payments, rather than the total production cost. A forward Dynamic Programming algorithm is used to search for the most economic schedule. The proposed methodology is useful to sim ulate the behaviour of a centrally dispatched energy market while combining the scheduling and pricing modules. The scheduling algorithm reduces the total payments by consumers while ensuring cost recovery to the generating companies and the equity and efficiency of the market. The issues discussed in this paper are illustrated using 10- and 26- generating unit systems and the findings are commented. Some results are presented to show how the equity and efficiency of an energy market is affected when the scheduling criteria differ from the rules of the price mechanism. solutions, which are of equal quality in terms of total production costs but may vary significantly in terms of individual costs, profits and commitments. These effects are inherent when attempting to optimise UC from the perspective of a central operator because of the near-degeneracy of the UC problem and the presence of many near-optimal solutions. Johnson and his collaborators used a Lagrangian Relaxation (LR)-based UC algorithm to show that variations in near optimum UC schedules with negligible effect on total generation production costs have a significant impact on the profitability of individual resources. They also show that centralised scheduling may be inequitable to some generation companies as their profit can be significantly reduced by a sub-optimal UC solution. The results are particularly volatile for marginal resources, but the changes in the payments to base -loaded resources due to changes in the price vectors for different solutions can become very large. The authors suggest that centralised scheduling by a mandatory power pool may be perceived by suppliers and consumers as unnecessarily volatile and even inequitable, and hence in the long run yield schedules that do not minimise costs. The results presented in (2) ratify the argument that global UC schedules with negligible discrepancies in total production costs may result in considerable changes in the total payments by the consumers. The results have shown that a UC solution that is more attractive to generating companies can be more costly to
Entry of the Lymphogranuloma Venereum Strain of Chlamydia trachomatis into Host Cells Involves Cholesterol-Rich Membrane Domains

ABSTRACT Chlamydiae are bacterial pathogens which develop strictly inside the epithelial cells of their hosts. The mechanism used by chlamydiae to enter cells is not well characterized; however, it is thought to consist of a receptor-mediated process. In addition, the formation of clathrin-coated pits appears to be dispensable for chlamydiae to be internalized by host cells. Clathrin-independent endocytosis has recently been shown to occur through cholesterol-rich lipid microdomains, which are characterized by detergent insolubility. In the present study, we investigated whether these lipid domains play a role in Chlamydia trachomatis serovar L2 internalization by host cells. Our results show that after binding to HeLa cells, chlamydiae are associated with detergent-resistant lipid microdomains (DRMs), which can be isolated by fractionation of infected HeLa cells and flotation on a sucrose gradient. After internalization by HeLa cells, chlamydiae were still found in DRMs. In addition, extraction of plasma membrane cholesterol inhibited infection of HeLa cells by C. trachomatis. Many of the proteins associated with DRMs are glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins; however, our results could not identify a role for GPI-anchored proteins in the entry process. The same results were obtained for Chlamydia psittaci strain GPIC. We propose that cholesterol-rich domains participate in the entry of chlamydiae into host cells. Chlamydia binding to cholesterol-rich domains may lead to coalescence of the bacterial cells, which could trigger internalization by host cells.
Monetary Transmission Mechanism in Central and Eastern Europe: Gliding on a Wind of Change

This paper surveys recent advances in empirical studies of the monetary transmission mechanism (MTM), with special attention to Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, while laying out the functioning of the separate channels in the MTM, it explores possible interrelations between different channels and their impact on prices and the real economy. The empirical findings for Central and Eastern Europe are then briefly compared with results for industrialized countries, especially for the euro area. We highlight potential pitfalls in the literature and assess the relative importance, and potential development, of the different channels, emphasizing the relevant asymmetries between Central and Eastern European countries and the euro area.
The Monetary Policy of the European Central Bank

The first six years of ECB monetary policy are examined using a general framework that allows central bankers to weight differently positive and negative deviations of inflation, output and the interest rate from their reference values. The empirical analysis on synthetic euro-area data suggests that the objective of price stability is symmetric, whereas the objectives of real activity and interest-rate stabilizations are not. Output contractions imply larger policy responses than output expansions of the same size, while movements in the interest rate are larger when the level of the interest rate is relatively high. The hypothesis of M3 growth-rate targeting is rejected.
Gender constructions and negotiations of female football fans. A case study in Denmark

Abstract While both the media and the academic literature focus primarily on male fans, in particular on violence and the prevention of hooliganism, little is known about female football supporters. This is also true of Denmark, a country that is known for its high degree of gender equality. This article aims to give insight into gender constructions and negotiations of female football fans in the stands. Drawing on a social constructivist perspective to gender and Bourdieu’s (1984) approaches to field, capital and habitus, we explored the experiences and opinions of female fans. The methods employed were stadium observations as well as qualitative, guideline-based interviews with female supporters of three different clubs. The observations and interviews reveal that traditional gender norms, prejudices and sexism are widespread in the fan stands, and are often accepted and trivialised by the female fans themselves. Female fans have to comply with specific rules of conduct in the stadium, where “masculine” behaviour for both male and female supporters is regarded as ideal fan behaviour. However, there is also space for gender negotiations as long as female supporters display neither “hypermasculinity” nor “emphasised femininity” in their gender performances. Female fans do not only comply with and reproduce the rules of conduct in the stadium but also apply different forms of resistance against sexism and the domination of men in the stadium – both on the field and in the stands. The founding of a women’s fan group can be interpreted as means of opposition to the dominance of men.
Regulatory Agency Control Through Appointment: The Case of the Eisenhower Administration and the NLRB

W A WHATEVER THE EXPECTATIONS of the early supporters of independent commissions as governmental devices, these agencies have not been divorced from politics. Continuing activity of all kinds by those whose vital interests are affected by agency action has been as characteristic of the lives of the so-called "independent" regulatory commissions as it has been of executive, presumably "non-independent" agencies. Regulated interests use whatever means they find available and consider useful to affect, first, the character of the regulatory legislation itself and then the direction of the agency that applies it. Judicialized procedures, the separation of agency functions, intercessions by Congressmen with agency officials, Congressional investigations, ex parte contacts by the regulated with administrators are important methods of influencing the course of regulatory action. It is not surprising, then, that the appointive process, formally involving the President and the Senate, is also seen as a crucial, direct means of getting the agency to read the law as the regulated parties themselves would. Since it is the President and the Senate who finally decide who fills agency positions, they naturally become the focus of vigorous clientele activity to influence these selections. For Presidents who want to fix their stamp on the policies developed by the independent commissions, the opportunity to appoint their members is used with no reluctance. And it probably can be said that in the last analysis it is at this stage that the vigor or drift that will characterize these agencies is determined. This paper focuses on efforts of the regulated clientele of one independent commission, the National Labor Relations Board, to invoke in their own behalf the Presidential appointive power in the Eisenhower years. As with all case studies dealing with limited, and in many respects unique situations, any general inferences that are drawn must be considered suggestive rather than conclusive. But what emerges from this discussion is additional evidence, if any is
Currency boards and currency crises

This paper demonstrates how a currency board can become vulnerable to a crises in which the policymaker is forced to devalue. The model is built from two blocks: first, incomplete information about the devaluation cost faced by the policymaker; and second, unemployment persistence. Incomplete information can result in multiple equilibria. In one class of equilibrium the policymaker has a credibility problem and maintaining the currency board is costly in terms of unemployment. If unemployment is persistent then pressure to devalue can build up over time until it becomes unbearable and the policymaker is forced to devalue.
When More Power Makes Actors Worse Off: Turning a Profit in the American Economy

We propose a theory which predicts that an increase in an actor's relative power reduces the actor's rewards in high mutual dependence dyads. Our argument is based on the premise that higher relative power gives the more powerful actor a greater share of surplus, but it also reduces dyadic exchange frequency, which lowers the expected magnitude of that surplus. As mutual dependence increases, fairness issues associated with power imbalances reduce exchange frequency and expected surplus at an increasingly higher rate. Thus, at a certain level of mutual dependence, the more powerful actor obtains a greater share of a much smaller exchange surplus leading him or her to be worse off than he would be in an equal-power dyad. We support this prediction with data on profit rates in American industries from 1977 through 1992.
C-Peptide, Baseline and Postprandial Insulin Resistance after a Carbohydrate-Rich Test Meal - Evidence for an Increased Insulin Clearance in PCOS Patients?

Introduction Known characteristics of patients with PCOS include infertility, menstrual disorders, hirsutism and also often insulin resistance. These symptoms increase with increasing body weight. In the LIPCOS study (Lifestyle Intervention for Patients with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome [PCOS]) long-term changes of the PCOS in dependence on pregnancy and parenthood were systematically assessed. In the framework of the LIPCOS study, PCOS patients were given a standardised carbohydrate-rich test meal in order to examine glucose homeostasis and insulin secretion. The results were compared with those of a eumenorrhoeic control group who all had corresponding BMI values and corresponding ages. Methods and Patients 41 PCOS patients (without diabetes) and 68 controls received a standardised carbohydrate-rich test meal (260 kcal, 62 % carbohydrates, 32 % fat, 6 % proteins) in order to generate a submaximal insulin and glucose stimulation. The values were determined at baseline and postprandial after 60, 120 and 180 minutes. In addition, the corresponding C-peptide levels were recorded. Results In the PCOS patients (n = 41), the insulin secretion test after a standardised test meal showed almost identical baseline and postprandial insulin levels when compared with those of the age- and BMI-matched eumenorrhoeic controls (n = 68). In the PCOS patients, the baseline and postprandial glucose levels were significantly elevated (92.88 ± 10.28 [PCOS] vs. 85.07 ± 9.42 mg/dL [controls]; p < 0.001) so was C-peptide (p < 0.025). Conclusions In the present study we have shown for the first time that, after consumption of a standardised test meal, PCOS patients formally exhibit a higher fasting insulin resistance than controls. In spite of the higher stimulated C-peptide levels, the insulin levels did not increase more strongly with increasing glucose levels than in controls which may be indicative of a higher insulin clearance in PCOS patients.