Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proprioception of ankle and knee joints in obese boys and nonobese boys.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to examine if there was any difference in the proprioception of the ankle and knee joints between pre-pubertal obese boys and non-obese boys. MATERIAL/METHODS A cross-sectional experimental design was used in the study between two groups. Within the group, repetitions were performed to verify the differences in several passive motion senses in the ankle or knee. A total of 53 boys aged 7 to 12 served as the study subjects. Among them, there were 27 obese boys with an average body mass index (BMI) of 25.14+/-3.51 kg/m2 and 26 non-obese boys with BMI of 16.28+/-1.45 kg/m2. The study used custom-made apparatus to test any proprioception that was indicated by a kinaesthesis of the ankle and knee. RESULTS The obese boys showed significantly poorer proprioception in knee flexion movement (P=0.041). However, they showed none in the knee extension and ankle movements. CONCLUSIONS The obese boys showed a deficit in proprioception in knee flexion. Such alterations in their proprioception would be associated with decreased postural control capacity in obese boys as reported in published works since proprioceptive function is one important component that contributes to postural control.
Vertical relations between airports and airlines: theory and implications

This dissertation provides new contributions on air transport economics with respect to the issue of vertical relations between airports and airlines. Chapter 1 provides an interpretive review of models of airport-airline interaction. While assessing how deregulation of the airline market and privatization of airports create the incentives for airport-airline interaction, and which are the different forms of cooperation observed in practice, particular attention is payed on models used to represent formally vertical relations between airports and carriers. Moreover, if the vertical structure approach has become standard in air transport research, we discuss three elements that still seem to lack of understanding, but we think should be the lines of future research on airports-airlines interaction: (i) incomplete contracts and asymmetric information structure; (ii) upstream horizontal complementarities; (iii) airports as two sided platforms. In Chapter 2 we study airport pricing with aeronautical and concession activities. While assuming that as congestion increases dwell time increases — and so the money spent in concession activities — we incorporate a positive relationship between delay and consumption of concession goods, and the effect of passenger types. We find that: (i) there is a downward correction on the congestion toll due to the positive externality of delay; (ii) the component relevant to the per-passenger benefit from concessions may be a mark-up depending on delay and the passengers’ values of time. Furthermore, a welfare-maximizing airport may have more incentives to induce congestion than a profit-maximizing airport. Chapter 3 investigates contracts between airports and airlines, in the context of two competing facilities and three types of agreements. The downstream market consists in a route operated by one leader and n-1 followers competing a la Stackelberg in each facility. We develop a multistage game where each airport and its dominant airline decide whether to enter into a contract and, if so, which one to engage in. We find that the airport and its dominant airline have incentive to vertical integration in each facility. The merger implies a downstream market foreclosure through a price-squeeze strategy but consumers’ surplus and welfare increase with respect to the case in which no agreement occurs. Thus, the agreement exhibits a trade-off between competitiveness and welfare.
An empirical investigation of the relationship between Blogger's ethical intensity and decision making

The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality of a moral intensity construct in three ethical dilemmas and how the dimensions directly affect the specific processes of moral decision making of bloggers. A survey was conducted with 365 bloggers through convenience sampling. Results indicated the dimensions of moral intensity will be significant predictors of moral recognition, moral judgment and intentions among three weblog scenarios.
Transcriptome profile of bovine elongated conceptus obtained from SCNT and IVP pregnancies

In the present study we analyzed the gene expression changes induced by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and in vitro production (IVP) in bovine elongated embryos using Affymetrix bovine genome array. For this, Day‐16 bovine embryos from SCNT, IVP, and artificial insemination (AI) were recovered from recipients and used for transcriptome analysis. Despite comparable in vivo development rates, considerable reduction in elongation size was observed in SCNT compared to non‐cloned embryos (93.3 mm for SCNT vs. 186.6 mm and 196.3 mm for IVP and AI embryos, respectively). Gene expression analysis revealed that the transcript levels of 477 genes, which are involved in various pathways including arginine and proline or glycerolipid and fatty acid metabolism, were significantly altered in SCNT compared to AI embryos. Similarly, 365 genes were differentially expressed in IVP embryos compared to AI. Thus, several pathways including TNRF‐1 signaling and tight junction pathways were affected. To predict whether the altered transcripts were associated with culture condition or errors in transcriptional reprogramming, unique or common differentially expressed genes were analyzed in SCNT and IVP embryos compared to AI or fibroblast donor cells. Accordingly, 71 transcripts were found to be not transcriptionally reprogrammed, as their expression resembled the donor cells more than AI embryos; the remaining transcripts were either partially or incompletely reprogrammed. In conclusion, the present study identified deviations in elongation size, gene expression, and the corresponding molecular pathways in Day‐16 SCNT and IVP conceptuses compared to their AI counterparts, which may subsequently be associated with the outcome of fetal development. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 80: 315–333, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Anthropometrics, Body Composition, And Aerobic Fitness in Norwegian Home Guard Personnel

Abstract Aandstad, A, Hageberg, R, Holme, IM, and Anderssen, SA. Anthropometrics body composition and aerobic fitness in Norwegian Home Guard personnel. J Strength Cond Res 28(11): 3206–3214, 2014—The Norwegian Home Guard (HG) consists of soldiers and officers who primarily live a civilian life but are typically called in for military training a few days per year. Although full-time soldiers and officers are monitored annually on physical fitness, no such assessments are performed on regular HG personnel. Data on physical fitness of similar forces from other nations are also scarce. Thus, the main aim of this study was to collect reference data on physical fitness in HG personnel. A total of 799 male soldiers and officers from the regular and the rapid reaction HG force participated in this study. Between 13 and 19% of the subjects were obese, according to measured body mass index, waist circumference and estimations of body fat. The mean (95% confidence interval) estimated peak oxygen uptake from the 20-m shuttle run test was 50.1 (49.7–50.6) mL·kg−1·minute−1. Personnel from the rapid reaction force had a more favorable body composition compared with the regular HG personnel, whereas no differences were found for peak oxygen uptake. The physical demands on HG personnel are not well defined, but we believe that the majority of Norwegian HG soldiers and officers have a sufficient aerobic fitness level to fulfill their planned HG tasks. The gathered data can be used by military leaders to review the ability of the HG to perform expected military tasks, to serve as a future reference material for secular changes in HG fitness level, and for comparison purposes among similar international reserve forces.
Report on Initial Experience with Local Anaesthesia for Carotid Artery Endarterectomy

Abstract Purpose of the study: This prospective study reports our preliminary results with local anaesthesia (LA) for carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Material and methods: Twenty CEA in nineteen patients were performed using a three-stage local infiltration technique. CEA were performed through a short Duplex-assisted skin incision (median length: 55 mm) using a retro-jugular approach and polyurethane patch closure (median length: 35 mm). Results: There were 13 men and 6 women with a mean age of 71.2 years. The indications of CEA were asymptomatic lesions in 11 cases, stroke in 7 cases and transient ischaemic attack in 2 cases. The median degree of internal carotid artery stenosis was 90%. One patient (5%) required an intraluminal shunt. There were no peri-operative deaths, stroke or conversion to general anaesthesia (GA). The median length of stay was 3 days. Conclusions: LA is a good alternative to GA. It can be used after a feasibility study and a short teaching procedure. In our centre, it is a safe and effective procedure associated with low morbidity, high acceptance by patients and a short hospital stay.
Neoadjuvant therapy of locally advanced gastric cancer

Treatment of gastric cancer has evolved with the advent of randomized trials demonstrating chemotherapeutic agents with efficacy in advanced disease. Level I evidence supports delivering chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting; the data shows improvement in progression‐free and overall survival. A clinical response to therapy is associated with improved R0 resection rates, pathologic response, and outcome in patients with locally advanced disease. Early assessment of metabolic response to therapy can potentially be utilized to tailor treatment. J. Surg. Oncol. 2010; 101:305–314. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of processing speed training on cognitive functions and neural systems

Abstract Processing speed (PS) is an individual cognitive ability that measures the speed with which individuals execute cognitive tasks, particularly elementary cognitive tasks. PS has been proposed to be a key cognitive component, along with working memory, and is psychologically and clinically important. Various types of speed training affect performance of untrained cognitive measures. In this article, we review studies of PS training or training involving speeded tasks and describe the methodologies along with the psychological and neuroimaging findings related to PS training. There are various types of PS (speed) training tasks. Evidence indicates that PS training can enhance performance on untrained speeded tasks. However, the extent of transfer may vary depending on the methodology. A particular type of speed training seems to affect mental health in older adults. Neuroimaging studies of speed training have shown that the effects of speed training on neural mechanisms may vary depending on the training tasks. Adaptive procedures to modulate the difficulties of training tasks based on a subject’s performance by modulating the task speed can be applied to various cognitive tasks, and these procedures can perhaps be used to develop training protocols for enhancing various cognitive functions.
Unequal synonymous substitution rates within and between two protein-coding mitochondrial genes.

Genes encoded by mitochondrial DNA display considerable heterogeneity of sequence change. Among protein-coding genes, rates and patterns of nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions are influenced by differential selective constraints relative to amino acid composition and function of the gene product. Synonymous substitutions are presumably free of functional constraints on amino acid sequence. However, patterns of synonymous substitutions are not uniform. Observations of transition bias at synonymous sites across many groups of closely related taxa have led to general agreement that transitional substitutions, as a class, evolve more rapidly than transversional substitutions. Furthermore, strong nucleotide compositional bias present at largely synonymous third codon positions suggests that even within transitions or transversions the pattern of nucleotide substitution may not be uniform (Perna and Kocher 1995). Substitutional processes of mitochondrial genes are complex and additionally can vary with taxonomic group. In this study, we examined nucleotide sequence evolution of two protein-coding mtDNA genes (cytochrome b and ND4L) among closely related species of the North American cyprinid genus Notropis. Cytochrome b (cyt b) is a well-characterized gene whose predicted amino acid sequence appears to be conserved (Irwin, Kocher, and Wilson 1991; Martin and Palumbi 1993; Cantatore et al. 1994). ND4L is a smaller and less well-characterized gene whose predicted amino acid sequence is thought to be much less conserved than that of cyt b (Johansen, Guddal, and Johansen 1993; Meyer 1993). A 533-base-pair (bp) fragment of the cyt b gene and the entire ND4L gene (297 bp) were sequenced from representatives of eight species of the cyprinid genus Notropis. These included six species of the subgenus Notropis (N. amabilis, N. atherinoides, N. oxyrhynthus, N. shumardi, N. stilbius, and N. telescopus), N. rubellus (placed in the subgenus Notropis by Mayden and Matson [ 1988]), and N. girardi (placed in the subgenus Notropis by Coburn and Cavender [ 19921). Species were sampled from wild populations by seining. Genomic DNA was prepared using phenol : chloroform extraction and selected genes were amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR thermal profile consisted of 35 cycles of 95°C denaturation
Low Cost Thermoplastic Wrap to Enhance Bridge Safety

The risk of damage to bridge piers from accidental loads remains a concern as roadways and waterways become more congested. Fiber reinforced composite materials are finding a wide array of civil infrastructure applications. Most of these applications utilize pre-preg thermosetting composites, the most common of which is carbon fiber reinforced polymer. Presently, there are no existing studies on thermoplastic materials for civil infrastructure. The ability to readily form thermoplastics and their inherent high impact resistance make them desirable in civil infrastructure applications. This research was an essential step towards developing thermoplastic confining jackets for bridge pier vulnerability reduction. This research focused on the development of thermoplastic composite material produced in continuous pultruded form thermoplastic polymer jackets for confining concrete columns. The effects of compression and impact loading of high strength concrete confined by a prefabricated polypropylene jacket were investigated. For comparison purposes similar specimens confined by carbon fiber/epoxy were also considered. The results from both loading cases demonstrated the superior performance of thermoplastic polymer jackets to displace inelastically without significant degradation of strength or stiffness. The thermoplastic jacket could act as an efficient transverse reinforcement to enhance confinement of potential plastic hinges and the shear strength of bridge columns. The research was not intended to develop a final product for an industrial application, but rather to develop a framework for pier wrap systems to explore the options available to the bridge designer for improving the behavior of thermoplastic wrapped piers as compared to conventionally strengthened piers.
13-32 Cheap Talk with Two Audiences: An Experiment

In this paper we experimentally test strategic information transmission between one informed and two uninformed agents in a cheap-talk game. We find evidence of the "disciplining" effect of public communication as compared to private; however, it is much weaker than predicted by the theory. Adding a second receiver naturally increases the complexity of strategic thinking when communication is public. Using the level-k model, we exploit the within subject design to show how individuals decrease their level-k in public communication. Surprisingly, we find that individuals become more sophisticated when they communicate privately with two receivers rather than one. JEL Classification: C72; C92; D83.
Business Ethics & Employee Turnover: CAFE Matrix

Business ethics is in discussion for its importance universally, so is the employee turnover in business. Unethical practices are unwanted, so is the high employee turnover. Unethical practices and high employee turnover in business is ubiquitous. No consensus exists on defining ethics. Employee turnover is well defined, but there is no consensus on when employee turnover is disadvantageous for the company. The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity, a maxim states that either one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself or one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated. A direct, inverse relationship exists between high job satisfaction, high organizational commitment and employee turnover; the higher the job satisfaction and organizational commitment, the lower the staff turnover. Indeed job satisfaction leads to organizational commitment (Mowday et al, 1979). This paper attempts to build a model CAFE (Catastrophic, Averse, Feeble & Exemplary companies) to form of a matrix having high ethical standard in the company with two sets of companies having high or low employee turnover; and with low ethical standard in the company having two sets of companies with high or low employee turnover.
Bankruptcy Prediction for Non-Financial Firms of Pakistan

In this study we use two models for the measuring of financial status of the non-financial firms which are listed in the Karachi Stock Exchange. The Non-financial companies represent the biggest slice at the Karachi Stock Exchange. The non-financial companies of Pakistan are the total population and sample size is 25 higher and 25 lower capital companies. The technique which used in this study was Convenience sampling technique and all 50 non-financial listed companies at KSE were included to gain deeper insights into this study. The State Bank of Pakistan shows balance sheet analyses of companies, for compiling of data financial reports were used for the years 2007 to 2012. The results of the study showed that Abbas model and Altman’s Z-Score model was a effective tool for checking the financial health of non-financial companies listed at Karachi stock exchange. This study further explores that lower capital firm have more financially distressed companies as compare to high capital non-financial companies listed at KSE.
Non-Synchronous Trading in Indonesia Stock Exchange

This study aimed to clarify the value of the bias beta stocks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and make corrections to the bias value using Scholes and Williams, Dimson, and Fowler and Rorke. Results of this study indicate that the stock beta is the value of bias, besides the results normality test also confirmed that the distribution of stock returns of issuers that are used to calculate beta coefficients are not normally distributed. Correction methods are not sufficient to return the normal distribution is the Scholes and Williams with a correction of two and three leads lag period, while for the normal distribution of data return that Fowler-Rorke method is a method that is sufficient in reducing the bias on the stock with a three lag and correction one leads beta period.
Capital markets and financial intermediation: Stock markets and resource allocation

Introduction As West European countries integrate their economies and East European countries move away from communism, both are reassessing their economic and financial institutions. One of the most important choices they face concerns the emphasis they should place on stock markets (including equity, bond and other markets) as opposed to banks for providing finance to their industries. Although both stock markets and banks have existed in most advanced countries for many years, the relative importance of the two has varied. Stock-market-based financial systems have been associated with the nineteenth-century UK, which was the first country to go through the Industrial Revolution, and the twentieth-century US, which was the first country to go through the post-Industrial Revolution. Bank-based financial systems have been associated with France, Germany and Japan. In the second half of the nineteenth century the stock market played an important role in the financing of industry in the UK. According to Michie (1987), roughly one-quarter of capital formation was raised through the London Stock Exchange in 1853; by 1913 this had grown to one-third. Table 4.1 gives a detailed breakdown of the distribution of securities by industry between 1853 and 1913. It can be seen that railways were the most important category apart from government debt. Urban services, financial services and commercial and industrial firms were all significant and constituted most of the remainder. Agriculture was a very minor component and consisted entirely of overseas investments. In the first half of the twentieth century, the role of the London Stock Exchange in raising funds for industry declined and it was in the US that stock markets came to have the greatest relative importance.
ANALISIS PASAR PELANGGAN PRIA PRODUK FACIAL WASH DI KOTA SURABAYA

Within time, it’s not only metrosexual men using cosmetic specialized for men but also men in general. One of the most dominant cosmetic products is facial wash for men.In terms of psychographics, men can be segmented into metrosexual (13%), moderate men (29%), and conservative men (58%). The percentages ratio of segments between user and non-user indicate that decision to use facial wash already acceptable in every psychographics segments.CHAID analysis found that the ability of facial wash to soften face and created uniquely for men are strongly related to satisfaction. Both attributes are under service, which make wrong management from facial wash producer could lead into opportunity for new brands to enter the market. Abstract in Bahasa Indonesia: Pada perkembangannya, tidak hanya pria metroseksual saja yang menggunakan produk kosmetik khusus pria. Kaum pria umumnya juga mulai mempergunakannya. Salah satu produk kosmetik yang dominan adalah facial wash khusus pria. Secara psikografis, kaum pria terdiri atas segmen pria metroseksual (13%), pria rata-rata (29%), dan pria konservatif (58%). Perbandingan persentase segmen antara user dan non-user mengindikasikan bahwa keputusan penggunaan facial wash telah diterima oleh semua segmen psikografis. Analisis CHAID menemukan bahwa atribut kemampuan facial wash untuk melembutkan wajah dan dibuat khusus untuk pria berkaitan erat dengan kepuasan. Kedua atribut tersebut tergolong under service, sehingga pengelolaan yang salah dari produsen facial wash dapat memberi kesempatan kepada merek baru untuk meramaikan pasar. Kata kunci: facial wash, metroseksual, pria rata-rata, pria konservatif, CHAID.
The Composition of Institutional Ownership and the Structure of CEO Compensation

I examine the relation between the composition of institutional ownership and the structure of CEO compensation. Consistent with my hypotheses, I find that firms with more shares held by institutions with longer investment horizons place more weight on forward-looking performance measure in determining CEO cash compensation. I also find that the percentage holdings by transient institutions, dedicated institutions, investment advisors and pension and endowment are positively associated with the percentage of CEO compensation that is equity-based. These findings continue to hold after I control for potential simultaneity bias. Finally, the results suggest that the boards of firms with higher transient institutional ownership appear to be more concerned about a negative earnings surprise and punish their CEOs more severely in determining annual bonuses. Combined, the analyses provide compelling evidence that the board considers the composition of external shareholders and their likely preferences for executive compensation policies.