Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of Haplotype Tag SNPs Within the Whole Myeloid Differentiation 2 Gene and Their Clinical Relevance in Patients With Major Trauma

ABSTRACT Myeloid differentiation 2 (MD-2) plays a critical role in orchestrating the innate immune response and the development of sepsis and subsequent organ dysfunction after trauma. The objectives of this prospective study were to identify haplotype tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (htSNPs) within the entire MD-2 gene and to investigate their clinical relevance in patients with major trauma. A total of 726 patients with major trauma were prospectively recruited and composed of two different geographic populations (Chongqing in southwestern China and Zhejiang in eastern China). The htSNPs of the MD-2 gene were determined using HapMap database and linkage disequilibrium analysis. The htSNPs were genotyped using pyrosequencing method. The whole peripheral blood samples obtained immediately after admission were stimulated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide and then determined for production of tumor necrosis factor &agr;. Sepsis morbidity rate and multiple organ dysfunction (MOD) scores were accessed. Three SNPs (rs7843858, rs11465996, and rs2114169) were identified as htSNPs for the MD-2 gene. All of them were shown to be high-frequent SNPs in this study cohort. However, only the rs11465996 polymorphism was shown to be significantly associated with higher sepsis morbidity rate and MOD scores in patients with major trauma in both Chongqing and Zhejiang districts. In addition, the rs11465996 polymorphism was significantly associated with tumor necrosis factor &agr; production by peripheral blood leukocytes in response to bacterial lipoprotein stimulation. Among the three htSNPs of the entire MD-2 gene, only the rs11465996 might be used as relevant risk estimate for the development of sepsis and MOD syndrome in patients with major trauma.
Equity concerns in market-based control schemes for patient safety

Coiera and Braithwaite suggest market-based controls for improving patient safety in their thought-provoking exploratory essay,1 but potentially adverse effects on equity of care for vulnerable populations must be addressed (see page 99) . The authors identify the key components of market-based controls as decentralisation and “individual agents making local decisions about allocation. ” The invisible hand of Adam Smith represents the view that the free market maximises overall effectiveness and efficiency.2 The market will have winners and losers, but overall utility is maximised. However, the classic critique of market-based approaches is that they ignore externalities, that is, costs or benefits that affect third parties who cannot directly impact the business transaction. For example, equity of care for vulnerable populations may suffer. While Coiera and Braithwaite argue that market-based controls are a specific mechanism rather than an ideological philosophy, free-market principles are cornerstones of the plans. We highlight and discuss the critical equity issues in the market-based control schemes proposed by Coiera and Braithwaite. While we are unaware of any prior studies on market-based controls in patient safety, an extensive literature from the global warming, emissions trading and carbon tax fields informs us about concerns to address and pitfalls to avoid. We summarise the main equity concerns of economic and regulatory experts,3 and scholars from the “development critique” school of thought that criticises modern colonialism.4 We discuss the applicability to patient safety of these critiques of emissions trading approaches. We then conclude with several principles on how equity should be addressed in market-based control schemes to improve patient safety. New strategies to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions have adopted the structure of market-based control in place of command-and-control regulations or taxation of emissions.34 For example, a framework proposed in the Kyoto …
Theory and Pedagogical Practices of Text Comprehension

This article reports on the reading comprehension crisis of older students in the middle and high school grades in our nation. Its goal is to establish a common foundation for intervention by educators and clinicians alike, by providing a brief description of the state of the field in comprehension theory. In particular, the Kintsch construction–integration theory of comprehension is described in the context of its place in the history of memory and learning research. Finally, promising practical classroom applications that result from this model are presented.
Determinants of Working Capital Management

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for the effective management of working capital and for its impact on the performance of Greek listed companies in terms of profitability, performance and market valuation.Design/Methodology/approach -This research approach is based on the examination of 211 listed on the Athens Stock Exchange firms for a period of six years from 2005 to 2010. This research intents to investigate the effects of the working capital management factors for Greek enterprises’ yields through the examination of profitability (gross operating profit), the performance (return on assets) and the market value of the firm (Tobin Q). Findings -The results of our research showed that there are significant negative correlations between the variables of working capital and the business performance. Thus, we must highlight the importance of managing working capital to ensure improved profitability, efficiency and market value of companies, as this aspect should be part of strategic and operational thinking of Greek enterprises, in order to operate effectively and efficiently.Research Limitations/implications -The main limitation of this research is that examining a sample of listed firms does not allow for generalization of conclusions for all listed firms.Originality/value - This paper provides new evidence for the effects of the determinants of working capital on the efficiency, profitability and market value of listed firms.
International Trade, Entrepreneurship, and Monopolistic Competition： German Hidden Champions and Global Markets

The Chicago School of Monetarism dominates the debate on the competition models. In the last decades, the pendulum has swung back towards the German historical school of economics by List, Schumpeter, Gutenberg, and Simon. The new trade theory by Paul Krugman is the standard in analysis of economies of scale and product differentiation in intra-industry trade. Chamberlin’s product differentiation concept and monopolistic competition theory are included in Krugman’s theory. Diversity matters in B2B-business in global markets. About 100,000 multinational corporations (MNCs) dominate the international trade of commodities worldwide but they need partners as suppliers of complementary products, services, and technologies. German hidden champions (HCs) that consist of over 1,300 mid-sized firms (Mittelstand) have revolutionizes the managerial economics. In terms of Peter Drucker, striving for leadership is the greatest gamble. Their success rate has been about 90% as Hermann Simon has reported. Their success recipe is the humble choice of markets segments, mainly B2B-industries, to make good business in any kind of goods and articles, not to follow trends or hit lists. The dilemma in EU-27-countries is that only Germany has succeeded to develop its own management doctrine initiated by Friedrich List and modified by Joseph Schumpeter. List argued that economic policy had to be adapted to the needs of specific nations to create the national system of innovation. Germany is the most diversified country worldwide. German small and medium-sized firms (Mittelstand) are globally oriented. Germany’s family business is the unbelievable success story. Alfred Chandler has been a highly influential business writer. Because of Chandler’s view, the personal capitalism was generally thought to be the old-fashioned model in comparison to the stock market capitalism. The Germany case is the strong evidence on the fact that Chandler’s famous conclusion may be wrong. The family-ownership is perhaps the most sustainable governance model in the global economy. The US is the winner of Chandler’s stock market capitalism, but the majority of US firms are domestic-market-oriented. In Germany about 100,000 mid-sized firms have experiences about FDI-operations.
Evaluation of PCR primers to screen for Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates and beta-lactam resistance, and to detect common macrolide resistance determinants.

Pneumococcal isolates (n = 148) from various countries (mostly from the USA) were tested by a primer set for PCR. Thirty-eight (86.4%) of the 44 penicillin G-susceptible isolates (MIC < or = 0.06 mg/L) had unaltered pbps, while six isolates (13.6%) had either one or two alterations in pbps. Of 47 penicillin G-resistant strains (MIC > or = 2 mg/L), 41 isolates (87.2%) had all three pbps altered, six isolates (12.8%) had altered pbp1a + 2x. Various combinations of altered pbp were seen in penicillin G-intermediate isolates. Prevalence of macrolide resistance genes mef(A) and erm(B) in isolates was clearly reflected by their MICs. All isolates were positive for lytA. The primers were useful for screening for Streptococcus pneumoniae and beta-lactam resistance, and for detection of common macrolide resistance determinants.
The use of special items to inflate core earnings

Investors place more weight on core earnings than transitory earnings. Consequently, the misclassification of expenses within the income statement, from core to transitory, offers a unique earnings management tool. This misclassification can influence investors’ perceptions of firm performance and firm value. In this paper I document the shifting of operating expenses, such as cost of goods sold, to special items in the year the special item is reported. I find that approximately 7% of special items are not transitory, but rather are misclassified core operating expenses. This translates into $3.3 billion in shifted expenses for my sample of firms in the final year of my study alone. I also find that managers shift more core operating expenses to special items preceding an equity issuance or when doing so allows the manager to meet the analyst forecast (which typically excludes special items). * I would like to thank the members of my committee: Patricia Dechow, Ilia Dichev, Lutz Kilian (Economics), Russell Lundholm (Chair) and Tyler Shumway (Finance). I would also like to thank Jeffrey Doyle, Venky Nagar, Scott Richardson, Cathy Shakespeare, Doug Skinner, Mark Soliman, Irem Tuna, the University of Michigan doctoral students and the seminar participants at the University of Michigan and the University of Oregon for helpful comments and discussions. I thank I/B/E/S for providing data on analyst earnings estimates. Financial support from the Deloitte & Touche Foundation and the William A. Paton Fund is gratefully acknowledged.
Mobile Collateral Versus Immobile Collateral

In the face of the Lucas Critique, economic history can be used to evaluate policy. We use the experience of the U.S. National Banking Era to evaluate the most important bank regulation to emerge from the financial crisis, the Bank for International Settlement's liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) which requires that (net) short-term (uninsured) bank debt (e.g. repo) be backed one-for-one with U.S. Treasuries (or other high quality bonds). The rule is narrow banking. The experience of the U.S. National Banking Era, which also required that bank short-term debt be backed by Treasury debt one-for-one, suggests that the LCR is unlikely to reduce financial fragility and may increase it.
LEASING, CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND DEBT DISPLACEMENT

Brealy and Young (1980, p. 1249) remind us: “…the use of any lease valuation model involves a general theory of capital structure”. If a user purchase an asset with a given combination of cash and borrowing, there is a clear impact on corporate capital. The impact is not so clear if the user leases the asset. A brief review of the evolution of theories on corporate capital structure – presented by Myers (1984) will assist in our discussion of how leasing analysis “involves a general theory of capital structure”.
The Role of Decompression for Acute Incomplete Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in Cervical Spondylosis

Study Design. A prospective study was conducted in 37 patients with cervical spondylosis with incomplete cord injury to assess the role of decompression in these patients. Objectives. To evaluate surgical and nonsurgical outcomes in patients with pre‐existing cervical spondylosis of the spine, in whom an incomplete spinal cord syndrome developed after a minor neck injury. Summary of Background Data. The benefits of surgical treatment of incomplete cord injury with cervical spondylosis is controversial but remains a treatment option. The results of this study clarified the benefits of surgery in such patients. Methods. Radiographic findings and outcomes based on post‐spinal injury motor function score were compared retrospectively in 37 patients with cervical spondylosis. Sixteen patients were treated operatively and 21 were treated nonoperatively. Results. The neurologic conditions of 13 of the 16 patients (81.2%) treated surgically improved within 2 days of surgery. Comparing the improvement of the two groups at defined intervals, there were statistically significant differences (P < 0.006) between the surgical and nonsurgical patients at 1‐month and 6‐month follow‐ups. Nevertheless, 13 of the 21 patients (62%) treated nonoperatively had recovered to at least muscle Grade 3 at the 2‐year follow‐up, but their recovery was slower than that of the surgical group. Conclusion. Although neurologic improvement after an incomplete spinal cord injury when no bony lesion was present was slow during the first few months after trauma, more than 60% of the patients showed neurologic recovery with a muscle grade higher than 3 at 2‐year follow‐up. Surgical decompression, however, was associated with immediate neurologic improvement, faster recovery of neurologic function, early mobilization, better long‐term neurologic outcome, briefer hospital stays, and fewer complications related to long confinements in bed than was nonoperative treatment.
Molecular characterization of integrons in clinical isolates of betalactamase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in Iran

Abstract Integrons are considered to play a significant role in the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance genes. A total of 349 clinical isolates of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were investigated for molecular characterization of integrons and betalactamases. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was also performed as the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. The frequency of extended spectrum betalactamases (ESBL) or metallo-betalactamases (MBL)-producing isolates, patient demographics, and the susceptibility to various antimicrobial agents were described. BlaCTX-M was the most frequently detected betalactamase in all isolates. Moreover, MBL producing K. pneumoniae carried blaIMP and blaVIM at 100 and 41·6%, respectively but no MBL-positive E. coli was detected. Class 1 integrons were more frequent among E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates in comparison with class 2 integrons and the frequency of intI2 in K. pneumoniae was significantly higher than E. coli isolates. Five different resistance gene arrays were identified among class 1 integrons. Dihydrofolate reductase (dfrA) and aminoglycoside adenyltransferase (aad) gene cassettes were found to be predominant in the class 1 integrons. These results indicate that class 1 integrons are widespread among ESBL-producing isolates of K. pneumoniae and E. coli and appropriate surveillance and control measures are essential to prevent further dissemination of these elements among Enterobacteriaceae in our country.
Board size and performance in small firms: a meta-analysis

The extant literature has reached no consensus on the correlation of board size and performance in small firms. We applied a HOMA meta-analytic procedure based on 29 empirical articles, representing a maximum of 151 effect sizes and total of 279194 firm-year observations. Contrary to the literature for large corporations, we find a positive correlation between board size and firm performance. To count for methodological and multi-measure heterogeneity, we applied a Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) estimator in the Meta-analytic regression. Regression results show that four publication-related mediating factors, eg. published or not, cross-sectional or panel data, and survey or secondary data. Such findings can be used for the estimation of effect size between board size and performance in future research. --26th ANZAM conference held: 5 - 7 December, 2012, at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Neuropharmacological Aspects of Cognitive Neurorehabilitation in Epilepsy

The role of CNS neuromodulators in cognitive neurorehabilitation can be related to two main issues: (1) the negative impact on cognition of drug categories prescribed for different neurologic symptoms, such as spasticity, extrapyramidal symptoms, or epileptic seizures; (2) their possible role in neuroprotection and amelioration of the cognitive status of the patient, especially attention and memory. This paper reviews different pharmacological aspects of cognitive neurorehabilitation in epilepsy.
Hospital Rating Report 2006: Approaches to the sustainable financing of patient care and treatment. Development of German hospitals up to 2010

Health expenditures in Germany - as in almost all industrialized countries - grow more rapidly than the gross domestic product. Since a large portion of German health expenditures is financed by non-voluntary health premiums proportional to personal wages and collected by social health insurances, rising expenditures mean rising non-wage labor costs. This might trigger a vicious circle of rising non-wage labor costs and, as a consequence, rising unemployment which, in turn, reduces the number of payers to the social health insurances. To limit growth of health expenditures, German politics implemented budget constraints for some health care providers, especially for hospitals. Therefore, hospitals are under considerable strain to reduce their costs. Due to the demographic aging process and technical progress in health care, which tend to increase demand for health care services, expenditures are expected to rise above average while contributions to social health insurance remain constant at best. Given this situation it is of great importance to know more about the economic situation of German hospitals which have a market share in the health market of approximately 25% or roughly 60 billion euros in 2004. Therefore, we decided to update our first Hospital Rating Report, a joint work published by the Rheinisch-Westfalisches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung Essen (RWI Essen) and the ADMED Health Care Consultancy. For this purpose we collected 277 annual financial statements of 347 hospitals for various years and additional information on their medical output. We aim at increasing the transparency in the German health system in order to improve the basis for decision makers in politics, for potential investors in the German health system, and for hospitals and their business partners. We calculate balance sheet ratings and probabilities of default for hospitals in a way similar to banks conducting credit ratings for their clients. This gives a good impression of the financial stability of German hospitals. Basically, we would be able to name the hospitals and their ratings. However, we decided against doing so because balance sheet rating is only part of a full rating process - though a very important one. Instead, we compare ratings across selected subgroups of German hospitals and build financial forecasts up to 2010. The next edition of the Hospital Rating Report, to be published in January 2007, will additionally contain benchmarking data of selected subgroups and considerably more regional aspects of the results given in this report.
A non-linear ® lter for one-and two-dimensional open channel ̄ ows with shocks

Modeling ̄ows with shocks creates numerical challenges due to the oscillations in the vicinity of the discontinuity. This paper presents the advantage of using a non-linear ®lter for obtaining oscillatory free solution for oneand two-dimensional open channel ̄ows. Numerical results are compared with those of other conventional high-resolution schemes to demonstrate the accuracy of the solution. As discussed in the course of this document, the present formulation is computationally faster, and simpler to code while maintaining consistent results with the standard schemes. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
The Relationship between Accrual-Based Values, Cash Based Values and Stock Prices

This study examines the significance of the rate of return to equity as a ratio of accrual basis and the cash flow to equity as a ratio of cash basis in analysing the financial performance of the industrial public shareholding companies in Jordan. The study also examines the association between the accounting rate of return to equity, the cash flow to equity and the influence on stock market prices. Through this objective, the study aimed at examining whether the accounting rate of return (based on the accrual basis) or the cash flow (based on the cash basis) has more impact on companies stock prices. The examination covered a sample of 26 Jordanian industrial public shareholding companies that are listed on the Amman Stock Exchange Market for the period 1993-2002. The suggested models have been tested for all companies.This provides the chance to examine the structural behavior among the tested variables. The study concluded that there is a significant relationship between both tested models, and revealed that the cash flow to equity is more related to stock prices in comparison with accounting rate of return to equity.
Mucosal IgA, mucosal cow's milk antibodies, serum cow's milk antibodies and gastrointestinal permeability in infants

We have studied development of the levels of IgA cow's milk (CM) antibodies in the saliva, faeces and serum of 20 term and 20 preterm infants from birth to 8 months. All infants already had IgA in their saliva during the first week of life. The levels peaked at the age of one month, thereafter decreasing in both groups; from the age of three months levels remained stable. Term infants had higher levels than preterm infants, but no differences were found between breastfed and CM‐fed infants. Breastfed infants had higher levels of IgA in their faeces than did CM‐fed infants; the IgA levels were similar in breast‐fed term and preterm infants, being highest at birth, and decreasing thereafter. We also showed rising titers of serum IgA CM antibodies, with higher levels in infants regularly exposed to CM than in breast‐fed infants. We sought associations between the magnitude of intestinal permeability to human a‐lactalbumin (ALA) measured at the ages of 4‐7 days and one month and the levels of IgG antibodies to CM, but no such relation was found. ;