Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epitope Mapping of HIV-Specific CD8+ T Cell Responses by Multiple Immunological Readouts Reveals Distinct Specificities Defined by Function

ABSTRACT The limited success of HIV vaccine candidates to date highlights our need to better characterize protective cell-mediated immunity (CMI). While HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses have been defined largely by measuring gamma interferon (IFN-γ), these responses are not always protective, and it is unclear whether the same epitopes would predominate if other functional parameters were examined. Here, we assessed the epitope specificity of HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses by multiparametric flow cytometry, measuring five CD8+ T cell functions (IFN-γ, macrophage inflammatory protein 1β [MIP-1β], tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-α], interleukin-2 [IL-2], and proliferative capacity) in 24 chronically HIV-infected individuals. Sixty-nine epitope-specific responses to 50 epitopes within p24 were measured. Surprisingly, most epitope-specific responses were IFN-γ negative (50/69 responses). Many responses had polyfunctional (33%) and proliferative (19%) components. An inverse association between IL-2 and proliferation responses was also observed, contrary to what was described previously. We confirm that long-term nonprogressors (LTNP) have more polyfunctional responses and also have higher-magnitude and broader p24-specific proliferation and higher levels of IL-2 and TNF-α production than do progressing controls. Together, these data suggest that the specificity of CD8+ T cell responses differs depending on the immunological readout, with a 3.5-fold increase in breadth detected by including multiple parameters. Furthermore, the identification of epitopes that elicit polyfunctional responses reinforces the need for the comprehensive evaluation of HIV vaccine candidates, and these epitopes may represent novel targets for CMI-based vaccines.
The Effects of Accrual vs. Cash Flow Bases on Shareholder Value in Transitional Markets: Evidence from Egypt

This study examines the effects of the accruals vs. cash flow bases on firm’s MB ratio as a proxy for shareholder value. The methodology utilizes the benefits of the ‘partial adjustment model’ where it addresses the extent to which the shareholder value adjusts to a target level. The final results indicate that (a) the accrual basis helps adjust the shareholder value to a target level more than the cash flow basis, (b) the shareholder value is associated with profitability-related ratios and dividend-related ratios, (c) in both bases, the shareholders value is positively associated with earnings per share and price-to-earnings ratio, (d) the significant effects of firm-specific controls indicate that the shareholder value is affected by the accounting base in certain industries, certain size, and affected by the time as well. The results of the sensitivity analysis show that the accruals-based estimates and cash flow estimates are robust and reliable.
Post-Traumatic Pancreatic Pseudocyst : Report of Two Cases with Review of Literature

A pseudopancreatic cyst is common after inflammation and is rarely due to trauma. Trauma is the main cause of pseudopancreatic cysts in children and the inflammation in adults. Various treatment modalities are percutaneous drainage, endoscopic drainage and surgical drainage and these are used accordingly. Teamwork between interventional radiologists, endoscopists and surgeons is essential for proper management. We report two cases of a post-traumatic pseudopancreatic cyst: a 14-year-old male child after a fall and a 40-year-old male who was hit by a tractor (agricultural vehicle).
Modelling Growth Strategy in Small Entrepreneurial Business Organisations

Growth is understood variously by entrepreneurs, and their attitudes influence the goals and ambitions concerning growth. Their actions in this regard depend on the contextual conditions. In this article a model on growth strategy in small entrepre-neurial organisations is presented and three propositions are made: (1) attitudes and vision of the entrepreneurs drive growth of small organisations, (2) entrepreneurs of small organisations conduct early search for strategic fit in the market and the environment, and (3) entrepreneurs of small organisations persist in their search for better fit in the market. The model reflects strategic and entrepreneurial dimensions of growth. The propositions can be tested in specific industry settings. First, the dimensions of growth as understood by the entrepreneurs should be analysed and then the process of finding a fit between the industry and its market opportunities should be mapped out to arrive at a robust strategy framework.
A social net? Internet and social media use during unemployment

Many people who are unemployed tend to experience forms of psychological and social losses, including a weakened time structure, diminished social contacts, an absence of collective purpose, falling status, and inactivity. This article focuses on the experience of diminished social contacts and addresses whether social media help the unemployed maintain their relationships. Based on qualitative interviews with unemployed individuals, the article identifies various types of social support networks and their impact on individual experiences of inclusion and exclusion. Although the unemployed use social media to cultivate their social support networks, the opportunity to establish new contacts, both private and professional, is underutilized. Thus, social network differentiation between the unemployed and employed persists online in social media.
Tax, financial reporting, and tunneling incentives for income shifting: An empirical analysis of the transfer pricing behavior of Chinese-listed companies

ABSTRACT: This study examines tax, financial reporting, and tunneling incentives on the transfer pricing decisions of Chinese-listed companies. We use the relative gross profit ratios of related- and unrelated-party transactions to measure transfer pricing strategies. We find evidence supporting the view that transfer pricing is used to (i) increase a listed firm’s profits as the corporate income tax rate decreases, (ii) increase a listed firm’s profits if its management’s compensation is determined by reference to reported profits, and (iii) decrease a listed firm’s profits as the percentage of shares owned by the government increases (i.e., the tunneling effect). For those firms that face both tax and tunneling incentives we find that the incentives tend to offset each other such that there is no discernable earnings management.
Modeling political performance of Islamist and Islamist-rooted parties in Turkey

Turkish experience with Islamist and Islamist-rooted parties spanning nearly half a century is studied to understand the factors that caused their transformation and determined their political performance, both while in office and in opposition. A vote equation built, which takes into account all of the key factors mentioned in the economic voting literature, shows that during their rule such parties suffer much less due to strategic voting than other parties but they face a higher cost of ruling. Also, they are affected by the economy in a similar way or even more than other incumbent parties. Moderation in Islamist and Islamist-rooted parties generated through their participation in the parliament and governments, combined with center-right parties deserting their traditional anti-establishment positions, and getting tainted by corruption and incompetence led to massive vote transfers during the last decade from the latter to the former.
Turnover Intention and Turnover Behavior

As the retirement wave of Baby Boomers approaches, retaining newly hired, mid-career, and retirement-eligible employees will be nearly as crucial as hiring top-quality new people. Using two large data sets on federal employees, we focus on whether human resource management (HRM) practices can affect turnover intention and whether they matter equally at all stages of the federal career. First, however, we test how well turnover intention predicts behavior using a 1% sample of the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) and the 2005 Merit Principles Survey (MPS). Although turnover intention and behavior are correlated, they respond differently enough to demographic factors to suggest the need for caution in extrapolating the apparent impact of HRM practices from turnover intention to behavior.
Judicial Independence in a Civil Law Regime: The Evidence From Japan

Because the Japanese judiciary exclusively hires young and unproven jurists for its lower courts, it maintains elaborate career incentive structures. We use personnel data on 276 judges (every judge hired between 1961 and 1965) to explore the determinants of career success and test whether politicians manipulate those incentives. We find strong evidence that the system rewards the most productive judges, but little evidence of ongoing school cliques, and no evidence that the system favors judges who mediate over those who write opinions. We also find that even as late as the 1980s, those judges who joined a prominent leftist organization in the 1960s were still receiving less attractive jobs than their colleagues. Moreover, judges who decided a case against the government incurred the rise that the government would punish them with less attractive posts. Finally, judges who declared unconstitutional a crucial section of the electoral law received less attractive posts than those who held it constitutional. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.
Whose wages do unions raise? A dynamic model of unionism and wage rate determination for young men

We estimate the union premium for young men over a period of declining unionization (1980-87) through a procedure which identifies the alternative sources of the endogeneity of union status. While we estimate the average increase in wages resulting from union employment to be in excess of 20% we find that the return to unobserved heterogeneity operating through union status is substantial and that the union premium is highly variable. We also find that the premium is sensitive to the form of sorting allowed in estimation. Moreover, the data are consistent with comparative advantage sorting. Our results suggest that the unobserved heterogeneity which positively contributes to the likelihood of union membership is associated with higher wages. We are unable, however, to determine whether this is due to the ability of these workers to extract monopoly rents or whether it reflects the more demanding hiring standards of employers faced by union wages. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Liberalization and entrepreneurship : dynamics of reform in socialism and capitalism

This book starts from the premise that economic liberalization - reduced state interference in economic life - is the common element in the current trend towards privatization and deregulation in the West and economic reform and restructuring in the East. In popular parlance, "privatization" and "perestroika" are its watchwords, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev its heralds. But the specific character of the liberalization will be determined by the social characteristics of different societies. In order to study the reform process in the two systems, it is necessary to dispose of a general conceptual framework capable of embracing both a (predominantly) market economy and a (predominantly) centrally planned economy. The key objective of this work is to provide such a unified framework, and on that basis to analyze the policy conflicts that dominated both systems in the 1980s and the prospects for further change in the years ahead.
Antiproteinuric Effect of an N-Type Calcium Channel Blocker, Cilnidipine

The objective of the present study was to determine antiproteinuric effect of an N-type calcium channel blocker—cilnidipine. Subjects were 43 essential or renal hypertensive subjects who had been taking calcium channel blockers other than cilnidipine for at least 6 months. All patients had proteinuria greater than 0.2 g/day in spite of fair blood pressure control (< 150/90 mmHg). Calcium channel blockers in 25 patients (62 ± 3 years) were switched to cilnidipine (cilnidipine group), whereas other 18 patients (58 ± 3 years) continued to take originally prescribed calcium channel blockers (control group). The 24-hr urine collections were done at baseline and after 6 months of the follow-up period. Baseline characteristics including age, blood pressure levels, body mass index and creatinine clearance were similar between cilnidipine and control groups. Urinary protein excretion also was comparable between cilnidipine (0.61 ± 0.10 g/day) and control (0.86 ± 0.17 g/day) groups. Urinary protein significantly decreased after 6 months in cilnidipine group (− 0.21 ± 0.11 g/day, − 36%, p < 0.01), whereas it did not change in control group (+ 0.01 ± 0.15 g/day, 0.4%, ns). There were no significant changes in blood pressure, serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, estimated protein intake, and urinary salt excretion during the follow-up period in either group. The reduction of urinary protein by cilnidipine was evident in essential hypertensives (− 54 ± 9%, n = 18, p < 0.01) but not in renal hypertensives (+ 10 ± 35%, n = 7, ns). Results suggest that cilnidipine has an antiproteinuric effect especially in patients with essential hypertension.
Acquisition of iron bound to low molecular weight chelates by human monocyte-derived macrophages.

The iron content of tissue macrophages increases under conditions of elevated extracellular iron. Studies of macrophage iron acquisition have generally focused on iron uptake from transferrin via receptor-mediated endocytosis. However, in vivo macrophages are also exposed to extracellular low m.w. iron chelates, particularly under conditions of iron overload. Therefore, we examined the mechanism of iron acquisition from low m.w. chelates by human monocyte-derived macrophages. Iron acquisition was influenced by the nature of the iron chelate: Fe-ascorbate > Fe-citrate > Fe-nitrilotriacetate (NTA) = Fe-ADP > Fe-glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine > Fe-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid >> Fe-EDTA = Fe-deferoxamine. With the exception of Fe-EDTA and Fe-deferoxamine, iron acquisition was greater than that with diferric transferrin. As assessed by using iron acquisition from NTA as a model, the process is temperature dependent, but pH independent (pH 5 to 8), and is influenced by the medium in which the cells are suspended. Acquisition is not affected by NaF, 2-deoxy-D-glucose, NaCN, or monocyte-derived macrophage exposure to trypsin, pronase, phenylarsine oxide, dihydrocytochalasin B, filipin, nystatin, or digitonin. The rate of iron acquisition from NTA is induced by iron pre-exposure as well as aluminum. In contrast, NTA chelates of other transition metals (Cd, Cu, Ga, Mn, and Zn) inhibited iron uptake by 20 to 80%. Unlike results obtained with Ga-NTA, Ga(NO3)3 increased iron uptake from NTA. Data obtained with neutrophils, and undifferentiated U937 and HL-60 cells were similar, which suggests that myeloid cells share this pathway for iron acquisition. Iron acquisition via this mechanism may allow macrophages and other leukocytes to clear local states of iron overload in vivo.
International Environmental Agreements

The regulation of environmental externalities at the global level requires international agreements between sovereign states. Game theory provides an appropriate theoretical tool for analysis. However, game theory can result in a wide range of outcomes, and therefore it is important to discuss the assumptions and mechanisms of the different approaches and to relate these with what is observed in practice. The basic picture is not optimistic: If there are large gains of cooperation, the stable coalition is small. This grim picture challenges the perspective and design of international agreements. This article discusses and compares the different approaches: noncooperative, cooperative, dynamic, and evolutionary. Asymmetries and the options for side payments are considered. At the end, some more optimistic ways forward are presented.
Are Islamic stock markets efficient? A time-series analysis

This article investigates the weak-form informational efficient hypothesis for three major Islamic stock markets (world, emerging and developed). Unlike previous studies, we applied different parametric and nonparametric tests to investigate efficiency in the short and long horizons. Using recent data over the period May 2002–June 2012, we developed a time-series analysis of Islamic stock price dynamics in the context of the recent global financial crisis (2008–2009). Our analysis offers two interesting results. First, emerging Islamic stock markets seem to be less efficient than developed Islamic markets, suggesting interesting investment opportunities and diversification benefits from this region in both the short run and the long run. Second, nonrejection of the cointegration hypothesis for developed Islamic markets and the global conventional stock market point to efficiency for the former in the long term, even if it is inefficient in the short term. This finding has at least two economic and political implications: (i) investors who seek moderate risk would do well to opt for Islamic funds in developed countries, particularly as they share the same tendency and provide similar expected returns in the long term as conventional funds, (ii) Islamic financial systems can offer a useful model that can help to reform and remodel conventional financial institutions.
Transparency and performance in Islamic banking: Implications on profit distribution

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to assess whether Islamic banks are transparent regarding profit (and loss) sharing to investment account holders. Another objective is to appraise whether Islamic banks' performance affects management incentives to distribute profit (and loss) to investment account holders. Design/methodology/approach - – To investigate the research issue, the authors conducted an empirical study. Data of 25 global operating Islamic banks have been collected and analyzed for the period 2006-2010. The authors also developed a mathematical model based on the generalized least-squares principle. Findings - – The research results showed that enhancing transparency will prevent Islamic banks from shadowing their profit allocation practices and place investment account holders in a better position to manage their invested funds. The study also showed that bettering Islamic banks’performance will induce them to manager profit-sharing investment account holders’ funds under bonafides. Research limitations/implications - – The main limitation is data availability. The maximum number of Islamic banks that disclose financial data covering the period of 2006-2010 limited the scope of the study to 25 banks. Practical implications - – The findings are very valuable for designing policies and standards as well as for the enforcement of these standards to improve transparency in Islamic banking. Originality/value - – The study outcome is vital to many parties involved in the Islamic banking field and can be taken as a strong foundation to make appropriate actions that would help grow and sustain Islamic banking development globally.
Time Group types in Mandarin syllable annotations

We describe an inductive procedure for automatically parsing syllable sequences in speech annotations into Time Groups (TGs) based on deceleration and acceleration measures, rather than predefined units from the prosodic hierarchy. The effect of different minimal duration difference thresholds (MDDTs) on the size and relation of these TGs to different grammatical units, e.g. `word', `phrase', `sentence', is examined. The relative syllable isochrony in TGs is also determined with the nPVI measure. We found several non-trivial effects, demonstrating the plausibility of the methodology: (a) a stepwise, non-continuous relation between MDDT increases and number of induced TGs; (b) correspondence of induced TGs to sizes and ranks of grammatical units; (c) better correspondence with shorter phrasal units in the acceleration condition and longer discourse units in the deceleration condition; (d) comparability of relative isochrony using syllabic nPVI with the vocalic nPVI results from previous studies.
The Independent European Central Bank: Keynesian Alternatives

In this paper, the author aims to question the assumptions underlying the economic case for the independent European Central Bank (ECB) and argues that although a European Clearing Agency (ECA) of the type Keynes envisaged for the international economy is not a panacea for the economic problems of the European Union (EU), it is, nonetheless, a better way forward and far superior to the ECB. The paper (1) outlines the theoretical basis of Keynesian monetary and financial theory; (2) aims to ascertain the extent to which credit availability is affected by the creation of an ECB and, on that basis, to offer a critical analysis of current proposals for an ECB; (3) looks closely at the case for the ECA, seen as performing a range of functions rather than having a remit defined simply in terms of strict monetary control, including a commitment to providing the necessary finance for full employment and a responsibility for ensuring that the burden of balance-of-payments adjustment falls upon both deficit and surplus countries.
Investment Opportunities and the Market Reaction to Equity Offerings

Abstract This paper examines the relation between the market reaction to primary seasoned equity offerings and alternative measures of the profitability of the issuing firm's growth opportunities. While the sample offerings display a positive relation between announcement period prediction errors and several ex ante measures of growth opportunities, this relation is not monotonic and appears to be driven by a small subset of younger, higher growth firms, whose announcement effects are insignificantly different from zero. For the remainder of the sample firms, there is no relation between the estimated profitability of new investment and the market reaction to announced equity offerings. Moreover, announcement effects are nonpositive regardless of how profitable investment opportunities are expected to be. These findings collectively suggest that investment opportunities play, at best, a minor role in explaining the cross-sectional distribution of equity offering announcement effects.
Is Corporate Sustainability a Value-Increasing Strategy for Business?

A new movement reconciling corporate sustainability and investment is gaining world-wide attention. Whether corporate sustainability has an impact on market value is examined using large US non-financial firms from 1999 to 2002 in this paper. Taking Tobin's "q" as the proxy for firm value, a significantly positive relation between corporate sustainability and its market value is found. We also find a strong interaction effect between corporate sustainability and sales growth on firm value. Moreover, there is evidence to support that being sustainable causes a firm to increase its value. This indicates that companies with remarkable sustainable development strategies are more likely to be rewarded by investors with a higher valuation in the financial markets. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.