Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cerebral monitoring of somatosensory evoked potentials during profoundly hypothermic circulatory arrest.

The factors that influence the functional integrity of the central nervous system during clinical procedures involving profoundly hypothermic circulatory arrest (PHCA) have not been objectively evaluated. Intraoperative monitoring of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) was performed in nine infants undergoing PHCA during repair of congenital cardiac anomalies to investigate the short-term effects of this intervention on neurophysiologic function. Latency prolongation of the primary cortical (N18,P22) and cervical spinal cord (N13) responses, reflecting slowing of neural transmission with hypothermia, occurred as a power function of decreasing systemic temperature (p less than .01). The cortical evoked response disappeared during profound hypothermia (less than 18 degrees C), remaining absent throughout the period of circulatory arrest and for a variable period of time after reperfusion. Regression analysis indicated that the time required for the recovery of the cortical evoked response on reperfusion was a linear function of the time-temperature integral of the arrest period (p less than .001) and the pH at the onset of circulatory arrest (p less than .001). Neurologic complications occurred in three patients and included cortical blindness (n = 2) and a generalized seizure disorder (n = 1). Visual dysfunction was not reflected in the intraoperative SEP recordings, whereas prolonged delay of SEP recovery, indicative of global central nervous system injury, was observed in the patient who experienced seizures after the surgery. This preliminary experience with SEP monitoring during PHCA suggests a role for this modality in determining the short-term effects of this procedure on neurophysiologic function. The recovery characteristics of somatosensory neural transmission appear to be modulated by the duration of, and temperature and pH maintained during, the arrest period.
Housing and Ethnicity in the Post-Soviet City: Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan

Despite egalitarian aims, considerable social and ethnic segregation existed in countries with central planning. To date, however, research on residential segregation in the former state socialist countries of east central Europe and the former Soviet Union has been limited and has focused mainly on major metropolitan or capital-city areas and on social segregation. The aim of this study is to analyse ethnic post-Soviet segregation in housing in the medium-sized industrial city of Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. The paper uses data from the sample survey Cities of the Ruduyi Altay, and linear and logistic regression to analyse segregation by dwelling type, housing size and facilities between Kazakhs, Russians and other ethnic groups. The study reveals that the housing conditions of Kazakhs are considerably worse than those of both Russians and other ethnic groups.
How Regional Innovation Systems Play a Relative Competitive Role Within Knowledge Networks

This study aims to explain how specific regional innovation systems (RISs) play relative important role in the knowledge network within European regions. EC encourages the interactions between regions and develop toward a cohesion balance. The whole Europe can be taken as a knowledge network that consists of different RISs possessing diversified resources. The existences of hierarchical relationships between different regions seem to lead us to explain whether the path toward higher-order position can be done by RISs to shape the regional competence in specific technological fields. We establish the datasets on the basis of patent data (from EPO) and REGIO database. Regional-level dataset, including 129 regions, helps to explore how different RIS develop their technological paths, and whether locational economic factors, technological conditions, and local innovativeness help RISs toward high-order position in the network. In addition, we also explore the role of the interaction of local factors for RISs in developing network position in Europe.
Food Price and Supply Stabilization: National Buffer Stocks and Trade Policies

Trade policies are likely to have a greater impact on the stability of a country's food grain supply than any reasonable size buffer stock. At the margin, countries need to trade off the cost of additional stocks against the cost of unstable foreign exchange balances associated with free trade. A stochastic simulation model is specified to assess the impact of trade and buffer stock policies on the stability of consumption and prices and the expected values and standard deviations of costs and gains to consumers, producers, and the government, and the balance of payments.
Reference‐Dependent Preferences, Loss Aversion, and Live Game Attendance

type="main" xml:lang="en"> We develop a consumer choice model of live attendance at a sporting event with reference-dependent preferences. The predictions of the model motivate the “uncertainty of outcome hypothesis” (UOH) as well as fans' desire to see upsets and to simply see the home team win games, depending on the importance of the reference-dependent preferences and loss aversion. A critical review of previous empirical tests of the UOH reveals significant support for models with reference-dependent preferences, but less support for the UOH. New empirical evidence from Major League Baseball supports the loss aversion version of the model. (JEL L83, D12)
Contingent valuation and actual payment for voluntarily provided passive-use values: Assessing the effect of an induced truth-telling mechanism and elicitation formats

A fundamental question about the contingent valuation (CV) method is to what degree it predicts actual payments (AP). This has particularly been an intriguing matter related to voluntary provision of public goods representing primarily passive-use values. This paper reports the results from such a CV–AP comparison. Applying a voluntary payment mechanism there exists a theoretical expectation of upward bias in CV estimates and downward bias in AP. This study applied an induced truth-telling mechanism in one treatment group to assess the hypothetical bias effect in CV. The CV estimates in this treatment group were significantly lower than in the group that did not face this mechanism. But this effect was limited to those responding/acting to dichotomous choice, not affecting those responding to open-ended questions about willingness to pay.
IPO Initial Underpricing Anomaly: the Election Gimmick Hypothesis

The relationship between political motivations and underpricing of public offerings of privatized companies is to a great extend unexplored field in the global academic literature. In this paper we offer a new explanation for the IPO underpricing anomaly. We formulate the election gimmick hypothesis, which states that in order to please the voters the treasury may be motivated to leave some money on the table during the IPOs of state-owned enterprises. We test the practical implications of the hypothesis. First we review the previous literature, next we perform empirical research based on a filtered sample of 250 IPOs on the Polish market in years 2005–2013. We examine the abnormal returns in the sample and employing some regression – and simulation- -based methods we examine the sources and variation in underpricing. Our findings suggest that the IPOs of state-owned enterprises are more underpriced than remaining ones and that there is more money left on the table in the months preceding elections.
Asian drama; an inquiry into the poverty of nations

Every once in a long while the flood of new publications will wash a book onto the market that manages a particularly astute grasp of our present situation with a combination of originality and sharp analytical under standing. We may then be provided with an entirely new basis for the discussion of some of our traditional problems. Such is the case with Gunnar Myrdal's new epic An Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Myrdal's inquiry into the economic problems of the countries of South Asia lasted nearly ten years. The result is a three-volume study of monu mental proportions covering 2,284 pages. Prologue and introduction alone run to 70 pages and are, strictly speaking, already a small, self-contained book on problems of applied methodology. A search for a handy con cluding chapter turns out to be in vain. A course in speed-reading, then, appears to be a prerequisite. This book has been received in the West with decided discomfort, not to say horror, while in the underdeveloped countries of Asia it has caused consternation and pain: horror in the West for fear that Myrdal is saying the billions spent on development aid over the last 20 years have been wasted; pain in Asia for fear that he is saying the whole economic and social mess is really the fault of the Asians themselves. v Myrdal is saying both. Indeed, his analysis bears some superficial re semblance to the rhetoric that comes out of Peking, Algiers and Havana. But he has scrupulously avoided the doctrinaire muddle that has paralyzed development in China, Algeria and Cuba. Instead he opts for a new pragmatism that is neither pure capitalism nor pure Marxism but incor porates elements of both. His emphasis is on clarity of expression and thought, his search for true scientific freedom from bias and prejudice. This was no easy task. The difficulties started with the available statis tics that have been quoted in professional journals and elsewhere for a long time and with surprising confidence. Myrdal found, however, that in 118
Good judgment in public accounting: Quality and justification*

Abstract. A description of factors contributing to good judgment is developed by considering both the process of exercising judgment and the results of having exercised it. Factors are developed from public accountants' perceptions of important components in characterizing good professional judgment in public accounting. Descriptive data about important judgment quality factors are presented and hypotheses concerning justification are tested using responses to a process-oriented questionnaire. The emphasis is on the natural environment of the professional accountant and the types of judgment situations which occur in the field, with reliance on respondents to interpret their own comments. The questionnaire results provide a description of judgment factors which professional accountants see as important. Factor categories related to expectation, outcome, and justification perspectives on judgment quality are shown to play a role in defining good judgment, with variations related to position (level of responsibility) in the accounting firm. The results also indicate that justification is perceived differently by people in different positions. Resume. Les auteurs decrivent les facteurs contribuant a la qualite du jugement en prenant en consideration a la fois le processus d'exercice du jugement et les resultats de ce processus. Ces facteurs ont ete determines a partir des elements percus par les experts-comptables comme etant importants dans la definition de ce qu'est un bon jugement professionnel, en expertise comptable. Les auteurs presentent des donnees descriptives au sujet des principaux indices de qualite du jugement et testent certaines hypotheses relatives a la justification, a partir de reponses a un questionnaire axe sur le processus. Ils s'interessent a l'environnement naturel du comptable professionnel et aux cas de jugement qu'on retrouve dans la pratique, en confiant aux repondants le soin d'interpreter leurs propres observations. Les resultats du questionnaire offrent une description des facteurs que les comptables professionnels jugent importants dans l'evaluation de la qualite d'un jugement. Il semble que les categories de facteurs reliees a une evaluation en termes d'attentes, de resultats et de justification jouent un certain role dans la definition de ce qu'est un bon jugement, qui varie selon le poste occupe (niveau de responsabilite) a l'interieur du cabinet comptable. Les resultats indiquent egalement que l'on percoit la justification differemment selon le poste.
Research, knowledge, and the art of ‘paradigm maintenance’: the World Bank's Development Economics Vice-Presidency (DEC)

ABSTRACT Despite widespread analysis of the World Bank's lending operations by both supporters and critics, there has been little external or systematic analysis of the Bank's research department. This is remarkable, given that the Bank has become the hub of development research worldwide. This article begins to fill in that gap by exploring the political economy of the research conducted within the World Bank's Development Economics Vice-Presidency (DEC). Despite the Bank's public presentation of its research arm as conducting ‘rigorous and independent’ work, the Bank's research has historically become skewed toward reinforcing the dominant neoliberal policy agenda. The article includes a detailed examination of the mechanisms by which the Bank's research department is able to play a central role in what Robert Wade has elsewhere termed ‘paradigm maintenance’, including incentives in hiring, promotion, and publishing, as well as selective enforcement of rules, discouragement of dissonant data, and actual manipulation of data. The author's analysis is based on in-depth interviews with current and former World Bank professionals, as well as examination of internal and external World Bank documents. The article includes analysis of the Bank's treatment of the work of two of its researchers who write on economic globalization and development: David Dollar and Branko Milanovic.
The defective bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia

Abstract Chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is characterized by autoimmune-mediated platelet destruction and impairment of thrombopoiesis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are proposed to exhibit immune modulatory functions in self-tolerance maintenance. In this study, we aimed to characterize phenotypically and functionally bone marrow (BM)-derived MSCs from adult chronic ITP patients. Our results showed that BM-MSCs from patients with chronic ITP exhibited impaired proliferation, abnormal morphology and excessive apoptosis, and these defects could be ameliorated by modifying the culture environment. BM-MSCs from chronic ITP patients were shown to have similar immunophenotype and capacities to differentiate along adipogenic and osteogenic lineages as those from normal controls. However, the immune-inhibiting potential and the regulatory T cell-inducing ability of BM-MSCs from patients were defective compared to that of normal BM-MSCs. These findings suggest that the BM-MSCs were defective in chronic ITP patients. Whether the defective BM-MSCs are relevant to the pathogenesis of chronic ITP remains to be determined.
Cost and profit efficiency in the Spanish banking sector (1985–1996): a non-parametric approach

The aim of this article is to analyse the efficiency in costs and in profits of the Spanish banking sector (SBS) in the period 1985–1996 using a non-parametric approach. The results obtained show the existence of profit efficiency levels well below those corresponding to cost efficiency, alternative profit efficiency being below standard profit efficiency. These results imply the existence of market power in the setting of prices and/or the existence of differences in the quality of bank output reflected in the differences in prices. With regard to the immediate future, of full economic and monetary integration, the reduction of profit levels associated with higher competitive pressure may be offset by the reduction of all kinds of inefficiency, which is a very important potential source of competitiveness. Indeed, the results referring to 1996 indicate that the return on assets (ROA) and on equity (ROE) of the SBS could increase by 2.4% and 24.4% respectively, eliminating the combined inefficiency in costs and revenues.
Demographic, Community and Macroeconomic Effects on Disability Grant Programme Participation

This paper investigates the role of demographic, community and macroeconomic effects on Disability Grant programme (DGP) participation. The study descriptively analyses demographic patterns of the disability grant (DG) beneficiaries using data from the 2002 to 2007 rounds of the General Household Survey (GHS). The decision to participate in the programme is empirically examined by probit techniques using data drawn from the 2007 wave of the GHS. Not surprisingly, the results indicate that work disability is the largest significant predictor of DGP participation. Coloureds and Asian females have a higher likelihood of receiving disability benefits compared to Africans, as are older people compared to younger individuals. The results confirm that macroeconomic dynamics and DGP participation are negatively related. The probability of receiving disability benefits increases as the rate of unemployment increases. Community differences in geographical access to welfare offices and public transport facilities exert a substantial impact on receipt of disability benefits.
Investor Reaction to Going Concern Audit Reports

ABSTRACT: The literature provides mixed evidence on whether investors find audit reports modified for going concern reasons to be useful. Using a substantially larger sample than previous studies, we observe negative excess returns when the going concern audit report (GCAR) is disclosed. We find that the reaction is more negative if the GCAR cites a problem with obtaining financing, suggesting that the GCAR provides new information to investors. Also, the reaction is more adverse if the GCAR triggers a technical violation of a debt covenant that restricts the firm from getting a GCAR. The evidence suggests that institutional investors drive the reaction to the GCAR, since there is no detectable reaction at low levels of institutional ownership. The market reaction gets more negative as the level of institutional ownership increases, and there is a decline in institutional ownership after the GCAR is issued. We attribute these results to sophisticated investors’ awareness of the firm’s financing needs and .
Economic Growth and the Expanding Public Sector: A Reexamination

Utilizing a Granger causality approach, the authors test whether there has been a causal rela tion between public sector growth and real economic growth rates for the OECD countries. Special emphasis is laid on feedback effects from economic growth to government growth that result from macroeconomic policy. The authors find that government growth has had mixed effects on economic growth rates, positive for some countries and negative f or others. However, for the majority of the OECD countries, there was no discernable impact of government growth on the rate of real econo mic growth. Copyright 1988 by MIT Press.
Animal models of obesity

Background Obesity stems from a prolonged imbalance between the levels of energy intake and expenditure, with the resultant surplus being stored as body lipids. Our understanding of the regulation of food intake and the physiological basis of differences in energy expenditure is owed, in large part, to studies made on animals. Moreover, animal models have been a cornerstone of studies of environmental effects, such as epigenetics, responses to high-fat and low-calorie diets and the identification and development of pharmaceuticals for obesity treatment. This review provides some examples of the animal work that has been performed, and focuses on the variation in approaches that have been taken and their potential, rather than aiming to be a comprehensive summary.
Impact of Expeditious Management of Perioperative Myocardial Ischemia in Patients Undergoing Isolated Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Background— To analyze the effect of immediate treatment of perioperative myocardial ischemia (PMI) because of early graft failure or incomplete revascularization in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. Methods and Results— Between January 2004 and December 2010, 7461 patients underwent isolated CABG at our institution. All patients showing evidence of PMI (n=399; 5.3% of total) underwent emergent coronary angiography. A total of 900 grafts and 1061 distal anastomoses were examined. Two hundred fifty-five patients had 360 distal anastomoses compromised because of early graft failure or incomplete revascularization (ie, abnormal postoperative coronary angiogram). Revision CABG or percutaneous coronary intervention was performed in 130 (51.0%) and 34 (13.3%) patients with abnormal angiograms, respectively. Nonsurgical therapy was implemented in the remaining 91 patients (35.7%) with abnormal angiograms. One hundred forty-four patients had normal postoperative graft-related angiograms. In-hospital mortality was 7.3% and 2.9% in patients with and without PMI (P<0.001). In patients with PMI, in-hospital mortality was 9.4% and 3.5% in patients with abnormal and normal postoperative angiograms, respectively (P=0.03). Significant multivariable predictors of in-hospital mortality were hemodynamic deterioration, preangiography creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme rise >2× normal, and time interval between primary CABG and coronary angiography >30 hours. Five-year survival in patients without PMI (85.7±0.5%) was significantly better than those with PMI and abnormal angiograms (74.9±2.9%; P<0.001 log-rank). When in-hospital mortality was excluded, however, this difference in midterm survival disappeared (P=0.9). Conclusions— PMI is associated with increased in-hospital mortality in patients undergoing isolated CABG. Expeditious management of bypass graft failure results in similar midterm survival to nonischemic patients in hospital survivors.
Role of host cell metabolism in the pathogenesis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection

Human lung fibroblasts develop a cytopathic effect (CPE) when infected with Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This study was designed to determine the relationship between host cell metabolism and the formation of the CPE. Human lung fibroblasts were grown in different serum concentrations, plated at different densities, and grown for different periods of time to alter the metabolic activity of the cells. Deoxyribonucleic acid, ribonucleic acid, and protein syntheses were measured by the ability of the cells to incorporate thymidine, uridine, and leucine, respectively. With each treatment, leucine incorporation remained constant. Thymidine and uridine incorporation was higher when the cells were in high serum, at low cell densities, or grown for 2 or 3 days. The appearance of an observable CPE, which was corroborated with a protein synthesis assay, correlated closely with thymidine and uridine incorporation. A more pronounced CPE was seen when thymidine and uridine incorporation was high. In addition, it was found that the first 2 h after infection by M. pneumoniae were the critical hours in determining whether a CPE would develop. This was accomplished by altering the serum concentration of the culture medium at different times postinfection and thereby altering the metabolism of the fibroblasts. These results demonstrate the importance of the metabolic state of the host cells in studying mycoplasma infections and establish a correlation between the nucleic acid metabolism of the cells and the production of a CPE.