Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase I study in advanced cancer patients of a diversified prime-and-boost vaccination protocol using recombinant vaccinia virus and recombinant nonreplicating avipox virus to elicit anti-carcinoembryonic antigen immune responses.

PURPOSE This trial sought to determine, for the first time, the validity in human vaccinations of using two different recombinant vaccines in diversified prime-and-boost regimens to enhance T-cell responses to a tumor antigen. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eighteen patients with advanced tumors expressing carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were randomized to receive either recombinant vaccinia (rV)-CEA followed by three avipox-CEA vaccinations, or avipox-CEA (three times) followed by one rV-CEA vaccination. Subsequent vaccinations in both cohorts were with avipox-CEA. Immunologic monitoring was performed using a CEA peptide and the enzyme-linked immunospot assay for interferon gamma production. RESULTS rV-CEA followed by avipox-CEA was superior to the reverse order in the generation of CEA-specific T-cell responses. Further increases in CEA-specific T-cell precursors were seen when local granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and low-dose interleukin (IL)-2 were given with subsequent vaccinations. The treatment was extremely well tolerated. Limited clinical activity was seen using vaccines alone in this patient population. Antibody production against CEA was also observed in some of the treated patients. CONCLUSION rV-CEA was more effective in its role as a primer of the immune system; avipox-CEA could be given up to eight times with continued increases in CEA T-cell precursors. Future trials should use rV-CEA first followed by avipox-CEA. Vaccines specific to CEA are able to generate CEA-specific T-cell responses in patients without significant toxicity. T-cell responses using vaccines alone may be inadequate to generate significant anticancer objective responses in patients with advanced disease. Cytokines such as GM-CSF and IL-2 may play a key role in generating such responses.
Capital asset market equilibrium with liquidity risk, portfolio constraints, and asset price bubbles

This paper derives an equilibrium asset pricing model with endogenous liquidity risk, portfolio constraints, and asset price bubbles. Liquidity risk is modeled as a stochastic quantity impact on the price from trading, where the size of the impact depends on trade size. Asset price bubbles are generated by the existence of portfolio constraints, e.g. short sale prohibitions and margin requirements. Under a restrictive set of assumptions, we prove a unique equilibrium price process exists for our economy. We characterize the market’s state price density, which enables the derivation of the risk-return relation for the stock’s expected return including both liquidity risk and asset price bubbles. This yields a generalized intertemporal and consumption CAPM for our economy. In contrast to the traditional models without liquidity risk or asset price bubbles, there are additional systematic liquidity risk and asset price bubble factors which are related to the stock return’s covariation with liquidity risk and asset price bubbles.
Champion behaviour and product innovation performance in Korea

ABSTRACT Adopting an uncertainty-reduction perspective, this study examines the impact of champion behaviour on the product development process and the performance of new product development projects. Champion behaviour is defined as: expressing confidence in the innovation; involving and motivating others to support the innovation; and persisting under adversity. Based on data from 79 product development projects across 34 Korean firms, this study finds that champion behaviour positively contributes to project performance in both direct and indirect ways by providing market information, material resources, and organisational support. The theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Predicting patient outcome from acute renal failure comparing three general severity of illness scoring systems.

BACKGROUND A major problem of studies on acute renal failure (ARF) arises from a lack of prognostic tools able to express the medical complexity of the syndrome adequately and to predict patient outcome accurately. Our study was thus aimed at evaluating the predictive ability of three general prognostic models [version II of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II), version II of the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS II), and version II of the Mortality Probability Model at 24 hours (MPM24 II)] in a prospective, single-center cohort of patients with ARF in an intermediate nephrology care unit. METHODS Four hundred twenty-five patients consecutively admitted for ARF to the Nephrology and Internal Medicine Department over a five-year period were studied (272 males and 153 females, median age 71 years, interquartile range 61 to 78, median APACHE II score 23, interquartile range 18 to 28). Acute tubular necrosis (ATN) accounted for 68.7% (292 out of 425) of patients. Renal replacement therapies (hemodialysis or continuous hemofiltration) were used in 64% (272 out of 425) of ARF patients. RESULTS Observed mortality was 39.1% (166 out of 425). The mean predicted mortality was 36.2% with APACHE II (P = 0.571 vs. observed mortality), 39.3% with SAPS II (P = 0.232), and 45.1% with MPM24 II (P < 0.0001). Lemeshow-Hosmer goodness-of-fit C and H statistics were 15.67 (P = 0.047) and 12.05 (P = 0.15) with APACHE II, 32.53 (P = 0.0001), 39.8 (P = 0.0001) with SAPS II, 21.86 (P = 0.005), and 20. 24 (P = 0.009) with MPM24 II, respectively. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were 0.75, 0.77, and 0.85, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The APACHE II model was a slightly better calibrated predictor of group outcome in ARF patients, as compared with the SAPS II and MPM24 II outcome prediction models. The MPM24 II model showed the best discrimination capacity, in comparison with both APACHE II and SAPS II models, but it constantly and significantly overestimated mean predicted mortality in ARF patients. None of the models provided sufficient confidence for the prediction of outcome in individual patients. A high degree of caution must be exerted in the application of existing general prognostic models for outcome prediction in ARF patients.
Enforcement Quality and the Use of Earnouts in M&A Transactions: International Evidence

Earnouts are contractual agreements in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals that link part of the acquisition price to the future performance of the target company. These contracts seem to be a panacea for adverse selection and valuation risk issues in M&As. However, earnouts are not very popular. A likely reason for their limited diffusion is that earnouts have their origin in disagreement and in disagreement they may end: given the complexity of the verification of their outcome and the risk of moral hazard by the bidder, litigation at the time of their payout is far from uncommon. Absent effective legal protection for earnout holders, the potential benefits of these contracts could turn out to be empty promises, thus limiting incentives to include them in acquisition deals. Using an international sample of 37,228 deals completed between 2000 and 2015, we show that the inclusion of these contracts in M&As is significantly related to a country's enforcement quality. Furthermore, we show that a similar relation holds for the proportion of earnout payments with respect to total consideration. Our results hold after controlling for other determinants of earnout suggested by prior literature and for other institutional factors that could affect the use of earnouts.
Enterococcus faecalis of Human and Poultry Origin Share Virulence Genes Supporting the Zoonotic Potential of E. faecalis

Enterococcus faecalis is a major cause of nosocomial infections in humans and has been linked to severe extra‐intestinal infections in poultry. A zoonotic potential has been suggested and the aim of the present study was to investigate similarities in virulence gene profiles of E. faecalis originating from infections in humans and poultry respectively. A total of 106 isolates of E. faecalis [26 human clinical isolates, 60 poultry clinical isolates (including two small‐colony variants (SCVs) and 20 poultry cloacal isolates] were investigated for presence of seven virulence‐associated genes: ace, asa1, cylA, efaA, EF0591, esp and gelE. For each gene, the PCR‐amplification product was sequenced from one isolate in each group to explore intragenic variations between genes of human and poultry origin. Haemolytic and protease activities were assessed and isolates were assigned a sequence type (ST). Three of the seven genes investigated (ace, efaA and gelE) were present in all isolates. The asa1 was detected in 63/80 and 13/26 isolates of poultry and human origin respectively. For cylA, the numbers were 46/80 and 14/26 respectively. Among poultry isolates, esp and EF0591 were the least frequently observed genes (1/80 and 20/80 respectively); the prevalences among human isolates were 1/26 and 18/26 respectively. A high degree of similarity between genes in human and poultry isolates were confirmed by sequencing of amplification products. None of the cylA‐positive isolates demonstrated haemolytic activity, while the phenotypic expression of gelatinase varied. The ST16 was the only ST shared by human and poultry isolates. The SCV isolates did not show a unique virulence profile or phylogeny. In conclusion, regardless of the distinct phylogenetic background of most E. faecalis isolates of human and poultry origin, we found major similarities in virulence gene profile and gene sequences in isolates from the two sources, supporting the zoonotic risk associated with this organism.
Serum paraoxonase activity and oxidative stress and their relationship with obesity-related metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in obese children and adolescents

Abstract Objective: Oxidative stress has been reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders related with obesity. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of oxidative stress and paraoxonase activities with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as well as metabolic syndrome. Materials and methods: A total of 109 obese children and adolescents and 44 healthy and lean control subjects were enrolled in the study. According to their ultrasonographic steatosis scores, they were classified into four groups as follows: healthy children; obese, non-NAFLD; obese, grade I-NAFLD; and obese, grade II–III NAFLD. The biochemical parameters and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were evaluated from fasting samples. The plasma total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), and serum paraoxonase activities were measured and then oxidative stress index (OSI) was calculated as the indicator of degree of oxidative stress. Results: As the steatosis increased, the alanine aminotransferase, C-reactive protein, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol increased, whereas HDL cholesterol decreased. The TAS measurements were higher in the obese NAFLD group compared with that of the healthy control group. The TOS and OSI measurements did not differ between the groups. Paraoxonase activities increased significantly as steatosis increased. Conclusions: Among the children in this study, no relationship could be demonstrated between obesity with/without steatosis and oxidant/antioxidant status.
Effects of airborne fine particles (PM2.5) on deep vein thrombosis admissions in the northeastern United States

Literature relating air pollution exposure to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), despite biological plausibility, is sparse. No comprehensive study examining associations between both short‐ and long‐term exposure to particulate matter (PM)2.5 and DVT or PE has been published. Using a novel PM2.5 prediction model, we study whether long‐ and short‐term PM2.5 exposure is associated with DVT and PE admissions among elderly across the northeastern United States.
ANALISIS PENGARUH TINGKAT KESEHATAN BANK TERHADAP RETURN ON ASSET

ABSTRACT This research i s per f or m e d on order to analyze the i n f l u e n ce o f t h e banking health toward Return O n Asset ( R OA) using Risk Based Bank Rating (RBBR) method. This research using N o n Performing Loan ( N P L ), Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR), Net Interest Margin (NIM), Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), B OPO (Bia y a O perasio n a l/Pen d a p a t a n O p erasio n a l ), Good Corporate Governance (GCG) and Posisi D e v i s a N e tto (PD N ) as independent variable and Return on Asset (ROA) as dependent variable. Sample for this research is all of BUKU 4 bank in Indonesia in 2007-2014 period. D ata a na l ys i s w i th m ulti lini e ar r e gression. T he result o f this resear c h shows that all of RBBR variable has significant influence on ROA simultaneously. LDR, NIM, BOPO, dan PDN has significant influence partially toward ROA. But NPL, CAR and GCG did not influence ROA. Pre d iction capabi l ity fr o m t h e s e seven v aria b le t o ward ROA i s 93,7% whe r e t h e b alance 6,3% is af f ec t ed to other f a ctor which w a s not to b e entered to r e search model. K e y W o rds : Risk based bank rating, BUKU 4, Return on Asset
Political Economy without History of Economic Thought? Why Economics should not Forget History

Especially when an economic crisis occurs, as it was in the last big crisis in 2008, contemporaries tend to question certainties of belief systems including academic systems of knowledge. Paradigms evolve to become a subject of inquiry. One of those new topics is a claim to increasingly acknowledge history of economic thought (HET) as an important, although neglected, domain of economic inquiry. During the last decades, HET has mostly been abolished or has disappeared in many contemporary teaching curricula in economics. An – unforecasted – crisis teaches us the lesson that our academic understanding may be incomplete. The relative renaissance of history of economic thought is remarkable since it is the lesson of the 20 th century that economics forgot history (Hodgson 2001) for systematic reasons. However, can we learn anything by reading in HET? The answer is that HET makes current debate less sterile because it embeds the matter into a flux of changing paradigms. Many brilliant argumentations exist hinting to the fact that HET has to be interpreted as a permanent over-writing process of academic failures by which we can learn about directions of new knowledge. The paper will be about the discussion why economics should not forget history of economic thought since HET is always much more than watching old movies.
Rapid increases in immature synapses parallel estrogen-induced hippocampal learning enhancements

Significance Estrogens are known to rapidly affect learning and memory, but how they do so is not well understood. Here we identify the hippocampus as a brain structure responsible for rapid estradiol-induced improvement of general discrimination learning in female mice, which coincides with a substantial increase in hippocampal dendritic spines, the postsynaptic sites of excitatory synapses. Until now, it had been assumed that estradiol-induced increases in hippocampal synapses would result in increased excitatory input into the neuron. Surprisingly, we find the opposite: increases in hippocampal spines are associated with a decrease in the excitatory glutamatergic input. This finding suggests that estradiol improves learning through inducing the formation of silent or immature synapses, which provide the substrate for storing new memories. Dramatic increases in hippocampal spine synapse density are known to occur within minutes of estrogen exposure. Until now, it has been assumed that enhanced spinogenesis increased excitatory input received by the CA1 pyramidal neurons, but how this facilitated learning and memory was unclear. Delivery of 17β-estradiol or an estrogen receptor (ER)-α (but not ER-β) agonist into the dorsal hippocampus rapidly improved general discrimination learning in female mice. The same treatments increased CA1 dendritic spines in hippocampal sections over a time course consistent with the learning acquisition phase. Surprisingly, estrogen-activated spinogenesis was associated with a decrease in CA1 hippocampal excitatory input, rapidly and transiently reducing CA1 AMPA activity via a mechanism likely reflecting AMPA receptor internalization and creation of silent or immature synapses. We propose that estrogens promote hippocampally mediated learning via a mechanism resembling some of the broad features of normal development, an initial overproduction of functionally immature connections being subsequently “pruned” by experience.
Public debt and economic growth: what do neoclassical growth models teach us?

ABSTRACT This paper aims to quantify the crowding-out effect of public debt and the related loss in long-run output in neoclassical growth models. To accomplish this task, we incorporate the government sector into the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans (RCK) model, the Blanchard model and the Solow model, which differ only in their assumptions concerning the consumption behaviour of households. We also introduce a general framework that is capable of gauging the burden of public debt in a neoclassical world in the case of any type of consumption behaviour. Our results are threefold. First, contrary to the RCK model, public debt reduces long-run output in the Blanchard model and the Solow model, although to a different extent: the crowding-out effect is marginal in the former, whereas it can be very large in the latter. Second, the burden of public debt is country-specific depending crucially on the saving rate and the population growth rate. Finally, in developed countries the upper limit of the output loss related to public debt is moderate at best even if distortionary taxes are taken into account.
Voices of Indonesian Migrant Workers at Home and Abroad

In this paper I discuss interviews conducted with Indonesian village women, concerning their decisions to sojourn abroad for work. The women detail three factors that they believe compel them to seek work abroad: lack of job opportunities, lack of educational and training opportunities and personal desire to experience life outside the confines of family and village life. They also raise the issue of government biases in educational and vocational planning that negatively affects villagers’ abilities to find employment within Indonesia, and particularly within rural environments.I also interviewed community support workers who mention political patronage as a factor in allocating funds for educational and training projects. Recent studies indicate that the Indonesian government has, for many years, prioritized formal education at the public-school level in urban centers and larger provincial towns, but that poorer rural villages lack access to similar opportunities. Many Indonesian women working in laboring positions abroad emanate from these poorer villages.Participant recommendations include delinking village educational funding from political patronage, and allocating more funds to remote villages, not only in terms of building more primary and secondary schools but also in terms of providing long-term vocational training, particularly for young adults, which, in combination with increased employment opportunities, may decrease the necessity to migrate.Data was collected through interviews and written journals in Indonesia and Hong Kong between 2005 and 2017.
Firm Characteristics and Innovation Activity: A Study of Italian Family Firms

Increasingly, innovation is seen as a novel leverage tool with which to create business and social value and thereby place its finders and users at a competitive advantage. Contemporary research suggests that the determinants of the innovation activity of firms are numerous. In this paper, we consider the financial and governance characteristics that might influence the innovation activity of a sample of 700 family firms in Italy. Our study was conducted over a 10-year period, from 2007 to 2016, using panel analysis models alongside robustness tests for the lagging effect and the probability regression as well as diagnostic statistics to ensure the use of an appropriate model. The results show that the existence of institutional investors, as a proxy for governance, has a persistent positive relationship with patent value, as a proxy for innovation, but not with the likelihood of being innovative. Moreover, financial indicators such as net working capital, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, debt, and equity are found to explain innovation activity better than other indicators in both the panel and probability regressions. We also find very little significant difference between the sectors and regions featured in the study, suggesting that the relationship among them is quasi-systematic. Concluding the paper, our findings are discussed in relation to their policy implications and suggestions for further research are made.
Research Facilities in the Sudan

Although the Democratic Republic of Sudan has been an official member of the League of Arab States virtually since independence, the country has been frequently bypassed in studies of the Arab World—and for that matter, of Subsaharan Africa as well. And while successive Sudanese regimes have spoken of their country as a “bridge” between the Muslim Arab world and non-Muslim Black Africa, the foreign scholarly community has ironically treated this geographically largest country in Africa and the Middle East only in the most marginal terms.
Infant feeding in the second 6 months of life related to iron status: an observational study

Objective: To investigate the relationship between iron status in infancy and type of milk and weaning solids consumed. Design: An observational cohort study. Setting: 928 term infants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in 1993–94. Methods: Haemoglobin and ferritin concentrations at 8 and 12 months were assessed in relation to type and quantity of milk intake at 8 months. Results: By WHO criteria, 22.7% of the infants were anaemic at 8 months and 18.1% at 12 months. More breast- than formula-fed infants were anaemic at 8 and 12 months. Cows’ milk as the main drink was associated with increased anaemia at 12 months and low ferritin at 8 and 12 months. No association was found between any nutrients and haemoglobin concentrations. Protein and non-haem iron intakes were positively associated with ferritin concentrations and calcium intake negatively. This effect was more marked in infants being fed cows’ milk. More than 25% of infants in the breast milk and cows’ milk groups and 41% of infants having >6 breast feeds per day had iron intakes below the lower reference nutrient intake. Feeding cows’ milk or formula above 600 ml or >6 breast feeds per day was associated with lower intakes of solids. Conclusions: Both breast and cows’ milk feeding were associated with higher levels of anaemia. Satisfactory iron intake from solids in later infancy is more likely if formula intake is <600 ml per day and breast feeds are limited to <6 feeds per day. Cows’ milk should be strongly discouraged as a main drink before 12 months.