Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The risk of drug resistance during long-acting antimicrobial therapy

The emergence of drug resistance during antimicrobial therapy is a major global health problem, especially for chronic infections like human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B and C, and tuberculosis. Sub-optimal adherence to long-term treatment is an important contributor to resistance risk. New long-acting drugs are being developed for weekly, monthly or less frequent dosing to improve adherence, but may lead to long-term exposure to intermediate drug levels. In this study, we analyse the effect of dosing frequency on the risk of resistance evolving during time-varying drug levels. We find that long-acting therapies can increase, decrease or have little effect on resistance, depending on the source (pre-existing or de novo) and degree of resistance, and rates of drug absorption and clearance. Long-acting therapies with rapid drug absorption, slow clearance and strong wild-type inhibition tend to reduce resistance caused by partially resistant strains in the early stages of treatment even if they do not improve adherence. However, if subpopulations of microbes persist and can reactivate during sub-optimal treatment, longer-acting therapies may substantially increase the resistance risk. Our results show that drug kinetics affect selection for resistance in a complicated manner, and that pathogen-specific models are needed to evaluate the benefits of new long-acting therapies.
Plasma P-selectin is an early marker of thromboembolism in COVID-19

Coagulopathy and thromboembolism are known complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The mechanisms of COVID-19-associated hematologic complications involve endothelial cell and platelet dysfunction and have been intensively studied. We leveraged a prospectively collected acute COVID-19 biorepository to study the association of plasma levels of a comprehensive list of coagulation proteins with the occurrence of venous thromboembolic events (VTE). We included in our analysis 305 subjects with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who presented to an urban Emergency Department with acute respiratory distress during the first COVID-19 surge in 2020; 13 (4.2%) were subsequently diagnosed with venous thromboembolism during hospitalization. Serial samples were obtained and assays were performed on two highly-multiplexed proteomic platforms. Nine coagulation proteins were differentially expressed in patients with thromboembolic events. P-selectin, a cell adhesion molecule on the surface of activated endothelial cells, displayed the strongest association with the diagnosis of VTE, independent of disease severity (p=0.0025). This supports the importance of endothelial activation in the mechanistic pathway of venous thromboembolism in COVID-19. P-selectin together with D-dimer upon hospital presentation provided better discriminative ability for VTE diagnosis than D-dimer alone.
A reinforcement learning model to inform optimal decision paths for HIV elimination

The 'Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE)' national plan aims to reduce annual HIV incidence in the United States from 38,000 in 2015 to 9,300 by 2025 and 3,300 by 2030. Diagnosis and treatment are two most effective interventions, and thus, identifying corresponding optimal combinations of testing and retention-in-care rates would help inform implementation of relevant programs. Considering the dynamic and stochastic complexity of the disease and the time dynamics of decision-making, solving for optimal combinations using commonly used methods of parametric optimization or exhaustive evaluation of pre-selected options are infeasible. Reinforcement learning (RL), an artificial intelligence method, is ideal; however, training RL algorithms and ensuring convergence to optimality are computationally challenging for large-scale stochastic problems. We evaluate its feasibility in the context of the EHE goal. We trained an RL algorithm to identify a 'sequence' of combinations of HIV-testing and retention-in-care rates at 5-year intervals over 2015-2070, which optimally leads towards HIV elimination. We defined optimality as a sequence that maximizes quality-adjusted-life-years lived and minimizes HIV-testing and care-and-treatment costs. We show that solving for testing and retention-in-care rates through appropriate reformulation using proxy decision-metrics overcomes the computational challenges of RL. We used a stochastic agent-based simulation to train the RL algorithm. As there is variability in support-programs needed to address barriers to care-access, we evaluated the sensitivity of optimal decisions to three cost-functions. The model suggests to scale-up retention-in-care programs to achieve and maintain high annual retention-rates while initiating with a high testing-frequency but relaxing it over a 10-year period as incidence decreases. Results were mainly robust to the uncertainty in costs. However, testing and retention-in-care alone did not achieve the 2030 EHE targets, suggesting the need for additional interventions. The results from the model demonstrated convergence. RL is suitable for evaluating phased public health decisions for infectious disease control.
Short-Term Effects of a Conditioning Telerehabilitation Program in Confined Patients Affected by COVID-19 in the Acute Phase. A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background and objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has become a challenge for health systems and, specifically, to physical therapists obligated to adapt their job and stop face-to-face consultations. In this situation, therapeutic exercise has been implemented in different COVID-19 patients. This study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel therapeutic exercise program through telerehabilitation tools in COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptomatology in the acute stage. Materials and Methods: A total of 40 subjects were randomized an experimental group, based on muscle conditioning, and in a control group, who did not perform physical activity. Thirty-six subjects, 18 in each group, completed the one-week intervention. We measured the six-minute walking test, multidimensional dyspnoea-12, thirty seconds sit-to-stand test, and Borg Scale. Results: Both groups were comparable at baseline. Statistically significant improvement between groups (p < 0.05) in favor of the experimental group was obtained. No differences between gender were found (p > 0.05). Ninety percent adherence was found in our program. Conclusion: A one-week telerehabilitation program based on muscle toning exercise is effective, safe, and feasible in COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptomatology in the acute stage.
Single Phase FeS2 (pyrite) Thin Films Prepared by Combined Electrodeposition and Hydrothermal Low Temperature Techniques

In current work the synthesis of single phase of FeS2 (pyrite) thin films from a combined electrochemical and hydrothermal techniques and without the need for a post sulfurization process is reported. Electrodeposition has been carried out in a non aqueous based electrolytic bath (diethylene glycol (DEG)). Voltamperometric measurements were conducted to study the electrochemical response of the precursors in this organic DEG solvent. These experiences allowed determining the best experimental conditions in DEG for obtaining the FeS/FeS2 mixture phases which were obtained applying a constant potential of –1.10V. The hydrothermal technique that was developed in a microwave oven improved stoichiometry and crystallinity of the deposits obtained by electrodeposition and led to obtaining a single pyrite phase. SEM micrographs exhibited complete substrate coverage whereas EDS analysis gave atomic ratio S/Fe very close to 2. XRD analysis of the final thin film shows that the deposit has a cubic structure without the presence of other undesired phases. However, Raman spectra indicate a later formation of amorphous superficial hematite. The optical measurements show an optical direct bandgap of 0.985 eV. Results open the possibility of applying the procedure to the formation of a thin film of FeS2 of good structural and optical characteristics that can be employed as an absorber material in solar cells.
Gut content analysis of the snake eel Pisodonophis boro (Hamilton, 1822) from estuary of Pranburi River, Thailand

The gut contents of the snake eel, Pisodonophis boro collected from the estuary of Pranburi from March to August 2015 were analyzed. Based on the 30 specimens observed, three species of crabs (Sarmatium germaini, Metaplax elegans and Ucaper plexa) were found. Based on the frequency of occurrence (%O), S. germaini showed the highest percentage of prevalence (81.48%) whereas M. elegans and U. perplexa had the lowest percentage of prevalence (3.7% each). Moreover, S. germaini had the highest (99.59%) index of relative important (%IRI) followed by unidentified mantis-shrimp (0.33%), M. elegans (0.11%) and U. perplexa (0.9%), respectively. From these results, the preponderance prey found in the snake eel’s diet was crab. It might be suggested that P. boro is a specialist feeder on crabs rather than an opportunistic feeder.
Impossible Trinity in a Small Open Economy: A State-Space Model Informed Policy Simulation CAMA Working Paper 60/2021 July

Should monetary policy independence be maintained when the exchange rate is fixed under closed capital account conditions in a small open economy? We apply the Kalman filter at State Space model to test the Nepalese economy's policy trilemma condition involving restricting capital flow, maintaining policy independence and fixing the exchange rate over the period 1989-2019. Accounting for two-thirds of Nepal's total trade, Nepal is heavily trade-dependent to India in South Asia, which underwent economic liberalisation during the early 1990s. We modify the traditional Taylor-rule-based monetary policy reaction function to more closely represent Nepal's economic characteristics by mixing backward-looking and forward-looking strategies and incorporating a fixed exchange rate in the monetary policy reaction function. The simulation results provide strong evidence of policy trilemma failure and inevitable policy trade-offs. In the monetary policy reaction function of both domestic and foreign conditions, the parameter value of domestic condition needs to be close to zero, to get the simulated interest rate close to observed. The loss of monetary policy independence raises a range of policy issues for the Nepalese economy: the rationale for fixing the exchange rate, and the efficacy of capital account closure which might deteriorate the effectiveness of monetary policy. Abstract Should monetary policy independence be maintained when the exchange rate is fixed under closed capital account conditions in a small open economy? We apply the Kalman filter at State Space model to test the Nepalese economy's policy trilemma condition involving restricting capital flow, maintaining policy independence and fixing the exchange rate over the period 1989-2019. Accounting for two-thirds of Nepal's total trade, Nepal is heavily trade-dependent to India in South Asia, which underwent economic liberalisation during the early 1990s. We modify the traditional Taylor-rule-based monetary policy reaction function to more closely represent Nepal's economic characteristics by mixing backward-looking and forward-looking strategies and incorporating a fixed exchange rate in the monetary policy reaction function. The simulation results provide strong evidence of policy trilemma failure and inevitable policy trade-offs. In the monetary policy reaction function of both domestic and foreign conditions, the parameter value of domestic condition needs to be close to zero, to get the simulated interest rate close to observed. The loss of monetary policy independence raises a range of policy issues for the Nepalese economy: the rationale for fixing the exchange rate, and the efficacy of capital account closure which might deteriorate the effectiveness of monetary policy.
CEO Social Minds and Green Loans

We examine the financial and real implications of bank CEOs’ social minds induced by female socialization. We find evidence of an economically sizable and statistically significant bank CEO-daughter effect in lending behaviours, controlling for borrower industry as well as bank characteristics. In specific, the “greenness” of a bank is significantly higher, when the lead bank CEO parents a first-born daughter compared to an otherwise lender. Looking at the specific lending contracts written by banks, we find that lead banks whose CEOs parent a first-born daughter provide loans with lower spread, fewer financial covenants, and less likely to require collateral, for borrowers with better CSR performance. Furthermore, we find that bank CEOs’ parenting experience with first-born daughters would predict borrowing firms’ future CSR performance positively, suggesting banks with CEOs raising a first-born daughter would promote the corporate social activities of borrowers.
Accounting for Uncertainty in Decision Weights for Experimental Elicitation of Risk Preferences

In the generalized expected utility framework, the multiplicative relationship between preferences and beliefs complicates the identification of risk preferences. In experimental or field settings, the respondent's decision weight must be known with certainty to confidently infer accurate attitudes towards risk. Factors such as probability weighting or the influence of past experiences may result in an individual applying a decision weight that differs from the probability used to infer risk preferences. We propose a novel Monte-Carlo based method for expressing uncertainty in the individual's decision weight as uncertainty in their inferred risk aversion coefficient. We implement this procedure on experimentally elicited risk preferences that were obtained via a mail survey and show that this procedure improves model fit when the risk aversion coefficient is used as a determinant of behavior in a reduced form model of insurance demand.
Inducing Labor: the Impact of Health Insurance on Post-Natal Labor Supply

In this paper we analyze the role of access to health insurance plays in the widely documented, sharp fall in mother's labor supply following childbirth. Our analysis exploits variation created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which substantially expanded access to health insurance within the U.S., and richly detailed administrative tax data. We find that mother's relative post-childbirth employment increases by 12\% for births that occur after the insurance expansion. This labor supply response is pervasive across mother's pre-birth characteristics, and across the varied impact of the ACA expansion. Our analysis suggests that this response is likely driven by a combination of improved access to maternal health care, increased participation by mothers who do not work before birth, reduced exits among mothers who do work before birth, and a compositional changes in who gives birth following the ACA health insurance expansion.
Quantitative Easing and Credit Rating Agencies

This paper investigates the behaviour of credit rating agencies using a natural experiment in monetary policy. We exploit the corporate QE of the Eurosystem and its rating-based specific design which generates exogenous variation in the probability for a bond of becoming eligible for outright purchases. We show that after the launch of the policy, rating activity was concentrated precisely on the territory where the incentives of market participants are expected to be more sensitive to the policy design. Our findings contribute to better assessing the consequences of the explicit reliance on CRAs ratings by central banks when designing monetary policy. They also support the Covid-19 monetary stimulus, and in particular the waiver of private credit rating eligibility requirements applied to recently downgraded issuers.
Separate Accounts and Mutual Funds in Asset Management

Separate account investors outperform category-matched mutual fund investors yearly by 14─24 bps gross and 50─75 bps net. This outperformance is entirely explained by structural and reporting differences between the vehicles and by size differences between investors. Controlling for the average outperformance of separate accounts over their mutual fund twins, separate account investments perform at the same level as mutual fund investments, gross of fees, and slightly below them, net. Separate account investors choose products that, once adjusted, are more expensive than those chosen by mutual fund investors. Their fixed income picks do better whereas their equity picks do worse.
Emotional Labor and Its Association with Emotional Exhaustion through Cultural Intelligence

This study seeks to investigate the association of emotional labour with emotional exhaustion among employees. This study focuses on the moderating role of cultural intelligence between emotional labour and emotional exhaustion. The proposed model has been tested through quantitative method approach in light of Conservation of Resources Theory (COR). The data col lected from 520 employees from hotel sector under multistage sampling technique has been analysed. The gathered data will be examined through statistical techniques, are estimated to prove the proposed relationships. The study will be beneficial for industry practitioners, manag ers and leaders who can take advantage from the study and make strategies to minimise the negative effects of emotional labour in their respective organisations.
Gender and Economic Policy: When Do Women Speak with Authority on Economic Issues? Evidence from the Euro Area

Central bankers are expected to communicate facts about the economy and shape individuals’ expectations about the economic future. However, credibility in economic affairs is often male-coded, particularly around the anti-inflationary commitments that central banks often need to project. Does gender shape central bankers’ effectiveness as communicators? We approach our research question with an experimental design in which survey takers are given an informational vignette that is variously attributed to male and female ECB Executive Board members, who are in turn introduced with or without their full credentials. We use this data to examine whether female central bankers are differently able to shape individuals’ economic beliefs and expectations, and trust in the ECB. We surveyed nationally representative samples from five euro-area countries. Our results show that female central bankers capable of generating optimism about the economy and trust in the ECB, but only when they are introduced with their credentials. We also found evidence of a backlash against credentialed men, particularly among male survey takers. The findings have, in our view, mixed normative and practical implications about gender representation in central banking. Female central bankers were discriminated against - women need to be introduced with their credentials to be taken as seriously as uncredentialed male central bankers - but also the optimal vessel for information, because credentialed men were so greatly disliked.
Analysing competitiveness and trade performance: evidence from Indian textile industry and its select competitors

The present study investigates the trade performance and competitiveness of textile industry of<br>India and its competitors namely China and Vietnam by using revealed comparative advantage<br>developed by Balassa, and other trade parameters given by World Bank in terms of growth,<br>diversification and sophistication for 1988 to 2016. Data has been taken from World Integrated<br>Trade Solution (WITS) based on harmonised system (HS-2) including 11 products ranging from<br>HS-50 to HS-60. Results indicate that India has attained comparative advantage from 7 products<br>to only 8 Products While Vietnam has shown drastic improvement in textile products and has<br>achieved comparative advantage from 2 products to 7 products during 2000 to 2016. Moreover,<br>China has improved its comparative advantage from 9 products to all products. The study con cluded that there are immense opportunities for Indian textile industry in world market as most<br>of the products have shown positive growth of export
Does the market for corporate control impede or promote corporate innovation efficiency? Evidence from research quotient

Abstract Exploiting two novel measures of innovation efficiency and takeover vulnerability, we explore the effect of the takeover market on corporate innovation. Our results reveal that a more active takeover market stifles innovation considerably, consistent with the notion that managers tend to be myopic when more exposed to hostile takeover threats, making investments that produce results in the short run at the expense of long-term projects that lead to more innovation. Additional robustness checks confirm the results, including fixed-effects and random-effects regressions, propensity score matching, GMM dynamic panel data analysis and instrumental-variable analysis. Our results are unlikely driven by endogeneity.
Highly Efficient Spiro[fluorene-9,9′-thioxanthene] Core Derived Blue Emitters and Fluorescent/Phosphorescent Hybrid White Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

A series of blue emitters incorporating spiro[fluorene-9,9′-thioxanthene] or spiro[fluorene-9,9′-thioxanthene-S,S-dioxide] as the core and phenylcarbazole or triphenylamine as the arms were designed and synthesized. Their spiro conformation is beneficial for their thermal stability and for reducing the trend of aggregation quenching. By tuning the valence of the sulfur atom, highly efficient local excited (LE) state deep blue emitters and charge-transfer (CT) state blue emitters are obtained. The devices based on the LE emitters TPA-S and CzB-S as the nondoped emissive layer exhibit high external quantum efficiency of 1.76% and 2.03% and Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.158, 0.039) and (0.160, 0.054), respectively, and their CIEy values are among the smallest ever reported for the deep blue OLEDs and are readily very close to that of the inorganic light-emitting diode [CIE (0.16, 0.02)]. The nondoped device based on the CT emitter TPA-SO2 as the emissive layer also exhibits.
Jumps or Staleness?

Even moderate amounts of zero returns in financial data, associated with stale prices, are heavily detrimental for reliable jump inference. We harness staleness-robust estimators to re-appraise the statistical features of jumps in financial markets. We find that jumps are much less frequent and much less contributing to price variation than what found by the empirical literature so far. In particular, the empirical finding that volatility is driven by a pure jump process is actually shown to be an artifact due to staleness.
Throwing Speed of Kosovo Handball According to Playing Position

The goal of this paper was to assess the throwing speed of the ball without jumping, and three steep jumps by playing position (backcourt, wing, pivot, and goalkeeper) In this research, we measured 93 players from Kosovo’s elite league (22±4.70 years old; training experience 8.30±4.29 years; body height 183±7.83 cm; weight 84±13.74 kg); measurements were made with a radar speed gun. The results obtained were analysed through descriptive statistics for morphologic parameters, but throwing speed was analysed using ANOVA and the Kruskall-Wallis post hoc test. The overall average throwing speed without jumping was 85.67±8.13 km/h, while throwing seed with three-step jump was 84.20±8.68 km/h. measured by the radar gun. Without jumping back-court players have been distinguished compared to wingers and goalkeepers while there were no significant differences with pivots. Also, almost the same results have been achieved in the throwing speed of jump shot. As differences in throwing speed have been established according to the playing positions, we think the exercises for each position should also be differentiated.