Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learn from thy Neighbor: Do Voters Associate Corruption with Political Parties?∗

This paper exploits a randomized audit program to document how information about a corrupt politician causes electoral spillovers on his party. I focus on two types of spillovers: spillovers across types of elections (cross-electoral spillovers) and spillovers across jurisdiction borders (cross-border spillovers). Using detailed data on radio antenna location and coverage, I identify neighboring areas in the same media market. Moreover, via machine learning and text-analysis tools, I take a data-driven approach to create an index that ranks municipalities according to their corruption level. I uncover how information about corruption shapes voting decisions through the structure and geography of the media market. I show that voters hold the party of the incumbent politician accountable in four distinct ways. In municipalities where corruption occurs, voters punish parties in (1) local and (2) national elections. Most importantly, I show that news of a politician’s corruption affects his party in neighboring municipalities that share the same media market, and these spillovers affect both (3) local and (4) national elections. Ruling out other potential mechanisms, I show that these findings are consistent with electoral accountability. Finally, a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that an audit occurring at the local level causes the party’s vote support in the audited neighborhood (audited municipality and its neighbors) to decrease by 10 percentage points. ∗ I am indebted to Manuel Arellano, Erik Lindqvist, Torsten Persson, Diego Puga, Giancarlo Spagnolo, and David Strömberg for advice, support and encouragement at different stages of this project. I am extremely grateful to Felipe Carozzi for extensive conversations and help. This paper has also benefited from conversations with Samuel Bentolila, Martina Björkman Nyqvist, Guillermo Caruana, Kerem Coşar, Tore Ellingsen, Ruben Enikolopov, Stefano Gagliarducci, Mounir Karadja, Andreas Madestam, Mónica Mart́ınez-Bravo, Anders Olofsg̊ard, Elena Paltseva, Maria Perrotta Berlin, Maria Petrova, and Jakob Svensson. I thank Reinaldo Luz, Fernanda Senra (discussant), Ricardo Lima (research assistant), and Robson Tigre for help with understanding of the Brazilian institutions. The help of the staff at the CGU, especially Giuliana Biaggini, Adriano Souza, Camilla Bezzera, Maria Rezende and Günther Lorenz at FMSCAN/FMLIST, is gratefully acknowledged. I also thank participants in seminars: CEMFI, IIES, SSE, UAB, UCL, Stockholm University, Micro Workshop Stockholm, IFN Stockholm, University of Gothenburg, Max Planck Institute and in conferences: SITE Corruption, Stockholm; Enter Jamboree, Carlos III; IPSWD, Columbia University; ASWEDE, Gothenburg; SUDSWEc, Stockholm University; European Winter Meetings of the Econometric Society, Edinburgh; Spanish Economic Association, Bilbao. All errors are my own. †Stockholm School of Economics. E-mail: arieda.muco@gmail.com
No evidence of P. falciparum K13 artemisinin conferring mutations over a 24-year analysis in Coastal Kenya, but a near complete reversion to chloroquine wild type parasites.

Antimalarial drug resistance is a substantial impediment to malaria control. The spread of 15 resistance has been described using genetic markers which are important epidemiological 16 tools. We carried out a temporal analysis of changes in allele frequencies of 12 drug 17 resistance markers over two decades of changing antimalarial drug policy in Kenya. We did 18 not detect any of the validated kelch 13 (k13) artemisinin resistance markers, nonetheless, a 19 single k13 allele , K189T, was maintained at a stable high frequency (>10%) over time. There 20 was a distinct shift from chloroquine resistant transporter (crt) -76, multi-drug resistant gene 21 1 ( mdr1) -86 and mdr1 -1246 chloroquine (CQ) resistance alleles to a 99% prevalence of CQ 22 sensitive alleles in the population, following the withdrawal of CQ from routine use. In 23 contrast, the dihydropteroate
Effect of Pig Manure on the Microbial Remediation of Crude Oil-Polluted Soil

ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 22 Feb. 2018 Revised 22 Mar. 2018 Accepted 12 Apr. 2018 The effect of pig manure on the microbial remediation of crude oilpolluted soil was studied using standard methods. The heterotrophic microorganisms isolated from the pristine soil, crude oil-polluted soil and pig manure were Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris, Shigella flexneri, Serratia marcescens, Flavobacterium rigense, Klebsiella aerogenes, Arthrobacter oxydans, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium expansum, Cladosporium resinae, Candida utilis and Trichoderma herbarum. All except Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus utilized crude oil as sole source of carbon and energy for growth. The pH of the pristine soil was 7.6 but dropped to 7.1 after crude oil impaction and increased further to alkaline level upon supplementation with pig manure after which it gradually decreased during the course of the study. Addition of pig manure in varying concentrations (10%,20%,30% and 40%) to the crude oil – polluted soil caused an increase in the population of the heterotrophic and hydrocarbon – utilizing micro-organisms and values of the mineral nutrients. The physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of the crude oil-amended soil were determined at the end of fourteen weeks. The 40% amendment gave the highest degradation of 84.6% while the unamended soil gave the lowest degradation of 25.6%. As the amendment increased, the residual oil content decreased. The ecotoxicity test showed that the bean seedlings grew well in the amended crude oil-polluted soil but did not grow in the unamended crude oil-polluted soil.
Full endoscopic unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression of the cervical spine: surgical technique and early experience.

Background Full-endoscopic decompression surgery has been shown to be safe and efficacious in the lumbar spine, while its role remains to be determined in the cervical spine. We describe the utility of cervical endoscopic unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression (CE-ULBD) in a series of elderly patients with severe central stenosis, significant medical comorbidity, and existing cervical deformity. Methods A prospectively collected spine surgery registry at the University of Washington was retrospectively queried for patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy receiving CE-ULBD. Demographic data, operative details, imaging, and patient reported outcomes, including visual analogue scale (VAS) for neck and upper extremity pain, Nurick grade, and the modified Japanese Orthopedic Association (mJOA) score, were reviewed. Description of the surgical technique is provided. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Results From 2014 through 2018, 10 patients with an average age of 70.2±5.0 years underwent CE-ULBD for symptomatic upper cervical stenosis due to ligamentum flavum buckling. Half of these patients had one stenotic segment, the other half had two stenotic segments. The most commonly affected segment was C3/4 (5/10 patients). Average length of surgery was 128±18.4 minutes. Average length of stay was 1.2±0.2 days. Average clinical follow-up time was 22.0±4.7 months; clinical outcomes at most recent follow-up were improved via both the Nurick grade (1.2±0.4, P<0.01) and modified Japanese Orthopedic Association (14.6±1.0, P<0.001) compared with pre-operative values. One patient experienced a transient loss of motor evoked potentials intraoperatively, but there were no cases of permanent neurological deficit. Conclusions Severe central cervical stenosis is a safe and viable target for full-endoscopic decompression via an interlaminar approach.
Searching for Religious Discrimination Among Anganwadi Workers in India: An Experimental Investigation

This paper examines whether, in India, discriminatory practices by government-employed child caregivers along religious lines, lead to differential health outcomes among the care receiving children. Child caregivers participate in a novel allocation game where we incorporate treatments to disentangle statistical and taste-based discrimination. Our findings find no evidence of taste-based discrimination or statistical discrimination among the child caregivers. We also weigh-in on the usefulness of non-incentivized experiments in discrimination experiments.
Autoimmune Inflammation in Achalasia

Idiopathic Achalasia is an archetype esophageal motor disorder. It is an inflammatory pathology produced by the loss of ganglion cells of the esophageal Auerbach’s plexus. Although the etiology is unknown, it is conceivable to hypothesize an etioand physiopathogenic mechanism for idiopathic Achalasia. Early event that triggers the disease appears to be the product of a constant offense produced by a neurotropic infectious agent, which induces a persistent inflammation at the myenteric plexus. Nonetheless, not all of the patients infected with virus progress to the disease. Thus, only those individuals with genetic predisposition to maintain a severe chronic inflammation and defects in tolerance mechanisms will evolve to Achalasia. Moreover, in most of the cases illness is accompanied by the presence of antinuclear antibodies and myenteric antibodies that are suggested to participate in the destruction of the Auerbach’s plexus. In this review we will focus on the evaluation of the inflammation that suggests that Achalasia is an autoimmune disease associated with a viral infection.
The Efficacy of Preemptive Analgesia Using a Non-Opioid Alternative Therapy Regimen on Postoperative Analgesia Following Block Bone Graft Surgery of the Mandible: A Prospective Pilot Study in Pain Management in Response to the Opioid Epidemic

*Corresponding author: Cameron Y.S. Lee, DMD, MD, PHD, MPH, Oral, Maxillofacial and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Periodontology/Oral Implantology, Kornberg School of Dentistry. Temple University, 98-1247 Kaahumanu Street. Suite 314. Aiea, Hawaii 96701, USA, Tel: 808-484-2288; E-mail: CLee555294@aol.com Abstract Purpose: The authors examined whether a novel alternative treatment regimen that is opioid-free administered preemptively 3 days prior to block bone graft surgery of the mandible has a preemptive analgesic effect on the intensity of pain at the graft harvest site during the 72-hour postoperative period.
Oil Price Asymmetry and Sectoral Output in Nigeria

Disaggregating the Nigerian economy into oil and non-oil sector, this study investigates the asymmetric effects of oil price on sectoral output in Nigeria using data spanning the period between 1981 and 2017. It adopts the novel Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model developed by Shin et al. (2014) in which short-run and long-run nonlinearities are introduced via positive and negative partial sum decompositions of oil price. The Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root test results show that the variables used in this study are a combination of I(0) and I(1) series thus justifying the use of the Bounds test approach to cointegration whose result was in the affirmative. The results of the short-run and long-run NARDL models showed that oil price has asymmetric effects on the performance of the oil and non-oil sector of the Nigerian economy in the short-run but only have long-run asymmetric effects on the non-oil sector. In addition, the results revealed that oil price shocks (positive and negative) have positive effects on non-oil output while a positive and negative oil price shock have corresponding effects on oil output in the short run. Moreover, oil price shocks have more effects on the oil sector than the non-oil sector. Hence, this study recommends that the Nigerian economy be diversified to help cushion the effects of the uncertainties associated with the global oil market and to adopt structural reforms in the non-oil tradable sector to stimulate sustainable growth of the economy.
Coenzyme Q10 Food Supplement on the Treatment of Chronic Periodontitis in Patients with Type II Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Control Study

The ultimate goal of the present study was, to evaluate the effectiveness of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ 10) supplementation as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in reducing gingival inflammation and periodontal tissue destruction in chronic periodontitis patients with type II diabetes mellitus (DM). Material and Methods: Thirty patients with chronic periodontitis and type II DM were equally divided into 2 groups. Group I received scaling and root planing plus placebo capsule for 3 months and groups II received scaling and root planing and Coenzyme Q10 for 3 months. Bleeding on probing and gingival index were taken at baseline,1, 3 and 6 months’ evaluation periods while probing pocket depth, clinical attachment loss at baseline, 3 and 6 months only. Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) samples were collected for measuring matrix metalloproteinase -8 (MMP-8) in GCF at baseline,1, 3 and 6 months’ evaluation periods.Results: Statistical analyses demonstrated a significant reduction in clinical parameters from baseline to 6 months in group II (test group) as compared to their baseline value P 0.05. Intergroup comparison showed statistically significant differences between the two studied groups at all the study evaluation periods in favor to group II (test group). GCF-MMP-8 levels showed statistically significant continual reduction from baseline up to 3 months followed by slight increase at 6 months which is still below baseline value for both group PConclusions: from the results of the present study it is clear that dietary supplementation with CoQ 10 may provide a low-cost intervention to augment periodontal therapy. Hence, CoQ 10 as an antioxidant could be used safely as an effective adjunct to oral prophylaxis in treatment of chronic periodontitis in diabetic patients.
Gradual Learning from Incremental Actions

We introduce a collective experimentation problem where agents choose the timing of irreversible actions under uncertainty and where public feedback from the actions arrives gradually over time. This kind of gradual learning where information is delayed and arrives over time is present in many real-life situations, such as adoption of new technologies, progressive market entry, and incremental roll-out of public policies. The socially optimal expansion path entails an informational trade-oﬀ where acting today speeds up learning but postponing capitalizes on the option value of waiting. We solve the social optimum and contrast it to the decentralized equilibrium where agents ignore the social value of information they generate. We develop mechanism design techniques to coordinate collective experimentation and illustrate the techniques in the context of pricing a new durable good.
The Impact of Corporate Governance on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Duality in Iranian Banking Sector

The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of corporate governance mechanisms on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Duality in Iranian Banking Sector. There are several aspects and dimensions of corporate governance, which may influence a CEO Duality but this study focused on three aspects namely Board’s size (BOSI); Board’s Independence (BOIN) and State ownership (STOWN). This paper utilizes a panel data analysis all the Iranian Banking Sector over a four-year period from years 2008 to 2011. In this paper, log of bank’s annual total assets (SIZE) and total debt divided by total assets (LEV) are control variables. A logistic regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses. The results show has a positive and significant relationship between Board’s Independence; Leverage and Chief Executive Officer Duality. Also, there is no relationship between Board’s size; State ownership; size and Chief Executive Officer Duality.
From Evaluation to Prediction: Behavioral Effects and Biological Markers of Cognitive Control Intervention

Although the intervention effectiveness of cognitive control is disputed, some methods, such as single-task training, integrated training, meditation, aerobic exercise, and transcranial stimulation, have been reported to improve cognitive control. This review of recent advances from evaluation to prediction of cognitive control interventions suggests that brain modularity may be an important candidate marker for informing clinical decisions regarding suitable interventions. The intervention effect of cognitive control has been evaluated by behavioral performance, transfer effect, brain structure and function, and brain networks. Brain modularity can predict the benefits of cognitive control interventions based on individual differences and is independent of intervention method, group, age, initial cognitive ability, and education level. The prediction of cognitive control intervention based on brain modularity should extend to task states, combine function and structure networks, and assign different weights to subnetwork modularity.
Effects of free gasoline prices on the ethanol sector in São Paulo1

65 Abstract – Brazil is a particularly interesting case when it comes to the study of fuel prices and their effects on other sectors of the economy, since the oil-related industries in the country have some specific characteristics, such as the wide use of ethanol as a substitute for gasoline and the practiced fuel pricing policy by the government. The goal of the present study is to analyze how the situation in Brazil would have looked like, if fuel prices were not administrated by the government, and what the hypothetical effects of such a change in the policy on biofuel prices and demand would have been. For the purposes of the analysis, a hypothetical consumer gasoline price was constructed, using the provided by DATAGRO series of “interned” gasoline prices. The obtained results show that incorporating the fluctuations in the international crude oil price would have had positive effects on the ethanol sector in the state of São Paulo for the period 2011-2015, by pushing the hydrous ethanol price up, making it more profitable for sugarcane producers to direct their production to ethanol instead of sugar, and stimulating domestic ethanol demand as an alternative for conventional fossil fuels. Moreover, the hypothetical gasoline price would have led to lower gasoline consumption, thus, breaking the artificial demand for this fuel created by the government.
The effects of occupational exposure to manganese fume on neurobehavioral and neurocognitive functions: An analytical cross-sectional study among welders

This study aimed to measure concentrations of manganese fume in breathing zone (BZ) and blood among welders to assess neurocognitive and neurobehavioral functions among them. In this study 38 welders and 27 administrative employees participated. Q16 questionnaire was used to evaluate neurobehavioral symptoms. The computerized Stroop test and Continuous Performance Test (CPT) were used to assess neurocognitive functions. Sampling and analysis of manganese fumes in the BZ and blood samples were performed according to NIOSH-7300 and NIOSH-8005 methods, respectively. Average concentration of manganese in the welders' BZ and blood was 0.81 ± 0.21 mg/m3 and 18.33 ± 5.84 µg/l. Frequency of neurobehavioral symptoms was significantly higher in welders compared with control group. Spearman correlation test showed a moderate correlation between Mn concentrations in the BZ and blood Mn levels (rs = 0.352). There were statistical moderate and strong correlations between the frequency of neurobehavioral symptoms and manganese concentrations in the BZ (r=0.504) and blood Mn levels (r=0.643). The Pearson correlation coefficient (r=0.433-0.690) obtained on the psychological tests showed a moderate to strong correlation between manganese concentrations in the welders' BZ and blood and some indices of the Stroop test and CPT. The results of this study can confirm the effect of manganese inhalation on creating neurobehavioral and neurocognitive impairments in welders.
A study on the effect of prolonged mobile phone usage on hearing among students

Background: Mobile phones have become integral part of our daily life. Since the number of base stations and wireless local area networks increases simultaneously the concern about possible health hazards from exposure to the radiofrequency fields by these wireless technologies also raises. The main aim of our study was to study the effect of prolonged mobile phone usage on hearing among students and to assess the percentage of sensorineural hearing loss among them. Methods: Hundred medical students were enrolled in our study. Basic information was collected from each student using a preliminary questionnaire. All the chronic mobile users who use right ear as the dominant ear were subjected to otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and pure tone audiometry. Results: The OAE results were normal in all the students. We also observed that none of the individuals in our study affected from significant hearing loss (more than 25 dB). But we found a minimal hearing loss in those using mobile phones for more than two hours per day. Conclusions: We concluded that chronic mobile phone usage did not show any significant hearing loss in the study population.
Macroeconomic Factors and Stock Returns: Evidence from the Swedish Stock Market

This study investigates the relationship between stock returns and macroeconomic factors in a small, open economy by utilizing a vector autoregression (VAR) approach on Swedish large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap data from 2003 to 2019. To determine the relationship between the macroeconomic factors and stock market return, Granger causality tests are run on each of the markets. Consistent with previous studies, the empirical evidence suggests that the Swedish repo rate, inflation rate, and slope of the yield curve significantly impact the stock returns of the OMX 30, OMX mid-cap, and OMX small-cap Swedish stock markets. Bachelor’s thesis in Economics, 15 credits Fall 2019 Supervisor: Elias Bengtsson
Language Skills and Cognitive Linguistic Skills in Children with Repaired Cleft Palate

Introduction: Language and cognitive skills in children with Cleft lip and palate (CLP) are not routinely assessed considering the difficulties as articulatory in nature. The aim of the study was to identify cognitive linguistic and language skills in school-age children with early repaired CLP (RCLP) and the variables affecting the same. The objectives were to (1) Investigate the language skills, cognitive linguistic skills and to establish the relationship between the language and cognitive linguistic skills in this population. Method: 17 non-syndromic children with RCLP in the age range of 5-6 years were selected. KLT and computerized CLAP-C were used to assess language and cognitive linguistic skills respectively. The interactions between the subtests were explored. Results & Discussion: The results show that 88 %( 15) of the children with RCLP obtained age appropriate scores while 12 (2) failed to obtain age appropriate scores in KLT. 8% (2) of children in the group scored age appropriately in all domains for CLAP-C. Children performed poorly on CLAP-C compared to KLT. There was a significant correlation between the language skills and cognitive linguistic skill except in the domain memory. Language abilities did not favor memory task probably due to the demand for cognitive mediation required for the same. The difficulty in visual memory is delineated as probable reason for reading difficulties in these children. Conclusion: Results cautions the professionals and parents to look beyond the timing of surgical correction and speech disorder to probe into the linguistic, higher language processing and academic skills of the children with cleft lip and palate.