Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Antigen-extracted Bovine Cancellous Bone Complex on Osteogenesis in Rats

Objective:To observe the effects of mesenchymal stem cell(MSC) and antigen-extracted bovine cancellous bone(BCB) complex cultured and induced by serum containing Traditional Chinese Compound Bone Healing Recipe(TCCBHR) on osteogenesis in rats.Methods:32 three-month-old male SD rats were divided into the control and experimental groups.In the experimental group,the MSC-BCB complex was implanted subcutaneouly.In the control group,only.BCB was implanted subcutaneouly.Then 8 planted things were taken from the control and experimental groups respectively 14 days and 28 days after operations.The half of each implant was fixed by 4% paraformaldehyde(PFA) solution,sliced after being embedded by paraffine,then stained by HE and observed under light microscope.The other half of each implant was weighted and grinded,and the activity of BALP was determined by wheat-embryo curdling and deposition method.Results:In the experimental group,under light microscope,there were a great number of osteoblasts and the cells adhered to the surface of bone's girder at the end of the 2nd week.At the end of the 4th week,a great number of cartilage gland alveolus were generated,but in the control group,the osteoblasts number was smaller than that of the experimental group and the surface of trabecular bone had only fibrous tissue appearance at the bone girder clearance,and no formation of new bone were found.The Bone alkaline phosphatase(BALP) activity of the experimental group was obviously greater than that of the control group at the end of the 2nd week.Conclusion:The MSC-BCB complex cultured and induced by serum containing TCCBHR possesses osteogenesis in rats.
Experimental investigations on the self-ignition of a thermally decomposed endothermic fuel in hot supersonic air flow in the MPP-LAERTE combustion test bench

As hypersonic propulsion with scramjets leads to excessive heating of the combustor materials, active cooling is required. An interesting way is the thermal cracking of heavy hydrocarbon fuels (endothermic reactions) along the walls of the combustor before injection. The present work takes part in a French hypersonic program, and especially deals with the combustion of such a thermally decomposed fuel in the LAERTE supersonic test bench. For this, the MPP device has been coupled to the wall injector of the LAERTE facility, delivering less than 5 g.s of cracked fuel under supercritical conditions (temperature up to 970 K and pressure over 30 bar). Shadowscopy of the fuel entry in the combustor and imaging of its ignition in the supersonic hot air flow (freestream temperature of 1181 K) have been achieved.
The COMS Randomized Trial of Iodine 125 Brachytherapy for Choroidal Melanoma

arms, 5- and 10-year all-cause mortality rates were 19% and 35%, respectively; by 12 years, cumulative all-cause mortality was 43% among patients in the 125 I brachytherapyarmand41%amongthoseintheenucleationarm. Five-, 10-, and 12-year rates of death with histopathologicallyconfirmedmelanomametastasiswere10%,18%, and 21%, respectively, in the 125 I brachytherapy arm and 11%,17%,and17%,respectively,intheenucleationarm. Olderageandlargermaximumbasaltumordiameterwere the primary predictors of time to death from all causes and death with melanoma metastasis. Conclusion:Longer follow-up of patients confirmed the earlier report of no survival differences between patients whose tumors were treated with 125 I brachytherapy and those treated with enucleation.
A posteriori error analysis for a distributed optimal control problem governed by the von Kármán equations

This article discusses the numerical analysis of the distributed optimal control problem governed by the von Karman equations defined on a polygonal domain in R 2 . The state and adjoint variables are discretised using the nonconforming Morley finite element method and the control is discretized using piecewise constant functions. A priori and a posteriori error estimates are derived for the state, adjoint and control variables. The a posteriori error estimates are shown to be efficient. Numerical results that confirm the theoretical estimates are presented.
Osmotic Suction in Unsaturated Soil Mechanics

Experimental research was conducted to evaluate the effects of salt content and osmotic suction on suction measurements, moisture retention, and shrinkage behavior of a natural compacted clay soil. Results are presented for: (1) soil water characteristic curves (SWCCs) in terms of matric, total, and osmotic suction, and (2) unconfined shrinkage tests on natural and salt-amended compacted soil specimens. These experimental results show that the measurement of total suction is dominated by osmotic suction, even when only moderate amounts of salt are present. Although osmotic suction dominates the total suction measurement, its influence on soil behavior is relatively small compared to the effects of changes in matric suction. It is common practice in engineering to use total suction as a substitute for matric suction, because total suction can be readily measured over the entire range of soil moisture up to 10 6 kPa using psychrometric techniques. Matric suction is measurable only up to approximately 1500 kPa maximum. Theory and experiments described in this paper are intended to illustrate how the use of total suction as a proxy for matric suction may be problematic when osmotic suction is large due to the presence of salts in the soil.
The Effects of Pre-Superovulation GnRH and Short-Term Progesterone Administrations on the Quantity and Quality of Bovine Embryos*

In this study we compared the quantity and quality of embryos recovered from Holstein donors superovulated after the induction of oestrus by human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and prostaglandin F2-alfa (PGF2α), followed by gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and short-term progesterone treatment (a modified protocol) and Holstein donors superovulated with a conventional protocol. In research, 3-year-old Holstein cows (n=20) were assigned into two equal groups. In Group Ithe animals received two injections of cloprostenol 11 days apart, and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)was injected twice daily for 4 days at decreasing doses starting from the 9 day after oestrus. Cloprostenol was co-administered with the 5 and 6 FSH injections. In Group II, the animals were treated with hCG at unknown stage of the oestrus cycle, and were given cloprostenol 7 days later. Buserelin was injected on the 7 th day after oestrus, and PRID was inserted on9 day after oestrus and was removed on day 14 (6 FSH injection). In Group II, FSH was administered on days 12-15 of the cycle, in a way identical to that of Group I, including the two cloprostenol . All cows were artificially inseminated three times at 12-hour intervals after last FSH injection. Buserelin was injected concurrently with the second artificial insemination. Embryos were collected on the 7 th day after the second insemination embryo quality and developmental stage were evaluated based on their morphology. In the present study, total CL (8.50±1.90 and 9.40±1.52), total ova and embryo (7.5±2.03 and 7.0±1.61), total embryo (6.00±2.00 and 6.10±1.47), transferable embryo (5.50±1.84 and 5.50±1.59), degenerate embryos (0.50±0.22 and 0.60±0.40) and unfertilized ova (1.60±0.97 and 0.90±0.31) numbers were determined per donor in Groups I and II respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two protocols in terms of embryo quality and quantity (P>0.05). Thus, it was concluded that the tested protocol could be used as an alternative to conventional one as it allows fixedtime embryo collection in multiple donors with no need for oestrus detection.
The Relation Between Payouts and Profits Over the Last Four Decades

This paper examines the changing relation between corporate payouts and profits over the last four decades. Relying on the clean surplus relation, we develop a piecewise regression model permitting a differential response between positive earnings (i.e. profits) and negative earnings (i.e. losses) to payouts. To motivate this asymmetry, we show that aggregate payouts of profits firms are about 17 times higher than aggregate payouts of loss firms. We provide evidence that the relation between payouts (and their component dividends and repurchases) and profits has significantly changed over the past decades. The observed upward trend is driven by large profitable firms that have good investment opportunities. We discuss possible explanations for this observed trend.
The Effect of Tax Stimulus during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Improving the Performance of Taxpayers

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the economy tends to experience sluggishness, to increase the enthusiasm of the business world, especially MSMEs, the government issued a policy of providing various fiscal stimuli. In this study, the authors focused on the direct effect of the provision of stimulus on the field of MSMEs. A qualitative method with purposive sampling data collection technique was used in the study. The MSME which the writer took as the sample of the study is the MSME which is engaged in the culinary field. From the results of research, MSME business actors do not know the type of fiscal stimulus and assume that government assistance such as Pre-employment, PKH and others is a fiscal stimulus and structured counseling of which MSME business actors who are taxpayers can take advantage.
Ownership Structure, Corporate Governance Reform and Firm Performance in Kuwait

This paper examines the link between ownership structure and firm performance in Kuwaiti firms in the context of recent corporate governance reform. Panel data robust regressions of firm performance against ownership structure specify variously the former using the returns on assets and equity, the debt to equity ratio, leverage, and Tobin’s Q and the latter as family, government and local and foreign institutional ownership. We find family ownership has the most influence on firm performance followed by government ownership, but disproportionately to their actual shares of ownership. Importantly, corporate governance reform appears to have had little effect in moving to a first voluntary then compulsory corporate governance code and guidelines, suggesting many firms had either adopted good governance principles under market pressure or exited the industry in anticipation of the more stringent regulatory controls.
Mining the Short Side: Institutional Investors and Stock Market Anomalies

Abstract This article investigates the short-side anomaly trading behavior of alternative mutual funds (AMFs) based on their short positions in U.S. domestic equities. In aggregate, AMFs demonstrate the ability to exploit well-documented stock market anomalies on the short side, and the overpriced stocks sold short by AMFs generate significant negative alpha. Further, AMFs’ short-side trades exhibit significant return predictability, which can at least partially derive from their ability to process public information on firm and anomaly characteristics. Finally, AMFs’ short-side anomaly-based trading activity and profitability appear to be more pronounced among the stocks with higher credit risk or dynamic short-selling risk.
Firm Failure and the Exploration/Exploitation Dilemma:The Role of Firm Life Cycle

Firms face a ceaseless dilemma of adaptation to their environments by embracing the right combination of exploration/exploitation strategies. Regarding this quandary’s long-term impact, we propose a novel theoretical model linking the pursuit of exploration and exploitation approaches and the likelihood of firm failure, stressing the crucial moderating role of the firm life cycle that substantively shapes the underlying relationships. The model is empirically tested using a large panel dataset from 1988 to 2019, clearly revealing the moderating impact of the five stages of the firm life cycle (and the transition phase between them) on the association between exploration and exploration and firm failure. The findings indicate that exploration has a significant negative impact on firm failure at the growth, maturity, and transition stage; however, it has a significant positive impact on firm failure at the introduction stage. Exploitation has a significant negative impact on firm failure at the maturity stage.
Business Flies: The Trade Promoting Effect of Air Connectivity

Despite the increasing dominance of digital technology in modern communications, face-to-face interactions are believed to play an irreplaceable role in facilitating complex cross-border business transactions. However, empirical research to identify the impact often faces the challenge of two-way causality when cross-country in-person meetings are measured by international air passenger flows. We propose a novel instrumental variable to estimate the causal effect of international air travel on bilateral trade. Our identification strategy exploits variations in connecting flight capacities in the global flight network to leverage exogenous variations in the air connectivity between two countries. With the inclusion of stringent fixed effects in our estimations and checked for robustness against many possible threats to the identification, our results show that international air connectivity facilitates trade between countries, but only for industries with a higher reliance on relationship-specific investments or incomplete contracts. We also find that stronger enforcement of contracts in the importing country amplifies the trade promoting effect of air connectivity, and that trade in new products, relative to existing products, responds more positively to improved air transport links. Together, these findings suggest that in-person communications reduce transaction costs in international trade by facilitating the exchange of complex knowledge that cannot be easily and completely codified and by breaking market entry barriers.
Consequences of Inconvenient Information: Evidence from Sentencing Disparities

Inconvenient information about the performance of public institutions may undermine public trust. In an experiment, I test how information about sentencing disparities among judges in the Czech Republic affects respondents’ perception of the judicial system. I find no effect on respondents’ declared institutional trust and willingness to rely on the formal judicial system. Instead, the information marginally increased respondents’ policy involvement: They became more likely to: (i) sign a petition that invites politicians to address the underlying issue, and (ii) consider fairness of the judicial system a more important policy issue. The increased interest in the petition was driven by mothers, who are arguably more sensitive to the particular treatment information in the presented case of a failure to pay alimony. JEL Codes: H11, H40, D02, D83, K40.
Are Import Prices More Elastic To Local Currency Depreciations Than Appreciations?

Exchange rates and international prices are endogenous – exchange rates influence export prices directly through the costs of intermediate imports, but import price inflation feeds back into the exchange rates indirectly through monetary policy. This paper shows how to quantify the causal effect of exchange rate movements on international prices by imposing micro-founded identification restrictions derived from an estimated multi-country business cycle model. It further tests whether exchange rate transmission into import prices is non-linear by replicating the observed higher-order moments of OECD export price inflation and wage growth in reduced form. The model predicts that US import prices at the border are on average 11% more elastic to USD depreciations than appreciations – the skewness of OECD export price inflation is transmitted through widespread participation in Global Value Chains (GVC). Consequently, if monetary authorities of OECD economies were equally averse to inflation and deflation, USD appreciations would not deteriorate the US trade balance by as much as it would improve when the USD depreciates.
Dynamic Spending Responses to Wealth Shocks: Evidence from Quasi-Lotteries on the Stock Market

How much and over what horizon do households adjust their consumption in response to stock market wealth shocks? We address these questions using granular data on spending and stock portfolios from a large bank and exploiting lottery-like variation in gains across investors with similar portfolio characteristics. Consistent with the permanent income hypothesis, spending responses to stock market gains are immediate and persistent. The responses cumulate to a marginal propensity to consume of around 4% over a one-year horizon. The estimates differ substantially by household liquidity, but not by financial attention, as measured by the frequency of account logins.
Care-Dependent Tontines

With the gradual deepening of aging, the medical and pension problems of the half-disabled and disabled elderly will become increasingly prominent. Policymakers, academics, and the public at large shed extensive concerns about the cost of aging societies. Although long-term care (LTC) insurance comes up as one of the solutions, private LTC does not perform well in the market. The combination of tontines with long-term care contingency stands out as an alternative to attract participants. In this article, we propose two ways of designing the care-dependent tontines: (i) all the insured members are considered to be in one pool; (ii) at each time t, we allocate them into two groups: the healthy and the severely sick. We find out the optimal payment structures of the care-dependent tontine as well as the care-dependent annuity that maximize the policyholder’s expected lifetime utility. Based on data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we theoretically and numerically compare the different care-dependent products in consideration with an actuarially fair premium. Results imply that the care-dependent annuity is the most attractive one. However, when we take account of the risk charges to further compare the products, we find that both care-dependent tontines present as better choices of policyholders in comparison with care-dependent annuities. Moreover, two-pool care-dependent tontines draw attractions to the policyholder with a smaller risk aversion coefficient, while one-pool care-dependent tontines are more appealing to the more risk-averse policyholders.
Fair Value of Earnouts: Valuation Uncertainty or Cookie Jar Reserve?

This study investigates the economic consequences of fair valuing earnouts required by IFRS 3 (2008). Due to the counterintuitive income statement effects of fair value accounting for changes in financial liabilities, acquirers are motivated to overstate earnout liabilities, with a subsequent reversal of unpaid earnout liabilities recorded as income. Using a sample of acquisitions by Australian firms over 2001–2017, we find evidence of managerial opportunism in earnout accounting. We show that IFRS 3 (2008) leads to a significant increase in both the frequency and magnitude of earnouts in public acquirers’ transactions. In addition, firms with ex-ante higher leverage, greater operating cash flow, and lower profitability are more likely to overstate earnout liabilities, while high-quality auditors help curtail such reporting discretion. Further, investors are able to assess overstated earnout liabilities and related goodwill. Overall, we highlight the unintended consequences of fair value accounting on earnout contracting and acquirers’ financial reporting.
Quantification of a lung cancer biomarker using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Detecting lung cancer is di cult as it is hidden in the body, and current clinical methods are not e↵ective at an early stage; the one-year survival rate after diagnosis in the World is just 29-33%. Acetyl amantadine (AcAm) is recognised as an exogeneous cancer biomarker because it is the product of a metabolic process known to be significantly up-regulated in cancerous cells. After ingestion, the antiparkinson and antiviral drug amantadine is acetylated in the body by the enzyme spermidine/spermine N1 acetyltransferase to give AcAm, which can be detected in patient’s urine. However, techniques previously used to quantify AcAm in urine, such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), are undesirable for clinical adoption due to high costs and long run times. Further costs and delays result from the requirement for solid phase extraction (SPE). Therefore, it is highly desired to lower the costs and delays in processing by exploring di↵erent quantification approaches, ideally without the need for SPE processing. In this thesis, I investigate the use of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to quantify AcAm in urinalysis. I prepare two kinds of Raman substrates with hydrophobic pocket surface capture agents -cyclodextrin ( -CD) that work to extract the AcAm from the urine, followed by the surface enhanced Raman measurement using two kinds of Raman systems. The detection strategy is more economical than the currently used LC-MS approach, and enables development of an easy-to-use point-of-care tool that should provide a more rapid turnaround to
ISING MODELS ON LOCALLY TREE-LIKE GRAPHS 1

We consider ferromagnetic Ising models on graphs that converge locally to trees. Examples include random regular graphs with bounded degree and uniformly random graphs with bounded average degree. We prove that the “cavity” prediction for the limiting free energy per spin is correct for any positive temperature and external ﬁeld . Further, local marginals can be approximated by iterating a set of mean ﬁeld (cavity) equations. Both results are achieved by proving the local convergence of the Boltzmann distribution on the original graph to the Boltzmann distribution on the appropriate inﬁnite random tree.