Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reassessing the Sustainability of Public Finances in Poland: Evidence from a Multicointegration Approach

This paper extends the analysis carried out in Tronzano (2017) reassessing the sustainability of Poland’s public finances in a stochastic environment. A single-step multicointegration test detects the existence of first-order cointegration between revenues and expenditures flows. However, these fiscal variables are not multicointegrated, thus violating a crucial condition for fiscal sustainability in a stochastic environment. Overall, this empirical evidence supports the policy implications outlined in Tronzano (2017) (further fiscal consolidation and a more balanced fiscal-mix between revenues and expenditures). A further implication is that the above guidelines should be implemented introducing a systematic policy reaction to contingent disequilibria in public debt. La sostenibilita delle finanze pubbliche in Polonia: una nuova verifica empirica basata su un approccio di multicointegrazione L’articolo estende l’analisi condotta in Tronzano (2017) riesaminando la sostenibilita delle finanze pubbliche in Polonia nell’ambito di un contesto stocastico. Il test di multicointegrazione segnala l’esistenza di cointegrazione tra i flussi di entrate e spese pubbliche. Tuttavia queste variabili fiscali non sono multicointegrate, e questo risultato segnala il mancato rispetto di una condizione importante per la sostenibilita della politica fiscale in un contesto stocastico. Nel complesso, questa nuova evidenza empirica supporta le implicazioni di politica fiscale ottenute in Tronzano (2017) (necessita di un ulteriore consolidamento fiscale e di un mix di politica fiscale piu bilanciato tra entrate e spese). Una ulteriore implicazione e che questa strategia dovrebbe essere condotta introducendo una reazione sistematica della politica fiscale a squilibri imprevisti nella dinamica del debito pubblico.
Institutional quality and trade in intermediate goods

Purpose Recently published studies stress the importance of trade in intermediate goods. The literature on determinants of trade, however, have largely focused on the sources of comparative advantage in determining aggregate trade flows rather than trade in intermediate goods. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of institutional quality and trade costs to explain the determinants of trade in intermediates. Design/methodology/approach The simple model is based on the model of comparative advantage in the gravity framework used by Eaton and Kortum (2002) and Chor (2010) to relate trade flows of intermediate goods to institutional parameters, factor endowments and geography. The empirical tests use a data set containing 172 countries and 17 industries spanning ten years. Findings The results confirm the theoretical prediction that a country with higher institutional quality has a comparative advantage in institution-intensive goods and trade costs have a negative effect on trade. The author further finds that these effects are stronger in share of trade in intermediate goods vis-à-vis final goods. Originality/value To highlight the distinct nature of trade in intermediate goods, the author separates industry trade flows as intermediate input trade and final goods (consumption goods) trade to compare the importance of different sources of comparative advantage among different types of trade flows. Unlike Eaton and Kortum (2002) and Chor (2010) who used cross-sectional data for final goods trade, the ten-year industry-level panel data are used to compare the relative importance of institutions and geography as determinants in trade in intermediate goods compared to final goods trade and capture the macroeconomic time variant factors as well as industry–country pair characteristics. A significant caveat in gravity regression is that an empirical finding may often be driven by omitted variables. Inclusion of a set of country variables such as GDP, production costs and institutional level may still allow omitted variables to bias the estimation. To avoid this problem, the author includes a fixed effect of exporter and importer as well as industry and year, instead of a set of country characteristics.
PET/CT for Therapy Response Assessment in Lymphoma

PET with 18F-FDG is a standard staging procedure for most lymphoma subtypes. Performed during and after therapy for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), 18F-FDG PET results have a high prognostic value and correlate with survival. 18F-FDG PET has been incorporated into revised response criteria for aggressive lymphomas, and several ongoing trials are under way to investigate the value of treatment adaptation based on early 18F-FDG PET results for HL and aggressive NHL. There is little evidence to support the use of 18F-FDG PET for monitoring of the treatment of indolent lymphomas and for routine use in the surveillance setting. So that trial results can be compared and translated easily into clinical practice, uniform and evidence-based guidelines for the interpretation and reporting of response monitoring scans are warranted. Because it is still not proven that the use of interim 18F-FDG PET can improve patient outcomes, we recommend examination of the use of 18F-FDG PET for response monitoring in appropriately designed clinical trials.
Biosynthesis of carbapenem antibiotic and prodigiosin pigment in Serratia is under quorum sensing control

Serratia sp. ATCC 39006 produces the carbapenem antibiotic, carbapen‐2‐em‐3‐carboxylic acid and the red pigment, prodigiosin. We have previously reported the characterization of a gene, carR, controlling production of carbapenem in this strain. We now describe further characterization of the carR locus to locate the genes encoding carbapenem biosynthetic and resistance functions. A novel family of diverse proteins showing sequence similarity to the C‐terminal domain of CarF (required for carbapenem resistance) is described. We also report the isolation of the locus involved in the biosynthesis of the red pigment, prodigiosin. A cosmid containing ≈ 35 kb of the Serratia chromosome encodes synthesis of the pigment in the heterologous host, Erwinia carotovora, demonstrating, for the first time, that the complete prodigiosin biosynthetic gene cluster had been cloned and functionally expressed. We report the isolation of a third locus in Serratia, containing convergently transcribed genes, smaI and smaR, encoding LuxI and LuxR homologues respectively. SmaI directs the synthesis of N‐acyl homoserine lactones involved in the quorum sensing process. We demonstrate that biosynthesis of the two secondary metabolites, carbapenem antibiotic and prodigiosin pigment, is under pheromone‐mediated transcriptional regulation in this bacterium. Finally, we describe a new prodigiosin‐based bioassay for detection of some N‐acyl homoserine lactones.
Dense Optical Flow based Change Detection Network Robust to Difference of Camera Viewpoints

This paper presents a novel method for detecting scene changes from a pair of images with a difference of camera viewpoints using a dense optical flow based change detection network. In the case that camera poses of input images are fixed or known, such as with surveillance and satellite cameras, the pixel correspondence between the images captured at different times can be known. Hence, it is possible to comparatively accurately detect scene changes between the images by modeling the appearance of the scene. On the other hand, in case of cameras mounted on a moving object, such as ground and aerial vehicles, we must consider the spatial correspondence between the images captured at different times. However, it can be difficult to accurately estimate the camera pose or 3D model of a scene, owing to the scene changes or lack of imagery. To solve this problem, we propose a change detection convolutional neural network utilizing dense optical flow between input images to improve the robustness to the difference between camera viewpoints. Our evaluation based on the panoramic change detection dataset shows that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art change detection algorithms.
Gender Inequality in Education and Household Poverty in Pakistan: A Case of Multan District

Present study is intended to explore the impact of gender inequality in education on poverty by employing logistic regression on primary source of data collected through a field survey of Multan district. The study concluded that gender inequality in education has adverse impact on household poverty. The probability of household poverty falls with the increase in female-male primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment. The improvement in female-male literacy ratio also rejects probability of a household being poor. Household size and number of children less than five years age have positive association with probability of poverty while the variables, qualification of household head, age of household, professional or technical skills of household head and ownership of house are negatively associated with household poverty. The study suggested that eliminating gender inequality in education in all level may be helpful in empowering women, creating productive employment opportunities in both formal and informal sectors and alleviating poverty.
36th Cordoba Guitar Festival: Spectator Analysis Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)

The Cordoba Guitar Festival is one of the most important cultural events in Spain. This article analyses the musical preferences, satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty, and behavioural loyalty of spectators who attended the 36th festival held in July 2016, as well as the festival’s economic impact on the city. These characteristics of the public give rise to the four hypotheses of this study. To achieve this aim, a structural equation model (SEM) was used. The results −χ2 = 27.79, with the p-value found to be p = P (χ2 ≥ 27.79) = 0.224—show the goodness-of-fit of the model and indicate that the observed data do fit the expected dataset. The results therefore allow us to accept the proposed hypotheses concerning the influence of different latent factors, such as musical preferences, loyalty, and satisfaction with the festival. This is the main focus with which the present study has been written. Regarding the economic impact, the Festival raised 1.2 million euros, that is, slightly more than 73,000 euros per day. The amount, although not very high, is important as additional income for the city. The conclusions show the need to consider the preferences of the spectator as an essential tool to enable the continuation and longevity of the Cordoba Guitar Festival—an important cultural destination.
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC LOSSES OF URBAN FLOODING: CASE STUDY OF CAN THO CITY, VIETNAM

This article examines the economic losses caused by urban flooding in Can Tho City, Vietnam. Opportunity-cost and household co.0sts are emphasized. Household interviews showed that annual economic losses due to flooding were 11 % of household annual income. Furthermore, the study reveals that there are differences in cost structure at different stages of flooding. An estimated regression model suggests that household location and education status were significant factors affecting economic losses. The empirical results further indicated that the before flooding cost used as proxy measure for prevention activities significantly reduced the economic cost of urban flooding in Can Tho City.
Discovering Topic Transition about the East Japan Great Earthquake in Dynamic Social Media

Once a disaster occurs, people discuss various topics in social media such as electronic bulletin boards, SNSs and video services, and their decision-making tends to be affected by discussions in social media. Under the circumstance, a mechanism to detect topics in social media has become important. This paper targets the East Japan Great Earthquake, and proposes a time series topic transition discovering method in social media. Our proposed method adopts directed graphs to show topic structures in social media, and then form clusters using modularity measure which expresses the quality of a division of a network into modules or communities. The method computes topic transition using the Matthews correlation coefficient which is a measure of the quality of two binary classifications, and analyzes them over time. An experimental result using actual social media data about the East Japan Great Earthquake is shown as well.
Correlations of topological measures with power systems vulnerability and identification of potential locations to install voltage control devices

Power systems can be regarded as complex networks; hence topological measures have been applied to the analysis of the local properties of components and in particular to the assessment of structural vulnerability. However, correlations between topological measures and vulnerability are not yet fully evidenced in the literature. These correlations have been studied for the entropy-degree and electrical-betweenness measures. Here, firstly, we provide supporting evidence on this respect by comparing the net-ability measure to the system-overload-index for the IEEE 30-bus and 118-bus base-case models, when doubling or removing lines, and for N-1 and N-2 contingency cases. Secondly, a new topological measure, average-equivalent-impedance, is proposed for the identification of potential locations to install voltage control devices. The results of this topological measure were validated by comparing them to the maximum-loading of each bus in both IEEE models and also to other device location optimization methods.
The Effect of Two Different Pedagogical Delivery Methods on Students' Retention of Knowledge over Time.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of two contrasting pedagogies (i.e., experiential learning and direct instruction) on students’ retention of agricultural knowledge over time. A six-week deferred post-test was employed to assess long-term retention of the subject matter. The results indicated that initially, students who were taught both experientially and through direct instruction experienced a statistically significant increase in analytical scores, with the direct instruction treatment group outperforming the experiential learning treatment group. However, that increase was not statistically significant but was followed by a statistically significant decrease in analytical scores six weeks following instruction. Implications exist for preparing instructors to pace their lessons in a slower fashion to increase understanding and mastery of the content learned.
Labour Market in the Czech Republic: Dsge Approach

Abstract This paper deals with the comparison of two versions of the DSGE model, supplemented with labour market frictions, based on different data used. One of the data sets has been pre-filtered with the HP filter (lambda set to 1) to get rid of any noise and the other with the original data series with measurement errors allowed. I compare the models with the following tools: parameters estimation, impulse response analysis, standard deviation and cross-correlations and recursive forecast. I also present the historical shock decomposition of the labour market variables to provide the explanation of the development in the Czech labour market, which is considered the most efficient labour market in Europe of the last couple of years with the lowest unemployment rate.
Multiple types of association of photosystem II and its light-harvesting antenna in partially solubilized photosystem II membranes.

Photosystem II is a multisubunit pigment-protein complex embedded in the thylakoid membranes of chloroplasts. It utilizes light for photochemical energy conversion, and is heavily involved in the regulation of the energy flow. We investigated the structural organization of photosystem II and its associated light-harvesting antenna by electron microscopy, multivariate statistical analysis, and classification procedures on partially solubilized photosystem II membranes from spinach. Observation by electron microscopy shortly after a mild disruption of freshly prepared membranes with the detergent n-dodecyl-alpha,D-maltoside revealed the presence of several large supramolecular complexes. In addition to the previously reported supercomplexes [Boekema, E. J., van Roon, H. , and Dekker, J. P. (1998) FEBS Lett. 424, 95-99], we observed complexes with the major trimeric chlorophyll a/b protein (LHCII) in a third, L-type of binding position (C2S2M0-2L1-2), and two different types of megacomplexes, both identified as dimeric associations of supercomplexes with LHCII in two types of binding sites (C4S4M2-4). We conclude that the association of photosystem II and its associated light-harvesting antenna is intrinsically heterogeneous, and that the minor CP26 and CP24 proteins play a crucial role in the supramolecular organization of the complete photosystem. We suggest that different types of organization form the structural basis for photosystem II to specifically react to changing light and stress conditions, by providing different routes of excitation energy transfer.
Increased transcutaneous oxygen pressure is an indicator of revascularization after peripheral transluminal angioplasty

Background: In recent years, the use of peripheral transluminal angioplasty (PTA) procedures for revascularization of an ischemic limb has increased. Evaluation of reperfusion has been carried out by Doppler scan; however, a successful PTA does not necessarily result in improved oxygen delivery to the distal parts of the limb. Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of the revascularization in diabetic patients with critical limb ischemia after treatment with PTA by comparing transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcpO2) with the ankle-brachial index (ABI) post PTA. Material and Methods: This prospective study included 151 consecutive diabetic patients. We evaluated the posterior tibial and dorsalis pedis Doppler, ABI, TcpO2, and duplex scan results. If two of these four examinations were abnormal, arteriography was carried out and PTA was performed concomitantly. At least 64 patients were considered suitable candidates for PTA. Results: The ABI increased from 0.67±0.25 to 0.84±0.25 following PTA (P<0.001). TcpO2 increased from 27.20±11.10 mm Hg to 40±12.10 mm Hg after PTA (P<0.001). While the TcpO2 could be measured in all patients, the ABI was not measurable in 25.37% pretreatment and in 17.91% post treatment. Statistical analysis revealed a scant correlation between the techniques used: TcpO2 and ABI (P=0.20). Conclusion: Our study confirms that the increase in TcpO2 in diabetic patients following PTA points to the physiologic significance of microvascular revascularization achieved in the treated limb and serves to assess functional improvement in tissue oxygenation obtained by PTA. The use of TcpO2 may represent an alternative to traditional assessment of peripheral transluminal angioplasty results.
Imperfect Information and Opportunism

Abstract: Information is a scarce resource. It is inherently available only in a limited form to decision-makers. Limited or imperfect information is caused by uncertainty — both ontologic and epistemic, limitations in cognitive capabilities or bounded rationality, hidden information, and information asymmetries. This has fundamental implications for the manner in which the self-interested behavior of agents will manifest itself. The article argues that in the context of imperfect information, self-interest can function in a manner quite different from what standard approaches assume. This has been demonstrated by the recent financial crisis. However, there has been limited consideration in mainstream models, both of the neoclassical and institutional type, as to what the exact nature of self-interestedness is, and how this affects the market behavior of agents. The nature of self-interest, therefore, needs to be modeled explicitly to improve the explanatory power of economic theories.
Regiospecific Synthesis and Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Activity of Novel 5-Substituted N-Alkylcarbamoyl and N,N-Dialkyl Carbamoyl 1,2,3-Triazole-TSAO Analogues

Several 5-N-alkyl and 5-N,N-dialkylcarbamoyl substituted analogues of the anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 lead compound[1-[2‘,5’-bis-O-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-β-D-ribofuranosyl]-5-(N,N-dimethylcarbamoyl)-1,2,3-triazole]-3‘-spiro-5“-(4”-amino-1“,2”-oxathiole-2“,2”-dioxide) have been prepared and evaluated as inhibitors of HIV-1 replication. A new regiospecific synthetic procedure is described. The compounds were prepared by cycloaddition of the appropriate glycosylazide to 2-oxo-alkylidentriphenyl-phosphoranes, followed by treatment with primary or secondary amines, to yield, exclusively, 5-substituted 1,2,3-triazole-TSAO analogues. Several 5-substituted 1,2,3-triazole-TSAO derivatives proved to be potent inhibitors of HIV-1 replication with higher antiviral selectivity than that of the parent TSAO prototype.
Sonography and Sonographically Guided Needle Biopsy of Internal Mammary Nodes in Staging of Patients With Breast Cancer.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of occult nodal metastases on routine ultrasound examination of internal mammary (IM) nodal basins in patients with breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients with primary breast cancer (n = 595) underwent breast ultrasound evaluation between September 1, 2011, and April 1, 2012. For all patients, ultrasound examination included a survey of the axillary, infraclavicular, IM, and supraclavicular nodal basins. Patient demographics, breast cancer histopathologic type, and grade, size, location, and presence of metastatic nodes in regional nodal basins were recorded. Fisher exact test and Wilcoxon rank test were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Fifty-eight of 595 (10%) patients had positive IM ultrasound finding, with eight (1.3%) patients having isolated IM involvement. Patients with positive IM ultrasound findings were statistically significantly younger than those without such findings (median age, 42 vs 57 years; p < 0.0001). Of the 58 patients with positive IM ultrasound, 29 (50%) underwent ultrasound-guided needle biopsy, which confirmed malignancy in 26 of 29 (90%) patients. Nonlateral (p < 0.001) grade 3 (p < 0.001) tumors larger than 5 cm (p < 0.0006) with the estrogen receptor-negative HER2/neu-negative subtype (p < 0.001) associated with axillary, infraclavicular, or supraclavicular metastases (p < 0.001) were more likely to be associated with positive IM ultrasound findings. IM ultrasound resulted in an N status change for 46 of 595 (8%) patients and of the overall clinical stage for 38 (6.4%) patients. CONCLUSION IM ultrasound and ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy are feasible, sensitive, and specific. Application of IM ultrasound and ultrasound-guided needle biopsy in a selected subpopulation of young patients with medial or central estrogen receptor-negative HER2/neu-negative breast cancer may result in a change in clinical stage and modify the treatment plan.