Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Obesity a Favorable Prognostic Factor in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients?

Objective To determine the influence of an elevated body mass index (BMI) on cardiovascular outcomes and survival in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Design Prospective, observational study of a prevalent PD cohort at a single center. Setting Tertiary care institutional dialysis center. Patients The study included all patients with a BMI of at least 20 who had been receiving PD for at least 1 month as of 31 January 1996 (n = 43). Patients were classified as overweight [BMI > 27.5; mean ± standard error of mean (SEM): 32.1 ± 1.1; n = 14] or normal weight (BMI 20 – 27.5; mean ± SEM: 23.8 ± 0.4; n = 29). Outcome Measures Patient survival and adverse cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, congestive cardiac failure, cerebrovascular accident, and symptomatic peripheral vascular disease) were recorded over a 3-year period. Results At baseline, no significant differences were seen between the groups in clinical, biochemical, nutritional, or echocardiographic parameters, except for a lower dietary protein intake (0.97 ± 0.10 g/kg/day vs 1.44 ± 0.10 g/ kg/day, p = 0.004) and a higher proportion of well-nourished patients by subjective global assessment (100% vs 72%, p < 0.05) in the overweight group. After 3 years of follow-up, 29% of overweight patients and 69% of normal-weight patients had died (p < 0.05). Using a Cox proportional hazards model, a BMI greater than 27.5 was shown to be an independent positive predictor of patient survival, with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.09 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01 – 0.85; p < 0.05]. However, being overweight did not significantly influence myocardial infarction-free survival (adjusted HR: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.07 – 1.48; p = 0.15) or combined adverse cardiovascular event-free survival (adjusted HR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.23 – 1.93; p = 0.46). Conclusions Obesity conferred a significant survival advantage in our PD population. Obese patients should therefore not be discouraged from receiving PD purely on the basis of BMI. Moreover, maintaining a higher-than-average BMI to preserve “nutritional reserve” may help to reduce the mortality and morbidity rates associated with PD.
Inflation Bias with Dynamic Phillips Curves

We generalise the analysis of inflation bias with dynamic Phillips curves in three respects. First, we examine the discretionary (time consistent) solution in cases where the Phillips curve has both a backward looking and forward-looking component. Second, we show that the commitment (time inconsistent) solution does not normally involve zero inflation and output at its natural rate. Instead, with a purely forward-looking Phillips curve and positive discounting, it will involve a dynamic path for inflation in which steady state inflation is below its target. In this sense, we obtain negative inflation bias. Third, we show that the timeless perspective policy has the same steady state as the commitment case, but without any short-term output gains.
Possible Economic Consequences of a Trade Agreement Between the Customs Union and the European Union

In this work we analyze the possible economic consequences of a free trade agreement that would suppose bilateral zero import tariffs between the Customs Union (CU) and European Union (EU). This analysis is carried out by using the general equilibrium model Globe v1. We estimate the effect that creation of a free trade area could have on the economies of member countries at the level of both the full economy and individual sectors. We analyze the sensitivity of our results to changes in the model's parameters. We show that, in both relative and absolute terms, Russia has potentially more to gain from this agreement than the EU. The CU would see positive gains overall, but the benefits and costs would be distributed unevenly among its members.
Baclofen as an Adjuvant Analgesic for Cancer Pain

Purpose: Baclofen is a g-aminobutyric acid receptor agonist commonly used for managing many types of neuropathic pain. The effect of baclofen on cancer pain has not previously been studied. This retrospective study evaluated the efficacy of baclofen in patients with cancer pain. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of all patients given baclofen orally as an analgesic for cancer at 5 institutions. Result: Twenty-five patients received 10 to 40 mg of baclofen for cancer pain relief. Twenty patients have undergone neuropathic pain such as paroxysmal or lancing, sharp, or like an electric shock. Baclofen was effective in 21 of 25 patients and significantly reduced Numeric Rating Scale (pain score, 0-10; P < .0001). Nine patients reported mild adverse events: none of these 9 patients had to discontinue baclofen due to adverse events. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that baclofen may be a useful adjuvant analgesic in the treatment of cancer pain.
Canadian Business Schools: Going Out of Business?

Abstract This article uses Michael Porter's “five forces model” to assess the state of competition in the Canadian university-based business school industry. This analysis indicates that Canada's business schools are becoming increasingly vulnerable to competitive pressures and that their competitive fitness is dependent on an agenda of strategic reorientation. Specific susceptibilities and strategic options for dealing with them are discussed.
Time Pro-Rata Matching: Evidence of a Change in LIFFE STIR Futures

Matching algorithms are important for well‐functioning financial markets. This paper examines the 2007 change by LIFFE, to move from pure pro‐rata to time pro‐rata allocation for the Euribor, Short Sterling, and Euroswiss futures contracts. We show that the removal of pure pro‐rata matching reduces market depth but suggest that this outcome improves execution quality for market participants. Our results are consistent with suggestions in the literature that the former regime creates incentives for traders to “drown” the order book with large orders and that the addition of a time element to this algorithm alters their behavior. We provide evidence that traders increase the amount of order splitting in the new framework, consistent with local optimizing, but argue that this may hinder overall market efficiency. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 35:522–541, 2015
Three-Dimensional Model for Determining Inhomogeneous Thermal Dosage in a Liver Tumor During Arterial Embolization Hyperthermia Incorporating Magnetic Nanoparticles

Hyperthermia treatment incorporating magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) is a hopeful therapy for cancers. Acquiring information about the MNPs' deposition in tumor tissues and modeling magnetic heating in vivo are essential for successful treatment. In this paper, we discuss the inhomogeneous heat generation by MNPs distributed heterogeneously in a liver tumor during arterial embolization hyperthermia (AEH) treatments. In order to more accurately simulate the temperature elevation for an AEH treatment plan, we conducted the following experiments. First, we detected the distribution of magnetic field intensity in the aperture of a ferrite-core applicator. We found that attenuation of the magnetic field focuses mainly on the vertical distance of the aperture, which makes MNPs in tissues have different power loss along the lognitudinal axis. Second, we prepared 20 nm monodisperse lipiodol-soluble MNPs and injected super-selectively through the micro-catheter into the arteries of a rabbit with a VX-2 liver tumor. By histological cuts of the investigated specimen, as well as computed tomography (CT), we found MNPs mainly concentrated on the tumor periphery. Last, from the experimental information, we established a new model for simulating the increasing temperature in the liver tumor based on our inhomogeneous interior-heat-source analysis (IIA). We also compared the simulated results with the two types of homogeneous models. The results showed that IIA gives significantly different results from those for a homogeneous model and thus is preferable when an accurate treatment plan is required during AEH.
Sex-Related Allergic Rhinitis Prevalence Switch from Childhood to Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: A sex-related switch in the prevalence of asthma from childhood (male predominance) to adulthood (female predominance) has been described, but for allergic rhinitis this remains unclear. We aimed to examine sex- and age-group-specific differences in allergic rhinitis prevalence by systematically evaluating studies from across the globe. Methods: A systematic search of MEDLINE and Embase for population-based cross-sectional studies was performed regardless of the language of publication. The search was restricted to the present millennium (2000 to June 2014). Study quality was defined by the sampling method, response rate, sample size, and data collection method. To assess sex differences in the prevalence of self- or parent-reported symptoms of rhinitis, calculated pooled estimates of the male-female ratio (MFR) were obtained using random-effects model meta-analyses due to heterogeneity. A meta-regression analysis was also performed. Results: Out of 6,539 publications identified, 67 cross-sectional population-based studies (291,726 males and 301,781 females) were included in our meta-analysis. In children (<11 years of age) significantly more boys than girls had rhinitis symptoms (MFR 1.21, 95% CI 1.17-1.25), whereas in adolescents (11 to <18 years of age) males were significantly less often affected than females (MFR 0.90, 95% CI 0.85-0.95). No sex-specific prevalence difference was observed in adults (MFR 0.96, 95% CI 0.83-1.17). These findings were consistent in all continents except in Asia, where the male predominance remained beyond childhood. Conclusions: The male predominance of rhinitis prevalence in childhood changed towards a female predominance in adolescence across the globe, except in Asia. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these cross-sectional data and examine possible determinants and underlying mechanisms.
Image Quality in a Standardized Algorithm for Minimally Invasive Coronary Angiography with Multislice Spiral Computed Tomography

Purpose To report our experience with a standardized approach to pharmacologic heart rate control and image postprocessing for computed tomographic coronary angiography (CTCA) with multislice computed tomography (MSCT). Method Two experienced observers used transaxial tomograms and maximum-intensity projections to classify coronary segments (12 per patient, 135 consecutive patients) for degree of stenosis. One factor affecting image quality was identified for each segment that could not be assessed. Results Nine patients (7%) were excluded for technical reasons. Of 1,512 segments from 126 patients, 1,086 (72%) were assessable (8.6 per patient). Of 300 segments from 25 patients who also had selective coronary angiography, CTCA was able to assess 211 (70%) and detected significant disease in 27 (82% sensitivity, 96% specificity, 73% positive predictive value, and 97% negative predictive value). Vessel caliber, heart rate, and Agatston score were associated with inability to assess 426 coronary segments (28%). Conclusion Heart rate and Agatston score are important predictors of the ability to assess proximal and midcoronary segments by CTCA with MSCT.
Variance decomposition analysis of the demand for foreign money in Egypt

The demand for money is an important function of stabilization policies where such policies depend on the ability to manipulate the size of money supply in order to insulate real output from monetary disturbances. This paper investigates whether foreign money in Egypt should be included in transactions oriented measures of money supply. Variance decompositions analysis of demand functions for domestic money reveals that deviation of the expected rate of return on foreign money from that on domestic money is more influential than expected depreciation in accounting for quarterly forecast error variance in domestic real balances. This result suggests that portfolio rather than transactions considerations is the dominant factor behind holding foreign money in Egypt. The main policy implication contained in these results implies that foreign money should not be included in transactions oriented measures of money supply that are used as targets when implementing a monetary policy.
Protection against Pertussis in Humans Correlates to Elevated Serum Antibodies and Memory B Cells

Pertussis is a respiratory infection caused by Bordetella pertussis that may be particularly severe and even lethal in the first months of life when infants are still too young to be vaccinated. Adults and adolescents experience mild symptoms and are the source of infection for neonates. Adoptive maternal immunity does not prevent pertussis in the neonate. We compared the specific immune response of mothers of neonates diagnosed with pertussis and mothers of control children. We show that women have pre-existing pertussis-specific antibodies and memory B cells and react against the infection with a recall response increasing the levels specific serum IgG, milk IgA, and the frequency of memory B cells of all isotypes. Thus, the maternal immune system is activated in response to pertussis and effectively prevents the disease indicating that the low levels of pre-formed serum antibodies are insufficient for protection. For this reason, memory B cells play a major role in the adult defense. The results of this study suggest that new strategies for vaccine design should aim at increasing long-lived plasma cells and their antibodies.
Protective effects of cold temperature and surface‐contact on acid tolerance of Salmonella spp.

Aims: To determine the effect of cold‐storage temperature and surface contact on the survival of Salmonella spp. during acid challenge. To determine the contribution of sigmatranscrip‐ tional factor (encoded by rpoS) in surface contact‐mediated acid tolerance. Methods and Results:Salmonella serovar Typhimurium cells in exponential and stationary growth phase were subjected to acid challenge in planktonic and surface‐associated states. Low temperatures offered protection against acid challenge to cells which were in stationary growth phase (but not to those in exponential growth phase). The cells from stationary, as well as logarithmic growth phase, acquired increased acid tolerance upon surface contact with various surfaces, such as fresh‐cut apples, agar and polyethersulphone membranes. The alternative sigma transcription factor was not required to acquire surface contact‐mediated acid tolerance. Conclusions:Salmonella spp. take advantage of low temperature and surface association to overcome acid challenge. Some of the acid tolerance mechanisms are independent of the sigma transcription factor regulon. Significance and Impact of the Study: Effective control measures during produce processing must take into account the different susceptibilities of planktonic vs surface‐associated food‐borne pathogens.
Technical Change, Labor Use, and Income Distribution in the Muda Irrigation Project

Factors influencing the performance of net farm income in families who adopted the double cropping regime in Malaysia are analyzed in light of the Muda Irrigation Project, which supplies off-season water to approximately 250,000 acres of padi land in N.W. Malaysia. From 1970, when water was first released, to 1975, when the full feasible command area was served, most of the project area's 50,000 farm families switched from single to double cropping. This switch was accompanied by an extremely rapid adoption of short-maturing, improved varieties of rice and large increases in yield in both seasons. The result of this technical change was an increase in padi production from 384,721 tons in 1969 to 795,830 tons in 1974, approximately 50 percent of the country's production. There were also important changes in net farm income, labor use, and output and factor prices. Factors related and unrelated to the Muda project are found to have caused these changes.
Human-action recognition module for the new generation of augmented reality applications

Augmented reality is becoming more and more popular due to the countless number of practical applications. A key element is the understanding of the scene and the involved human activities to be able to offer a rich interaction with the world via virtual actions and elements. For this purpose, a new vision-based human-action recognition module has been developed to be integrated with the new generation of augmented reality devices, which is based on Spatio-Temporal Interest Points and the Citation K-Nearest Neighbor classifier.
Population and income change : recent evidence

This study undertakes a detailed empirical assessment, based on international cross-country data for the period from the 1960s, of the correlations between aggregate population and per capita output growth. Two notable findings are obtained. First, the correlations, which in earlier decades were not statistically significant, have turned strongly negative for the 1980s. Second, over the entire period from 1960, both the direction and the size of the correlations vary by the level of economic development: the correlation is most likely to be negative (positive) in relatively poor (wealthy) countries. An explanation for the new and statistically robust correlations is not yet available. On the one hand, possibly the negative consequences of rapid population growth associated with diminishing returns to capital and the environment are emerging as relatively more important forces than, say, the positive impacts of scale, induced innovation/technical change, and/or attenuating feedbacks. On the other hand, possibly the 1980s represent an anomaly, plagued as they were with world recession, war, droughts, structural adjustments, and declining and low terms of trade - especially in the high population growth-rate countries. In the first case, the negative correlations may persist; in the second, they may revert to the previous pattern of little or no association. Some modest evidence of persistence is presented that shows a negative impact of demographic dependency on saving rates for the 1980s. However, other avenues of demographic-economic interactions require empirical exploration before one can attach much confidence to the persistence of the new correlations.
Political and Economic Incentives of Government in Partial Privatization

This study examines the government's incentives to control partially privatized SOEs in share issue privatization in China. In addition to controlling firms in strategic industries, in certain geographical areas, and that have related party transactions, our result shows that government selects and controls firms that have better valuations and employs more workers vis-a-vis comparable private firms. Particularly, local governments, which are more likely to face hard budget constraints, might spend the profits of government controlled firms to hire more workers (Boycko et al., 1996), suggesting that government pursues efficiency and political objectives simultaneously. Our study finds that local governments prefer to control relatively more efficient firms that hire more workers, while central government prefer to controls firms that hire more workers regardless of efficiency. We estimate the impact of government's decision on firm valuations and employment and find a pronounced economic impact to preserve employment and a limited impact to improve efficiency.
Equity Returns, Bankruptcy Risk and Asset Pricing Models

Empirical tests of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) have shown that movements in a single factor market index poorly explain returns on individual securities. Assuming that a possible reason is the existence of pricing anomalies, more recent research has extended the model by adding new factors to explain systematic variations in stock returns and achieved significant results. In particular, securities with high book to market ratios (book equity divided by market equity, BE/ME) appear to command a value premium. Notwithstanding considerable empirical evidence, there is no definitive theoretical explanation for what remains an anomaly. One suggestion is that the BE/ME premium compensates for the systematic risk associated with financial distress. To explore this proposition, this paper examines the behaviour of CAPM and three-factor models when tested using portfolios that face bankruptcy risk. To define bankruptcy risk, measures in the UK that parallel the work of Altman (1968) z-score model such as Lis (1972) are used and the period under consideration is 1981-1999. An additional factor is then created, defined as a value weighted portfolio of returns of firms likely to go bankrupt minus firms predicted not to go bankrupt. The significance of this variable is also assessed. The results show that the three-factor model provides a better explanation of equity returns than other models. The additional independent variable is significant for the CAPM model but becomes insignificant under the three-factor model. Monthly returns in excess of the one month t-bill tend to be lower for firms facing bankruptcy risk than other portfolios. The portfolio of firms facing high risk of bankruptcy has lower market value and book-to-market value than other portfolios although it still loads relatively high on the BE/ME variable implying that the BE/ME variable is a proxy for relative distress.
The Social Health of the Nation: How America Is Really Doing

Rejecting the notion that economic indicators are the only valid measures of progress in the United States, the authors offer a fuller and deeper view of the quality of life in the United States, presenting reliable information on such factors as the well being of America's youth, accessibility of health care, the quality of education, and the adequacy of housing. The book will include initial publication of this year's Index of Social Health, developed ;by the authors, which has been a nationally covered media event for the past twelve years. Drawing on a grant from the Ford Foundation, the authors convened a twenty-five member team, taken from the media, universities, and government, including economists, sociologists, psychologists, and physicians. With the asssistance of this working group, the authors developed this nine chapter book, providing the most up-to-date information available on improving, shifting, and worsening social performance in the United States.
Trade is not necessary for agglomeration to arise

We develop a spatial general equilibrium model in which the absence of trade is an endogenous outcome and we show that trade is not a necessary condition for agglomeration to arise. More precisely, extending the model developed by Ottaviano et al. [13], we show that equilibria without trade differ significantly from those obtained in the presence of trade. Somewhat surprisingly, equilibrium structures without trade are richer than those with trade, since partial agglomeration becomes a feasible outcome. Equilibria now depend on the ratio of mobile to immobile factors and an increase in that ratio triggers a process of spatial agglomeration. / Nous developpons un modele d'equilibre general spatial dans lequel l'absence de commerce est un resultat endogene et nous montrons que le commerce n'est pas une condition necessaire a l'agglomeration. Plus precisement, nous etendons le modele de Ottaviano et al. [13] et nous montrons que les equilibres sans commerce different significativement de ceux obtenus avec commerce. Il est surprenant que les structures d'equilibre sans commerce sont plus riches que celles avec, puisque l'agglomeration partielle peut se produire. Les equilibres dependent du ratio de facteurs mobiles et immobiles; un accroissement de ce ratio mene a un processus d'agglomeration spatial.