Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Macroeconomics of the Declining U.S. Labor Share: a Debt-led Explanation

This paper aims to answer two major conundrums in macroeconomic theory with regards to the U.S. economy. First, standard macroeconomic models such as Harrod-Domar and Solow theoryze that factor shares are constant; however, actual measures of the U.S. labor share have been on a downward trend since the early 1980s. The second conundrum relates to the Post-Kaleckian wage-led or profit-led view of economic growth. It indicates that a fall in the labor share in a wage-led economy will result in a fall in aggregate demand (due to deceases in consumption), and an increase in aggregate demand in a profit-led economy (due to increases in investment). However, the consumption share of GDP in the U.S. has been increasing and the investment share has been stable in spite of the falling labor share. We argue that the resolution of these conundrums involves reexamining the standard Keynesian consumption function, both theoretically and empirically. Thus, we propose an original theory of consumption based on the principles of Duesenberry’s (1949) Relative Income Hypothesis. We find that the economic consequence of a falling labor share in the United States is that aggregate demand growth, despite remaining wage-led, has become increasingly dependent on the accumulation of household debt. Furthermore, we conclude that there are four ominous outcomes associated with this dependence on household debt: unstable growth, sluggish growth, stagnation and economic contraction.
Community Membership Aspirations: The Link between Inequality and Redistribution Revisited

This article studies how distributional tensions can act in many different ways depending on the social affinity between the different economic classes and their prospect of upward or downward mobility. We consider that socioeconomic group membership through its implied social interactions and peer effects is an important determinant of an individual's outcome. Agents, while voting on a social contract, take into account the consequences of their choice over their ex post belonging to a particular community. Thus, the endogenous sorting of the population into clusters may lead to a nonmonotonic relationship between inequality and the pressure for redistributive policies.
The Interval of Observation

We revisit Kendall’s (1953) conclusion that “the interval of observation may be very important”. Contrary to his other conclusions on return predictability, this conclusion has received surprisingly little attention. Most tests in finance and economics routinely regress daily, weekly and monthly observations on daily, weekly and monthly observations, respectively. This is especially surprising because, while convenient, this convention lacks economic reasoning in many applications. For instance in the case of return predictability, if markets are - almost - efficient one would expect that - if anything - specifically new information in the last trading days in the previous months should be most informative. Then using all information in the full last month might be a crude approach to test for predictability in the shorter run. We revisit Kendall’s study; use commodity returns to predict stock returns and find that the interval of observation is indeed very important. It strongly affects conclusions regarding economic and statistical significance. For instance, we find after adjusting for potential data mining - the conventional approach can strongly underestimate actual return predictability.
Systemic upregulation of neutrophil α-defensins and serine proteases in neutrophilic asthma

Background The well-characterised airway inflammatory phenotypes of asthma include eosinophilic, neutrophilic, mixed eosinophilic/neutrophilic and paucigranulocytic asthma, identified based on the proportion of sputum granulocytes. Systemic inflammation is now recognised as an important part of some airway diseases, but the involvement of systemic inflammation in the pathogenesis of airway inflammatory phenotypes of asthma remains unknown. Methods Induced sputum samples and peripheral blood were collected from participants with asthma (n=36). Airway inflammatory cell counts were performed from induced sputum and inflammatory phenotype assigned based on the airway eosinophil and neutrophil cut-offs of 3% and 61%, respectively. RNA was extracted from whole blood and gene expression profiles were generated (Illumina Humanref-8 V3) and analysed using GeneSpring GX11. Results There were six genes classified as differentially expressed between the four asthma phenotypes, including the α-defensins (DEFA) 1, 1B, 3 and 4 and neutrophil proteases cathepsin G (CTSG) and elastase (ELA2). Systemic expression of DEFA1,1B,3,4,CTSG and ELA2 was significantly higher in the neutrophilic asthma (NA) phenotype. Microarray results of the α-defensins and neutrophil proteases were successfully validated using real-time PCR. Plasma elastase was significantly increased in people with neutrophilic airway inflammation. Conclusion There is systemic upregulation of α-defensin and neutrophil protease expression in NA, which may represent proinflammatory effects on the bone marrow and the release of immature neutrophils into the circulation. This demonstrates a systemic inflammatory component in NA that further differentiates this from other asthma phenotypes and indicates different mechanisms in NA.
A Video Experimental Investigation in Germany and the People's Republic of China

In bargaining, mutual understanding is a prerequisite for successful negotiations to reach an agreement satisfactory for all partners. This is still more important if the cultural background of the parties is different, as e.g. between Western and Asian partners. Our cross-cultural study investigates bargaining behavior in Germany and China by running a video experiment. Bargaining pairs are represented by three persons each, deciding together as a group and being video taped (Hennig-Schmidt, 1999). They bargain on the distribution of a given amount of money by alternating offers. If they consent they receive the amount agreed upon, if not, they receive a conflict payoff differing essentially for both partners. The video method is well suited for cross-cultural research because it allows direct comparison of discussions in both countries. Clear differences in negotiation styles between German and Chinese bargainers are found. Confirming results from international questionnaire studies, negotiations last significantly longer in China. Chinese negotiators in strong positions are more successful in taking advantage of the given power relation. They insist on their relative powerful position from the beginning whereas weak negotiators do not accept this position from the outset. The latter adapt to the given power relation by making significantly larger concessions than German do. Due to the transcripts, we attribute these findings to the influence of Confucian ethics, giving rise to behavior as attention to role and hierarchy.
The E-health Literacy Demands of Australia's My Health Record: A Heuristic Evaluation of Usability.

Background My Health Record is Australia's electronic personal health record system, which was introduced in July 2012. As of August 2017, approximately 21 percent of Australia's total population was registered to use My Health Record. Internationally, usability issues have been shown to negatively influence the uptake and use of electronic health record systems, and this scenario may particularly affect people who have low e-health literacy. It is likely that usability issues are negatively affecting the uptake and use of My Health Record in Australia. Objective To identify potential e-health literacy-related usability issues within My Health Record through a heuristic evaluation method. Methods Between September 14 and October 12, 2016, three of the authors conducted a heuristic evaluation of the two consumer-facing components of My Health Record-the information website and the electronic health record itself. These two components were evaluated against two sets of heuristics-the Health Literacy Online checklist and the Monkman Heuristics. The Health Literacy Online checklist and Monkman Heuristics are evidence-based checklists of web design elements with a focus on design for audiences with low health literacy. During this heuristic evaluation, the investigators individually navigated through the consumer-facing components of My Health Record, recording instances where the My Health Record did not conform to the checklist criteria. After the individual evaluations were completed, the investigators conferred and aggregated their results. From this process, a list of usability violations was constructed. Results When evaluated against the Health Literacy Online Checklist, the information website demonstrated violations in 12 of 35 criteria, and the electronic health record demonstrated violations in 16 of 35 criteria. When evaluated against the Monkman Heuristics, the information website demonstrated violations in 7 of 11 criteria, and the electronic health record demonstrated violations in 9 of 11 criteria. The identified violations included usability issues with the reading levels used within My Health Record, the graphic design elements, the layout of web pages, and a lack of images and audiovisual tools to support learning. Other important usability issues included a lack of translated resources, difficulty using accessibility tools, and complexity of the registration processes. Conclusion My Health Record is an important piece of technology that has the potential to facilitate better communication between consumers and their health providers. However, this heuristic evaluation demonstrated that many usability-related elements of My Health Record cater poorly to users at risk of having low e-health literacy. Usability issues have been identified as an important barrier to use of personal health records internationally, and the findings of this heuristic evaluation demonstrate that usability issues may be substantial barriers to the uptake and use of My Health Record.
Development of High School and Community College Students' Contemporary Learning Abilities in Globaloria-West Virginia

Research into the cognitive and learning processes that occur during video game play is growing in prominence. Digital literacy and media literacy advocates and practitioners have long emphasized the importance of media production experiences in building learners' awareness of media influences, modes of production and ownership. Further, Constructionist-learning researchers have long emphasized the epistemological value of programming games for learning and cognition. This study explores the abilities that emerge among high school and community college students who participated in a year-long program of game design and Web 2.0 activity in the Globaloria-West Virginia project of the World Wide Workshop Foundation. Findings suggest that students at “TTC” HS and “CMMC” community college were able to successfully create functioning web games throughout their semester- and year-long participation, and that in both groups, participation in the program overall contributes to the development of 6 contemporary learning abilities in cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions. We propose that game design activity contributes to the growing discourse on "gaming literacy" and “digital media and learning” (DML), and that Constructionist design and construction of games in online wiki and lab-based workshop settings can engender contemporary abilities necessary to be successful in today’s knowledge-based economy and professional work cultures.
Induction chemotherapy followed by either chemoradiotherapy or bioradiotherapy for larynx preservation: the TREMPLIN randomized phase II study.

PURPOSE To compare the efficacy and safety of induction chemotherapy (ICT) followed by chemoradiotherapy (CRT) or bioradiotherapy (BRT) for larynx preservation (LP). PATIENTS AND METHODS Previously untreated patients with stage III to IV larynx/hypopharynx squamous cell carcinoma received three cycles of ICT-docetaxel and cisplatin 75 mg/m(2) each on day 1 and fluorouracil 750 mg/m(2) per day on days 1 through 5. Poor responders (< 50% response) underwent salvage surgery. Responders (≥ 50% response) were randomly assigned to conventional radiotherapy (RT; 70 Gy) with concurrent cisplatin 100 mg/m(2) per day on days 1, 22, and 43 of RT (arm A) or concurrent cetuximab 400 mg/m(2) loading dose and 250 mg/m(2) per week during RT (arm B). Primary end point was LP at 3 months. Secondary end points were larynx function preservation (LFP) and overall survival (OS) at 18 months. RESULTS Of the 153 enrolled patients, 116 were randomly assigned after ICT (60, arm A; 56, arm B). Overall toxicity of both CRT and BRT was substantial following ICT. However, treatment compliance was higher in the BRT arm. In an intent-to-treat analysis, there was no significant difference in LP at 3 months between arms A and B (95% and 93%, respectively), LFP (87% and 82%, respectively), and OS at 18 months (92% and 89%, respectively). There were fewer local treatment failures in arm A than in arm B; salvage surgery was feasible in arm B only. CONCLUSION There is no evidence that one treatment was superior to the other or could improve the outcome reported with ICT followed by RT alone (French Groupe Oncologie Radiothérapie Tête et Cou [GORTEC] 2000-01 trial [Induction CT by Cisplatin, 5FU With or Without Docetaxel in Patients With T3 and T4 Larynx and Hypopharynx Carcinoma]). The protocol that can best compare with RT alone after ICT is still to be determined.
Local Regimes, Sub-national Governance and the ‘Power Vertical’ in Contemporary Russia

THE EMERGENCE OF LOCAL REGIMES, OR RELATIVELY stable patterns of subnational governance, became an important logical consequence of the turbulent political and economic changes in Russia’s regions and cities during the periods of the 1990s and the 2000s. We posit that these developments could be analysed within the theoretical framework of ‘urban regimes’, which have been conducted in studies of American and West European urban politics and governance over the two last decades (Mossberger & Stoker 2001; Ledyaev 2008). Despite the major differences which exist between local regimes in contemporary Russia and in the West, and their highly divergent political and institutional environments, the placement of Russian local regimes within a theoretical and comparative perspective opens new horizons for their analysis. It also provides us with a better understanding of their general trends as well as some of their peculiarities. The ‘local regime’ is defined here as a complex of political institutions, actors, and the resources and strategies available to them, which determine the conduct of local politics, local policy and local governance. Local regimes could be attributed to various territorial units at any level if they exhibited some autonomy of local politics and governance vis-à-vis the higher levels of authority. They perform under the hierarchically structured influence of three major factors: (1) exogenous structural characteristics of local regimes (geographical locations, natural resources, socioeconomic profiles, and more broadly, in a national and international developmental context); (2) political opportunities, which set up the political and institutional environment of local regimes and the incentives for their actors; and (3) patterns of governance at higher levels of authority implemented at the local level by conducting certain policies. Concurrently, outcomes of local regimes emerge as a result of the interactions of their actors within the framework of political institutions. These outcomes affect all three major inter-related local areas—local politics, local policies and local governance. It is widely accepted that trajectories of local regimes in post-communist Russia over the period of the 1990s and the 2000s resembled pendulum-like swings
Issues in immunoassay standardization: the ARCHITECT Folate model for intermethod harmonization.

Extensive variability among folate assay methods has been well described. A FLAIR round-robin study of serum and whole-blood folate results across 11 laboratories in seven European countries reported overall CVs of 18–41% (1). A CDC round-robin survey of 20 laboratories reported two- to ninefold differences in folate values among methods and laboratories (2). With increasing awareness of the nutritional importance of folate, both studies concluded that there was an acute need for improved standardization of folate testing. Recently, a comparison of five automated serum and whole-blood folate assays was reported (3). In that study, the methods were compared with the Bio-Rad Quantaphase II radioassay. Between the methods, differences as high as 40% for serum folate and 250% for whole-blood folate were noted. The authors made reference to differences in standardization as likely contributors to the variation in serum folate results, and/or differences in preparation of the whole-blood hemolysates as contributing to the variability in whole-blood folate results. The report served to underscore that little has changed with respect to between-method variability in folate testing since the round-robin surveys 8–10 years ago. Heterogeneous assays for folate measurement represent an interesting and challenging problem from a standardization standpoint. Technically, folate methods are not immunoassays because they all rely on a high-affinity folate-binding protein (FBP) as the specific capture entity rather than anti-folate antibodies.1 In addition, folate (as pteroylglutamic acid used for food fortification) is available as a stable, highly purified powder, which would seem to be ideal for gravimetric preparation of standards. With both analyte and analyte binders seemingly normalized across methods, why the large differences? The answer, which we discuss later, highlights once again the general difficulty in standardizing immuno- and bioreceptor-based assays in an absolute sense. Stenman (4) recently wrote a thoughtful review of the scientific and practical difficulties …
The amyloid precursor protein protects PC12 cells against endoplasmic reticulum stress‐induced apoptosis

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is believed to play an important role in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. In the present study, we investigated the effect of the human amyloid precursor protein (APP) on the ER stress response in PC12 cells. Tunicamycin, an inhibitor of N‐glycosylation, rapidly induced the expression of the ER‐resident chaperone Bip/grp78, a known target gene of the unfolded protein response. Prolonged treatment with tunicamycin (≥ 12 h) resulted in the activation of executioner caspases 3 and 7. Interestingly, PC12 cells overexpressing human wild‐type APP (APPwt) showed increased resistance to tunicamycin‐induced apoptosis compared with empty vector‐transfected controls. This neuroprotective effect was significantly diminished in cells expressing the Swedish mutation of APP (KM670/671NL). Similar effects were observed when ER stress was induced with brefeldin A, an inhibitor of ER‐to‐Golgi protein translocation. Of note, APP‐mediated neuroprotection was not associated with altered expression of Bip/grp78 or transcription factor C/EBP homologous protein‐10 (CHOP/GADD153), suggesting that APP acted either downstream or independently of ER‐to‐nucleus signaling. Our data indicate that APP plays an important physiological role in protecting neurons from the consequences of prolonged ER stress, and that APP mutations associated with familial Alzheimer's disease may impair this protective activity.
Phase I pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic dose-escalation study of RG7160 (GA201), the first glycoengineered monoclonal antibody against the epidermal growth factor receptor, in patients with advanced solid tumors.

PURPOSE We conducted a phase I dose-escalation study to characterize the safety, efficacy, pharmacokinetic (PK), and pharmacodynamic properties of RG7160 (GA201), a humanized and glycoengineered immunoglobulin G(1) anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody with enhanced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. PATIENTS AND METHODS Seventy-five patients with advanced EGFR-positive solid tumors received RG7160 (50 to 1,400 mg) administered every week, every 2 weeks, or every 3 weeks. Dose escalation followed a three-plus-three trial design. RESULTS No maximum-tolerated dose was reached for any dosing schedule. Common adverse events (AEs) included rash (80% of patients), infusion-related reactions (77%), and hypomagnesemia (56%). Grades 3 and 4 AEs were rash (grade 3, 25%), infusion-related reaction (grade 3, 7%; grade 4, 1%), paronychia (grade 3, 3%), and hypomagnesemia (grade 3, 1%; grade 4, 1%). RG7160 exposure increased greater than proportionally over the 50- to 400-mg dose range (with greater than proportional decline in clearance) and approximately dose proportionally above 400 mg (where clearance plateaued). A marked reduction in circulating natural killer cells and increased infiltration of immune effector cells into skin rash were seen. Clinical efficacy included one complete response and two partial responses in patients with colorectal cancer (including one with KRAS mutation) and disease stabilization in 27 patients. CONCLUSION RG7160 had an acceptable safety profile with manageable AEs and demonstrated promising efficacy in this heavily pretreated patient cohort. On the basis of modeling of available PK parameters, the RG7160 dose selected for part two of this study is 1,400 mg on days 1 and 8 followed by 1,400 mg every 2 weeks.
Speech enhancement with improved a posteriori SNR computation

In speech enhancement, the decision-directed (DD) approach to compute the a priori SNR is often used to reduce the musical tones. However, the constant DD weighting factor very close to one results in more speech distortion during transitional speech segments. Contrarily, a time-varying weighting factor gives less speech distortion but with more residual noise in speech pause. In this contribution we present a new a posteriori SNR computation to relax the dependence on the decision-directed weighting factor. By computing the a posteriori SNR with a time-varying weighting factor, we actually derive a correction factor to the time-varying DD weighting factor resulting in less speech distortion during transitions, as well as less residual noise in speech pause.