Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circulating Naïve and CD4+CD25high Regulatory T Cells in Patients With Autoimmune Pancreatitis

Objective: Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a new clinical entity of pancreatic disorder. There are several immunologic and histological abnormalities specific for the disease, including increased levels of serum IgG4 and infiltration of lymphocytes and IgG4-positive plasmacytes. The role of IgG4 is unclear. Recently, regulatory T cells (Tregs) have been reported to be involved in the development of various autoimmune diseases as well as B cell shifting to IgG4-producing plasmacytes. To clarify the role of Tregs in the pathophysiology of AIP, we analyzed circulating Tregs in AIP. Methods: We recruited 27 patients with AIP for this study. For comparison, we also recruited 23 patients with other pancreatic disease and 32 healthy subjects as controls. We analyzed Tregs as CD4+CD25high and CD4+CD25+CD45RA+ (naïve) from peripheral blood by flow cytometry. Results: In peripheral blood, CD4+CD25high Tregs were significantly increased in AIP patients (3.01% ± 1.77%) compared with alcoholic chronic pancreatitis (CP) (1.65% ± 0.58%), idiopathic CP (1.53% ± 0.56%), and healthy control (1.72% ± 0.81%, P < 0.05). Naïve Tregs significantly decreased in AIP (0.32% ± 0.22%) compared with healthy control (0.83% ± 0.65%) and CP group (alcoholic and idiopathic CP; 0.52% ± 0.40%, P < 0.05). In untreated AIP patients, the number of CD4+CD25high Tregs and IgG4 are correlated (R = 0.53, P < 0.05). Conclusions: Increased numbers of CD4+CD25 high Tregs may influence IgG4 production in AIP, whereas decreased numbers of naïve Tregs may be involved in the pathogenesis of AIP.
Do equity investments affect banks’ profitability? Evidence from OECD countries

This paper analyses the influence of equity investments on banks’ profitability in a panel data of 24 OECD countries. The results suggest a positive influence of banks’ equity investments on banks’ interest rate margin and banks’ net income that is not outweighed by additional requirements of provisions and capital that supervisory authorities establish to control bank risk. The positive effect equity investments have on banks’ interest margin is consistent with the banks’ ability as shareholders to obtain benefits in the lending relationship they also keep with firms.
Financial constraints and investment decisions: evidence from a highly unstable emerging economy

This study analyses the role of financial constraints on the investment decisions of 497 Brazilian firms. We use panel data, with firm-specific information for different years, allowing for the abandonment of the representative firm model. Information on capital intensity at the firm level is used to group firms. We estimate different models and the results suggest the presence of financial restrictions, especially for capital-intensive firms.
What the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation can learn from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation

This article attempts to draw attention to some important lessons that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) can learn from the experience of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC). FSLIC was the government agency that insured deposits at savings and loan associations until it was replaced in 1989, leaving a massive deficit to be financed by taxpayers. Like FSLIC, the PBGC is a government agency that guarantees a form of private corporate debt. As guarantor of the pension benefits promised by private plan sponsors, the PBGC bears the risk of a shortfall between the value of insured benefits and the assets securing those benefits. There has been a significant change in the attitude and behavior of senior public officials and legislators as a result of the S&L debacle. Directors of the PBGC and the Secretaries of Labor to whom they report have pointed out the weaknesses of some of the pension funds that the PBGC insures and have pursued an active legislative agenda designed to reduce the PBGC's vulnerability to those weaknesses. Those efforts have resulted in a series of laws and amendments to laws that have significantly improved the U.S. pension guarantee system. But the magnitude of the PBGC's exposure to shortfall risk depends on three factors: (1) the financial strength of plan sponsors, (2) the degree of underfunding of insured benefits, and (3) the mismatch between the market-risk exposure of insured benefits (a form of long-term corporate debt) and the market-risk exposure of the assets securing that debt. Only the first two of these have been addressed by past legislative reforms. The third factor appears not to be well understood. It is apparently a widespread belief among policymakers that a well-diversified pension portfolio of equity securities provides an effective long-run hedge against liabilities of defined-benefit pension plans, so that there is no mismatch problem. This belief is mistaken. Equities are not a hedge against fixed-income liabilities even in the long run. Thus, even if the PBGC achieves the goal of full funding at one point in time, the mismatch between the market-risk exposure of the pension benefits that it insures and the pension assets backing them creates the potential for large shortfall losses in the future as the economy and capital market rates change in unpredictable ways. Therein lies an uncomfortable parallel with the S&L debacle.
Does surprise really matter? Unexpected central banks events and their eect on nancial market

On September 9, 2011 the euro dropped to a six-month low against the dollar, whereas on the same day stocks fell sharply at the opening on Wall Street. These negative reactions of the market were caused not by a pessimistic forecast of the Eurozone, but in result of an announcement that Jurgen Stark, a member of the Executive Board (EB) of the European Central Bank (ECB) resigns from his position before the end of his tenure. We analyze this and similar events using an event study approach. We investigate nancial markets reactions to these situations by following changes in exchange rates and stock market indexes. The use of intra-day data helps to isolate variability of variables in interest from inuence of other news and events. Es- timations using EGARCH models allow us to justify our hypothesis that unexpected personal changes in the Euro zone inuenced larger instability of
The Operation of Internal Labour Markets: Three Case Studies

The employment policies and practices of firms could be expected to exert an influence on the career patterns of their labour forces. The literature suggests that many of these policies and practices would have developed in response to the technological, managerial, and information needs of individual firms and would be specific to the particular firm. To investigate these relationships, detailed case studies were undertaken in three Western Australian firms. The results show that, in two of the firms for certain job ladders, and in the third for its total labour force, employ ment policies and practices were sensitive to the internal technological and other re quirements of the firm in ways that cut across expected market oriented responses to the labour market at large. Personnel on these job ladders did experience patterns of tenure, career path, training, and earnings that indicate response to these policies and practices. However, while some evidence was found that earnings of those on such job ladders were responsive to variables related to career within the firm, general investments in education and training appeared to be dominant.
Efficient FLP recombination in mouse ES cells and oocytes

Summary: We report an improved vector, pCAGGS‐FLPe, for transient expression of the enhanced FLP recombinase in mouse ES cells and oocytes. In standard transfection experiments, about 6% of total ES colonies showed FLP recombination, albeit with mosaicism within each colony. After microinjection of pCAGGS‐FLPe into oocytes, about one‐third of heterozygotic mice born showed complete FLP recombination. Thus pCAGGS‐FLPe presents two practical options for removal of FRT cassettes in mice. genesis 31:6–10, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Economic impact of reduced milk production associated with Johne's disease on dairy operations in the USA

Accurately assessing the economic impacts of diseases and other factors that affect milk production requires that the demand for milk be taken into account. Because demand for milk in the USA is relatively inelastic (i.e., consumers generally purchase a somewhat fixed amount over a given time frame, regardless of fluctuations in price), consumers tend to reap much of the benefit of enhanced production. An examination of the economic impacts of Johne's disease indicated that reduced milk production, associated with the determination of dairy operations as Johne's-positive, reduced consumer surplus by $770 million ± $690 million, and resulted in a total loss of $200 million ± $160 million to the US economy in 1996. Most of the economic surplus lost by consumers was transferred to producers, whose economic surplus increased by $570 million ± $550 million as a result of the reduced milk production associated with Johne's disease. Uncertainty analysis showed that the estimated reduction in milk production on Johne's-positive dairy operations accounted for most of the uncertainty in the economic-impact estimates. If Johne's disease had not been present on US dairy operations, then an additional 580 million ±460 million kg of milk would have been produced, but the price would have fallen by 1·1±1·0 cents/kg, and the total value of the milk would have decreased by $580 million ± $560 million.
Privatization and Financial Market Development in Emerging Countries: A Comparative Study

This paper examines the impact of privatization on stock market size and liquidity in a multinational sample of 31 emerging markets. We find that the intensity of privatization and the use of privatization offerings (POs) on the stock market contribute to enhance stock market development, but the documented effects vary across geographical regions, owing to the specificities of the divestiture process. We use GMM procedure in order to estimate dynamic panel specifications and find that privatization appears to be the most beneficial in the Asian sub-sample where most favorable conditions were put in place before privatization actually started. In other regions, however, similar positive outcomes are yet to materialize. We derive several policy implications from our results.
Data-Driven Communications for Consensus Decision-Making in Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the most challenging aspects in applying decentraliz ed detection in sensor networks is the efficient exchange of small messages required for data fu sion. In this work, we propose a novel communication architecture for a canonical decentralized d tection problem where the sensor nodes exchange continuously their local decisions until consensus i reached among all nodes. Our methodology capitalizes on the observation that the information embedd ed in the exchanged messages decreases to zero as the decisions gradually converge. Utilizing the sta tistical knowledge of the exchanged messages that are provided by the distributed computing algorithm, w e propose a data-driven transmission policy based on the class of Group Testing Multiple Access strategi es. By using a data-driven transmission scheme, we show that the average number of channel accesses r quired for each round of message exchange decreases, following the same trend as the aggrega te ntropy of the sensor decisions. The main contribution is to show that data-driven transmission schemes can overcome the backlog of communications that many distributed computing algorithm s generate in a wireless network setting when the system imposes a separation between the computatio n and the communication.
The evolution of cooperation with diversity of extortion under the normalized payoff framework on scale-free networks

In this paper, we introduce the diversity of extortion by setting individuals' extortion capacities related to their degrees and study the evolution of cooperation on the heterogeneous BA scale-free network with the normalized payoff mechanism. We find that when individuals' extortion factors are negatively correlation with their degrees, extortioners can act as catalysts to make cooperation dominate the system and there exists an optimal noise value for promoting the level of cooperation. However, when individuals' extortion factors are positively correlated with their degrees, the effect of extortioners' catalysts is crippled. Proper noise factor can promote the emergence of cooperation, which can provide some clues to design protocol in networked multi-agent systems.
Shareholders' Gains from Corporate Expansion to the Republics of the Former Soviet Union

Recent political, economic, and social changes in the Republics of the Former Soviet Union (RFSUs) have created opportunities for US firms to expand their presence there. This study provides evidence on how shareholder wealth is affected by expansion into the RFSUs. The results show that tangibility of assets influences excess returns. Finally, the results indicate that higher excess returns are realized when managerial interests are aligned with those of shareholders.
Investment strategies and gender: a study of emerging patterns in India

This study investigates the investment behaviours of suburban and rural investors in India with a particular interest in any observable differences in the approach to investment, in terms of attitude to risk and goals (‘investment strategy orientation’), in men and women. In the absence of local empirical literature, this study was based on typical frameworks for empirical research conducted outside of India. The sample was made up of employed persons, professionals, business-owners and housewives. The interviewees were made up of male and female subjects from different age groups, with varying income levels. Data were gathered through structured questionnaires as well as in-depth qualitative interviews. Investment analysts in the region were also interviewed. The findings show that there are generally no significant differences by gender in terms of investment orientation of suburban/rural investors in India. This is contrary to a significant volume of previous findings. The knowledge of investors was considered by some local analysts to be ‘inadequate’ to operate effectively in the investment markets and this is also reported on. The study urges that financial service suppliers and governments in developing countries take steps to popularize investment education programmes in order to better equip and motivate investors in suburban and rural regions. To avoid some of the conflicts of interests that accompanied a global collapse in the financial landscape of the West, however, it is also worth considering that the ‘moderation’ of investment aggressiveness and risk appetite displayed by the new investors in India may contribute to the establishment of a more stable financial climate.
Torque ripple reduction of permanent magnet synchronous motors based on predictive sequence control

To reduce the torque ripples of permanent magnet synchronous motor, this paper proposes a predictive sequence control (PSC) algorithm. Comparing with conventional predictive torque control, PSC takes different switching sequences applied to synthesize voltage vectors into account, and the switching sequence that produces minimum torque ripples will be selected by corresponding predictive algorithm. Therefore, the proposed PSC will achieve excellent torque performance.
Ownership, Access, and Sequential Investment (Propriété, Accès et Investissement Sequential)

We extend the property-rights framework to allow for: a separation of the ownership rights of access and veto; and sequential investment. Parties investing first (ex ante) do so before contracting is possible. Parties that invest second (ex post) can contract on (at least some) of their investment costs. Along with this cost-sharing effect, the incentive to invest is affected by a strategic effect generated by sequential investment. Together these effects can overturn some of the predictions of the property-rights literature. For example, the most inclusive ownership structure might not be optimal, even if all investments are complementary.
Are Investors Rational? Evidence on the Impact of Industrial Framing Reclassification on Stock Market Reaction

This study utilizes the overall reclassification of industries policy to explore the postannouncement performance from a behavioral finance perspective. The presentation framing of the biotechnology and medical care industry is one with certainty prospects. This suggests that investors tend to buy more of these stocks because the government emphasizes the importance of this industry since 2002, which induces a significantly positive price effect. However, the reclassified eight electronic-related industries reveal presentation framings with uncertainty prospects. The heterogeneity of the high-technology industry thus leaves investors less tendency to hold these stocks and in turn a negative price effect. This paper shows some evidence and implication, suggesting a link between the presentation framing of industries and investors’ behavior.
Mean/Variance Analysis of Currency Overlays

Global investors are now paying more attention to the management of the currency risks of their portfolios. Some have started to delegate currency management to "overlay" managers. These managers use currency futures and forwards to minimize the risks or maximize the returns of the underlying asset portfolios. The overlay structure is inherently suboptimal because it ignores interactions between the assets in the underlying portfolio and exchange rates. Based on historical data, the efficiency loss appears to be on the order of 40 basis points for equity portfolios. This loss, of course, must be balanced against any excess returns that may be generated by specialized overlay managers. Simulated results over the 1978-91 period indicate that overlay management can add value to global equity and bond portfolios. It cannot enhance performance by as much as an integrated approach to currency management, however.
Political Parties, Supply-Side Strategies, and Firms: The Political Micro-Economy of Partisan Politics

This research examines the economic impact of partisan politics at a level that has been neglected in prior research: the firm level. Specifically, I investigate the impact of partisan supply-side policies on firm performance and firm heterogeneity in experience of this impact. I claim that parties’ supply-side strategies (the interventionist strategy of left-wing parties and the market-oriented strategy of right-wing parties) have conflicting implications for the productivity and cost of economic factors at the disposal of firms. My empirics employ firm-level data from 21 advanced industrial democracies for the period extending from 1989 to 2008. The results are counterintuitive and, in some ways, even provocative. I find that (1) firms perform better under left-oriented governments compared to right-oriented governments, suggesting that the interventionist strategy of left-wing parties helps firms better than the market-oriented strategy of right-wing parties; and (2) there is considerable firm heterogeneity in exposure to partisan supply-side strategies.
Mental retardation in a girl with a subtelomeric deletion on chromosome 20q and complete deletion of the myelin transcription factor 1 gene (MYT1)

A great number of syndromes and inborn errors of metabolism associated with impaired development have been observed, but the aetiology of mental retardation remains unclear in a considerable proportion of cases. Here, we present the clinical and molecular data from a patient with a new de novo subtelomeric deletion on chromosome 20 [46,XX.ish del(20)(qter‐)]. For further refinement, bacterial artificial chromosome clones are used. The deletion spans exactly two genes called MYT1 and PCMTD2. Both genes play an important role in myelination and regulating neural differentiation. Loss of these two genes seems to be responsible for the severe mental retardation and mild facial dysmorphic features in our young patient. It might show the phenotypic picture of this specified deletion.
Molecular Modeling, Synthesis, and Anti‐HIV Activity of Novel Isoindolinedione Analogues as Potent Non‐nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

Different isoindolinedione derivatives bearing imine, amide, thioamide, and sulfonamide linkages have been designed in silico using discovery studio software (BIOVIA, San Diego, CA, USA), synthesized, and evaluated for their anti‐HIV activity. SAR studies revealed that the linkages in these molecules did affect their anti‐HIV activity and the molecules having sulfonamide linkages were the most potent HIV‐RT inhibitors as the S=O bonds of the sulfonamide moiety interacted with Lys103 (NH or carbonyl or both) and Pro236; the NH part of the sulfonamide linkage formed bond with carbonyl of Lys101. blood–brain barrier (BBB) plots were also studied, and it was found that all the designed molecules have potential to cross BBB, a very vital criteria for anti‐HIV drugs. In vitro screening was performed using HIV‐1 strain IIIB in MT‐4 cells using the MTT assay, and it was seen that some of these molecules were effective inhibitors of HIV‐1 replication at nanomolar concentration with selectivity indices ranging from 33.75 to 73.33 under in vitro conditions. Some of these molecules have shown good anti‐HIV activity at 3–4 nm concentrations. These derivatives have potential to be developed as lead molecules effective against HIV‐1.
[The effects of probiotics on symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome].

BACKGROUND/AIMS Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal (GI) tract disorder that has heterogeneous clinical presentations such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, and abdominal distension. It is known that several mechanisms are involved in the pathogenesis of IBS. Probiotics may target one or more pathophysiologic pathways in IBS and may improve the symptoms of IBS. However, the results of studies about probiotics on IBS are controversial. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of probiotics on GI symptoms and intestinal gas volume changes in patients with IBS. METHODS Forty patients were randomly allocated to be treated with Medilac DS (Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus faecium) (n=20) or placebo (n=20) in a double-blind, prospective manner. The change in intestinal gas volume and symptom scores after 4-week treatment were evaluated for the efficacy. RESULTS There was no significant difference in bloating, frequency of gas expulsion, frequency of defecation, and hardness of stool before and after the treatment. However, the severity of abdominal pain and the frequency of abdominal pain decreased significantly in Medilac DS group (2.4+/-1.3 cm/day --> 1.6+/-1.6 cm/day, 1.7+/-1.3/day --> 1.0+/-1.0/day) (p=0.044, p=0.038), but not in placebo group (2.1+/-2.0 cm/day --> 1.8+/-2.1 cm/day, 1.3+/-1.2/day --> 1.4+/-1.9/day). In both groups, intestinal gas volume at baseline, after 2-week treatment, and after 4-week treatment did not show significant change. Medilac DS was well tolerated without adverse events. CONCLUSIONS Medilac DS is a safe and useful probiotic agent for the treatment of abdominal pain in patients with IBS.
Sustaining the Family Business With Minimal Financial Rewards

We engaged in a multicase comparative study exploring how family farm businesses continue when economic returns are minimal. We analyzed strategic approaches used by 20 family dairy farms operating in the United Kingdom and identified four different strategic behaviors chosen by the family farm businesses—diversifying the business, maximizing debt, sacrificing family needs, and compromising. Each strategy allows the firm to survive, but has consequences for the family, the business, or both. Our study contributes to the socioemotional wealth literature by showing how emotional attachment to the business can influence firm decision making.