Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Essays on Labor Supply

This dissertation consists of essays studying labor supply empirically through the use of an experimental platform set up on Amazon Mechanical Turk online labor market. The essays contribute to measuring labor supply elasticties; response of effort to pay; and the willingness to pay for job attributes. What these topics have in common is that a) it’s extremely hard to estimate these parameters using observational data, b) the parameters estimated from these studies serve as input parameters for macroeconomic models of employment, welfare policy, and tax policy. The notion that increased pay raises productivity, either through sorting or incentives, lies at the heart of the efficiency wage theory. The alternative competitive model also implies a correlation between wages and productivity, however, the causal effect implied is from productivity to pay, that is more productive workers receive higher pay. A conclusive test with the ability to nest both of these hypotheses and rule between them then has to provide a credible evidence of the direction of causality in the wage-productivity relationship. This challenge has so far been unmet in the literature. To provide an unequivocal answer, the first essay in this volume presents findings from a large-scale field experiment conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The findings confirm the intuition behind the efficiency wage theory, demonstrating that increase in pay indeed has a causal effect on productivity; through sorting, and, to a lesser extent, incentives. These findings also suggest that this causalrelationship between pay and productivity is dynamic in nature, weakening over the course of the tenure of a worker. The findings also indicate that heterogeneity in tenure length among workers is correlated with their heterogeneity in response to higher pay. As the competitive model continues to be used as a microeconomic foundation of macroeconomic theories of unemployment, these findings give a vote of confidence to its main alternative – the efficiency wage theory. An integral part of Adam Smith’s compensating wage differentials theory is that work- ers trade off between job characteristics and wage. Other than risk of death, however, no job characteristics have consistently been found to affect wages, likely because of problems with self-selection and unobservable job characteristics. The second essay in this volume presents results from the experiments on Mechanical Turk, randomizing offered pay and job characteristics, thereby overcoming both problems. The findings indicate, as predicted by the theoretical model, that increasing job disamenities significantly reduces both likelihood of working and amount of work supplied. Correspondingly, the wage increases necessary to compensate workers for worse job disamenities are substantial. The last essay in this volume estimates extensive and intensive margin labor supply elasticity. Contrary to prior analyses using micro data, the findings indicate that the intensive margin elasticities are more than twice the size of…
Significance of COX‐2 expression in human renal cell carcinoma cell lines

Accumulating evidences indicate that cyclooxygenase (COX)‐2 plays an important role in tumorigenesis in many human cancers. Yet the relationship between COX‐2 and human renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains unclear. The aim of our study was to evaluate COX‐2 expression in human RCC cell lines and its role in tumorigenesis of human RCC. Among the human RCC cell lines (SMKT‐R4, OS‐RC‐2, ACHN) and normal renal cell line RPTEC, COX‐2 overexpression was found in OS‐RC‐2 cells both at mRNA and protein levels. COX‐2 sense‐ and antisense‐orientated vectors were constructed and transferred into RCC cells. Significant suppression of cellular proliferation was demonstrated in OS‐RC‐2 antisense transfectants, whereas promotion was found in SMKT‐R4 sense transfectants by colony‐forming assay despite the observation that COX‐2 specific inhibitor NS398 exhibited similar IC50 among RCC cell lines by MTT assay. In comparison with parent cells and sense transfectants, significant suppression of COX‐2 expression and PGE2 production and increase in butyrate‐induced apoptosis were observed in OS‐RC‐2 antisense transfectants by Western blot, ELISA assay and FACS analysis, respectively. Furthermore, tumor growth and angiogenesis of OS‐RC‐2 antisense transfectants in nude mice was significantly suppressed and the survival time of these mice was significantly prolonged. Our study demonstrates that COX‐2 is overexpressed in OS‐RC‐2 RCC cell line and plays an important role in tumorigenesis of the cells in vivo, which implies that COX‐2 may be a therapeutic target for COX‐2‐expressing RCC, and that suppression of COX‐2 expression by antisense‐based strategy may have potential utility in treatment of COX‐2‐expressing RCC. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fast and adaptive BP-based multi-core implementation for stereo matching

The stereo matching problem has been under attention of numerous researchers for many years, due to the wide range of applications in computer vision. The MEMOCODE 2013 design contest was aimed to develop a very fast and efficient stereo matching method to infer the depth information for each pixel of a pair stereo image via Belief Propagation on Markov Random Field graph. We first explored different platforms, i.e. FPGA, GPU, multi-core CPU, to find the best one for solving the contest problem. Based on our investigation, we select multi-core system and design and implement a solution on this platform. We use a series of techniques and optimization methods to improve the running time of the stereo matching problem while preserving the error compared to the given reference solution. Our method outperform other team's solutions in both classes: absolute-performance and cost-adjusted-performance.
Early differential processing of verbs and nouns in the human brain as indexed by event‐related brain potentials

A recent study on syntactic influences on the mismatch negativity (MMN) reported preliminary evidence that processing or representational differences between verbs and nouns could be reflected in modulations of this early component of the event‐related brain potential (ERP). However, this previous investigation was unable to separate the putative word category effects from possible influences of the direction of acoustic change on the MMN response. The present study disentangled these two effects by comparing the effects of the direction of acoustic change within and isolated from the lexical context that had previously been used to create the word‐category contrast. Although the direction of acoustic change exerted a significant influence on the MMN amplitude, some of the temporal and topographic characteristics of the MMN and the overall pattern of the deviance‐related ERP response proved to be specific to word‐category effects. These findings provide the first reliable evidence that the MMN can serve as an index of word‐category‐specific processing and support the notion of early processing and representational differences between verbs and nouns.
Comparison of plasma and chemical modifications of poly-L-lactide-co-caprolactone scaffolds for heparin conjugation

Biodegradable polymers have potential as a scaffold material for making small diameter artery bypass grafts. To resist thrombosis, maintain biocompatibility and enhance the remodeling of the grafts, it is crucial to modify polymer scaffolds so that the grafts have antithrombogenic capacity and allow cell infiltration. In this study, two methods of aminolysis on electrospun poly-L-lactide-co-caprolactone (PLCL) microfiber vascular grafts are compared: plasma treatment method and Fmoc-PEG-diamine insertion method. Both methods successfully inserted amino groups on the polymer graft for heparin conjugation. However, plasma treatment resulted in significantly higher initial heparin density and higher heparin stability on PLCL microfibers than Fmoc-PEG-diamine treatment. In addition, mechanical testing demonstrated that the plasma treatment method maintained PLCL microfiber tensile strength after heparin conjugation. Fmoc-PEG-diamine insertion method compromised the mechanical property due to partial fiber melting and structure disruption. Subcutaneous implantation of the grafts in a rat model showed that heparin coating with both methods promoted cell infiltration. This study provides a rationale to optimize the biomolecule conjugation on electrospun PLCL scaffolds, and will have applications in tissue engineering vascular grafts and other tissues.
Discriminative Analysis of Different Grades of Gaharu (Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk.) via 1H-NMR-Based Metabolomics Using PLS-DA and Random Forests Classification Models

Gaharu (agarwood, Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk.) is a valuable tropical rainforest product traded internationally for its distinctive fragrance. It is not only popular as incense and in perfumery, but also favored in traditional medicine due to its sedative, carminative, cardioprotective and analgesic effects. The current study addresses the chemical differences and similarities between gaharu samples of different grades, obtained commercially, using 1H-NMR-based metabolomics. Two classification models: partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and Random Forests were developed to classify the gaharu samples on the basis of their chemical constituents. The gaharu samples could be reclassified into a ‘high grade’ group (samples A, B and D), characterized by high contents of kusunol, jinkohol, and 10-epi-γ-eudesmol; an ‘intermediate grade’ group (samples C, F and G), dominated by fatty acid and vanillic acid; and a ‘low grade’ group (sample E and H), which had higher contents of aquilarone derivatives and phenylethyl chromones. The results showed that 1H- NMR-based metabolomics can be a potential method to grade the quality of gaharu samples on the basis of their chemical constituents.
Medical Decision Making Shared decision-making in ongoing outpatient psychiatric treatment

Objective: Research on patient involvement in decision-making in psychiatry has focused on first encounters. This study investigated what decisions are made, level of patient involvement and factors influencing patient involvement in ongoing outpatient visits. Methods: 72 visits conducted by 20 psychiatrists were video recorded. Patients had a diagnosis of depression or schizophrenia. Results: On average, there was one medication related and one other decision per visit. Some psychiatrists involved patients more in decisions, as did female psychiatrists. Involvement was lower when patients had more negative symptoms. Conclusion: Involvement in decision-making appears to be influenced by the individual psychiatrist and specific symptoms but not visit length. Practice implications: It is noteworthy that patient involvement is not influenced by length of the visit given that this would be a barrier in busy clinical practice. The next step would be to identify the communication patterns of psychiatrists who involve patients more in decision-making. 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Interface Engineering for High‐Performance Top‐Gated MoS2 Field‐Effect Transistors

Experimental evidence of the optimized interface engineering effects in MoS2 transistors is demonstrated. The MoS2/Y2O3/HfO2 stack offers excellent interface control. Results show that HfO2 layer can be scaled down to 9 nm, yet achieving a near-ideal sub-threshold slope (65 mv/dec) and the highest saturation current (526 μA/μm) of any MoS2 transistor reported to date.
Association Between Psychotic Experiences and Subsequent Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors: A Cross-National Analysis From the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys

Importance Community-based studies have linked psychotic experiences (PEs) with increased risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). However, it is not known if these associations vary across the life course or if mental disorders contribute to these associations. Objective To examine the temporal association between PEs and subsequent STBs across the life span as well as the influence of mental disorders (antecedent to the STBs) on these associations. Design, Setting, and Participants A total of 33 370 adult respondents across 19 countries from the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys were assessed for PEs, STBs (ie, ideation, plans, and attempts), and 21 DSM-IV mental disorders. Discrete-time survival analysis was used to investigate the associations of PEs with subsequent onset of STBs. Main Outcomes and Measures Prevalence and frequency of STBs with PEs, and odds ratios and 95% CIs. Results Of 33 370 included participants, among those with PEs (n = 2488), the lifetime prevalence (SE) of suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts was 28.5% (1.3), 10.8% (0.7), and 10.2% (0.7), respectively. Respondents with 1 or more PEs had 2-fold increased odds of subsequent STBs after adjusting for antecedent or intervening mental disorders (suicidal ideation: odds ratio, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.8-2.6; suicide plans: odds ratio, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.7-2.6; and suicide attempts: odds ratio, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.5-2.5). There were significant dose-response relationships of number of PE types with subsequent STBs that persisted after adjustment for mental disorders. Although PEs were significant predictors of subsequent STB onset across all life stages, associations were strongest in individuals 12 years and younger. After adjustment for antecedent mental disorders, the overall population attributable risk proportions for lifetime suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts associated with temporally prior PEs were 5.3%, 5.7%, and 4.8%, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance Psychotic experiences are associated with elevated odds of subsequent STBs across the life course that cannot be explained by antecedent mental disorders. These results highlight the importance of including information about PEs in screening instruments designed to predict STBs.
Applying Concepts of Responsiveness to Patient Management in Neurologic Physical Therapy

Determining whether real change has taken place as a result of treatment and whether that change constitutes important change are challenges central to evidence-based physical therapist practice. Recently, the literature reporting these values for clinical measures has expanded considerably. In this article, we discuss some of the indices for identifying real change and important change, and how physical therapists can use these indices to enhance the interpretability of change scores derived from clinical measures. Specifically, we define and discuss the uses of the minimal detectable change and the minimal clinically important difference. We provide suggestions for how these indices can be used to make change scores more meaningful to therapists, patients, their caregivers, and third-party payers. Accurate interpretation and application of these indices are crucial to informed patient management and clinical decision making. We also present some of the limitations confronted as we try to apply these values across various patient diagnostic groups and across the spectrum of initial level of impairment. Finally, recommendations are made for directions for future research in this important area of outcomes research and how clinicians can contribute to these efforts.
HR professionals' use of influence in the effective implementation of HR practices

This study examines the use of influence tactics by HR professionals to increase the likelihood that HR practices (HRPs) are effectively implemented. We use logistic regression to test the effect of HR professionals' use of both soft and hard influence tactics on HRP implementation effectiveness in a sample of 82 successful and 74 failed implementation processes. The results show that HR professionals are more likely to see the HRPs they develop effectively implemented when they (1) involve line managers in the development of HRPs (consultation), (2) look for credible figures within the organisation that may publicly endorse and support the new practice (coalition), and (3) do not put too much pressure on HRP users with deadlines and reminders (pressure). While soft tactics such as rational persuasion, inspirational appeals or ingratiation are very much used by HR professionals, our results show that they do not have a significant impact on HR implementation effectiveness when controlling for other factors such as HRPs' level of organisational fit and CEO support. We discuss these findings in the light of the HR implementation and HR influence literatures.
Linear Branch Entropy: Characterizing and Optimizing Branch Behavior in a Micro-Architecture Independent Way

In this paper, we propose linear branch entropy, a new metric for characterizing branch behavior. Linear branch entropy is independent of the configuration of a specific branch predictor, but is highly correlated with the branch misprediction rate of any predictor. In particular, we empirically derive a linear relationship between linear branch entropy and branch misprediction rate, which enables predicting miss rates for a range of branch predictors using a single branch entropy profile. Linear branch entropy is more accurate than previously proposed branch classification models, such as taken rate and transition rate. In addition, linear branch entropy provides insight for both analyzing an application’s inherent branch behavior as well as for understanding a branch predictor’s performance for easy-to-predict versus hard-to-predict branches. We present several case studies, ranging from comparing state-of-the-art branch predictors to compiler optimizations. More in particular, we find that the winner of the latest branch predictor competition outperforms the runners-up on easy-to-predict branches, but performs worse on hard-to-predict branches. We also show that using linear branch entropy to guide if-conversion in compilers leads to better performance compared to standard if-conversion heuristics.
Disease Survey of Free-ranging Grey Brocket Deer (Mazama gouazoubira) in the Gran Chaco, Bolivia

Samples from 17 free-ranging hunter-killed grey brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira) in the Gran Chaco, Bolivia, were collected during June–August 1999. All 17 deer appeared to be in good condition at the time of death. Gross necropsies were performed, serum was collected for serologic evaluation of selected infectious disease agents, and feces and ectoparasites were collected for evaluation of internal and external parasites. Serologic tests were positive for antibodies against bovine respiratory syncytial virus and four Leptospira interrogans serovars, with questionable results for epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus serotypes 1 and 2. No antibodies were detected to Anaplasma marginale, Babesia bigemina, Babesia bovis, Babesia odocoilei, bluetongue virus (serotypes 2, 10, 11, 13, and 17), bovine viral diarrhea virus, Brucella abortus, foot-and-mouth disease virus, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, and parainfluenza-3 virus. Sixty-four percent (7/11) of the deer had en-doparasites. Amblyomma spp. ticks were found on seven deer, flies of the family Hippoboscidae on six deer, and lice on six deer.
Endoscopic ultrasound in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

INTRODUCTION Cross sectional imaging is important for initial evaluation of pancreatic cancer, whereas endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) will often help better visualize, differentiate and make final tissue diagnosis. It plays an important role in the multi-disciplinary evaluation and staging of pancreatic cancer as accurate staging has significant impact on treatment decisions. AREAS COVERED This review will cover the yield and utility of EUS and EUS FNA for diagnosis of pancreas cancer. In addition, this article reviews the utility and diagnostic yield of the non-invasive imaging modalities, including surface ultrasound, CT scan, PET CT scan and MRI. Tumor size, histology and disease processes that mimic pancreatic cancers will also be reviewed. EXPERT OPINION The accurate diagnosis and staging of pancreatic neoplasms is essential for optimal patient management. Abdominal imaging with multidetector CT or MRI is the most important initial step in the evaluation of pancreatic cancer because they are widely available and can detect most masses and/or demonstrate dilated bile or pancreatic ducts indicative of obstruction. Endoscopic ultrasound will remain important for detecting small tumors, ruling out diseases that mimic adenocarcinoma and for obtaining tissue diagnosis with fine needle aspiration.
Pushing forward the limits of EVAR: new therapeutic solutions for extremely challenging AAAs using the Ovation® stent-graft.

BACKGROUND Extreme complex aortic anatomies still represent the major limit of endovascular aneurysms repair (EVAR) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Aim of this study was to evaluate results of EVAR with Ovation® stent-graft in extremely complex aortic anatomies. METHODS A single center study was retrospectively conducted on a prospectively compiled computerized database between July 2012 and July 2014. Twenty-one elective patients with atherosclerotic AAA were included. All patients were judged unfit for or refused an open approach. In all of them, extremely complex anatomies features contraindicated EVAR by common endografts. Patients' outcomes were evaluated on the basis of anatomical features: challenging proximal aortic neck (non-cylindrical, short, severely angulated, enlarged, thrombosed) and challenging iliac artery accesses (angulated and narrowed). Technical and clinical successes were defined as the absence of intraoperative surgical conversion and aneurysm related mortality, respectively. Reintervention, morbidity and mortality rates during follow-up were also recorded. RESULTS All patients were male; mean age was 75.6±7.2 years. In 14 patients (66.7%) neck length was <10 mm, a non-cylindrical neck was present in 15 patients (71.4%) and a severe neck thrombosis was registered in 13 patients (61.9%). Only 1 patient (4.8%) had no iliac tortuosity, 9 (42.8%) patients had severe tortuosity at least on one iliac access and 7 (33.3%) on both. Technical and clinical successes were achieved in all cases. Neither death nor reinterventions were observed in the present series. At a mean follow-up of 9±5 (3-27) months, only one patient presented an iliac leg occlusion. CONCLUSIONS Our limited and preliminary experience seems to show that Ovation® stent-graft may widen the range of AAAs suitable for standard EVAR. Early results, even in patients with challenging anatomies, are encouraging but a longer follow-up is mandatory.
Colon Cancer–Associated DNA Mutations: Marker Selection for the Detection of Proximal Colon Cancer

This study evaluates the potential ability of a specific panel of DNA mutations to identify right-sided colorectal carcinomas (CRCs) that would be missed by a flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) screening program. This panel could then be applied to stool DNA analysis for noninvasive proximal CRC detection. A series of resected right-sided CRCs from 101 patients who had no left-sided advanced colonic neoplasms distal to the splenic flexure were analyzed. Tumor DNA was isolated from microdissected tumor sections. Deletions in the BAT-26 locus, a marker of microsatellite instability, and mutations at 19 loci spread among the p53, K-ras, and Apc genes were detected following PCR amplification. Mutations were identified in 83% of successfully amplified samples and were variably present in each of the target sites:p53 (42%), Apc (37%), K-ras (28%), and BAT-26 (24%). Mutations were identified across all Dukes stages (CIS/A 6/8 [75%], B 41/51[80%], C 30/32 (94%), and D 6/9 [67%]). Our data suggest that this 20-marker mutation panel may be associated with more than 80% of cancers undetectable by FS. The adjunctive use of stool DNA mutation analysis using this marker panel in FS CRC screening programs may significantly increase the detection of proximal CRC.