Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Presidential Lightning Rods: The Politics of Blame Avoidance

H. R. Haldeman, President Nixon's former chief of staff, is said to have boasted: "Every president needs a son of a bitch, and I'm Nixon's. I'm his buffer and I'm his bastard. I get done what he wants done and I take the heat instead of him. " Richard Ellis explores the widely discussed but poorly understood phenomenon of presidential "lightning rods"-cabinet officials who "take the heat" instead of their bosses. Whether by intent or circumstance, these officials divert criticism and blame away from their presidents. The phenomenon is so common that it's assumed to be an essential item in every president's managerial toolbox. But, Ellis argues, such assumptions can oversimplify our understanding of this tool. Ellis advises against indiscriminate use of the lightning rod metaphor. Such labeling can hide as much as it reveals about presidential administration and policymaking at the cabinet level. The metaphor often misleads by suggesting strategic intent on the president's part while obscuring the calculations and objectives of presidential adversaries and the lightning rods themselves. Ellis also illuminates the opportunities and difficulties that various presidential posts-especially secretaries of state, chiefs of staff, and vice presidents-have offered for deflecting blame from our presidents. His study offers numerous detailed and instructive examples from the administrations of Truman (Dean Acheson); Eisenhower (Richard Nixon, John Foster Dulles, Herbert Brownell, and Ezra Taft Benson); LBJ (Hubert Humphrey); Ford (Henry Kissinger); and Reagan (James Watt). These examples, Ellis suggests, should guide our understanding of the relationship between lightning rods and presidential leadership, policymaking, and ratings. Blame avoidance, he warns, does have its limitations and may even backfire at times. Nevertheless, President Clinton and his successors may need to rely on such tools. The presidency, Ellis points out, finds itself the object of increasingly intense partisan debate and microscopic scrutiny by a wary press. Lightning rods can deflect such heat and help the president test policies, gauge public opinion, and protect his political power and public image. Ellis's book is an essential primer for helping us understand this process.
Pop-Out in Visual Search Requires Practice

It is not always easy to locate routing signs in the visually noisy environment of public buildings. Guidelines to ensure the conspicuity of an object in a complex field are not readily available. In two previous experiments, aiming to provide such guidelines for use in practice, the stimuli were simple simulations of scenes in public buildings, each containing a uniquely colored target (a routing sign) and a varying number of distractors (advertising signs). The results of these two experiments were opposite: in one experiment pop-out of the targets appeared as predicted by current theories of visual search, but in the other experiment performance significantly decreased when the number of distractors increased. Two new experiments are reported here to clarify this discrepancy. From the results it is concluded that pop-out of easy visual targets does not occur on the first few trials of a task. Subjects must have had sufficient practice for pop-out to develop. This finding implies that, contrary to what is common in experiments on visual search, short and heterogeneous series of stimuli should be used to ensure the practical relevance of the results for applications such as sign posting.
The euro as a source of European identity Changes of social representations from 1997 to 2002

Currencies are symbols of the economy of nations and can also be a symbol for national identity. They are restricted to a defined area, foster national self-esteem, support the desire of national continuity, and are tools of national sovereignty. After the phase of introduction, the euro may serve as a European symbol and a unifying medium on the way towards European integration. The euro was introduced in 1999 as book money, and in 2002 as physical money in form of notes and coins. In this paper, social representations of the euro and changes from 1997 and 2002 are analysed with the special focus on the euro as a symbol of European identity. In 1997 social representations of the euro in Austria were rather economically orientated, expressions on the economic functions were dominant. By the end of 2002, people may have incorporated more ideas about European identity in their representations of the euro as compared to 1997. Three independent samples completed a questionnaire on free associations to the euro in July 1997, November 2001, and November 2002. Results show different associative patterns at the three moments of associations.
A Randomized Trial of Daclatasvir with Peginterferon Alfa-2B and Ribavirin for HCV Genotype 1 Infection

Background Daclatasvir-containing regimens have the potential to address limitations of current regimens combining peginterferon alfa and ribavirin with first-generation protease inhibitors for treatment of chronic HCV genotype 1 infection. Methods In this randomized, double-blind study, 27 Japanese treatment-naive patients received once-daily daclatasvir 10 mg or 60 mg or placebo, each combined with peginterferon alfa-2b/ribavirin; 18 prior null (n=9) or partial (n=9) responders received the same daclatasvir-containing regimens without a placebo arm. Daclatasvir recipients with protocol-defined response (HCV RNA<15 IU/ml at week 4, undetectable at week 12) were treated for 24 weeks; those without protocol-defined response and placebo recipients continued treatment to week 48. Results Sustained virological response 24 weeks post-treatment (SVR24) was achieved by 66.7%, 90.0% and 62.5% of treatment-naive patients in the daclatasvir 10 mg, 60 mg and placebo groups, respectively. Prior non-responders had more frequent virological failure; 22.2% and 33.3% of daclatasvir 10 mg and 60 mg recipients, respectively, achieved SVR24. Adverse events were similar across groups and were typical of peginterferon alfa-2b/ribavirin. Pyrexia, headache, alopecia, decreased appetite and malaise were the most common adverse events; two daclatasvir recipients discontinued due to adverse events. Conclusions Daclatasvir 60 mg combined with peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin achieved a high rate of SVR24 in treatment-naive patients with HCV genotype 1 infection, with tolerability similar to that of peginterferon alfa-2b/ribavirin alone. However, regimens with greater antiviral potency are needed for prior non-responders.
Detecting mental states of alertness with genetic algorithm variable selection

The objective of the present work is to develop a method able to automatically determine mental states of vigilance; i.e., a person's state of alertness. Such a task is relevant to diverse domains, where a person is expected or required to be in a particular state. For instance, pilots or medical staffs are expected to be in a highly alert state, and this method could help to detect possible problems. In this paper, an approach is developed to predict the state of alertness (“normal” or “relaxed”) from the study of electroencephalographic signals (EEG) collected with a limited number of electrodes. The EEG of 58 participants in the two alertness states (116 records) were collected via a cap with 58 electrodes. After a data validation step, 19 subjects were retained for further analysis. A genetic algorithm was used to select an optimal subset of electrodes. Common spatial pattern (CSP) coupled to linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to build a decision rule and thus predict the alertness of the participants. Different subset sizes were investigated and the best result was obtained by considering 9 electrodes (correct classification rate of 73.68%).
Volatility Spillovers Between Oil Prices and Stock Returns: A Focus on Frontier Markets

Frontier markets are increasingly sought by investors in search of higher returns and low correlation with traditional assets. As such, it is important for financial market participants to understand the volatility transmission mechanism across these markets in order to make better portfolio allocation decisions. This paper employs a bivariate BEKK-GARCH(1,1) model to simultaneously estimate the mean and conditional variance between equity stock markets (twenty-one national frontier stock indices and two broad indices â€“ the MSCI Frontier Markets and the MSCI World) and oil prices. We examine weekly returns from February 8th, 2008 to February 1st, 2013 and find significant transmission of shocks and volatility between oil prices and some of the examined markets. Moreover, this spillover effect is sometimes bidirectional.
The government of self-regulation: on the comparative dynamics of corporate social responsibility

Abstract This paper explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and government. CSR is often viewed as self-regulation, devoid of government. We attribute the scholarly neglect of the variety of CSR-government relations to the inadequate attention paid to the important differences in the way in which CSR has ‘travelled’ (or diffused), and has been mediated by the national governance systems, and the insufficient emphasis given to the role of the government (or government agency) in the CSR domain. We go on to identify a number of different types of CSR-government configurations, and by following empirically the CSR development trajectories in Western Europe and East Asia in a comparative historical perspective, we derive a set of propositions on the changing dynamics of CSR-government configurations. In particular, we highlight the varied role that the governments can play in order to promote CSR in the context of the wider national governance systems.
Policy Rule Legislation in Practice

The legislated policy rules proposed by the Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 and the Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015 have the potential to transform the conduct of monetary policy. If enacted, the Fed would have the obligation to explicitly state a benchmark for how the federal funds rate would respond to variables such as inflation and the output gap that enter into different variants of Taylor rules. While the Fed would choose its own legislated policy rule, it would be required to explain deviations from the rule and/or changes to the rule. Suppose that policy rule legislation had been in place for the past 60 years. When would the Fed have been in compliance, and when would there have been deviations from or changes to the rule? The central result of the paper is that, among the class of rules we consider, there is no single legislated policy rule that would have avoided large deviations over extended periods of time. Rules that produce low deviations during most of the 1950s and early 1960s produce high deviations during the late 1960s and between 1975 and 1985. More recently, rules that produce low deviations during the first half of the 2000s produce high deviations during the first half of the 2010s, and vice versa. If the legislation was adopted and the Fed wanted to avoid deviations from and/or changes to the rule, this would increase the predictability of monetary policy. Based on historical and statistical research showing that economic performance is better in rules-based than in discretionary eras, we believe this would be a desirable outcome.
PREDICTABILITY OF THE KLCI PRICE MOVEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE TIME SERIES MODELS

This study utilises autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time series models to predict the price movement of the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI). ARIMAARCH models, which are ARIMA time series models with GARCH errors (relaxing the normality assumption), are also considered. All fitted models excluding those that exhibit nonstationary autoregressive roots are utilised to generate out-of-sample forecast over the forecast horizons of 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 year. Our forecasting evaluation exercise is based on the commonly used mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Our results show that all the 17 forecasting models produce MAPE of less than 10% for forecast horizons of 3 months or shorter. For forecast horizons of 6 months and above, the forecast errors range from at most 7% in the case of autoregressive integrated (ARI) models to 16% in the case of integrated moving average (IMA) models. The best performing models are the ARIMA (11, 1, 0) models, with and without GARCH errors, which dominate over the others for 5 out of 7 forecast horizons. The results of the study also show that ARIMA (1,1,0) model is the next best alternative model as far as the parsimonious principle is concerned. In short, this study demonstrates that securities market forecasters may resort to time series approach, which is less resource demanding, for satisfactory short-run forecasts of stock prices.
L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) is a strong predictor for locoregional recurrences in cervical cancer

Background L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) has been shown to be a prognostic marker in various cancer types, and has been suggested to play a role in epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). Here, we determined the prognostic significance of L1CAM in cervical cancer and its association with vimentin expression on tumor cells, indicative of EMT. Methods Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded primary tumor samples from 372 cervical cancer patients were collected for immunohistochemical analysis of L1CAM expression. In 109 FFPE specimens, the percentage of vimentin expressing tumor cells was determined by flow cytometry. Results Positive L1CAM expression (≥10% of tumor cells) was associated with disease-free survival, validated using RNAseq TCGA data. L1CAM expression was independently associated with locoregional recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio 2.62, 95% CI 1.33 – 5.17, P = 0.006), and strongly associated with percentage of vimentin expressing tumor cells (P = 0.003). Expression of both L1CAM and vimentin indicated a subgroup with the highest risk of recurrence (hazard ratio 3.15, 95% CI 1.25 – 7.92, P = 0.015). Conclusion L1CAM might be a promising new prognostic marker for locoregional recurrences in cervical cancer, and its association with vimentin expression suggests that L1CAM might affect tumor aggressiveness, possibly through EMT.
Laser-Doped Back-Contact Solar Cells

We present laser-doped interdigitated back-contacted solar cells with a record efficiency η = 22.0%. The high versatility and spatial resolution of our laser doping process enable local n-type and p-type doping with a precision below 30 μm and avoid any masking for doping. Nevertheless, the presented solar cells use photolithography (masking) to define the contact area and metallization layout. Quasi-steady-state photoconductance measurements prove the low-saturation current density of the laser doping. We process solar cells with varied pitch and emitter fraction and compare their measured current density-voltage characteristics with a 3-D solar cell simulation. The good agreement of the simulation and experimental data allows a reliable efficiency forecast when optimizations are applied. Furthermore, the influence of the base-busbar region on solar cell performance is discussed.
Human resource strategies and contingent workers: The case of safety and health in the petrochemical industry

One of the most important economic developments in recent years is the growth in the number of temporary and contract employees. Little is known, however, about the implications these contingent employees have for human resource practices. This paper presents the results of a study of one group of contingent workers, contract workers in the petrochemical industry. The primary concern of this study is the consequences contract workers have for safety, a hotly debated and politically charged issue in an industry where safety mishaps can have catastrophic consequences. We find that contract employees offer petrochemical firms an important degree of flexibility in meeting rapid fluctuations in their demand for labor. Contract employment relationships also create stresses with potentially severe adverse effects on workplace safety. Overcoming these threats to safety while maintaining flexibility will require a high level of coordination among human resource professionals, line managers, corporate executives, unions, and government agencies.
MicroRNA let-7c Suppresses Androgen Receptor Expression and Activity via Regulation of Myc Expression in Prostate Cancer Cells*

Background: Let-7c is a microRNA down-regulated in prostate cancer. Results: Let-7c suppresses androgen receptor expression by targeting its transcription via c-Myc. Suppression of AR by let-7c leads to decreased cell proliferation and tumor growth. Conclusion: Let-7c suppresses androgen receptor expression. Significance: Our study demonstrates that let-7c plays an important role in regulation of androgen signaling and prostate cancer proliferation. Castration-resistant prostate cancer continues to rely on androgen receptor (AR) expression. AR plays a central role in the development of prostate cancer and progression to castration resistance during and after androgen deprivation therapy. Here, we identified miR-let-7c as a key regulator of expression of AR. miR-let-7c suppresses AR expression and activity in human prostate cancer cells by targeting its transcription via c-Myc. Suppression of AR by let-7c leads to decreased cell proliferation of human prostate cancer cells. Down-regulation of Let-7c in prostate cancer specimens is inversely correlated with AR expression, whereas the expression of Lin28 (a repressor of let-7) is correlated positively with AR expression. Our study demonstrates that the miRNA let-7c plays an important role in the regulation of androgen signaling in prostate cancer by down-regulating AR expression. These results suggest that reconstitution of miR-let-7c may aid in targeting enhanced and hypersensitive AR in advanced prostate cancer.
Dynamic Correlations Among Asset Classes: REIT and Stock Returns

We use the Dynamic Conditional Correlation model with Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH) developed by Engle (Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 20(3):339–350, 2002) to examine dynamics in the correlation of returns between publicly traded REITs and non-REIT stocks. The results suggest that REIT-stock correlations form three distinct periods. During the first period, ending in August 1991 with the start of the modern REIT era, correlations were high and without trend, never dipping below 59%. During the second period, ending in September 2001 with the inclusion of REITs in broad stock market indexes, correlations declined precipitously to 30%, enabling substantially higher portfolio allocations to both high-return asset classes and therefore higher portfolio returns without increasing portfolio volatility. During the third period, since September 2001, correlations increased steadily but only reached 59% in late 2008. A simple portfolio optimization suggests that asset managers would be willing to pay 20 basis points per year, plus the difference in transaction costs, for the ability to use DCC-GARCH modeling of dynamic correlations in place of rolling 24-month asset correlations.
A Contribution to the Public–Private Wage Inequality Debate

This paper studies the public-private wage inequality in Romania. Although public sector employment is perceived as safer and offers more benefits, we find that in Romania it also offers higher wages, after controlling for experience, education, and gender. Decomposing the public-private wage premium into the effect of personal characteristics, coefficients, and residuals, we show that only about half of this premium can be attributed to personal characteristics. The premium is increasing across the wage distribution, leading to more inequality in the public sector. We also find the effects of self-selection are negligible, the premium being still positive and significant after controlling for this.
A Model for Master Production Scheduling in Uncertain Environments

In uncertain environments, the master production schedule (MPS) is usually developed using a rolling schedule. When utilizing a rolling schedule, the MPS is replanned periodically and a portion of the MPS is frozen in each planning cycle. The cost performance of a rolling schedule depends on three decisions: the choice of the replanning interval (R), which determines how often the MPS should be replanned; the choice of the frozen interval (F), which determines how many periods the MPS should be frozen in each planning cycle; and the choice of the forecast window (T), which is the time interval over which the MPS is determined using newly updated forecast data. This paper uses an analytical approach to study the master production scheduling process in uncertain environments without capacity constraints, where the MPS is developed using a rolling schedule. It focuses on the choices of F, R, and T for the MPS. A conceptual framework that includes all important MPS time intervals is described. The effects of F, R, and T on system costs, which include the forecast error, MPS change, setup, and inventory holding costs, are also explored. Finally, a mathematical model for the MPS is presented. This model approximates the average system cost as a function of F, R, T, and several environmental factors. It can be used to estimate the associated system costs for any combination of F, R, and T.
Diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection: Comparison of Reverse Transcription-PCR to Viral Culture and Serology in Adults with Respiratory Illness

ABSTRACT Diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during acute infection in adults is difficult because of the poor sensitivity of viral culture and antigen detection. A recently developed single-tube nested reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) was compared to viral culture and serology by enzyme immunoassay for the diagnosis of RSV in adults with respiratory illness. Nasal swab samples were collected during respiratory illnesses from five groups of subjects: healthy young adults, healthy elderly adults, adults with chronic heart and lung disease, nursing home residents, and adults admitted to the hospital during the winter with cardiopulmonary illnesses. Of 1,112 samples for which all three tests were available, 117 were positive by at least one method and 995 were negative by all methods. One hundred ten were considered true positives because culture and/or serology was positive. Of these, 80 (73%) were PCR positive compared to 43 (39%) that were culture positive. Seven PCR results were considered false positives due to negative culture and serology. The overall RT-PCR sensitivity was 73%, and specificity was 99%. These data indicate that RT-PCR is an excellent method for the diagnosis of acute RSV infection in adults.