Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Policies of five Caspian coastal states: Do concerns about relative gains play any role?

This study examines the approach of five Caspian coastal states ‐ Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan‐toward the legal regime regarding the Caspian Sea in the 1990s. In particular, it tests the neorealist hypothesis regarding relative gains in explaining the approach of those five Caspian coastal states. This study demonstrates that concerns about relative gains matter, but not universally. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan consistently pursued relative gains strategy. Yet, in the cases of three other Caspian states, Russia, Iran, and Turkmenistan, concerns about relative gains were not critical in determining the policy direction of these states.
Age- and time-varying proportional hazards models for employment discrimination

We use a discrete-time proportional hazards model of time to involuntary employment termination. This model enables us to examine both the continuous effect of the age of an employee and whether that effect has varied over time, generalizing earlier work [Kadane and Woodworth J. Bus. Econom. Statist. 22 (2004) 182-193]. We model the log hazard surface (over age and time) as a thin-plate spline, a Bayesian smoothness-prior implementation of penalized likelihood methods of surface-fitting [Wahba (1990) Spline Models for Observational Data. SIAM]. The nonlinear component of the surface has only two parameters, smoothness and anisotropy. The first, a scale parameter, governs the overall smoothness of the surface, and the second, anisotropy, controls the relative smoothness over time and over age. For any fixed value of the anisotropy parameter, the prior is equivalent to a Gaussian process with linear drift over the time-age plane with easily computed eigenvectors and eigenvalues that depend only on the configuration of data in the time-age plane and the anisotropy parameter. This model has application to legal cases in which a company is charged with disproportionately disadvantaging older workers when deciding whom to terminate. We illustrate the application of the modeling approach using data from an actual discrimination case.
Institutional Repository Estimating economies of scale and scope with exible technology

Economies of scope are typically modelled and estimated using a cost function that is common to all firms in an industry irrespective of their type, e.g. whether they specialize in a single output or produce multiple outputs. Instead, we estimate a flexible technology model that allows for type-specific technologies and show how it can be estimated using linear parametric forms including the translog. A common technology remains a special case of our model and is testable econometrically. Our sample, of publicly owned US electric utilities, does not support a common technology for integrated and specialized firms. Our empirical results therefore suggest that assuming a common technology might bias estimates of economies of scale and scope. Thus, how we model the production technology clearly influences the policy conclusions we draw from its characteristics.
AB ÜLKELERİ KARŞISINDA TÜRK TARIMININ REKABET GÜCÜ: DİNAMİK VERİ ZARFLAMA ANALİZİ

The continuous increase in the demand for agricultural products with the limited resources makes productivity increases imperative. Furthermore, the growth in the agricultural productivity is also one of the main factors of sustainable development especially for developing countries in which the agricultural sector is more influential on the economic structure and employment. In this study, we measure long term agricultural (dynamic) efficiencies of Turkey and 26 European Union (EU) countries between the years 1992-2006 using the Dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis approach which allows to model intertemopral behaviours of decision makers. Our results show that more developed countries in the European Union have also higher overall dynamic efficiencies. For the study period, the overall dynamic efficiency score for Turkey is found as 0.520. In contrast with the most of the European Union countries, the static factors play more dominant role for the inefficiency of the agriculture sector in Turkey.
Caveolin-1 Maintains Activated Akt in Prostate CancerCells through Scaffolding Domain Binding Site Interactions with andInhibition of Serine/Threonine Protein Phosphatases PP1 andPP2A

ABSTRACT Previously it has been reported that caveolin-1 (cav-1) has antiapoptotic activities in prostate cancer cells and functions downstream of androgenic stimulation. In this study, we demonstrate that cav-1 overexpression significantly reduced thapsigargin (Tg)-stimulated apoptosis. Examination of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K)/Akt signaling cascade revealed higher activities of PDK1 and Akt but not PI3-K in cav-1-stimulated cells compared to control cells. We subsequently found that cav-1 interacts with and inhibits serine/threonine protein phosphatases PP1 and PP2A through scaffolding domain binding site interactions. Deletion of the cav-1 scaffolding domain significantly reduces phosphorylated Akt and cell viability compared with wild-type cav-1. Analysis of potential substrates for PP1 and PP2A revealed that cav-1-mediated inhibition of PP1 and PP2A leads to increased PDK1, Akt, and ERK1/2 activities. We demonstrate that increased Akt activities are largely responsible for cav-1-mediated cell survival using dominant-negative Akt mutants and specific inhibitors to MEK1/MEK and show that cav-1 increases the half-life of phosphorylated PDK1 and Akt after inhibition of PI3-K by LY294002. We further demonstrate that cav-1-stimulated Akt activities lead to increased phosphorylation of multiple Akt substrates, including GSK3, FKHR, and MDM2. In addition, overexpression of cav-1 significantly increases translocation of phosphorylated androgen receptor to nucleus. Our studies therefore reveal a novel mechanism of Akt activation in prostate cancer and potentially other malignancies.
Investigation of hexabromocyclododecane thermal degradation pathways by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

The decomposition products of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), a widely used brominated flame retardant, were investigated by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). HBCD thermal degradation was conducted under a moderate heating rate (10 degrees C/min) in a batch reactor using both inert and oxidizing atmospheres. GC/MS analysis allowed the identification of substances derived from the primary pyrolysis process at the moderate heating rates used. The presence of oxygen seems to have a negligible influence on the degradation products obtained in HBCD decomposition, at least at moderate heating rates. Based on the identified products, the main pathways of HBCD thermal degradation were assessed and a mechanism for HBCD decomposition was proposed. The results obtained indicate that hexa-, penta- and tetrabrominated polyaromatic structures seem not to be primary products of HBCD decomposition, and may only be obtained by secondary bromination reactions.
Amiodarone or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator for congestive heart failure.

BACKGROUND Sudden death from cardiac causes remains a leading cause of death among patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Treatment with amiodarone or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has been proposed to improve the prognosis in such patients. METHODS We randomly assigned 2521 patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II or III CHF and a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 35 percent or less to conventional therapy for CHF plus placebo (847 patients), conventional therapy plus amiodarone (845 patients), or conventional therapy plus a conservatively programmed, shock-only, single-lead ICD (829 patients). Placebo and amiodarone were administered in a double-blind fashion. The primary end point was death from any cause. RESULTS The median LVEF in patients was 25 percent; 70 percent were in NYHA class II, and 30 percent were in class III CHF. The cause of CHF was ischemic in 52 percent and nonischemic in 48 percent. The median follow-up was 45.5 months. There were 244 deaths (29 percent) in the placebo group, 240 (28 percent) in the amiodarone group, and 182 (22 percent) in the ICD group. As compared with placebo, amiodarone was associated with a similar risk of death (hazard ratio, 1.06; 97.5 percent confidence interval, 0.86 to 1.30; P=0.53) and ICD therapy was associated with a decreased risk of death of 23 percent (0.77; 97.5 percent confidence interval, 0.62 to 0.96; P=0.007) and an absolute decrease in mortality of 7.2 percentage points after five years in the overall population. Results did not vary according to either ischemic or nonischemic causes of CHF, but they did vary according to the NYHA class. CONCLUSIONS In patients with NYHA class II or III CHF and LVEF of 35 percent or less, amiodarone has no favorable effect on survival, whereas single-lead, shock-only ICD therapy reduces overall mortality by 23 percent.
Heterogeneous makespan and energy-constrained DAG scheduling

Energy-efficient resource allocation within computing systems is important because of the growing demand for, and cost of, energy. In this paper, we study the problem of energy-constrained static resource allocation of a collection of communicating tasks to a heterogeneous computing environment. Our goal is to maximize the probability (calculated via Monte Carlo method) that our collection of tasks completes by both a given deadline and an energy constraint in an environment where task execution times and communication times are uncertain. We model a collection of energy-saving mechanisms from the ACPI standard that can be used to balance the energy consumption and execution time of our tasks. We then design and evaluate (via simulation) a set of heuristics for allocating resources in our system. Finally, we show that our novel adaptation of existing heuristics can greatly improve performance in our environment.
Thompson Sampling for Opportunistic Spectrum Access with Markovian Rewards

This paper considers the problem of multi- channels opportunistic access in stationary wireless environments, where an intelligent and unlicensed agent uses the existing licensed spectrum to maximize it's throughput while not causing harm to existing licensed users. Each channel is modeled as unknown and never ending stream of binary data generated by first order discrete time Markov process with two states Gilbert-Elliot model. This problem is classified as restless bandit, where optimal solution is intractable. An on-line approximation algorithm is proposed based on Thompson Sampling Algorithm, which acts as heuristic search for best channel in the spectrum. Empirical evaluations are presented at the end of the paper that show an improved performance compared to other existing algorithms in cases where channels are not bursty.
BMI-Referenced Cut-Points for Recommended Daily Pedometer-Determined Steps in Australian Children and Adolescents

Abstract The purpose of this study was to establish sex-specific criterion-referenced standards for pedometer-determined physical activity related to body mass index (BMI)-defined weight status among youth. We analyzed data from 7-16-year-old boys (n = 338) and girls (n = 337) and used pedometer-assessed physical activity and anthropometric data to derive average steps/day and BMI. Sex-specific criterion-referenced standards for steps/day relating to healthy weight and overweight/obese were determined using the contrasting groups method. Healthy weight children took more steps/day than overweight or obese (boys: 14,413 vs. 12,088, and girls: 12,562 vs. 10,114, respectively; p < .001). The optimal BMI-referenced cut-point emerging from our sample was 16,000 steps/day for both boys and girls. Our results and those reported elsewhere suggest that youth take insufficient pedometer-determined steps/day to avoid becoming overweight.
Power, Not Fear: A Collusion-Based Account of Betting Market Inefficiency

Abstract We examine racetrack betting market inefficiency. We argue that the overround – an established measure of inefficiency – may be seen as a reflection of bookmakers’ collusive returns maximising behaviour, rather than simply as their response to an adverse selection problem. We test, and find empirical support for, several proposed market effects of bookmaker (market maker) collusion. Besides number of race participants, overround varies significantly according to (1) whether or not the race is the last at the race meeting, (2) racetrack location, (3) day of the week (weekday vs. weekend), (4) type of race (handicap vs. non-handicap), and (5) type of race event (Flat/National Hunt). The study provides fresh insight into the origins of betting market inefficiency, where the link between market structure and context and bookmaker behaviour is a key feature. Regarding the broader implications, the study alerts us to the potential for financial market inefficiencies such as the bid-ask spread to be explained, in part, as a consequence of market makers’ opportunistic behaviour wherever and whenever it is possible for intermediaries to exploit their understanding of investor behaviour.
Front matter

"If you build it, they will come. " In the past, this seemed to be the dominant paradigm for technology development and implementation in healthcare. This initial paradigm often led to poor user satisfaction and failed implementations of healthcare information technology. In the last few decades, informatics has embraced user-centered design principles to improve both the design and adoption of information and communication technologies. However, frequently the end-user is perceived to only be the clinician. Although the data in healthcare are about and are received from patients, patients are not usually perceived of as end-users of health information or health information technology. In the popular press, we are seeing a grass-roots effort from patients to change their role in their own health management. A change to a more dynamic partnership with clinicians means we need tools that are able to support patients as well as clinicians in this partnership. New online tools and mobile applications are sprouting up to fill the demand, but rigorous evaluation of these tools can be lacking; leading to questionable quality and concerns for patient safety. The informatics field has the expertise to provide critical leadership in this area. The call for this year's conference asked for authors to consider the role and voice of the patient. Patients themselves were invited to contribute papers describing their experiences in healthcare and their use of their own data. The papers here reflect not only the informatics innovations in the field, but also explore how to include the patients when considering design, implementation and long-term adoption of health information systems. We hope that the knowledge shared between ITCH 2015 participants will generate further discussions and collaborations and lead to breakthroughs in delivering effective and inclusive healthcare worldwide. Karen Courtney School of Health Information Science University of Victoria Victoria, British Columbia Canada.
The Impact of Social Capital on Residential Water-Affecting Behaviors in a Drought-Prone Australian Community

Australians report the second highest rate of water consumption in the industrialized world, despite the continent's generally dry conditions. With researchers suggesting that fostering social capital may encourage people to work together on environmental and sustainable initiatives, this article explores whether social capital, environmental responsibility, and socio-demographic lifestyle factors might predict environmentally friendly or unfriendly home water use behaviors, specifically gardening and car washing, in a drought-prone Australian community. Residents who scored higher on the Neighborhood Connections element of social capital were more likely to wash their car in an environmentally friendly manner. Conversely, residents who scored higher on the Proactivity element of social capital were more likely to engage in the potentially harmful gardening practice of using weedkillers, pesticides and herbicides. The role social capital might play in fostering—or restricting—water sustainability, as well as the implications for policy, community engagement, and environmental education programs, is discussed.
Practitioner Summary of Can Auditors Reduce Negligence Verdicts? An Examination of Remedial Tactics

SUMMARY: This article summarizes our recent study, “The Use of Remedial Tactics in Negligence Litigation” (Cornell et al. 2009). Auditors face significant litigation risk when adverse economic events occur with clients, even when the auditors followed Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) when they conducted the audit. Civil litigation rules in many U.S. jurisdictions allow plaintiffs to compel testimony from defendants during trial proceedings. We investigated whether auditors could use verbal remediation tactics to reduce the likelihood of guilty verdicts when accused of professional negligence. In a mock trial setting, we examined whether an apology and/or a first-person justification offered by an auditor-defendant results in fewer negligence verdicts against audit firms. Our results indicate that, when an auditor testifies and expresses an apology and/or a first-person justification, jurors find the auditor guilty of negligence about half as often as when no remedial tactic is used. These find.
Characterization of [3H]YM617, R-(-)-5-[2-[[2[ethoxyring(n)-3H](o-ethoxyphenoxy)ethyl]amino]- propyl]-2-methoxybenzenesulfonamide HCl, a potent and selective alpha-1 adrenoceptor radioligand.

The binding properties of a new radioligand, R(-)-5-[2-[[2[ethoxyring(n)-3H](o- ethoxyphenoxy)ethyl]amino]propyl]-2-methoxybenzenesulfonamide++ + HCl ([3H]YM617), were studied in membranes of the rat hippocampus and spleen. [3H]YM617 rapidly associated with its binding sites in both membranes and reached steady state by 20 min at 25 degrees C. The specific binding of [3H]YM617 appeared to be saturable, and Scatchard analysis revealed a linear plot, suggesting a single population of binding sites with a dissociation constant of 0.170 +/- 0.016 nM (n = 6) in the hippocampus and 0.195 +/- 0.036 (n = 4) in the spleen. The maximal binding sites in the hippocampus and spleen were 203.0 +/- 43.2 (n = 6) and 72.4 +/- 17.0 (n = 4) fmol/mg protein, respectively. Chlorethylclonidine (10(-5) M for 10 min) treatment reduced the Bmax values of [3H]YM617 and [3H]prazosin to a similar degree in the rat hippocampus (10-15%) and spleen (40-50%). Alpha adrenoceptor agonists and antagonists competed with [3H]YM617 for binding sites in the following order: YM617 > prazosin > WB4101 > bunazosin > 5-methylurapidil > S(+)-isomer of YM617 > phentolamine > yohimbine > norepinephrine = phenylephrine > methoxamine in the hippocampus, and prazosin > YM617 > bunazosin > WB4101 > 5-methylurapidil > phentolamine > S(+)-isomer of YM617 > yohimbine > norepinephrine > phenylephrine > methoxamine in the spleen. In the hippocampus, prazosin and bunazosin produced biphasic displacement of [3H]YM617, but not [3H]prazosin binding. In contrast, only monophasic curves were obtained against either radioligand in the spleen. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Voluntary Breath Holding in Panic and Generalized Anxiety Disorders

Objective Because breath holding causes arterial pCO2 to increase, we used it to test the hypothesis that in panic disorder (PD) a biological suffocation monitor is pathologically sensitive. Method Nineteen patients with PD, 17 with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and 22 normal controls took deep breaths on signal and held them until a release signal was given 30 seconds later. This was repeated 12 times separated by 60-second normal breathing periods. Results PD patients reported having had in the past more symptoms of shortness of breath when anxious, and more frequent frightening suffocation experiences than the other groups. However, increases in self-rated anxiety between periods of normal breathing and periods of breath holding were similar in all three groups. Skin conductance, blood pressure, and T-wave amplitude reactions to breath holdings were also similar, but heart rate acceleration upon taking a deep breath was greater in GAD patients. Before and after individual breath holdings, end-tidal pCO2 was lower in PD patients than in normal controls; GAD patients were intermediate. Inspiratory flow rate did not differ between groups. Conclusions Our physiological results provide no direct support for an overly sensitive suffocation alarm system in PD. Lower pCO2 may be due to anxiety causing hyperventilation in patients prone to panic.
Indium phosphide nanowires and their applications in optoelectronic devices

Group IIIA phosphide nanocrystalline semiconductors are of great interest among the important inorganic materials because of their large direct band gaps and fundamental physical properties. Their physical properties are exploited for various potential applications in high-speed digital circuits, microwave and optoelectronic devices. Compared to II–VI and I–VII semiconductors, the IIIA phosphides have a high degree of covalent bonding, a less ionic character and larger exciton diameters. In the present review, the work done on synthesis of III–V indium phosphide (InP) nanowires (NWs) using vapour- and solution-phase approaches has been discussed. Doping and core–shell structure formation of InP NWs and their sensitization using higher band gap semiconductor quantum dots is also reported. In the later section of this review, InP NW-polymer hybrid material is highlighted in view of its application as photodiodes. Lastly, a summary and several different perspectives on the use of InP NWs are discussed.
Circularly-polarized 4-arm curl antenna for wireless capsule endoscopy

Circularly-polarized 4-arm curl antenna for wireless in-body capsule endoscopy (WCE) application at 2.4 GHz is presented. The antenna arms are sequentially fed to enhance the circular polarization characteristics. The antenna is encapsulated and implanted in the human body. The human body tissue is demonstrated by a cylindrical multilayer model to simulate its dispersive properties. The full structure is simulated using the finite integral technique. The radiation characteristics of the encapsulated 4-arm curl antenna inside the human body are investigated. The orientation of the WCE inside the human body is demonstrated. The performance of the capsule in free-space with the same dimensions is investigated. The effect of capsule orientation during its travel through the digestive tract on the gain and radiation efficiency has been investigated.