Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Road to Recovery: Experiences and Occupational Lives of Icelandic Women with Breast Cancer

ABSTRACT The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and occupational lives of Icelandic women with breast cancer. In all 18 women were interviewed using the Occupational Performance History Interview as a guide. The women employed different modes of interpreting and responding to the cancer event with occupational participation being the central vehicle to resist the illness. Adjustment to breast cancer survivorship was characterized by permanent changes in the women's lives with both positive and negative consequences. When working with women with breast cancer, occupational therapists should focus on their needs as occupational beings.
Changing rules of accounting in Poland

Changes taking place in Poland and in other Central European countries mean a return to the free market economy and private ownership under democratic law. In these circumstances, new accounting regulations are necessary. In this paper some of the important questions covering the process of setting accounting regulations have been identified and discussed. The questions are as follows: - business law and accounting regulations; the sequence of changes; - the scope of accounting regulations; - EC Directives and the new Order on Accounting; - international accounting standards and their importance for changes in accounting regulations; - making use of the experience of West European nations; - Accounting regulations problems concerning the newly established Stock Exchange in Warsaw and the Securities Commission; - the recently promulgated 'Act on Financial Statements Auditing and the Auditors' (independent institution, and standards); - the role of the accounting profession in the rule-making process.
Estimating the Degrees of Freedom of the Realized Volatility Wishart Autoregressive Model

In this paper an in-depth analysis of the estimation of the realized volatility Wishart Autoregressive model is presented. We focus in particular on the estimation of the degrees of freedom. A new estimator is proposed. Monte Carlo simulations show that this novel estimator is more efficient when compared to the standard estimator proposed in literature. We also studied the effect of extreme observation in the variance-covariance process. Analytically and relying on simulation, we show that extreme observations in the variance-covariance process induce a bias toward zero of the estimated degrees of freedom, no matter which estimator one uses. However, the new proposed estimator is more robust compared to the standard one. An empirical application to the S&P 500 - NASDAQ 100 futures realized variance-covariance series confirms that the estimated degrees of freedom result sensitively lower when extremely high values in the volatility process are present and they increase with the sampling frequency.
Micro Enterprises In Inner-City Communities: Current Challenges And Viability

Supporting micro enterprises within inner-city communities is a viable strategy to promote economic development, combat poverty, and alleviate social costs. Some authors suggest that micro entrepreneurship is essential to maintain a healthy economy within low-income communities. This paper is aimed at highlighting the profile and functioning of micro enterprises in inner-city Buffalo, New York with regards to aspects such as size, financial and non-financial assistance, goals and barriers experienced by micro entrepreneurs. Data from an exploratory survey of 100 micro enterprises suggest that micro entrepreneurs encounter several problems that impact negatively on their profitability and viability. The data also suggests that these entrepreneurs are constrained not only by financial factors but also non-controllable factors such as the economy of the city, availability of reliable labor, and insurance requirements. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of the survey findings for developing strategies to address issues facing micro enterprises in inner-city communities
Tax Projections and the Budget: Lessons from the 1980s

Some economists have argued that the disincentive effects of marginal tax rate increases in the 1980s caused revenue to rise by less than had been anticipated. To evaluate the hypothesis, this paper considers OMB revenue forecasts and forecast errors for the period 1982-93. If the revenue gains from tax increases, and the revenue losses from tax cuts, were overstated because of inadequate allowance for behavioral responses, then the forecast errors should be negatively related to the initial revenue estimates of the impact of policy changes. For excise taxes and corporate income taxes, the results suggest that the systematic overprediction of revenues during the period can be explained in part by an underestimate of behavioral responses to taxation.
Welfare recipient work choice and in-kind benefits in Washington state

We analyze the work choice of welfare recipients. Potential welfare recipients compare their on and off welfare utility from after-tax income and in-kind benefits via employment or welfare, and choose whether to work. Our null hypothesis, which we reject, is that benefits affect only the decision to work or not, not the hours worked, which will depend on wages. Using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) administrative data from Washington state, we find that employer provided health insurance and child care subsidies significantly raise exit rates of TANF recipients and induce greater work effort. Other work inducing factors include wages and the Earned Income Tax Credit, while increased levels of Medicaid, Food Stamps and the income guarantee increase welfare dependency.
Patterns of hand preference in Italian adolescent high-school students

The Annett Hand Preference Questionnaire (AHPQ) is amongst the most widely used self-report measures of handedness. The psychometric properties of the AHPQ have been rarely evaluated outside the Anglo-Saxon culture where the majority of the studies on the AHPQ were done. In this study, 1,023 students (males = 49.5%) from four large high schools operating in the district of Cagliari (Italy) were invited to fill in the Italian version of the AHPQ. The AHPQ was proved to measure a unidimensional latent trait, and the questionnaire was good at assessing deviation from right-handedness with high discrimination between subjects. Some items were more informative than others, and in particular the non-equivalence between the primary and the non-primary actions was confirmed by both the confirmatory factor and the item response theory analysis. The use of the rule of thumb that classifies subjects on the basis of the primary actions was supported for the distinction between consistent right- and left-handed. However, the mixed-handed group identified on the basis of the rule of thumb was not entirely consistent with the mixed-handed class predicted by the latent class analysis. Males were about twice as likely as females to be in the mixed-handed class.
Enforcement In Apprenticeship Contracts: Were Runaways a Serious Problem? Evidence from Montreal

Historians argue that in late eighteenth-century North Aerica, apprentices often ran away form their masters. Masters’ inability to write enforceable contracts, the argument goes, sparked the decline of traditional apprenticeships. This article addresses the issue of enforcement. I analyze an apprentice’s incentive to run away and the role of enforcement with detailed archival evidence form Montreal. These data cast doubt on the claim that masters were unable to construct enforceable contracts and call into question the severity of a runaway problem.
Prognostic trees to aid prognosis in patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma

Abstract Objectives: To design user friendly guides to prognosis for patients who have had invasive primary cutaneous malignant melanomas surgically excised. Design: Adaptation of the classification tree method was used to derive prognostic trees for four different subgroups of malignant melanoma patients in whom known and possible prognostic variables interacted in different ways. Setting: Scotland. Subjects: Statistical modelling for prognostic trees was based on 1978 patients whose primary malignant melanoma was first diagnosed in 1979-86 for whom five year follow up and all relevant clinical pathological data were available. The resultant model was validated with 300 patients first diagnosed in 1987 for whom the same information was available. Main outcome measures: Actual and predicted rate of survival after diagnosis of primary cutaneous malignant melanoma. Results: The four subgroups of patients were men and women with ulcerated and non-ulcerated cutaneous primary melanomas. Validation of the model showed excellent agreement between actual status of patients in the relevant subgroups and their status as predicted by the model. Conclusions: The prognostic trees are simple to use and give more accurate prognosis for individual patients than is currently available from tumour thickness alone.
Measuring the relationship between total quality management and sustainable competitive advantage: A resource-based view

Does a total quality management (TQM) initiative have any effect on the firm's performance? What are the variables that exert this influence? Which elements have the greatest effects? All these issues are discussed widely in the literature on strategy and quality. The objective of this paper is to approach the study of these problems from a resource-based perspective. From this viewpoint, the effects of TQM on performance are explained through the resources and competencies that the implementation of this strategy generates. The adoption of this perspective implies guiding the research towards the identification of strategic resources and core competencies that are generated by a TQM initiative. This issue has hardly been touched by previous research in the quality literature. We propose an investigation design and methodology based on the elaboration of a structural equation model. This model will allow us to contrast the extent to which these TQM-linked resources and competencies are sources of sustainable competitive advantage and better performance. This paper presents wide empirical research on industrial and service firms, which confirms our causal model. To develop this research, a TQM measurement instrument and a competencies measurement instrument were elaborated.
Merozoite Surface Protein 1-Specific Immune Response Is Protective against Exoerythrocytic Forms of Plasmodium yoelii

ABSTRACT One of the difficulties in developing an effective malaria vaccine is the antigenic change of the parasite during the life cycle. It is desirable that vaccine-induced protective immunity be effective at different stages of parasite development. Merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) is a candidate vaccine antigen against blood-stage malaria, but it is also expressed in the exoerythrocytic forms. It was not known, however, whether the anti-MSP1 immune response is effective against the liver-stage malaria parasite. We generated a recombinant protein of MSP1 fused to heat-shock cognate protein 70 (hsc70) and studied its vaccination effect. When C57BL/6 mice were immunized with the fusion protein prior to challenge infection with Plasmodium yoelii sporozoites, the onset of parasitemia was delayed or no parasitemia was observed. To determine whether this was due to the protective immunity against liver-stage parasites, P. yoelii-specific rRNA in the infected liver was quantitated by real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis. The level of parasite-specific rRNA was reduced in mice immunized with the fusion protein of MSP1 and hsc70 but not with hsc70 alone, indicating that MSP1-specific immunity can be protective against the exoerythrocytic form of the parasite. Furthermore, the adoptive transfer experiments of immune lymphocytes and serum into naive mice suggested that the protective immunity was dependent on cellular and not humoral immunity. Finally, the vaccine-induced protection was also observed in A/J, C3H, and BALB/c mice, suggesting that MSP1-specific protective immunity at the exoerythrocytic stage can be induced in animals over a wide range of genetic backgrounds.
“Our Most Important Asset”

Despite managers’ claims that their organization’s human capital is their “most important asset,” few can confidently state the financial value of that resource or quantify in financial terms how changes in management practices, culture, or workforce composition affect the value of that resource. Scholars of strategic human capital and strategic human resource management face a similar situation, relying more on inferences about human capital resource value than on empirical measures of it. In an effort to explicate the challenges associated with financial valuation so that scholars can begin to move past them, we provide a multidisciplinary review of existing work that has been concerned with the estimation, disclosure, and management of the financial value associated with an organization’s human capital resources. We propose a multilevel organizing framework to facilitate the linkage between the financial valuation issues highlighted in our review and the recent literature on strategic human capital/strategic human resource management. Based on the insights drawn from this review, we then propose a series of next steps or “action items” to stimulate future research that holds promise for yielding both new theoretical insights and important practical implications for organizations.
Separating Behavioral and Physiological Mechanisms in Testosterone‐Mediated Trade‐Offs

Testosterone often mediates trade‐offs between reproduction and other life‐history traits, which are usually investigated using testosterone implants. However, this approach does not distinguish between the physiological and behavioral effects of testosterone. We studied a wild game bird, the red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus, and took a new approach to investigate mechanisms linking elevated testosterone to increased parasite intensity. We caught males in autumn, removed their parasites, implanted them with the antiandrogen flutamide in combination with an aromatase inhibitor (FA males) or with empty implants (control males), and challenged them with parasites. The FA treatment increased testosterone concentration and physiological stress, but without enhancing testosterone‐dependent behaviors, because testosterone receptors were blocked. FA males ended up with more parasites than the control males the following autumn, an effect similar to that of a testosterone treatment reported elsewhere. However, and unlike the testosterone treatment, the FA treatment did not affect home range, pairing, or breeding success. The results supported a physiological mechanism (increased susceptibility) linking elevated testosterone and increased parasite intensity. The FA treatment provided a new way of investigating testosterone‐mediated trade‐offs whereby testosterone concentration was increased while the effects on behavior were blocked, resulting in physiological costs without phenotypic benefits.
Placental vascular endothelial growth factor receptor system mRNA expression in pigs selected for placental efficiency

Selecting Yorkshire breeding stock for increased placental efficiency (PE; piglet weight divided by its placental weight) results in larger litters (i.e. ∼3 more piglets litter−1) and reduced placental sizes. Placental vessel density increases progressively after day 50 of gestation in the pig, and is positively correlated with PE and placental expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a potent angiogenic and permeability factor. To elicit its vascular effects, VEGF must bind to its receptors (R), VEGF‐R1 and VEGF‐R2. The objective of this study was to compare placental and endometrial blood vessel density and placental VEGF, VEGF‐R1 and VEGF‐R2 mRNA expression in day 70 and 90 conceptuses from Yorkshire females selected for high PE, low PE, and from unselected controls. A greater (P < 0.05) PE was observed for conceptuses in the high PE selection group when compared to the low PE selection group. Placental blood vessel density increased (P < 0.05) from day 70 to 90 (1.8 ± 0.1 versus 2.8 ± 0.2) in association with increases (P < 0.05) in placental VEGF mRNA expression. No selection group differences were observed in expression of VEGF, VEGF‐R1, or VEGF‐R2 on day 70. By day 90, however, placentae of conceptuses from the high PE group expressed greater (P < 0.05) amounts of VEGF and VEGF‐R1 mRNA than the unselected controls and the low PE group. These data demonstrate that increased placental expression of the VEGF receptor system is associated with increased placental vascular density observed with the advancement of gestation in the pig. Although placental blood vessel density was not increased in the high PE selection group, elevated levels of the VEGF receptor system suggest an effect on increasing placental and endometrial blood vessel permeability and/or proximity in the high PE group.
Contribution of particulate nitrate to airborne measurements of total reactive nitrogen

[1] Simultaneous measurements of speciated, total reactive nitrogen (NOy) and particulate NO3 (particle diameter <1.3 mm) were made on board the NASA P-3B aircraft over the western Pacific in February–April 2001 during the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) experiment. Gas-phase and particulate NOy was measured using a gold tube catalytic converter. For the interpretation of particulate NOy, conversion efficiencies of particulate NH4NO3, KNO3, NaNO3, and Ca(NO3)2 were measured in the laboratory. Only NH4NO3 showed quantitative conversion, and its conversion efficiency was as high as that for HNO3 . N Oy measured on board the aircraft was found to be systematically higher by 10–30% than the sum of the individual NOy gas components ( P (NOy)i) at 0–4 km. Particulate NO3 concentrations measured by a particle-into-liquid
Evolution of organizational governance and human resource management in China's township and village enterprises

This study reviews the evolution of organizational governance and human resource management practices in China's non-state sector, with a focus on China's township and village enterprises (TVEs). The empirical investigation on twenty TVEs located in Southern China provided the evidence that, as enterprises move towards a more formal corporate governance structure with clearer property rights relations, their human resource management practices tend to become more marketized, in order to meet the challenge of increased competition in the highly dynamic, transitional Chinese economy.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in pediatric patients: effect of verapamil on regional and global left ventricular diastolic function.

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of treatment with verapamil on regional and global left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in paediatric patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). DESIGN Twelve patients (age range 5.1 to 12.3 years, median 8.6) with HCM were evaluated during ongoing chronic oral treatment with verapamil (4 mg/kg/day) and four days after withdrawal of therapy. Twelve age- and body surface area-matched normal children served as controls. In an echocardiographic study, global LV diastolic function was evaluated by assessing isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT) and mitral flow indexes, including peak filling rate normalized to mitral stroke volume (PFR/SV). In addition, regional LV diastolic function was assessed by pulsed-wave Doppler tissue imaging at the subendocardial portion of the middle region of the anterior and posterior interventricular septum, and anterolateral and inferior walls to measure the peak velocities and the velocity-time integrals of myocardial excursion in both early diastole and atrial systole. In addition, as an index of diastolic asynchrony (AsyI), the variation in time to peak filling rate, measured as the time from the peak of the R wave on the electrocardiogram to the peak of the regional E wave, among the four myocardial regions was defined by subtracting the smallest value from the greatest and expressing the difference as a percentage of the smallest value. RESULTS Compared with the controls, patients with HCM without therapy showed a longer IVRT (P<0.01) and a decrease in PFR/SV (P<0.01) without a compensatory increase in filling during atrial systole. Oral administration of verapamil induced a significant shortening of the IVRT (P=0.003) and an increase in PFR/SV (P=0.02). Furthermore, patients with HCM without therapy showed a significantly longer time to peak filling rate (P<0.01) associated with a decreased peak velocity in early diastole without a concomitant increase in peak velocity during atrial systole in each of the myocardial regions. Furthermore, the AsyI was higher in the HCM group than in controls (19% versus 6%, respectively), and this index was inversely correlated with the PFR/SV (r=-0.86, P<0.001). The regional diastolic velocity of the myocardium at each of the four analyzed regions was not significantly different with verapamil, but the AsyI was significantly lower (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Children with HCM show abnormalities of both global and regional LV diastolic function. In these patients, chronic administration of verapamil plays a crucial role in the improvement in global LV filling and, as a consequence, in clinical manifestations. The beneficial effects of verapamil seem to be related to a reduction in diastolic asynchrony more than to significant changes in diastolic velocities of the myocardial fibres.
Estimating vector autoregressions with panel data

This paper considers estimation and testing of vector autoregressio n coefficients in panel data, and applies the techniques to analyze the dynamic relationships between wages an d hours worked in two samples of American males. The model allows for nonstationary individual effects and is estimated by applying instrumental variables to the quasi-differenced autoregressive equations. The empirical results suggest the absence of lagged hours in the wage forecasting equation. The results also show that lagged hours is important in the hours equation. Copyright 1988 by The Econometric Society.
Lack of JC viral genomic sequences in multiple sclerosis brain tissue by polymerase chain reaction

With DNA extracted from brain specimens from 19 multiple sclerosis, 5 progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, 1 Alzheimer's disease, and 8 nonneurological control subjects, polymerase chain reaction was performed using nested sets of primer pairs amplifying segments of the large T and VP1 antigen‐encoding sequences of JC virus. Both sequences were detected in each of the 5 brain specimens of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy but in none of the 19 multiple sclerosis, 1 Alzheimer's disease, or the 8 control brain specimens.
Building a Better Fund of Hedge Funds: A Fractal and Alpha-Stable Distribution Approach

Markowitz’s (1952) portfolio theory has permeated financial institutions over the past 50 years. Assuming that returns are normally distributed, Markowitz suggests that portfolio optimization should be performed in a mean-variance framework. With the emergence of hedge funds and their non-normally distributed returns, mean-variance portfolio optimization is no longer adequate. Here, hedge fund returns are modeled with the alpha-stable distribution and a mean-CVaR portfolio optimization is performed. Results indicate that by using the alpha- stable distribution, a more efficient fund of hedge funds portfolio can be created than would be by assuming a normal distribution. To further increase efficiency, the Hurst exponent is considered as a filtering tool and it is found that combining hedge fund strategies within a range of Hurst exponents leads to the creation of more efficient portfolios as characterized by higher risk-adjusted ratios. These findings open the door for the further study of econophysics tools in the analysis of hedge fund returns.