Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the exports of the developing economies of East Asia: a computable general equilibrium approach

There is a general perception particularly among the developing countries of East Asia that China's WTO membership would spell bad news for their exports. The ASEAN countries in particular are quite concerned about its likely negative impact on their export and growth potentials. In this light, the main objective of this paper is to empirically assess the trade implications of China's WTO membership for these countries. Only few studies, using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) approach, have addressed the issue of China's WTO membership trade implications. Further, these studies have not adequately addressed the issue from the perspective of the developing countries of East Asia, particularly the ASEAN countries. Using the latest version of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model and based on the latest tariff reduction commitments by China, the results showed that, contrary to the current perception and previous studies, almost all of the developing countries of East Asia are likely to benefit from China's WTO membership overall, after allowing for anticipated price adjustments. Without the price adjustments, the Philippines and Singapore would have come out as net losers. These findings have confirmed the need for economic and export restructuring among the ASEAN countries and the importance of accelerating their economic integration. They have also highlighted the importance of promoting trade and investment cooperation between China and ASEAN countries.
Evaluation of initial diffusion-weighted image findings in acute stroke patients using a semiquantitative score.

PURPOSE We evaluated the usefulness of rating diffusion-weighted images (DWI) using a semiquantitative score modified from the Alberta Stroke Programme Early CT Score (ASPECTS) to predict deterioration of neurological symptoms in patients with hyperacute ischemic stroke who had undergone thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA). MATERIALS AND METHODS We examined 22 patients with acute stroke (14 men, 8 women, mean age 72.5 years) treated with intravenous rt-PA. All were assessed using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and underwent emergent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging within 3 hours and 24 hours of stroke onset. Patients were divided into a deteriorated group (16 patients), in which NIHSS scores were increased after thrombolysis, and a non-deteriorated group (6 patients). We compared the DWI score, ASPECTS, and volume of hyperintense ischemic lesion on DWI (DWI volume) of the 2 groups and examined correlations between these scores and initial NIHSS score or DWI volume. RESULTS The DWI score and ASPECTS tended to be lower in the deteriorated group than the non-deteriorated group. In addition, with a cutoff value<or=7, the DWI score could discriminate the deteriorated group from the non-deteriorated group with a sensitivity of 50% and specificity of 87.5%, whereas for ASPECTS, sensitivity was 50% and specificity, 81.2%. The DWI score, ASPECTS, and DWI volume had no correlation with NIHSS score but weak negative correlations with the DWI volume (P<0.01; Spearman's test). Comparing initial NIHSS score with each DWI score and DWI volume, the non-deteriorated group tended to have higher DWI scores and smaller DWI volumes than the deteriorated group, but there was no statistical difference between initial NIHSS and DWI scores. Though the DWI score was not statistically different, the threshold would be set to 6 points or above. Comparing initial DWI score with volume, patients with low DWI scores tended to show large variation in DWI volume and patients with small DWI volume showed large variation in DWI scores. There was no relation between hemorrhagic change and symptoms in either group. CONCLUSIONS The semiquantitative DWI score easily evaluated extent of acute ischemic lesion on DWI and might be used to predict patient outcome after thrombolytic therapy more accurately than ASPECTS or DWI volume.
Maybe It Really Is Different This Time

It is often said that the most dangerous words an investor can utter are: “This time it’s different. ” Yet, in this article, the author argues exactly that–the tried-and-true quantitative stock-selection strategies, such as value and momentum (or at least the simple versions of these strategies), which have been very successful for many years, are unlikely to add much value going forward after adjusting for risks, fees, and trading costs. Before the article culminates with this conclusion, however, the author presents both sides of the argument, analyzes the data from new angles, and provides several reasons why it really might be different going forward before concluding with several suggestions for how managers can help add alpha in the future.
Selenium Nutrition of Cattle: An Update

Research regarding the nutritional importance of selenium (Se) has changed markedly over the last 75 years. In the 1930's Se was identified as the toxic agent causing alkali disease in animals. In the 1940's and early 1950's research was conducted to identify the specific seleno-compounds causing toxicity and to develop prophylactic and treatment schemes for selenium toxicity. Selenium research changed completely after Schwarz and Folz (1957) reported that Se was an essential nutrient for laboratory animals. Research quickly focused on domestic animals and Se deficiency was identified as the cause of white muscle disease (Muth et al., 1958). In 1979, after years of research showing many beneficial effects of Se supplementation of domestic animals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published regulations that legalized Se supplementation of diets for beef and dairy cattle. The current U.S. FDA regulation was published 1987 and allows ruminant diets to be supplemented with 0.3 ppm Se from either sodium selenite or selenate (selenized yeast is also approved in Canada). This paper will 1) briefly review the effects of Se on cattle, 2) discuss factors affecting bioavailability of Se, and 3) present recommendations to maintain proper Se status of cattle.
The Catalytic Mechanism of Mammalian Adenylyl Cyclase

The mechanism of P-site inhibition of adenylyl cyclase has been probed by equilibrium binding measurements using 2′-[3H]deoxyadenosine, a P-site inhibitor, and by kinetic analysis of both the forward and reverse reactions (i.e. cyclic AMP and ATP synthesis, respectively). There is one binding site for 2′-deoxyadenosine per C1/C2 heterodimer; the K d is 40 ± 3 μm. Binding is observed only in the presence of one of the products of the adenylyl cyclase reaction, pyrophosphate (PPi). A substrate analog, Ap(CH2)pp (α,β-methylene adenosine 5′-triphosphate), and cyclic AMP compete for the P-site in the presence of PPi, but P-site analogs do not compete for substrate binding (in the absence of PPi). Kinetic analysis indicates that release of products from the enzyme is random. These facts permit formulation of a model for the adenylyl cyclase reaction, for which we provide substantial kinetic support. We propose that P-site analogs act as dead-end inhibitors of product release, stabilizing an enzyme-product (E-PPi) complex by binding at the active site. Although product release is random, cyclic AMP dissociates from the enzyme preferentially. Release of PPiis slow and partially rate-limiting.
Logit model analysis for multivariate categorical data

Logit model analysis of dichotomous dependent and categorical independent variables has great potential in marketing research, supplementing other multivariate techiques such as regression and discriminant analysis. This paper describes the steps to be taken in its use and by means of a worked example shows how logit model analysis can be applied to a marketing research problem.
Decreased MMP-9 production in primary progressive multiple sclerosis patients

Background: An increase in MMP-9 levels has been found in relapsing-remitting (RR) multiple sclerosis (MS) showing correlation with magnetic resonance (MR) parameters mainly during relapses. However, data regarding primary progressive (PP) MS is scarce. Objectives: To determine both the pro and active forms of MMP-9 in PPMS and transitional progressive (TP) MS, RRMS and healthy controls (HC), and to assess the relationship between MMP-9 levels and clinical and radiological variables in PP/TPMS. Methods: 73 patients with PP/TPMS, 50 RRMS and 43 HC were studied. Levels of pro and active forms of MMP-9 in serum were measured with ELISA. EDSS and MSFC scores were recorded and T2- and T1-weighted MR scans were obtained at the time of blood sampling and one and two years later for PP/TP MS cases. Results: MMP-9 levels were 202.27 ng/ml for PP/TPMS, 242.20 ng/ml for RRMS and 274.49 ng/ml for HC. MMP-9 levels were significantly lower in PP/TPMS compared to RRMS(P-0.026) and HC (P- 0.001). No significant correlations were found between MMP-9 levels and clinical scores or radiological parameters. Conclusions: These results point to different regulatory mechanisms of MMP-9 production and/or activity between PP/TPMS and RRMS.
AFLP fingerprinting for paternity testing in ducks

1. The accuracy and reproducibility of AFLP fingerprinting was investigated in the duck (Anas Platyrhynchos), using a multicolour fluorescent labeling technique. The fluorescent labelling fragments were separated on a capillary electrophoresis-base ABI PRISM 3100 Genetic Analyzer. 2. A total of 337 AFLP peaks with 103 of them being polymorphic markers were generated by 16 sets consisting of EcoRI/TaqI primer pair combinations. The number and size range of AFLP polymorphisms detected per primer pair varied from 3 to 11 and 58 to 290 bp, respectively. About 30·6% (103/337) of AFLP peaks were detected polymorphisms, with an average of 6·4 polymorphic markers per primer pair. 3. The clear polymorphic peaks were amplified with EcoR+AC/Taq+AC primer combinations. The AFLP peaks showed high reproducibility. From the family testing, we found that the fingerprints of all the offspring were derived from one or other parent. Therefore, we conclude that AFLP fingerprinting might be a suitable method for duck paternity testing.
"Put in a Good Word for the Poor Public Sector Employee…": Intersectoral Differences in Pay

66 English translation © 2007 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., from the Russian text © 2006 “Voprosy ekonomiki. ” “‘O bednom biudzhetnike zamolvite slovo . ’: mezhsektornye razlichiia v zarabotnoi plate,” Voprosy ekonomiki, 2006, no. 6, pp. 81–106. A publication of the NP “Editorial Board of Voprosy ekonomiki” and the Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences. V. Gimpel’son is a Candidate of Economic Sciences and director of the Labor Research Center of the State University–Higher School of Economics; A. Luk’ianova is a Candidate of Economic Sciences and senior researcher at the same institution. The authors thank I. Denisov, R. Kapeliushnikov, M. Lokshin, V. Ianvarev, and E. Iasin for valuable advice and comments. They are especially grateful to M. Lokshin for his assistance in solving econometric problems. All errors, naturally, are the authors’ responsibility. Translated by James E. Walker. Problems of Economic Transition, vol. 50, no. 2, June 2007, pp. 66–99. © 2007 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 1061–1991/2007 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/PET1061-1991500204
Foreign Aid and Democracy Promotion: Lessons from Africa

AbstractThe disappointing results of international democratisation efforts are oftenattributed to domestic conditions that make it difficult for democracy to be established or survive. This paper recognises that the process is largely an endogenous one and that significant structural impediments exist. It argues that international actors, though for the most part absent from current theories of democratisation, can nonetheless play a very important role in promoting (or preventing) democratisation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Paradoxically, the role of donors in promoting a rapid transition to a multiparty system actually can impede further democratisation. For better results, a better understanding of and commitment to the process are required. Competing economic, commercial and strategic interests, however, prevent donors from making a more positive contribution.Les résultats décevants des efforts internationaux de démocratisation sont souvent attribués aux conditions domestiques qui rendent l'établissement ou la survie de la démocratie difficile. Cet article reconnaît que le processus est largement endogéne et qu'il existe des entraves structurelles significatives. Des acteurs internationaux, bien que pour la plupart absents des théories actuelles de démocratisation, peuvent malgré tout jouer un rôle tres important en promouvant (ou en empêchant) la démocratisation en Afrique subsaharienne. Paradoxalement, le rôle des bailleurs de fonds dans la promotion d'une transition rapide au multipartisme peut, dans les faits, venir gêner la démocratisation. Afin d'obtenir de meilleurs résultats, une meilleure comprehension des mécanismes et un plus grand engagement dans le processus sont nécessaires. Toutefois, les intérêts économiques, commerciaux et stratégiques concurrents empêchent les bailleurs de fonds de faire une contribution plus positive.
Physiology of "mutans-like" Streptococcus ferus from wild rats

Strains of Streptococcus ferus isolated from the oral cavities of wild rodents inhabiting sucrose-rich and sucrose-poor environments have many traits in common with the "mutans" streptococci. Thus, S. ferus HD3 and 8S1, like cariogenic S. sobrinus 6715-13, from adherent, alpha (1 leads to 3) glucopyranosyl-glucose linkage-rich, plaquelike deposits in vitro and in vivo through the action of constitutive glucosyltransferase(s) enzymes on sucrose, produce and degrade intracellular polysaccharide, produce short-chain fatty acids from the catabolism of mono- and disaccharides, carry the c antigen of S. mutans, and penetrate, persist, and proliferate in a sucrose-augmented fashion in the oral cavities of specific-pathogen-free rodent caries models. However, unlike infection with common S. mutans, infection with tested S. ferus strains does not cause caries. This avirulence appeared to result more from the reduced aciduricity of S. ferus than from differences in glucosyltransferase complements. Studies showed that despite generally similar growth rates and extracellular glucan syntheses, the acidogenic metabolism of S. ferus was more inhibited by declining environmental pH than was cariogenic S. sobrinus 6715-13 and that, in vitro, less hydroxyapatite was solubilized by S. ferus metabolic end products. The physiology of these S. ferus strains demonstrated that, in addition to plaque formation and acid production, acid tolerance was crucial to the carious process.
Alignment of distantly related protein structures: algorithm, bound and implications to homology modeling

MOTIVATION Building an accurate alignment of a large set of distantly related protein structures is still very challenging. RESULTS This article presents a novel method 3DCOMB that can generate a multiple structure alignment (MSA) with not only as many conserved cores as possible, but also high-quality pairwise alignments. 3DCOMB is unique in that it makes use of both local and global structure environments, combined by a statistical learning method, to accurately identify highly similar fragment blocks (HSFBs) among all proteins to be aligned. By extending the alignments of these HSFBs, 3DCOMB can quickly generate an accurate MSA without using progressive alignment. 3DCOMB significantly excels others in aligning distantly related proteins. 3DCOMB can also generate correct alignments for functionally similar regions among proteins of very different structures while many other MSA tools fail. 3DCOMB is useful for many real-world applications. In particular, it enables us to find out that there is still large improvement room for multiple template homology modeling while several other MSA tools fail to do so. AVAILABILITY 3DCOMB is available at http://ttic.uchicago. edu/~jinbo/software.htm. CONTACT jinboxu@gmail.com SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Results of lumbar disk prosthesis after a follow-up period of 48 months.

BACKGROUND Damage to the intervertebral disk is usually corrected by means of a prosthesis. OBJECTIVES To report the outcome of the artificial lumbar disk replacement with the Charité SB III disk prosthesis in 20 patients after a 48 month follow-up. METHODS The 20 patients were evaluated clinically and radiographically during this period. Preoperative diagnosis included degenerative diskopathy in 17 patients and failed posterior conventional diskectomy in 3. The prosthesis was implanted at one level in 17 patients and bi-level implantation was performed in the other 3 patients. RESULTS Eighty percent of patients reported satisfactory to very good results. Poor results were reported by four patients, one of whom underwent posterolateral fusion and another is waiting for the same operation. There were two dislocations of the prosthesis followed by immediate revision surgery. CONCLUSIONS Contraindications for surgery appear to be the principal cause of failure rather than the prosthesis itself.
Denture status and need for prosthodontic treatment among institutionalized elderly in Denmark.

The purpose of the present study was to estimate the realistic need for prosthodontic treatment among institutionalized elderly in Denmark. The study population comprised 486 elderly in nursing homes and 199 in hospital long-term care facilities. The realistic need for treatment was estimated on the basis of the normative and the perceived needs, taking into account the general mental and physical state of each individual as assessed by the charge nurses. The investigation revealed that the majority of the elderly were markedly handicapped, two-thirds were unable to care for themselves, and 15% were in poor mental condition. Among the residents of nursing homes 67% had a normative need for prosthodontic treatment, e.g. new dentures, relining and/or corrections of occlusion, as compared to 71% of the elderly in hospital long-term care facilities. However, only 19% of the nursing home residents and 32% of the elderly in long-term care facilities has a realistic treatment need. The differences between the two groups of elderly are explained by differences in age and general health status. It can be concluded that the realistic need for prosthodontic treatment among institutionalized elderly in Denmark is far from being met, and that this problem can only be solved if given higher priority by the political decision-makers.
An Independent Central Bank faced with Elected Government: A Political Economy Conflict

The literature argues that the benefits of an independent Central Bank accrue at no cost to the real side. In this paper, we argue that the lack of correlation between monetary autonomy and output variability, is due to the proactive role of fiscal policy when faced with rigid monetary objectives. Few of the attempts to measure these correlations actually allow for a changing fiscal role. Yet, when monetary policy is handled by an independent authority, fiscal and wage/social protection policies remain as an instrument in the hands of elected governments. We find that, so long as the two authorities pursue their goals independently of each other, a conflict arises which becomes stronger as preferences diverge. Further to that, we find that the establishment of a conservative Central Bank encourages more divergent preferences amongst the public (as reflected in the governments they elect). The election of more interventionist governments then makes it harder for either authority to reach their own preferred objectives, unless they are able to co-operate.
Design Assists for Embedded Systems in the COINS Compiler Infrastructure

Program design of embedded systems requires special considerations such as compact code size, shorter addressing field, low cost parallelization, tuning to application field, and so on. COINS is a compiler infrastructure that makes compiler development easy by providing a code generator based on target machine description for quick retargeting, and providing modularized analysis/optimization methods that can be called from user supplied compiler modules implementing new compiler features. Recently it has been extended to be able to select compact code size, to generate parallelized object code, to supply profiling information, etc. Such features to support embedded systems are discussed in this paper.
A causal model for employee satisfaction

Employees are recognized as the most crucial asset of today's organizations by both academics and practitioners. The importance of employees is also reflected in the EFQM Excellence Model, since two of the criteria deal with employee - related issues (i.e. 'people' and 'people results'). The EFQM Excellence Model is by far the most widely used model for self - assessment in Europe, but there is no knowledge about the relationships between the enabler criteria and the most crucial of the results criteria: 'people results'. In this paper a frame of reference for employee satisfaction is constructed by comparing the EFQM Excellence Model and Hackman and Oldham's Work Design Model. This comparison has revealed a number of causal relationships between the enabler criteria and 'people results'. These causal relationships have been tested empirically through the Structural Equation Model and the results indicate that the enablers from the EFQM Excellence Model have a positive effect on the criterion 'people results'.
EEG signals can be used to detect the voluntary hand movements by using an enhanced resource-allocating neural network

This article explores the use of single trial EEG signals to predict the voluntary movements of single hand and two hands. During single-hand movements, three kinds of task, grasping, releasing, and holding were considered. The tasks considered during two-hand movements are left and right grasping, left and right releasing, and holding. The subject performs the tasks spontaneously without waiting for and responding to any external cues. In addition, a neural adaptive noise canceller is developed that accomplishes eye blinks suppression. The neural adaptive filter is here implemented by means of a three-layer feed-forward neural network. The feature vectors are formed from the three channels (Fz, C3, and F3). We employ the multilayer perceptron (MLP) with back-propagation learning algorithm and Radial Basis Function (RBF) network with stochastic gradient learning rule for discriminating different patterns of the EEG signals. In the classical approach to RBF and MLP network implementation, the number of hidden units is predetermined. It, usually, results in too many hidden units. To overcome this drawback, we develop an enhanced resource-allocating network (RAN) for discriminating the EEG patterns. These networks start with no hidden units and grow by allocating new hidden units based on the novelty in the EEG signals, which arrive sequentially. The results of this analysis show that the neural networks would be able to detect the movements of a single hand and two hands with an average classification accuracy of 98.82% and 96.40%, respectively. Moreover, the RAN provides a reduction in the training epochs as compared to the MLP and RBF networks. This work represents a promising approach to control prosthesis device.