Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends in Earnings Volatility, Earnings Quality and Idiosyncratic Return Volatility: Managerial Opportunism or Economic Activity

We establish a link between earnings volatility and earnings quality, and show that both earnings volatility and earnings quality contribute to the trend in idiosyncratic return volatility. We examine the trend in earnings volatility and its components during the period 1978-2006 and find that both cash flow volatility and accruals volatility have been increasing and that the contemporaneous correlation between cash flow and accruals has become less negative. The key driver for the deteriorating earnings quality measure is the less negative contemporaneous correlation between cash flow and accruals. We view cash flow volatility as reflecting the uncertainty in firms' real operating activities, accruals volatility as reflecting firms' absolute financial reporting uncertainty, and the cash flow-accruals correlation as reflecting firms' relative degree of earnings management. We find that both the marginal contribution and overall contribution of the cash flow volatility trend to the earnings volatility trend dominate those of accrual volatility and those of correlation. The cash flow volatility trend is positively associated with the idiosyncratic return volatility trend, reflecting the impacts of firms' economic operations. On the financial reporting side, the return volatility trend is positively associated with the earnings quality trend yet negatively associated with the accrual volatility trend. Collectively, the trends in earnings volatility and its components and the trend in earnings quality help explain the documented increasing idiosyncratic stock return volatility. In sum, this paper contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, we identify the drivers for the trend in earnings volatility. While a few papers have separately identified the trend either in earnings or cash flow volatilities, this paper brings these strands of literature together. Our main finding is that cash flow volatility is the primary but not the only driver for earnings volatility. We also document the role of management opportunism in contributing to the earnings volatility trend. Second, we find that earnings quality, financial reporting volatility, and cash flow volatility coexist in explaining idiosyncratic stock return volatility. Our results highlight the roles of both operating volatility (economic forces) and financial reporting quality (managerial opportunism) in explaining earnings volatility and idiosyncratic return volatility, with economic forces dominating managerial opportunism.
Underwater endoscopic mucosal resection for superficial nonampullary duodenal adenomas

Abstract Background and study aim Underwater endoscopic mucosal resection (UEMR) was recently developed in a Western country. A prospective cohort study to investigate the effectiveness of UEMR was conducted in patients with small superficial nonampullary duodenal adenomas. Patients and methods Patients with duodenal adenomas ≤ 20 mm were enrolled. After the duodenal lumen had been filled with physiological saline, UEMR was performed without submucosal injection. Endoclip closure was attempted for all mucosal defects after UEMR. Follow-up endoscopy with biopsy was performed 3 months later. The primary end point was the complete resection rate, defined as neither endoscopic nor histological residue of adenoma at the follow-up endoscopy. Results 30 patients with 31 lesions were enrolled. The mean (SD) tumor size was 12.0 mm (7.3). The complete resection rate was 97 % (90 % confidence interval, 87 % – 99 %). The en bloc resection rate was 87 %. All mucosal defects were successfully closed by endoclips. No adverse events occurred except for one case of mild aspiration pneumonia. Conclusions UEMR is efficacious for the treatment of small duodenal adenomas, but further large-scale trials are warranted to confirm these results.
Tonotopic organization in ventral nucleus of medial geniculate body in the cat.

Responses of single units and clusters of units to tone burst stimulation were recorded at 100-micron intervals along vertical electrode penetrations through the medial geniculate bodies of eight barbiturate-anesthetized cats. Marking lesions were placed at two or three locations along most penetrations to aid in histological reconstruction of electrode tracks. Best frequencies and suprathreshold-response latencies were studied at each location along a penetration. The ventral nucleus is physiologically characterized as a region containing narrowly tuned, short-latency (less than or equal to 40 ms) responses and an orderly tonotopic organization. Best frequencies were plotted as a function of depth along single electrode penetrations, and the sequences from different locations in the ventral nucleus were compared. Two-dimensional best-frequency maps were obtained at different rostrocaudal levels. Each map was constructed from best frequencies encountered along several electrode penetrations in the same transverse plane in one brain. We divided the ventral nucleus into seven different rostrocaudal levels, each characterized by a different pattern of tonotopy. Caudolaterally, isofrequency contours parallel the ventrolateral border of the medial geniculate body. At middle levels, low- and mid-frequency contours course ventromedially from the dorsal border of the ventral nucleus toward its medial border, then turn sharply and continue ventrolaterally. Higher-frequency contours parallel this course, but consist of discontinuous dorsal and ventral segments. Rostrally, isofrequency contours are vertically oriented. A model of the three-dimensional tonotopic organization of the ventral nucleus is described that is consistent with the two-dimensional best-frequency maps obtained at different rostrocaudal levels and with locations of ventral nucleus neurons labeled by horseradish peroxidase injections into low-, mid-, and high-frequency representations in auditory cortex. The model includes a planar component and a concentric component. Within the planar component, low frequencies are represented laterally and high frequencies are represented rostromedially. Within the concentric component, low frequencies are represented in a central column that extends mediolaterally through a hole in the mid-frequency representation. The mid-frequency representation in turn is partially surrounded by the high-frequency representation. There is a continuous representation of a "single" frequency in both the planar and concentric components of the model. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
The Sources of Normativity: Reason, humanity, and the moral law

You might think that, if you make a law, then that law binds you, because you made it. For, if you will the law, then how can you deny that it binds you, without contradicting your own will? But you might also think the opposite. You might think that, if you are the author of the law, then it cannot bind you. For how can it have authority over you when you have authority over it? How can it bind you when you, the lawmaker , can change it, at will, whenever you like? Now, in that pair of arguments mutually contradictory conclusions are drawn from the selfsame premiss: the premiss that you make the law. So at least one of the arguments is invalid. But, even if they are both invalid, they might still be unignorable, because they might have elements of truth in them. They might be healthy argument–embryos out of which sound arguments could develop. And, whatever else is true, each of the arguments is sufficiently persuasive that, mutually contradictory though they are, each was affirmed in Hobbes's Leviathan , in much the form in which I just stated them. There are, by my count, four arguments in Hobbes for the conclusion that the citizen is obliged to obey the law. Three of the arguments don't matter here.
Transduction of Nondividing Human Macrophages with Gammaretrovirus-Derived Vectors

ABSTRACT It is commonly accepted that infection of nondividing cells by gammaretroviruses such as the murine leukemia viruses is inefficient due to their inability to cross the nuclear envelope barrier. Challenging this notion, we now show that human nondividing macrophages display a specific window of susceptibility to transduction with a Friend murine leukemia virus (F-MLV)-derived vector during their differentiation from monocytes. This finding suggests that factors other than the nuclear membrane govern permissiveness to gammaretroviral infection and raises the possibility of using the macrophage tropism of F-MLV in gene therapy.
Evaluating the ORSIM® simulator for assessment of anaesthetists' skills in flexible bronchoscopy: aspects of validity and reliability.

BACKGROUND Developing expertise in flexible bronchoscopy is limited by inadequate opportunities to train on difficult airways. The new ORSIM bronchoscopy simulator aims to address this by creating virtual patients with difficult airways. This study aims to provide evidence on the validity and reliability of the ORSIM for assessment of subjects on both normal and abnormal airway simulations. METHODS Novice, trainee, and expert subjects performed seven simulations of varying difficulty and scored the perceived difficulty for each. Time to completion was measured. Three blinded raters independently scored videos of each subject's performance. We measured inter-rater agreement and the difference in raters' scores between subject groups. RESULTS We recruited 28 study subjects, generating 196 videos for analysis. Expert subjects consistently completed the scenarios faster than novices. Overall performance scores showed significant differences between subject groups (P<0.0001). Inter-rater reliability of scores was >0.8. CONCLUSIONS Our results provide initial evidence on the validity and reliability of the ORSIM bronchoscopy simulator, supporting its potential value in training and assessment.
Influenza virus‐like particles harboring H9N2 HA and NA proteins induce a protective immune response in chicken

Avian influenza viruses represent a growing threat of an influenza pandemic. The co‐circulation of multiple H9N2 genotypes over the past decade has been replaced by one predominant genotype—G57 genotype, which displays a changed antigenicity and improved adaptability in chickens. Effective H9N2 subtype avian influenza virus vaccines for poultry are urgently needed.
Structural identification of the iipo‐chitin oligosaccharide nodulation signals of Rhizobium loti

Rhizobium loti is a fast‐growing Rhizobium species that has been described as a microsymbiont of plants of the genus Lotus. Nodulation studies show that Lotus plants are nodulated by R loti, but not by most other Rhizobium strains, indicating that R. loti produces specific lipo‐chitin oligosaccharides (LCOs) which are necessary for the nodulation of Lotus plants. The LCOs produced by five different Rhizobium ioti strains have been purified and were shown to be N‐acetylglucosamine pentasaccharides of which the non‐reducing residue is N‐methylated and N‐acylated with c/s‐vaccenic acid (C18:1) or stearic acid (C18:O) and carries a carbamoyl group. In one R. loti strain, NZP2037, an additional carbamoyl group is present on the non‐reducing terminal residue. The major class of LCO molecules is substituted on the reducing terminal residue with 4‐O‐acetylfucose. Addition of LCOs to the roots of Lotus plants results in abundant distortion, swelling and branching of the root hairs, whereas spot inoculation leads to the formation of nodule primordia.
First Record of Anisakis simplex Third-Stage Larvae (Nematoda, Anisakidae) in European Hake Merluccius merluccius lessepsianus in Egyptian Water

The prevalence of infection and the identification of anisakid larvae in European hake Merluccius merluccius lessepsianus from Hurghada City, Red Sea Governorate, Egypt, were investigated. Fish samples were collected during the period of February and November 2014. Twenty-two (36.66%) out of sixty examined fish specimens were found to be naturally infected with Anisakis type I larvae mostly found as encapsulated larvae in visceral organs. There was a positive relationship between host length/weight and prevalence of infection. Based on morphological, morphometric, and molecular analyses, these nematodes were identified as third-stage larvae of Anisakis simplex. The present study was considered as the first report of anisakid larvae from European hake in the Egyptian water.
Mechanism of uptake of deglucoteicoplanin amide derivatives across outer membranes of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Teicoplanin is a glycopeptide antibiotic which is ineffective against gram-negative bacteria because of its inability to penetrate the outer membrane. Removal of the sugar residues and attachment of polyamines to carbon 63 yielded two dibasic deglucoteicoplanin amides, MDL 62,766 (766) and MDL 62,934 (934), with moderate MICs for Escherichia coli (2 to 4 micrograms/ml) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (8 to 32 micrograms/ml) compared with those of the monobasic teicoplanin aglycone (16 and > 1,024 micrograms/ml, respectively). MICs were increased 16- to 32-fold by Mg2+ supplementation of Luria broth but not by Na+ supplementation at an equivalent ionic strength. Both 766 and 934 were capable of binding to P. aeruginosa lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at Mg(2+)-binding sites, as assessed by dansyl polymyxin displacement experiments. Furthermore, both compounds increased E. coli and P. aeruginosa outer membrane permeability to the hydrophobic fluorescent probe 1-N-phenylnaphthylamine (NPN), whereas the parent compounds teicoplanin aglycone and teicoplanin and the beta-lactam ceftazidime were totally ineffective. Addition of 1 mM Mg2+ blocked the increase in outer membrane permeability. Compound 766 had a lower MIC than 934 for both bacteria tested, bound to LPS with a higher affinity, and permeabilized outer membranes to NPN at lower concentrations. We propose that both deglucoteicoplanin amides exhibit increased gram-negative activity by virtue of their ability to access the self-promoted uptake pathway across the outer membrane.
Alignment-Free Classification of G-Protein-Coupled Receptors Using Self-Organizing Maps

Proteins are classified mainly on the basis of alignments of amino acid sequences. Drug discovery processes based on pharmacologically important proteins such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) may be facilitated if more information is extracted directly from the primary sequences. Here, we investigate an alignment-free approach to protein classification using self-organizing maps (SOMs), a kind of artificial neural network, which needs only primary sequences of proteins and determines their relative locations in a two-dimensional lattice of neurons through an adaptive process. We first showed that a set of 1397 aligned samples of Class A GPCRs can be classified by our SOM program into 15 conventional categories with 99.2% accuracy. Similarly, a nonaligned raw sequence data set of 4116 samples was categorized into 15 conventional families with 97.8% accuracy in a cross-validation test. Orphan GPCRs were also classified appropriately using the result of the SOM learning. A supposedly diverse family of olfactory receptors formed the most distinctive cluster in the map, whereas amine and peptide families exhibited diffuse distributions. A feature of this kind in the map can be interpreted to reflect hierarchical family composition. Interestingly, some orphan receptors that were categorized as olfactory were somatosensory chemoreceptors. These results suggest the applicability and potential of the SOM program to classification prediction and knowledge discovery from protein sequences.
Sequence-Based Analysis of Secondary-Metabolite Biosynthesis in Marine Actinobacteria

ABSTRACT A diverse collection of 60 marine-sediment-derived Actinobacteria representing 52 operational taxonomic units was screened by PCR for genes associated with secondary-metabolite biosynthesis. Three primer sets were employed to specifically target adenylation domains associated with nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) and ketosynthase (KS) domains associated with type I modular, iterative, hybrid, and enediyne polyketide synthases (PKSs). In total, two-thirds of the strains yielded a sequence-verified PCR product for at least one of these biosynthetic types. Genes associated with enediyne biosynthesis were detected in only two genera, while 88% of the ketosynthase sequences shared greatest homology with modular PKSs. Positive strains included representatives of families not traditionally associated with secondary-metabolite production, including the Corynebacteriaceae, Gordoniaceae, Intrasporangiaceae, and Micrococcaceae. In four of five cases where phylogenetic analyses of KS sequences revealed close evolutionary relationships to genes associated with experimentally characterized biosynthetic pathways, secondary-metabolite production was accurately predicted. Sequence clustering patterns were used to provide an estimate of PKS pathway diversity and to assess the biosynthetic richness of individual strains. The detection of highly similar KS sequences in distantly related strains provided evidence of horizontal gene transfer, while control experiments designed to amplify KS sequences from Salinispora arenicola strain CNS-205, for which a genome sequence is available, led to the detection of 70% of the targeted PKS pathways. The results provide a bioinformatic assessment of secondary-metabolite biosynthetic potential that can be applied in the absence of fully assembled pathways or genome sequences. The rapid identification of strains that possess the greatest potential to produce new secondary metabolites along with those that produce known compounds can be used to improve the process of natural-product discovery by providing a method to prioritize strains for fermentation studies and chemical analysis.
Current options in aerosolised drug therapy for children receiving respiratory support

Inhalation of aerosolised medications are the mainstay of treatment for a number of chronic lung diseases and have several advantages over systemically‐administered medications. These include more rapid onset of action for drugs such as β‐adrenergic agonists when compared with oral medication, high luminal doses for inhaled antibiotics when used to treat endobronchial infection, and an improved therapeutic index compared with systemic delivery for these and other classes of drugs such as corticosteroids. The use of aerosolised drugs to treat patients whose tracheas are intubated is less well established, in part because systemic delivery via the intravenous route can be a simpler alternative for many drugs. Consequently, research in this area is largely limited to a number of in vitro studies and very few clinical trials. Unfortunately, a lack of focus in this area has resulted in a number of practices which at best are ineffective, and at worst dangerous for the patient. Although there have been some attempts to re‐invigorate research in order to improve delivery systems, current devices are, to a great extent, based on long‐standing technology developed more than 50 years ago. In this review, we explore current knowledge and provide guidance as to when and how the inhaled route may be of value when treating patients whose tracheas are intubated, and we set out the challenges facing those attempting to advance the topic. We conclude by reviewing current areas of interest that may lead to more effective and widespread use of aerosols in the treatment of intubated patients.
Sovereign Debt Restructuring: A Dynamic Discrete Choice Approach

Sovereign debt crises generally involve debt restructurings characterized by debt maturity extensions, delayed payments, face-value haircuts, and temporary financial autarky. We develop a novel quantitative model of endogenous sovereign debt maturity choice and restructuring that rationalizes the debt dynamics observed around distressed debt restructurings. The use of dynamic discrete choice solution methods allows us to smooth the borrower's decision rules on default and debt portfolio choices, rendering the problem tractable.
Introduction of sedative, analgesic, and neuromuscular blocking agent guidelines in a medical intensive care unit: Physician and nurse adherence

Objective: To determine physician and nurse adherence with sedative, analgesic, and neuromuscular blocking agent guidelines in the management of mechanically ventilated patients in a medical intensive care unit. Design: Prospective cohort study. Subjects: One hundred consecutively admitted patients to a medical intensive care unit who required mechanical ventilatory support. A sample of 29 nurses, residents, and attending physicians were interviewed regarding their attitudes and perceptions of the guidelines. Measurement: Data were collected from concurrent medical records and included the following: demographic characteristics; clinical variables; physician prescriptions of sedative, analgesic, and/or neuromuscular blocking agents; nurse administration of these medications; documentation of monitoring; and assessment of patient hemodynamic status and behaviors. A semistructured interview was elicited from both nurses and physicians about their rationale for the use or nonuse of the guidelines. Results: Patients ranged in age from 24 to 87 yrs, mean 60.7 (±15.3) yrs. Admission Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation III scores ranged from 36 to 192, mean 93.8 (±30.5) and median 88. Length of mechanical ventilatory support ranged from 1 to 112 days, mean 14.8 (±20.0) days, and median 8 days; medical intensive care unit length of stay ranged from 1 to 46 days, with a mean of 9.8 (±8.1) days and a median of 8 days. Of the 100 patients, 47% died, 28% returned home, and 25% were discharged to a nursing facility. Eighty‐five patients were administered one or more sedative, analgesic, and/or neuromuscular blocking agent, range 1‐9 drugs, mean 2.5 (±1.5) drugs. Physicians prescribed 14 different medications; the most commonly administered drug was lorazepam (n = 71), followed by morphine (n = 39). Physicians and nurses had partial or total adherence to the guidelines in 58% of patients. The initial choice of the drug followed the guidelines in 60% of patients; the overall guideline was followed in 23% of patients. The most common rationales for nonadherence to the guidelines stated by both physicians and nurses were patient‐specific factors, resident guideline learning curve, and physician medication preferences. Conclusion: Most patients required treatment for agitated behaviors. The majority of treatment regimens partially or totally adhered to the guidelines. Factors such as patient‐specific disease states, resident guideline learning curve, and physician preferences of medications may have decreased adherence. Improving adherence to the guidelines is essential to assess their effectiveness in improving clinical outcomes.