Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acute Kidney Injury in Pediatric Severe Sepsis: An Independent Risk Factor for Death and New Disability.

OBJECTIVES The prevalence of septic acute kidney injury and impact on functional status of PICU survivors are unknown. We used data from an international prospective severe sepsis study to elucidate functional outcomes of children suffering septic acute kidney injury. DESIGN Secondary analysis of patients in the Sepsis PRevalence, OUtcomes, and Therapies point prevalence study: acute kidney injury was defined on the study day using Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes definitions. Patients with no acute kidney injury or stage 1 acute kidney injury ("no/mild acute kidney injury") were compared with those with stage 2 or 3 acute kidney injury ("severe acute kidney injury"). The primary outcome was a composite of death or new moderate disability at discharge defined as a Pediatric Overall Performance Category score of 3 or higher and increased by 1 from baseline. SETTING One hundred twenty-eight PICUs in 26 countries. PATIENTS Children with severe sepsis in the Sepsis PRevalence, OUtcomes, and Therapies study. INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS One hundred two (21%) of 493 patients had severe acute kidney injury. More than twice as many patients with severe acute kidney injury died or developed new moderate disability compared with those with no/mild acute kidney injury (64% vs 30%; p < 0.001). Severe acute kidney injury was independently associated with death or new moderate disability (adjusted odds ratio, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.5-4.2; p = 0.001) after adjustment for age, region, baseline disability, malignancy, invasive mechanical ventilation, albumin administration, and the pediatric logistic organ dysfunction score. CONCLUSIONS In a multinational cohort of critically ill children with severe sepsis and high mortality rates, septic acute kidney injury is independently associated with further increased death or new disability.
Minority Ethnic Groups in the Dutch Housing Market: Spatial Segregation, Relocation Dynamics and Housing Policy

Ethnic segregation is consolidated by differences between ethnic groups with regard to their moving decision. Using unique registration data on population flows between neighbourhoods, the paper shows that native Dutch living in neighbourhoods where ethnic minorities are overrepresented are more likely to move than minority ethnic residents. Moreover, they move much more often to `White' neighbourhoods. Urban policies in the Netherlands focus on countering this tendency to segregation, but are based on simplified assumptions with regard to the causes of residential segregation. Relatedly, the optimism about the positive effects of social mix is hardly substantiated by empirical research.
On Measuring the Economic Significance of Asset Return Predictability

A number of recent studies have measured the quantitative effect of excess return predictability on the optimal consumption and portfolio choices of a rational investor, and they have used the utility costs of ignoring predictability as a natural measure of economic significance. We use a general equilibrium model as a laboratory for generating predictable excess returns and for assessing the properties of the estimated consumption/portfolio rules, under both the empirical and the true dynamics of excess returns. We find that conditional rules based on ordinary least squares estimates of excess returns are severely biased, and they have a large variance across multiple simulated histories of the model. In this experiment, we find the estimation issues to be so severe that the simple unconditional consumption and portfolio rules, from Merton (1969), actually outperform (in a utility cost sense) both simple and bias-corrected empirical estimates of conditionally optimal policies.
Interprofessional and problem-based learning: A marriage made in heaven?

This paper explores interprofessional learning (IPL) and whether it would profit from a more systematic merger with problem-based learning (PBL). IPL is based on the idea of bringing together knowledge from the different health professions as they interact with each other for better health care. PBL springs from the idea of bringing learning closer to the application of knowledge in every day life. It has been widely adopted as an interprofessional learning method, for example at Linkøping in Sweden.
BackXPress: Using Back-of-Device Finger Pressure to Augment Touchscreen Input on Smartphones

When people hold their smartphone in landscape orientation, they use their thumbs for input on the frontal touchscreen, while their remaining fingers rest on the back of the device (BoD) to stabilize the grip. We present BackXPress, a new interaction technique that lets users create BoD pressure input with these remaining fingers to augment their interaction with the touchscreen on the front: Users can apply various pressure levels with each of these fingers to enter different temporary "quasi-modes" that are only active as long as that pressure is applied. Both thumbs can then interact with the frontal screen in that mode. We illustrate the practicality of BackXPress with several sample applications, and report our results from three user studies: Study 1 investigated which fingers can be used to exert BoD pressure and found index, middle, and ring finger from both hands to be practical. Study 2 revealed how pressure touches from these six fingers are distributed across the BoD. Study 3 examined user performance for applying BoD pressure (a) during single touches at the front and (b) for 20 seconds while touching multiple consecutive frontal targets. Participants achieved up to 92% pressure accuracy for three separate pressure levels above normal resting pressure, with the middle fingers providing the highest accuracy. BoD pressure did not affect frontal touch accuracy. We conclude with design guidelines for BoD pressure input.
Why Do Banks View Themselves as a Relationship Lender?

The paper analyzes determinants of the "Hausbank" status of German universal banks. Its focus is, thus, on the empirical identification of factors determining the probability that a bank is a relationship lender of a corporate debtor. We explore self-assessments of banks with respect to their Hausbank status and relate loan contract and borrower characteristics to their attribution. This provides unique insights into characteristics of proxy variables commonly used in the literature, like duration and the share in debt financing provided by a given bank. The analysis shows that the Hausbank status is related to better access to information and influence on borrower management by banks. In addition, we find the likelihood of observing a Hausbank relationship to be decreasing in the degree of bank competition in local credit markets. Thus, our results suggest that monopoly power is an essential feature of relationship lending, where exogenous and endogenous sources are substitutes in establishing close bank-borrower ties.
Rational Expectations and the Impact of Money upon Stock Prices

Received monetary theory supports the existence of a strong relationship between monetary activity and stock prices. Following the work of Friedman and Schwartz [8], relating money supply to aggregate economic activity, some researchers have examined the more specific connection between changes in the rate of growth of money supply and associated movements in stock prices (see [6], [10], [11], [14], [17], [18], [19], [20], [22], and [28]). These studies use a variety of monetary aggregate measures to functionally relate the level of stock market indices to contemporaneous and lagged monetary growth rates. In general, the findings indicate a direct relationship between money supply and stock returns.
Identification and Characterization of Myeloid Translocation Gene 16b as a Novel A Kinase Anchoring Protein in T Lymphocytes1

Increased levels of intracellular cAMP inhibit T cell activation and proliferation. One mechanism is via activation of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). PKA is a broad specificity serine/threonine kinase whose fidelity in signaling is maintained through interactions with A kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs). AKAPs are adaptor/scaffolding molecules that convey spatial and temporal localization to PKA and other signaling molecules. To determine whether T lymphocytes contain AKAPs that could influence the inflammatory response, PBMCs and Jurkat cells were analyzed for the presence of AKAPs. RII overlay and cAMP pull down assays detected at least six AKAPs. Western blot analyses identified four known AKAPs: AKAP79, AKAP95, AKAP149, and WAVE. Screening of a PMA-stimulated Jurkat cell library identified two additional known AKAPs, AKAP220 and AKAP-KL, and one novel AKAP, myeloid translocation gene 16 (MTG16b). Mutational analysis identified the RII binding domain in MTG16b as residues 399–420, and coimmunoprecipitation assays provide strong evidence that MTG16b is an AKAP in vivo. Immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy illustrate distinct subcellular locations of AKAP79, AKAP95, and AKAP149 and suggest colocalization of MTG and RII in the Golgi. These experiments represent the first report of AKAPs in T cells and suggest that MTG16b is a novel AKAP that targets PKA to the Golgi of T lymphocytes.
The Consistency Analysis of Secondary Index on Distributed Ordered Tables

The demand for multi-dimensional range query over Distributed Ordered Table (DOT) has become increasingly popular, however, the DOT does not support queries very well other than the primary key. One solution to this problem is indexing. Many indexing techniques are focusing on how to improve the query ability, but do not care about the consistency between the index table and base data table. This paper focuses on the relationship between the consistency and the performance about the indexing techniques. In this paper, we give the definition about the consistency between the index table and the base data table, and present the inconsistency window to measure the degree of consistency. We classify the existing indexing techniques into four categories: sync, async-compact, async-insert and async-simple, according to their implementation in terms of how the index is maintained. Experimental results confirm that async indexing technique have better performance compared with sync indexing technique but with worse consistency. For async indexing techniques, the performance of async-simple is about 1.86x to 6.26x compared with async-insert but with similar consistency.
Rational Addiction with Learning and Regret

We present a theory of rational behavior in which individuals maximize a set of stable preferences over goods with unknown addictive power. The theory is based on three fundamental postulates: that consumption of the addictive good is not equally harmful to all, that individuals possess subjective beliefs concerning this harm, and that beliefs are optimally undated with information gained through consumption. Although individual actions are optimal and dynamically consistent, addicts regret their past consumption decisions and regret their initial assessment of the potential harm of the good. Addict-prone individuals who believe "it could not happen to them" are most likely to be drawn into a harmful addiction.
What drives the cash dividend policy of the poorly performing firms in Hong Kong

We use financial data on poorly performing firms in Hong Kong to examine the motives behind paying out cash dividends when they suffer an earnings decline. We test three hypotheses behind the cash dividend policy: the maturity hypothesis, the free cash flow hypothesis, and the self-interest hypothesis of directors (i.e., the cash channeling hypothesis of directors). The findings are largely consistent with the maturity hypothesis and the free cash flow hypothesis but do not support the cash channeling hypothesis, confirming good market transparency and governance of the Hong Kong market.
Preparing Student Nurses, Faculty and Clinicians for 21$^{st}$ Century Informatics Practice: Findings from a National Survey of Nursing Education Programs in the United States

Because healthcare delivery increasingly mandates data-driven decision-making, it is imperative that informatics knowledge and skills are integrated into nursing education curricula for all future nurse clinicians and educators. A national online survey of deans/directors of 266 baccalaureate and higher nursing education programs in the U.S. identified perceived informatics competencies and knowledge of under-graduate and graduate nursing students; determined the preparedness of nurse faculty to teach and use informatics tools; and elicited perceptions of informatics requirements of local practicing nurses. Frequency data and qualitative responses were analyzed. Approximately half of the programs reported requiring word processing and email skills upon entry into the nursing major. The use of standardized languages and the nurse's role in the life cycle of an information system were the least visible informatics content at all levels. Half of program faculty, rated as "novice" or "advanced beginners", are teaching information literacy skills. Findings have major implications for nurse educators, staff developers, and program administrators who are planning faculty/staff development opportunities and designing nursing education curricula that prepare nurses for professional practice.
Accounting for firms' training programs: an exploratory study

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse two competing approaches to accounting for a firm's investment in staff‐training activities: the accounting and labour economics approach (which argues that no asset should be recognized from training activity); and the human resources management approach (which advocates recognition of an asset). Design/methodology/approach – A case study analysis was conducted in two large Portuguese companies where human capital is said to be a critical factor of firm success. The authors used document analysis and interviews to help understand the training phenomenon from a company's point of view. This meant knowing of motivations, training programme curricula, training practices and expected benefits of training.Findings – The paper identifies and defines two situations concerning a firm's investment in human capital training: one, where no asset (value) is generated; and the other, where the accounting definition of an asset, requiring value generation, is satisfied.Research limi.
Is geographic diversification sufficient to limit contract grower risk?

Abstract Lending and financial institutions have looked for a variety of ways to expand their portfolios into agriculture, but because of the risks associated with lending to farmers who lack traditional forms of collateral, they face price and yield risks, causing these inroads to be limited. Market-based instruments are readily available for price risk. Organised exchanges offering the most basic of these instruments, futures and options, have operated for a long time, providing transparency to the market and low-cost risk transfer tools for those able to access them. While the use of price risk management instruments is an incomplete solution, it has sufficient merits on its own and will make the overall burden of risk more bearable. The use of these instruments and multi-peril crop insurance products is expensive and does not provide full protection for financial lending institutions to limit their credit risk exposure. This article determines whether geographic diversification would be sufficient as a risk management tool for lending institutions to limit their credit risk.
Migration and the retail banking industry: an examination of immigrants’ bank nationality choice in Germany

We study the choice of bank nationality by foreign-born retail banking customers in the context of bank globalization. We argue theoretically that banks enter foreign markets to follow their non-corporate customers and thereby are able to exploit competitive advantages over domestic banks. Using detailed survey data on more than 1000 Turkish immigrants in Germany, we find that product differentiation explains the choice of a home nation bank and that ethnic origin in itself provides the strongest comparative advantage for foreign banks. We find evidence for a persistent ‘home-bias’ of customers with an immigration background even with increasing integration into the host country's culture. This result may be surprising given that a systematic difference in the choice of bank nationality should not be observable with more integrated immigrants. Our results contribute to the existing economic research on multinational bank expansion by providing insights into bank globalization as an accompaniment to labor market internationalization.
Grasping rules and semiclassical limit of the geometry in the Ponzano–Regge model

We show how the expectation values of geometrical quantities in 3D quantum gravity can be explicitly computed using grasping rules. We compute the volume of a labelled tetrahedron using the triple grasping. We show that the large spin expansion of this value is dominated by the classical expression, and we study the next to leading order quantum corrections.
A methodology to estimate security of supply in electricity generation: results for Germany until 2030 given a high level of intermittent electricity feed-in

In this paper, we develop a methodology for deriving a consistent measure for supply adequacy in the power generation sector. We especially consider the secured generation capacity of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind. Availability of conventional power plants is estimated through stochastic convolution of unscheduled non-usabilities. We employ our methodology to measure supply security in Germany until 2030. A detailed market analysis of power plants that are currently being built or planned provides support to our analysis for the short term. For the long term, we rely on a large-scale dispatch and investment model of the European power sector to account for the embedding of the German electricity sector in the European market. We analyze two scenarios: one with prolongation of nuclear power plants and one with a nuclear phase-out. Our results show that, even though intermittent renewables only provide very limited secured generation capacity, security of electricity supply in Germany can be assured until 2015. In the long term, the need for backup capacity for renewable energy sources increases as well as the need for electricity imports.
Cyberterror: Prospects and Implications

Much has been made of the threat of cyberterrorism since the report of the Marsh Commission in 1997. However, current analyses have merely identified the plethora of vulnerabilities in automated information systems (computers) and assumed that terrorist organizations would be willing to exploit these vulnerabilities. They adopt a rudimentary strategic analysis and conclude that cyberterrorism is inevitable because it provides terrorists with a potentially strategic advantage over the United States. We do not dispute the fact that our vulnerabilities are real and numerous. Further, we do not dispute that the consequences of exploitation are potentially severe, even strategically debilitating, if events unfolded in a manner described in some scenarios. However, based on our research, we also do not believe that terrorist organizations will soon possess the capabilities described in many of these scenarios. According to many analyses, the necessary tools for exploiting vulnerabilities in the infrastructure are immediately available, easy to use, and proliferating at an alarming rate. Yet, the United States has not experienced any strategic attacks on critical infrastructure by terrorist organizations (or any other organization, for that matter). Even during the conflict in Kosovo, the most serious "attacks" consisted of vandalizing web pages and denial of service attacks on e-mail servers. Annoying, yes, but hardly a strategic threat to the United States or NATO. This suggests that these tools are still insufficient for the purpose of mass disruption, and that there are requirements for effective use that go beyond the mere possession of these tools and a desire to inflict damage. Therefore, a key question we have asked is "Why haven't terrorist organizations taken advantage of this opportunity? " We believe that the costs of creating a capability sufficient to achieve terrorists’ ultimate goals are much higher than the conventional wisdom indicates. Likewise, simply offsetting development costs is but one of several challenges that must be taken into account. Terrorist organizations will likely measure the benefits of pursuing cyberterrorism from the perspective of both internal and external incentives. Besides development costs, internal incentives must also include the individual and group psychological processes that heavily affect terrorist organizations. In terms of external interests, the costs of pursuing cyberterror may never be attractive as long as traditional terrorist methods remain viable. We examined the issue of cyberterrorism from the perspective of an organization seeking to conduct a comprehensive assessment of its activities. Our assessment explores the costs, risks and benefits of adopting cyberterror, either as a stand-alone operation or as an adjunct to traditional terrorist operations. We believe that this analysis fills a gap in the current literature on cyberterrorism. While the assessment is by no means comprehensive, it offers the intelligence community a much-needed starting point for better understanding the true potential of this threat.
The Impact of Board Interlocks on Auditor Choice and Audit Fees

Manuscript Type. Empirical. Research Question/Issue. This paper uses unique Danish data to examine whether non‐executive directors draw on both direct and indirect ties in the network of interlocking directorates to impact auditor choice, and whether this impact has consequences for audit fees. Research Findings/Insight. The paper finds clear evidence that non‐executive directors draw on their networks to impact auditor choice, and evidence that clients pay an audit fee premium when non‐executive directors are connected to audit firms outside the focal company. The relationship between non‐executive directors and auditors is well established in Denmark and exhibits features that currently emerge in international debates and regulations. Therefore, the national context offers an interesting setting for empirical evidence of whether international aspirations are likely to be realized. Theoretical/Academic Implications. Audit‐related corporate governance research has predominantly adopted the agency theory paradigm and has only drawn on alternative theoretical perspectives to a limited extent. We draw on the literature about board interlocks and social network theory in order to develop a study that aims to increase our understanding of the non‐executive director–auditor relationship and the role that board networks have in governing auditor choice decisions. The study identifies interlocks as an infrastructure for differentiation in the audit market and determines that such differentiation is associated with an audit fee premium for audit firms. The findings indicate that personal experiences with auditors are shared among non‐executive directors and that audit attributes other than low cost audit, auditor size, and industry specialism, are important in the audit market. Practitioner/Policy Implications. Our findings support continued efforts to strengthen the relationship between non‐executive directors and auditors. Our findings also indicate that board interlocks may constitute a mechanism that mitigates the audit market failure that arises because of a lack of auditor differentiation.