Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Income in Trading‐Differentiated Agri‐Food Products: The Case of Canada, the United States, and Selected EU Countries

"This study investigates the role of income in determining the agri-food exports of a subset of EU countries, Canada, and the United States by estimating per capita bilateral trade flows for 42 individual products categorized into nine product sectors across 52 countries for the period 1990-2000. About 43% of the total observations of bilateral trade flows for the selected regions and products are zero. Therefore, the fixed-effects Heckman Maximum Likelihood estimation procedure is used to account for the zero observations. The results show that, in general, the three regions (Canada, the EU countries, United States) face statistically significant and positive income elasticities from developing countries. However, only Canadian and United States' exports of agri-food products benefit from elastic income elasticities. Middle-income developing countries are the growth market of the future as growth in their expenditures on agri-food imports outpaces the growth in their per capita incomes. Homotheticity is consistently rejected for Canada and the EU and less often for the United States. Thus, income plays an important role in agri-food trade; however, further investigation is needed to better understand the forces that generate rather widely divergent results across countries and products. " Copyright (c) 2009 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.
A Model of Arbitral Decision Making: Facts, Weights, and Decision Elements

This study provides a structural model of arbitral decision making that depicts arbitrators as deciding cases by ascertaining the facts, attaching weights to the facts, and combining the facts and weights to form decision elements that determine their decisions. The model further posits that arbitrators biographical characteristics affect their decisions by influencing their fact finding and weight assignments. It also allows for arbitrators characteristics to have a direct impact on their decisions. A test of the model indicates that the decision elements determine the arbitrators decisions but the arbitrators characteristics have a limited impact.
Poverty Dynamics in Hungary during the Transformation

At the time of transoformation in Hungary, poverty was one of the most discussed public questions. This paper focuses mainly on the longitudinal aspect of poverty. It describes the development of the poverty figures by the application of different poverty concepts. The dual nature of poverty is both poverty. We aim to dispel some of the doubts about poverty, and portray, the portray the different social groups experiencing permanent and transitory poverty. Copyright The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1998.
Analysis of heart rate variability in the presence of ectopic beats using the heart timing signal

The time-domain signals representing the heart rate variability (HRV) in the presence of an ectopic beat exhibit a sharp transient at the position of the ectopic beat, which corrupts the signal, particularly the power spectral density (PSD) of the HRV. Consequently, there is a need for correction of this type of beat prior to any HRV analysis. This paper deals with the PSD estimation of the HRV by means of the heart timing (HT) signal when ectopic beats are present. These beat occurrence times are modeled from a generalized, continuous time integral pulse frequency modulation model and, from this point of view, a specific method for minimizing the effect of the presence of ectopic beats is presented to work together with the HT signal. By using both, a white noise driven autoregressive model of the HRV signal with artificially introduced ectopic beats and actual heart rate series including ectopic beats, the more usual methods of HRV spectral estimation are compared. Results of the PSD estimation error function of the number of ectopic beats are presented. These results demonstrate that the proposed method has one order of magnitude lower error than usual ectopic beats removal strategies in preserving PSD, thus, this strategy better recovers the original clinical indexes of interest.
Devolved budgeting, formula funding and equity

A key part of the New Public Sector in the UK has been an increased use of delegated budgeting in health and education. Initiatives such as the Local Management of Schools, GP-Fundholders and the Purchaser-Provider split in the National Health Service have required resources and associated budgets to be allocated down to smaller, more local entities than previously, on the basis of an explicit funding formula. This paper examines the relative merits of such a system of devoted budgeting and formula funding compared to other possible approaches to public sector budgeting from the viewpoint of the extent to which these different approaches are likely to promote equity in the funding of public services to disadvantaged groups. The paper illustrates the issues involved by reference both the UK experience and to the impact that health care funding formulae have on one particularly disadvantaged group in an otherwise advanced economy, namely the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory of Australia.
Optical coherence tomography imaging during percutaneous coronary intervention impacts physician decision-making: ILUMIEN I study

Aims ILUMIEN I is the largest prospective, non-randomized, observational study of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedural practice in patients undergoing intra-procedural pre- and post-PCI fractional flow reserve (FFR) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). We report on the impact of OCT on physician decision-making and the association with post-PCI FFR values and early clinical events. Methods and results Optical coherence tomography and documentary FFR were performed pre- and post-PCI in 418 patients (with 467 stenoses) with stable or unstable angina or NSTEMI. Based on pre-PCI OCT, the procedure was altered in 55% of patients (57% of all stenoses) by selecting different stent lengths (shorter in 25%, longer in 43%). After clinically satisfactory stent implantation using angiographic guidance, post-PCI FFR and OCT were repeated. Optical coherence tomography abnormalities deemed unsatisfactory by the implanting physician were identified: 14.5% malapposition, 7.6% under-expansion, 2.7% edge dissection and prompted further stent optimization based on OCT in 25% of patients (27% of all stenoses) using additional in-stent post-dilatation (81%, 101/124) or placement of 20 new stents (12%). Optimization subgroups were identified post hoc: stent placement without reaction to OCT findings (n = 137), change in PCI planning by pre-PCI OCT (n = 165), post-PCI optimization based on post-PCI OCT (n = 41), change in PCI planning, and post-PCI optimization based on OCT (n = 65). Post-PCI FFR values were significantly different (P = 0.003) between optimization groups (lower in cases with pre- and post-PCI reaction to OCT) but no longer different after post-PCI stent optimization. MACE events at 30 days were low: death 0.25%, MI 7.7%, repeat PCI 1.7%, and stent thrombosis 0.25%. Conclusion Physician decision-making was affected by OCT imaging prior to PCI in 57% and post-PCI in 27% of all cases. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01663896, Observational Study of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) in Patients Undergoing Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (ILUMIEN I).
On Some Modern Reformulations of the Labour Theory of Value

This paper, which develops an unfinished joint work with P. Garegnani, discusses three reinterpretations of the labour theory of value: the New Interpretation of Dumenil and Foley, the approach of Wolff–Callari–Roberts, and the Temporal Single System approach. In all three, the labour theory of value loses the role of instrument for the determination of the rate of profit and relative prices, and is redefined as the reinterpretation of independently determined prices as ‘representing’ quantities of labour, on the basis of the postulate that only labour produces exchange value. The paper argues that these approaches reduce the labour theory of value to something with no implication on how the economy works, in particular, unable to defend the thesis that profits result from labour exploitation, because this thesis must rest on what causes wages to remain below their potential maximum, an issue that these reinterpretations leave unexplained and potentially open to neoclassical explanations. There emerges an imperfect grasp of the role of the labour theory of value in Marx, and of the foundations in Marx of the thesis that labour is exploited, foundations better grasped by P. Garegnani and clarified here with an example. A formal analysis of the ‘reduction’ of heterogeneous labour to homogeneity confirms the arbitrariness of these approaches.
An Empirical Analysis of the Excessive Volatility-Overconfidence Relationship: Evidence from the Tunisian Stock Market

The purpose of this paper is to provide that the explanation of excessive volatility can be only done through an attentive description of the psychological aspects of the investors. Our interest is carried in particular to the overconfidence bias. Our objective in this study is to identify whether the excessive volatility of observed stocks on the Tunisian Stock Market (TSE) results from the excessive trading of overconfident investors. The analysis of the obtained results, over the period January 1999 – October 2007, indicates quite clearly the importance of considering this bias in analysis of the specificities of Tunisian Stock Market (TSE). It appears that overconfidence admits a more pronounced effect on the volatility for daily time intervals compared to weekly and monthly intervals.The asymmetric nature of the dynamics of return volatility in response to positive and negative shocks is also checked.
Early working memory and maternal communication in toddlers born very low birth weight

Aim: Early working memory is emerging as an important indicator of developmental outcome predicting later cognitive, behavioural and academic competencies. The current study compared early working memory in a sample of toddlers (18–22 months) born very low birth weight (VLBW; n = 40) and full term (n = 51) and the relationship between early working memory, mental developmental index (MDI), and maternal communication in both samples.
Sequential Methods Applied to the Study of Prochlorperazine

It is suggested that atherosclerosis may be the primary cause of change in the subclavian artery previously ascribed to external pressure. The importance of aortography to demonstrate the branches of the aortic arch in the thoracic outlet syndrome is emphasized. I am particularly indebted to Dr. C. Groves and Mr. J. C. Coates, of Hull, for referring this patient; to Dr. P. G. Keates and Dr. M. D. Summerling for the aortograms, and to Miss M. Brown for her diagram of the dissected subclavian artery. REFERENCES Caccamise, W. C. , and Whitman, J. F. (1952). Amer. Heart J., 44, 629. Eden, K. C. (1939). Brit. J. Surg. , 27, 111. Flint, E. R. (1937). Ibid., 24, 622. Frovig, A. G. (1946). Acta psychiat. (Kbh.), Suppl. 39. Lewis, T. , and Pickering, G. W. (1934). Clin. Sci., 1, 345. Martorell, F. , and Fabre Tersol, J. (1944). Med. clin. (Barcelona), 2, 26. Seldinger, S. I. (1953). Acta radiol. (Stockh.), 39, 368. Shenkin, H. A. (1957). J. Amer. med. Ass. , 165, 335. Shimizu, K. , and Sano, K. (1951). J. Neuropath. clin. Neurol. , 1, 37. Shucksmith, H. S. (1958). Brit. med. J., 2, 1228. Takayasu, M. (1908). Acta Soc. ophthal. jap. , 12, 554. Towers, J. R. H. , Keates, P. G. , Newcombe, C. P., and Sumerling, M. D. (1958). Brit. med. J., 2, 1043. Wickbom, I. (1957). Acta radiol. (Stockh.), 48, 321.
The mitochondria‐targeted anti‐oxidant mitoquinone decreases liver damage in a phase II study of hepatitis C patients

Background: Increased oxidative stress and subsequent mitochondrial damage are important pathways for liver damage in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection; consequently, therapies that decrease mitochondrial oxidative damage may improve outcome. The mitochondria‐targeted anti‐oxidant mitoquinone combines a potent anti‐oxidant with a lipophilic cation that causes it to accumulate several‐hundred fold within mitochondria in vivo.
Endogenous Pain Facilitation Rather Than Inhibition Differs Between People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, and Controls: An Observational Study.

BACKGROUND Commonalities in the core symptoms of fatigue and cognitive dysfunction experienced by chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS, also known as ME) and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients have been described. Many CFS and MS patients also experience chronic pain, which has been attributed to central sensitization in both groups of patients. However, the characteristics of pain in CFS and MS patients have not been compared. OBJECTIVES To compare experimental pain measurements in patients with CFS or MS and healthy controls. STUDY DESIGN Observational study. SETTING This study took place in Belgium at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the University of Antwerp. METHODS Pressure pain thresholds, temporal summation, conditioned pain modulation, and occlusion cuff pressure thresholds rated as painful (1st cuff pressure threshold) and as 3/10 on a verbal numerical scale (2nd cuff pressure threshold) were measured in patients with CFS (n = 48), MS (n = 19) and healthy pain-free controls (n = 30). Adjusted between-group differences were estimated using linear regression models. RESULTS Finger pain pressure thresholds of patients with CFS, compared with patients with MS, were 25% lower (difference ratio 0.75 [95% CI 0.59, 0.95], P = 0.02) and shoulder pain pressure thresholds were 26% lower (difference ratio 0.74 [0.52, 1.04], P = 0.08). Compared with patients with MS, patients with CFS had 29% lower first cuff pressure threshold (difference ratio 0.71 [0.53, 0.94], P = 0.02) and 41% lower 2nd cuff pressure threshold (0.59 [0.41, 0.86], P = 0.006). Finger temporal summation was higher in patients with CFS than in patients with MS (mean difference 1.15 [0.33, 1.97], P = 0.006), but there were no differences in shoulder temporal summation or conditioned pain modulation at either site. Differences between patients with CFS and MS tended to be greater than between either patient group and healthy controls. Pain pressure thresholds and cuff pressure thresholds tended to be positively correlated, and temporal summation negatively correlated, with higher physical function and lower fatigue in both groups of patients. Subjective pain in patients with CFS but not in patients with MS was strongly negatively correlated with pain pressure thresholds and cuff pressure thresholds, and positively correlated with temporal summation. LIMITATIONS The main limitations of our study are the relatively small sample sizes, its cross-sectional design, and its exploratory nature. CONCLUSIONS We found differences in the characteristics of pain symptoms reported by patients with CFS and patients with MS, which suggest different underlying mechanisms. Specifically, overactive endogenous pain facilitation was characteristic of pain in patients with CFS but not in patients with MS, suggesting a greater role for central sensitization in CFS.
d-Xylose as a Repressor or Inducer of Xylanase Expression in Hypocrea jecorina (Trichoderma reesei)

ABSTRACT For Hypocrea jecorina (anamorph Trichoderma reesei), a filamentous fungus used for hydrolase production in different industries, it has been a long-term practice to use d-xylose as an inducing substance. We demonstrate in this study that the degree of xylanase-encoding gene induction strictly depends on the concentration of d-xylose, which was found to be optimal from 0.5 to 1 mM for 3 h of cultivation. At higher concentrations of d-xylose, a reduced level of xylanase gene expression was observed. In the present study, we also provide evidence that the d-xylose concentration-dependent induction is antagonized by carbon catabolite repressor 1. This repressor mediates its influence on d-xylose indirectly, by reducing the expression of xylanase regulator 1, the main activator of most hydrolase-encoding genes. Additionally, a direct influence of the repressor on xylanase 1 expression in the presence of d-xylose was found. Furthermore, we show that d-xylose reductase 1 is needed to metabolize d-xylose to achieve full induction of xylanase expression. Finally, a strain which expresses xylanase regulator 1 at a constant level was used to partially overcome the negative influence exerted by carbon catabolite repressor 1 on d-xylose.
Discrepancies between patient recall and the medical record. Potential impact on diagnosis and clinical assessment of chronic disease.

BACKGROUND During a case-control study, data necessary for fulfilling diagnostic and classification criteria for spondyloarthropathy were collected from 121 patients. OBJECTIVE To study the potential impact of differences between patient recall and the medical record on diagnosis and clinical characterization of spondyloarthropathy as a model of chronic disease. METHODS The study was conducted among four Alaskan Eskimo populations served by the Alaska Native Health Service. Two sets of historical data were compiled for each subject, one acquired during the interview and the other derived from the medical record. Paired items from the interview and the medical record were analyzed to determine discrepancies and consequent effects on diagnosis, classification, and disease characterization. RESULTS Significant differences were observed in the reporting of genitourinary or diarrheal illnesses preceding or associated with arthritis, the occurrence of eye inflammation in association with joint pain, the occurrence of joint pain and back pain together, and the age at onset of back pain all of which are important to the diagnosis and classification of spondyloarthropathy. In contrast, for information needed to establish the probable inflammatory nature of back pain, patient interview was more helpful than the medical records, which did not provide adequate details to differentiate inflammatory from mechanical back pain. CONCLUSIONS Patient recall bias can substantially affect diagnosis and clinical assessment of chronic disease, as exemplified by spondyloarthropathy. Reliance on records alone, however, may lead to underestimation of features that require subjective appraisal by the patient.
Firm Performance: Do Non-Executive Directors Have a Mind of Their Own? Evidence from Uk Panel Data

I investigate the relation between firm performance, ownership structure and board composition. I use the GMM methodology to control simultaneously for endogeneity of the independent variables and for endogeneity due to fixed effects. I use an original, large, hand-collected panel dataset of UK firms for the period 1991-2001. Results indicate that the direction of causality runs from ownership and board composition to performance. I find a cubic relation between performance and ownership by executive directors. The proportion of non-executives on the board, but not their proportional ownership, is significantly and positively related to firm performance. Finally, I detect a negative relation between performance and blockholding by institutional and non-institutional owners, which suggests that they are not effective monitors.
Neoplastic Pericardial Effusion

Neoplastic pericardial effusion is a serious and common clinical disorder encountered by cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, oncologists, and radiation oncologists. It may develop from direct extension or metastatic spread of the underlying malignancy, from an opportunistic infection, or from a complication of radiation therapy or chemotherapeutic toxicity. The clinical presentation varies, and the patient may be hemodynamically unstable in the setting of constrictive pericarditis and cardiac tamponade. The management depends on the patient's prognosis and varies from pericardiocentesis, sclerotherapy, and balloon pericardiotomy to cardiothoracic surgery. Patients with neoplastic pericardial effusion face a grave prognosis, as their malignancy is usually more advanced. This review article discusses the epidemiology and etiology, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, management, and prognosis of neoplastic pericardial effusion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Timing of Quarterly ‘Pro Forma’ Earnings Announcements

While some prior studies suggest that the timing of earnings announcements may reflect management’s attempt to better inform investors, other studies suggest that managers opportunistically time their earnings releases in an effort to alter investors’ perceptions of firm performance. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the relation between earnings announcement timing and the manipulation of reported earnings. We extend this research by examining the timing of quarterly earnings announcements that contain an adjusted (“pro forma”) earnings measure and whether managers’ behavior is more consistent with opportunistic or information-related motives. We find that, on average, managers accelerate the timing of earnings announcements in quarters in which they disclose an adjusted earnings metric within the earnings press release relative to quarters in which they do not. In addition, we find that the acceleration of the earnings announcement increases with the level of managers’ exclusions of recurring expenses and their use of less transparent reconciliation formats. Consistent with managerial opportunism, we find that the recurring item exclusions used to calculate pro forma earnings in accelerated earnings announcements are of relatively lower quality and are more predictive of lower future earnings. We also find that investors fail to fully unravel the low-quality nature of the recurring item exclusions used to calculate pro forma earnings in these accelerated announcements and that this failure is attenuated by managers’ use of less transparent reconciliation formats. Taken together, our results suggest that the acceleration of pro forma earnings news is at least partially attributable to managerial opportunism.
Safety and toxicology of cyclosporine in propylene glycol after 9-month aerosol exposure to beagle dogs.

BACKGROUND Cyclosporine inhalation solution (CIS) delivered via nebulization is under evaluation for the prevention of chronic rejection post-lung transplant. A 300-patient randomized, controlled clinical trial (CYCLIST) is expected to be completed late in 2011. In support of this trial, a chronic inhalation toxicology study in dogs has been completed. METHODS To mimic the clinical setting, animals (four/sex/dose plus two/sex/dose in the control and high dose recovery groups) were exposed to aerosolized CIS, via nose-only exposure, three times per week for 9 months at targeted inhaled doses of 0 (air), 4, 12, and 24 mg/kg. In addition, the potential for persistence or reversibility of any toxic effects were assessed after a 6-week recovery period. The toxicological endpoints included clinical observations, body-weight, food consumption, toxicokinetics, clinical chemistry, and histopathology. RESULTS All dogs receiving CIS completed the study with the only consistent observations being excessive salivation and changes in minute ventilation. There was no limiting lung or systemic toxicity associated with exposure to CIS, and the only possible drug-related effect was an observation of benign fibroadenoma tissue in the mammary glands of the high-dose female recovery group. Toxicokinetic data showed that cyclosporine is initially absorbed rapidly with little drug remaining in lung tissue or blood 24 h after the end of dosing. CONCLUSION The study supports the pulmonary and systemic safety of aerosolized CIS at expected lung dose levels/kg of up to 12 times greater than the average dose patients are receiving in the CYCLIST trial.