Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research Note Consumer Learning and Brand Valuation: An Application on Over-the-Counter Drugs

We develop a brand choice model with learning based on the Kalman filter methodology. The model enables us to separate the effects of contemporaneous marketing promotions from the impact of the perceived quality valuation accrued through product usage over time. We also account for idiosyncratic consumer learning and preferences. The results point to the presence of heterogeneity in the valuation carryover coefficients across consumers and brands. In contrast to our expectations, a higher price is not important for most of the consumers in the sample. The model enables us to compare brands in terms of their memorability, which determines brand salience on the next purchase occasion. Our findings suggest that price promotions may be deficient as a tool to increase market share in the studied product category. The proposed model is applicable to other consumer goods contingent on consumers’ being sufficiently motivated to learn their own preferences via personal experience. Brand managers can use the model for comparative diagnostics and market performance simulation under different price and promotion scenarios. This paper is instructive to the application of a relatively new methodology; we illustrate the analytical potential of the model by demonstrating its inferential power in a specific marketing context.
A lakáspiac szerepe a monetáris transzmisszióban [The role of the housing market in monetary transmission]

A lakaspiac a monetaris politika alakitasanak egyre fontosabb tenyezője lesz. A ta nulmany a lakaspiac monetaris transzmisszioban betoltott szerepet igyekszik bemu tatni, kulon figyelmet forditva a magyar folyamatokra. A szerzők elsőkent a fejlett orszagok tapasztalatait tekintik at, kulon kiterve a monetaris unioval kapcsolatos kerdesekre. Ezt kovetően az elmult evek magyar folyamatait vizsgaljak, es kiserletet tesznek az euro bevezeteseig terjedő időszakban varhato fejlemenyek felvazolasara. Okonometriai eszkozokkel probaljak megragadni a makrogazdasagi valtozok es a lakasarak kozotti kapcsolatot, valamint a monetaris politikanak a haztartasok lakas beruhazasara es fogyasztasara gyakorolt hatasat. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kod: E52.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL ON INDIVIDUAL LABOR INCOMES IN BRAZIL

This paper estimates the role of social capital in individual labor incomes in Brazil. It starts discussing the concept and the measurement of social capital, so that a procedure that identifies a group of individuals in society that has a negligible social capital can be built. As a consequence, the role of social capital in individual labor income can be estimated through a Mincerian type equation. Results indicate that this role reaches 63%, on average. This means that weak institutions have throw the Brazilian economy to a high dependence on social capital for the search processes in labor market and for the ability to generate trust on economic relationships. Therefore, public policies should always be concerned with their consequences for social capital formation and there should exist particular policies to increase trust and reduce the costs of search so that the role of social capital in individual incomes falls.
Assessing Factors Affecting Implementation of the National Building Regulations (L.I.1630) in Ghana

The National Building Regulation (NBR) (L.I. 1630) was enacted in 1996 in Ghana to regulate the erection of buildings, alteration of building structures and execute works or install fittings in connection with any building. Although, this regulation has been enacted, its implementation is questionable. The aim of this research was to assess factors affecting the implementation of the NBR and measures to enhance smooth implementation of NBR in Ghana. Interview and questionnaire survey were the two principal methods used to elicit data from 180 respondents. Three (3) key groups of respondents were targeted for the study, namely local authority staff, building practitioners and building owners. The research findings indicated that the most important factors affecting the implementation of the NBR in Ghana are: corruption; bureaucratic procedures; lack of public education about the building regulations; inadequate resources for implementers; and political interference. The respondents suggest that to deal with the factors affecting implementation of the NBR, there is the need to allow easy access to information on NBR and the use of one-stop shops to improve coordination. Also professionals who compromise the NBR should be sanctioned and then the public should be educated and sensitized about the NBR. Keywords: national building regulation, implementation, local authorities, Ghana
Structural Analyses of Helicobacter Pylori FolC Conducting Glutamation in Folate Metabolism

FolC plays important roles in the folate metabolism of cells by attaching l-Glu to dihydropteroate (DHP) and folate, which are known activities of dihydrofolate synthetase (DHFS) and folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS), respectively. Here, we determined the crystal structure of Helicobacter pylori FolC (HpFolC) at 1.95 Å resolution using the single-wavelength anomalous diffraction method. HpFolC has globular N- and C-terminal domains connected by a single loop, and a binding site for ATP is located between the two domains. Apo-HpFolC was crystallized in the presence of citrate in a crystallization solution, which was held in the ATP-binding site. Structural motifs such as the P-loop and Ω-loop of HpFolC for binding of ATP and two magnesium ions are well conserved in spite of the low overall sequence similarity to other FolC/FPGSs. The Ω-loop would also recognize a folate molecule, and the DHP-binding loop of HpFolC is expected to exhibit a unique recognition mode on DHP, compared with other FolCs. Because human FolC is known to only exhibit FPGS activity, the DHFS activity of bacterial FolC is an attractive target for the eradication of pathogenic bacteria. Consequently, our structural analyses of HpFolC provide a valuable foundation for a universal antibacterial strategy against H. pylori as well as other pathogenic bacteria.
Reaching middle-income status in Ghana by 2015: What are the constraints and opportunities for raising agriculture productivity?

""The Government of Ghana has identified accelerated growth in agriculture as the source of its overall Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) and reaching middle-income status by 2015. Using data from the recent Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSSV) to estimate the determinants of (i) adoption and intensity of adoption of purchased inputs, (ii) crop productivity, and (iii) agriculture income per capita, this paper analyzes the constraints and opportunities for raising agriculture production in order the above challenge. In general, increased investment in agriculture research that leads to the development of profitable technologies in local environments, increased investment in extension and other training programs to promote proper use of improved seeds, and improving the availability of improved seeds and helping farmers to acquire purchased inputs will be critical. "" from Authors' Abstract
Client confidentiality: Perspectives of students in a healthcare training programme

Background . Confidentiality is an important ethical principle for all health professionals and also has a legal bearing on duty. One of the most difficult issues health professionals face in their daily fieldwork practice is a conflict between their professional duties, as illustrated in keeping a patient’s medical information confidential, and having empathy with a family member’s need to know. This moral dilemma is difficult for students to circumvent and therefore this paper presents healthcare students’ perspectives of confidentiality. Methods . We aimed to explore healthcare students’ views and experiences of confidentiality as an ethical principle by adopting a qualitative explorative approach. Purposeful sampling was undertaken where specific individuals with specific experiences were identified. Data were collected by means of written responses from two open-ended questions and analysed thematically. Two themes emerged. Conclusion . Confidentiality, as with other ethical principles, is an important obligation of a good client-therapist relationship as identified by students. However, the students’ responses illustrate that it cannot be absolute, and cognisance must be taken as to when it is acceptable, and even desirable, to override confidentiality because of conflicting, greater duties.
Are Ex Ante CEO Severance Pay Contracts Consistent with Efficient Contracting?

Abstract Efficient contracting predicts that ex ante severance pay contracts are offered to chief executive officers (CEOs) as protection against downside risk and to encourage investment in risky projects with a positive net present value (NPV). Consistent with this prediction, we find that ex ante contracted severance pay is positively associated with proxies for a CEO’s risk of dismissal and costs the CEO would incur from dismissal. Additionally, we show that the contracted severance payment amount is positively associated with CEO risk taking and the extent to which a CEO invests in projects that have a positive NPV. Overall, our findings imply that ex ante severance pay contracts are consistent with efficient contracting.
Innovation performance of Taiwanese information firms: An acquisition–learning–innovation framework

One of the innovation sources for firms is to acquire other technological firms. From a contingent view concerning the acquisition's impact on organisational learning, this study suggests an acquisition–learning–innovation framework which indicates the mediating role of organisational learning in the relationship between acquisitions and innovation performance. After investigating 224 information firms which undertook acquisitions, this study finds that in the period of incremental change, firms usually adopt related acquisitions and enhance their innovation through exploitation. Conversely, in the period of technological ferment, firms usually adopt unrelated acquisitions and enhance their innovation through exploration.
Disuguaglianze salariali in Italia: nuove evidenze dai microdati SHIW

This paper investigates the dynamics of wage inequality that occurred in the 90s in the Italian labour market. The microdata are drawn from the Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW). The evidence suggests that overall wage inequality increased during the period under observation. The aim of the analysis is to shed light on the determinants of the increasing inequality, against the background of both skill biased technological change (SBTC) and institutional changes in the labour market hypothesis. Starting from simple OLS-based decomposition I turn to quantile regressions and estimates based on panel subsamples to further investigate the role of both observable and unobservable skills. The results show that the premia structure changed across the wage distribution. Nonetheless a large part of inequality - i.e. residual inequality - still remains unexplained.
The repeal of the retirement earnings test and the labor supply of older men

Abstract This paper examines the impact of the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000, which abolished the Social Security retirement earnings test for those aged 65–69, on the labor supply of older men using data from the 1996–2004 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We use the fine structure of the 2000 Act to develop a new measure of exposure to the earnings test that varies across calendar years both by month and year of birth. We find that much, if not all, of the labor-supply response occurred for sub-groups of men who, either because of high mortality risk, high rates of pure time preference, or liquidity constraints, may have found the actuarial adjustment built into the earnings test relatively disadvantageous, particularly the lesser educated.
Supervised Regionalization Methods: A Survey

This article reviews almost four decades of contributions on the subject of supervised regionalization methods. These methods aggregate a set of areas into a predefined number of spatially contiguous regions while optimizing certain aggregation criteria. The authors present a taxonomic scheme that classifies a wide range of regionalization methods into eight groups, based on the strategy applied for satisfying the spatial contiguity constraint. The article concludes by providing a qualitative comparison of these groups in terms of a set of certain characteristics, and by suggesting future lines of research for extending and improving these methods.
Household Food Expenditures Away From Home by Type of Meal

This paper investigates expenditures of food away from home (FAFH) by husband-and-wife households with children, determines the differentiated impacts of economic and demographic variables on FAFH by type of meal and across household types. Using the 2008 and 2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey, the system of expenditures on breakfast, lunch, and dinner is estimated with a multivariate sample selection estimator and results are compared with the Tobit system estimates. Statistical significance of error correlations among equations justifies estimation of the sample selection systems. Differentiated effects of variables on probabilities and expenditure levels highlight advantages of the sample selection system over the Tobit estimator. The effects of demographic and socioeconomic factors are found to vary by type of meal. Income, work hours, race, education, geographical region and household composition are important determinants of FAFH.
Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias

A wine-loving economist we know purchased some nice Bordeaux wines years ago at low prices. The wines have greatly appreciated in value, so that a bottle that cost only $10 when purchased would now fetch $200 at auction. This economist now drinks some of this wine occasionally, but would neither be willing to sell the wine at the auction price nor buy an additional bottle at that price. Thaler (1980) called this pattern—the fact that people often demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it—the endowment effect. The example also illustrates what Samuelson and Zeckhauser (1988) call a status quo bias, a preference for the current state that biases the economist against both buying and selling his wine. These anomalies are a manifestation of an asymmetry of value that Kahneman and Tversky (1984) call loss aversion—the disutility of giving up an object is greater that the utility associated with acquiring it. This column documents the evidence supporting endowment effects and status quo biases, and discusses their relation to loss aversion.
A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms

The problem of organization is the problem of obtaining cooperation among a collection of individuals or units who share only partially congruent objectives. When a team of individuals collectively produces a single output, there develops the problem of how to distribute the rewards emanating from that output in such a manner that each team member is equitably rewarded. If equitable rewards are not forthcoming, members will, in future cooperative ventures, adjust their efforts in such a manner that all will be somewhat worse off cf. Simon [Simon, H. A. 1964. On the concept of organizational goal. Admin. Sci. Quart.9 1, June 1--22. ], Marschak [Marschak, Thomas A. 1965. Economic theories of organization. J. G. March, ed. Handbook of Organizations. Rand McNally, Chicago, Ill. , 423--450. ], Alchian and Demsetz [Alchian, Armen A. , Harold Demsetz. 1972. Production, information costs, and economic organization. Amer. Econom. Rev.62 777--795. It is the objective of this paper to describe three fundamentally different mechanisms through which organizations can seek to cope with this problem of evaluation and control. The three will be referred to as markets, bureaucracies, and clans. In a fundamental sense, markets deal with the control problem through their ability to precisely measure and reward individual contributions; bureaucracies rely instead upon a mixture of close evaluation with a socialized acceptance of common objectives; and clans rely upon a relatively complete socialization process which effectively eliminates goal incongruence between individuals. This paper explores the organizational manifestations of these three approaches to the problem of control. The paper begins with an example from a parts distribution division of a major company which serves to give some flesh to what might otherwise be overly-abstract arguments. Through the example, each of the three mechanisms is explicated briefly and discussed in terms of two prerequisite conditions, one social and the other informational. The more concrete organization design features of the three forms are considered, along with some consideration of the unique costs accompanying each form.
Failure of rituximab is associated with a poor outcome in diffuse large B cell lymphoma‐type post‐transplant lymphoproliferative disorder

Post‐transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) may arise after solid organ transplantation, and the most common subtype resembles diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In DLBCL‐type PTLD, the anti‐CD20 antibody rituximab (R) may be combined with chemotherapy (R‐CHOP) or use a strategy (R‐primary; similar to the PTLD‐1 clinical trial) consisting of induction with four weekly doses of R‐alone, without any chemotherapy or sequential R‐CHOP follow‐up. Here we report on a multicentre retrospective cohort of solid organ transplant patients with DLBCL‐type PTLD that were treated with R. In 168 adults, two‐year overall survival (OS) was 63·7% [95% CI (confidence interval) 56·6–71·7%]. No difference in OS was observed, whether patients were treated with R‐CHOP versus the R‐primary strategy. In the 109 patients treated with R‐primary, multivariate analysis found that baseline IPI score and the response to R‐induction predicted OS. Patients who responded to R‐induction had durable remissions without the addition of chemotherapy. Conversely, of the 46 patients who had stable or progressive disease after R‐induction (R‐failure), those who received R‐CHOP had an only marginally improved outcome, with a two‐year OS of 45% (23·1–65·3%) vs. no R‐CHOP at 32% (14·7–49·8%). In real‐world patients, R‐failure and high IPI scores predict a poor outcome in DLBCL‐type PTLD.
Development of a surface-modified paper-based colorimetric sensor using synthesized Ag NPs-alginate composite

ABSTRACT There has been an increase in the discovery and usage of sensors for the detection of chemical compounds in the field of analytical chemistry since the last several years. This has led to progressive research in nanotechnology for developing efficient nanomaterials for bio-chemical sensing applications. Thereby, a deft synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) under microwave irradiation was achieved using sodium alginate as a reducing and capping agent in a fast and cost-effective approach. As per the X-ray diffraction analysis, the average particle size of Ag NPs was found to be 10 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscpopy analysis showed characteristic peaks at binding energies of 368.10 and 374.11 eV indicating the formation of Ag NPs. The synthesized Ag NPs-alginate composite was further used to develop a paper-based sensor for the detection of H2O2. Detection of H2O2 is based on the discolouration of the Ag NPs-alginate composite modified paper sensor as a function of H2O2 concentration. The analysis of the decoloured paper strips was done by a smartphone camera and an RGB Colour Reader application (app) to measure colour intensity. The sensing characteristics were found in the range of 0.1–10 mM. The colour analysis revealed piecewise linear relationship of intensity of RGB to H2O2 concentration in the range of 0.1–1.5 and 2–10 mM with R 2 values of 0.97 and 0.9778, respectively. Owing to the high sensitivity, selectivity, and cost-effectiveness, the developed paper sensor can be a potential tool for real-time analysis of H2O2. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Post-traumatic stress reactions and doctor-certified sick leave after a workplace terrorist attack: Norwegian cohort study

Objective To explore the association between the psychosocial work environment and the risk of sick leave among governmental employees with symptom-defined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a workplace bomb attack. Design A prospective study on employees who met the symptom criteria for PTSD. Questionnaire data on the psychosocial work environment 10 months after the terrorist attack was linked to registry data on doctor-certified sick leave in the period 12–22 months after the attack. Setting The bombing of the government ministries in Oslo, Norway, 22 July 2011. Participants The study sample consists of 94 Norwegian governmental employees, all with symptom-defined PTSD from the Norwegian version of the PTSD checklist (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Specific) measured 10 months after the attack. Results After adjustment for sex and severity of PTSD symptoms, predictability at work reduced the odds of sick leave (adjusted OR=0.62, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.98). Sense of control over decisions at work was associated with fewer absence days for employees with sick leave (adjusted rate ratio=0.61, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.98). Conclusions Employees with PTSD after workplace terrorism would benefit from control over their workplace conditions and increased predictability to reduce the risk of sick leave. The findings suggest that the work environment can facilitate employees’ work ability after stressful events, independent of severity of PTSD symptoms.
Combination therapy with oncolytic viruses and immune checkpoint inhibitors

ABSTRACT Introduction: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have dramatically improved the outcome for cancer patients across multiple tumor types. However the response rates to ICI monotherapy remain relatively low, in part due to some tumors cultivating an inherently ‘cold’ immune microenvironment. Oncolytic viruses (OV) have the capability to promote a ‘hotter’ immune microenvironment which can improve the efficacy of ICI. Areas covered: In this article we conducted a literature search through Pubmed/Medline to identify relevant articles in both the pre-clinical and clinical settings for combining OVs with ICIs and discuss the impact of this approach on treatment as well as changes within the tumor microenvironment. We also explore the future directions of this novel combination strategy. Expert opinion: The imminent results of the Phase 3 study combining pembrolizumab with or without T-Vec injection are eagerly awaited. OV/ICI combinations remain one of the most promising avenues to explore in the success of cancer immunotherapy.