Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduction of microalbuminuria by beta blockers: beyond renin-angiotensin system blockade.

After the seminal observations of Mogensen, Parving, and Viberti, it has been increasingly recognized that, in diabetic patients, microalbuminuria predicts not only renal but also cardiovascular risk, and this is true for nondiabetic patients as well. This has led to the recommendation of more widespread testing of urine for microalbuminuria and the use of albuminnuria as a therapeutic target.1 The mechanism(s) underlying the link between microalbuminuria and cardiovascular risk have remained enigmatic. It is well known that there is crosstalk in the glomerulus between podocytes, the major barrier for the transit of albumin from the capillary to the filtrate, and endothelial cells. Such interaction is mediated mainly by vascular endothelial growth factor.2 It has remained enigmatic, however, how albuminuria, that is, podocyte dysfunction, is linked to dysfunction of endothelial cells outside of the glomerulus in the systemic circulation, as reflected by markers of endothelial cell dysfunction/microinflammation3 and by escape of albumin from the circulation into the extravascular space4 in …
Economic implications of mandated efficiency standards for household appliances: response to Besen and Johnson's comment

The author defends his position that mandating energy efficiency standards on appliances may result in an upward demand pressure if the energy use reduction is overestimated. He argues that Besen and Johnson fail to produce evidence to support their criticisms or their theory that an increase in initial cost will accompany mandated efficiency. 2 figures. (DCK)
ARE THE COSTS OF CLEANING UP EASTERN EUROPE EXAGGERATED? ECONOMIC REFORM AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Widespread concern has been expressed that the costs of reducing environmental pollution in Eastern Europe will divert resources that would otherwise be available for industrial modernization. In fact, apart from a number of severely damaged areas, the general level of exposure to major pollutants in Eastern Europe is not high by comparison with the OECD countries. Even without specific environmental policies the process of general economic reform, together with the energy conservation induced by higher energy prices, will reduce emissions by nearly 50%. A modest fraction of general investment in industrial modernization will deal with the remaining problems of current emissions provided that sensible systems of environmental charges are enforced. The countries will then be faced with the problem of cleaning up the aftermath of past industrial activity, but as in other countries, this can be tackled over an extended period.
Devaluation, Non-Flexible Prices and the Trade Balance for a Small Country: Comment

In a recent article in this JOURNAL, Jones and Corden ( 1976, hereafter referred to as i-c) examine the impact of a devaluation on the trade balance of a 'small' country under varying assumptions about the accompanying government policies for internal balance. While I strongly support the basic thrust of the analysis, namely that since the balance of payments is but one in a set of simultaneous equations any investigation of the impact of a devaluation must include a treatment of coincident government policies, I feel that the conceptual framework employed cannot be supported on either theoretical or empirical grounds, so that their conclusions are potentially misleading. In this comment I discuss the inherent problems of their conceptual framework and offer an alternative paradigm for investigating the quiestions under consideration.1 The basic assumption of J-c, that the government implements fiscal policy to insure internal balance, implies of course that, in the absence of active government policy, rigidities of some type would prevent markets from clearing. Yet for the most part they do not specify the underlying rigidities but simply discuss various possible targets of internal balance without questioning the economic rationale of these targets. In particular, J-C assume that government policy sees to it that either the non-traded good price or the nominal wage rate is pegged at some exogenous level by ensuring that excess demand (supply) never develops. Of course this type of policy is only necessary and hence defensible if, in the absence of government policy, non-governmental rigidities would prevent (say) the wage rate from declining in the face of excess supply and would thereby generate unemployment. In other words their policy
Justice after Conflict : Human Rights in a Dilemma

This essay explores the concept of restorative justice in post-conflict reconciliation environments. Through a human rights perspective the author sees a conflict between restorative justice and retributive justice. This is presented in a theoretical framework for post-conflict reconciliation. To more explicitly illustrate the advantages of restorative justice the example of South Africa is used. The transition from apartheid to democracy that was facilitated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990's is an example of where tribunals like Nuremburg after World War II would most likely have had sever and dire consequences in form of a racially fueled civil war. This eventuality is something that human rights advocates must not forget when the discourse today almost entirely is focused on tribunals and particularly the International Criminal Court, in other words retributive justice.
Investment opportunity set influence on goodwill amortisation

Abstract Using an institutional setting where GAAP is relatively unconstrained, we examine whether managers use their goodwill accounting discretion to reflect firms' growth options that are not otherwise captured in reported identifiable assets. We employ a continuous dependent variable to find that accounting discretion is exercised through estimates of goodwill's economic life (amortisation period) in a manner that reflects the firms' underlying growth options. These results are consistent with managers using accounting techniques to reflect firms' investment opportunity sets (IOS). We find that the goodwill accounting decision has a stronger association with IOS variables than with traditionally applied contracting variables. Also, the IOS variables make a greater marginal contribution to the explanatory power of models of goodwill amortisation periods than do traditional contracting or opportunism variables. © City University of Hong Kong.
Investors in People in small firms

Investors in People (IIP), the heavily promoted government initiative to enhance organisations’ training and development practices, is significant for its deliberate intention to influence the conduct of management within the firm. While previous studies of IIP have tended to concentrate on large organisations, the dynamics of IIP in the increasingly important small firm population have been neglected. This article focuses on the experiences of three small firms, in particular the rationale for involvement with IIP, the market context of the small firms, its impact on market relations, and the extent to which IIP has made a difference to the nature of the business. The findings highlight the importance of sectoral and workplace relations. The IIP agenda of formalising training and development does not appear to sit easily with these processes; and appears to neglect the significance of informal training. Moreover, the requirements go against the grain of the distinctive small firm context.
The Sleeping Dragon Awakes:: The Outbound Chinese Travel Market

China is currently experiencing stunning growth in outbound travel. This paper examines the determinants, trends and characteristics of ChinaAEs outbound travel. It finds that the recent booming economy and the resultant emergence of a middle-upper class make outbound travel financially accessible to larger sections of the population. The recent liberalization of policies and regulations from both China and its destination countries have also smoothed the way. Even so, the issuance of visas has been and still is the major barrier to ChinaAEs outbound travel. Business travel is an especially important market due to increasing international trade and investment activities between China and the rest of the world.
Prices vs. Quantities vs. Tradable Quantities

This paper extends Weitzman's (1974) seminal paper comparing price and quantity instruments for regulation to consider a third option: tradable quantity regulations, such as tradable permits. Contrary to what prior work has suggested, fixed quantities may be more efficient than tradable quantities if the regulated goods are not perfect substitutes, even when trading ratios are based on the ratio of expected marginal benefits between goods, not simply one-for-one. Indeed, when benefits are independent across goods, or when the goods are complements, tradable quantities are never the most efficient instrument. This theory is applied to dynamic pollution problems, and suggests that permit banking should be allowed for stock pollutants, but not for flow pollutants. These results indicate that many regulations, including the current sulfur dioxide trading program and proposed greenhouse gas regulations, are inefficient.
Distribution and natural history of stress fractures in U.S. Marine recruits.

In a prospective study of stress injuries of the lower extremities of U.S. Marine recruits, we derived a frequency distribution of stress fractures. The most frequently fractured bone was the tibia (73%), while the single most common site was the posterior calcaneal tuberosity (21%). The natural history of stress fractures by scintigraphy and radiography has been outlined, showing the evolutionary changes on either study as a universal progression independent of injury site or type of stress. An identical spectrum of changes should be present within any group undergoing intense new exercise. The frequency distribution of stress fractures should be a function of differing forms and intensities of exercise, therefore, our figures should not be applied to other groups. We used the presence of a scintigraphic abnormality at a symptomatic site as the criterion for diagnosis of stress fracture. Since the distribution of skeletal radiotracer uptake is directly dependent on local metabolic activity, it is expected that a focal alteration in bone metabolism will result in a scintigram approaching 100% sensitivity for the abnormality (9). In the proper clinical setting, the specificity should approximate this figure; however, a focal, nonstress-related bone abnormality which has not manifested any radiographic change, such as early osteomyelitis, could result in a false-positive examination. Specificity cannot, therefore, be accurately determined without an actual determination of the pathologic changes within the bone, necessarily involving biopsy. In summary, we believe that we have established bone scintigraphy as an early and accurate means for the detection of lower extremity stress fractures, even in the absence of radiographic findings (6). We feel that a focally abnormal scintigram, in the proper clinical setting, establishes the diagnosis of stress fracture, with radiography to be performed at the time of initial work-up only to rule out a non-stress injury (such as complete fracture, fibrous dysplasia, osteomyelitis, primary bone tumor).
Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide: Geological Perspective

The climate history of the Earth is a history of continuous change. Through geological time the average global temperature remained always within the constraints set by the presence of abundant liquid water, while the atmospheric CO2 concentration varied strongly. Its 30% rise since the beginning of the 20th century can, at least partly, be attributed to human activities. According to the ‘general circulation models’ (GCMs) used by the IPCC the ongoing rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration will lead to significant global warming. However, in these GCMs the (small) net CO2 forcing is amplified by strong positive feedbacks, particularly from water vapour and clouds. Real world observations and data of the geologic past do not support the role of CO2 as the principal climate regulator.
Variability of perioperative mortality of hepatic resection in Australia

Hepatic resection is a relatively young and complex specialized procedure. A strong relationship between volume and perioperative mortality has been reported internationally. However, there has been no multicentre study into hepatic resection in Australia. This retrospective, population‐based cohort study was conducted to determine national, state and territory based volume and perioperative mortality rates (POMRs).
Crude extract of Nigella sativa inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells

Cervical cancer is a major cause of morbidity in women worldwide and chemotherapy for this cancer seems unsatisfactory, which demands exploring new therapeutic options. The seeds and oil from Nigella sativa have been reputed to have many curative properties in traditional medicine. Utilizing different techniques (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) laddering, Comet assay and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analyses), this study was carried out to evaluate the impact of N. sativaon the growth of human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells. The ethanol extract from N. sativa (EENS) significantly inhibited proliferation and colony formation and induced apoptosis in HeLa cells. The apoptotic induction was associated with the release of mitochondrial cytochrome c, increase of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, activation of caspases-3, -9 and -8 and cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). EENS decreased expression of oncoproteins such as c-Myc, human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), cyclin D1 and cyclin-dependent kinase-4 (CDK-4), but increased expression of tumor-suppressor proteins including p53 and p21. These findings demonstrate that EENS inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in HeLa cells and suggest this extract may be a promising agent for the prevention/treatment of human cervical cancer. Key words: Nigella sativa, cervical cancers, apoptosis, caspases, cell cycle.
La relevancia actual de Keynes: el desempleo en los países ricos y pobres

El proposito de este articulo es argumentar que las ideas de Keynes, formuladas en la primera mitad del siglo XX, son tan relevantes en la actualidad como lo fueron en su epoca, en lo que concierne al estudio de la naturaleza del desempleo y como combatirlo en los paises ricos y pobres. La naturaleza del desempleo difiere entre los dos tipos de paises, y el desafio que representa en ambos casos tambien difiere. En los paises desarrollados ricos es necesario resucitar y enfatizar el concepto de desempleo involuntario y el importante papel de la administracion de la demanda. En los paises pobres en desarrollo, por otro lado, es el papel del gobierno en el incremento de la tasa de acumulacion de capital y en la inversion en proyectos de inversion intensivos en trabajo el que resulta de primordial importancia. El articulo discute el interes y la obra del autor sobre el desempleo a lo largo de los ultimos cuarenta anos y el desafio de la creacion de empleo en los paises ricos y pobres; llama la atencion de los lectores acerca de la teoria del empleo (clasica) pre-keynesiana; aplica la relevancia del concepto de desempleo involuntario de Keynes a la elevada tasa de desempleo en los paises nucleo de la Union Europea particularmente desde la firma del Tratado de Maastricht en 1992; critica la idea de que la elevada tasa de desempleo de algun modo constituye una tasa “natural” y que no tiene ninguna relacion con la insuficiencia de la demanda, contexto de los paises en desarrollo donde la principal tarea de la creacion de empleo es aumentar la tasa de acumulacion de capital y avanzar hacia el uso de tecnicas de produccion mas intensivas en trabajo simultaneamente
Knowledge Management Practices and Absorptive Capacity in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: Is There Really a Linkage?

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are more vulnerable to globalization and rapid technological change due to their scarcity of resources. SMEs' absorptive capacity allows them to access knowledge and plays a key role in their ability to explore and exploit opportunities in their environment. Therefore, this study aims to identify and categorize knowledge management practices which SMEs can adopt to develop absorptive capacity. From a population of 4,534 Portuguese SMEs, 260 usable completed questionnaires were returned. We concluded that Portuguese SMEs are engaged in knowledge management practices, through collaboration with business partners, favoring learning processes based on experience, knowledge transfer to employees and knowledge absorption by employees, reflecting the importance given by SMEs to the tacit nature of knowledge which helps them in efficiency improvements, strategic adaptation, and the launch of new products and services. Our study contributes to advancing theory in the fields of knowledge management and absorptive capacity. We combine and extend previous research which allows us to reconcile the sometimes contradictory findings concerning knowledge management practices which SMEs can adopt to reinforce absorptive capacity. Some theoretical and practical implications are also presented.
Role of Fermentable Carbohydrate Supplements in the Course of Uremia

During the past few years, considerable attention has been given to the impact of nutrition on kidney disease. Interventions that restrict protein intake lower the plasma urea concentration, alleviate adverse clinical symptoms, and may slow the progression of chronic renal failure (CRF). Although these studies provide a logical explanation for a relationship between a low protein diet and altering the progression of functional renal deterioration, this beneficial effect is often accompanied by some muscle wasting and malnutrition. The question arises whether the effect of a moderate dietary protein restriction could be reinforced by enrichment of the diet with fermentable carbohydrates, since these carbohydrates may stimulate the extra-renal route of nitrogen (N) excretion, via the fecal route. At a physiological level, there is two routes to eliminate N: urine and feces. Our results show that it is possible to increase the N fecal route excretion by reducing the protein supply and increasing fermentable carbohydrate availability. This additional dietary manipulation seems to be very interesting in case of renal deficiency in animal models and in humans. The modification of the urea N enterohepatic cycling by fermentable carbohydrates is likely to promote proliferation of the large intestine microflora, which could be an interesting approach to deviate a part of the N excretion to feces as a consequence of N utilization by the bacteria. Conversely, a large proportion of the N released by urea hydrolysis in the digestive tract may be recycled, via the reabsorption of ammonia, and could contribute thus to reduce the need of N. In the domain of preventive nutrition, the first recognized effect of dietary fibers was to regularize the digestive transit, especially in the case of constipation. However, during the past decades, some other interesting effects have been reported, especially lipid-lowering effects, improvement of blood glucose control, reduction of colon cancer risk and increase of the availability of some cations. In contrast, the efficacy of the dietary fibers in the treatment of CRF has been less investigated although the availability of dietary fibers should profoundly alter the microflora metabolism and proliferation, and as a result N metabolism. The aim of this chapter is to review, for the course of CRF, the capacity of an additional manipulation of diet in increasing fermentable carbohydrates which can stimulate the transfer of urea into the large intestine and shift N excretion from the urine to the feces.
Statistical characterization of the antenna and wireless multipath virtual channel interaction

The proposed procedure allows us to remark easily the interaction between the antenna and the simulated channel. The procedure not only permits to simulate the interaction between ideal antennas and channels but it could make to interact real antennas with the simulated channel by using a file with measured pattern. Moreover, it is applicable to evaluate radiation systems orientated to MIMO (multiple input and multiple output), because it allows the calculation of the spatial correlation of the different types of antennas with virtual ratio channels. In the case of real antennas, in the lack of the file of the measurements of their directional characteristics, the same results can be obtained from approximately through electromagnetic simulation. Then you can use the program MatLab to obtain the behavior of a real antenna in a dispersive environment.
Explaining Asset Bubbles in Japan

This paper examines the stock and land price behaviors during the bubble economy period (the second half of the 1980s), paying considerable attention to the linkage of the two markets and the effects of monetary policy. In particular, we examine whether the booms in these asset prices can be justified by changes of the fundamental economic variables such as the interest rates or the growth of the real economy. A complex chain of events is needed to explain the process of asset price inflation and deflation. Our empirical results suggest (i) that the initial increases of asset prices are sown by a sharp increase in bank lending to real estate; (ii) that a considerable comovement between stock and land prices is consistent with a theory that emphasizes the relationship between the collateral value of land and cash flow for constrained firms; (iii) that although the real economy was doing well and the interest rates were still low, asset price increases from mid-1987 to mid-1989 cannot be fully justified by the movement of fundamentals alone; and (iv) the stock price increase in the second half of 1989 and the land price increase in 1990 is not explained by any asset pricing model based on fundamentals or rational bubbles.