Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficiency Analysis in Public Service Provision: Addressing Characteristics and Specificities Related to the Public Sector and Regulation

The government has been and remains crucial in providing goods and services in modern-day economies. However, the manner of this provision is complex and touches upon numerous areas of economic and social policy. Government action plays an especially central role for services of general interest, as well as in the regulation of their provision by the private sector. Thus, the efficient and effective implementation of governmental economic activitiy, as well as of governmental intervention in the behavior of private-sector providers is of high importance. Against this background, there is both a growing interest in and need for an empirically sound assessment of public service provision. Scientific efficiency analysis provides a suitable analytical approach to gaining knowledge about production and cost structures, to evaluate the impact of their various determinants, as well as to quantitatively estimate the potential for efficiency gains. In order to achieve unbiased and meaningful results on the governmental, i.e. public, provision of goods and services it is imperative that the properties and specificities of public service provision are adequately considered in the analysis. This dissertation considers four selected properties and specificities of public service provision: (i) the multiplicity of public services; (ii) external factors that may affect service provision; (iii) subsidies where the provider of the subsidy is also the recipient; and finally (iv) the modeling of technologies in the context of regulation, where informational asymmetries and conflicting goals exist between the regulator and the regulated companies. In the dissertation we both suggest and implement appropriate procedures for the evaluation of public service provision by means of efficiency analysis, which allow for an adequate consideration of these properties and specificities.
How alternative splicing affects membrane-trafficking dynamics

ABSTRACT The cell biology field has outstanding working knowledge of the fundamentals of membrane-trafficking pathways, which are of critical importance in health and disease. Current challenges include understanding how trafficking pathways are fine-tuned for specialized tissue functions in vivo and during development. In parallel, the ENCODE project and numerous genetic studies have revealed that alternative splicing regulates gene expression in tissues and throughout development at a post-transcriptional level. This Review summarizes recent discoveries demonstrating that alternative splicing affects tissue specialization and membrane-trafficking proteins during development, and examines how this regulation is altered in human disease. We first discuss how alternative splicing of clathrin, SNAREs and BAR-domain proteins influences endocytosis, secretion and membrane dynamics, respectively. We then focus on the role of RNA-binding proteins in the regulation of splicing of membrane-trafficking proteins in health and disease. Overall, our aim is to comprehensively summarize how trafficking is molecularly influenced by alternative splicing and identify future directions centered on its physiological relevance. Summary: This Review summarizes how trafficking is molecularly influenced by alternative splicing and how this interplay impacts physiology and pathological conditions.
Effective Antimalarial Chemoprevention in Childhood Enhances the Quality of CD4+ T Cells and Limits Their Production of Immunoregulatory Interleukin 10.

BACKGROUND Experimental inoculation of viable Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites administered with chemoprevention targeting blood-stage parasites results in protective immunity. It is unclear whether chemoprevention similarly enhances immunity following natural exposure to malaria. METHODS We assessed P. falciparum-specific T-cell responses among Ugandan children who were randomly assigned to receive monthly dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP; n = 87) or no chemoprevention (n = 90) from 6 to 24 months of age, with pharmacologic assessments for adherence, and then clinically followed for an additional year. RESULTS During the intervention, monthly DP reduced malaria episodes by 55% overall (P < .001) and by 97% among children who were highly adherent to DP (P < .001). In the year after the cessation of chemoprevention, children who were highly adherent to DP had a 55% reduction in malaria incidence as compared to children given no chemoprevention (P = .004). Children randomly assigned to receive DP had higher frequencies of blood-stage specific CD4(+) T cells coproducing interleukin-2 and tumor necrosis factor α (P = .003), which were associated with protection from subsequent clinical malaria and parasitemia, and fewer blood-stage specific CD4(+) T cells coproducing interleukin-10 and interferon γ (P = .001), which were associated with increased risk of malaria. CONCLUSIONS In this setting, effective antimalarial chemoprevention fostered the development of CD4(+) T cells that coproduced interleukin 2 and tumor necrosis factor α and were associated with prospective protection, while limiting CD4(+) T-cell production of the immunoregulatory cytokine IL-10.
Objective Prediction of Hearing Aid Benefit Across Listener Groups Using Machine Learning: Speech Recognition Performance With Binaural Noise-Reduction Algorithms

The simulation framework for auditory discrimination experiments (FADE) was adopted and validated to predict the individual speech-in-noise recognition performance of listeners with normal and impaired hearing with and without a given hearing-aid algorithm. FADE uses a simple automatic speech recognizer (ASR) to estimate the lowest achievable speech reception thresholds (SRTs) from simulated speech recognition experiments in an objective way, independent from any empirical reference data. Empirical data from the literature were used to evaluate the model in terms of predicted SRTs and benefits in SRT with the German matrix sentence recognition test when using eight single- and multichannel binaural noise-reduction algorithms. To allow individual predictions of SRTs in binaural conditions, the model was extended with a simple better ear approach and individualized by taking audiograms into account. In a realistic binaural cafeteria condition, FADE explained about 90% of the variance of the empirical SRTs for a group of normal-hearing listeners and predicted the corresponding benefits with a root-mean-square prediction error of 0.6 dB. This highlights the potential of the approach for the objective assessment of benefits in SRT without prior knowledge about the empirical data. The predictions for the group of listeners with impaired hearing explained 75% of the empirical variance, while the individual predictions explained less than 25%. Possibly, additional individual factors should be considered for more accurate predictions with impaired hearing. A competing talker condition clearly showed one limitation of current ASR technology, as the empirical performance with SRTs lower than −20 dB could not be predicted.
Impact of cage stocking density on egg laying characteristics and related stress and immunity parameters of Japanese quails in subtropics.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different cage stocking densities on egg production parameters, as well as related stress and immunity indices in Japanese quails under subtropical Egyptian conditions. Two hundred and sixteen birds of Japanese quail at 14th week of age were used in this experiment. The birds were divided randomly into three groups: 60, 72 and 84. Each group subdivided into 4 replicates, where the cages' floor spaces were 200 (S1 ), 167 (S2 ) and 143 (S3 ) cm(2) /bird, respectively. Birds housed at 200 cm(2) /bird (S1 ) had superior fertility (fertility % (p = 0.013) and hatchability % (p = 0.041)), egg production (egg weight (p = 0.034) and egg mass (p = 0.001)) and immunity parameters (higher geometric mean of antibody titres against Newcastle disease virus, p = 0.024). Furthermore, they had higher internal egg quality score: albumen height (p = 0.003), yolk height (p = 0.023), yolk index (p = 0.006) and Haugh unit (p = 0.035). Birds housed at 143 cm(2) /bird (S3 ) had the lowest total leucocytic count and lymphocyte % (p = 0.022), but the highest H/L ratio (p = 0.001). Corticosterone concentration was lower in S1 group (p = 0.031) than that in groups housed at higher densities. Japanese quail housed at high densities revealed drop in fertility, hatchability, production and immunity parameters, indicating a detrimental effects on both welfare and economic income.
Regional Growth Cycle Convergence in the European Union

This paper investigates the patterns and determinants of the co-movement of economic activity across regions in the European Union. Using a panel data of 208 EU-15 regions over the period 1989-2002 we estimate a system of four simultaneous equations to analyse the impact of regional trade integration, specialization and exchange rate volatility on correlations of regional growth cycles with the Euro area. We find that deeper trade integration with the Euro area had a strong direct positive effect on the synchronisation of regional growth cycles with the Euro area. Industrial specialisation and exchange rate volatility were sources of cyclical divergence. Industrial specialisation had however an indirect positive effect on growth cycles synchronisation via its positive effect on trade integration, while exchange rate volatility had an indirect additional negative effect on growth cycle correlations by reducing trade integration. Industrial specialisation had an indirect negative effect on growth cycle correlations by increasing the exchange rate volatility. The direct impact of trade integration on growth cycle correlations was stronger in the pre-EMU sub-period, while in the EMU subperiod, the negative direct effects of industrial specialisation and exchange rate volatility were stronger than in the pre-EMU sub-period. A distinct result is the positive and significant relationship between exchange rate volatility and growth cycle correlations in the pre-EMU sub-period, suggesting that over this period, country-specific exchange rate fluctuations acted as shock absorbers. Our analysis is relevant in the context of the discussion about the macroeconomic adjustment to region-specific shocks in the European Monetary Union. (authors' abstract)
Nutrient removal and biomass production: advances in microalgal biotechnology for wastewater treatment

Abstract Owing to certain drawbacks, such as energy-intensive operations in conventional modes of wastewater treatment (WWT), there has been an extensive search for alternative strategies in treatment technology. Biological modes for treating wastewaters are one of the finest technologies in terms of economy and efficiency. An integrated biological approach with chemical flocculation is being conventionally practiced in several-sewage and effluent treatment plants around the world. Overwhelming responsiveness to treat wastewaters especially by using microalgae is due to their simplest photosynthetic mechanism and ease of acclimation to various habitats. Microalgal technology, also known as phycoremediation, has been in use for WWT since 1950s. Various strategies for the cultivation of microalgae in WWT systems are evolving faster. However, the availability of innovative approaches for maximizing the treatment efficiency, coupled with biomass productivity, remains the major bottleneck for commercialization of microalgal technology. Investment costs and invasive parameters also delimit the use of microalgae in WWT. This review critically discusses the merits and demerits of microalgal cultivation strategies recently developed for maximum pollutant removal as well as biomass productivity. Also, the potential of algal biofilm technology in pollutant removal, and harvesting the microalgal biomass using different techniques have been highlighted. Finally, an economic assessment of the currently available methods has been made to validate microalgal cultivation in wastewater at the commercial level.
Response to third rubella vaccine dose

ABSTRACT Limited data exist on the immunogenicity of a third dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR). In this study, our aim was to evaluate the long-term rubella immunogenicity afforded by two childhood MMR doses of the Norwegian vaccination program in a cohort of conscripts and to determine the effect of an additional dose of MMR vaccine, in order to inform vaccination policy. Blood samples from Norwegian conscripts (n = 495) taken both before and eight months after administration of a dose of MMR vaccine were tested using an enzyme immunoassay to measure anti-rubella IgG. Concentrations <5 IU/mL were regarded as negative, 5.0-9.9 IU/mL as equivocal, and ≥10 IU/mL as positive. Overall, the seropositivity before vaccination was 84.6%, and 99.0% of the conscripts had anti-rubella IgG concentrations ≥5 IU/mL. The seropositivity after vaccination was 94.5%, and 99.8% of the conscripts had antibody concentrations ≥5 IU/mL. The geometrical mean IgG concentrations increased from 21.4 IU/mL before vaccination to 28.9 IU/mL after. Four out of five conscripts, with seronegative concentrations before administrations of an additional MMR dose, had equivocal or seropositive results following vaccination. The cohort of young adults in Norway, which was eligible for two childhood MMR doses, was protected against rubella, and efforts should be made to maintain high vaccine coverage to ensure immunity in the future. A third dose of MMR administered in early adulthood led to an increase in the antibody concentration in our cohort and seroconversion for the majority of seronegative persons.
A STUDY OF VOLATILITY SPILLOVER ACROSS SELECT FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES IN INDIA USING DYNAMIC CONDITIONAL CORRELATIONS

Foreign Exchange market in India has become extremely dynamic, post the shift to managed float from a basket peg in the 1990s. The present study therefore attempts to estimate a multivariate GARCH model involving exchange rates of the Indian rupee vis a vis four prominent foreign currencies. Through the Dynamic Conditional Correlations (DCC) derived from the Multivariate GARCH model, a measure of the spillover of volatility across these exchange rates is attempted. The results of empirical estimation depict the prevalence of very high level of volatility and volatility clustering in each of these exchange rates. So also the volatility spillover interpreted from the behavior of the DCCs amongst these rates, is evident and asymmetric over a period of time. As a result only short term policy actions can be framed using these DCC.
Novel Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Genotype Levels as Herald of Seasonal Salmonellosis Epidemics

We examined the population dynamics of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium during seasonal salmonellosis epidemics in New South Wales, Australia, during 2009–2016. Of 15,626 isolates, 5%–20% consisted of novel genotypes. Seasons with salmonellosis epidemics were associated with a reduction in novel genotypes in the preceding winter and spring.
Don’t Annotate, but Validate: a Data-to-Text Method for Capturing Event Data

In this paper, we present a new method to obtain large volumes of high-quality text corpora with event data for studying identity and reference relations. We report on the current methods to create event reference data by annotating texts and deriving the event data a posteriori. Our method starts from event registries in which event data is defined a priori. From this data, we extract so-called Microworlds of referential data with the Reference Texts that report on these events. This makes it possible to easily establish referential relations with high precision and at a large scale. In a pilot, we successfully obtained data from these resources with extreme ambiguity and variation, while maintaining the identity and reference relations and without having to annotate large quantities of texts word-by-word. The data from this pilot was annotated using an annotation tool created specifically in order to validate our method and to enrich the reference texts with event coreference annotations. This annotation process resulted in the Gun Violence Corpus, whose development process and outcome are described in this paper.
Spinal Control of Motor Outputs Escape from homeostasis : spinal microcircuits and progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Brownstone RM, Lancelin C. Escape from homeostasis: spinal microcircuits and progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J Neurophysiol 119: 1782–1794, 2018. First published January 31, 2018; doi:10.1152/jn.00331. 2017. —In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), loss of motoneuron function leads to weakness and, ultimately, respiratory failure and death. Regardless of the initial pathogenic factors, motoneuron loss follows a specific pattern: the largest -motoneurons die before smaller -motoneurons, and -motoneurons are spared. In this article, we examine how homeostatic responses to this orderly progression could lead to local microcircuit dysfunction that in turn propagates motoneuron dysfunction and death. We first review motoneuron diversity and the principle of coactivation and then discuss two specific spinal motoneuron microcircuits: those involving proprioceptive afferents and those involving Renshaw cells. Next, we propose that the overall homeostatic response of the nervous system is aimed at maintaining force output. Thus motoneuron degeneration would lead to an increase in inputs to motoneurons, and, because of the pattern of neuronal degeneration, would result in an imbalance in local microcircuit activity that would overwhelm initial homeostatic responses. We suggest that this activity would ultimately lead to excitotoxicity of motoneurons, which would hasten the progression of disease. Finally, we propose that should this be the case, new therapies targeted toward microcircuit dysfunction could slow the course of ALS.
Association between peak expiratory flow and the development of carotid atherosclerotic plaques.

BACKGROUND Numerous population-based studies have suggested that impaired lung function is associated with subsequent coronary heart diseases-related mortality and cardiovascular disease-related mortality. The relative contribution of atherosclerosis in these associations is unknown. OBJECTIVE To examine the association of peak expiratory flow (PEF) with the occurrence during 4 years of atherosclerotic plaques in the extracranial carotid arteries in a sample of 656 subjects (aged 59-71 years) free of coronary heart disease and stroke at baseline. METHODS Peak expiratory flow was measured at the baseline examination. Peak expiratory flow values relative to the predicted values (relative PEF values) were calculated, predicted values being obtained from previously published sex-specific regression equations of PEF on age and height. A carotid B-mode ultrasonographic examination was performed at baseline and 2 and 4 years later. The occurrence of carotid plaques during follow-up was defined as the appearance of 1 plaque (or more) in previously normal carotid segments and/or the appearance of new plaques in the carotid segments that previously had plaques. RESULTS The proportion of subjects who experienced an occurrence of carotid atherosclerotic plaques during follow-up was 16.8% (110/656). The unadjusted odds ratios from the highest to the lowest quintiles of relative PEF values were 1.00, 1.07 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.69-2.79), 1.08 (95% CI, 0.52-2.24), 1.38 (95% CI, 0.69-2.79), and 3.07 (95% CI, 1.62-5.85) (P<.001 for trend). Adjustment for major known cardiovascular risk factors did not markedly change the results, and the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio of carotid plaque occurrence in subjects with the lowest quintile of PEF compared with those with the highest quintile remained highly significant (odds ratio, 2.84; 95% CI, 1.45-5.71) (P =.002). Particularly in all smoking categories, carotid plaque occurrence was higher in subjects with the lowest relative PEF values. In never smokers, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio of carotid plaque occurrence in subjects with the lowest quintile of PEF compared with those with the highest quintile was 2.80 (95% CI, 1.14-6.88). CONCLUSIONS Reduced lung function predicts the development of carotid atherosclerosis in elderly subjects. The nature of these associations remains largely unknown and merits further investigations. Nevertheless, assessment of lung function, which is simple and inexpensive, could help identify a population at high risk of atherosclerosis development and coronary heart disease.
Politique monétaire optimale et effet de variété en économie ouverte

Cet article etudie la maniere dont la politique monetaire doit etre conduite en economie ouverte lorsque l'on prend en compte son influence sur la marge extensive de l'activite. Dans un modele a deux pays, on montre que, contrairement aux resultats obtenus par Bilbiie, Ghironi et Melitz [2007], la politique monetaire optimale consiste a stabiliser les prix a la consommation, la stabilisation des prix a la production induisant un a justement insuffisant du taux de change reel. D'autre part, lorsque l'on tient compte de la marge intensive de l'activite, l'adoption d'un regime de change fixe entraine une sur–volatilite macroeconomique qui genere des couts en termes de bien–etre lorsque les relations commerciales sont importantes et que les heures travaillees sont fortement elastiques au salaire reel.
The Effect of Small Tumor Volumes on Studies of Intratumoral Heterogeneity of Tracer Uptake

The number of studies in the literature involving quantification of the metabolic heterogeneity seen in 18F-FDG PET images has increased sharply over recent years. We hypothesized that inclusion of very small regions of interest as unique data points will have deleterious effects on these studies. Methods: Using a combination of probability theory and clinical 18F-FDG PET data, we numerically calculated the curve describing the probability a given tumor volume is large enough to adequately sample the underlying tumor biology assayed via a PET/CT scanner at a planar resolution of 4 mm and transaxial resolution of 4 mm (64 mm3 voxel size). We then used a computer simulation to isolate the effects of tumor volume on the image local entropy. Results: We computed the underlying global intensity distribution for 70 cervical cancer tumors ranging from 4 to 248 cm3), which were ensemble-averaged over the same intensity scale. From this distribution, we determined that about 700 total voxels (45 cm3) are required to give 95% certainty that the global intensity distribution has been sufficiently sampled for common statistical comparisons of individual tumor intensity distributions to be made canonically. We demonstrated that one previously suggested measure of heterogeneity is dependent on tumor volume and that measurement of heterogeneity is about 5 times more sensitive to volume changes for volumes below the proposed minimum than for those above it. Conclusion: Inclusion of tumor volumes below 45 cm3 can profoundly bias comparisons of intratumoral uptake heterogeneity metrics derived from data from the current generation of whole-body 18F-FDG PET scanners.