Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving access to finance for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the road sector: the CrossRoads Guarantee Fund in Uganda

Credit guarantee funds are a tried-and-tested instrument to improve access to finance. This paper aims to share experience from the CrossRoads Guarantee Fund in Uganda. The Fund was established in 2012 as one of the interventions under the CrossRoads Programme funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the European Union (EU) to build capacity and competitiveness in Uganda's roads sector. The objective of the Fund is to improve access to finance for contractors/consultants. The Fund has created significant benefits and impacts that include enabling contractors to secure bid securities and performance bonds valued at Ugandan Shillings 11.7 bn (US$4.7 m); improving relationships between financial institutions and contractors; and significant crowding-in by financial institutions. Important lessons to guide scaling up or replication of similar initiatives are emerging. First, a guarantee fund creates significant behaviour change on both the supply and demand sides of the financial serv.
Activity‐induced fiber regeneration in rat soleus muscle

In an attempt to understand why muscle recovery is limited following atrophy due to limb immobilization, satellite cell activity and muscle fiber regeneration were analyzed in rat soleus muscles. Adult rat hindlimbs were immobilized in plaster casts for a period of two to ten weeks. Soleus muscles were examined by electron microscopy for evidence of fiber degeneration or regeneration, and to quantify satellite cell nuclei. Immunocytochemical localization of embryonic myosin was used to identify regenerating myofibers. Soleus muscle wet weight to body weight ratios for the casted muscles significantly decreased over the 10‐week immobilization period. The casted muscles displayed ultrastructural evidence of minor fiber damage, including myofibrillar atrophy, Z‐disc disruption, and abnormal triadic junctions. No ultrastructural evidence of regeneration was seen in the casted animals. The number of satellite cells in the casted muscles significantly decreased from 6.4% to 3.3% by eight to 10 weeks of immobilization. Approximately 1.0% of extrafusal fibers in the control soleus muscles appeared to be regenerating since they expressed embryonic myosin and were of a small diameter, while in casted muscles, only 0.1% of the fibers were embryonic myosin‐positive. Following release from immobilization, a reappearance of embryonic myosin‐positive fibers was noted within four days of renewed activity. In contrast to control muscles, embryonic myosin‐positive fibers in the recovery muscles included both small and large diameter fibers. Subtle changes in functional activity influence muscle damage and subsequent myofiber regeneration. Reduced activity reduces muscle fiber regeneration, while increased activity, as seen by increased hindlimb weight bearing and return to normal activity following immobilization, increase regenerating fibers and also the expression of embryonic myosin in adult fibers. Anat Rec 258:176–185, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Statistical methods applied to omics data: predicting response to neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer

Purpose of review Omics technologies have become an essential part of clinical trials in oncology to provide a better understanding of molecular mechanisms and to unveil therapeutic targets. Standard statistical methods often fail in the high-dimensional setting. Therefore, an adequate modelling of the omics data is needed in order to identify ‘target’ genes of interest. Recent findings Several genes or gene signatures have been identified to predict the response to neoadjuvant therapies in breast cancer trials. We first reviewed statistical methods used to identify genes in 13 recent publications. Most of these studies had a small sample size (median: 42 patients) and were nonrandomized. We then focused on some popular methods – especially the so-called penalized methods used by three of the reviewed articles – and on the more recent methods proposed to predict causal estimates from observational data. We finally illustrated these methods in a nonrandomized neoadjuvant phase II trial of letrozole in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer patients. Summary The review highlighted small sample sizes, few randomized trials and a large panel of statistical methods used in this setting. In our illustrated neoadjuvant example, causal inference methods did not outperform the penalized methods.
Internal migrations in Spain, 1877 1930

Industrialisation in European countries caused an increase in both internal migration and emigration. Internal migrants were even more numerous than overseas emigrants. However, few empirical studies have sought to explain internal migrations. This article examines the causes and effects of internal migration in Spain with the aim of answering some of the questions debated in the literature. The results show that internal migrations in Spain were driven by economic forces. Moreover, the lag in rural population transfer can be explained by the scant pull of industrial and urban destinations. The article also shows that internal migrants differed in some respects from the people who emigrated overseas. Finally, the impact of internal migration on labour markets is measured.
Is there a debt finance gap relating to Scottish SMEs? A demand-side perspective

This paper investigates whether or not there is evidence of market failure in the provision of bank finance to Scottish SMEs. The key question is whether SMEs have been experiencing difficulties because of the unsuitability of the business case they were putting to the banks or because of sub-optimal lending practices. The paper draws upon evidence from the 2006 Annual Small Business Survey (Scotland), based on a survey of 1014 Scottish SMEs, and a follow-up in-depth survey of 39 SMEs that had reported problems in accessing bank finance. While the findings show that less than one-fifth of the firms trying to access bank finance encountered problems and that only a small minority had to abandon their projects completely as a result, both start-up and early stage businesses and manufacturing SMEs were disproportionately likely to experience problems. These were largely attributed by owner-managers to their lack of a track record of debt management in the case of young businesses and difficulties of providing the necessary collateral in the case of manufacturing SMEs. The risks associated with projects involving product and market diversification was also a factor. The paper concludes that these funding gaps are likely to have become larger since 2007 as a result of the credit crunch.
Strategic Entry and Determinants of Chinese Private Enterprises Into Africa

The authors discuss the strategic entry of Chinese private enterprises (PEs) into Africa by analyzing their characteristics of host distribution and overseas companies’ function and type. They find that Chinese PEs tend to invest in countries where Chinese investment has already concentrated, that more Chinese PEs engage in manufacturing and services than in agriculture and mining and quarrying, and that Chinese PEs take higher risks by choosing the type of subsidiary companies to enter Africa. They also make an empirical study of the determinants of Chinese PEs compared with state-owned enterprises in the period 2002–2011 and found Chinese PEs in Africa are driven mainly by the motivation of market-seeking, not by resource-seeking; China's imports from the host country also facilitate Chinese companies’ investment in Africa; and Chinese companies in Africa are risk-takers. At the end of the article, they study the case of Touchroad and verify the results of their empirical study.
Refinement and Psychometric Evaluation of the Attitudes Toward Loss of Hearing Questionnaire

Objective: To refine and statistically validate the Attitudes Toward Loss of Hearing Questionnaire (ALHQ) so that it will be appropriate for clinical application and to understand some of the personality attributes underlying attitudes toward hearing loss. Design: An American‐English version of an ALHQ, originally designed byBrooks (1989), was completed by 226 men; a subset of 80 also completed personality questionnaires. All subjects underwent pure‐tone testing and speech audiometry. Factor analysis was used to extract scales from the ALHQ. Reliability analyses using Cronbach's α were carried out on each scale. Test‐retest reliability was evaluated from questionnaires completed 6 to 18 mo after initial administration. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the audiometric and personality determinants of attitudes. Results: Five reliable scales were extracted from a 24‐question version of the ALHQ: 1) Social and Emotional Impact of Hearing Loss, 2) Acceptance/Adjustment to Hearing Loss, 3) Perceived Support from Significant Others, 4) Hearing Aid Stigma, and 5) Awareness of Hearing Loss. Audiometric data explained little of the variance in attitude scores; age and other demographic factors did not correlate with attitudes either. The personality traits of extroversion, self‐esteem, and anxiety/neuroticism played a larger role in determining attitude. Conclusions: The ALHQ is psychometrically acceptable and is a potentially useful clinical tool. It is quick and easy to complete and to score and could be used as a basis for counseling and for following attitude change in patients over time.
Classification of Alzheimer disease, mild cognitive impairment, and normal cognitive status with large-scale network analysis based on resting-state functional MR imaging.

PURPOSE To use large-scale network (LSN) analysis to classify subjects with Alzheimer disease (AD), those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and cognitively normal (CN) subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted with institutional review board approval and was in compliance with HIPAA regulations. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was used to acquire the voxelwise time series in 55 subjects with clinically diagnosed AD (n = 20), aMCI (n =15), and normal cognitive function (n = 20). The brains were divided into 116 regions of interest (ROIs). The Pearson product moment correlation coefficients of pairwise ROIs were used to classify these subjects. Error estimation of the classifications was performed with the leave-one-out cross-validation method. Linear regression analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between changes in network connectivity strengths and behavioral scores. RESULTS The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) yielded 87% classification power, 85% sensitivity, and 80% specificity between the AD group and the non-AD group (subjects with aMCI and CN subjects) in the first-step classification. For differentiation between subjects with aMCI and CN subjects, AUC was 95%; sensitivity, 93%; and specificity, 90%. The decreased network indexes were significantly correlated with the Mini-Mental State Examination score in all tested subjects. Similarly, changes in network indexes significantly correlated with Rey Auditory Verbal Leaning Test delayed recall scores in subjects with aMCI and CN subjects. CONCLUSION LSN analysis revealed that interconnectivity patterns of brain regions can be used to classify subjects with AD, those with aMCI, and CN subjects. In addition, the altered connectivity networks were significantly correlated with the results of cognitive tests.
Risk Anomaly: A Review of Literature

Number of studies show that portfolio of low risk stocks outperform portfolio of high risk stocks as well as the market portfolio over the full market cycle on risk adjusted basis and in some cases, absolute basis as well in some cases. This surprising contradiction to classic finance theory led by CAPM has held its ground over long periods of time, across different markets and different methodological choices. This review paper aims at contributing to the body of knowledge in four ways. One, it highlights and links different strands of literature on low risk anomaly that has evolved over a period of time. Second, it highlights, different methodological choices that have been used. Third, it classifies explanations for persistence of risk anomaly in to economic and behavioral explanations and explanations that try to explain the anomaly away. Fourth, it reviews the state of current research and explores potential but yet underexplored areas of research on risk anomaly.
Identification of lung adenocarcinoma specific dysregulated genes with diagnostic and prognostic value across 27 TCGA cancer types

As the most common histologic subtype of lung cancer, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) contributes to a majority of cancer-related deaths worldwide annually. In order to find specific biomarkers of LUAD that are able to distinguish LUAD from other types of cancer so as to improve the early diagnostic and prognostic power in LUAD, we analyzed 10098 tumor tissue samples across 27 TCGA cancer types and identified 112 specific expressed genes in LUAD. Meantime, 8240 LUAD dysregulated genes in tumor and normal samples were identified. Combining with the results of specific expressed genes and dysregulated genes in LUAD, we found there were 70 specific dysregulated genes in LUAD (LUAD-SDGs). Then ROC curve revealed six LUAD-SDGs that may be of strong diagnostic value to predict the existence of cancer (area under curve[AUC] > 95%). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to identify 6 LUAD-SDGs associated with patients’ prognosis (P-values < 0.001). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was employed to demonstrate that the six LUAD-SDGs were independent prognostic factors. Then, we used the six overall survival (OS)-related LUAD-SDGs constructing a six-gene signature. Multivariate Cox regression analysis suggested that the six-gene signature was an independent prognostic factor of other clinical variables (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.5098, 95%CI = 1.2996-1.7538, P < 0.0001). Based on our findings, we first presented the LUAD-SDGs for LUAD diagnosis and prognosis. Our results may provide efficient biomarkers to clinical diagnostic and prognostic evaluation in LUAD.
Roulette-tournament selection for shrimp diet formulation problem

This paper aims to propose a new selection procedure for real value encoding problem, specifically for shrimp diet problem.This new selection is a hybrid between two well-known selection procedure; roulette wheel selection and binary tournament selection.Shrimp diet problem is investigated to understand the hard constraints and the soft constraints involved.The comparison between other existing selections is also described for evaluation purposes.The result shows that roulette-tournament selection is better in terms of number of feasible solutions achieved and thus suitable for real value encoding problem.However, the combination with other crossover or mutation might be investigated to find the most suited combination that can obtain better best so far solution.
Impact and management of breakthrough pain in cancer

Purpose of reviewTo outline the impact of breakthrough pain, the evidence for the current management and new treatment options that are becoming available. Recent findingsBreakthrough pain is a transient exacerbation of pain that occurs either spontaneously, or in relation to a specific predictable or unpredictable trigger, despite relatively stable and adequately controlled background pain. Despite its self-limiting nature, breakthrough pain can place significant physical, psychological, and economic burdens on both patients and their carers. The successful management breakthrough pain may require a combination of pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment strategies; supplemental analgesia, known as rescue medication, is a common pharmacological treatment option. The ideal rescue medication should have a rapid onset, good efficacy, relatively short duration of action, and minimal adverse effects and is best administered before or soon after breakthrough pain has started. Although oral opioids are commonly used, there is increasing evidence that transmucosal opioids may be more effective. SummaryBreakthrough is a common heterogeneous pain state that can have a devastating impact on both patients and carers. Despite the growing literature on breakthrough pain, there are still many aspects yet to be addressed including an urgent need to standardize terminology, for carefully designed epidemiological studies and for well designed controlled trials comparing the different treatment options.
Data Sensitivity: Proposals for Resolving the Conundrum

The EU Directive 95/46/EC specifically demarcates categories of sensitive data meriting special protection. It is important to review the continuing relevance of existing categories of sensitive data in the light of changes in societal structures and advances in technology. This paper draws on interviews with privacy and data protection experts from a range of countries and disciplines and findings from the Information Commissioner’s annual telephone survey of the British public in order to explore satisfaction with the current categories of sensitive data. It will be shown that the current classification of sensitive data appears somewhat outdated and thus ineffective for determining the conditions of data processing. Finally, possible reform proposals will be reviewed, including a purpose-based approach and context-based approach.
The Contribution of Genetic Modification to Changes in Corn Yield in the United States

We use a large, rich dataset compiled from results of university extension trials to estimate the contribution of genetic modification (GM) to changes in corn yield in the United States from timeA to timeB. Through repeated experimental trials, we obtain consistent estimates of the effect of these traits by using both the Hausman-Taylor estimator and a comparison of fixed effects estimates analogous to the agronomic practice of comparing near-isolines. Our results suggest that GM traits had a positive impact on yield, but that gains associated with combining several GM traits in one hybrid are not necessarily additive. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.
FİNANSAL YATIRIM ARAÇLARINDA RİSKE MARUZ DEĞER UYGULAMASI

Risk management has rapidly gained importance as a result of emerging economies, economic recession and globalization. Since available risk management measures seemed to stay insufficient in responding to complex problems, new methods are introduced, creating a need for research on validating them. Among these methods, most commonly applied one is Value at Risk approach that measures maximum possible loss to occur within a certain possibility. The aim of this study is to explore the appropriateness of VaR methods (Variance-Covariance, Historical Simulation and Monte Carlo Simulation Methods). By this aim, we applied these methods to foreign currency index of TL, BIST 100 and BIST 30 indexes and compared the results. Then, the volatility for the last year is calculated by applying Simple Standard Deviation, Simple Moving Average and Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) methods. The accuracy of these models are tested by applying back testing.
Enhanced virulence, airway inflammation and impaired lung function induced by respiratory syncytial virus deficient in secreted G protein

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection can cause bronchial hyperresponsiveness and asthma exacerbations. In mice it results in airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness. Since viral factors influencing these responses are not well defined, a study was undertaken to investigate the role of secreted G protein of human RSV in determining virulence, inflammatory responses, and changes in lung function. Methods: BALB/c mice were infected with a spontaneous mutant of RSV deficient in secreted G protein (RSV-ΔsG) or with wild type RSV (RSV-WT). Viral titres, numbers of pulmonary inflammatory cells, and concentrations of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5 and IL-10 in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were determined. Airway function was assessed at baseline and following methacholine provocation using barometric whole body plethysmography. Result: Following infection with RSV-ΔsG, viral titres were increased 50-fold compared with RSV-WT. Influx of eosinophils and macrophages to the lung and concentrations of IFN-γ and IL-10 in BAL fluid were also significantly higher following infection with RSV-ΔsG. Airway function, both at baseline and after methacholine provocation, was significantly decreased following infection with RSV-ΔsG compared with RSV-WT. Conclusion: Secreted G protein is likely to be a regulatory factor in RSV infection limiting infectivity of the virus, inflammatory responses in the lungs, and reduction in lung function.
CartograTree: connecting tree genomes, phenotypes and environment

Today, researchers spend a tremendous amount of time gathering, formatting, filtering and visualizing data collected from disparate sources. Under the umbrella of forest tree biology, we seek to provide a platform and leverage modern technologies to connect biotic and abiotic data. Our goal is to provide an integrated web‐based workspace that connects environmental, genomic and phenotypic data via geo‐referenced coordinates. Here, we connect the genomic query web‐based workspace, DiversiTree and a novel geographical interface called CartograTree to data housed on the TreeGenes database. To accomplish this goal, we implemented Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol to enable the primary genomics database, TreeGenes, to communicate with semantic web services regardless of platform or back‐end technologies. The novelty of CartograTree lies in the interactive workspace that allows for geographical visualization and engagement of high performance computing (HPC) resources. The application provides a unique tool set to facilitate research on the ecology, physiology and evolution of forest tree species. CartograTree can be accessed at: http://dendrome.ucdavis. edu/cartogratree.
A Survey of Tools Supporting Design and Evaluation of Websites Based on Models of Human Information Interaction

This paper presents and discusses a survey of existing tools to support design and evaluation of websites, with special emphasis on improving the information navigation process. The amount of information of today's websites, the continuous evolution of the medium and the heterogeneity of typical users' profiles, make the website design task particularly hard. The presented tools are mainly based on recent models of Web usage behavior, and involve various natural language and semantic similarity modeling methods. Validation studies of the presented tools have shown that they can support effectively various phases of the website design lifecycle including information structuring, hyperlink evaluation and assessment of alternative designs. In this paper, existing techniques are discussed, the aspects of Web design that (should and) could be better supported are identified and suggestions are made on extensions of existing approaches to better support the usability evaluation process.