Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Who's Going Broke? Comparing Growth in Healthcare Costs in Ten OECD Countries

Government healthcare expenditures have been growing much more rapidly than GDP in OECD countries. For example, between 1970 and 2002 these expenditures grew 2.3 times faster than GDP in the U.S., 2.0 times faster than GDP in Germany, and 1.4 times faster than GDP in Japan. How much of government healthcare expenditure growth is due to demographic change and how much is due to increases in benefit levels; i.e., in healthcare expenditures per beneficiary at a given age? This paper answers this question for ten OECD countries -- Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S. Specifically, the paper decomposes the 1970-2002 growth in each countrys healthcare expenditures into growth in benefit levels and changes in demographics. Growth in real benefit levels has been remarkably high and explains the lions share %uF818 89 percent %uF818 of overall healthcare spending growth in the ten countries. Norway, Spain, and the U.S. recorded the highest annual benefit growth rates. Norways rate averaged 5.04 percent per year. Spain and the U.S. were close behind with rates of 4.63 percent and 4.61 percent, respectively. Allowing benefit levels to continue to grow at historic rates is fraught with danger given the impending retirement of the baby boom generation. In Japan, for example, maintaining its 1970-2002 benefit growth rate of 3.57 percent for the next 40 years and letting benefits grow thereafter only with labor productivity entails present value healthcare expenditures close to 12 percent of the present value of GDP. By comparison, Japans government is now spending only 6.7 percent of Japans current output on healthcare. In the U.S., government healthcare spending now totals 6.6 percent of GDP. But if the U.S. lets benefits grow for the next four decades at past rates, it will end up spending almost 18 percent of its future GDP on healthcare. The difference between the Japanese 12 percent and U.S. 18 percent figures is remarkable given that Japan is already much older than the U.S. and will age more rapidly in the coming decades. Although healthcare spending is growing at unsustainable rates in most, if not all, OECD countries, the U.S. appears least able to control its benefit growth due to the nature of its fee-for-service healthcare payment system. Consequently, the U.S. may well be in the worst long-term fiscal shape of any OECD country even though it is now and will remain very young compared to the majority of its fellow OECD members.
Simulation of Intra-Amniotic Infection and the Fetal Inflammatory Response in a Novel Ex-vivo Human Umbilical Cord Perfusion Model

Objective: We aimed to design and test an ex-vivo human umbilical cord (HUC) perfusion model simulating a fetal inflammatory response (FIR) during intra-amniotic infection. Study Design: A 2-chamber model was designed to accommodate 2 pieces of umbilical cord. Cord perfusion was performed with placental blood. Intra-amniotic exposure to infectious organisms was simulated by adding lipopolysaccharide to the artificial amniotic fluid (AAF) compartment. As a measure of inflammatory response, we used interleukin 8 (IL-8) concentration in AAF and plasma by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for statistical analysis. Results: We established a stable physiological setup. Results revealed significantly elevated plasma IL-8 concentrations (n = 6, P < .05) in the blood compartment of umbilical cords exposed to lipopolysaccharide. Concentrations within AAF were not significantly elevated (n = 6, P = .3095). Conclusion: Simulation of a FIR in an ex-vivo model of HUC perfusion under physiological conditions is possible. Further work is necessary to establish histological funisitis.
Social phobia symptoms, subtypes, and severity: findings from a community survey.

OBJECTIVES Our goals were (1) to ascertain the range of functional impairment attributable to social phobia in a community sample, and (2) to verify the existence of social phobia subtypes in the community, and report on their relative prevalence, severity, and levels of impairment. METHODS Community surveys were conducted contemporaneously in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in Alberta, with a total of 1956 respondents. Instruments included the Comprehensive International Diagnostic Interview-Version 2.1 module for DSM-IV social phobia, enhanced with 6 additional (for a total of 12) social phobic situational probes to provide a more comprehensive assessment of possible subtypes, and additional questions about specific functional impairment due to social phobia. RESULTS Of those persons in the community surveyed, most had no (60.4%) or few (ie, 1-3) (27.8%) social fears; few persons (3.4%) had many (ie, >/=7). Among those with DSM-IV social phobia (7.2%), classification based on number (normally distributed with median of 3, mode of 5) or content (eg, speaking-only vs other fears; performance-only vs interactional fears) of social fears failed to yield a defensible subtyping solution. Impairment increased linearly as the number of social fears was increased, with no clear threshold evident. CONCLUSIONS Social phobia is associated with substantial impairment in multiple functional domains. Support for subtyping based on the extent or pattern of social fears was not provided. Rather, social phobia in the community seems to exist on a continuum of severity, with a greater number of feared situations associated with greater disability.
Copula contagion index and its efficiency

A Copula Contagion Index (CCI) is established to measure financial contagion, based on the time-varying copula function. Empirical studies performed on the crisis spillover of US Subprime Mortgage Crisis demonstrate the efficiency of CCI. The empirical results from event study, change-point analysis, logitistic/probit regressions and the detection of the lead–lag relations by Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner (BEKK)-Vector Autoregressive (VAR)-Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH) model show that, the index is efficient in detecting the financial contagions. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the index is robust. Besides, empirical results indicate that the developed markets rather than the emerging markets suffered more severely and quickly from the US subprime mortgage crisis.
Investigation on Cell Selection Methods Associated with Inter-cell Interference Coordination in Heterogeneous Networks for LTE-Advanced Downlink

In LTE-Advanced, a heterogeneous network where femtocells and picocells overlaid onto macrocells is extensively discussed in addition to traditional well-planned macrocell deployment to improve further the system throughput. In heterogeneous network deployment, cell selection as well as intercell interference coordination (ICIC) is very important to improve the system and cell-edge throughput. Therefore, this paper investigates three cell selection methods associated with ICIC in heterogeneous networks in the LTE-Advanced downlink: signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio (SINR)-based cell selection, reference signal received power (RSRP)-based cell selection, and reference signal received quality (RSRQ)-based cell selection. Simulation results (4 pico eNodeBs and 25 set of user equipment are uniformly located within 1 macro eNodeB) assuming full buffer model show that the downlink cell and cell-edge user throughput levels of RSRP-based cell selection are degraded by approximately 3% and 10% compared to those of SINR-based cell selection under the condition of the maximizing the cell-edge user throughput due to the impairment of the interference level. Furthermore, it is shown that the downlink cell-edge user throughput of RSRQ-based cell selection is improved approximately 5%, although the cell throughput is degraded approximately 5% compared to that for SINR-based cell selection under the condition of the maximizing the cell-edge user throughput.
Research Statement of David Galvin , July 31 , 2012

The main thrust of my research is the use of techniques from information theory, probability and combinatorics to study structural, enumerative and algorithmic aspects of graph homomorphisms and related models, both in particular instances (independent sets and colorings, for example) and in general. Graph homomorphisms are important objects in graph theory, where they generalize a number of central and apparently unconnected notions, and allow for their common study. In statistical physics, they provide a natural language for the study of an important class of models, the hard-constraint spin systems. Graph homomorphisms also arise naturally in the study of communication networks. In what follows I will explain the notions just mentioned, and then describe my most important results. Broadly, the main questions I answer fall into three classes: • Structural: describing the typical appearance of a randomly chosen homomorphism, a question which relates directly to the important ones of Gibbs measures in statistical physics models and spatial unfairness in communication networks. • Algorithmic: studying how efficiently one may sample from the space of homomorphisms, a significant question from a theoretical computer science perspective. • Enumerative: counting or asymptotically estimating the number of elements in a space of homomorphisms, a source of many fascinating problems and a burgeoning research area in discrete mathematics. As will be seen in what follows, these questions are intimately interrelated.
HMM topology selection for on-line Thai handwriting recognition

Researchers have extensively applied hidden Markov models (HMM) to handwriting recognition in English, Chinese, and other languages. Most researchers have used left-right topology for handwriting and speech recognition. This research studied the effect of HMM topology on isolated online Thai handwriting recognition. The left-right, fully connected and proposed topologies (left-right-left) were compared. The number of states of a character HMM for each topology was varied from 15 to 35 nodes and the one with the best training observations probability was selected. The feature used was chain code-like with modifications to represent original quadrant position. The recognition results showed that the proposed topology increases the recognition rate compared to the most widely used left-right topology.
Monopolistic Competition and Deviations from PPP

The purpose of this paper is to explain deviations from PPP in an economy charaterived by a mononolistic competitive market structure in which pricing decisions incur costs. That lead producers to pre-set the price path for several periods. The paper derives an optimal pricing rule, including the optimal pre-setting horizon. It does so for a rational expectation equilibrium, characterized by staggered, unsynchronized price setting, for which the degree of staggering is endogenously determined. The discussion focuses on the critical role of the degree of domestic-foreign goods substitutability in explaining observable deviations from PPP.
The Uniqueness of Nonprofit Finance and the Decision to Borrow

Previous studies of nonprofit capital structure (borrowing relative to assets) support contradictory decision models of borrowing, but with no control for an endowment effect, which this article shows to be an important factor in the decision to borrow. Well-endowed nonprofits borrow more relative to their physical assets. When endowment and investment income are backed out of the data, nonprofits are seen to optimize the balance between debt and physical assets.
Exercise neuroprotection in a rat model of binge alcohol consumption.

BACKGROUND Excessive alcohol intake produces structural and functional deficits in corticolimbic pathways that are thought to underlie cognitive deficits in the alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Animal models of binge alcohol administration support the direct link of high levels of alcohol consumption and neurotoxicity in the hippocampus and surrounding cortex. In contrast, voluntary wheel running enhances hippocampal neurogenesis and generally promotes the health of neurons. METHODS We investigated whether voluntary exercise prior to binge alcohol exposure could protect against alcohol-induced cell loss. Female Long-Evans rats exercised voluntarily for 14 days before undergoing 4 days of binge alcohol consumption. Brains were harvested immediately after the last dose of alcohol and examined for various histological markers of neurodegeneration, including both cell death (FluoroJade B) and cell birth (Ki67) markers. RESULTS Rats that exercised prior to binge exposure were significantly less behaviorally intoxicated, which was not a result of enhanced hepatic metabolism. Rats that exercised prior to binge alcohol consumption had reduced loss of dentate gyrus granule cells and fewer FluoroJade B positive cells in the dentate gyrus and associated entorhinal-perirhinal cortex compared to nonexercisers. However, exercise did not protect against cell death in the piriform cortex nor protect against alcohol-induced decreases in cell proliferation, evidenced by a similar alcohol-induced reduction in Ki67 labeled cells between exercise and sedentary rats. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that exercise can reduce behavioral sensitivity to ethanol intoxication and protect vulnerable brain areas from alcohol-induced cell death. Exercise neuroprotection of alcohol-induced brain damage has important implications in understanding the neurobiology of the AUDs as well as in developing novel treatment strategies.
The Impact of Capital Expenditure on Working Capital Management of Listed Firms (Karachi Stock Exchange) in Pakistan

The present study was conducted to examine the impact of capital expenditure on working capital management. For the study, 109 firms have been selected from eight different sectors, listed on Pakistan Karachi stock market. Data for the study is retrieved from the balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements of these firms from 2006 to 2010. The website of State Bank of Pakistan was used for this purpose. The Shulman and Cox’s (1985) working capital requirements and the net liquidity balance methodology as proxy of working capital measurement is used for analysis. The results conclude that a positive and highly significant relationship exists between the working capital requirements and capital expenditure. On the other hand, the net liquidity balance and capital expenditure has significant but negative relationship. Overall the results suggest that theworking capital management affect the liquidity and profitability of firms and it is also responsible for the success and failure of firms.
The Starburst – AGN Connection: a Critical Review

Abstract Nuclear activity and star formation processes represent two key elements in the evolution of galaxies across the cosmic ages. In spite of very different physical backgrounds, several arguments suggest that they should be closely connected. On the basis of simple theoretical considerations, the transport of appreciable amounts of fuel to the AGN scale is very likely to trigger star formation in the gas. Young stellar populations, in their turn, are expected to affect the properties of the interstellar medium, leading to a complex balance of interactions among nuclear activity and star formation. This scenario is also supported by the observation of super-massive black holes and host galaxy properties, which strongly suggest a common evolutionary track. However, despite several years of extensive investigation, the relationship among the two processes still has to be properly explained. Here we provide a review of some of the most important observations, which are relevant to the issue of the connection among AGN and starburst events. Based on a wide sample of observations, we present an analysis of the spectral signatures connected with AGN and star formation activity. Expanding the concept of the distinction among star forming galaxies and the true active nuclei, we provide systematic evidence for a role of recent starburst events in the circum-nuclear regions of active galaxies and discuss the possibility of its influence onto the AGN environment. We also analyze the age, mass and metallicity properties of star-forming and active galaxies, illustrating that they are arranged in a sequence that is consistent with the identified relation.
The selection of friendly take‐over targets in the UK: some empirical evidence

The vast majority of the acquisitions of UK‐quoted companies are friendly. This paper compares the accounting, financial and governance characteristics of firms that were acquired by friendly take‐over with those of firms that were not taken over. Evidence is found that targets exhibited superior performance in terms of the return on assets and the sales‐to‐assets ratio. However, they underperformed in terms of capital expenditure and the market‐to‐book ratio. No difference was found in the extent to which targets adopted the board structures recommended in the Code of Best Practice. The results therefore suggest that acquirers target firms that are relatively undervalued by the capital market but do not show signs of poor profitability or ineffective board structures.
Faunal turnover of marine tetrapods during the Jurassic–Cretaceous transition

Marine and terrestrial animals show a mosaic of lineage extinctions and diversifications during the Jurassic–Cretaceous transition. However, despite its potential importance in shaping animal evolution, few palaeontological studies have focussed on this interval and the possible climate and biotic drivers of its faunal turnover. In consequence evolutionary patterns in most groups are poorly understood. We use a new, large morphological dataset to examine patterns of lineage diversity and disparity (variety of form) in the marine tetrapod clade Plesiosauria, and compare these patterns with those of other organisms. Although seven plesiosaurian lineages have been hypothesised as crossing the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary, our most parsimonious topology suggests the number was only three. The robust recovery of a novel group including most Cretaceous plesiosauroids (Xenopsaria, new clade) is instrumental in this result. Substantial plesiosaurian turnover occurred during the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary interval, including the loss of substantial pliosaurid, and cryptoclidid diversity and disparity, followed by the radiation of Xenopsaria during the Early Cretaceous. Possible physical drivers of this turnover include climatic fluctuations that influenced oceanic productivity and diversity: Late Jurassic climates were characterised by widespread global monsoonal conditions and increased nutrient flux into the opening Atlantic‐Tethys, resulting in eutrophication and a highly productive, but taxonomically depauperate, plankton. Latest Jurassic and Early Cretaceous climates were more arid, resulting in oligotrophic ocean conditions and high taxonomic diversity of radiolarians, calcareous nannoplankton and possibly ammonoids. However, the observation of discordant extinction patterns in other marine tetrapod groups such as ichthyosaurs and marine crocodylomorphs suggests that clade‐specific factors may have been more important than overarching extrinsic drivers of faunal turnover during the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary interval.
Variation in Resistance of Natural Isolates ofEscherichia coli O157 to High Hydrostatic Pressure, Mild Heat, and Other Stresses

ABSTRACT Strains of Escherichia coli O157 isolated from patients with clinical cases of food-borne illness and other sources exhibited wide differences in resistance to high hydrostatic pressure. The most pressure-resistant strains were also more resistant to mild heat than other strains. Strain C9490, a representative pressure-resistant strain, was also more resistant to acid, oxidative, and osmotic stresses than the pressure-sensitive strain NCTC 12079. Most of these differences in resistance were observed only in stationary-phase cells, the only exception being acid resistance, where differences were also apparent in the exponential phase. Membrane damage in pressure-treated cells was revealed by increased uptake of the fluorescent dyes ethidium bromide and propidium iodide. When strains were exposed to the same pressure for different lengths of time, the pressure-sensitive strains took up stain sooner than the more resistant strain, which suggested that the differences in resistance may be related to susceptibility to membrane damage. Our results emphasize the importance of including stress-resistant strains of E. coli O157 when the efficacy of a novel or mild food preservation treatment is tested.
Melatonin improves cerebral circulation security margin in rats

Régrigny, Olivier, Philippe Delagrange, Elizabeth Scalbert, Jeffrey Atkinson, and Isabelle LartaudIdjouadiene. Melatonin improves cerebral circulation security margin in rats. Am. J. Physiol. 275 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 44): H139–H144, 1998. —Because melatonin is a cerebral vasoconstrictor agent, we tested whether it could shift the lower limit of cerebral blood flow autoregulation to a lower pressure level, by improving the cerebrovascular dilatory reserve, and thus widen the security margin. Cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular resistance were measured by hydrogen clearance in the frontal cortex of adult male Wistar rats. The cerebrovasodilatory reserve was evaluated from the increase in the cerebral blood flow under hypercapnia. The lower limit of cerebral blood flow autoregulation was evaluated from the fall in cerebral blood flow following hypotensive hemorrhage. Rats received melatonin infusions of 60, 600, or 60,000 ng·kg21 ·h21, a vehicle infusion, or no infusion (n 5 9 rats per group). Melatonin induced concentration-dependent cerebral vasoconstriction (up to 25% of the value for cerebrovascular resistance of the vehicle group). The increase in vasoconstrictor tone was accompanied by an improvement in the vasodilatory response to hypercapnia (150 to 1100% vs. vehicle) and by a shift in the lower limit of cerebral blood flow autoregulation to a lower mean arterial blood pressure level (from 90 to 50 mmHg). Because melatonin had no effect on baseline mean arterial blood pressure, the decrease in the lower limit of cerebral blood flow autoregulation led to an improvement in the cerebrovascular security margin (from 17% in vehicle to 30, 55, and 55% in the low-, medium-, and high-dose melatonin groups, respectively). This improvement in the security margin suggests that melatonin could play an important role in the regulation of cerebral blood flow and may diminish the risk of hypoperfusion-induced cerebral ischemia.
The challenge to the liberal vision of universities in Africa

This chapter is a critical discussion of the World Bank paper "Higher Education: The Lessons of Experience" which was released in July 1994 . Court finds that the economic orientation of the paper disturbs the core notion of the university. Values and knowledge creation, particularly through independent and basic research, are still critically important in order to develop the African continent as a " creator of science and technology and not simply a consumer of imported versions. " This is seen in contrast to reinforcing the attachment of universities to the market and thereby the continued dependence on Western knowledge generation. Institutional differentiation, diversification of funding, and private sector participation have, according to Court , replaced earlier key concerns of access, equity and relevance.