Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Erythropoietin for anaemia in haemodialysis patients: results of a maintenance study (the Canadian Erythropoietin Study Group).

Most published studies of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) have been of limited duration and in small patient populations. The present study examines the long-term effects of rHuEpo in 98 haemodialysis patients treated for up to 18 months. All patients had completed a 6 month placebo-controlled study of rHuEpo. Patients previously on placebo (group 1; n = 31) received rHuEpo at an initial dose of 50 U/kg thrice weekly with subsequent dose adjustments to maintain haemoglobin (Hb) in the range 105-120 g/l. Patients previously on rHuEpo (group 2; n = 67) continued on their usual dose with adjustments made to maintain Hb at 105-120 g/l. Haematological parameters were measured every 2 weeks. Quality of life, assessed by a disease-specific kidney disease questionnaire (KDQ), was measured every 6 months. Mean Hb in group 1 increased from 74.2 +/- 11.4 g/l at baseline to 112.9 +/- 12.6 g/l after 12 months of rHuEpo therapy. After 12 weeks of rHuEpo therapy Hb in groups 1 and 2 was indistinguishable. Hb remained constant in both groups throughout the period of follow-up. Mean rHuEpo dose requirements were similar in both groups. At the end of the study the mean intravenous rHuEpo dose in group 1 patients was 176.6 +/- 154.4 and in group 2 patients was 210.0 +/- 144.0 U/kg per week. Access failure was increased during rHuEpo therapy in patients with synthetic grafts (46% versus 7% failures compared to fistulae; P less than 0.001). Group 1 patients receiving rHuEpo had a significant increase in diastolic but not systolic blood pressure despite a 32% increase in overall antihypertensive prescriptions. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Macrostate Parameter, an Econophysics Approach for the Risk Analysis of the Stock Exchange Market Transactions

In this paper we attempt to introduce an econophysics approach to evaluate some aspects of the risks in financial markets. For this purpose, the thermodynamical methods and statistical physics results about entropy and equilibrium states in the physical systems are used. Some considerations on economic value and financial information are made. Finally, on this basis, a new index for the financial risk estimation of the stock-exchange market transactions, named macrostate parameter, was introduced and discussed. Keywords: econophysics, stock-exchange markets, financial risk, informational fascicle, entropy, macrostate parameter.
A novel Online-to-Offline (O2O) model for pre-exposure prophylaxis and HIV testing scale up

Introduction: PrEP awareness and uptake among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TG) in Thailand remains low. Finding ways to increase HIV testing and PrEP uptake among high‐risk groups is a critical priority. This study evaluates the effect of a novel Adam's Love Online‐to‐Offline (O2O) model on PrEP and HIV testing uptake among Thai MSM and TG and identifies factors associated with PrEP uptake.
Cost-Effective Investments in Customer Information Privacy

Extensive personal information is gathered explicitly or implicitly when a customer interacts with a firm. Significant risks are associated with handling such personal information. Providing protection may reduce risk of misuse or loss of private information, but it imposes some costs on the firm and its customers. Risk is associated with improper handling of sensitive customer information. Profits from e-commerce that are earned when there is improper use of private customer information are subject to lawsuits, restitution and other undesirable outcomes. So a firm will want to ensure appropriate privacy protections are in place to safeguard customer information. We present a profit optimization model for customer privacy protection investments considering the potential value implications that arise. We employ a profit-at-risk approach based on value-at-risk methods from financial economics.
Processing emotional facial expressions influences performance on a Go/NoGo task in pediatric anxiety and depression.

BACKGROUND This study investigated whether processing emotionally salient information such as emotional facial expressions influences the performance on a cognitive control task in pediatric anxiety and depression. METHODS The sample included 68 participants between 8 and 16 years of age selected into three diagnostic groups: Anxiety Disorder (ANX, n = 23), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD, n = 19), and Low-Risk Normal Control (LRNC, n = 26). Participants completed an Emotional Go/NoGo task in which participants must either respond to (Go trials) or not respond to (NoGo trials) specific facial expressions (angry, fearful, sad, happy, neutral). In order to manipulate the level of cognitive control needed to perform the task, the probability of occurrence of the Go trials was varied across 3 probability conditions (low, moderate, high). RESULTS Analyses showed that the MDD group had significantly faster reaction times to sad face Go trials embedded in neutral face NoGo trials in the moderate probability condition and that the ANX group had significantly slower reaction times to neutral face Go trials embedded in angry face NoGo trials in the low probability condition. CONCLUSIONS These data demonstrate that processing emotional facial expressions influences the performance on a cognitive control task in children and adolescents diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and major depression.
Hyperspectral Image Classification Based on Nonlinear Spectral–Spatial Network

Recently, for the task of hyperspectral image classification, deep-learning-based methods have revealed promising performance. However, the complex network structure and the time-consuming training process have restricted their applications. In this letter, we construct a much simpler network, i.e., the nonlinear spectral-spatial network (NSSNet), for hyperspectral image classification. NSSNet is developed from the basic structure of a principal component analysis network. Nonlinear information is included in NSSNet, to generate a more discriminative feature expression. Moreover, spectral and spatial features are combined to further improve the classification accuracy. Experimental results indicate that our method achieves better performance than state-of-the-art deep-learning-based methods.
EU Conditionality and Minority Rights: Translating the Copenhagen Criterion into Policy

Human and minorities map an area in which the EU's external relations have pushed for a (partial) rethinking of the EU's internal values, objectives and policies. While minority issues have been at the forefront of the enlargement rhetoric and are often singled out as a prime example of the EU's positive stabilising impact in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the EU has in fact promoted norms which lack a basis in EU law and do not directly translate into the acquis communautaire. The analysis of EU conditionality presented in this paper will proceed in two steps. Firstly, the EU's minority criterion will be 'unpacked' both in terms of its inherent dilemmas and the way in which the EU translated it into an institutional process. Secondly, this paper locates the EU's minority criterion in the domestic political context of three accession countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania) in order to establish the balance between internal and external incentives for policy change and the effectiveness of EU conditionality. The empirical evidence suggests that, on balance, international actors and a vaguely defined European norm framed the debates and perceptions and affected the timing and nature of specific pieces of legislation, while the domestic political constellations and pressures ultimately had a more significant effect on the institutional and policy outcomes.
Function and behavior representation in conceptual mechanical design

Conceptual design seeks to deliver design concepts that implement desired functions. Function and behavior are two dominant terms used in the research of this design phase. However, there are still some fundamental ambiguities and confusions over their representation, which have greatly hindered the interchange of research ideas and the development of design synthesis strategies. For conceptual design of mechanical products specifically, this paper attempts to clarify these ambiguities. It classifies function as purpose function and action function and relates them to the different levels of design hierarchy and abstraction. It distinguishes between semantic and syntactic representations of function and behavior and summarizes basic representation schemes. It also proposes an input–output action transformation scheme for semantic function representation and an input–output flow of action scheme for semantic behavior representation. Based on these discoveries, a refined framework is proposed for conceptual mechanical product design, where a function–decomposition–mapping process is elaborated to demonstrate the necessities and usefulness of the presented work.
Nine paradoxes of problem solving

Purpose – This paper aims to show how a common aspect of complex problems is that they often contain some form of paradox. By addressing the inherent paradox, decision‐makers can better understand and solve complex problems.Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies nine paradoxes that are encountered with surprising frequency in corporate decision making.Findings – The paper finds that learning to recognize the most frequent types of problem‐solving paradoxes and their influence will save leaders some frustration, and perhaps help them and other members of the management team do a better job of navigating their firm's opportunities and challenges.Practical implications – The paper explains why the only way to make truly “rational” decisions is to invent parts of the picture that do not exist because they lie somewhere in the future or beyond our ability to calculate.Originality/value – By identifying nine seemingly illogical paradoxes that often thwart “rational” decision making, and suggesting h.
An Exchange Rate Determination by Portfolio Approach in Korea: Empirical Results

In the late 1960s, the standard model of the foreign exchange market had supply and demand as stable function of exports and imports. However, the period of floating rates that began in the early 1970s has revealed that exchange rates exhibit the volatility of financial market prices. The monetary approach to exchange rate determination had essentially one way causation from money to exchange rates, via purchasing power parity. The exchange rate, in the asset market view, is determined by financial market equilibrium conditions. Initial stock of assets determine temporary equilibrium values for endogenous such as exchange rates. It influences the trade balance and current account. The latter in turn is the rate of accumulation of national claims or liabilities to foreigners, and this feeds back into financial market equilibrium. This study uses a Tobin's financial asset equilibrium framework to test the portfolio balance model of exchange rate determination in Korea. In Branson, Halttunen and Masson (1979), three outside assets were recognized for each country: Ml, cumulated current account, and net government debt. Their exchange rate equation excluded the two government debts. In Dornbush (1980), there was only one asset whose unexpected, movement had impact on exchange rate movement and it was the net stock of foreign assets held by residents. In this study, we limit our specification to the outside assets of the two countries (Korea-U.S.A.) under consideration. A small country like Korea is one whose bonds are not held by non-residents and which has no impact on the foreign inter est rate. This mean that the accumulation of foreign financial assets is done through the
Industrial mmWave Radar Sensor in Embedded Wafer-Level BGA Packaging Technology

We present highly integrated 60-GHz radar transceivers for industrial sensor applications. The bistatic and monostatic transceivers are implemented in the SiGe bipolar technology and packaged using the embedded wafer-level ball grid array technology that allows for direct embedding of the antennas in the package redistribution layer. In this way, very compact and efficient radar frontends comprising all millimeterwave components can be implemented in an 8 × 8 mm2 package. These frontends were soldered on a standard low-cost printed circuit board based on FR4 material. For verification of the proposed frontends, an frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar system was developed and set up within this paper. Theoretical considerations and simulations as well as corresponding measurements were carried out for the evaluation of the designed system. The demonstrator results of these embedded radar sensors show an excellent system performance at a high integration level.
Wavelet theory and its applications in economics and finance

Wavelets orthogonally decompose data into different frequency components, and the temporal and frequency information of the data could be studied simultaneously. This analysis belongs within local nature analysis. Wavelets are therefore useful for managing time-varying characteristics found in most real-world time series and are an ideal tool for studying non-stationary or transient time series while avoiding the assumption of stationarity. Given the promising properties of wavelets, this thesis thoroughly discusses wavelet theory and adds three new applications of wavelets in economic and financial fields, providing new insights into three interesting phenomena. The second chapter introduces wavelet theory in detail and presents a thorough survey of the economic and financial applications of wavelets. In the third chapter, wavelets are applied in time series to extract business cycles or trend. They are useful for capturing the changing volatility of business cycles. The extracted business cycles and trend are linearly independent. We provide detailed comparisons with four alternative filters, including two of each detrending filters and bandpass filters. The result shows that wavelets are a good alternative filter for extracting business cycles or trend based on multiresolution wavelet analysis. The fourth chapter distinguishes contagion and interdependence. To achieve this purpose, we define contagion as a significant increase in short-run market commovement after a shock to one market. Following the application of wavelets to 27 global representative markets’ daily stock-return data series from 1996.1 to 1997.12, a multivariate GARCH model and a Granger-causality methodology are used on the results of wavelets to generate short-run pair-wise contemporaneous correlations and lead-lag relationships, respectively, both of which are involved in short-run relationships. The empirical evidence reveals no significant increase in interdependence during the financial crisis; contagion is just an illusion of interdependence. In addition, the evidence explains the phenomenon in which major negative events in global markets began to occur one month after the outbreak of the crisis. The view that contagion is regional is not supported. The fifth chapter studies how macroeconomic news announcements affect the U.S. stock market and how market participants’ responses to announcements vary over the business cycle. The arrival of scheduled macroeconomic announcements in the U.S. stock market leads to a two-stage adjustment process for prices and trading transactions. In a short first stage, the release of a news announcement induces a sharp and nearly instantaneous price change along with a rise in trading transactions. In a prolonged second stage, it causes significant and persistent increases in price volatility and trading transactions within about an hour. After allowing for different stages of the business cycle, we demonstrate that the release of a news announcement induces larger immediate price changes per interval in the…
The transcriptionally competent U2 gene is necessary and sufficient for adenovirus type 12 induction of the fragile site at 17q21-22

Adenovirus type 12 induces four fragile sites upon infection of human cells. The U2 locus, consisting of up to 20 tandem repeats of a 5.8-kbp monomer, maps at the most sensitive of these sites at 17q21-22. We have previously shown that an artificial U2 locus integrated into the human genome generates a new virus-induced fragile site. To determine which elements within the U2 monomer are responsible for fragility, we constructed loci consisting of tandem repeats of subfragments of the U2 monomer. With this approach, we demonstrate that a transcriptionally competent U2 gene is necessary and sufficient for virus-induced fragility and that no other element within the 5.8-kbp monomer contributes to this effect.
The Dynamic Rybczynski Theorem and Its Dual

In the context of capital accumulation, it is shown that there exists a dynamic version of the Rybczynski Theorem, and of the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem. If, in addition, the investment good is labour intensive, then a dynamic reciprocity relation is also obtained. In the case where the investment good is capital intensive, only a weak form of duality between the two theorems can be established. The paper makes use of the dynamic envelope results of Caputo, and of Lafrance and Barney.
Current concepts in stem cell therapy for articular cartilage repair

Introduction: Hyaline articular cartilage is the connective tissue responsible for frictionless joint movement. Its degeneration ultimately results in complete loss of joint function in the late stages of osteoarthritis. Intrinsic repair is compromised, and cartilage tissue regeneration is difficult. However, new options are available to repair cartilage tissue by applying ESCs, MSCs and CPCs. Areas covered: In this review, the authors shed light on the different concepts currently under investigation for cartilage repair. Expert opinion: So far, there is no way to derive a chondrogenic lineage from stem cells that forms functional hyaline cartilage tissue in vivo. One alternative might be to enhance the chondrogenic potential of repair cells, which are already present in diseased cartilage tissue. CPCs found in diseased cartilage tissue in situ are biologically driven toward the osteochondrogenic lineage and can be directed toward chondrogenesis at least in vitro.
A State‐Price Volatility Index for China's Stock Market

This study derives a volatility index for China's stock market with similar properties to the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (the ‘VIX’). A long-term benchmark of historic volatility expectations is here presented for China from 1996 to 2011, called the ‘China- State-Price Volatility (SPV)’. Construction of this index involves the use of SPV methodology, using implied volatility calculated from options on the Hang Seng China Enterprise Index (HSCEI). Historic open–high–low–close volatility on the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCI) is also used to extend the benchmark prior to the availability of HSCEI options data. The China-SPV successfully forecasts realised volatility for the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It also serves as a ‘fear gauge’ in that it monitors daily movements of the SHCI in the same way that the VIX monitors the S&P 500 index (Whaley, 2009). The China-SPV evidences an increasing relation with the US market in terms of the dynamic correlation of levels and changes with the VIX since 2004.
The Subsidy from State and Local Tax Deductibility: Trends, Methodological Issues, and its Value after Federal Tax Reform

Even though the momentum of the "devolution" movement has slowed, federal intergovernmental grants will probably be cut substantially during the next five to ten years. Federal tax reform could further erode federal assistance by eliminating the deduction for state and local personal income and property taxes. This deduction subsidizes the net cost to taxpayers of financing an additional dollar of state and local spending. In the language of economics, deductibility reduces the marginal "tax price" of state and local public goods. This paper clarifies methodological issues in the estimation of this tax price, updates estimates of tax price by state, and evaluates the impact of state and local taxes on the level and dispersion of state-specific tax prices. The paper argues that previous estimates of tax reflect assumptions, often implicit, concerning the distribution of influence among consumers over the level of public goods provided by a given jurisdiction. These assumptions, often implicit, do not always square with the estimators' preferred theory concerning how the level of public goods is determined. Even when they do, they fail to take into account the deductibility of state and local business taxes from federal taxable profits. The estimates provided in this paper attempt to address these two problems.
Mind the Cap

Market models of interest rates are based on the decomposition of the yield curve into a set of discrete forward rates. In this article, I analyse the implications for non-canonical caplets in the framework of a Libor market model in the presence of deterministic funding spreads against the stochastically evolved market rates which are subject to a user-controlled skew of implied volatilities generated by a displaced diffusion process.
Small-Denomination Banknotes in Antebellum America

speculators went to the banks, borrowed five, ten, twenty, fifty thousand dollars in paper, in small notes, usually under twenty dollars, and engaged to carry these notes off to a great distance, sometimes five hundred or a thousand miles; . many of these small notes would never return at all, and their loss would be a gain to the bank; others would not return for a long time; and the bank would draw interest on them for years before they had to redeem them. Thomas Hart Benton, 1854
The Theory‐Practice Gap in Capital Budgeting: Evidence from the United Kingdom

We report the results of a survey of capital budgeting techniques used by United Kingdom firms. Where possible, the evidence is combined with data collected over a 22 year period to provide a basis for the discussion of causes of trends. We observe that there has been a substantial narrowing of the theory-practice gap in the use of project appraisal methods. The gap has also narrowed in other areas: the analysis of risk, inflation adjustment, capital budget preparation, WACC calculation and post-auditing. However, there are other elements of capital budgeting theory, e.g. probability and beta analysis which have been adopted by very few practising managers. We also discuss non-economic projects, capital rationing and hurdle rates. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2000.
Keep on moving! Exploring anthropomorphic effects of motion during idle moments

In this paper, we explored the effect of a robot's subconscious gestures made during moments when idle (also called adaptor gestures) on anthropomorphic perceptions of five year old children. We developed and sorted a set of adaptor motions based on their intensity. We designed an experiment involving 20 children, in which they played a memory game with two robots. During moments of idleness, the first robot showed adaptor movements, while the second robot moved its head following basic face tracking. Results showed that the children perceived the robot displaying adaptor movements to be more human and friendly. Moreover, these traits were found to be proportional to the intensity of the adaptor movements. For the range of intensities tested, it was also found that adaptor movements were not disruptive towards the task. These findings corroborate the fact that adaptor movements improve the affective aspect of child-robot interactions (CRI) and do not interfere with the child's performances in the task, making them suitable for CRI in educational contexts.