Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of moderate alcohol consumption on adiponectin, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and insulin sensitivity.

OBJECTIVE Epidemiological studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumers have enhanced insulin sensitivity and a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Adiponectin, an adipocyte-derived plasma protein, has been found to be negatively associated with adiposity and positively associated with insulin sensitivity. Moderate alcohol consumption may increase adiponectin, which in turn causes a decrease of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. A decreased TNF-alpha level may consequently increase insulin sensitivity. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS To test this hypothesis, we performed a randomized crossover partially diet-controlled study. A total of 23 healthy middle-aged male subjects consumed daily four glasses of whisky (40 g ethanol) or tap water with dinner during two successive periods of 17 days. RESULTS Moderate alcohol consumption increased plasma adiponectin level (11%; P = 0.0002) but did not affect plasma TNF-alpha level. An increase in insulin sensitivity index was observed in an insulin-resistant subgroup (21%; P = 0.11), which positively correlated with the relative alcohol-induced increase in plasma adiponectin level (r = 0.73, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS The experimental results are in agreement with observational data. Moderate alcohol consumption improved insulin sensitivity in relatively insulin-resistant middle-aged men, an effect that may be mediated through alcohol-induced increases in adiponectin.
The Impact of Government Expenditure on the Greek Government Debt: An Econometric Analysis

Sovereign debt crisis in advanced economies keep increasing and its government are implementing fiscal policies to reduce it. Greece is an example of a country whose government debt is a matter of grave concern since it has received the second bailout but still threatens to default. The main aim of this study is determine the impact of government expenditures and government incomes on government debt. This paper estimates the effect of government expenditure on debt in Greece via the vector error correction model framework and granger causality model with annual data from 1976 to 2011 which was collected from the World Development Indicators, European Commission data base and the International Monetary Fund. Vector Error correction Model framework is used to estimate our model and Vector Autoregression Granger causality to determine the direction of causation.The results show a significant negative relationship between gross government debt and gross national income as well as gross government debt and net foreign direct investment. A significant positive relationship is found between gross government debt and gross national expenditure and gross government debt and inflation. The past values of gross national expenditure and gross national income have a predictive ability in determining the present value of gross government debt and not vice versa. Knowing this effects will help policy makers of these countries and the world at larger to revisit its fiscal policy in order to reduce its debt and sustain it. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013. v4n3p323
The Determinants Of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: Evidence From China

Employing the content analysis approach, this paper aims to identify the determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) in China using the annual reports of over 800 A-share listed firms on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. We find that CSRD is positively associated with firm size, media exposure, share ownership concentration and institutional shareholding. Moreover, firms in High-Profile environmentally sensitive industries tend to disclose more corporate social responsibility (CSR) information than those in Low-Profile environmentally sensitive industries, supporting the view that political cost is the primary constraint for Chinese listed firms. Our results provide important insights for academics interested in the CSR issue in emerging economies, for enterprise managers interested in exploiting the annual reports as a strategy to legitimize their corporate social conduct, and for government regulators committed to improving CSR activities and information disclosure.
Checks and Balances on Political Budget Cycles: Cross-Country Evidence

Previous empirical work on political budget cycles (PBCs) implicitly assumes the executive has full discretion over fiscal policy. Instead, we ask what happens when legislative checks and balances limit executive discretion. We find that legislative checks and balances moderate PBCs in countries with high compliance with the law. More effective checks and balances help to explain why cycles are weaker in developed countries and in established democracies. When the discretional component of executive power is isolated, there are significant cycles in all democracies.
Applying the ISO 9001 process approach and service blueprint to hospital management systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to integrate the ISO 9001:2008 and blueprints by using a process approach, to have systematic regulation in hospital quality management.Design/methodology/approach – This study promotes a process approach when developing, implementing, and improving the effectiveness of hospital service quality to enhance patients’ satisfaction by meeting their requirements. This study completes the hospital’s blueprints with the process approach by using case study research methods such as in‐depth interviews with relevant personnel, on‐site observations, and experts’ advice.Findings – The results of hospital blueprints described in this study comprise five‐plane lines to have systematic regulations. The ISO 9001:2008 process approach and service blueprint are not merely a technological application for medical healthcare services, but rather a fully patient‐driven, technologically integrated, and diligently implemented programme.Practical limitations – Because of organisational fina.
Heterogeneous Beliefs, Option Prices, and Volatility Smiles

In an economy in which investors with different time preferences have heterogeneous beliefs about a dividend's mean growth rate, the volatility of the stock that claims the dividend is stochastic in equilibrium. The prices of the vanilla European options that are written on this stock admit closed-form solutions, hence their hedging deltas. The Black-Scholes implied volatility surface exhibits the observed patterns that are widely documented in various options markets and depends on the wealth distribution, investors' beliefs, and subjective discount rates. In addition, the prices of barrier options and hedging deltas can be approximated at any desired level of accuracy. In some cases, barrier and one-touch option prices and their hedging deltas can be closely bounded by closed-form formulae. In summary, the options pricing model that is developed in this paper not only offers a rationale for the observed implied volatility patterns in an equilibrium setting but also is easy to use in practice. The model is calibrated to S&P 500 index options daily from 1996 to 2006. The model fits the data pretty well and outperforms trader rules in the terms of out-of-sample valuation errors.
O Princípio do Sacrifício Eqüitativo no Sistema Tributário Brasileiro

This article investigates, by means of the model developed for Young (1990), if the direct, indirect and total tributes in Brazil respect the principle of the equal sacrifice. In all the scenes originated in the present analysis, as much the observed indirect tributes how much the total tributes present aliquot higher of the one than the estimates on the low income families, to the step that the aliquot ones observed of such categories of tributes are below of that they would have for the families richest when taken in consideration the principle of the equal sacrifice. This confirmation is valid in such a way for the tax structure current how much for the effective one in middle of the decade of 1970. The results show that the Brazilian tax system does not respect the capacity of payment of the families, fact that contributes for the maintenance of the indices of concentration of income in landings elevated
Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor Protects Retinal Ganglion Cells from Secondary Cell Death During Acute Autoimmune Optic Neuritis in Rats

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the CNS which leads to demyelination, axonal destruction and neuronal loss in the early stages. Available therapies mainly target the inflammatory component of the disease but fail to prevent neurodegeneration. To investigate the effect of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) on the survival of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the neurons that form the axons of the optic nerve, we used a rat model of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein‐induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Optic neuritis in this model was diagnosed by recording visual evoked potentials, and RGC function was monitored by measuring electroretinograms. This study demonstrates that CNTF has a neuroprotective effect on affected RGCs during acute optic neuritis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that CNTF exerts its neuroprotective effect through activation of the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription pathway, mitogen activated protein kinases and a shift in the Bcl‐2 family of proteins towards the anti‐apoptotic side. In summary, our results demonstrate that CNTF can serve as an effective neuroprotective treatment in a rat model of MS that especially reflects the neurodegenerative aspects of this disease.
Mental illness and suicidality after Hurricane Katrina.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the impact of Hurricane Katrina on mental illness and suicidality by comparing results of a post-Katrina survey with those of an earlier survey. METHODS The National Comorbidity Survey-Replication, conducted between February 2001 and February 2003, interviewed 826 adults in the Census Divisions later affected by Hurricane Katrina. The post-Katrina survey interviewed a new sample of 1043 adults who lived in the same area before the hurricane. Identical questions were asked about mental illness and suicidality. The post-Katrina survey also assessed several dimensions of personal growth that resulted from the trauma (for example, increased closeness to a loved one, increased religiosity). Outcome measures used were the K6 screening scale of serious mental illness and mild-moderate mental illness and questions about suicidal ideation, plans and attempts. FINDINGS Respondents to the post-Katrina survey had a significantly higher estimated prevalence of serious mental illness than respondents to the earlier survey (11.3% after Katrina versus 6.1% before; chi(2)1= 10.9; P < 0.001) and mild-moderate mental illness (19.9% after Katrina versus 9.7% before; chi(2)1 = 22.5; P < 0.001). Among respondents estimated to have mental illness, though, the prevalence of suicidal ideation and plans was significantly lower in the post-Katrina survey (suicidal ideation 0.7% after Katrina versus 8.4% before; chi(2)1 = 13.1; P < 0.001; plans for suicide 0.4% after Katrina versus 3.6% before; chi(2)1 = 6.0; P = 0.014). This lower conditional prevalence of suicidality was strongly related to two dimensions of personal growth after the trauma (faith in one's own ability to rebuild one's life, and realization of inner strength), without which between-survey differences in suicidality were insignificant. CONCLUSION Despite the estimated prevalence of mental illness doubling after Hurricane Katrina, the prevalence of suicidality was unexpectedly low. The role of post-traumatic personal growth in ameliorating the effects of trauma-related mental illness on suicidality warrants further investigation.
Isolation of an Antihistaminic Principle Resembling Tomatine from Crown Gall Tumors

Antihistaminic activity was demonstrated previously in extracts of crown gall tumors by assaying in vivo. A crystalline substance isolated from the crude extracts has now been found to possess a high degree of potency against histamine, acetylcholine, bradykinin, and serotonin when assayed in vitro. The chemical characteristics of the substance resemble closely those of tomatine. When tomatine was investigated, it was found to have biological properties similar to those of the crystalline substances isolated from crown gall tumors. It seems likely that the antihistaminic properties of crown-gall tumor extracts are due to tomatine or a substance which closely resembles it.
Determinants of Subjective Wellbeing in Lithuania

The article analyses relation between subjective well – being (SWB) expressed as general satisfaction with life and its possible micro level determinants. Many studies have been published that relate macro level determinants (such as GDP or unemployment level) with aggregated national level of SWB. There is a vast amount of economic literature which analyses few or even single demographic, socio-economic, social and attitudinal/cultural variables that influence life satisfaction at an individual level. But it is a rare case that study is done on a rich data set that includes all the aforementioned variables in a single analysis and is nationally representative. Moreover, there is no thorough analysis of micro level determinants of life satisfaction in Lithuania. The present study analyses Lithuanian data of Eurobarometer study on social capital that includes many variables that are considered by theoretical literature as likely determinants of SWB. Micro level analysis shows that most important determinants of general life satisfaction in Lithuania are satisfaction with health and financial situation. Employment status, educational level, marital status, community involvement, presence of children also tend to be significantly related to subjective well-being. The study also revealed that age in contrary to many previous studies should not be considered as an important determinant of SWB as its effect is explained by differences of health and financial satisfaction levels. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to reveal the nature of relations and interdependency of different variables and SWB more deeply. Further analysis of rich data sets that include many countries would also allow to better understand the influence of such variables as country development level or culture. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.ee. 24.2. 2024
Abram Bergson, Economist: April 21, 1914 - April 23, 2003

Over the last two-thirds of the twentieth century, Abram Bergson was a leading American and world mathematical economist. He was a creative theorist, both literary and statistical. Also Bergson was a careful empiricist who, from a bully pulpit at Harvard, earned a reputation as the dean of Soviet studies and teacher of that subject's major scholars over two generations. At a young age in 1933 Abram came to the Harvard Graduate School in economics, after undergraduate training at Johns Hopkins. Adolph Hitler was responsible for new foreign blood arriving in Cambridge to trigger an overdue prewar Harvard renaissance in economics. When Bergson died at age 89, he was the last survivor of Harvard's age of Frank Taussig, as well as being a young star in the new age of Joseph Schumpeter, youthful Wassily Leontief, eclectic Gottfried Haberler and, after 1937, Alvin Hansen, the 'American Keynesian'. As Leontiefs second protege, I am proud to have been preceded by Abram Bergson, his first protege. I would be honoured to be known as Bergson's first protege, for much of my own work in welfare economics owes virtually everything to his classic 1938 Quarterly Journal of Economics article that for the first time clarified this subject as treated by Lionel Robbins, Abba Lerner, John Hicks, Nicholas Kaldor, Tibor Scitovsky and, of course, earlier byJeremy Bentham, J.S. Mill, F.Y. Edgeworth, and A.C. Pigou. Two of Bergson's most cited papers actually appeared under the authorship of Abram Burk. Burk was indeed the name he had been born with. How A. Burk
An Automatic Video Reinforcing System Based on Popularity Rating of Scenes and Level of Detail Controlling

With the advance of video-on-demand (VOD) services such as Netfix, users are able to watch many kinds of videos anytime and anywhere. While watching a video, recently, users often search related information about it through the Web by using mobile PC. However, users cannot satisfactorily understand and enjoy it because the video keeps playing when they search about it. It is necessary to detect various questions of the video to supplement their related information about each scene for automatic search. However, only one video includes various topics of each scene, furthermore, viewers have different levels of knowledge. Therefore, we have developed a novel automatic video reinforcing system, called TV-Binder, it generates new video contents from one video stream related to viewers' interests and knowledge by adding other related contents (i.e., YouTube videos, images or maps) and by removing unnecessary original scenes, based on topics of each scene. As a result, viewers can satisfy and joyfully watch modified video contents without searching anything. At first, our system extract topics and detect their scenes of a video stream by using closed captions. The system then searches other necessary contents and determines unwanted original scenes based on popularity rating of each original scene and level of detail (LOD) controlling under time pressure. Through this, TV-Binder can automatically generate video contents are classified into four quadrants by two axes, one is digest and detailed videos, the other one is videos for experts with knowledge about particular topics and ordinary viewers without special knowledge. In this paper, we discuss our automatic video reinforcing system and an evaluation of its effectiveness.
The Effects of Minimum Wages on Wage Dispersion and Employment: Evidence from the U.K. Wages Councils

Using data on Wages Council coverage from the United Kingdom New Earnings Survey, the authors examine the impact of mandated minimum wages on wage dispersion and employment in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. They find evidence that a dramatic decline in the toughness of the regulation imposed by the Wages Councils through the 1980s—a decline, that is, in the level of the minimum wage relative to the average wage—significantly contributed to widening wage dispersion over those years. There is, however, no evidence of an increase in employment resulting from the weakening bite of the Wages Council minimum pay rates. Instead, consistent with the conclusions of several recent U.S. studies, the findings suggest that the minimum wage had either no effect or a positive effect on employment.
How and why corporate governance models affect choices of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

We investigate factors determining firm's governance models to assess how methods of resolving information asymmetry affect accounting policy choices. Companies with stakeholder governance models tend to use private communication to resolve information asymmetry. Our results suggest that firms with a stakeholder governance model choose to report under their home GAAP over IFRS/US GAAP when listed in the USA. We infer these results to indicate that these firms have contractual agreements with other stakeholders such as creditors and/or they want to avoid their main stakeholders perceiving they no longer have access to relatively more private information than other external stakeholders.
K Prototype Clustering with Efficient Summarization for Topic Evolutionary Tweet Stream Clustering

: Social media data reflects the lot of interests of virtual communities in a spontaneous and timely manner. Tweets are created as short text message and shared for each users and information analysts. Twitter that receives over four hundred million tweets per day has emerged as a useful supply of reports, blogs, opinions and additional. Our projected work consists of 3 parts. Tweet stream clustering to cluster tweets with k-prototype cluster algorithm (Existing paper shows, k-means clustering algorithm wont to produce the initial clusters. With globular clusters, it did not work well. Therefore in our projected work, we are using k-prototype algorithm to get tighter clusters than k-means algorithm, particularly if the clusters area globular). Second is tweet cluster vector technique to get rank summarization with greedy algorithm. Third to notice and monitors the outline – summary based and volume based variation to provide timeline from tweet stream. Implementing continuous tweet stream reducing a text document is but not an easy task. Since a large variety of tweets area trashy, unrelated and raucous in nature, owing to the social nature of tweeting. Further, tweets area powerfully related with their announce instance and current tweets tend to reach an awfully quick rate. Efficiency - tweet streams are huge, thus the summarization algorithm ought to be greatly capable and time efficient. Flexibility - it ought to offer tweet summaries of random moment durations. Topic evolution - it ought to habitually notice sub - topic changes and therefore the moments that they happen.
Virtualization based ethical educational platform for hands-on lab activities on DoS attacks

Recently, teaching ethical hacking techniques has become a vital component of information security programs that aim to produce competent information security professionals. Students need exposure to offensive techniques developed usually by hackers, along with the defensive techniques. This is problematic since students need to work with tools that may pose threat to the stability and security of the laboratories' computers and live networks within academic institutions. In an attempt to overcome the aforementioned issue, this paper discusses an ethical educational platform, called DoS_VLab, that aims at allowing students experience common denial of service (DoS) attacks, in secure academic environment. DoS_VLab platform is based on virtualization technologies and GNS3 network simulator for building virtual networks. Compared to traditional physical laboratories, practices show that the DoS_VLab platform helped produce more lab practices within the students, reduced training hours required for implementing hands-on lab exercises, and resulted in higher completion rate of the hands-on lab exercises.
Cloud Robotics: SLAM and Autonomous Exploration on PaaS

Robots are moving out of factories, service robotics is bringing them to our homes, work environments, cities, and outdoors. While the Robot Operating System (ROS) is promising to open the world of robotics to developers, a proper platform and ecosystem supporting robotic applications development is still missing. This work presents an example of cloud robotics application in which cloud computing is not just complementing limited robot capabilities, but is leveraged to provide a development and operations environment supporting the complete life-cycle of a robotics-enabled application. We relate on our experience building cloud robotics applications spanning heterogeneous hardware (i.e., robots and cloud servers) through a use case scenario.