Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rotavirus vaccination for Hong Kong children: an economic evaluation from the Hong Kong Government perspective

Aims: To perform an economic analysis of government-funded universal rotavirus vaccination in Hong Kong from the government’s perspective. Methods: A Markov model of costs and effects (disability averted) associated with universal vaccination was compared with no vaccination. In both strategies, newborns were studied until 5 years of age or until they died, using cost, probability and utility data from the literature. The potential cost savings and cost effectiveness of vaccination were calculated and their sensitivities to changes in vaccine and health care costs, presumed decline in vaccine efficacy over time, and the use of discounting and age weights were determined. Results: Depending on assumptions, the new rotavirus vaccines would be cost saving to the Hong Kong Government if they cost less than US$40–92 per course. Higher vaccine costs would quickly lead to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio exceeding that of the gross national product per capita if the mortality rate of rotavirus gastroenteritis remained at zero. Conclusions: Based on 2002 demographic, cost and morbidity data and reasonable uncertainty estimates of these variables, a universal rotavirus vaccination programme paid for by the Hong Kong Government is cost neutral at a per course vaccine cost of US$40–92. For a fixed vaccine cost, the potential savings and cost effectiveness of the vaccine increase with higher estimated health care costs and vice versa.
Safety Climate and Risk Culture: How Does Your Organization Measure Up?

Accident debris: ValuJet The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that a fire in the cargo hold of the aircraft, started when several uncapped chemical oxygen generators ignited then burned into flight control equipment and caused the pilot to lose control of the aircraft. The chain of errors leading to the ValuJet Airlines crash in May 1996 is one of several examples of an Organizational Accident or an accident that is deeply rooted in a company’s lack of leadership commitment and support for safety.
Achievements and challenges for work/life balance strategies in Australian organizations

The effective management of work/life balance (WLB) is an issue increasingly recognized as of strategic importance to organizations and of significance to employees. We argue that an organization's need to attract and retain valued employees in a highly competitive labour market is a strong motivating factor for increased organizational awareness and action with regard to implementation and management of WLB strategies. In this paper, we report the findings of three surveys conducted annually from 1997 to 2000 with organizations in Australia. We explore the range and usage of WLB strategies in Australian organizations and identify the barriers to those strategies. It is evident that, while some achievements have been made over the years, there remain substantial challenges for the uptake and management of WLB strategies.
Fasting versus Gradual Initiation of the Ketogenic Diet: A Prospective, Randomized Clinical Trial of Efficacy

Summary: Purpose: The ketogenic diet (KD) is a 90% fat diet that is an effective treatment for intractable epilepsy. Rapid initiation of the KD requires hospital admission because of the complexity of the protocol and frequent mild and moderate adverse events. The purpose of the study was to compare the efficacy of a gradual KD initiation with the standard KD initiation preceded by a 24‐ to 48‐h fast.
A Money Demand Function with Output Uncertainty, Monetary Uncertainty, and Financial Innovations

In a general equilibrium framework incorporating the money-in-the-utility function approach, we show that output uncertainty and monetary uncertainty as well as output, interest rates, and financial innovations affect money demand. The estimated long-run relationships are consistent with our postulated relation but not with the conventional one. Our model delivers a high income elasticity consistent with cross-sectional evidence and helps resolve M1 demand puzzles. The model estimated in dynamic error correction form exhibits a good level of stability and forecastability, providing little support for the recent de-emphasis of monetary aggregates due to the instability of money demand.
Tourism and Economic Growth in Turkey

Tourism sector entails both costs and benefits to the economy. The costs are mainly emphasized as opportunity costs. On the other hand tourism revenues may have growth promoting potential benefits: It is a source for deriving foreign exchange which can be used to import capital goods for productive purposes. Thus, a rise in tourism revenues may result in higher production and employment. This paper examines empirically the effects of tourism revenues on economic growth in Turkey for the time period 1962-2002, in a VAR framework. The empirical findings indicate that even though there is growth promoting effects of tourism revenues in the long-run, there is no short-run relationship between tourism and economic growth.
To Retrench or Not to Retrench. A Simulation of the Strategic Situation of Social Democratic Parties and the Emergence of Welfare State Retrenchment

Why do Social Democrats engage in welfare state retrenchment? They risk losing votes and implement policy far from Social Democratic utopia. Nevertheless, several (partly) Social Democratic cabinets introduced retrenchment measures. The literature fails to answer this question, because it lacks an explicit operationalization of party behavior: when do parties pursue office, votes or policy? We simulate a formal model that predicts when Social Democrats engage in retrenchment. It formalizes policy‐ seeking, vote‐seeking and office‐seeking behavior and shows how the variation in this behavior explains the sometimes puzzling behavior of Social Democrats. We find that office‐seeking Social Democrats are the most likely candidates to pursue welfare state retrenchment with an unexpected effect of the economy. Vote‐seeking Social Democrats are responsive to economic changes and only retrench if inflation pushes the mean voter to the right. Policy‐seeking Social Democrats do not retrench, however, if faced with a left‐wing competitor Social Democrats move towards the centre, increasing the likelihood that they pursue retrenchment. We conclude with proposing a strategy for an empirical test of the model.
Definable types in -minimal theories

Let L be a first order language. If M is an L-structure, let LM be the expansion of L obtained by adding constants for the elements of M. Definition. A type is definable if and only if for any L-formula , there is an LM-formula so that for all iff M ⊨ dθ(¯). The formula dθ is called the definition of θ. Definable types play a central role in stability theory and have also proven useful in the study of models of arithmetic. We also remark that it is well known and easy to see that for M ≺ N, the property that every M-type realized in N is definable is equivalent to N being a conservative extension of M, where Definition. If M ≺ N, we say that N is a conservative extension of M if for any n and any LN -definable S ⊂ Nn, S ∩ Mn is LM-definable in M. Van den Dries [Dl] studied definable types over real closed fields and proved the following result. 0.1 (van den Dries), (i) Every type over (R, +, -,0,1) is definable. (ii) Let F and K be real closed fields and F ⊂ K. Then, the following are equivalent: (a) Every element of K that is bounded in absolute value by an element of F is infinitely close (in the sense of F) to an element of F. (b) K is a conservative extension of F.
An alpha-carbon template for the transmembrane helices in the rhodopsin family of G-protein-coupled receptors.

A model for the alpha-carbon positions in the seven transmembrane helices in the rhodopsin family of G-protein-coupled receptors is presented. The model incorporates structural information derived from the analysis of approximately 500 sequences in this family. The location, relative to the centre of the lipid bilayer, of each of the seven helical sequence segments and their probable lengths are deduced from sequence analysis, along with the orientation, relative to the centre of the helix bundle, of each helical segment around its axis. The packing of the helices in the model is guided by the density in a three-dimensional map of frog rhodopsin determined by electron cryo-microscopy. The model suggests which of the residues that are highly conserved in this family of receptors interact with each other. Helices III, V and VI are predicted to protrude more than the others from the central lipid core towards the aqueous phase on the intracellular side of the membrane. This feature could be a property of the receptor structure in some but not all of the conformations that it adopts, since recent studies suggest that relative movement occurs between these helices on photoactivation of rhodopsin. Results from other techniques, including the creation of metal-binding sites and disulphide bridges, site-directed spin-labelling studies, the substituted-cysteine accessibility method and other site-directed mutagenesis studies, are discussed in terms of the model.
Clinical features and molecular analysis of arginine-vasopressin neurophysin II gene in long-term follow-up patients with idiopathic central diabetes insipidus.

INTRODUCTION Central diabetes insipidus (DI) characterized by polyuria, polydipsia and inability to concentrate urine, has different etiologies including genetic, autoimmune, post-traumatic, among other causes. Autosomal dominant central DI presents the clinical feature of a progressive decline of arginine-vasopressin (AVP) secretion. OBJECTIVE In this study, we characterized the clinical features and sequenced the AVP-NPII gene of seven long-term follow-up patients with idiopathic central DI in an attempt to determine whether a genetic cause would be involved. METHODS The diagnosis of central DI was established by fluid deprivation test and hyper-tonic saline infusion. For molecular analysis, genomic DNA was extracted and the AVP-NPII gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. RESULTS Sequencing analysis revealed a homozygous guanine insertion in the intron 2 (IVS2 +28 InsG) of the AVP-NPII gene in four patients, which represents an alternative gene assembly. No mutation in the code region of the AVP-NPII gene was found. CONCLUSIONS The homozygous guanine insertion in intron 2 (IVS2 +28 InsG) is unlikely to contribute to the AVP-NPII gene modulation in DI. In addition, the etiology of idiopathic central DI in children may not be apparent even after long-term follow-up, and requires continuous etiological surveillance.
[Urolithiasis and pregnancy. Presentation of results and management norm at the National Institute of Perinatology].

AIMS Urolithiasis associated to pregnancy has an incidence of 1:1,500. It is more frequent in multiparity patients and is a risk factor for preterm labor in more than 40%. OBJECTIVES To know the incidence of urolithiasis associated to pregnancy at the National Institute of Perinatology; to determine the prevalence of: symptoms and signs, hydronephrosis, urinary tract infections, uropathogens, use of catheters and perinatals results. METHODS A cohort study was made from January 1998 to October 2003, to identify pregnant patients with urolithiasis. The clinical files were reviewed; Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Twenty-one patients were diagnosed with urolithiasis; 71% had lumbar pain; 57.1% hematuria; 47.6% bilateral urolithiasis; and 33% bilateral hydronephrosis. All the patients who had lumbar pain, hematuria or were catheterized developed urinary tract infection, even with antibiotics prophylaxis. The 52.4% had at least one urinary tract infection episode. The average gestational age at birth was 38.5 weeks (+/- 5.6 weeks). The 84.22% were preterm births. CONCLUSION Our incidence is similar to the one reported in the literature. The 71.26% has at least one of the symptoms from the classic triad of urolithiasis. The prevalence of urinary tract infection in these patients is very high therefore; antibiotics prophylaxis and urine cultures are required. A lower prevalence of preterm births was obtained. A flow chart for diagnosis and follow-up was presented in order to decrease and to face the possible complications of this pathologic entity.
Rectification of Stereoscopic Video for Planar Catadioptric Stereo Systems

Planar mirror has been used successfully in the catadioptric stereo systems to capture image pairs with only a single camera. These planar catadioptric stereo (PCS) systems not only provide radiometric advantages over traditional two camera stereo, but also reduce the complexity and cost of acquiring stereoscopic video. One problem with these PCS sensors is that image pairs taken by them are usually not rectified and can not be viewed directly or compressed efficiently. Although several conventional methods have been suggested for rectification, features of the PCS system are not employed to optimize the design and rectified results are not evaluated. In this paper, we investigated features of the PCS system and found that epipolar geometries of certain systems can be approximated by affine. On the basis of this affine property, an effective algorithm is proposed for rectifying image pairs they acquired. This new approach reduces the number of parameters to be estimated from 11 in the conventional method to only four. The greatly reduced number of parameters makes the new method more robust and easier to implement. A PCS system was selected for evaluation and experimental results showed that the proposed method not only outperformed the conventional approaches but also worked quite well both visually and quantitatively for all the image pairs under test
Optimized flow cytometry isolation of murine spermatocytes

Meiotic prophase I (MPI), is an initial stage of meiosis characterized by intricate homologous chromosome interactions, synapsis, and DNA recombination. These processes depend on the complex, but poorly understood early MPI events of homologous chromosome search, alignment, and pairing. Detailed molecular investigation of these early events requires isolation of individual MPI substages. Enrichment for Pachytene (P) and Diplotene (D) substages of late MPI was previously accomplished using flow cytometry. However, separation of early MPI spermatocytes, specifically, of Leptotene (L) and Zygotene (Z) substages, has been a challenge due to these cells' similar characteristics. In this report, we describe an optimized Hoechst‐33342 (Hoechst)‐based flow cytometry approach for isolating individual MPI populations from adult mouse testis. We get significant enrichment for individual L and Z spermatocytes, previously inseparable from each other, and optimize the isolation of other MPI substages. Our flow cytometry approach is a combination of three optimized strategies. The first is optimization of testis dissociation protocol that yields more consistent and reproducible testicular single cell suspension. The second involves optimization of flow cytometric gating protocol where a critical addition to the standard protocol for cell discrimination based on Hoechst fluorescence, involves a back‐gating technique based on light scattering parameters. This step specifies selection of individual MPI substages. The third, is an addition of DNA content restriction to the gating protocol to minimize contamination from non‐meiotic cells. Finally, we confirm significant enrichment of high‐purity Preleptotene (PreL), L, Z, P, and D MPI spermatocytes using stage‐specific marker distribution. The technique will facilitate understanding of the molecular events underlying MPI. © 2014 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Reduced Renal Microvascular Reactivity to Angiotensin II in Diabetic Rats

Objective: Renal hyperfiltration in early diabetes is often correlated with increased renal blood flow, reflecting dilation of resistance arterioles. This loss of arteriolar tone has been associated with an impaired reactivity to angiotensin II (Ang II). This study determined if outer cortical arterioles (preglomerular and/or postglomerular) of diabetic rats exhibit a diminished reactivity to Ang II and established if renal vascular prostaglandins account for the diminished responsiveness.
Cue Usage in Financial Statement Fraud Risk Assessments: Effects of Technical Knowledge and Decision Aid Use

This paper investigates the effects of technical knowledge and decision aid use on financial statement fraud risk assessments made by directors and students. More extreme fraud risk assessments are made when participants identify and process larger (smaller) numbers of diagnostic (non-diagnostic) factors, with technical knowledge driving diagnostic factor identification. Significant decision aid-technical knowledge effects are also found; decision aid use has a detrimental effect on high-knowledge directors while improving performance in inexperienced, low-knowledge students. These results suggest that although decision aids can afford gains in performance in inexperienced users, they can have unintended and/or paradoxical behavioural effects on experienced users.
Predicting support of climate policies by using a protection motivation model

Taiwan aims to reduce its estimated 2020 CO2 emissions by 45%. Attaining this goal will require strong policies and public support. In this study, a psychological model was tested to predict how Taiwanese citizens would support ten policies that mitigate or adapt to climate change. The model is an expansion of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT [Rogers, R. W. (1983). Cognitive and physiological processes in fear-based attitude change: A revised theory of protection motivation. In J. Cacioppo & R. Petty (Eds.), Social psychophysiology: A sourcebook (pp. 153–176). New York, NY: Guilford]) involving responsibility and the subjective effectiveness of alternative solutions (SEAS) as additional variables. Data were collected after conducting two surveys in Taiwan that involved a total of 394 respondents. The results indicated that perceived responsibility and SEAS predicted the support of only one to three of the policies. Regarding the PMT variables, severity and vulnerability did not affect the support of almost all policies. Policy support was primarily affected by the other three PMT variables: self-efficacy, response efficacy, and relative benefit. These three variables significantly affected most policies, accounting for 34–73% of the variance in public support. This suggests that PMT facilitates understanding of public support for climate policies.
Neutral Taxation under Uncertainty - a Real Options Approach

This paper analyses neutral tax systems under uncertainty and risk neutrality using real option theory. In the case of an option to invest, the investment problem can be formulated before and after taxes, demonstrating the effects of flexibility and irreversibility. A sufficient condition for tax neutrality is the equivalence of the investment problems before and after taxes. Under this condition, neutral depreciation schedules can be derived for every kind of interest taxation without explicitly solving the emerging free-boundary problems. Two special cases of neutral tax systems are the cash flow tax and the Johansson-Samuelson tax. For the validity of the Johansson-Samuelson theorem under uncertainty and irreversibility it is necessary to extend the depreciation base on the real option.
Searching Fragment Spaces with Feature Trees

Virtual combinatorial chemistry easily produces billions of compounds, for which conventional virtual screening cannot be performed even with the fastest methods available. An efficient solution for such a scenario is the generation of Fragment Spaces, which encode huge numbers of virtual compounds by their fragments/reagents and rules of how to combine them. Similarity-based searches can be performed in such spaces without ever fully enumerating all virtual products. Here we describe the generation of a huge Fragment Space encoding about 5 * 10(11) compounds based on established in-house synthesis protocols for combinatorial libraries, i.e., we encode practically evaluated combinatorial chemistry protocols in a machine readable form, rendering them accessible to in silico search methods. We show how such searches in this Fragment Space can be integrated as a first step in an overall workflow. It reduces the extremely huge number of virtual products by several orders of magnitude so that the resulting list of molecules becomes more manageable for further more elaborated and time-consuming analysis steps. Results of a case study are presented and discussed, which lead to some general conclusions for an efficient expansion of the chemical space to be screened in pharmaceutical companies.
Reversible cause of intra operative hypoxia in an aspirated patient

We present a case of 19-year-old male with a history of road traffic accident with head injury and aspiration posted for decompressive craniotomy under general anaesthesia. Patient developed significant desaturation intraoperatively under general anaesthesia with isoflurane that reversed upon switching over to total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA) with propofol. Apart from aspiration causing hypoxia, decrease in hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) by inhalational agent could have also contributed to the desaturation.
Segmental Reporting: A Preparers' Perspective

Abstract Following the introduction of Statement of Standard Accounting Practice 25, Segmental Reporting, companies must now report turnover, result and net assets analysed by geographical segments and business classes. This paper, unlike most previous research into segmental reporting, focuses on the preparers of accounts. The empirical study, based on information obtained by a questionnaire survey, has two objectives. First, to investigate the preparers' perceptions of the usefulness of segmental information and second, to identify which criteria were used to select reportable segments. The results show that the reported selection criteria have discarded or ignored many of the suggestions identified in previous academic literature and in the standard, in favour of pre-existing organisational groupings. The responses also indicate that preparers doubt the usefulness to shareholders of the reported information.
The demand for new information systems in travel and tourism

Today's society contains an extensive service sector, both in terms of the individual and the public at large. Development work within the service sector has, so far, been carried out on a rather small scale compared to the efforts made on behalf of trade and industry to create new products. The fact that research and development in this area have been so limited can be one of the causes of the relatively small‐scale development of productivity within both the individual and the public part of the service sector.
Dynamic Integration of Emerging Market Bond Yields into the Global Bond Market

This paper investigates empirically the integration of bond markets of emerging market economies into the global bond markets from 2003 to 2012. The paper employs factor analysis based on the Arbitrage Pricing Theory to extract global factors from a panel of 38 bond yields of advanced and emerging market economies.The results reveal that bond yields in advanced economies, which constitute the driving forces behind the global bond market, do not dominate in explaining the variation of emerging market bond yields. Instead, the dynamics in emerging market bond yields can also be attributed to movements in the equity markets in both advanced and emerging market economies as well as emerging market currencies. In addition, the degree of emerging market integration changes over time and across countries.