Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why there have been so few spectrum trades in the UK: lessons for Europe

Purpose – This paper seeks to define a coherent management preference function for determining the conditions when the market can be effectively used in the management of spectrum based on abduction and volitional pragmatism.Design/methodology/approach – Volitional pragmatism based on the logic of abduction is used to provide an explanation for real world empirical observation of few spectrum trades in the UK. This is generalized for application with wider context of European frequency management.Findings – There has been a considerable regulatory effort directed toward spectrum trading in the EU. The UK experience with trading is clearly not what was expected. It was suggested that this is a result of an analytical approach based on deductive validationism subject to ceteris paribus assumptions. This approach does have merit but its application is over extended. This is due in large part institutional under specification of what constitutes the market and the nature of the transaction taking place.Resear.
The clinical usefulness of the renal allograft biopsy in the cyclosporine era: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND The renal allograft biopsy is generally accepted as the gold standard for clarifying the cause of renal dysfunction. However, the clinical usefulness of this procedure has rarely been studied prospectively, nor have most studies included follow-up of patients to delineate the influence of the biopsy on clinical outcome. In this study, we evaluated prospectively the clinical usefulness of the allograft biopsy in renal transplant recipients receiving cyclosporine (CyA). METHODS During a 21-month period, 82 biopsies were performed. In 54 instances (47 patients), we outlined a presumed diagnosis and tentative treatment plan before the procedure. After the biopsy, a definitive diagnosis was made and an appropriate patient management approach was instituted. We analyzed the incidence of change in patient management that resulted from histological findings. All patients were followed to monitor their response to treatment and allograft survival. In cases of biopsy-proven acute cellular rejection (ACR) or cyclosporine (CyA) toxicity, clinical and laboratory data from the day of the biopsy were reviewed to determine their diagnostic value. RESULTS One biopsy specimen was inadequate for definitive interpretation. The biopsy findings resulted in a change in patient management in 22 (41.5%) of the remaining 53 cases (change group). The incidence of altered patient management was 38.7% in biopsy specimens taken in the first month, 55.6% between 1 and 12 months, and 38.5% after 1 year posttransplantation. A change in management was required in 2 of 2 patients with chronic allograft dysfunction, in 44.4% of the 45 patients with acute allograft dysfunction, and in none of the patients with delayed graft function (n=6). Within the first week of treatment 19 of 22 (86.4%) in the change group and 25 of 31 (80.6%) in the no change group had a positive response to therapy. The 1-year allograft survival rate was also similar between the two groups. None of the clinical and laboratory data was useful in distinguishing ACR from CyA toxicity. CONCLUSIONS Renal allograft biopsy findings alter patient management recommendations in approximately 40% of patients in whom a presumptive diagnosis had been made on the basis of clinical and laboratory findings. Patients who had a change in patient management because of biopsy findings demonstrated a response to therapy and allograft survival similar to those of patients who had no alteration in management plan after the biopsy.
High prevalence of multidrug‐resistant Escherichia coli isolates from children with and without diarrhoea and their susceptibility to the antibacterial activity of extracts/fractions of fruits native to Mexico

Purpose. This paper aims to evaluate the antimicrobial resistance of Esherichia coli isolates from children under 5 years old, with and without diarrhoea, who were hospital outpatients in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. It also looks at the antimicrobial activity of fruit extracts against selected multidrug‐resistant (MDR) E. coli strains. Methodology. A total of 205 E. coli isolates from stool samples were collected from 94 children under 5 years old who were outpatients from two hospitals in the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, during the autumn/winter of 2003/04; their resistance profiles to 19 commercial antimicrobials were investigated using the Kirby‐Bauer method. The antibacterial activities of extracts/fractions of fruits (i.e. uvalama, Vitex mollis; ayale, Crescentia alata; and arrayan, Psidium sartorianum) were evaluated using the broth microdilution method. Results. All E. coli isolates were susceptible to amikacin, nitrofurantoin and meropenem, and approximately 96% were resistant to at least one antimicrobial, especially carbenicillin (93.2%), cefuroxime sodium (53.7%), ampicillin (40%) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (35.1%). Likewise, the frequency of MDR strains (44.9%) was high, and no significant association with diarrhoea symptoms was found. Remarkably, all fruit extracts/fractions showed antibacterial activity against some, but not all, MDR isolates. The lowest minimal inhibitory concentration values were for the hexane fraction of arrayan (0.25 mg ml−1). Conclusion. A high number of antimicrobial‐resistant E. coli (especially to &bgr;‐lactams and sulfonamides) and MDR isolates were detected in children under 5 years old, irrespective of diarrhoea symptoms; this is novel information for Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Moreover, our results showed that the studied fruit extracts/fractions are potential alternative or complementary treatments for MDR E. coli strains.
The Deutschmark in Eastern Europe, Black Money and the Euro: On the Size of the Effect

Since the announcement and the consummation of the marriage between the D-mark and the euro, the D-mark has lost a considerable part of its value, and during the same time, the share of D-mark currency in circulation in the total euro-11 monetary base (currency in circulation and banks’ central bank deposits) has declined markedly (see Figures 1 and 2). In our opinion, these two facts are related, having to do with the D-mark stocks in Eastern Europe and Turkey and with the black money of the euro-11 countries. This paper discusses the magnitudes of the effects involved and their likely implications for the exchange value of the euro.1
Comparisons of Business Cycles in the EC: Idiosyncracies and Regularities

This paper compares the business cycle features of the EC economies using quarterly and annual data since 1960 and the Real Business Cycle model as a guidance. The evidence suggests that there are remarkable similarities between the business cycle pattern of these countries, despite significant differences in the patterns of fiscal and monetary policies and the terms of trade. We take this evidence to suggest that the type of shocks and the propagation mechanism is fairly similar across the EC countries. Hence the process of European integration under a set of uniform institutions and policies should not be a problem as far as the business cycle is concerned. Copyright 1995 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Cloudifier virtual apps: Virtual desktop predictive analytics apps environment based on GPU computing framework

The need for systems capable of conducting inferential analysis and predictive analytics is ubiquitous in a global information society. With the recent advances in the areas of predictive machine learning models and massive parallel computing a new set of resources is now potentially available for the computer science community in order to research and develop new truly intelligent and innovative applications. In the current paper we present the principles, architecture and current experimentation results for an online platform capable of both hosting and generating intelligent applications — applications with predictive analytics capabilities.
Is There Room for Biliteracy? Credentialing California's Future Bilingual Teachers.

Despite the ethnic and linguistic diversity found in California’s public schools, or because of it, in 1998 voters approved Proposition 227, a ballot initiative designed to dismantle bilingual education programs in the state. By the 2003-2004 school year, the California Department of Education reports that statewide 8,908 teachers were providing primary language instruction to English learners (ELs), down dramatically from the 16,360 teachers who taught in primary language settings just five years prior.1 To date, the effectiveness of Proposition 227 and bilingual education are still being debated among politicians, policymakers, and educators with no end in sight (Mora, 2005). Notwithstanding the changing political climate and the educational policy shifts of the last 10 years, the need to effectively educate ethnically and linguistically diverse students is apparent. It is clear that the United States’ public school system continues to become increasingly diverse and this is most evident in California, which has one of the most diverse student populations in the nation (U.S. Department of Education, 2003a). Statewide, over 68 percent of students in public schools are classified as non-white, and over 1.5 million are classified as non-English-speaking.
Policy Analysis and Governance: Analytical and Policy Styles in Canada

The policy analysis movement revolves around the idea that a generic analytic toolkit can be productively applied to substantive policy problems, but different patterns of policy analysis can be observed across organizations, sectors, and jurisdictions. This article identifies how policy analysis and governance contexts can each be differentiated at a theoretical level, and how the latter might affect the former. It is argued that successful modes of policy analysis are attributable both to the skills of policy analysts/managers, and congruence with broader institutional contexts. The case of Canada is used to probe the ability of investigators to identify distinctive policy styles over time and to encourage more systematic, finer-grained, comparative study. The article considers the implications for teaching policy analysis and for managers balancing the need to match policy analysis styles with institutional context and to challenge the perceptions of decision makers.
Immunotherapy of Fungal Infections

Fungal organisms are ubiquitous in the environment. Pathogenic fungi, although relatively few in the whole gamut of microbial pathogens, are able to cause disease with varying degrees of severity in individuals with normal or impaired immunity. The disease state is an outcome of the fungal pathogen’s interactions with the host immunity, and therefore, it stands to reason that deep/invasive fungal diseases be amenable to immunotherapy. Therefore, antifungal immunotherapy continues to be attractive as an adjunct to the currently available antifungal chemotherapy options for a number of reasons, including the fact that existing antifungal drugs, albeit largely effective, are not without limitations, and that morbidity and mortality associated with invasive mycoses are still unacceptably high. For several decades, intense basic research efforts have been directed at development of fungal immunotherapies. Nevertheless, this approach suffers from a severe bench-bedside disconnect owing to several reasons: the chemical and biological peculiarities of the fungal antigens, the complexities of host-pathogen interactions, an under-appreciation of the fungal disease landscape, the requirement of considerable financial investment to bring these therapies to clinical use, as well as practical problems associated with immunizations. In this general, non-exhaustive review, we summarize the features of ongoing research efforts directed towards devising safe and effective immunotherapeutic options for mycotic diseases, encompassing work on antifungal vaccines, adoptive cell transfers, cytokines, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), and other agents.
Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in China

This is a product of a research project on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, under the leadership of Kym Anderson of the World Bank’s Development Research Group (www.worldbank.org/agdistortions). The authors are grateful for helpful comments from workshop participants, for computational assistance from Ernesto Valenzuela, and for funding from World Bank Trust Funds provided by the governments of Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands (BNPP) and the United Kingdom (DfID).
Development and validation of the Paediatric Care and Needs Scale (PCANS) for assessing support needs of children and youth with acquired brain injury

Aim: The Paediatric Care and Needs Scale (PCANS) is a newly developed scale that assesses support needs following childhood acquired brain injury (ABI). It yields three measures of support: overall, extent and intensity. The developmental process of the PCANS is described and concurrent and construct validity examined. Method: In the validation study, 32 parents/caregivers of children with ABI aged 5–18 years completed the PCANS and other validating measures: Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS), Functional Independence Measure for Children (Wee-FIM) and King's Outcome Scale of Childhood Head Injury (KOSCHI). VABS and Wee-FIM sub-scales examining similar and dissimilar domains to the PCANS were used to investigate convergent and divergent validity, respectively. Discriminant validity analysis used sub-groups dichotomized by VABS and KOSCHI data. Results: Statistically significant correlation coefficients of moderate-to-strong magnitude were found between the PCANS support intensity score and most of the VABS, Wee-FIM and KOSCHI variables (rs = −0.46 to rs = −0.77, p < 0.01). Some evidence for convergent and divergent validity was also found. Correlation coefficients between similar domains of the PCANS and other scales were moderately high (e.g. VABS socialization vs PCANS psychosocial items, rs = −0.64, p < 0.01). Conversely, correlation coefficients between dissimilar domains were low (e.g. Wee-FIM self-care vs PCANS psychosocial items, rs = −0.29). In terms of discriminant group differences, PCANS support extent and intensity scores were able to distinguish between sub-groups dichotomized by VABS and KOSCHI scores. Conclusions: These findings provide preliminary evidence for the validity of the PCANS for assessing support needs after paediatric ABI.
Correction for Misrecognition of Korean Texts in Signboard Images using Improved Levenshtein Metric

Recently various studies on various applications using images taken by mobile phone cameras have been actively conducted. This study proposes a correction method for misrecognition of Korean Texts in signboard images using improved Levenshtein metric. The proposed method calculates distances of five recognized candidates and detects the best match texts from signboard text database. For verifying the efficiency of the proposed method, a database dictionary is built using 1.3 million words of nationwide signboard through removing duplicated words. We compared the proposed method to Levenshtein Metric which is one of representative text string comparison algorithms. As a result, the proposed method based on improved Levenshtein metric represents an improvement in recognition rates 31.5% on average compared to that of conventional methods.
Influence of electrogenic Na/Ca exchange on the action potential in human heart muscle.

STUDY OBJECTIVE The plateau of the action potential in heart muscle is largely due to the inward Ca2+ current, ica; however, Ca2+ extrusion via Na+/Ca2+ exchange may also generate a significant current, ina/ca. The aim was to assess the influence of ina/ca on the action potential in isolated human heart muscle. DESIGN Action potentials and force of isometric contractions were recorded in ventricular trabeculae. The muscle was subjected to various stimulus patterns, Ca2+ antagonists, and variations in the ionic composition of the extracellular medium. PATIENTS From 49 patients, aged 0.5 to 14 years, small right ventricular trabeculae were obtained during open heart surgery. The operations concerned corrections of ventricular septal defects. Data presented in this paper were from nine preparations in which action potentials were recorded during several hours. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The results confirmed that: (1) the amplitude of the early part of the plateau was depressed by low [Ca2+] and by Ca2+ antagonists, showing that ica dominates this early part; and (2) that low [Na2+] and post-extrasystolic potentiation also depressed the early component of the plateau of the action potential, which can be explained by inactivation of ica due to increased levels of intracellular Ca2+. A novel observation was that post-extrasystolic potentiation led to an increase in action potential duration (APD). An explanation is that the potentiated contraction follows from an increased amount of intracellular Ca2+ which also activates an inward current, possibly ina/ca. This assumption is strengthened by the finding that lengthening of APD after extrasystoles was abolished: (a) at low [Ca2+], ie, when force was small and there was little Ca2+ to be extruded; and (b) at low [Na+], ie, when force was large but the driving force of the Na+ gradient for extrusion of Ca2+ was small. CONCLUSIONS The early part of the plateau is dominated by ica, whereas ina/ca is relatively more important during the later part, and tends to lengthen the action potential.
Comparative expression of mouse and chicken shisa homologues during early development

During vertebrate embryogenesis, fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and Wnt signaling have been implicated in diverse cellular processes, including cell growth, differentiation, and tissue patterning. The recently identified Xenopus Shisa protein promotes head formation by inhibiting Wnt and FGF signaling through its interaction with the immature forms of Frizzled and FGF receptors in the endoplasmic reticulum, which prevents their posttranslational maturation. Here, we describe the mouse and chicken homologues of Xenopus Shisa. The mouse and chicken Shisa proteins share, respectively, 33.6% and 33.8% identity with the Xenopus homolog. In situ hybridization analysis shows that mouse shisa is expressed throughout embryonic development, predominantly in the anterior visceral endoderm, headfolds, somites, forebrain, optic vesicle, and limb buds. Cross‐species comparison shows that the expression pattern of cshisa closely mirrors that of mshisa. Our observations indicate that the Shisa family genes are typically expressed in tissues known to require the modulation of Wnt and FGF signaling. Developmental Dynamics 235:2567–2573, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Development of PCR Assays for Species- and Type-Specific Identification of Pasteurella multocidaIsolates

ABSTRACT Genomic subtractive hybridization of closely relatedPasteurella multocida isolates has generated clones useful in distinguishing hemorrhagic septicemia-causing type B strains from other P. multocida serotypes. Oligonucleotide primers designed during the sequencing of these clones have proved valuable in the development of PCR assays for rapid species- and type-specific detection of P. multocida and of type B:2 in particular. This study demonstrated that the primer pair designed from the sequence of the clone 6b (KTT72 and KTSP61) specifically amplified a DNA fragment from types B:2, B:5, and B:2,5P. multocida and that the primers KMT1T7 and KMT1SP6 produced an amplification product unique to all P. multocida isolates analyzed. It was also shown that PCR amplification performed directly on bacterial colonies or cultures represents an extremely rapid, sensitive method of P. multocida identification.
Evolution with Changing Mutation Rates

This article considers the robustness of long run equilibria when mutation rates are not assumed to be constant over time. Particular attention is paid to the case where mutation rates decline to zero in the limit. It is found that if behaviour is ergodic, then it corresponds to the long run equilibrium for the game. However, conditions for ergodicity become increasingly restrictive as population size increases.
The Armenians and the East India Company in Persia in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries

depuis la Perse jusqu'au Bosphore les Armeniens sont presents dans toutes les villes importantes. Ils y jouent un role d'intermediares entre leurs compatriotes commergants et les negociants d'autres nations d'une part et les indigenes d'autre part . et c'est la qu'apparait de plus en plus le role des Armeniens: celui d'intermediares, non seulement dans le domaine du commerce proprement dit mais aussi dans celui des finances.2
Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration

Introduction Part One: Inventing Europe 1. Forging a European Nation-State? The European Union and Questions of Culture 2. Creating the People's Europe: Symbols, History and Invented Traditions 3. Citizenship of the Union. The Cultural Construction of a European Citizen 4. Symbolizing Boundaries: The Single Currency and the Art of European Governance Part Two: EU Civil Servants. The New Europeans? 5. A Supranational Civil Service? The Role of the Commission in the Integration Process 6. The Brussels Context. Integration and Engrenage among EU Elites 7. Transnational, Supranational or Post-National? The Organisational Culture of the Commission Conclusions
Analyst Recommendations and Regulation: Scopes for European Policy Makers to Enhance Investor Protection

Investors rely on analyst recommendations when making investment decisions. Over the last few years, however, sell-side analysts have caught the attention of the supervisory authorities given their vulnerability to numerous conflicts of interest. In this paper, we empirically examine relevant regulatory measures that have an impact upon analysts’ activities, namely the market abuse directive and markets in financial instruments directive. We find that European regulators have primarily focused on mitigating conflicts of interest. However, to establish an environment of more sophisticated investor protection additional regulatory effort is required. Therefore, in this paper, we provide related empirical evidence and discuss proposals to correct regulatory shortcomings in order to strengthen investor protection in the European Union.