Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Brain imaging in anxiety disorders

Animal studies of the effects of stress on the brain have been used as a model for anxiety disorders. There is increasing evidence that brain areas involved in the stress response, including prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala, play a role in the symptoms of anxiety. In the past few years, brain imaging studies have been critical to advancing the understanding of the neural circuitry of anxiety disorders. Although some anxiety disorders may fit in with animal models of stress, both conceptually and in terms of imaging findings (eg. post–traumatic stress and panic disorder), other anxiety disorders (eg. obsessive–compulsive disorder) may require a more specific model to understand the neurobiology completely. This article reviews animal models for anxiety disorders, current brain imaging findings and outlines future directions for research in this area.
National Parliaments and EU External Military Operations: Is there any Parliamentary Control?

Abstract The article examines British, French and Italian parliaments’ roles in overseeing the European Union's external military operations, Concordia and Artemis. It shows that a democratic deficit exists in European security and discusses factors shaping differential performance. The British European Scrutiny Committee approved both operations a posteriori. The French Parliament was involved through the use of the emergency examination procedure that required the president of the Delegation for the European Union to approve operations as an individual. The Italian Parliament had no say on Artemis and approved Concordia on the same day the operation was launched, three months after the Italian Government had agreed to its mandate and planning in the European Council. British parliamentarians asked qualitative questions, others did not.
RISK‐AVERSION IN THE STOCK MARKET: SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

A RECENT ARTICLE in this Journal' explored the conditions for equilibrium in the market for capital assets under the assumptions that investors are riskaverters, have similar (probabilistic) beliefs about the future performance of various assets, and can borrow or lend funds at a common (pure) interest rate. Briefly, the article showed that under such conditions market prices of capital assets will adjust so that the predicted risk of each efficient portfolio's rate of return is linearly related to its predicted expected rate of return. Letting vi stand for the standard deviation of the subjective probability distribution of the rate of return on an efficient portfolio, and E1 for the expected value of the distribution, the prices of capital assets will adjust until all efficient portfolios conform to the relationship
“YES to the Europe I want; NO to this one.” Some Reflections on France's Rejection of the EU Constitution

I spent the 2004–2005 academic year in France, culminating with the May 29th referendum on the European Union constitutional treaty. Fifty-five percent of voters rejected it. Three days later, 62% of Dutch voters followed suit. These were unexpected results, especially in France, a country where 80% declare themselves in favor of European integration. In other member states, a simple rule generally applies: those whose priority is to strengthen the EU are on the “yes” side, while the “no” is identified with those who emphasize national interests. In the Netherlands, though the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic radical was a factor, the “no” forces won essentially because they persuaded enough people that the direction the Constitution would take the Netherlands went against Dutch interests. To do so, they played on the resentment that Brussels took their money but ignored Dutch concerns—“the same people who fooled you with the euro are fooling you now with this constitution. ”
Protein Sequence and Structure Comparison On Massively Parallel Computers

Sequence comparison has become a standard tool in the analysis of newly determined protein sequences. As the database of known sequence grows not only does the cost of database searching increase but so too does the demand for that service. These factors conflict directly with the desire to use the most sensi tive methods available. The use of massively parallel computers for database searching provides a solution to this problem and is helping in the development of new methods for both sequence and structure com parison.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MOTIVATION AND LEADERSHIP THEORIES AS TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SECTOR ADMINISTRATION

eadership and workers motivation are key issues that improve organizational productivity. The paper examines leadership and motivation theories as vital elements of organizational development and effectiveness, especially in public sector administration. Starting from the classical to the most contemporary approaches to leadership and motivation in comparative perspectives, the paper provides managers with working tools for effective and efficient management of their various organizations. The objective therefore is to relate motivation and leadership theories to organizational management. The paper finds out that there is no one best approach or theory to workers motivation and leadership effectiveness and that all theories are relevant to organizational management depending on the scope, objectives and philosophies of the organization. Arising from this fact, the paper identifies that there are some limitations and weaknesses of leadership and motivation theories, but advocates/recommends among other things that managers should have as many theories as possible at the tips of their fingers to enable them thrive in organizational management. The paper therefore concludes that comparative approach to motivation and leadership theories will become an eye opener and the best strategy for achieving organizational effectiveness. Key word: leadership, motivation, theories, management, effectiveness.
Empirical test of the currency option pricing model

This paper analyze the theoretical value of American and European-style call (GBP call against MYR) on an underlying asset with amount of 1 units of sterling (GBP). Besides that, the marginal effects of the six variables are testing for its contributions on American-style call premium. Binomial Option Pricing model, of Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein (1979), are applied to measure both style of currency options. We find that the call premiums of American option tend to have higher value compare with the European option. In addition, the spot exchange rate, domestic interest rate, time to maturity and volatility have proven of its positive relationship to the American call premium.
Growth with Unused Capacity and Endogenous Capital Depreciation

The paper contributes to the debate on growth and distribution in a non-mainstream perspective. It looks at the role that capacity utilization plays in the process of growth under the hypothesis that the rate of capital depreciation is a function of the degree of capacity utilization. Our hypothesis implies results partly different from those obtained by other models in which capacity utilization plays a key role. In particular, a varying rate of depreciation affects the conditions under which distributional changes in favor of wages affect the rate of growth positively.
Earnings Management Vehicles for Korean Firms

We investigated the vehicles that Korean firms use when the firms manage earnings. We partitioned our sample into low, mid and high accrual sub-samples based on discretionary accruals. Low accrual firms are defined as income-decreasing firms whereas the high accrual firms are considered income increasing firms in this study. We decomposed accounting earnings into cash from operations and various components of accruals in a systematic way. Next we examined the types of accruals individual firms use when the respective firms increase reported earnings. The empirical results of the study indicate that there are clear discrepancies in the earnings management vehicles firm use when the firms manage earnings depending on the directions of earnings management. More specifically, income-increasing firms frequently employ non-cash revenues including asset-disposal gains. Income-decreasing firms employ non-cash expenses including bad-debt expenses and asset-disposal losses. Firms also tend to use current accruals but to a limited extent as current accruals entail cash flow implications in the following years.
Strengths of children and adolescents in residential settings: prevalence and associations with psychopathology and discharge placement.

OBJECTIVE During the past few years there has been growing interest in developing strength-based approaches to services, particularly for children and adolescents. METHOD This study assesses the prevalence of 30 strengths for a random sample of children and adolescents in residential placements in Florida. In addition, the relationship between strengths and clinical and functional characteristics is studied. RESULTS Results suggest that there is substantial variation across individuals on the presence of strengths and the potential for development. Strengths were associated with symptoms, risk behaviors, and functioning. Level of strengths predicted success in the reduction of risk behaviors during the child/adolescent's stay. In addition, the level of strengths was independently associated with good dispositional outcomes. CONCLUSIONS The findings provide further empirical support for the importance of strengths and the utility of an integrated model that considers both psychopathology and strengths in planning for children's services.
A Review of Ex-Post Evidence for Mode Substitution and Induced Demand Following the Introduction of High-Speed Rail

ABSTRACT To date, relatively little is known about the nature of the demand for high-speed rail (HSR) soon after inauguration of the services, despite close to 50-year experience of HSR operation and 17 166 km of HSR network around the world. This is a real lacuna given the scale of HSR construction around the world, the amount of resources committed to it, the desired accessibility, economic and environmental effects associated with HSR development and the relatively poor track record of forecasting demand for HSR services. Focusing on mode substitution and induced demand effects, this review aims to fill the gap in knowledge about the ex-post demand for HSR services in order to facilitate a learning process for the planning of the future HSR network. Although there is not much evidence on the demand for HSR services and existing evidence is largely influenced by route-specific characteristics, a methodological limitation that must be acknowledged, the evidence presented allows a better characterisation of HSR as a mode of transport. The review shows that the demand for HSR a few years after inauguration is about 10–20% induced demand and the rest is attributed to mode substitution. In terms of mode substitution, in most cases the majority of HSR passengers have used the conventional rail before. Substitution from aircraft, car and coach is generally more modest.
Identification and control of a gentamicin resistant, meticillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus outbreak on a neonatal unit

We describe the identification and control of an outbreak of gentamicin resistant, meticillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (GR-MSSA) on a 36-bed neonatal unit (NNU) in London. Control measures included admission and weekly screening for GR-MSSA, cohorting affected babies, environmental and staff screening, hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) for terminal disinfection of cohort rooms, and reinforcement of hand hygiene. Seventeen babies were affected by the outbreak strain over ten months; seven were infected and ten were asymptomatic carriers. The outbreak strain was gentamicin resistant and all isolates were indistinguishable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The outbreak strains spread rapidly and were associated with a high rate of bacteraemia (35% of 17 affected patients had bacteraemia vs. 10% of 284 patients with MSSA prior to the outbreak, p=0.007). None of 113 staff members tested were colonised with GR-MSSA. GR-MSSA was recovered from 11.5% of 87 environmental surfaces in cohort rooms, 7.1% of 28 communal surfaces and 4.1% of 74 surfaces after conventional terminal disinfection. None of 64 surfaces sampled after HPV decontamination yielded GR-MSSA. Recovery of GR-MSSA from two high level sites suggested that the organism could have been transmitted via air. Occasional breakdown in hand hygiene compliance and contaminated environmental surfaces probably contributed to transmission.
Optimal Income Taxation with Endogenous Human Capital

This paper augments the theory of optimal linear income taxation by taking into account human capital accumulation as a dimension of labor supply. The distribution of earning potentials is endogenous because agents differ in the ability to learn. Taxation affects utilization rates of human capital through labor supply responses. The costs of education that are not deductible from the income tax distort the learning decision as well. We show theoretically that the trade-off between efficiency and equity is worsened. Quantitative analysis shows that the distortionary costs of taxation increase substantially when human capital formation is endogenous. See publication in Journal of Public Economic Theory , 2005, 7(2), 295-315.
Aminoglycoside 2′‐N‐acetyltransferase genes are universally present in mycobacteria: characterization of the aac(2 ′)‐Ic gene from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the aac(2 ′)‐Id gene from Mycobacterium smegmatis

The genus Mycobacterium comprises clinically important pathogens such as M. tuberculosis, which has re‐emerged as a major cause of morbidity and mortality world‐wide especially with the emergence of multidrug‐resistant strains. The use of fast‐growing species such as Mycobacterium smegmatis has allowed important advances to be made in the field of mycobacterial genetics and in the study of the mechanisms of resistance in mycobacteria. The isolation of an aminoglycoside‐resistance gene from Mycobacterium fortuitum has recently been described. The aac(2′)‐Ib gene is chromosomally encoded and is present in all isolates of M. fortuitum. The presence of this gene in other mycobacterial species is studied here and genes homologous to that of M. fortuitum have been found in all mycobacterial species studied. In this report, the cloning of the aac(2′)‐Ic gene from M. tuberculosis H37Rv and the aac(2′)‐Id gene from M. smegmatis mc2155 is described. Southern blot hybridizations have shown that both genes are present in all strains of this species studied to date. In addition, the putative aac(2′)‐Ie gene has been located in a recent release of the Mycobacterium leprae genome. The expression of the aac(2′)‐Ic and aac(2′)‐Id genes has been studied in M. smegmatis and only aac(2′)‐Id is correlated with aminoglycoside resistance. In order to elucidate the role of the aminoglycoside 2′‐N‐acetyltransferase genes in mycobacteria and to determine whether they are silent resistance genes or whether they have a secondary role in mycobacterial metabolism, the aac(2′)‐Id gene from M. smegmatis has been disrupted in the chromosome of M. smegmatis mc2155. The disruptant shows an increase in aminoglycoside susceptibility along with a slight increase in the susceptibility to lysozyme.
Modifications in Small Interfering RNA That Separate Immunostimulation from RNA Interference1

Synthetic small interfering RNA (siRNA) can suppress the expression of endogenous mRNA through RNA interference. It has been reported that siRNA can induce type I IFN production from plasmacytoid dendritic cells, leading to off-target effects. To separate immunostimulation from the desired gene-specific inhibitory activity, we designed RNA strands with chemical modifications at strategic positions of the ribose or nucleobase residues. Substitution of uridine residues by 2′-deoxyuridine or thymidine residues was found to decrease type I IFN production upon in vitro stimulation of human PBMC. Thymidine residues in both strands of a siRNA duplex further decreased immunostimulation. Fortunately, the thymidine residues did not affect gene-silencing activity. In contrast, 2′-O-methyl groups at adenosine and uridine residues reduced both IFN-α secretion and gene-silencing activity. Oligoribonucleotides with 2′-O-methyladenosine residues actively inhibited IFN-α secretion induced by other immunostimulatory RNAs, an effect not observed for strands with 2′-deoxynucleosides. Furthermore, neither 5-methylcytidine nor 7-deazaguanosine residues in the stimulatory strands affected IFN-α secretion, suggesting that recognition does not involve sites in the major groove of duplex regions. The activity data, together with structure prediction and exploratory UV-melting analyses, suggest that immunostimulatory sequences adopt folded structures. The results show that immunostimulation can be suppressed by suitable chemical modifications without losing siRNA potency by introducing seemingly minor structural changes.
Water Markets and Traditional Water Values: Merging Commodity and Community Perspectives

ABSTRACT The emergence of markets for water and water rights in the western region of the United States has been a source of significant conflict for decades now, particularly in locales in which water markets encounter the water values oftraditional native American and Hispanic communities. The notion that water is a commodity subject to monetary valuation and trade is commonly viewed as directly antagonistic to these culturally-based perspectives. Similar conflict is arising elsewhere in the world also as a new policy consensus that water should be recognized as an economic good emerges. This article examines the basis of this conflict and asserts that much of the conflict can be traced to misunderstanding of terminology and lack of respect for the water management practices of the traditional communities. Traditional communities faced with water scarcity have always treated water as an economic good, i.e., a substance necessitating tradeoff decisions in times of drought or shortage. Otherwise, they wou.
Saporin toxins directed to basic fibroblast growth factor receptors effectively target human ovarian teratocarcinoma in an animal model

Background. The antitumor activity of the chemical conjugate and recombinant forms of the mitotoxin basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) saporin (SAP) and the bFGF receptor‐directed immunotoxin 11A8‐SAP against human ovarian teratocarcinoma PA‐1 was examined in athymic nude mice. Alternative administration schedules to prolong therapeutic efficacy were explored.
Identification of protein‐protein interactions using in vivo cross‐linking and mass spectrometry

The purification of protein complexes can be accomplished by different types of affinity chromatography. In a typical immunoaffinity experiment, protein complexes are captured from a cell lysate by an immobilized antibody that recognizes an epitope on one of the known components of the complex. After extensive washing to remove unspecifically bound proteins, the complexes are eluted and analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS). Transient complexes, which are characterized by high dissociation constants, are typically lost by this approach. In the present study, we describe a novel method for identifying transient protein‐protein interactions using in vivo cross‐linking and MS‐based protein identification. Live cells are treated with formaldehyde, which rapidly permeates the cell membrane and generates protein‐protein cross‐links. Proteins cross‐linked to a Myc‐tagged protein of interest are copurified by immunoaffinity chromatography and subjected to a procedure which dissociates the cross‐linked complexes. After separation by SDS‐PAGE, proteins are identified by tandem mass spectrometry. Application of this method enabled the identification of numerous proteins that copurified with a constitutively active form of M‐Ras (M‐RasQ71L). Among these, we identified the RasGAP‐related protein IQGAP1 to be a novel interaction partner of M‐RasQ71L. This method is applicable to many proteins and will aid in the study of protein‐protein interactions.
Human Papillomavirus Seroprevalence Among Young Male and Female Drug Users

Objectives: To determine seroprevalence and correlates of exposure to HPV 16, 18, and 53 among 15- to 30-year-old drug users in Baltimore, MD. Study Design: Young, newly initiated injection and noninjection drug users underwent a behavioral risk assessment and HPV serology testing. Sex-specific analyses were performed comparing seropositive and seronegative participants using &khgr;2, Mann–Whitney tests, and logistic regression. Results: Participants (n = 553) were 43.0% female, 40.2% African American, and median age was 24 years. HPV seroprevalence among females and males, respectively, was: HPV-16, 38.2% and 7.0%; HPV-18, 42.4% and 7.3%; and HPV-53, 27.7% and 5.1%. Correlates of HPV seropositivity among females included being African American and anal sex, and among males, having had sex with another male. Conclusions: HPV seroprevalence was high among young drug users and significantly higher among females than males, supporting previous findings. Further research is required to fully understand HPV risk factors among men and the contribution of anal transmission in women.
Free Cash Flow and Stockholder Gains in Going Private Transactions Revisited

Lehn and Poulsen (1983) are frequently cited as providing evidence supporting the applicability of Jensen's (1986) 'free cash flow' hypothesis to going private transactions. The paper re-examines the Lehn and Poulsen data and arrives at different inferences about the applicability of Jensen's 'free cash flow' hypothesis to their sample. First, I find that neither the level of a public corporation's pre-transaction 'free cash flows' nor its prior growth rate are significant determinants of its probability of going private. Second, I find a firm's size and its potential for reducing taxes, rather than its pre-transaction level of 'free cash flows', are significant determinants of the premium paid to take it private. And finally, comparing their 1980-1983 subsample to their 1984-1987 subsample reveals that firms that went private during the 1984-1987 period demonstrate a greater incidence of prior takeover interest, lower prior tax burdens, and slower prior growth than firms that went private during the 1980-1983 period: all of which supports Kaplan and Stein's (1993) overheated buyout market hypothesis. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1998.
The impact of micro-credit on poverty: evidence from Bangladesh

This paper examines empirically the impact of micro-credit on poverty in Bangladesh. Unlike previous studies, the focus is on both objective and subjective poverty and particular attention is paid to the length of time programme participants have had access to micro-credit. A household-level survey (N = 954) was carried out, collecting information about micro-credit recipients from Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and the Association of Social Advancement. Our two main findings are, first, micro-credit is associated with both lower objective and subjective poverty and, secondly, the impact of micro-credit on poverty is particularly strong for about six years with some levelling off after that point.
Research on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation for information system security risk

Along with information network era widely accepted, the safety of information system faces a challenge and it is also seems to be necessity to evaluate its security risk. According to fuzzy comprehensive judgment theories, this text analysis the risk factors the information system involves from system risk, network risk, security management system, environment, and operation, and establishes the index system of information system security risk evaluation. It gives the evaluation method of information system security risk based on fuzzy comprehensive adjudicate. The model and method has been proved useful and effective by actual example.