Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can carotid ultrasound predict plaque histopathology?

AIM European and North American studies have confirmed the benefits of carotid endarterectomy for patients with symptomatic carotid artery stenoses >70%. However, the management of asymptomatic patients and those with lesser degrees of stenosis is less certain. Several studies have suggested that, for these subgroups, the targeting of potentially unstable plaques, may help to identify those most at risk of cerebrovascular accidents and thus most likely to benefit from surgery. The aim of this study was to correlate the ultrasound features of carotid artery stenosis with the histopathological findings of the carotid endarterectomy specimens in order to identify features which will allow preoperative identification of clinically unstable plaques. METHODS Sixty consecutive patients with symptomatic, critical carotid stenosis were prospectively studied. Plaques were classified preoperatively into one of five types based on their echogenicity and were also assessed for irregularity and ulceration. These findings were then compared with the histopathological findings of the endarterectomy specimen. RESULTS Of 33 plaques considered on ultrasound to be uniformly or predominantly echolucent (unstable), 27 were found to be largely fatty or haemorrhagic (PPV =82%). Of 17 plaques considered to be predominantly echogenic (stable) on ultrasound, 11 were found to be predominantly fibrotic (PPV = 65%). Correlation between ultrasound irregularity or ulceration and histopathology was poor. CONCLUSION In routine clinical practice, ultrasound can identify with reasonable accuracy, plaques that are predominantly haemorrhagic or fatty, and therefore potentially unstable. This may have future implications in selection of patients for surgery.
Productivity, efficiency and structural problems in Chinese dairy farms

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify the structural problem in the Chinese dairy sector. There exists a large number of low-efficiency, small-scale farms, and productivity inequality between small and large farms keeps increasing, which is a possible driving force behind the Melamine scandal in 2008. Design/methodology/approach - Using the stochastic frontier production function, this paper estimates and compares the changes in technology and technical efficiency between backyard, small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale dairy farms in China over the period between 2004 and 2008. Findings - There are compensating effects between technology and technical efficiency. However, low yield for backyard farms is mainly caused by traditional low-yield varieties, even though the technical efficiency is very high, which cannot compensate for the low technology. Research limitations/implications - The author put the assumption of constant return to scale mainly due to the data availability. Such an assumption implies that there are no scale-effects between the different scales in productivity, and the productivity difference is explained by technology and technical efficiency. Practical implications - In order to solve the structural problems, Chinese governments should help small-scale farmers to adopt new high-yield varieties, to subsidize small-scale farmers, and to train farmers to master the complicated skills for raising high-yield varieties. Originality/value - The paper gives another possible explanation for the Melamine scandal of milk powder in 2008. If the structural problem cannot be solved, similar food safety scandals could happen once again.
The expanding role of neuropsychology in geriatric psychiatry.

Accepted May 3, 2004. From the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego. Address correspondence to Barton W. Palmer, Ph.D., Dept. of Psychiatry, Univ. of California, San Diego, and VA San Diego Healthcare System, 116-A, 3350 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego, CA 92161. e-mail: bpalmer@ucsd.edu 2004 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry When one considers the potential content of an issue of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry on the theme of geriatric neuropsychology, the initial impression may be that it will be an edition focused on dementias and differential diagnosis of memory complaints. Those topics certainly are a part of what neuropsychology investigates in geriatric psychiatry. Indeed, one of the most common clinical referral questions for neuropsychologists working with older adults is some form of the question “Does this person’s complaint of memory problems reflect normal age-related forgetfulness, depression, or the early manifestations of Alzheimer disease (AD) or another dementia? ” However, neuropsychology has considerably wider relevance to geriatric psychiatry, both in terms of clinical and interventions research, and in routine clinical care. In addition to overtly neurocognitive disorders such as AD and other dementias, many neuropsychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia, severe mood disorders, substance abuse, and sleep disturbance are associated with some degree of neurocognitive impairment. The contribution of neuropsychology in research and clinical care of patients with these disorders is expanding. Examining the patterns of neuropsychological deficits may inform us about the nature of underlying neuropathology, but such examination also aids in documenting and perhaps decreasing the functional deficits associated with these conditions. The potential value of neuropsychological information is further magnified in the context of older psychiatric patients, where the cognitive deficits associated with psychiatric disorders may be compounded by normal age-related changes in cognitive functioning. What Is Neuropsychology?
Towards an Economic Theory of Replacement Investment

This paper develops an economic theory of replacement investment that can provide a basis for specifying an econometric model of investment behavior. The long-run and short-run effects of changes in the interest rate and in tax laws are examined. The paper also investigates several reasons why the common assumption of a technologically constant rate of replacement is incorrect even as an asymptotic limit. LARGE VARIATIONS in capital spending continue to motivate econometric studies of investment behavior. The past decade has seen the development of attempts to model net investment as the adjustment of the capital stock to a desirable level. Building on earlier work by Lutz [35], Haavelmo [21], and others, Jorgenson and his collaborators (e.g. [24, 28, 31, and 33]) have provided an operational model of net capital accumulation that relates desired capital to the cost of capital services. Although serious objections have been raised about the specification of the optimal capital stock (including [5, 9, 13, and 15]) and about the arbitrary nature of the adjustment dynamics [37], it is likely that some form of this general model will continue to provide a framework for future investment studies. In contrast to these developments of a theory of capital expansion, replacement investment continues to be analyzed in terms of a non-economic model of technical necessity. Jorgenson and others have adopted the simplifying assumption that replacement investment is a constant proportion of the capital stock.2 This assumption has been challenged and contrary evidence has been offered by Feldstein and Foot [14] and Eisner [10]. The purpose of the current paper is to examine several aspects of a theory of replacement investment. We hope not only to show that a model with a constant replacement rate is implausible and unsatisfactory but also to provide a basis for better empirical work in the future. The magnitude of replacement investment (the annual rate of replacement investment generally exceeds expansion investment) makes this issue a matter of substantial importance.
Managers' Theories About the Process of Innovation

Despite the widely-recognized importance of innovation to organizational competitiveness and national economic well-being, and despite the extensive commentary on the topic, the managerial processes which contribute to innovativeness and the factors and processes inhibiting its achievement remain underexplicated. This article contributes to an understanding of the management of innovation by approaching the innovation problem from an analysis of the accounts, interpretations and theories of the actors closely engaged with the process. Focusing on a large telecommunications equipment manufacturer, this article reveals how managerial discourse may hold the key to understanding the nature of the barriers to effective innovation.
Variables influencing anxiety of patients with abnormal cervical smears referred for colposcopy

The state anxiety scores of women with abnormal cervical smears referred for colposcopy were investigated to identify causes of anxiety, factors influencing anxiety and emotions involved with anxiety, in order to define strategies to reduce this anxiety. Forty-seven women were interviewed and completed a questionnaire and the Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI): 22 women prior to their intake consultation at the colposcopy clinic of the University Medical Center St Radboud, Nijmegen, and 25 women during their second visit before the actual colposcopy. The mean State anxiety score was 48.2, without significant differences between the intake and colposcopy consultation. The majority experienced anxiety because of a fear of cancer and/or the colposcopy. The mean State anxiety score was significantly higher in women who considered the level of information provided by the gynecologist/family practitioner insufficient, who experienced a long waiting time, who did not have a partner, and who experienced additional emotions like anger and sadness. In conclusion, patients referred for colposcopy after an abnormal cervical smear result have high levels of anxiety. High levels of anxiety may be reduced by uniform and explicit information about cervical smear results and colposcopy, by reduction of clinic waiting times, by stimulating social support, and by attention to emotions like anger and sadness.
Burden sharing in a greenhouse: egalitarianism and sovereignty reconciled

The allocation of emission entitlements across countries is the single most controversial issue in international climate policy. Extreme positions within the policy debate range from entitlements based on current emission patterns (sovereignty) to entitlements based on equal-per-capita allocations (egalitarianism). This paper shows that gradual convergence from sovereignty towards egalitarianism could provide a pragmatic solution to the equity debate: When combined with international emissions trading, the convergence approach stands out for offering the developing countries substantial incentives for participation in the international greenhouse gas abatement effort without imposing excessive burdens on the industrialized countries.
Long/Short Equity Hedge Fund Investing

Investors in long/short equity hedge funds frequently debate the relative merits of generalist and sector specialist hedge fund managers. Most of this debate has been anecdotal. Conventional wisdom favors specialists for their focus, dedication, and expertise in a single sector. Based on an empirical study, the authors found that sector specialists as a whole are not better off than generalists in terms of their exposure to systematic risks. After adjusting for volatility, the percentage of funds with positive performance Graham-Harvey measures is almost identical for generalists and sector specialists. They also present evidence that skilled managers are not an overwhelming majority within their sample of the long/short hedge fund managers. Finally, the study suggests that the more extreme the market dislocation, the lower the diversification benefits that average hedge fund managers can offer. On average, many sector specialists have higher correlation to relevant benchmarks than generalists in extreme market dislocations. However, all strategies fail to provide adequate downside protection under the worst market conditions. Furthermore, after accounting for market activities (such as volatility) in a specified market, their study shows, using various performance measures, that there is no major significant difference between generalists and sector specialists when observed as a group.
Facultative alkaliphiles lack fatty acid desaturase activity and lose the ability to grow at near-neutral pH when supplemented with an unsaturated fatty acid

Two obligate alkaliphiles were found to have high levels of fatty acid desaturase, whereas two facultative alkaliphiles had no detectable activity. Supplementation of the growth medium of one facultative strain with palmitoleic acid, but not palmitic acid, at pH 7.5 inhibited growth. The obligate strain outgrows the facultative strain in a chemostat at a very high pH, whereas the converse is true at a pH of 7.5, and the two strains grow equally well at pH 9.0. Thus, the obligate strain is compromised at a near-neutral pH but is better adapted than a related facultative alkaliphile to an extremely alkaline pH.
Capital Structure Dynamics with Interrelated Adjustment: Australian Evidence

The paper examines the dynamics of financial structure decisions through the specification and estimation of a dynamic model of capital structure choice. Using a multivariate adjustment model and pooled annual time series/crosssectional data for 164 publicly listed Australian firms over the 1967–1985 period, we find evidence of interrelated adjustment, interdependence in investment and financing decisions, and very slow adjustment to the desired capital structure. The model also sheds light on the long-run determinants of capital structure of Australian firms, including their debt maturity choice.
Ecological Risk Assessment and Natural Resource Damage Assessment: Synthesis of Assessment Procedures

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is 1 of 4 papers reporting on the results of a SETAC technical workshop titled “The Nexus Between Ecological Risk Assessment and Natural Resource Damage Assessment Under CERCLA: Understanding and Improving the Common Scientific Underpinnings,” held 18–22 August 2008 in Montana, USA, to examine approaches to ecological risk assessment and natural resource damage assessment in US contaminated site cleanup legislation known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) convened an invited workshop (August 2008) to address coordination between ecological risk assessment (ERA) and natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). Although ERA and NRDA activities are performed under a number of statutory and regulatory authorities, the primary focus of the workshop was on ERA and NRDA as currently practiced in the United States under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This paper presents the findings and conclusions of the Synthesis Work Group, 1 of 3 work groups convened at the workshop. The Synthesis Work Group concluded that the different programmatic objectives and legal requirements of the 2 processes preclude development of a single, integrated ERA/NRDA process. However, although institutional and programmatic impediments exist to integration of the 2 processes, parties are capitalizing on opportunities to coordinate technical and scientific elements of the assessments at a number of locations. Although it is important to recognize and preserve the distinctions between ERA and NRDA, opportunities for data sharing exist, particularly for the characterization of environmental exposures and derivation of ecotoxicological information. Thus, effective coordination is not precluded by the underlying science. Rather, willing participants, accommodating schedules, and recognition of potential efficiencies associated with shared data collection can lead to enhanced coordination and consistency between ERA and NRDA.
Government and Trade Unions

Some of the harder lessons of my life have stemmed from a dawning realization that not every rational person shared my appreciation of the surpassing excellence of all people and things Mancunian. The Trades Union Congress started there with its first Congress in the Mechanics Institute, and the labour movement as a whole owes much to that city. Jim Conway too was a son of Manchester and indeed a civic father, since he was a councillor and chair of the Health Committee for several years. It is therefore a great personal pleasure for me to be able to pay tribute to his memory. Jim Conway’s early working life was, like that of his contemporary and rival Hugh Scanlon, in Trafford Park at Metropolitan–Vickers. He was elected shop steward at the age of 15. He went on to become branch secretary and then district president. His rise as a national official was meteoric, and he was elected General Secretary within five years of going to Peckham. He was already well established as General Secretary of the AEU when I joined the staff of the TUC in 1969. His contributions to the TUC were constrained by AEU rules at the time, but he did within a very short time achieve the distinction of being elected chair of the TUC’s General Purposes Committee, and became an expert in its black arts of compositing, brotherly love and wheeler dealing. Jim Conway was an unashamed right-winger in trade union terms. He was utterly loyal to the Labour Party in particular. He took real pride in being entrusted with this stewardship, and he fulfilled it tirelessly and skilfully until his premature death in the Paris air disaster in March 1974. Just a few days before Jim’s death, Labour had won a general election against all the odds, in which the role of the trade unions had been the most prominent issue. That election had been called in the midst of the 1974 miners’ strike and was ostensibly about ‘who rules Britain? ’ Despite that, governments of both parties saw a need to get the TUC and unions onside for a constructive approach to industrial and social change—all in the context of their view that widening inequality was socially harmful and economically unhelpful, and that full employment was the central goal of economic policy. Some disputes andthebreakdownoftheSocialCharter later, theeconomywassetonacourse
Construction of a High-Density Genetic Map from RNA-Seq Data for an Arabidopsis Bay-0 × Shahdara RIL Population

High-density genetic maps are essential for high resolution mapping of quantitative traits. Here, we present a new genetic map for an Arabidopsis Bayreuth × Shahdara recombinant inbred line (RIL) population, built on RNA-seq data. RNA-seq analysis on 160 RILs of this population identified 30,049 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) covering the whole genome. Based on a 100-kbp window SNP binning method, 1059 bin-markers were identified, physically anchored on the genome. The total length of the RNA-seq genetic map spans 471.70 centimorgans (cM) with an average marker distance of 0.45 cM and a maximum marker distance of 4.81 cM. This high resolution genotyping revealed new recombination breakpoints in the population. To highlight the advantages of such high-density map, we compared it to two publicly available genetic maps for the same population, comprising 69 PCR-based markers and 497 gene expression markers derived from microarray data, respectively. In this study, we show that SNP markers can effectively be derived from RNA-seq data. The new RNA-seq map closes many existing gaps in marker coverage, saturating the previously available genetic maps. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis for published phenotypes using the available genetic maps showed increased QTL mapping resolution and reduced QTL confidence interval using the RNA-seq map. The new high-density map is a valuable resource that facilitates the identification of candidate genes and map-based cloning approaches.
Determinants of credit spread changes for the financial sector

Purpose - Most of the credit spread literature deals with the determinants of credit spread changes for individual bonds. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the explanatory power of credit spread changes and their determinants for portfolios. Design/methodology/approach - Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and monthly data from 1990 to 1997, this paper tests several new potential determinants (e.g. portfolio diversification) and expectations (and realizations) for some previously identified determinants (e.g. gross domestic product (GDP)) of credit spread changes for portfolios of financials as derived from spot curves. Findings - Strong empirical support is reported that default risk and undiversified risk are priced in credit spreads. The paper finds that forecasts for GDP and inflation are better determinants of credit spread changes than the realized values previously used in the literature, which is consistent with the notion that term structures convey expectations about future interest rates. Research limitations/implications - Interesting issues for future research include the sensitivity of the results to the use of other procedures for deriving zero-coupon spot rates, and whether forecasts of macrovariables (such as GDP) are better determinants of credit spreads for other industrial categories, such as utilities and industrials. Practical implications - The findings provide guidance for the management of risk for fixed income portfolios, for the pricing of fixed income securities differentiated by the difficulties encountered in achieving well-diversified portfolios, and for assessing the performance of credit spread portfolios managed by financial institutions. Originality/value - The empirical model, which achieves substantial explanatory power while being parsimonious, is the first to support the usage of forecasts instead of realized values in determining credit spreads, and to show that undiversifiable risk is an important component of the credit spreads of portfolios.
A Statistical Framework for Dealing with Endogeneity

We propose a general framework for dealing with endogeneity in models in marketing and economics. It consists of a multivariate, hierarchical, mixed discrete/continuous representation of behavioral response variables. Importantly, it includes a non-parametric approximation to unobserved sources of exogenous information. It complements the instrumental variables (IV) approach in that it may but does not need to include, observable instruments. After presenting the theoretical basis of the method, a simulation study reveals that parameters can be estimated consistently even if instruments are not observed. The proposed approach is applied in three case studies in business and economics. They include a case where a standard IV is inadequate in correcting for endogeneity bias, and two cases where IVs are not available. In the examples, the proposed framework corrects for endogeneity bias without recourse to IVs. Resulting policy actions are shown to be different from equivalent models that ignore endogeneity. We conclude that the approach has applications in marketing and economics as a framework for testing for conjectured endogeneity. The development of theoretical arguments motivating the investigation of endogeneity remains crucial, but even after such a rigorous theoretical analysis there will remain instances in which instruments are not available, cannot be found, or where empirically their quality is insufficient, in which case the proposed framework provides a useful alternative.