Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Usefulness of Monetary and Fiscal Policy as Discretionary Stabilization Tools

THE APPARENT INABILrry of the governmental stabilization policies to dampen inflation has rekindled old arguments concerning the relative effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy. The previous widespread faith in the importance of fiscal policy, demonstrated theoretically by Keynesian models and supported empirically (in most people's opinion) by the postKorean War recession, the success of the 1964 tax cut, and the Vietnam War boom, has been called into question now that the 1968 surtax seems to have had so little effect on aggregate demand. Simultaneously with this decline in the fortunes of fiscal policy has come a new monetarist attack purporting to demonstrate that monetary policy is more important than most people had thought it to be, and that fiscal policy has no effect at all on aggregate demand. Obviously government stabilization strategies depend in an important way on the resolution of this debate. For example, if fiscal policy has no effect on demand, it makes no sense to use it as if it does. Fiscal policy should rather be used to determine the distribution of resources between the public and private sector, the allocation of tax burdens, and other economic goals where it does have an effect. By the same token, if monetary policy is all-important, the central bank should probably tend to be more cautious, or "gradual," in its use of monetary instruments. There are two separate empirical issues underlying the debate about the usefulness of monetary and fiscal policies as discretionary stabilization tools. First is the well-known question of the relative strengths of monetary and fiscal policy. Although this question has attracted much attention for the past decade, the issue is as far from being resolved today as it ever was. A whole
Reconsidering the Effect of Political Regime Type on Foreign Aid Effectiveness

Existing evidence seems to show that foreign aid from Western governments has been, at best, only conditionally effective at promoting economic growth. Consequently, scholars and policymakers alike want to identify the factors that make aid more effective in this regard. In terms of aid’s conditional effectiveness, scholars have thus far focused most of their attention on economic conditions within recipient countries (for example, Burnside and Dollar 2000). But political factors may also influence aid effectiveness (Wright and Winters 2010). Indeed, given Easterly, Levine, and Roodman’s (2004) result showing that aid effectiveness does not vary in terms of the preexisting macroeconomic policy environment within recipients (contra Burnside and Dollar), political factors may well be important determinants of aid (in)effectiveness. This commentary thus considers whether aid effectiveness should depend, at least in part, on the political regime type of the recipient government. Stated differently, how might political regime type mediate the effectiveness of foreign aid? As will be discussed below, the answer to this question is less obvious than it might appear because the recipient’s political regime may influence aid effectiveness in different ways depending on the causal channel through which one expects foreign aid to impact economic growth. Before proceeding, it is useful to define terms in order to set some boundaries for the discussion that follows. Within this commentary, “political regime type” will simply refer to the “democraticness” of the recipient’s political system. There is, of course, important variation among the set of more democratic countries (for example, different electoral institutions) and also among the set of less democratic countries (for example, single-party, military, or personalistic), but these regime type differences will not be discussed here. The term “foreign aid effectiveness” will refer to aid’s ability to promote economic growth within the recipient national economy, based
Can social media be used as a hospital quality improvement tool?

Many hospitals wish to improve their patients' experience of care. To learn whether social media could be used as a tool to engage patients and to identify opportunities for hospital quality improvement (QI), we solicited patients' narrative feedback on the Baystate Medical Center Facebook page during a 3-week period in 2014. Two investigators used directed qualitative content analysis to code comments and descriptive statistics to assess the frequency of selected codes and themes. We identified common themes, including: (1) comments about staff (17/37 respondents, 45.9%); (2) comments about specific departments (22/37, 59.5%); (3) comments on technical aspects of care, including perceived errors and inattention to pain control (9/37, 24.3%); and (4) comments describing the hospital physical plant, parking, and amenities (9/37, 24.3%). A small number (n = 3) of patients repeatedly responded, accounting for 30% (45/148) of narratives. Although patient feedback on social media could help to drive hospital QI efforts, any potential benefits must be weighed against the reputational risks, the lack of representativeness among respondents, and the volume of responses needed to identify areas of improvement.
Targeted Support for High-Growth Start-ups: Some Policy Issues

Launched in 1999/2000, the new high-growth start-up programme is part of a shift in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policy in the United Kingdom away from a narrow focus on supporting established businesses with growth potential, to include start-ups and other types of SME. In this context, the authors consider some of the policy issues surrounding the design, development, and implementation of the new programme, with the aid of results from in-depth research in the East Midlands region. After a brief description of the new enhanced support programme for high-growth start-ups, and the policy context in which it was introduced, the authors review the support needs of this type of business and how the new programme might contribute to addressing these. In the final section they consider some of the wider policy issues raised by the programme in terms of the extent to which: first, effective regional models can be developed to encourage widespread participation by appropriate private sector organisations; second, access to appropriate finance, including seedcorn and venture capital, can be increased for high-growth-potential start-ups; third, universities are able to contribute to the generation of new business activity and become integrated into regional business support infrastructures; and fourth, the enhanced support programme is tuned to the needs of the target group and is effectively delivered.
Toronto’s Image As a Destination: A Comparative Importance-Satisfaction Analysis by Origin of Visitor

The purposes of this study were to examine Toronto visitors’ perceptions of products and services in terms of importance and satisfaction by visitor origin and to apply the results to the importance-satisfaction model to identify strengths in service. The sample consisted of 359 visitors to Toronto in either August or November 1998. The results suggest that, in general, the overall visitors’ image of Toronto is similar. Closer analysis of the visitors’ country of origin, however, shows that there are some important differences in the attributes seen as important as well as in levels of satisfaction.
A biomarker-based mathematical model to predict bone-forming potency of human synovial and periosteal mesenchymal stem cells.

OBJECTIVE To develop a biomarker-based model to predict osteogenic potency of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from synovial membrane and periosteum. METHODS MSC populations were derived from adult synovium and periosteum. Phenotype analysis was performed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Telomere lengths were determined by Southern blot analysis. In vitro osteogenesis was assessed quantitatively by measurements of alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium deposits. To investigate bone formation in vivo, MSCs were seeded onto osteoinductive scaffolds and implanted subcutaneously in nude mice. Bone was assessed by histology, and the human origin investigated by in situ hybridization for human Alu genomic repeats. Quantitation was achieved by histomorphometry and real-time RT-PCR for human osteocalcin. Analysis at the single-cell level was performed with clonal populations obtained by limiting dilution. Multiple regressions were used to explore the incremental predictive value of the markers. RESULTS Periosteal MSCs had significantly greater osteogenic potency than did synovial MSCs inherent to the single cell. Bone was largely of human origin in vivo. Within the same tissue type, there was variability between different donors. To identify predictors of osteogenic potency, we measured the expression levels of osteoblast lineage genes in synovial and periosteal clonal MSCs prior to osteogenic treatment. We identified biomarkers that correlated with osteogenic outcome and developed a mathematical model based on type I collagen and osteoprotegerin expression that predicts the bone-forming potency of MSC preparations, independent of donor-related variables and tissue source. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that our quality-control mathematical model estimates the bone-forming potency of MSC preparations for bone repair.
Genome-Wide Nucleosome Occupancy and Positioning and Their Impact on Gene Expression and Evolution in Plants1[OPEN]

Nucleosome dynamics impacts on gene expression and evolution in rice and Arabidopsis. The fundamental unit of chromatin is the nucleosome that consists of a protein octamer composed of the four core histones (Hs; H3, H4, H2A, and H2B) wrapped by 147 bp of DNA. Nucleosome occupancy and positioning have proven to be dynamic and have a critical impact on expression, regulation, and evolution of eukaryotic genes. We developed nucleosome occupancy and positioning data sets using leaf tissue of rice (Oryza sativa) and both leaf and flower tissues of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We show that model plant and animal species share the fundamental characteristics associated with nucleosome dynamics. Only 12% and 16% of the Arabidopsis and rice genomes, respectively, were occupied by well-positioned nucleosomes. The cores of positioned nucleosomes were enriched with G/C dinucleotides and showed a lower C→T mutation rate than the linker sequences. We discovered that nucleosomes associated with heterochromatic regions were more spaced with longer linkers than those in euchromatic regions in both plant species. Surprisingly, different nucleosome densities were found to be associated with chromatin in leaf and flower tissues in Arabidopsis. We show that deep MNase-seq data sets can be used to map nucleosome occupancy of specific genomic loci and reveal gene expression patterns correlated with chromatin dynamics in plant genomes.
Effect of Antibacterial Dental Adhesive on Multispecies Biofilms Formation

Antibacterial adhesives have favorable prospects to inhibit biofilms and secondary caries. The objectives of this study were to investigate the antibacterial effect of dental adhesives containing dimethylaminododecyl methacrylate (DMADDM) on different bacteria in controlled multispecies biofilms and its regulating effect on development of biofilm for the first time. Antibacterial material was synthesized, and Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus gordonii, and Streptococcus sanguinis were chosen to form multispecies biofilms. Lactic acid assay and pH measurement were conducted to study the acid production of controlled multispecies biofilms. Anthrone method and exopolysaccharide (EPS):bacteria volume ratio measured by confocal laser scanning microscopy were performed to determine the EPS production of biofilms. The colony-forming unit counts, scanning electron microscope imaging, and dead:live volume ratio decided by confocal laser scanning microscopy were used to study the biomass change of controlled multispecies biofilms. The TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction and fluorescent in situ hybridization imaging were used to study the proportion change in multispecies biofilms of different groups. The results showed that DMADDM-containing adhesive groups slowed the pH drop and decreased the lactic acid production noticeably, especially lactic acid production in the 5% DMADDM group, which decreased 10- to 30-fold compared with control group (P < 0.05). EPS was reduced significantly in 5% DMADDM group (P < 0.05). The DMADDM groups reduced the colony-forming unit counts significantly (P < 0.05) and had higher dead:live volume ratio in biofilms compared with control group (P < 0.05). The proportion of S. mutans decreased steadily in DMADDM-containing groups and continually increased in control group, and the biofilm had a more healthy development tendency after the regulation of DMADDM. In conclusion, the adhesives containing DMADDM had remarkable antimicrobial properties to serve as “bioactive” adhesive materials and revealed its potential value for antibiofilm and anticaries clinical applications.
Causal Relationships between Financial Development, Trade Openness and Economic Growth: The Case of Turkey

Problem statement: The main objective of this study was to examine the causality relations between financial development, trade openness and economic growth (GDP) for the Turkish economy. Approach: In time series context, recently developed econometric techniques were used: namely the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) for unit root, Johansen and Juselius (JJ) for cointegration and Granger causality test for causal relationships. Results: The findings of the study showed that while trade openness has a positive effect, financial development has a negative effect on growth. Conclusion: Moreover, the Granger causality test results revealed the presence of bicausal relationship between financial development, trade openness and growth indicating that economic policies aimed at financial development and trade openness have a statistically significant impact on economic growth.
Antagonistic crosstalk between APC and HIF-1α

Most colorectal cancers have mutations in the tumor suppressor APC. The best-understood function of APC is its participation in a protein complex that regulates the availability of β-catenin. Solid tumors are characterized by the presence of hypoxia as well as inflammation, which leads to the upregulation of Hypoxia Inducible Factors like HIF-1α. We recently demonstrated a novel antagonistic link between APC and HIF-1α. We found that hypoxia results in reduced levels of APC mRNA and protein via a direct HIF-1α-dependent mechanism. Similarly, APC mediates the repression of HIF-1α. However, this requires wild-type APC, low levels of β-catenin and NFκB activity. These results reveal the downregulation of APC as a novel mechanism that contributes to the survival advantage induced by hypoxia and cytokines such as TNFα. Our data indicate that loss-of-function mutations in APC result in the engagement of the hypoxia response. Importantly, this suggests that other stimuli that induce HIF, such as inflammatory cytokines and oncogenes, alter APC function.
Newer respiratory virus infections: human metapneumovirus, avian influenza virus, and human coronaviruses

Purpose of review Recently, several previously unrecognized respiratory viral pathogens have been identified and several influenza A virus subtypes, previously known to infect poultry and wild birds, were transmitted to humans. Here we review the recent literature on these respiratory viruses. Recent findings Human metapneumovirus has now been detected worldwide, causing severe respiratory tract illnesses primarily in very young, elderly and immunocompromised individuals. Animal models and reverse genetic techniques were designed for human metapneumovirus, and the first vaccine candidates have been developed. Considerable genetic and antigenic diversity was observed for human metapneumovirus, but the implication of this diversity for vaccine development and virus epidemiology requires further study. Two previously unrecognized human coronaviruses were discovered in 2004 in The Netherlands and Hong Kong. Their clinical impact and epidemiology are largely unknown and warrant further investigation. Several influenza A virus subtypes were transmitted from birds to humans, and these viruses continue to constitute a pandemic threat. The clinical symptoms associated with these zoonotic transmissions range from mild respiratory illnesses and conjunctivitis to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, sometimes resulting in death. More basic research into virus ecology and evolution and development of effective vaccines and antiviral strategies are required to limit the impact of influenza A virus zoonoses and the threat of an influenza pandemic. Summary Previously unknown and emerging respiratory viruses are an important threat to human health. Development of virus diagnostic tests, antiviral strategies, and vaccines for each of these pathogens is crucial to limit their impact.
The singular perturbation analysis for one-dimensional poisson-nernst-planck equation

We investigate the qualitative property for one-dimensional steady-state Poisson-Nernst-Equation by matched asymptotic expansions, and find that the inner solution is the Weierstrass's elliptic function, so the inner and outer solutions are not matched at the boundary layer. Therefore, perhaps the long channel limit is not suitable for actual problem, otherwise this prompts us to try the other asymptotic expansions method.
Changes in suicide in England and Wales, 1960–1997

Background Methods of suicide and suicide rates in England and Wales have fluctuated considerably since the 1960s. Aims To review the changes that have occurred in suicide rates in England and Wales between 1960 and 1997. Method Suicide rates, derived from total annual suicides and the estimated annual resident population, were obtained from the Office for National Statistics. Results Suicide rates decreased in both genders between the early 1960s and the mid-1970s. The rate for males then increased between 1975 and 1990, while the rate for females continued to fall. Between 1990 and 1997, the rate decreased for males and females in all age groups, particularly for those using motor vehicle exhaust gas; the latter finding is associated with increasing use of catalytic converters. Conclusions Following the increase in suicide among males until 1990 there was a decrease for both genders between 1990 and 1997, consistent with the ‘Health of the Nation’ target.
Occupational molybdenum exposure and a gouty electrician.

BACKGROUND Molybdenum is an essential trace element and a component of xanthine oxidase, which catalyses the formation of urate. The toxicity of molybdenum in humans is considered to be low, but hyperuricaemia and gout-like symptoms have been observed sporadically. METHODS A case of hyperuricaemia and gouty arthritis in a young man with occupational exposure to molybdenum is described. Improvement during an exposure-free period was followed by a relapse after a reconstruction designed to quantify his molybdenum exposure. CONCLUSION This case seems to represent the first observation of gout associated with occupational molybdenum exposure, but the association might also be entirely circumstantial.
Chloramphenicol therapy in pregnancy.

trial of amphotericin B colloidal dispersion vs. amphotericin B in the empirical treatment of fever and neutropenia. Clin Infect Dis 1998; 27:296-302. 3. Walsh T, Bodensteiner D, Hiemenz J, et al. A randomized, double-blind trial of AmBisome (liposomal amphotericin B) versus amphotericin B in the empirical treatment of persistently febrile neutropenic patients [abstract LM-90]. In: Program and abstracts of the 37th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (Toronto). Washington, DC: American Society for Microbiology, 1997.
An improved random walk based clustering algorithm for community detection in complex networks

In recent years, there is an increasing interest in the research community in finding community structure in complex networks. The networks are usually represented as graphs, and the task is usually cast as a graph clustering problem. Traditional clustering algorithms and graph partitioning algorithms have been applied to this problem. New graph clustering algorithms have also been proposed. Random walk based clustering, in which the similarities between pairs of nodes in a graph are usually estimated using random walk with restart (RWR) algorithm, is one of the most popular graph clustering methods. Most of these clustering algorithms only find disjoint partitions in networks; however, communities in many real-world networks often overlap to some degree. In this paper, we propose an efficient clustering method based on random walks for discovering communities in graphs. The proposed method makes use of network topology and edge weights, and is able to discover overlapping communities. We analyze the effect of parameters in the proposed method on clustering results. We evaluate the proposed method on real world social networks that are well documented in the literature, using both topological-based and knowledge-based evaluation methods. We compare the proposed method to other clustering methods including recently published Repeated Random Walks, and find that the proposed method achieves better precision and accuracy values in terms of six statistical measurements including both data-driven and knowledge-driven evaluation metrics.
Partisan Politics, Divided Government, and the Economy

1. Introduction 2. Models of policy divergence 3. A theory of institutional balancing 4. The midterm cycle 5. Diversity, persistence, and mobility 6. Incumbency and moderation 7. Partisan business cycles 8. The President, Congress, and the economy 9. Economic growth and national elections in the United States: 1915-88 10. Partisan economic policy and divided government in parliamentary democracies.
The Effects of Child Care Provision in Mexico

In 2007, seeking to increase female labor force participation and more generally ease burdens on working women, the Mexican government introduced an enormous expansion of a child care program: Estancias Infantiles para Apoyar a Madres Trabajadoras (EI). EI covers 90 percent approximately of the cost of enrolling a child under age four at a formal child care center and is intended to benefit women who are looking for work, in school, or working -with the exception of those who already have access to child care because their job is covered by Mexico's social security system (IMSS). The roll-out of EI was so fast and intense that, by mid-2010, it had approximately 357,000 child care spaces. In order to identify the effects of the program I use a combination of triple differences and synthetic control methods, and find that EI increased women's probability of working and reduced the time they devoted to child rearing. EI also caused women to obtain more stable jobs and it increased their labor incomes. Affected husbands spent less time on child rearing and housework, and they were more likely to switch to a better-paid job.