Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bank efficiency in the enlarged European Union

This paper aims to estimate bank efficiency differences across member states of the European Union and tries to explain their causes. We show on an empirical basis that the level and spread of bank efficiency in the EU and their changes are significantly determined by characteristics of operational environment and the “conscious” behaviour of management.In the long term, through the integration of financial markets and institutions, as well as the establishment of the Single European Banking Market, the impact of advantages and disadvantages underlying the operational environment is reduced or eliminated; therefore only managerial ability is of any relevance. Our findings suggest that there is a costefficiency gap and convergence between the old and new member states, irrespective of the specifications of the model. With respect to profit efficiency, however, differences in efficiency between the two regions are only established after controlling for some major characteristics of the varying operational environments. Our study also investigates the relevance of and the correlation between accounting-based and statistics-based efficiency indicators. We conclude that the accounting based efficiency indicators are inadequate for managing heterogeneity arising from institutional and operational environments. Hence such indicators only allow limited cross-sectional comparison through time.
Comparison of Icodextrin- and Glucose-Based Peritoneal Dialysis Fluids in Their Acute and Chronic Effects on Human Peritoneal Mesothelial Cells

Background Icodextrin-based peritoneal dialysis fluids (PDFs) display several features that may potentially improve their biocompatibility compared to conventional glucose-containing solutions. So far, however, the studies assessing the biocompatibility profile of icodextrin toward human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMC) has produced mixed results. The present study was performed to examine the acute and chronic impact of icodextrin on HPMC in vitro in comparison with standard glucose-based PDF. Methods Omentum-derived HPMC were either acutely pre-exposed to or incubated chronically (for up to 10 days) in the presence of icodextrin-PDF. Parallel cultures were treated with conventional PDFs containing either 1.5% or 4.25% glucose. All fluids were tested at neutral pH. HPMC were assessed for viability, proliferation, IL-6 secretion and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Results Incubation in the presence of icodextrin-PDF significantly reduced HPMC proliferation in a manner similar to that of 1.5% glucose-PDF In addition, exposure to icodextrin-PDF impaired viability and IL-6 release from HPMC. This effect occurred both after the short pre-treatment with neat icodextrin-PDF for 1–4 hours and after prolonged incubation (up to 10 days) in media supplemented with icodextrin-PDF (1:1). The dysfunction of icodextrin-treated HPMC was of the magnitude that was between the effects exerted by 1.5%- and 4.25%-glucose PDF. Furthermore, exposure of HPMC to icodextrin-PDF induced a dose-dependent increase in ROS generation which was comparable to that produced by 1.5%-glucose PDF. Conclusion Exposure to icodextrin-PDF may impair viability and function of HPMC. The detrimental effects of icodextrin-PDF are at least as serious as those produced by conventional heat-sterilized low glucose-based PDF.
Tryptophan Metabolite Excretion in Connective Tissue Diseases Demonstrating a Difference Between Rheumatoid Spondylitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis.∗

Summary Urinary excretion of kynurenine was measured in a group of patients with various connective tissue diseases and compared to normal controls. Elevated kynurenine excretion was found in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythema-tosus, and in 2 patients with polymyositis; whereas excretion of kynurenine in patients with scleroderma and rheumatoid spondylitis was not significantly different from normal controls. The demonstrated difference in kynurenine excretion between patients with rheumatoid spondylitis and those with rheumatoid arthritis in this study provides additional evidence that the two conditions are distinct clinical entities. The valuable technical assistance of Miss Geneva Blackburn is gratefully (acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank Miss Carol Brewster for supervision of the diet used in this study.
A Study on the CEO Compensation: Focusing on the Difference between Small and Medium Business and other Firms

The objective of this paper is to explore the association between small and medium business and CEO compensation for Korean listed firms. More specifically, focusing on the CEO’s cash compensation, we empirically investigate whether small and medium business exhibits different level of compensation when compared to other enterprises. We find that small and medium business exhibits lower level of CEO compensation relative to other firms. This result supports our argument that the lower degree of agency problem in small and medium business compared to other firms induces lower level of CEO compensation. Since understanding the mechanisms regarding CEO compensation directly is extremely hard, our research might provide useful information to the interested parties.
A Method for Simulating Spray Pyrolysis Deposition in the Level Set Framework

The ability to deposit a thin tin oxide film on CMOS chip dies has enabled the manufacture of modern smart gas sensor devices. Spray pyrolysis deposition is used to grow the required thin films, as it is an affordable deposition technique which can be integrated into a standard CMOS processing sequence. A model for spray pyrolysis deposition is developed and implemented within the Level Set framework using Monte Carlo techniques. Two models for the topography modification due to spray pyrolysis deposition are presented, with an electric nozzle and a pressure atomizing nozzle. The resulting film growth is described as a layer by layer deposition of the individual droplets which reach the wafer surface and deposit as flat round disks or as a CVD-like process, depending on whether the droplets form a vapor near the interface or they deposit a film only after surface collision. Some additional geometries are simulated in order to analyze how the spray pyrolysis technique coats trench structures, essential for increasing the surface area of the gas sensing layer.
Maternal Microchimerism in Juvenile Tonsils and Adenoids

During pregnancy small amounts of cells pass between the mother and the fetus, and this transfer may give rise to a chimeric state that persist for years in both individuals. Both fetal and maternal microchimerism (MMc) have been associated with different autoimmune disorders. Information about MMc in tissues of healthy individuals is sparse but is important when looking for maternal cells within affected tissues of certain diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of maternal cells in tonsils and adenoids of 20 healthy children between the ages of 2 and 15 years. All the children underwent surgery because of recurrent tonsillitis or respiratory obstruction. MMc was detected using an RT-PCR assay based on differences in gene polymorphisms between mother and child. We found maternal cells in the tonsils and/or adenoids in four of 20 children. This frequency is less than the frequency of maternal cells found in the peripheral blood of healthy adults but in agreement with the previously reported frequency of maternal chimerism in control tissues.
Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: Theory, Practice and Cases

Written by an international group of researchers widely known for their expertise in the field of the Internet and tourism, this book presents cutting-edge theory, research and case studies. It investigates web 2.0 applications and tools that transform the role and behaviour of the new generation of travellers, as well as examining the ways in which firms reengineer and implement their business models and operations, such as new service development, marketing, networking and knowledge management.
The Public Option in Housing Finance

The U.S. housing finance system presents a conundrum for the scholar of regulation because it defies description using the traditional regulatory vocabulary of command-and-control, taxation, subsidies, cap-and-trade permits, and litigation. Instead, since the New Deal, the housing finance market has been regulated primarily by government participation in the market through a panoply of institutions. The government’s participation in the market has shaped the nature of the products offered in the market. We term this form of regulation “public option” regulation.This Article presents a case study of this “public option” as a regulatory mode. It explains the public option’s rise as a governmental gap-filling response to market failures. The public option, however, took on a life of its own as the federal government undertook financial innovations that the private market had eschewed, in particular the development of the “American mortgage” — a long-term, fixed-rate fully amortizing mortgage. These innovations were trend-setting and set the tone for entire housing finance market, serving as functional regulation.The public option was never understood as a regulatory system due to its ad hoc nature. As a result, its integrity was not protected. Key parts of the system were privatized without a substitution of alternative regulatory measures. The consequence was a return to the very market failures that led to the public option in the first place, followed by another round of ad hoc public options in housing finance. This history suggests that an awareness of the public option regulatory mode in housing finance is in fact critical to its long-term success, and that the public option is a well- pedigreed regulatory mode that has historically been associated with stable housing finance markets.
Cationic liposomes for gene delivery

Cationic liposome–DNA complexes (lipoplexes) constitute a potentially viable alternative to viral vectors for the delivery of therapeutic genes. This review will focus on various parameters governing lipoplex biological activity, from their mode of formation to invivo behaviour. Particular emphasis is given to the mechanism of interaction of lipoplexes with cells, in an attempt to dissect the different barriers that need to be surpassed for efficient gene expression to occur. Aspects related to new trends in the formulation of lipid-based gene delivery systems aiming at overcoming some of their limitations will be covered. Finally, examples illustrating the potential of ca-tionic liposomes in clinical applications will be provided.
Gathering Information Before Signing a Contract: Experimental Evidence

A central insight of agency theory is that when a principal offers a contract to a privately informed agent, the principal trades off ex post efficiency in the bad state of nature against a larger profit in the good state of nature. We report about an experiment with 508 participants designed to test whether this fundamental trade-off is actually relevant. In particular, we investigate settings with both exogenous and endogenous information structures. We find that theory is indeed a useful predictor for the relative magnitudes of the principals' offers, the agents' information gathering decisions, and the occurrence of ex post inefficiencies.
Unions, Pensions, and Union Pension Funds

This paper examines the role of trade unions as determinants of: pension coverage, expenditures by firms for pensions; the provisions of pension plans; and pension fund investments. It also examines the impact of union pensions on the age-earnings profile of union workers. It has four basic findings:(1) Unions greatly increase pension coverage, and alter the determinants of coverage, in ways that go beyond the monopoly wage effects of unionism. (2) Unions alter the provisions of pension plans in ways that benefit senior workers and that equalize pensions among workers. (3) Estimates of the age-earnings profile of union workers are seriously flawed by failure to take account of the union impact on pensions, which generally enhance the earnings of the oldest groups. (4) Union pension funds can and do shun the stocks of nonunion firms without lowering the value of the portfolio. Investments in actual projects which take lower returns are, up to a point, justifiable in terms of the full economic benefit accruing to workers.
Nitric Oxide Is a Physiological Substrate for Mammalian Peroxidases*

We now show that NO serves as a substrate for multiple members of the mammalian peroxidase superfamily under physiological conditions. Myeloperoxidase (MPO), eosinophil peroxidase, and lactoperoxidase all catalytically consumed NO in the presence of the co-substrate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Near identical rates of NO consumption by the peroxidases were observed in the presenceversus absence of plasma levels of Cl−. Although rates of NO consumption in buffer were accelerated in the presence of a superoxide-generating system, subsequent addition of catalytic levels of a model peroxidase, MPO, to NO-containing solutions resulted in the rapid acceleration of NO consumption. The interaction between NO and compounds I and II of MPO were further investigated during steady-state catalysis by stopped-flow kinetics. NO dramatically influenced the build-up, duration, and decay of steady-state levels of compound II, the rate-limiting intermediate in the classic peroxidase cycle, in both the presence and absence of Cl−. Collectively, these results suggest that peroxidases may function as a catalytic sink for NO at sites of inflammation, influencing its bioavailability. They also support the potential existence of a complex and interdependent relationship between NO levels and the modulation of steady-state catalysis by peroxidases in vivo.
What is the best accounting method for financial assets

The possibility to fulfill the lack of studies comparing methods for financial assets accounting at fair value in terms of value relevance for investors is the main contribution of this research. Such contribution is emphasized by the importance of assessing how well accounting amounts reflect information used by investors. This study compares available for sale financial assets with financial assets at fair value through profit or loss in terms of value relevance for investors. The results evidence that although accounting differently both methods provide equally strong explanatory power of security prices which favors fair value accounting.
Recent advances in molecular tool development for drought tolerance breeding in cereal crops: a review

Abstract Drought stress is one of the major yield constraints for cereal crops. Traditionally, for developing drought tolerant cultivars, selection either direct or indirect is practiced. Although this approach is effective, yet time consuming and labour intensive. Identification of drought related quantitative trait loci (QTLs) coupled with marker assisted selection has shown some positive results. Transgenic and “omics” technologies promise to make progress in breeding for drought tolerance through a more fundamental understanding of underlying mechanisms of drought tolerance and identifying potential candidate genes. These new approaches provide opportunities to direct the continued breeding of genotypes giving stable yields under drought stress. Key words: drought tolerance, marker assisted selection, omics, quantitative trait loci, transgenics. Introduction Cereal crops have been predominantly used as staple food around the globe since the time immemorial. However, our efforts in meeting the food requirements on sustainable basis for ever increasing population are seriously being hampered due to biotic and abiotic stresses. Abiotic factors (like drought, salinity and temperature), are most important accounting for about 70% reductions in yield of our cereal crops (Boyer, 1982). Drought is a major yield limiting factor badly affecting the crop productivity worldwide (Hussain et al., 2011). The simplest definition of drought in the context of agriculture is a situation when the water availability to plant is less than what is required to sustain its growth and development (Deikman et al., 2011). Drought tolerance is the ability of the plant to survive in water limited conditions (Turner, 1979). However, inducing drought tolerance in crop plants is not a simple task rather one of the most difficult challenges currently the breeders face. This is due to its polygenic nature with low heritability and high G × E interactions (Fleury et al., 2010). This complex nature and also the lack of proper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of drought tolerance explain the slow progress in improving the yield of crops in drought prone environments (Tuberosa, Salvi, 2006; Cattivelli et al., 2008). Plants use different mechanisms to cope with the drought. Like they use the escape strategy through accelerating flowering before the onset of drought season (Deikman et al., 2011), or improve the water use efficiency (WUE) through closing stomata and increasing root development (Gowda et al., 2011) or can also use some tolerance mechanisms such as osmotic adjustment and production of antioxidants (Umezawa etal., 2006), yet there is no unified drought mechanism at the whole plant or gene level (Blum, 2004). This review encompasses an overview on the current work reported in inducing drought tolerance in cereal crops mainly wheat, rice and maize, highlighting the role of conventional breeding in conjunction with marker assisted selection, transgenic approaches and modern genomic tools.
Recurrent neural network based user classification for smart grids

Power consuming users and buildings with different power consumption patterns may be treated with different conditions and can be taken into consideration with different parameters during capacity planning and distribution. Thus the automated, unsupervised categorization of power consumers is a very important task of smart power transmission systems. Knowing the behavioral categories of power consumers better models can be created which can be used for better behavior forecast which is an important task for load balancing. One of the existing best solutions for consumer classification is the consumption forecast based scheme which applies nonlinear forecast techniques to determine the class assignment for new consumers. In this paper, we present new results on the classification of consumers using recurrent neural networks in the forecast based classification framework. The results are compared with existing classification methods using real, measured power consumption data. We demonstrate that consumer classification performed by recurrent neural networks can outperform existing methods as in several cases the correct class assignment rate is near to 100%.
The frequency of visiting a doctor: is the decision to go independent of the frequency?

In his analysis of the effects of the reform of the German healthcare system, Winkelmann (Journal of Applied Econometrics 2004; 19: 455-472) investigates the number of doctor visits. He makes a distinction between the decision to go to a physician and the number of times the physician is visited in the observed time period. Winkelmann finds that there is no correlation between both decisions. This result appears to be far from straightforward since the primary driving force in both decisions will be the health of the patient. From this perspective a significant correlation is expected. In this paper, I first replicate part of Winkelmann’s research. I then set out to analyse whether the zero correlation is actually true or comes from the way the relation between both decisions is modelled. My empirical analysis confirms the latter, but nevertheless also corroborates Winkelmann’s main conclusions on the relevance of the explanatory variables used in his investigation.
Informational Externalities of Going Public Decisions

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RISK AND RISK MANAGEMENT IN HUNGARIAN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION WITH A SPECIAL REGARD TO SHEEP PRODUCTION

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the risk attitudes of Hungarian sheep producers regarding the changes they have had to go through since the political changes of 1989-1990. Moreover, the objective of this study is to strengthen the empirical basis for risk analysis by identifying the importance of farmers' risk attitudes. The results of a nationwide survey of over 500 sheep farmers presented a framework of risk attitudes, risk sources and applied risk management techniques of livestock producers.
Expression of mesenger RNA for transforming growth factor-beta 1 in bovine trabecular meshwork.

PURPOSE To investigate the relationship between transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) and primary open-angle glaucoma, we have determined whether trabecular tissues have the expression of messenger RNA for TGF-beta 1. METHODS Total RNA of 24 newborn bovine trabecular tissue were extracted by Guanidine isothiocyanate method. The TGF-beta 33 plasmid was brought into E. colibacillius HB101 and amplificated. After Bam HI endolase degradation and label with alpha-32p-dATP the RNA was hybridized with the cDNA (complementary DNA) probe and examined by autoradiography. RESULTS The presence of mRNA for TGF-beta 1 in bovine trabecular meshwork was confirmed. CONCLUSIONS The TGF-beta 1 present in normal aqueous humor must be at least partly derived from the trabecular meshwork. It offered a basis for understanding the relationship between abnormal synthesis, activation and clearance of TGF-beta 1 and the pathogenesis of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in molecular biology.
Obstetrics and gynecology milestones.

One of the key elements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME) Next Accreditation System is to move accreditation from a focus on structure and process to an emphasis on educational outcomes. The goal of the educational Milestones is to “provide accountability for effectiveness of educational programs in producing outcomes. ”1 Experienced educators in each specialty have been asked to describe the observable developmental steps that lead from novice to expert in that field. The goal of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Milestone development project was to produce a set of demonstrable, competency-based, progressive developmental outcomes to be assessed for each obstetrics and gynecology resident and, aggregated to the program level, to be reported to the ACGME on a semiannual basis. The Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Review Committee (RRC) will use the Milestone data to assess program effectiveness and provide feedback to the programs to facilitate improvements in curricula and potentially other aspects of the educational program. In addition, residents and their faculty mentors can use the Milestones to frame discussion of an individual resident's progress along the continuum of training and to facilitate early identification and remediation in cases where residents fail to progress.