Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Micro insurance : what can donors do?

In most countries, reaching scale and providing real value to clients will likely require donor involvement in the medium term. Donors will need appropriate expertise and resources to engage effectively in micro insurance because it is relatively new, complex, and risky. Donors have diverse reasons for wanting to support micro insurance. Even within the same agency, different units may have varying views on how subsidies can be used best, how much clients should pay for insurance services, and what roles the government and the private sector should play. Strategic clarity on the reasons for engaging in micro insurance affects how a donor's objectives are set, how expertise is recruited, and what type of monitoring is implemented. There is still no consensus on what constitutes good performance for micro insurance programming. In part, this is simply because micro insurance is a relatively new area. To improve accountability for results, donors should agree up front on desired outcomes and performance. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) Working Group on Micro insurance's subgroup on performance indicators is leading efforts to define industry wide reporting ratios and, ultimately, to establish benchmarks. This work is essential to improve performance reporting and will help shape donors' performance agreements with partners.
Focal adhesion kinase, paxillin, and Bcl‐2: Analysis of expression, phosphorylation, and association during morphogenesis

Cell adhesive mechanisms which determine tissue architecture during morphogenesis are tightly regulated and have an impact on apoptosis, cell migration, proliferation, and differentiation. Bcl‐2 is a death repressor that protects cells from apoptosis initiated by a variety of stimuli including loss of cell adhesion. Utilizing the kidney as a model of an organ that undergoes three‐dimensional development we demonstrate that bcl‐2 directly associates with paxillin. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK)(p125) and paxillin(p68) were highly expressed and tyrosine phosphorylated during development but declined to low levels following renal maturation (postnatal day 20) in normal mice. The decline in the expression of p125 FAK and p68 paxillin occurred together with an increase in specific cleavage products of lower molecular weights. Mice deficient in bcl‐2 are born with renal hypoplasia and succumb to renal failure as a result of renal multicystic disease. In kidneys from postnatal day 20 bcl‐2 −/− mice, tyrosine phosphorylation of p125 FAK and p68 paxillin was not down‐regulated. However, the level of expression was similar to that of normal mice. These results demonstrate that the developmentally regulated expression and phosphorylation of FAK and paxillin, in the presence of bcl‐2, is necessary for normal morphogenesis. The interaction of paxillin with bcl‐2 during nephrogenesis may provide an alternative to integrin(s) signaling through paxillin/FAK thus bypassing the need for adhesion‐mediated survival during three dimensional morphogenesis. Dev Dyn 1999;215:371–382. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of oral ketorolac and gender on human cold pressor pain tolerance

1. Although the analgesic effect of opioids on experimental cold pressor (CP) pain has been well demonstrated, the analgesic effect of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on experimental CP pain has been less reliable, a finding complicated by inconsistencies in how CP analgesic effect is measured.
The effect of response modality on immediate serial recall in dementia of the Alzheimer type.

OBJECTIVE Contrary to traditional models of verbal short-term memory (STM), psycholinguistic accounts assume that temporary retention of verbal materials is an intrinsic property of word processing. Therefore, memory performance will depend on the nature of the STM tasks, which vary according to the linguistic representations they engage. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of response modality on verbal STM performance in individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT), and its relationship with the patients' word-processing deficits. METHOD Twenty individuals with mild DAT and 20 controls were tested on an immediate serial recall (ISR) task using the same items across two response modalities (oral and picture pointing) and completed a detailed language assessment. RESULTS When scoring of ISR performance was based on item memory regardless of item order, a response modality effect was found for all participants, indicating that they recalled more items with picture pointing than with oral response. However, this effect was less marked in patients than in controls, resulting in an interaction. Interestingly, when recall of both item and order was considered, results indicated similar performance between response modalities in controls, whereas performance was worse for pointing than for oral response in patients. Picture-naming performance was also reduced in patients relative to controls. However, in the word-to-picture matching task, a similar pattern of responses was found between groups for incorrectly named pictures of the same items. CONCLUSION The finding of a response modality effect in item memory for all participants is compatible with the assumption that semantic influences are greater in picture pointing than in oral response, as predicted by psycholinguistic models. Furthermore, patients' performance was modulated by their word-processing deficits, showing a reduced advantage relative to controls. Overall, the response modality effect observed in this study for item memory suggests that verbal STM performance is intrinsically linked with word processing capacities in both healthy controls and individuals with mild DAT, supporting psycholinguistic models of STM.
Managing Healthcare Provision and Health Outcomes Through Local Governance

This paper examines the impact of devolution of responsibilities and finances to local governments in India on the health status and incomes of men and women. Using a national dataset with details on health, health-seeking behaviour and local governance, we estimate a system of simultaneous equations to show that healthcare expenditures at the household level, choice of healthcare provider, and the incidence of illness will jointly impact individual incomes. We find positive impacts of participation in local governance, reserving the position of village head for women, and family inheritance for women on health outcomes, choice of healthcare provider, and expenditure on healthcare.
ONLINE NETWORKS AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIORS: EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF CHARITABLE DONATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Title of Document: ONLINE NETWORKS AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIORS: EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF CHARITABLE DONATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY. Dobin Yim, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Directed By: Professor Siva Viswanathan, Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies Professor Hank Lucas, Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies My dissertation seeks to understand how online networks promote prosocial behaviors in creating social value. The first essay examines the use of Twitter on charitable giving behavior in online fundraising campaigns. Using a unique dataset from one of the first nonprofit organizations to conduct an online fundraising campaign via Twitter, the goal of this essay is to understand how social media and the interpersonal communications it facilitates influences donation outcomes. I find that generic content sent through a mass broadcast mode has a negative influence, whereas personalized content sent through a narrowcast mode has a positive influence on a focal agent’s donation behavior. I further show that different types of persuasive content have varied impacts on outcomes. In the interpersonal context, content related to maintaining social relationships such as the visibility of other members’ donations, the diversity of sources advocating action, and strengthening interpersonal bonds, positively influence donation behavior, especially for those whose social ties with the charitable organization are weak. The second essay examines the design of online communities in supporting grassroots movements towards environmental sustainability. Using a dataset from one of the early pioneers of “green” online communities, the goal of this essay is to understand how online networks impact sustainable behaviors. Drawing from literature on observational learning and environmental sustainability, I show that a member’s total carbon savings is mainly influenced by the exposure to relevant others’ “green” behaviors. More specifically, a member’s decision to commit and perform a sustainable act is determined by the organizational structure and strength of relationships with fellow members. While organizing members into groups decreases individual’s environmental effectiveness in terms of total carbon savings, especially in larger groups, a higher frequency of communications among members increases sustainable behavior by enhancing interpersonal connections. Overall, the two studies provide important theoretical and practical implications for prosocial behaviors supported by online networks. ONLINE NETWORKS AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIORS: EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF CHARITABLE DONATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Suicides hidden among undetermined deaths

The research phase of the National Suicide Prevention Project in Finland (from 1 April 1987 to 31 March 1988) included medico‐legal investigation and psychological autopsy of all deaths suspected of being suicides, including 1397 official suicides and 61 undetermined deaths. In later analyses on suicide, undetermined cases were excluded. This paper presents an analysis of all officially classified undetermined deaths (n= 139) over the study period, consisting of all the initially suspected suicides (n=61) and the remaining undetermined deaths (n=78) where suicide could not be excluded. Poisoning by solids or liquids and drowning were the most common causes of all undetermined deaths. Suicidal intent was observed in 87% of undetermined deaths initially suspected of being suicides. In addition, 31 % of these subjects had previously attempted suicide, and 34% had made suicidal threats. Depression was diagnosed in 23% of cases and alcohol dependence or abuse in 31 % of cases. Undetermined deaths resembled suicides arid appeared to reduce the suicide rate by 10%.
Hemolysis‐induced acute pancreatitis secondary to kinked hemodialysis blood lines

Hemolytic reactions have become extremely rare in chronic maintenance hemodialysis. We present the case of a young dialysis patient with hemolysis‐induced acute pancreatitis secondary to kinked hemodialysis blood lines. With new blood lines on the market, attention to this aspect of dialysis is mandatory.
Late Pleistocene-Holocene Non-Passerine Avifauna of Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia)

ABSTRACT Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, has a depositional sequence that spans the last 95,000 years and includes well-preserved faunal remains. Birds are well represented throughout the stratigraphic sequence at Liang Bua. Here, we present the results of the first comprehensive study of avian remains retrieved from Sector XI, a 2 m by 2 m archaeological excavation along the east wall of the cave. A total of 579 specimens were identified as avian, with 244 belonging to at least 26 non-passerine taxa in 13 families. The late Pleistocene assemblage (23 taxa) includes the first recorded occurrence of vultures in Wallacea, as well as kingfishers, snipes, plovers, parrots, pigeons, and swiftlets. Together, these taxa suggest that during this time the surrounding environment was floristically diverse and included several habitat types. Two of these taxa, the giant marabou Leptoptilos robustus and the vulture Trigonoceps sp. , are extinct. Eight taxa were identified in the Holocene assemblage, and five of these were also present in the late Pleistocene. Imperial pigeons Ducula sp. and the Island Collared Dove Streptopelia cf. bitorquata appear only in the Holocene assemblage. The differences in faunal composition between the late Pleistocene and Holocene assemblages may reflect a change in avifaunal composition due to climatic and environmental changes near the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, possibly amplified by impacts associated with the arrival of modern humans; however, the small Holocene sample prevents a firm conclusion about faunal turnover from being made.
Habitat use throughout migration: linking individual consistency, prior breeding success and future breeding potential.

1. Habitat use can influence individual performance in a wide range of animals, either immediately or through carry-over effects in subsequent seasons. Given that many animal species also show consistent individual differences in reproductive success, it seems plausible that individuals may have consistent patterns of habitat use representing individual specializations, with concomitant fitness consequences. 2. Stable-carbon isotope ratios from a range of tissues were used to discern individual consistency in habitat use along a terrestrial-aquatic gradient in a long-distance migrant, the Bewick's swan (Cygnus columbianus bewickii). These individual specialisations represented <15% of the isotopic breadth of the population for the majority of individuals and were seen to persist throughout autumn migration and overwintering until aquatic habitats were no longer available. 3. Individual foraging specialisations were then used to demonstrate two consecutive carry-over effects associated with macroscale habitat segregation: consequences of breeding season processes for autumn habitat use; and consequences of autumn habitat use for future reproductive success. Adults that were successful breeders in the year of capture used terrestrial habitats significantly more than adults that were not successful, revealing a substantial cost of reproduction and extended parental care. Use of aquatic habitats during autumn was, however, associated with increased body condition prior to spring migration; and increased subsequent breeding success in adults that had been unsuccessful the year before. Yet adults that were successful breeders in the year of capture remained the most likely to be successful the following year, despite their use of terrestrial habitats. 4. Our results uniquely demonstrate not only individual foraging specializations throughout the migration period, but also that processes during breeding and autumn migration, mediated by individual consistency, may play a fundamental role in the population dynamics of long-distance migrants. These findings, therefore, highlight the importance of long-term consistency to our understanding of habitat function, interindividual differences in fitness, population dynamics and the evolution of migratory strategies.
Volatility Persistence in Equity REIT Market

Extreme shocks if occur will have significant and permanent impact on the risk premiums of the stock markets. Modeling these events in a conditional variance framework assuming that the stock market will mean-revert in a short time could produce spurious results. Using the Markov-switching autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MS-GARCH) model to filter out the high volatility states from the low and medium volatility states, we found that the volatility persistence (“large news”) increases the returns of the equity real estate investment trust (EREIT). However, when the volatility persistence is interacted with negative shocks, it cause the EREIT returns to decline. The negative volatility persistence effects fit the story of inter-temporal asset substitution, which explain why risk-averse REIT investors substitute risky REIT assets by risk-less assets in periods of prolong negative shocks.
Ownership and hibah issues of Takaful benefit

This paper aims at investigating the ownership of the Takaful benefit and the issues of hibah in nomination. The focus is made solely on the Family takaful because this type of policy is singularly related to death. In this regard, the question is raised as whether the money paid by the Takaful operator on the death of the participant (death benefit) before the policy matures constitutes the participant's estate or not, and secondly over the validity of making a conditional hibah of that takaful policy to a nominee as a sole beneficiary.
A closed-form performance upper-bound on the finite-length MMSE-DFE with arbitrary decision delay

A simple analytical upper-bound on the decision-point SNR of the unbiased finite-length MMSE-DFE with arbitrary decision delay is derived. The bound can be easily computed given the channel impulse response, input SNR, length of feedforward filter, and desired decision delay. The bound is shown to be tighter than the matched-filter bound. A by-product is a computationally-efficient method for setting the decision delay.
A comparison of rapid serial angiography and isotope clearance measurements in cerebrovascular disease.

Abstract Conventional rapid serial angiography and isotope clearance (intracarotid 133Xe) have been combined in the study of 21 patients with completed strokes and 14 with transient ischaemic attacks. Angiography revealed disturbed flow in over half the cases; it correlated reasonably well with the results of isotope clearance, more so in the case of fast flow on angiography with high flow on isotope clearance than in the case of slow flow on angiography with low flow on isotope clearance. The use of isotope studies revealed some areas of flow disturbance not shown by angiography, particularly in cases with transient ischaemic atatcks. The case for combined angiography and isotope clearance is argued for cases in which flow disturbance is thought likely to be present.
Secobarbital-mediated Inactivation of Cytochrome P450 2B1 and Its Active Site Mutants

Secobarbital (SB) is a relatively selective mechanism-based inactivator of cytochrome P450 2B1, that partitions between epoxidation and heme and protein modification during its enzyme inactivation. The SB-2B1 heme adduct formed in situ in a functionally reconstituted system has been spectrally documented and structurally characterized as N-(5-(2-hydroxypropyl)-5-(1-methylbutyl)barbituric acid)protoporphyrin IX. The SB-protein modification has been localized to 2B1 peptide 277-323 corresponding to the active site helix I of cytochrome P450 101. The targeting of heme and this active site peptide suggests that the 2B1 active site topology could influence the course of its inactivation. To explore this possibility, the individual SB epoxidation, heme and protein modification, and corresponding molar partition ratios of the wild type and seven structural 2B1 mutants, site-directed at specific substrate recognition sites, and known to influence 2B1 catalysis were examined after Escherichia coli expression. These studies reveal that Thr-302 is critical for SB-mediated heme N-alkylation, whereas Val-367 is a critical determinant of 2B1 protein modification, and Val-363 is important for SB epoxidation. SB docking into a refined 2B1 homology model coupled with molecular dynamics analyses provide a logical rationale for these findings.
Actuals Trends in the Process of Employees’ Recruitment in the Context of the Modern Information and Communication Technologies

Purpose of the article: In this article the author deals with the latest trends in the process of employees’ recruitment based on application of possibilities provided by the modern information and communication technologies (ICT). ICT substantially change the shape of world people were accustomed to. Due to their massive development different areas of lives, e.g. personnel work and employees’ recruitment gets impersonal or virtual form. ICT mostly influence the way of life of younger generations (i.e. Y generation or Millennials generation) since they grew up in mutual connection with them and consider them as a natural part of their personal and working life. Methodology/methods: The author applies the secondary data of Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic concerning ICT utilization in Slovak households and the results of analysis of Institute for Public Affairs concerning the social networks in Slovakia. Primary research uses the author to identify the relation of Y generation towards IKT modern mediums. Scientific aim: The main aim of the author is to provide a basis for HR managers in choosing appropriate personnel policy of recruitment young talented people from generation Y. The author on the basis of research identifies and analyzes the relationship of generation Y to modern means of ICT. Preferred compositions can be addressed communication channels for HR managers. Findings: The author points out possibilities to address potential employers from generation Y by companies by means of modern ICT facilities they prefer (mobile phones and social networks). She found that most members of generation Y communicate through phone. Up to 93.06% of respondents use it for calling and sending SMS. They actively communicate their ideas, feelings and attitudes on social networks. Seven out of ten respondents visit social networks daily. Only 5.50% of respondents are not members of any social network. Conclusions: The results of research can help personnel managers in the process of employees’ recruitment of potential young employees. Modern ICT mediums that prefer to communicate members of Slovak generation Y may be suitable addressable channels to reach them with the offer of job vacancies.
Will the Driver Seat Ever Be Empty?

Self-driving technologies have matured and improved to the point that, in the past few years, self-driving cars have been able to safely drive an impressive number of kilometers. It should be noted though that, in all cases, the driver seat was never empty: a human driver was behind the wheel, ready to take over whenever the situation dictated it. This is an interesting paradox since the point of a self-driving car is to remove the most unreliable part of the car, namely the human driver. So, the question naturally arises: will the driver seat ever be empty? Besides legal liability issues, the answer to that question may lie in our ability to improve the self-driving technologies to the point that the human driver can safely be removed from the driving loop altogether. However, things are not that simple. Motion safety, i.e. the ability to avoid collisions, is the critical aspect concerning self-driving cars and autonomous vehicles in general. Before letting self-driving cars transport people around (and move among them) in a truly autonomous way, it is crucial to assess their ability to avoid collision, and to seek to characterize the levels of motion safety that can be achieved and the conditions under which they can be guaranteed. All these issues are explored in this article.
Commonalities in the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are neurodegenerative diseases that have a tremendous impact on the lives of affected individuals. There is a great probability of developing concurrent parkinsonism in AD and vice versa than would be predicted by independent prevalence of each disease. Both diseases have genetic familial forms with a prevalence of less than 5–10%, but the majority of the cases are sporadic. Several hypotheses exist regarding the etiology of these diseases, such as oxidative stress, inflammatory processes, ubiquitin–proteasome system dysfunction, energy deficits, cell cycle deficiencies and glutamate exitotoxicities. Since diagnosis occurs in late-stage disease after neuronal loss, it decreases the opportunity for neuroprotective/neurorestorative therapies. Therefore, early and specific diagnosis is required as well as new therapy approaches for the growing burden of AD and PD.