bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cytochrome P450 aromatase expression in human seminoma
Authors: Rago Vittoria , Romeo Francesco , Aquila Saveria , Montanaro Daniela , Andò Sebastiano , Carpino Amalia 
Published: December 2005

Abstract

Background
The enzyme cytochrome P450 aromatase, catalysing the conversion of androgens into estrogens, has been detected in normal human testicular cells suggesting a physiological role of local estrogen biosynthesis on spermatogenesis control. Estrogens, regulating cell growth and apoptosis, can also be involved in tumorigenesis process, but the possible link between estrogens and testicular neoplastic process is, up to now, scarcely known. This study examined aromatase expression in human seminoma, which is the most common germ cell tumour of the testis.

Methods
The tumour-bearing testes were obtained from 20 patients with classic seminoma undergoing to therapeutic orchidectomy. Paraffin embedded tissues were processed for immunohistochemistry using a mouse monoclonal antibody generated against human placental cytochrome P450 arom, as primary antibody, and a biotinylated goat-anti-mouse IgG, as secondary antibody. Furthermore, Western blot analysis of seminoma extracts was carried out.

Results
Intense P450 arom immunoreactivity was observed in the seminoma cells and Western blot analysis confirmed the immunodetection. A strong immunostaining was also detected in cells of intratubular germ cell neoplasia (IGCN), adjacent to seminoma.

Conclusion
The present study demonstrated, for the first time in human, aromatase expression in neoplastic cells of seminoma suggesting a relation between local estrogen biosynthesis and germ cell tumorigenesis. The P450 arom immunolocalization in the cells of IGCN, representing the common precursor of most germ cell tumors, seems to support these findings.
Risk factors associated with mental illness in Oyo State, Nigeria: A Community based study
Authors: Amoran OE , Lawoyin TO , Oni OO 
Published: December 2005

Abstract

Background
The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with mental illness in Oyo State at community level using the general health questionnaire as a screening tool.

Method
This cross-sectional, community- based survey was carried out among adults in three randomly selected LGAs using multi-stage sampling technique.

Results
A total of 1105 respondents were assessed in all. The overall prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in Oyo state Nigeria was found to be 21.9%, (18.4% in the urban areas and 28.4% in the rural areas, p = 0.005). Young age ≤ 19 yrs (X2 = 20.41, p = 0.00013), Unemployment (X2 = 11.86 p = 0.0005), living condition below average (X2 = 12.21, p = 0.00047), physical health (X2 = 6.07, p = 0.014), and large family size (X2 = 14.09 p = 0.00017) were associated with increase risk for psychiatric morbidity.
Following logistic regression analysis, Unemployment (C.I = 1.18–3.70, OR -2.1) and living conditions perceived to be above average (C.I = 1.99–5.50, OR-3.3) were significant predictors of mental illness while family size less than 6 (C.I = 0.86–0.97, OR-0.91) was protective.

Conclusion
The teenagers and the rural populations are in greater need of mental health promotional services. Family planning should be made freely available in order to reduce the family size and hence incidence of mental illness in the African population.
Unnatural Selection: Comment on the “Teaching Comparative Psychology” Symposium
Authors: Candland Douglas K. 
Published: December 2005

In this discussion of symposium papers, I examine why comparative psychologists do not consider professional associations of psychology to represent the core of the discipline. I review textbooks in terms of their contribution to comparative psychology and argue that psychology avoids its natural epistemology, that of natural selection and ultimate causality, in preference for the meretricious offerings provided by proximate causation. I also examine why many psychologists consider evolution to be dehumanizing and state three goals for the teaching of comparative psychology: (a) its reliance on a central epistemological premise, (b) its demonstration of the historical ways in which comparative psychology has changed our views of human behavior, and (c) its duty to compel the student and the public to examine the ethical standing and rights of animals.
A 16–year Study of the Microgap Between 272 Human Titanium Implants and Their Abutments
Authors: Scarano Antonio , Assenza Bartolomeo , Piattelli Maurizio , Iezzi Giovanna , Leghissa Giulio C. , Quaranta Alessandro , Tortora Pietro , Piattelli Adriano 
Published: December 2005

AbstractA microgap has been described at the level of the implant-abutment connection. This microgap can be colonized by bacteria, and this fact could have relevance on the remodeling of the peri-implant crestal bone and on the long-term health of the peri-implant tissues. The authors report on 272 implants with screw- or cement-retained abutments retrieved from humans for different causes during a 16-year period. In the implants with screw-retained abutments, a 60-μm microgap was present at the level of implant-abutment connection. In some areas the titanium had sheared off from the surface and from the internal threads. The contact between the threads of the implant and those of the abutment was limited to a few areas. Bacteria were often present in the microgaps between implant and abutment and in the internal portion of the implants. In implants with cement-retained abutments, a 40-μm microgap was found at the level of the implant-abutment connection. No mechanical damage was observed at the level of the implant or of the abutment. All the internal voids were always completely filled by the cement. No bacteria were observed in the internal portion of the implants or at the level of the microgap. The differences in the size of the microgap between the two groups were statistically significant (P &lt; .05). In conclusion, in screw-retained abutments the microgap can be a critical factor for colonization of bacteria, whereas in cement-retained abutments all the internal spaces were filled by cement. In these retrieved implants, the size of the microgap was markedly variable and much larger than that observed in vitro.
Incomplete Contracts. Non-Contractible Quality, and Renegotiation
Authors: Lülfesmann Christoph 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
The paper reconsiders the hold-up problem in long-term bilateral trade with specific investments. In our framework, the parties face several trading opportunities (goods) whose characteristics cannot be described at the start of the relationship. Specifically, there exists an investment responsive `innovative' good, and (at least one) non-responsive `standard' good. In line with Hart and Moore (1988), renegotiation takes place as outside option bargaining. We first establish a first-best outcome for the case where trading the innovation is always efficient. This results contrasts with findings in Segal (1999) and Hart and Moore (1999) who adopt an alternative view of renegotiation. Then, we consider a setting where final trade is not always efficient, and show that a properly chosen at-will contract still implements the first best for a non-empty set of parameterizations. Finally, we show that at-will contracts strictly outperform option or specific-performance contracts.
Intergenerational Habits, Fiscal Policy, and Welfare
Authors: Velculescu Delia 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
The present paper explores the fiscal policy implications of intergenerational habit formation in a Blanchard overlapping generations small open economy model. Three main conclusions emerge. (1) When individuals are finitely lived and have habits which they pass on to their descendants, the dynamic response of a small open economy to shocks exhibits sluggishness in consumption in the short run and may display damped cycles in the long run. (2) With habits, optimal fiscal policy takes the form of a social insurance scheme, allowing present and unborn cohorts to share in the consequences of macroeconomic shocks. In contrast, in an economy devoid of habits, the optimal fiscal response to a permanent shock is a one time abrupt adjustment, whereby the present generations bear the entire burden of the shock. (3) If habits exist but policy is conducted as though habits did not exist, the welfare losses for society can be substantial.
The UK Household Sector Demand for Risky Money
Authors: Elger Thomas , Binner Jane M. 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
We compare the empirical performance of a capital certain monetary services index and an index that is extended to contain assets with substantial interest rate risk, such as unit trusts, within a cointegration money demand framework for the UK. Technological changes and innovations have increased the liquidity of risky assets and recent developments in monetary aggregation theory have made it possible to account for interest rate risk in combination with risk aversion in the construction of monetary services indices. Coefficient estimates for all systems are consistent with theory and remarkably stable. No apparent gains are noted, however, by the inclusion of 'risky' assets.
Empirical Perspectives on Long-Term External Debt
Authors: Lane Philip R. 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
In this paper, we paint a statistical portrait of the determination of external debt for a set of low- and middle-income countries. The goal is to facilitate thinking about the role played by international capital flows in the development process. Empirically, we find that external debt is strongly increasing in the level of initial output. This remains true even when we control for variation in productivity and creditworthiness. More open economies also are found to have higher debt levels.
The Dynamics of Fertility and Growth: Baby Boom, Bust and Bounce-Back
Authors: Day Creina 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
This paper examines the dynamic interplay between economic growth and fertility as a developed economy moves through two distinct phases: women at home and raising children full time; women entering the work force and raising children part time. Women's relative wages rise with economic growth, as per Galor and Weil (1996). Higher wages make children more affordable. On the other hand, children are more costly when maternal time, used in child rearing, could be supplied to the labor market. I extend Galor and Weil (1996) by introducing goods and services as a child rearing input. A Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function for child rearing allows for varying degrees of substitutability between goods and time. The existence of an alternative input to maternal time generates a baby boom-bust cycle: fertility rises in the first phase and falls in the second. Whilst fertility declines unambiguously at the beginning of the second phase, as women enter the labor force, it may bounce-back before reaching a steady state as income effects start to dominate.
Parameter Instability, Model Uncertainty and the Choice of Monetary Policy
Authors: Favero Carlo A. , Milani Fabio 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
This paper starts from the observation that parameter instability and model uncertainty are relevant problems for the analysis of monetary policy in small macroeconomic models. We propose to deal with these two problems by implementing a novel "thick recursive modelling" approach. At each point in time we estimate all models generated by the combinations of a base-set of k observable regressors for aggregate demand and supply. We compute optimal monetary policies for all possible models and then consider alternative ways of summarizing their distribution. Our main results show that thick recursive modelling delivers optimal policy rates that track the observed policy rates better than the optimal policy rates obtained under a constant parameter specification with no role for model uncertainty.
Fiscal Policy and the Price Level
Authors: Annicchiarico Barbara , Marini Giancarlo 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
This paper studies the issue of price stability in a continuous time optimizing general equilibrium model with overlapping generations. It is shown that fiscal policy has effects on nominal variables. Fiscal expansions are inflationary even when the government intertemporal budget constraint is respected for any prices sequence and there is no recourse to money financing. Our results shed new light on the interaction between fiscal policy and nominal prices.
Imbalance Effects in the Lucas Model: an Analytical Exploration
Authors: Boucekkine Raouf , Ruiz Tamarit Ramon 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
In this note, we extend Xie (JET, 1994) to solve analytically the Lucas model with a weak externality in a specific parametric case. In particular, we characterize the shape of imbalance effects in this model. Our results are mostly consistent with the findings of the related computational literature. Among other analytical findings, we prove that, while U-shaped imbalance effects are not apparent in the Lucas model for the growth rate of output per capita, the level of such a variable may exhibit this shape.
Optimal Fiscal Policy with Rationing in the Labor Market
Authors: Gorostiaga Arantza 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
This paper studies the implications for the optimal policy of introducing an exogenous minimum wage into a standard public finance model. I present a dynamic general equilibrium model with a Ramsey planner deciding about public spending, labor income taxes and debt. I find that for sufficiently high minimum wages, equilibria in which the labor supply is rationed and involuntary unemployment arises may be optimal in bad times. For a minimum wage not too high, the government will set taxes to reduce the labor supply and avoid non desirable rationing. This implies increasing taxes in bad times. As regards the cyclical properties of the optimal policy, state contingent returns on debt are used as shock absorbers so as to smooth private consumption over time and across states of nature.
Transparency and Reputation: The Publication of Central Bank Forecasts
Authors: Geraats Petra M. 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
Transparency has become one of the key features of monetary policy. This paper analyzes the reputational incentives related to transparency, focusing on the publication of central bank forecasts. A simple dynamic monetary policy game shows how transparency reduces inflation, as has been found empirically. Furthermore, the endogenous choice of transparency is analyzed. Although transparency exposes weak central banks, the negative market feedback in response to secrecy could provide a sufficiently strong inducement to become transparent. Thus, reputational concerns could lead to transparency, even without formal disclosure requirements.
Estimates of the Productivity Trend Using Time-Varying Parameter Techniques
Authors: Roberts John M. 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
Over the 1995-to-2000 period, U.S. productivity growth moved up to rates not seen in several decades. In this paper, I use time-varying parameter techniques to isolate trend from cyclical movements in productivity and to estimate the trend rate of productivity growth. My estimates suggest that trend productivity growth moved up from around 1-1/2 percent in the period from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s to about 2-1/2 percent by the final observation used in this paper, the first quarter of 2001. I also estimate the trend rate of multifactor productivity growth, and find that it has also moved up -- to 1 percent by the end of the sample -- but the pick-up is not as great as for labor productivity, with the difference largely the result of increased capital accumulation. I also test whether the trend-cycle decomposition adopted in this paper can be rejected in favor of an alternative that allows the trend to affect the cycle, and, in contrast to other recent work, find that the trend-cycle model is not rejected.
Is the U.S. Aggregate Production Function Cobb-Douglas? New Estimates of the Elasticity of Substitution
Authors: Antràs Pol 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
I present new estimates of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor using data from the private sector of the U.S. economy for the period 1948-1998. I first adopt Berndt's (1976) specification, which assumes that technological change is Hicks neutral. Consistently with his results, I estimate elasticities of substitution that are not significantly different from one. I next show, however, that restricting the analysis to Hicks-neutral technological change necessarily biases the estimates of the elasticity towards one. When I modify the econometric specification to allow for biased technical change, I obtain significantly lower estimates of the elasticity of substitution. I conclude that the U.S. economy is not well described by a Cobb-Douglas aggregate production function. I present estimates based on both classical regression analysis and time series analysis. In the process, I deal with issues related to the nonsphericality of the disturbances, the endogeneity of the regressors, and the nonstationarity of the series involved in the estimation.
Exchange Rates and Fiscal Adjustments: Evidence from the OECD and Implications for the EMU
Authors: Lambertini Luisa , Tavares José A 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
This paper investigates whether monetary and exchange rate policies are important for the success of major fiscal adjustments. We assess their role controlling for other determinants of success identified in the literature, including the size and composition of the deficit cut, the level of public debt and the rate of economic growth. We find that successful adjustments are preceded by exchange rate depreciations. Empirically, a depreciation of the nominal effective exchange of one standard deviation of the sample mean in the two years before an adjustment increases the probability of success by 2 percentage points. The size and composition of the deficit cut are also important determinants of success: an increase of one standard deviation of the sample mean raises the probability of success by 3 and 4 percentage points, respectively. One implication of our results is that it may be more difficult to attain persistent fiscal adjustments within the Economic and Monetary Union of Europe, since the adoption of a single currency rules out the use of exchange rate policy among member countries.
Do Federal Reserve Policy Surprises Reveal Superior Information about the Economy?
Authors: Faust Jon , Swanson Eric T , Wright Jonathan H 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
A number of recent papers have hypothesized that the Federal Reserve possesses information about the course of inflation and output that is unknown to the private sector, and that policy actions by the Federal Reserve convey some of this superior information. We conduct two tests of this hypothesis: 1) could monetary policy surprises be used to improve the private sector's ex ante forecasts of subsequent macroeconomic statistical releases, and 2) does the private sector revise its forecasts of macroeconomic statistical releases in response to these monetary policy surprises? We find little evidence that Federal Reserve policy surprises convey superior information about the state of the economy: they could not systematically be used to improve forecasts of statistical releases and forecasts are not systematically revised in response to policy surprises. One possible exception to this pattern is Industrial Production, a statistic that the Federal Reserve produces.
Indeterminacy, Stabilization Policy and Returns to Scale: A Re-Investigation
Authors: Sim Nicholas C. S. 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
This paper examines whether taxation is effective in eliminating sunspot fluctuations by considering two separate model economies by which indeterminacy occurs for empirically plausible specification of the model parameters. In the first model where production exhibits social increasing returns to scale and private constant returns to scale, I find that i) labor income tax alone, even if the tax schedule is flat, is effective; ii) taxes on labor and capital income would be more effective with increased progressivity; iii) at each average tax rate, labor income tax is more effective than capital income tax. However, in the second model where production exhibits social constant returns to scale and private decreasing returns to scale, I find that labor and capital income taxes at all progressivity levels are ineffective in removing sunspot fluctuations.
Aggregate Implications of Indivisible Labor
Authors: Mulligan Casey B 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
I suggest that the aggregate implications of indivisible labor are few, and subtle. First, I model behavior in an "indivisible labor" environment like those of Diamond and Mirrlees (1978, 1986), Hansen (1985), Rogerson (1988), Christiano and Eichenbaum (1992) and show how an inverse distribution function describing heterogeneity in the indivisible model is isomorphic with the marginal disutility schedule from the divisible labor model of Lucas and Rapping (1969). It follows that aggregate behavior in such an indivisible model is indistinguishable from aggregates generated by the divisible model; any data on aggregate hours and earnings generated by the divisible (indivisible) model can be generated by a similar parameterization of the indivisible (divisible) model. Second, I generalize the aforementioned models of indivisible labor to allow for labor supply on the "intensive" margin, and to allow for nonlinear taxes. The aggregate implications of doing the former are quite subtle, but doing the latter suggests that the indivisibility of labor may have implications for public finance. My results also imply that backward bending aggregate labor supply, and any nonnegative degree of aggregate intertemporal substitution, are consistent with standard economic theory even when all labor is supplied on the so-called "extensive" margin. Finally, my results suggest that the classic aggregate studies of labor supply by Mincer, Bowen and Finegan, and others have a simple microeconomic interpretation.
Optimal Time-Consistent Taxation with International Mobility Of Capital
Authors: Klein Paul , Quadrini Vincenzo , Rios-Rull Jose-Victor 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
The United States relies for its government revenues more on the taxation of capital relative to the taxation of labor than countries in continental Europe do. In this paper we ask what can account for this. Our approach is to look at Markov perfect equilibria of a two-country growth model where both governments use labor, capital and corporate taxes to finance exogenously given streams of public expenditure under period-by-period balanced budget constraints. There is no commitment technology and the equilibrium policies are time-consistent. We find that differences in productivity, size, and government spending can account for the heavy American reliance on capital taxation.
Comparing Wealth Effects: The Stock Market versus the Housing Market
Authors: Case Karl E. , Quigley John M. , Shiller Robert J. 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
We examine the link between increases in housing wealth, financial wealth, and consumer spending. We rely upon a panel of 14 countries observed annually for various periods during the past 25 years and a panel of U.S. states observed quarterly during the 1980s and 1990s. We impute the aggregate value of owner-occupied housing, the value of financial assets, and measures of aggregate consumption for each of the geographic units over time. We estimate regression models in levels, first differences and in error-correction form, relating consumption to income and wealth measures. We find a statistically significant and rather large effect of housing wealth upon household consumption.