This study develops a methodology to evaluate the quality of the legal aspect of bank regulation and supervision (RS). We use both the Basle guidelines and the letter of banking laws to form an ...extensive set of criteria to evaluate banking laws. As an application, we provide measures of RS for 23 transition economies. Our measurements indicate that legal banking reforms in Poland, Hungary, and Estonia have been more ambitious than the rest of the countries in transition. Controlling for various other relevant factors, empirical evidence reveals a significant positive relationship between RS and real GDP growth in transition economies.
Current genotype-calling methods such as Robust Linear Model with Mahalanobis Distance Classifier (RLMM) and Corrected Robust Linear Model with Maximum Likelihood Classification (CRLMM) provide ...accurate calling results for Affymetrix Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) chips. However, these methods are computationally expensive as they employ preprocess procedures, including chip data normalization and other sophisticated statistical techniques. In the small sample case the accuracy rate may drop significantly. We develop a new genotype calling method for Affymetrix 100 k and 500 k SNP chips. A two-stage classification scheme is proposed to obtain a fast genotype calling algorithm. The first stage uses unsupervised classification to quickly discriminate genotypes with high accuracy for the majority of the SNPs. And the second stage employs a supervised classification method to incorporate allele frequency information either from the HapMap data or from a self-training scheme. Confidence score is provided for every genotype call. The overall performance is shown to be comparable to that of CRLMM as verified by the known gold standard HapMap data and is superior in small sample cases. The new algorithm is computationally simple and standalone in the sense that a self-training scheme can be used without employing any other training data. A package implementing the calling algorithm is freely available at http://www.sfs.ecnu.edu.cn/teachers/xuj_en.html.
Increasing economic integration around the world bestows workers' remittances a growing potential importance as a source of financing foreign transactions. This paper investigates trends in workers' ...remittances in developed and less developed countries since the 1980s. Both the magnitude of workers' remittance flows, in comparison to some other major aggregates, such as gross domestic product and foreign direct investment flows, and the relative stability of workers' remittances reveal that policies to attract workers' remittances bear great importance for especially less developed economies.
Summary
Candida septicaemia with multidrug resistance is an uncommon event in preterm neonates. We present an extremely low birth weight infant (gestational age of 27 weeks, birth weight of 980 g) ...who developed congenital Candida parapsilosis septicaemia. Because the fungus was resistant both to amphotericin B and fluconazole, caspofungin was chosen for therapy. The fungus was successfully eradicated without any clinical or laboratory adverse effects.
Iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional deficiency in childhood throughout the world. Although it has been shown that IRA is associated with elevated plasma copper and depleted ...zinc levels in children, there are conflicting results on the effect of iron supplementation on the absorption of these elements. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ferrous and ferric iron supplementation on the trace element status in children (n=25, aged 8-168 mo) with IDA. Fourteen of them were treated with ferric hydroxide-polymaltose complex (Ferrum, Vifor, Switzerland) (6 mg/d in the first 3 mo for initial therapy and 3 mg/kg for 3 mo as maintenance); the others were treated with a ferrous sulfate complex (FerroSanol, Schwarz, Germany) (6 mg/d in the first 3 mo for initial therapy and 3 mg/kg for 3 mo as maintenance). Plasma copper, zinc, and ceruloplasmin levels as well as hematological parameters were determined at baseline and the first, third, and sixth month of the treatment period. The hemoglobin and iron levels of patients in both groups were higher in the first and sixth months compared to baseline. Although the ceruloplasmin levels were depleted (48.9 mg/dL vs 41.4 mg/dL, p=0.035) during ferrous iron treatment, the copper and zinc levels remained unchanged. On the other hand, ferric iron supplementation led to an increase in zinc levels in the sixth month of treatment (0.77 mg/L vs 1.0 mg/L, p=0.021). The plasma copper levels were lower in the ferrous iron-treated group at the end of the first month of treatment than in the ferric irontreated group (1.06 mg/L vs 1.29 mg/L, p=0.008). In conclusion, our data showed that copper and ceruloplasmin metabolisms were affected by ferrous iron supplementation, whereas ferric iron kept them to normal levels of zinc, possibly by affecting their absorption. We conclude that the copper and zinc status of patients with IDA should be taken into consideration before and after iron therapy.
The major purpose of this study was to compare the oxidant-related toxicities of the different oral iron preparations in children with iron deficiency anemia (IDA); the second aim was to investigate ...the side effects of iron preparations. Seventy-two children with IDA were randomly included in the Fe2+ group (= 39) or the Fe3+ group (= 33). Some oxidizable substrates (erythrocytes malondialdehyde (MDA), urine 8-isoprostane, and basal and Cu-stimulated-oxidized LDL and antioxidant enzyme (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and glutathione peroxidase) activities were evaluated at the beginning and at the 1st, 3rd, and 6th months of therapy. Side effects due to medication were recorded. While at the end of the 1st month SOD levels were significantly increased in Fe3+ group, at the 6th month evaluation, basal-oxidized LDL levels were significantly increased in the Fe3+ group, as was urine 8-isoprostane in the Fe2+ group. No other difference was found between two groups. In conclusion, there were minimal differences between children treated with ferric or ferrous iron in antioxidant system activities, the status of oxidizable substrates, and clinical toxicities.
Time-frequency distributions belonging to Cohen's class have been discussed in deterministic nonstationary signal processing. The Wigner-Ville distribution is the first to be proposed among the class ...and is most widely studied and applied in the various fields. However, one of the main difficulties with the Wigner-Ville distribution is that it indicates spurious values in the intensity due to interference particularly prevalent for multicomponent signals. The authors propose a new type kernel function that is the product of the Choi-Williams kernel and the Margenau-Hill kernel. Specific types of signals: sinusoidal signals, chirp signals, and others are analyzed using the new distribution in comparison with the results by the Wigner-Ville and the Choi-Williams distributions. The present distribution does not indicate spurious intensity in the regions where the other two distributions do. In the authors' distribution, the spurious values are transferred to places where one would expect the signal's inherent intensity at least for a signal of pure sine waves. Thus correct values of the signal's intensity are slightly modulated due to cross talk. The three distributions are also compared numerically for these signals and for speech signals to show the advantages of the present distribution.< >
Taibus County, Inner Mongolia, China, lies in a farming-pastoral ecotone, where severe wind erosion and various aeolian sand hazards are prevalent and fixed and semi-fixed sand dunes occur ...frequently. This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between sand transportation rate and wind speed for the fixed and semi-fixed sand dunes based on field measurements. The annual quantity of soil erosion by wind was estimated using meteorological wind data. The results indicated that the sand transportation rate in Taibus County in 2000 was 57.38 kg cm^-1 year-1 for the semi-fixed dunes and 4.56 kg cm^-1 year^-1 for the fixed dunes. The total duration of erosive winds covered 12.5% of the time of the year, and spring posed the highest potential of sand transportation. Wind with low speed （≤ 17 m s^-1） and high frequency plays a dominant role in sand transportation, while strong wind （≥ 17 m s^-1） with low frequency significantly enhanced the sand transportation. Erosive wind speed, directions, and frequency were three crucial dynamic factors influencing sand hazards in the farming-pastoral ecotone. The dominant factors intensifying sand and dust storms in Taibus County might be related to the favorable wind condition in combination with the durable drought, which led to land desertification and vegetation degradation.
One-hundred ten lateral facial profiles were judged to be attractive and were selected from 1000 Taiwanese pupils by a panel of four men and three women from different educational backgrounds. The ...110 in the attractive group were analyzed by using five analytic reference lines: Ricketts E line, Holdaway's H line, Steiner's S1 line, Burstone's B line, and Sushner's S2 line. Comparisons of the "consistency" (the smaller coefficient of variation the better the consistency) and the "sensitivity" (the power to differentiate the attractive lateral facial profiles from the unattractive ones) of the five analytic lines were performed. The B line was found to be best in terms of both consistency and sensitivity. From the point of view of convenience, the E line is of great value because its anterior location makes it convenient for the clinician to use. However, the B line appears best from the perspective of the value of reference. This study found that those analytic reference lines that do not transverse an anatomic landmark of the nose most likely have poor consistency and sensitivity. This finding is consistent with the idea that the nose should be taken into consideration when a line is to be used as a reference for beauty on the lateral facial profile.
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