Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional social accounting matrices for structural policy analysis in lagging EU rural regions

Summary The significant diversity of EU rural areas in terms of population, natural resourceendowments and socio-economic structures is likely to result in different impacts ofpolicy changes and economic developments. This paper attempts to reveal how EUstructural policy during 1989–1993 affected remote rural areas (with mixed andagriculturally dependent economic structures, respectively) in Northern andSouthern Europe, and to quantify the impacts on local growth generation throughthe use of a general equilibrium model. Finally, the impacts of three structuralpolicy scenarios (including Agenda 2000) on the rural economies studied areestimated.Keywords: structural policy, social accounting matrix, Greece, Finland, ScotlandJEL classification: Q18, R11, R58 Job No. 10298 MFK-Mendip Page: 149 of 178 Date: 23/7/04 Time: 7:27am Job ID: ERAE Op: mford j:/3b2/Oxford University Press/Journals/Erae/ERAE 2004-2/jbh011.3d European Review of Agricultural Economics vol. 31 no. 2 # Oxford University Press and Foundation for theEuropean Review of Agricultural Economics 2004; all rights reservedEuropean Review of Agricultural Economics Vol 31 (2) (2004) pp. 149–178
Formal specification and runtime detection of temporal properties for asynchronous context

Formal specification and runtime detection of temporal properties for pervasive context is one of the primary approaches to achieving context-awareness. Though temporal logics have been widely used in specification of temporal properties, they are faced with severe challenges in Pervasive Computing (PvC) scenarios. First, temporal logics are traditionally defined over infinite traces of possible system behavior. However in PvC scenarios, applications observe finite prefixes of (potentially infinite) traces of environment state evolution, and adapt their behavior accordingly. Second, specification and detection of temporal properties are challenged by the intrinsic asynchrony of PvC environments. Discussions above necessitate a systematic approach to formal specification and runtime detection of temporal properties for asynchronous context. To this end, we propose CTL3 (3-valued Computation Tree Logic), which i) adopts 3-valued semantics to capture the inconclusiveness when applications only observe finite prefixes of environment state evolution; ii) inherits the notion of branching time to capture the uncertainty resulting from the asynchrony of PvC environments. A case study is conducted to demonstrate how CTL3 supports context-awareness in PvC scenarios. The runtime checking algorithm of CTL3 is implemented and evaluated over MIPA - the open-source context-aware middle-ware we developed. The case study demonstrates the necessity of adopting CTL3 in PvC scenarios, while the performance measurements show the cost-effectiveness of runtime checking contextual properties in CTL3.
Nitrogen fixation and the diazotroph community in the temperate coastal region of the northwestern North Pacific

Abstract. Nitrogen fixation in temperate oceans is a potentially important, but poorly understood process that may influence the marine nitrogen budget. This study determined seasonal variations in nitrogen fixation and the diazotroph community within the euphotic zone in the temperate coastal region of the northwestern North Pacific. Nitrogen fixation as high as 13.6 nmol N L−1 d−1 was measured from early summer to fall when the surface temperature exceeded 14.2 °C (but was lower than 24.3 °C) and the surface nitrate concentration was low (≤ 0.30 μM), although we also detected nitrogen fixation in subsurface layers (42–62 m) where nitrate concentrations were high (> 1 μM). Clone library analysis results indicated that nifH gene sequences were omnipresent throughout the investigation period. During the period when nitrogen fixation was detected (early summer to fall), the genes affiliated with UCYN-A, Trichodesmium, and γ-proteobacterial phylotype γ-24774A11 were frequently recovered. In contrast, when nitrogen fixation was undetectable (winter to spring), many sequences affiliated with Cluster III diazotrophs (putative anaerobic bacteria) were recovered. Quantitative PCR analysis revealed that UCYN-A was relatively abundant from early to late summer compared with Trichodesmium and γ-24774A11, whereas Trichodesmium abundance was the highest among the three groups during fall.
Linear Discriminant Analysis and Its Application in Plant Classification

The most common organisms on Earth are plants, which are crucial to the maintenance of atmospheric composition, nutrient cycling and other ecosystem processes. The classification of plants is vital to the study of plant genetic diversity and ecological sensitivity, which is also helpful for many problems such as feeding the population and fighting disease. In this paper, we firstly dicuss the shortages of LDA, then classify the plant by using PCA+LDA. The experiments show that it is effective and feasible for plant classification.
MANTLE MIXING: The Generation, Preservation, and Destruction of Chemical Heterogeneity

▪ Abstract Observations of the geochemical diversity of mid-oceanic ridge and ocean-island basalts have traditionally been attributed to the existence of large-scale mantle heterogeneity. In particular, the layered convection model has provided an important conceptual basis for discussing the chemical evolution of the Earth. In this model, a long-term boundary is assumed between a well-mixed and depleted upper mantle and a heterogeneous and more primitive lower mantle. The existence of high 3He/4He in ocean-island sources has been used to argue for the preservation of a primitive component in the deep mantle. Nevertheless, a primitive deep layer is difficult to reconcile with the abundant lithophile isotopic evidence for recycling of oceanic crust and the lack of preservation of primitive mantle. In addition, the widespread acceptance of geophysical evidence for whole mantle flow has made straightforward application of the layered convection model problematic. Model calculations show that whole mantle con.
Optimal Collective Action Clause Thresholds

Since February 2003 a number of debtor countries have issued bonds with collective action clauses (CACs) under New York law - a development welcomed by the official sector as tangible progress towards more orderly crisis resolution. Not all of these countries, however, have opted for the same CAC voting threshold, raising concerns that lack of standardisation might undermine the wider adoption of CACs. In this paper, debtors' optimal choice of CAC threshold is analysed using a theoretical model of 'grey-zone' financial crisis, which allows for the interaction of liquidity problems with solvency problems. It finds that individual countries may wish to set different thresholds because of differing risk preferences and creditworthiness. Strongly risk-averse debtors put much greater weight on pay-offs during crisis periods than during non-crisis periods and are therefore more likely to choose lower CAC thresholds than less risk-averse debtors. The worse the creditworthiness of risk-averse debtors, however, the more likely they will want to issue bonds with high collective action clauses.
Smoothing supernova data to reconstruct the expansion history of the universe

We propose a non-parametric method of smoothing supernova data over redshift using a Gaussian kernel in order to reconstruct important cosmological quantities including H(z) and w(z) in a model-independent manner. This method is shown to be successful in discriminating between different models of dark energy when the quality of data is commensurate with that expected from the future Supernova Acceleration Probe (SNAP). We find that the Hubble parameter is especially well determined and useful for this purpose. The look-back time of the Universe may also be determined to a very high degree of accuracy (≤0.2 per cent) using this method. By refining the method, it is also possible to obtain reasonable bounds on the equation of state of dark energy. We explore a new diagnostic of dark energy - the 'w-probe' - which can be calculated from the first derivative of the data. We find that this diagnostic is reconstructed extremely accurately for different reconstruction methods even if Ω 0m is marginalized over. The w-probe can be used to successfully distinguish between A cold dark matter and other models of dark energy to a high degree of accuracy.
Bootstrapping and Bartlett corrections in the cointegrated VAR model

The small sample properties of tests on long-run coefficients in cointegrated systems are still a matter of concern to applied econometricians. We compare the performance of the Bartlett correction, the bootstrap and the fast double bootstrap for tests on cointegration parameters in the maximum likelihood framework. We show by means of a theorical result and simulations that all three procedures should be based on the unrestricted estimate of the cointegration vectors. The fast double bootstrap delivers superior size correction, whereas the Bartlett correction leads to the least loss of power. However all three perform much better than the asymptotic tests and difference between them are small.
Leadership self-efficacy and staff organizational citizenship behavior in higher education institutions: experience from Nigeria

ABSTRACT Education is the cornerstone of national development. Higher education institutions are responsible for producing skilled manpower needed to attain sustainable economic, social and technological development. In order to make higher education institutions responsive and productive, effective leadership is needed. Leader’s self-efficacy plays a vital role in attainment of the goals of an organization. Therefore, this study looked at the relationship between leaders’ self-efficacy and staff’ organizational citizenship behavior in higher education institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria. A survey questionnaire was used to gather information from 420 staff across 10 different higher education institutions. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Independent t-test were used to analyze the data. The finding shows that there is a positive relationship between high self-efficacy and staff’s organizational citizenship behavior. Also, a negative relationship exists between low self-efficacy and staff’s organization citizenship behavior. Similarly, there is no significant difference in the mean scores of staff on high and low self-efficacy in relation to staff gender. To make higher education in Nigeria more functional and responsive to needs of stakeholder, leaders must develop positive attitude to work and strive to promote a healthy-relationship with their followers.
Are Interest Rate Fixings Fixed? An Analysis of Libor and Euribor

The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) are two key market benchmark interest rates used in a plethora of financial contracts with notional amounts running into the hundreds of trillions of dollars. The integrity of the rate-setting process for these benchmarks has been under intense scrutiny ever since the first reports of attempts to manipulate these rates surfaced in 2007. In this paper, we analyze Libor and Euribor rate submissions by the individual panel banks and shed light on the underlying manipulation incentives by quantifying their potential effects on the final rate set (the “fixing”). Furthermore, we explicitly take into account the possibility of collusion between several market participants. Our setup allows us to quantify such effects for the actual rate-setting process that is in place at present, and compare it to several alternative rate-setting procedures. We find that such alternative rate fixings, and larger sample sizes, could significantly reduce the effect of manipulation. Furthermore, we discuss the role of the particular questions asked of the panel banks, which are different for Libor and Euribor, and examine the need for a transaction database to validate individual submissions.
Increased Autoimmune Diabetes in pIgR-Deficient NOD Mice Is Due to a "Hitchhiking" Interval that Refines the Genetic Effect of Idd5.4

Selective breeding to introduce a gene mutation from one mouse strain onto the genetic background of another strain invariably produces “hitchhiking” (i.e. flanking) genomic intervals, which may independently affect a disease trait of interest. To investigate a role for the polymeric Ig receptor in autoimmune diabetes, a congenic nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse strain was generated that harbors a Pigr null allele derived from C57BL/6 (B6) mice. These pIgR-deficient NOD mice exhibited increased serum IgA along with an increased diabetes incidence. However, the Pigr null allele was encompassed by a relatively large “hitchhiking” genomic interval that was derived from B6 mice and overlaps Idd5.4, a susceptibility locus for autoimmune diabetes. Additional congenic NOD mouse strains, harboring smaller B6-derived intervals, confirmed Idd5.4 independently of the other three known susceptibility loci on chromosome 1, and further localized Idd5.4 to an interval proximal to Pigr. Moreover, these congenic NOD mice showed that B6 mice harbor a more diabetogenic allele than NOD mice for this locus. The smallest B6-derived interval encompassing the Pigr null allele may, however, confer a small degree of protection against diabetes, but this protection appears to be dependent on the absence of the diabetogenic B6 allele for Idd5.4. This study provides another example of the potential hidden effects of “hitchhiking" genomic intervals and how such intervals can be used to localize disease susceptibility loci.
Exploring TESL Pre-Service Teachers’ Technology Acceptance Perspectives towards Online Multimedia Materials Development: A Case Study in Sabah, East Malaysia

—E-learning is often conceived to have a positive impact on both teachers and students in terms of the tenacity to learning and training, and the perceived attitudes towards e-learning environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of TESL pre-service teachers towards multimedia materials development via the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The dimensions explored were perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (EU), satisfaction (SN) and intention to use (IN). Multimedia materials development was done via a Web 2.0 tool named Blendspace (tes.com). Data was elicited via survey approach and analysed quantitatively to support the investigation. The study involved 69 TESL pre-service teachers pursuing Bachelor of Education (TESL) programme in a public university in Sabah, East Malaysia. The results revealed that there were moderate level of acceptance in the observed PU (mean=3.82), EU (mean=3.52), SN (mean=3.35) and IN (mean=3.82). A further examination of the relationships showed that PU influenced the intention to use the Web 2.0 tool strongly (r = .63) and on the other hand EU also had strong influence on SN (r = .68). As predicted, the mean score for PU (3.82) was higher than EU (3.52). The study implicated that the design, pedagogical and navigational aspects of the Web 2.0 tool are important to obtain good SN and IN scores from the users. 1
The Diversity of Bitter Manioc (Manihot Esculenta Crantz) Cultivation in a Whitewater Amazonian Landscape

While bitter manioc has been one of the most important staple crops in the central Amazon for thousands of years, there have been few studies of its cultivation in the fertile whitewater landscapes of this region. Anthropological research on bitter manioc cultivation in the Amazon has focused almost exclusively on long-fallow shifting cultivation in marginal upland areas of low soil fertility. This has contributed to the persistence of the oversimplified notion that because bitter manioc is well adapted to infertile upland soils; it cannot yield well in alluvial and/or fertile soils. I hypothesized that bitter manioc cultivation would be well adapted to the fertile soils of the whitewater landscapes of the central Amazon because of the centrality of this crop to subsistence in this region. In this article, I examine one such whitewater landscape, the middle Madeira River, Amazonas, Brazil, where smallholders cultivate bitter manioc on fertile Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE) and floodplain soils, and on infertile Oxisols and Ultisols. In this region, cultivation on fertile soils tends to be short-cycled, characterised by short fallowing (0–6 years) and shorter cropping periods (5–12 months) with a predominance of low starch fast maturing “weak” landraces. By contrast, cultivation on infertile soils is normally long-cycled, characterised by longer fallows (>10 years) and longer cropping periods (1–3 years) with a predominance of high starch slow maturing “strong” landraces. This diversity in bitter manioc cultivation systems (landraces, fallow periods, soils) demonstrates that Amazonian farmers have adapted bitter manioc cultivation to the specific characteristics of the landscapes that they inhabit. I conclude that contrary to earlier claims, there are no ecological limitations on growing bitter manioc in fertile soils, and therefore the cultivation of this crop in floodplain and ADE soils would have been possible in the pre-Columbian period.
Naked Exclusion with Private Offers

We consider a seller's ability to deter potential entrants by offering exclusive contracts to downstream buyers. Previous literature has shown that this can be a profitable strategy if there is a coordination failure on the part of the buyers or if the seller can make discriminatory "divide-and-conquer" offers. This literature assumes that all offers are public. We show that if buyers cannot observe each other's offers and have passive or wary out-of-equilibrium beliefs, the divide-and-conquer exclusion strategy fails. Equilibria in which the incumbent obtains exclusion due to a coordination failure, on the other hand, exist for all out-of-equilibrium beliefs.
Clostridium difficile ribotype 027: relationship to age, detectability of toxins A or B in stool with rapid testing, severe infection, and mortality.

BACKGROUND Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) can cause severe disease and death, especially in older adults. A better understanding of risk factors for adverse outcomes is needed. This study tests the hypotheses that infection with specific ribotypes and presence of stool toxins independently associate with severity and constructs predictive models of adverse outcomes. METHODS Cases of non-recurrent CDI were prospectively included after positive stool tests for toxins A and/or B by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) or tcdB by polymerase chain reaction. Outcomes included severe CDI (intensive care unit admission, colectomy, or death attributable to CDI within 30 days of diagnosis) and 30-day all-cause mortality. Adjusted models were developed to test hypotheses and predict outcomes. RESULTS In total, 1144 cases were included. The toxin EIA was positive in 37.2% and 35.6% of patients were of age >65 years. One of the 137 unique ribotypes was ribotype 027 (16.2%). Detectable stool toxin did not associate with outcomes. Adjusting for covariates, including age, Ribotype 027 was a significant predictor of severe CDI (90 cases; odds ratio [OR], 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-2.89; P = .037) and mortality (89 cases; OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.19-3.43; P = .009). Concurrent antibiotic use associated with both outcomes. Both multivariable predictive models had excellent performance (area under the curve >0.8). CONCLUSIONS Detection of stool toxin A and/or B by EIA does not predict severe CDI or mortality. Infection with ribotype 027 independently predicts severe CDI and mortality. Use of concurrent antibiotics is a potentially modifiable risk factor for severe CDI.
Disk Frequencies and Lifetimes in Young Clusters

We report the results of the first sensitive L-band survey of the intermediate-age (2.5-30 Myr) clusters NGC 2264, NGC 2362, and NGC 1960. We use JHKL colors to obtain a census of the circumstellar disk fractions in each cluster. We find disk fractions of 52% ± 10%, 12% ± 4%, and 3% ± 3% for the three clusters, respectively. Together with our previously published JHKL investigations of the younger NGC 2024, Trapezium, and IC 348 clusters, we have completed the first systematic and homogeneous survey for circumstellar disks in a sample of young clusters that both span a significant range in age (0.3-30 Myr) and contain statistically significant numbers of stars whose masses span nearly the entire stellar mass spectrum. Analysis of the combined survey indicates that the cluster disk fraction is initially very high (≥80%) and rapidly decreases with increasing cluster age, such that one-half the stars within the clusters lose their disks in ≲3 Myr. Moreover, these observations yield an overall disk lifetime of ~6 Myr in the surveyed cluster sample. This is the timescale for essentially all the stars in a cluster to lose their disks. This should set a meaningful constraint for the planet-building timescale in stellar clusters. The implications of these results for current theories of planet formation are briefly discussed.
Self-Control and Weight-Loss Practices: An Exploration of Repertory Grid Constructs

Attempting weight loss is an increasingly common behavior for many people and a variety of practices are used. However, lapses in self-control may hinder progress. This study explores how women construe their weight-loss practices. In 10 semistructured interviews, the repertory grid technique (RGT) was used to explore elicited bipolar constructs using weight-loss practices as elements. Qualitative interpretation of the grids highlighted the fundamentally different ways self-control was seen as being enhanced. The amount of weight to be lost and self-esteem issues were interpreted as impacting expectations of increased self-control from practices. Suggestions for future research into these relationships are outlined.
Landtagswahlen: Bundestestwahlen oder Regionalwahlen?

Traditionally, the relationship between voting behaviour in federal elections and Land (regional) elections in Germany (as in most other countries) has been seen to possess a distinctly cyclical rhythm. According to this approach, the governing party at the federal level will poll particularly badly in Land elections at the middle of the federal legislative cycle. Using an analytical approach originally pioneered by the German political scientist Rainer Dinkel in 1977, we find strong evidence in Germany in support of this hypothesis for the period 1949-1990. However, the evidence becomes much less convincing for the period from 1990 onwards. These conclusions recieve further support when one uses the 'Index of Dissimilarity', an approach frequently invoked when analysing multi-level electoral dynamics in Canada. The territorial dimension of German politics has become significantly more important since German unification. Land election results are not as strongly linked to phenomena in the national electoral arenas and can, under certain conditions, be influenced by more local political events, personalities and processes.
Human Resource Management Practices and Innovation

We survey, organize, and discuss the literature on the role of organizational practices for explaining innovation outcomes. We discuss how individual practices influence innovation, and how the clustering of specific practices matters for innovation outcomes. Relatedly, we discuss various possible mediators of the HRM/innovation link, such as knowledge sharing, social capital and network effects. We argue that the causal mechanisms underlying the HRM/innovation links are still ill-understood, calling for further research.