Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expropriation Risk and Return in Global Equity Markets

Standard asset pricing models have difficulty explaining cross-sectional differences in observed equity risk premia of developed and emerging markets. We argue that national equity returns are subject to sample selectivity. The lack of credible commitment to keep capital markets open (risk of expropriation) leads to this bias. We use the world CAPM for systematic risk and develop a model of sample selectivity. We find that after taking account of the sample selectivity bias, our model of systematic risk can account for the differences in risk premia quite well. We estimate the average expropriation risk to be more than ½ of the ex-post risk premium for emerging economies and close to zero for developed economies. Further, we argue that the measured selectivity bias in equity premia provide valuable economic information regarding the incentives for sovereigns not to expropriate international investors. We find that the measured expropriation risk is related to reputations in capital markets (as argued in Eaton and Gersowitz, 1981) and to the magnitude of trade that an economy conducts (as argued in Bulow and Rogoff, 1989a, 1989b).
Different Roles of Direct and Indirect Frontoparietal Pathways for Individual Working Memory Capacity

The ability to temporarily store and manipulate information in working memory is a hallmark of human intelligence and differs considerably across individuals, but the structural brain correlates underlying these differences in working memory capacity (WMC) are only poorly understood. In two separate studies, diffusion MRI data and WMC scores were collected for 70 and 109 healthy individuals. Using a combination of probabilistic tractography and network analysis of the white matter tracts, we examined whether structural brain network properties were predictive of individual WMC. Converging evidence from both studies showed that lateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex of high-capacity individuals are more densely connected compared with low-capacity individuals. Importantly, our network approach was further able to dissociate putative functional roles associated with two different pathways connecting frontal and parietal regions: a corticocortical pathway and a subcortical pathway. In Study 1, where participants were required to maintain and update working memory items, the connectivity of the direct and indirect pathway was predictive of WMC. In contrast, in Study 2, where participants were required to maintain working memory items without updating, only the connectivity of the direct pathway was predictive of individual WMC. Our results suggest an important dissociation in the circuitry connecting frontal and parietal regions, where direct frontoparietal connections might support storage and maintenance, whereas subcortically mediated connections support the flexible updating of working memory content. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Using diffusion MRI and network analysis, we found that the capacity of healthy individuals to temporally maintain information in working memory was related to a cortical pathway connecting frontal and parietal regions. The updating of working memory content, on the other hand, additionally involved a subcortical pathway connecting frontal and parietal regions via thalamus and basal ganglia. These results suggest that the two anatomical pathways serve different functional roles for working memory.
Haemozoin Induces Early Cytokine-Mediated Lysozyme Release from Human Monocytes through p38 MAPK- and NF-kappaB- Dependent Mechanisms

Malarial pigment (natural haemozoin, HZ) is a ferriprotoporphyrin IX crystal produced by Plasmodium parasites after haemoglobin catabolism. HZ-fed human monocytes are functionally compromised, releasing increased amounts of pro-inflammatory molecules, including cytokines, chemokines and cytokine-related proteolytic enzyme Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), whose role in complicated malaria has been recently suggested. In a previous work HZ was shown to induce through TNFalpha production the release of monocytic lysozyme, an enzyme stored in gelatinase granules with MMP-9. Here, the underlying mechanisms were investigated. Results showed that HZ lipid moiety promoted early but not late lysozyme release. HZ-dependent lysozyme induction was abrogated by anti-TNFalpha/IL-1beta/MIP-1alpha blocking antibodies and mimicked by recombinant cytokines. Moreover, HZ early activated either p38 MAPK or NF-kappaB pathways by inducing: p38 MAPK phosphorylation; cytosolic I-kappaBalpha phosphorylation and degradation; NF-kappaB nuclear translocation and DNA-binding. Inhibition of both routes through selected molecules (SB203580, quercetin, artemisinin, parthenolide) prevented HZ-dependent lysozyme release. These data suggest that HZ-triggered overproduction of TNFalpha, IL-1beta and MIP-1alpha mediates induction of lysozyme release from human monocytes through activation of p38 MAPK and NF-kappaB pathways, providing new evidence on mechanisms underlying the HZ-enhanced monocyte degranulation in falciparum malaria and the potential role for lysozyme as a new affordable marker in severe malaria.
Background Knowledge & L2 Reading

Carrell's findings that "unlike native speakers . nonnative readers show virtually no significant effects of background knowledge" in reading, understanding, or recalling a text.I In that study, two levels of ESL readers and one group of native-English speakers were presented with three experimental treatments in order to examine three components of background knowledge. The components studied were: 1) context, the presence (context) or absence (no context) of a title and picture page preceding the text passage which informs the reader in advance of the content area relative to which the text should be read and under-
The Effect of Scale Tailoring for Cross-Cultural Application on Scale Reliability and Construct Validity

This article summarizes main findings from a two-step investigation about the effects of tailoring a scale with etic and emic items and extreme-response styles on the validity and reliability of scores. The Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy scale was chosen, and its Spanish version was tailored with translated items, adapted items, and newly developed items. The tailored scale was administered to two independent samples of high school students from Mexico. Reliability estimates for the emic and etic scales were marginally different between them and with respect to those for the English language. Tailoring a scale with the best etic and emic items neither improved on the recovery of the five-dimension structure nor reduced the effects of the extreme response style variable.
Processing Inferential Causal Statements: Theoretical Refinements and the Role of Verb Type

An evidential causal relation like, “Because most distinguished students got bad grades, the teacher made some mistakes in evaluating his students' papers,” is more difficult to process than a factual one like, “Because he got tired after a long semester, the teacher made some mistakes in evaluating his students' papers” (Noordman & de Blijzer, 2000; Traxler, Sanford, Aked, & Moxey, 1997). Two experiments explored the distinguishing characteristics of different types of causal relations. Experiment 1 introduced a third type of causal relation—a deductive causal relation—such as, “Because grading a paper is a subjective process, the teacher made some mistakes in evaluating his students' papers. ” Deductive causal relations are intermediate in difficulty between factual and evidential causal relations but behave in important ways like evidential relations. Experiment 2 found that using psychological verbs (e.g., like) to express evidential relations makes causal statements that express these relations more acceptable than their counterparts expressed using action verbs (e.g., destroy). The article concludes with a discussion of the main characteristics of different types of causal statements. It is argued that understanding the speaker's theory of mind is the basis for comprehending evidential and deductive causal relations. Finally, this article proposes a tentative framework for analyzing the comprehension of causal relations.
Re-clothing the emperor: the swimming pool as a negotiated order

This article examines the unspoken rules, routines, and rituals of the swimming pool, using ideas from negotiated order theory, Foucault, Goffman's dramaturgical theory, and symbolic interactionism. It identifies three sets of social norms: respect for personal space, respect for individuals' disciplinary regimes, and the desexualization of encounters. I show how these rules are (normally) followed or (occasionally) breached through various rituals, and examine the consequences for interaction order. The tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes" is used analogously to explain why actors cannot consciously attend to their precarious construction of reality, yet remain poised to defend it.
Role of glutamine synthetase adenylylation in the self-protection of Pseudomonas syringae subsp. "tabaci" from its toxin, tabtoxinine-beta-lactam

Selected pathovars of Pseudomonas syringae produce an extracellular phytotoxin, tabtoxinine-beta-lactam, that irreversibly inhibits its known physiological target, glutamine synthetase (GS). Pseudomonas syringae subsp. "tabaci" retains significant amounts of glutamine synthetase activity during toxin production in culture. As part of our investigation of the self-protection mechanism(s) used by these pathovars, we have determined that GS becomes adenylylated after toxin production is initiated and that the serine released from the zinc-activated hydrolysis of tabtoxin is a factor in the initiation of this adenylylation. The adenylylation state of this GS was estimated to range from E5.0-7.5. The irreversible inactivation by tabtoxinine-beta-lactam of unadenylylated and adenylylated glutamine synthetase purified from P. syringae subsp. "tabaci" was investigated. Adenylylated GS was inactivated by tabtoxinine-beta-lactam at a slower rate than was unadenylylated enzyme. Adenylylated GS (E7.5-10.5) was significantly protected from this inactivation in the presence of the enzyme effectors, AMP, Ala, Gly, His, and Ser. Thus, the combination of the adenylylation of GS after toxin production is initiated and the presence of the enzyme effectors in vivo could provide part of the self-protection mechanism used by subsp. "tabaci".
War, Peace, and Marital Residence in Pre-Industrial Societies

Tefft and Reinhardt recently reported that peacemaking mechanisms and periods of stable peace are associated with internal warfare, while peacemaking mechanisms are absent and peace is unstable in societies with external warfare. We suggest an explanation for these findings based on the argument that in pre-state level societies internal and external war are entirely different types of conflict. Internal war (conflict between communities of the same society) is part of a system of population control in pre-state level societies which also involves female infanticide, polygyny, and patrilocal residence. Internal war is thus a regulatory type of warfare requiring several mechanisms to initiate and inhibit it. In contrast, external warfare among pre-state level societies occurs between societies which have recently migrated to their locales and adopted matrilocal residence. External war is thus an intense struggle for survival between two or more societies trying to occupy the same niche in an ecosystem that cannot support all of them. There can be no regulation of this type of warfare–only victory–and hence there can be no peacemaking mechanisms.
Antisocial and psychopathic personality disorders in forensic intellectual disability populations: what do we know so far?

Abstract Antisocial personality disorder (APD) and the more severe personality disorder of psychopathy both have particular relevance to forensic populations, but it is only recently that these constructs have begun to be explored in forensic populations who have intellectual disabilities. This paper reviews the emerging theoretical and empirical evidence in this field. Consideration is given to conceptual issues, the validity of the constructs, and emerging evidence for reliability and validity of existing measures in this particular forensic group. The lack of treatment outcome studies with respect to APD and psychopathy in this group is noted. While these constructs may be useful in understanding and treating some offenders with intellectual disability, these such labels can also result in negative outcomes for individuals. Caution is indicated in their broad application until further relevant research is completed.
Challenges to prepare pre-service teachers for inclusive education in Bangladesh: beliefs of higher educational institutional heads

This paper reveals the beliefs of higher education institutional heads about the challenges they face in preparing pre-service teachers for inclusive education in Bangladesh. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 institutional heads. Data were analysed by applying thematic analysis procedure. Challenges were found in four theme areas: attitudinal beliefs, academic challenges, challenges in practicum and challenges for beginning teachers. Lack of appropriate information in the teacher preparation curriculum, untrained teacher educators, limited resources, inappropriate teaching-learning approaches, insufficient practicum experiences, and large class sizes were some of the major challenges identified. Participants also identified some useful strategies to address the challenges which ranged from curriculum reform, emphasizing practicum more than theories, human resource development empowering institutional heads to implement inclusion and resource support. Implications of the findings for university educators are discussed.
Determinants of osteopenia in male renal-stone-disease patients with idiopathic hypercalciuria.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Bone demineralization is frequent in renal-stone formers with hypercalciuria. Although this pathologic link has been recognized for decades, the underlying mechanisms and risk factors associated with osteopenia/osteoporosis in this population remain partially understood. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS This study retrospectively analyzed determinants of low bone mineral density (BMD) in 65 idiopathic hypercalciuric male renal-stone formers. Clinical and biologic evaluation included BMD measurement, bone-remodeling markers, analysis of calcium metabolism with oral calcium load test, and dietary inquiry. RESULTS Patients with osteopenia (n=23, 35% of the population) presented significantly higher fasting calciuria as compared with normal bone density patients (n=42) (calcium/creatinine ratio was 0.32 versus 0.24 mmol/mmol; P=0.006). Analysis of the whole population revealed a negative association between fasting hypercalciuria and BMD (P = 0.003), independent of confounding variables including body-mass index and tobacco consumption. The fasting calcium/creatinine ratio above 0.25 mmol/mmol was associated with a 3.8-fold increase in the risk of low BMD. CONCLUSION In our study, fasting hypercalciuria after a 2-day calcium-restricted diet appears as the only biologic factor associated with low BMD, suggesting a bone-calcium efflux. Our results support the view of a parathyroid-independent pathologic process that remains to be identified. Hypercalciuric patients with low BMD do not excrete more calcium in 24-hour urine samples than patients without low BMD.
Archaeology, diaspora and decolonization

Archaeologists in settler societies need to find theoretically well-founded ways of understanding the sociopolitical milieux in which they work if they are to deal sensibly and sensitively with the colonizers as well as the colonized in their communities. This article explores one avenue that the author has found helpful in a number of contexts. He advances the proposition that, with certain qualifications, the social conditions of settler nations might usefully be approached as the products of a single social condition - diaspora - in a manifestation that is unique to such societies because it positions indigenous peoples as well as settlers as diasporic.
Multi-Scale Spectral Residual Analysis to Speed up Image Object Detection

Accuracy in image object detection has been usually achieved at the expense of much computational load. Therefore a trade-off between detection performance and fast execution commonly represents the ultimate goal of an object detector in real life applications. In this present work, we propose a novel method toward that goal. The proposed method was grounded on a multi-scale spectral residual (MSR) analysis for saliency detection. Compared to a regular sliding window search over the images, in our experiments, MSR was able to reduce by 75% (in average) the number of windows to be evaluated by an object detector. The proposed method was thoroughly evaluated over a subset of Label Me dataset (person images), improving detection performance in most cases.
How Social Accounts and Participation during Change Affect Organizational Learning.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the way change implemented effects organizational learning. More specifically, we study the relationships between the use of social accounts, participation and organizational learning in the context of strategic change. The use of social accounts and participation are often promoted during change, but up to this point, their influences on organizational learning have not been studied.Design/methodology/approach – A multi‐change and multi‐organization study, using a critical incident technique (i.e. informants provide information from a specific change experience), provides the data for testing a set of theory driven hypotheses that link aspects of the change process to learning outcomes.Findings – Findings show that social accounting and participation are positively associated with organizational learning, but that the influence of social accounting is negatively moderated by participation. Social accounts framed as threats to system survival were unre.
Tracking analysis of an adaptive IIR notch filter using gradient-based algorithm

This paper presents tracking analysis of a gradient-based simplified algorithm for an allpass filter-based adaptive infinite impulse response (IIR) notch filter with a linear chirp input signal. A first-order difference equation with respect to steady-state instantaneous frequency tracking error is derived first. Then tracking error mean, variance and mean square error (MSE) are derived from the difference equation using the power spectral density (PSD) method. Computer simulation results are presented to validate the analysis.
The influence of pore‐water chemistry and physiology on the distribution of vesicomyid clams at cold seeps in Monterey Bay: Implications for patterns of chemosynthetic community organization

Analyses of sulfide, methane, oxygen, and CO2 in pore‐water samples from three cold seep sites in Monterey Bay indicate that fluid chemistry is a strong determinant of the distribution of chemolithoautotrophic vesicomyid clams. The distribution of Calyptogena pacifica and Calyptogena kilmeri were aligned closely with sulfide concentrations at all cold seeps and reflected species‐specific capabilities for sulfide binding. Live clams occurred only in sediment where sulfide was detectable. Sulfide was not detected in the absence of vesicomyid clams. The relative abundances of five vesicomyid species varied greatly among seeps. C. kilmeri accounted for 85–99% of all vesicomyids at seeps with high sulfide content, and C. pacifica dominated (73%) seeps with low sulfide levels. These species were also partially segregated along sulfide gradients from the center to the margin of seeps, analogous to zonation of rocky intertidal communities. We hypothesize that the absence of thiotrophic or methanotrophic mytilid mussels from Monterey Bay cold seeps is related to the lack of physiological specializations for concentrating reduced sulfur compounds or methane and the absence of hypersaline brines that could extend the persistence of methane or sulfide‐rich fluids very near the sea floor.
Evaluation of an oral health scale of infectious potential using a telematic survey of visual diagnosis

Objective: To compare the results of a subjective estimation of oral health through review of a set of intraoral photographs with those of an objective oral health scale of infectious potential. Method: The pool of patients was made up of 100 adults. Using an infectious-potential scale based on dental and periodontal variables, we assigned 1 of the 4 grades of the scale (range, 0 to 3; 0 corresponds to an excellent oral health status and 3 to the poorest oral health status) to each subject. A total of 20 representative subjects were selected from the pool of patients, 5 subjects for each one of the grades of the scale, and a standardized photographic record was made. One thousand dentists practicing in Spain were sent the survey by e-mail and 174 completed forms were received. We then calculated the concordance of the oral health status indicated by the respondents after visualising the photographs on comparison with the results of the oral health scale of infectious potential; concordance was termed correct grade allocation (CGA). Results: The majority of respondents (69.1%) achieved a CGA in 8 to 12 cases and none achieved more than 15 CGAs. The poorest CGA rates were found with grades 1 and 2, with a mean of 1.74 ± 1.09 and 1.87 ± 1.18, respectively, out of a maximum of 5. The concordance in terms of CGA was high for grade 0 (70.5%), very low for grade 1 (10.8%), low for grade 2 (37.3%), and moderate for grade 3 (42.6%). Conclusion: In comparison with visual examination of the oral cavity, the use of objective scale that establishes a reliable diagnosis of oral health in terms of infectious potential was found to be advantageous. Key words:Diagnosis, intraoral photographies, oral health scale, objective estimation, visual examination.
Efficient site-specific transgenesis and enhancer activity tests in medaka using PhiC31 integrase

Established transgenesis methods for fish model systems allow efficient genomic integration of transgenes. However, thus far a way of controlling copy number and integration sites has not been available, leading to variable transgene expression caused by position effects. The integration of transgenes at predefined genomic positions enables the direct comparison of different transgenes, thereby improving time and cost efficiency. Here, we report an efficient PhiC31-based site-specific transgenesis system for medaka. This system includes features that allow the pre-selection of successfully targeted integrations early on in the injected generation. Pre-selected embryos transmit the correctly integrated transgene through the germline with high efficiency. The landing site design enables a variety of applications, such as reporter and enhancer switch, in addition to the integration of any insert. Importantly, this allows assaying of enhancer activity in a site-specific manner without requiring germline transmission, thus speeding up large-scale analyses of regulatory elements.