Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Random Coefficient Approach for Estimating Tax Revenue Stability and Growth

The issue of tax revenue stability and growth has been of concern to policy makers and economists for many years. One important focus of the literature is the optimal tax portfolio, which assumes that revenue variance is entirely unpredictable. However, as evidenced by Fox and Campbell, some revenue variance arising from changes in economic conditions is predictable. The purpose of this study is to revisit Fox and Campbell's work. They studied revenue growth and stability with a fixed coefficient model (FCM). This study uses a random coefficient model (RCM). The RC Mapproach appears to provide improved estimates and confirms the conclusions of their earlier work. The response of short-run elasticities to the business cycle appears both strong and variable across commodities, and no single commodity dominates revenue growth or stability. Although this study supports the design of an optimal tax portfolio, it emphasizes the need to explicitly model for economic conditions and to continually adjust the tax portfolio. However, given the political and budgetary process, these adjustments may not be feasible.
Occupational hypersensitivity to metal salts, including platinum, in the secondary industry

Background: Exposure to platinum group elements (PGEs) – platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh) and iridium (Ir) – may cause acute toxicity or hypersensitivity with respiratory symptoms, urticaria and (less frequently) contact dermatitis. Our aim was to determine the prevalence and the clinical characteristics of hypersensitivity to platinum salts and to other elements of the platinum group.
PAYG Pensions and Human Capital Accumulation: Some Unpleasant Arithmetic

A large literature has studied the effects of PAYG systems on fertility, human capital and growth. We argue that the social security system may also interact with longevity when the latter is endogenously determined. We show that in such an environment, in a dynamically efficient economy PAYG pensions must be sufficiently low in order to ensure positive economic growth. Moreover, a transition to a funded social security system will promote growth, and can thereby take place by fully compensating the losers.
Reengineering the supply chain in a paint company

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline the importance and benefits an organisation can achieve through supply chain integration. These benefits are primarily in the area of achieving superior customer service and operating with lower working capital.Design/methodology/approach – A three level framework for achieving the integration has been proposed which is in the form of structural integration, process integration and performance integration. The paper also describes in detail the factors influencing an organisations working capital needs and how this integration mechanism allows the organisation to exercise control over these factors. The framework has been described in the form of a case study in a paints company.Findings – The research findings reveal that most of the Indian organisations have aligned their supply chain objectives with their business objectives. They are now on course for aligning their processes and management focus. Enhanced levels of competitiveness would require Indian.
The Case for Stabilizing China's Exchange Rate: Setting the Stage for Fiscal Expansion

China's financial conundrum arises from two sources. First, its large saving (trade) surplus results in a currency mismatch because it is an immature creditor that cannot lend in its own currency. Instead, foreign currency claims (largely US dollars) build up within domestic financial institutions. Second, economists, both American and Chinese, mistakenly attribute the surpluses to an undervalued RMB. To placate the USA, the result was a gradual and predictable appreciation of the RMB against the dollar of 6 percent or more per year from July 2005 to July 2008. Together with the fall in US interest rates since mid-2007, this oneway bet in the foreign exchanges markets not only attracted hot money inflows but inhibited private capital outflows from financing China's huge trade surplus. Therefore, the People's Bank of China had to intervene heavily to prevent the RMB from ratcheting upwards, and so became the country's sole international financial intermediary as official exchange reserves exploded. Because of the currency mismatch, floating the RMB is neither feasible nor desirable, and a higher RMB would not reduce China's trade surplus. Instead, monetary control and normal private-sector finance for the trade surplus require a return to a credibly fixed nominal RMB/USD rate similar to that which existed between 1995 and 2004. However, for any newly reset RMB/USD rate to be credible as a monetary anchor, foreign "China bashing" to get the RMB up must end. Then the stage would be set for fiscal expansion to both stimulate the economy and reduce its trade surplus. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2009 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The impact of psychological contract violation on employee attitudes and behaviour

Psychological contract violation has gained the attention of both practitioners and academics in recent years. Critical commentaries have questioned whether breaching such a contract has implications for employee attitude and behaviour, and ultimately organisational performance. This paper addresses the question “To what extent does psychological contract breach impact on employee attitude and behaviour? ”. The study is based on an industrial textiles company and draws on quantitative and qualitative data. The findings suggested that triggers of violation impinged on employee attitudes but not on behaviour, trends substantiated by analysis of the organisation's absenteeism records. The qualitative data helped explain this trend and have highlighted two contextual issues. The first of these is labour market conditions and perceptions of job insecurity and second of these is a sense of collegiality and pride in the job.
The Dynamics and Stochastics of Currency Betas Based on the Unbiasedness Hypothesis in Foreign Exchange Markets

This article examines the dynamic and stochastic behavior of the beta coefficient (to be referred to as the currency beta) of the unbiasedness hypothesis (UH) in foreign exchange markets. We argue that the dynamics and stochastics of currency betas can be attributed to the dynamic behavior of various macroeconomic variables from different sectors of an economy, in addition to the trend variable considered in previous research. Incorporating four macroeconomic variables from the financial, real, and external sectors into the currency betas of eight currencies (developed and emerging) under a logarithmic change specification used to test the UH, we attempt to simultaneously test the behavior of currency betas in terms of nonstationarity, shifts in the mean and variance, and randomness. The vast quantity of empirical tests and results strongly suggests that the changing characteristics of currency betas are readily apparent and have important implications for the reconciliation of the controversies surrounding the legitimacy of the UH, for government exchange rate policies, and for the forecasting of future spot rates, across the developed and emerging economies under study. We also find different tales from developed and developing countries.
The charter school experiment : expectations, evidence, and implications

When charter schools first arrived on the American educational scene, few observers suspected that within two decades thousands of these schools would be established, serving almost a million and a half children across forty states. The widespread popularity of these schools, and of the charter movement itself, speaks to the unique and chronic desire for substantive change in American education. As an innovation in governance, the ultimate goal of the charter movement is to improve learning opportunities for all students not only those who attend charter schools but also students in public schools that are affected by competition from charters. In "The Charter School Experiment," a select group of leading scholars traces the development of one of the most dynamic and powerful areas of education reform. Contributors with varying perspectives on the charter movement carefully evaluate how well charter schools are fulfilling the goals originally set out for them: introducing competition to the school sector, promoting more equitable access to quality schools, and encouraging innovation to improve educational outcomes. They explore the unintended effects of the charter school experiment over the past two decades, and conclude that charter schools are entering a new phase of their development, beginning to serve purposes significantly different from those originally set out for them. "
Lymphocyte subpopulations and antibody levels in immunized malnourished children

1. The proportions of lymphocyte subpopulations (by rosette tests) and the serum antibody levels (using haemagglutination techniques) were estimated in malnourished and well fed Nigerian children before and up to 21 d after immunization with tetanus toxoid or measles virus vaccine. 2. Significantly diminished (P < 0.01) mean percentage T lymphocyte levels and considerably higher mean percentage null cell levels were observed in the malnourished children before immunization with either of the vaccines. 3. There was comparable in vivo increases in percentage T lymphocytes in malnourished and control children following the administration of each antigen. 4. The mean percentage B lymphocyte levels were similar in the control and malnourished children before and after the immunization. 5. There was a slight depression in the tetanus antibody levels (P > 0.2) but a significant diminution (P < 0.01) in measles virus antibody concentrations in the malnourished children. 6. Rise in mean percentage T lymphocytes corresponded with the elevation in mean tetanus antibody levels in both malnourished and control children following tetanus toxoid immunization. This was however not the situation in the malnourished children following immunization with measles virus. 7. The observed depressed T lymphocyte number in malnourished children may in practice affect their handling of antigens such as measles virus in vivo.
COL1A1 association and otosclerosis: A meta‐analysis

Otosclerosis is a disease of abnormal bone remodeling in the human otic capsule that can lead to progressive hearing loss. Little of the underlying disease etiology has been elucidated thus far, although several studies have suggested that COL1A1 may play a role based on its importance in bone metabolism and other diseases like osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta. Genetic association studies between COL1A1 and otosclerosis, however, have been contradictory. To resolve this issue, we studied a large Belgian‐Dutch and a Swiss population for a genetic association between COL1A1 and otosclerosis and additionally performed a meta‐analysis to investigate the overall genetic effect of COL1A1 on all otosclerosis populations studied to date. We found a significant association both in the Belgian‐Dutch population and in the meta‐analysis. In aggregate, our analysis supports evidence for an association between COL1A1 and otosclerosis although effect sizes of the variants reported in the initial studies are likely to be an overestimate of true effect sizes. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Protonation-state dependence of hydrogen bond strengths and exchange rates in a serine protease catalytic triad: bovine chymotrypsinogen A.

Hydrogen-1 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to measure D/H fractionation factors and the temperature dependence of the rate of hydrogen exchange at two sites in the catalytic triad of chymotrypsinogen (hydrogen bond between aspartate-102 and histidine-57 and hydrogen bond between histidine-57 and serine-195) as a function of the protonation states of the constituent residues. Connectivities in one-dimensional spectra used to assign NMR data were collected at three pH values: pH 9, at which His-57 is neutral and Asp-102 is negatively charged; pH 3.5, at which His-57 is positively charged and Asp-102 is negatively charged; and pH 1, at which His-57 is positively charged and Asp-102 is neutral. The signal from H epsilon 2 of histidine-57 was assigned by reference to 1H-1H NOE connectivities at pH 3.5 to the previously assigned signals from the H epsilon 1 and H delta 2 of the same residue. The D/H fractionation factor, phi, for the hydrogen bond between Asp-102 and His-57 changed from phi = 2 at pH 9 to phi = 0.4 at pH 3.5. From studies of model systems, it may be concluded that a change of phi of this magnitude corresponds to a large increase in hydrogen bond strength. A signal from the hydrogen bond between Ser-195 and His-57 was detected only at the lower pH values studied. The D/H fractionation factor for this hydrogen bond was phi = 0.7 at pH 3.5, indicative of a moderately strong interaction. Data obtained at pH 1 indicate that the hydrogen bond between Asp-102 and His-57 is weakened but that the hydrogen bond between His-57 and Ser-195 persists. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that changes in hydrogen bonding strength serve to lower barriers along the reaction coordinate in the catalytic mechanism. Large pH-dependent changes were found in the activation enthalpy (delta H ++) for exchange with protons from the solvent at the hydrogen bond between aspartate-102 and histidine-57: delta H ++ was approximately 10-12 kcal.mol-1 higher at pH 3.5 than at pH 1 or 9.
Gradual Financial Liberalization, Fdi, and Domestic Investment: Evidence From China's Panel Data

We argue that how inward foreign direct investment (FDI) affects domestic investment (DI) depends on the degree of financial deregulation. Utilizing the Chinese experience and its panel data, instrumenting FDI with weather indicators (validity supported by over-identification tests), our limited-information maximum likelihood (LIML) results suggest that both FDI and its interaction with financial deregulation have a significant negative effect on DI. It means FDI significantly crowds out DI in China, and higher degree of financial deregulation reinforces the crowding-out effect. The results are robust even after controlling for other growth factors, and time and province effects.
Thinking about Developmental States in Africa

During much of the 1980s and 90s, a literature emerged suggesting that "developmental states" were impossible in Africa. The arguments given ranged from cultural ones about the pervasive nature of clientalism to structural ones on the dependence of African economies or the atypical levels of rent seeking in African economies. This paper argues that Africa has had states that were "developmental" in both their aspirations and economic performance. It further argues that these experiences need to be examined critically for useful lessons, an exercise that has been hindered by an excessive leveling of the African political and economic landscapes. Copyright 2001 by Oxford University Press.
A proposed model of TQM implementation in the Palestinian context

This paper is based on an empirical study of TQM implementation in the Palestinian industrial context. The main focus of the study was to identify critical quality factors for effective TQM implementation and to understand how these critical quality factors are deployed and implemented by Palestinian organizations. The paper presents the outcomes from this research in the form of an implementation framework, constructed through the use of practical guidelines, the key steps of which have been validated and supported empirically.
Morphology and Gene Sequence of Levicoleps biwae n. gen., n. sp. (Ciliophora, Prostomatida), a Proposed Endemic from the Ancient Lake Biwa, Japan

ABSTRACT. Levicoleps biwae n. gen., n. sp. was discovered in organic mud on the shore of Lake Biwa, Japan. Its morphology and small subunit rRNA gene sequence were studied with standard methods. Further, we established a terminology for the colepid armour and selected four features for genus recognition: the number of armour tiers, the structure of the tier plates, the presence/absence of armour spines, and the number of adoral organelles (three or five). The Japanese colepid, a barrel‐shaped ciliate with an average size of 75 × 45 μm, has six armour tiers and hirtus‐type tier plates, but lacks armour spines, both in the environment and in laboratory culture. Thus, it is considered to represent a new genus. This rank is supported by the considerable genetic distance (7%) from the common Coleps hirtus. Although L. biwae looks quite similar to C. hirtus in vivo, it is very likely most closely related to Coleps amphacanthus, a species with conspicuous armour spines, as indicated by body size, the number of ciliary rows and, especially, the multiple caudal cilia. Lake Biwa is about four million years old and inhabited by many endemic organisms, ranging from algae to large fish. Thus, we suspect that L. biwae is restricted to Lake Biwa or, at least, to Asia. Based on literature data and the generic features established, we also propose the new genus Reticoleps for Coleps remanei Kahl, 1933, and resurrect the genus Pinacocoleps Diesing, 1865 to include Coleps incurvus Ehrenberg, 1833, Coleps pulcher Spiegel, 1926, Coleps tessalatus Kahl, 1930 and, probably, Baikalocoleps quadratus Obolkina, 1995a. Nine colepid genera are diagnosed and dichotomously keyed.
The effect of urban air pollution on inflammation, oxidative stress, coagulation, and autonomic dysfunction in young adults.

RATIONALE The biological mechanisms linking air pollution to cardiovascular events still remain largely unclear. OBJECTIVES To investigate whether biological mechanisms linking air pollution to cardiovascular events occurred concurrently in human subjects exposed to urban air pollutants. METHODS We recruited a panel of 76 young, healthy students from a university in Taipei. Between April and June of 2004 or 2005, three measurements were made in each participant of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), plasminogen activator fibrinogen inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) in plasma, and heart rate variability (HRV). Gaseous air pollutants were measured at one air-monitoring station inside their campus, and particulate air pollutants were measured at one particulate matter supersite monitoring station 1 km from their campus. We used linear mixed-effects models to associate biological endpoints with individual air pollutants averaged over 1- to 3-day periods before measurements were performed. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS We found that increases in hs-CRP, 8-OHdG, fibrinogen, and PAI-1, and decreases in HRV indices were associated with increases in levels of particles with aerodynamic diameters less than 10 microm and 2.5 microm, sulfate, nitrate, and ozone (O(3)) in single-pollutant models. The increase in 8-OHdG, fibrinogen, and PAI-1, and the reduction in HRV remained significantly associated with 3-day averaged sulfate and O(3) levels in two-pollutant models. There were moderate correlations (r = -0.3) between blood markers of hs-CRP, fibrinogen, PAI-1, and HRV indices. CONCLUSIONS Urban air pollution is associated with inflammation, oxidative stress, blood coagulation and autonomic dysfunction simultaneously in healthy young humans, with sulfate and O(3) as two major traffic-related pollutants contributing to such effects.
Transoral resection for squamous cell carcinoma of the base of the tongue.

OBJECTIVE To review the oncologic and functional outcomes of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the base of the tongue who underwent transoral tumor resection and neck dissection with or without postoperative adjuvant therapy. DESIGN Retrospective medical record review. SETTING Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS All patients undergoing transoral resection of squamous cell carcinoma on the base of the tongue as part of their primary treatment from January 1, 1996, through January 31, 2005. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES We analyzed overall survival, disease-specific survival, local control, and locoregional control rates using the Kaplan-Meier method. Speech and swallowing function and treatment-related morbidity were also analyzed. RESULTS A total of 20 patients underwent transoral resection. Four patients had surgery only, 12 had surgery and radiotherapy, and 4 had surgery and chemoradiotherapy. One patient had stage II disease, 3 had stage III disease, and 16 had stage IVA disease. The Kaplan-Meier overall survival rate was 90.0%, and the disease-specific survival rate was 94.7% at 2 years, with a mean follow-up of 3.7 years. Median hospital stay was 4.7 days. Patients who received a tracheostomy underwent decannulation with a median tracheostomy time of 5.5 days. Seven of 9 patients who received a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube had it removed. Three patients developed local recurrence, there were no regional recurrences, and 2 patients developed distant metastasis. CONCLUSIONS Transoral resection of squamous cell carcinoma of the base of the tongue with postoperative adjuvant therapy provided excellent local and regional control and minimized morbidity. Transoral resection is a reasonable treatment option for patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, resulting in very low overall loss of organ function in properly selected patients.
Enhanced early chondrogenesis in articular defects following arthroscopic mesenchymal stem cell implantation in an equine model

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) provide an important source of pluripotent cells for musculoskeletal tissue repair. This study examined the impact of MSC implantation on cartilage healing characteristics in a large animal model. Twelve full‐thickness 15‐mm cartilage lesions in the femoropatellar articulations of six young mature horses were repaired by injection of a self‐polymerizing autogenous fibrin vehicle containing mesenchymal stem cells, or autogenous fibrin alone in control joints. Arthroscopic second look and defect biopsy was obtained at 30 days, and all animals were euthanized 8 months after repair. Cartilage repair tissue and surrounding cartilage were assessed by histology, histochemistry, collagen type I and type II immunohistochemistry, collagen type II in situ hybridization, and matrix biochemical assays. Arthroscopic scores for MSC‐implanted defects were significantly improved at the 30‐day arthroscopic assessment. Biopsy showed MSC‐implanted defects contained increased fibrous tissue with several defects containing predominantly type II collagen. Long‐term assessment revealed repair tissue filled grafted and control lesions at 8 months, with no significant difference between stem cell‐treated and control defects. Collagen type II and proteoglycan content in MSC‐implanted and control defects were similar. Mesenchymal stem cell grafts improved the early healing response, but did not significantly enhance the long‐term histologic appearance or biochemical composition of full‐thickness cartilage lesions. © 2007 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 25:913–925, 2007