Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Economics of Civil Justice: New Cross-country Data and Empirics

Combining existing information with a newly collected dataset, the paper develops indicators of the performance and the institutional characteristics of OECD judicial systems. It provides cross-country comparisons of measures of trial length, accessibility to justice services and predictability of decisions. It then investigates how trial length is related to some of the underlying characteristics of the systems. There is a large cross-country variation in trial length and in appeal rates (a proxy of the predictability of decisions), which are only partially explained by restrictions to appeal. Cross-country differences in trial length are related to the shares of the justice budget devoted to computerisation, the systematic production of statistics on case-flow, the active management of the progress of cases by courts, the presence of specialised commercial courts and systems of court governance assigning greater managerial responsibilities to the chief judge. Indicators of good public governance are associated with lower litigation, which in turn has a significant impact on trial length. Free negotiation of lawyers’ fees, as opposed to regulated fees, appears to be associated with lower litigation. L'economie de la justice civile : nouvelles donnees comparatives et analyse empirique En combinant l’information existante avec une nouvelle base de donnees, le document produit des indicateurs qui mesurent la performance et les caracteristiques institutionnelles des systemes judiciaires de l’OCDE. Ceci permet une comparaison internationale de la performance des systemes . Le document examine ensuite la facon dont la duree des procedures est liee aux caracteristiques sous-jacentes des systemes concernes. Il existe une grande variation entre les pays en ce qui concerne la duree des proces, qui semble etre liee a la part du budget de la justice consacree a l’informatisation, a la production systematique de statistiques et a la gestion active des dossiers par les tribunaux, a la presence de tribunaux de commerce specialises et aux responsabilites de gestion assignees au juge principal. Une gouvernance publique de bonne qualite, reduit le recours aux procedures judiciaires, ce qui a son tour a un impact significatif sur la duree des procedures. La libre negociation des honoraires des avocats est associee a un moindre taux de procedures judiciaires.
HST observations of the field star population in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present $V$ and $I$ photometry, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, for $\sim 15,800$ stars in a field in the inner disk of the Large Magellanic Cloud. We confirm previous results indicating that an intense star formation event, probably corresponding to the formation of the LMC disk, occurred a few times $10^9$ years ago. We find a small but real difference between our field and one further out in the disk observed by Gallagher et al (1996): either star formation in the inner disk commenced slightly earlier, or the stars are slightly more metal rich. We also find evidence for a later burst, around 1 Gyr ago, which may correspond to the formation of the LMC bar. About 5% of the stars in our field are substantially older than either burst, and are probably members of an old disk or halo population with age $\sim 12$ Gyr.
Large-Scale Functional Purification of Recombinant HIV-1 Capsid

During human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) virion maturation, capsid proteins undergo a major rearrangement to form a conical core that protects the viral nucleoprotein complexes. Mutations in the capsid sequence that alter the stability of the capsid core are deleterious to viral infectivity and replication. Recently, capsid assembly has become an attractive target for the development of a new generation of anti-retroviral agents. Drug screening efforts and subsequent structural and mechanistic studies require gram quantities of active, homogeneous and pure protein. Conventional means of laboratory purification of Escherichia coli expressed recombinant capsid protein rely on column chromatography steps that are not amenable to large-scale production. Here we present a function-based purification of wild-type and quadruple mutant capsid proteins, which relies on the inherent propensity of capsid protein to polymerize and depolymerize. This method does not require the packing of sizable chromatography columns and can generate double-digit gram quantities of functionally and biochemically well-behaved proteins with greater than 98% purity. We have used the purified capsid protein to characterize two known assembly inhibitors in our in-house developed polymerization assay and to measure their binding affinities. Our capsid purification procedure provides a robust method for purifying large quantities of a key protein in the HIV-1 life cycle, facilitating identification of the next generation anti-HIV agents.
Distribution of Foreign Direct Investment among Transition Economies in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper presents a regression model designed to explain the distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Locational variables are identified from geography and economics literatures on location theory and foreign direct investment. The dependent variable is cumulative value of investments in each host country, accounting for initial outlays as well as subsequent investments and reinvested profits. The results identify the most important determinants of FDI in the region (trade volume, followed by investment climate and density of transportation infrastructure).
A successful application of big data storage techniques implemented to criminal investigation for telecom

With the emerging of digital convergence, lots of communication services are generated, and the quantity of data grows rapidly. We face the scalability issue to deal with call data records (CDRs) and so are the other telecom companies. This research uses police CDR query as an example with an intension to increase system execution efficiency and scalability and to reduce total cost by applying cloud service. The implementation applying distributed parallel database (Hive), distributed computing (Hadoop MapReduce), and distributed file system (Hadoop HDFS) will be introduced by a simulation to evaluate the execution efficiency of a query from CDRs. The factors influencing query efficiency, such as the settings of data block size and partition size in HDFS, will also be explored. The experimental results show that applying the big data processing technologies to execute queries from a huge amount of CDRs could improve the system execution efficiency significantly and reduce cost.
SHOULD THE UNITED STATES INITIATE A MANDATORY LABELING POLICY FOR GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

In many countries, including those in the European Union, Japan, Australia, and China, labeling is required for foods that contain genetically modified material. Other countries, including the United States, do not require mandatory labeling of GM foods. The United States, however, does allow firms to voluntarily label their products as non-GM. This raises the question of whether a mandatory labeling or voluntary labeling policy is more efficient. Proponents of voluntary labeling policies say they are less expensive, because only the firms that wish to label their products must incur the labeling costs. In a mandatory labeling regime, all firms would need to incur additional costs, whether the costs are due to product testing, label design, segregation, mistakes in labeling, etc. Many proponents of mandatory labeling of GM foods say that consumers have a "right to know" what they are eating and proponents claim that governments should mandate labels for foods made through genetic modification. This paper presents empirical evidence on consumers' value for foods with positive (i.e. this food is made with genetic engineering) labels versus and for foods with negative (i.e. this food is made without genetic engineering) labels. The positive label is likely to occur under a mandatory labeling system, while the negative label is likely to occur in a voluntary system. Thus, we present evidence on the consumer value of different labeling policies. We estimate values using a laboratory auction experiment performed on 142 randomly chosen adult consumers in the Des Moines, IA, and Saint Paul, MN, areas, grouped in 8 experimental units. They participated in a random nth-price auction experiment, in which they bid on three familiar neutral food items (an oil, a processed food, and a fresh food) that may be genetically modified. Experimental units are randomly assigned to the labeling treatment (i.e., food items with accurate GM food labels versus no food labels). Using statistical design and econometric analysis, this paper will estimate the average value of food label regimes to consumers. This will be measured as the difference in the auction price of a particular food item with and without a GM food label. We present evidence that shows that a voluntary labeling system elicits the same consumer reaction as a mandatory labeling system. Because a voluntary labeling policy would be less expensive to implement, this paper provides evidence that the United States should not abandon the current voluntary labeling system for a mandatory one. This information could be useful to U.S. public policy makers who must decide on GM food labeling legislation.
The Impact of R&D, Government Spending on Education and Trade Unions on Labour Productivity - A Panel Data Econometric Analysis

In the present paper an empirical analysis with a panel data econometric model will point out that R&D, government spending on education as well as trade unions are the most important factors for the labor productivity determination. The sample examined covers many Western European countries. Data are taken from Eurostat and OECD and the elaboration of the single equation econometric model is made feasible by means of the Eviews software package.
SIRT1 Promotes N-Myc Oncogenesis through a Positive Feedback Loop Involving the Effects of MKP3 and ERK on N-Myc Protein Stability

The N-Myc oncoprotein is a critical factor in neuroblastoma tumorigenesis which requires additional mechanisms converting a low-level to a high-level N-Myc expression. N-Myc protein is stabilized when phosphorylated at Serine 62 by phosphorylated ERK protein. Here we describe a novel positive feedback loop whereby N-Myc directly induced the transcription of the class III histone deacetylase SIRT1, which in turn increased N-Myc protein stability. SIRT1 binds to Myc Box I domain of N-Myc protein to form a novel transcriptional repressor complex at gene promoter of mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 3 (MKP3), leading to transcriptional repression of MKP3, ERK protein phosphorylation, N-Myc protein phosphorylation at Serine 62, and N-Myc protein stabilization. Importantly, SIRT1 was up-regulated, MKP3 down-regulated, in pre-cancerous cells, and preventative treatment with the SIRT1 inhibitor Cambinol reduced tumorigenesis in TH-MYCN transgenic mice. Our data demonstrate the important roles of SIRT1 in N-Myc oncogenesis and SIRT1 inhibitors in the prevention and therapy of N-Myc–induced neuroblastoma.
A Macro Finance Term Structure Model with Stochastic Volatility

This paper proposes a term structure model with macro VAR in a stochastic volatility setting. The specific feature of this model is that the risk premium of yields is directly driven by the time-varying variance-covariance of the VAR innovations, which is modeled by a Wishart Autoregressive process. Extending the essentially affine term structure model, this framework not only incorporates the stochastic variance-covariance in the VAR innovations, but also preserves the tractability and interpretability from a macro-finance perspective. Hence it provides a modeling tool to bridge the two strands of macroeconomic research: the DSGE-VAR with stochastic volatility and the macro-finance model of term structure. The baseline model implies that: 1) the stochastic variance-covariance of the VAR innovations has sizable effect on medium to long maturity yields; 2) volatility is a curvature factor of the yield curve, and the net effect of the time-varying variance-covariance matrix is also a curvature factor; 3) simulation study shows that it can well explain the bond yield "conundrum", where differences in volatility can result in different shapes of the yield curve with the underlying macro variables remaining at the same level.
Analysis of Flux Measurements on a PMSM With Non-Overlapping Concentrated Windings

In this paper, measurements of the magnetic flux in a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) with non- overlapping concentrated windings are analyzed. Flux leakage, inductances and stator iron losses are investigated from measurements performed at open-circuit, blocked-rotor, and load conditions, respectively. Comparisons of the measurements with the corresponding 3D finite-element (FE) simulations allow validating thoroughly the FE model. The zigzag leakage flux flowing from one magnet to another through a tooth tip, which is characteristic for PMSMs with concentrated windings, is highlighted and its effect on the stator iron losses is investigated.
The Importance of Wealth for Subjective Well-being

It is widely assumed that since income is usually found to account for a relatively small proportion of the variance across individuals in self-reported well-being, money does not matter for personal happiness. This hypothesis is re-examined in this paper by including measures of household wealth alongside the more usual household income measure in regression equations of life satisfaction. Using data drawn from four large population surveys from four different countries,evidence is found indicating that wealth generally matters at least as much as income. It is thus concluded that economic circumstances explain more of the variation in individual well-being than previously thought. Nevertheless, the size of these wealth and income effects is still small.
Development of the retinofugal projections in the embryonic and larval zebrafish (Brachydanio rerio)

Studies of the projection from the vertebrate retina have contributed significantly to current concepts of neural development. The zebrafish has recently become a favored system for the study of development in general and neural development in particular. Although the development of both the optic nerve and the retinotectal projection of the zebrafish has been described, the retinofugal projection in its entirety has not. This paper describes it and also addresses the issue of projectional exuberance: i. e. , transient projections to targets that are not innervated in the adult.
Development of mathematical morphology filter for medical image impulse noise removal

Post-acquisition denoising of medical images is of importance for clinical diagnosis and computerized analysis, such as tissue classification and segmentation. During the image generation, imaging devices are quite often interfered by various noise sources. Impulse noise which causes the medical images to remove important image details such as edges, contours and texture. In this paper, a new filtering method is proposed to remove impulse noise on degraded medical images. The proposed filter is integrated with noise detector and filtering approach. An impulse noise detector using mathematical residues is proposed to identify pixels that are corrupted by impulse noise, and the image is recovered using specialized open-close algorithm that is only applied to the noisy pixels. Black and white blocks that degrade the quality of the image will be recovered by a block smart erase method. The proposed method was tested on simulated medical images from a brain web database and clinical medical images with different levels of noise. The results show that the morphology filter produces better denoising results in terms of qualitative and quantitative measures compared with other denoising methods, compared with several existing noise filtering models demonstrated that not only the proposed filter is effective for noise removal but also for image detail preservation and clinical practice.
Jacks of metal/metalloid chelation trade in plants—an overview

Varied environmental compartments including soils are being contaminated by a myriad toxic metal(loid)s (hereafter termed as “metal/s”) mainly through anthropogenic activities. These metals may contaminate food chain and bring irreparable consequences in human. Plant-based approach (phytoremediation) stands second to none among bioremediation technologies meant for sustainable cleanup of soils/sites with metal-contamination. In turn, the capacity of plants to tolerate potential consequences caused by the extracted/accumulated metals decides the effectiveness and success of phytoremediation system. Chelation is among the potential mechanisms that largely govern metal-tolerance in plant cells by maintaining low concentrations of free metals in cytoplasm. Metal-chelation can be performed by compounds of both thiol origin (such as GSH, glutathione; PCs, phytochelatins; MTs, metallothioneins) and non-thiol origin (such as histidine, nicotianamine, organic acids). This paper presents an appraisal of recent reports on both thiol and non-thiol compounds in an effort to shed light on the significance of these compounds in plant-metal tolerance, as well as to provide scientific clues for the advancement of metal-phytoextraction strategies.
Bridging the Academic Practitioner Gap in Conference and Events Management

ABSTRACT It has long been recognised in the field of education that there is no better teaching method than participation. Convention and event management is a relatively new area of hospitality and tourism education that offers an opportunity to provide students with the real world practical and applied experience that many seek. This paper will report on the use of real world activities in a class in Convention and Events Management. Students in this class were required to plan, market, manage and evaluate a real event. This paper will firstly describe the process used to plan and run the events. It will then review the outcomes of two types of evaluation, an evaluation of the success of each event and an evaluation of the success of using real world events as a teaching technique. The results have implications both for the general area of event management and more specifically for the teaching of convention and events management.
The World Price of Inflation Risk

We show that inflation risk is priced in international asset returns. We analyze the price of inflation risk in a framework that includes the International Capital Asset Pricing Model (ICAPM) as a special case. In contrast to the literature, we relax the assumption that inflation rates are constant. We estimate and test a conditional version of the model for the G5 countries (France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S.) over the period 1975-2003. We find evidence of statistically significant prices of inflation risk (in addition to priced nominal exchange rate risk). We demonstrate that inflation risk premia are an economically important component of international asset returns. Our results can be interpreted as a rejection of the ICAPM. Moreover, we show that even after the termination of nominal exchange rate fluctuations in the euro area after 1999, differences in inflation rates across countries entail non-trivial real exchange rate risk premia.
Inclusion Pairs Satisfying Eshelby's Uniformity Property

Eshelby conjectured that if for a given uniform loading the field inside an inclusion is uniform, then the inclusion must be an ellipse or an ellipsoid. This conjecture has been proved to be true in two and three dimensions provided that the inclusion is simply connected. In this paper we provide an alternative proof of Cherepanov's result that an inclusion with two components can be constructed inside which the field is uniform for any given uniform loading for two-dimensional conductivity or for antiplane elasticity. For planar elasticity, we show that the field inside the inclusion pair is uniform for certain loadings and not for others. We also show that the polarization tensor associated with the inclusion pair lies on the lower Hashin-Shtrikman bound, and hence the conjecture of Polya and Szego is not true among nonsimply connected inclusions. As a consequence, we construct a simply connected inclusion, which is nothing close to an ellipse, but in which the field is almost uniform.
MERLIN imaging of the maser flare in Markarian 348

MERLIN images of Mrk 348 at 22 GHz show H2O maser emission at 0.02–0.11 Jy, within ∼ 0.8 pc of the nucleus. This is the first direct confirmation that molecular material exists close to the Seyfert 2 nucleus. Mrk 348 was observed in 2000 May one month after Falcke et al. first identified the maser in single-dish spectra. The peak maser flux density has increased about threefold. The masing region is ≲ 0.6 pc in radius. The flux density of radio continuum emission from the core has been rising for about 2 yr. The maser–core separation is barely resolved, but at the 3σ significance level maser and core are not coincident along the line of sight. The masers lie in the direction of the northern radio lobes and probably emanate from material shocked by a jet with velocity close to c. The correlation between the radio continuum increase and maser flare is explained as arising from high-level nuclear activity through a common excitation mechanism, although direct maser amplification of the core by masers tracing a Keplerian disc is not completely ruled out.
Effects of two lexical retrieval cueing treatments on action naming in aphasia.

The effects of two cueing treatments, Phonological Cueing Treatment (PCT) and Semantic Cueing Treatment (SCT), were examined with three chronic speakers with aphasia. The effects of treatment on action naming were measured with the use of single-subject experimental designs. The participants had received PCT and SCT to improve object naming in a previous investigation and had responded positively to both treatments. In the current study, Speaker 1 received SCT, Speaker 2 received PCT, and Speaker 3 received both SCT and PCT. Action naming improved for Speakers 1 and 3, but not for Speaker 2. These findings indicate that PCT and SCT may have utility in facilitating action naming for some speakers with aphasia but that the effects of these treatments may vary across grammatical form classes (e.g., nouns versus verbs).
N ov 2 00 0 Gravitational Entropy and Quantum Cosmology

We investigate the evolution of different measures of “Gravitational Entropy” in Bianchi type I and Lemâitre-Tolman universe models. A new quantity behaving in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics is introduced. We then go on and investigate whether a quantum calculation of initial conditions for the universe based upon the Wheeler-DeWitt equation supports Penrose’s Weyl Curvature Conjecture, according to which the Ricci part of the curvature dominates over the Weyl part at the initial singularity of the universe. The theory is applied to the Bianchi type I universe models with dust and a cosmological constant and to the Lemâitre-Tolman universe models. We investigate two different versions of the conjecture. First we investigate a local version which fails to support the conjecture. Thereafter we construct a non-local entity which shows more promising behaviour concerning the conjecture.