Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tradable Permits in Developing Countries: Evidence From Air Pollution in Chile

Santiago was one of the first cities outside the OECD to implement a tradable permit program to control air pollution. This article looks closely at the program’s performance over the past 10 years, stressing its similarities and discrepancies with trading programs implemented in developed countries and analyzing how it has reacted to regulatory adjustments and market shocks. Studying Santiago’s experience allows us to say that a middle-income country such as Chile is capable of implementing this type of scheme even if much work remains before the design is really satisfactory. Considering the urgency of improving the environment in many of these countries, it is important to use the whole range of potential instruments.
Is Dupuytren’s Disease Caused by an Imbalance between Proliferation and Cell Death?

Dupuytren’s contracture shares certain properties with malignant tumours, characterized by proliferation and lack of apoptosis, which may be induced by the c-myc oncogene. Because of these similarities, the relationship between the c-myc oncogene expression, bcl-2 oncogene (antiapoptotic gene) and proliferation was investigated in Dupuytren’s disease. Proliferation was assessed by immunohistochemical staining of the mib-1 antibody. Results were compared with those from fibrosarcoma specimens, representing a related malignant tumour. Non-diseased fascia from Dupuytren patients and flexor retinaculum from patients undergoing carpal tunnel release without Dupuytren’s disease were used as controls. Expression of c-myc was elevated in primary Dupuytren’s disease and fibrosarcoma specimens, whilst recurrent Dupuytren’s disease, non-diseased Dupuytren fascia and flexor retinaculum exhibited significantly lower levels. Neither bcl-2 nor mib-1 were detected in Dupuytren’s disease, non-diseased fascia or flexor retinaculum, in contrast to fibrosarcoma. The imbalance between proliferation and apoptosis, producing malignant growth was thus confirmed for fibrosarcoma, but not for Dupuytren’s disease.
Unanticipated Monetary Shocks and Exchange Rate Variations in Sri Lanka

This paper examines how unanticipated monetary shocks cause variations in exchange rate in Sri Lanka under the independent float regime. The study addresses this issue under both the rational and adaptive expectations framework. GARCH (generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) (1, 2) based minimum mean squared error (MSE) forecast give forth the series of anticipated and unanticipated money supply. Exchange rate series, on the other hand, followed martingale stochastic process. The study also found the evidence that in the variations of Sri Lankan currency, unanticipated monetary shocks assure significant role.
ArIthmetic and Geometric Means of Serum MB and BB Creatine Kinase Isoenzymes for Nonpregnant Women and Women in Labor with Normal Deliveries

Creatine kinase (EC 2.7.3.2) isoenzymes in extracts of human placenta and in serum from nonpregnant women andwomen inlabor were separated on columnscontaining diethylaminoethyl-cellulose and assayed. The distribution oftheisoenzymesin placenta (n = 10) was 80% BB (200 ± 66 U/g (wetweight),19% MM(49 ± 30 U/g),and 1% MB (2.6 ± 1.7 U/g). The geomefric mean for the serum BB activity of the nonpregnant women (n = 50) was 0.6 ± 1.5 U/liter, as compared to 3.0 ± 1.4 U/liter for patients in labor who had normal deliveries (n = 92). The arithmetic mean for serum BB activity of labor patients with induced labor (n = 20), premature labor (n = 7), cesariansection (n = 6), or hypertension and pre-eclampsia (n = 6) did not differ significantly from the arithmetic mean BB activity for serum of labor patients with normal deliveries. However, the arithmetic mean serum BB activity of patients with stillbirths (n = 7) was significantly smaller than the arithmetic mean for normal labor patients.
Linking microbial oxidation of arsenic with detection and phylogenetic analysis of arsenite oxidase genes in diverse geothermal environments.

The identification and characterization of genes involved in the microbial oxidation of arsenite will contribute to our understanding of factors controlling As cycling in natural systems. Towards this goal, we recently characterized the widespread occurrence of aerobic arsenite oxidase genes (aroA-like) from pure-culture bacterial isolates, soils, sediments and geothermal mats, but were unable to detect these genes in all geothermal systems where we have observed microbial arsenite oxidation. Consequently, the objectives of the current study were to measure arsenite-oxidation rates in geochemically diverse thermal habitats in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) ranging in pH from 2.6 to 8, and to identify corresponding 16S rRNA and aroA genotypes associated with these arsenite-oxidizing environments. Geochemical analyses, including measurement of arsenite-oxidation rates within geothermal outflow channels, were combined with 16S rRNA gene and aroA functional gene analysis using newly designed primers to capture previously undescribed aroA-like arsenite oxidase gene diversity. The majority of bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences found in acidic (pH 2.6-3.6) Fe-oxyhydroxide microbial mats were closely related to Hydrogenobaculum spp. (members of the bacterial order Aquificales), while the predominant sequences from near-neutral (pH 6.2-8) springs were affiliated with other Aquificales including Sulfurihydrogenibium spp. , Thermocrinis spp. and Hydrogenobacter spp. , as well as members of the Deinococci, Thermodesulfobacteria and beta-Proteobacteria. Modified primers designed around previously characterized and newly identified aroA-like genes successfully amplified new lineages of aroA-like genes associated with members of the Aquificales across all geothermal systems examined. The expression of Aquificales aroA-like genes was also confirmed in situ, and the resultant cDNA sequences were consistent with aroA genotypes identified in the same environments. The aroA sequences identified in the current study expand the phylogenetic distribution of known Mo-pterin arsenite oxidase genes, and suggest the importance of three prominent genera of the order Aquificales in arsenite oxidation across geochemically distinct geothermal habitats ranging in pH from 2.6 to 8.
Coordinating Party Choice in Founding Elections

This article examines the causes of party system fragmentation in new democracies, arguing that party formation and coordination in emerging party systems are closely linked to the politics of democratization. In particular, elections that occur late within regime transitions are likely to produce more fragmented party systems than are early founding elections; in situations of economic instability, the decentralizing effect of a late founding election is likely to be greater. The results confirm this hypothesis: The farther away founding elections occur from the transfer of executive authority from an authoritarian regime, the more fragmented is the resulting party system. The effect of a late founding election increases as the inflation rate increases. These results are important because the pattern of fragmentation established in founding elections is relatively stable; indeed, founding elections do not appear anomalous compared with subsequent elections, contrary to conventional wisdom.
A cyp19a1b‐gfp (aromatase B) transgenic zebrafish line that expresses GFP in radial glial cells

Aromatase is an enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of estrogen in gonads and brain. Teleost fish express aromatase (AroB) strongly in the brain facilitating its detailed examination. To understand the function of AroB in the brain, we generated transgenic zebrafish that expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP) driven by the brain aromatase cyp19a1b promoter. GFP was found in the radial glial cells of transgenic larvae and adult fish that overlap with AroB immunoreactivity in the correct temporal and spatial pattern. GFP was also coexpressed with radial cell marker BLBP, but was not in neurons. In addition, GFP expression in the radial glial cells was stimulated by estrogen, same as endogenous AroB expression. Thus, this transgenic line faithfully mimics the regulation of AroB expression in radial glial cells. It provides a powerful tool to further characterize progenitor radial cells in adult and developing fish and to evaluate estrogenic activities of xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens. genesis 47:67–73, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Modeling, Identification, and Control of a Dielectric Electro-Active Polymer Positioning System

This paper deals with a positioning system based on a dielectric electro-active polymer membrane. The motion is generated by the deformation of the membrane caused by the electrostatic compressive force between two compliant electrodes applied on the surface of the polymer. This paper proposes a detailed electro-mechanical nonlinear model of the system, which is subsequently used to develop (in both time and frequency domains) various model-based feedback control laws. Accurate modeling is useful to compensate the nonlinear behavior of the actuator (caused by the material characteristics and geometry) and obtain PID controllers providing precise tracking of steps or sinusoidal reference signals. The various design strategies are compared on various experimental tests.
Explicating Public Diplomacy as Organization–Public Relationship (OPR): An Empirical Investigation of OPRs between the US Embassy in Seoul and South Korean College Students

Based on a theoretical proposition that public diplomacy can be explicated as management of organization–public relationship (OPR) between an organization concerned and foreign publics, practical and functional utility of OPR measures was empirically investigated in this preliminary study within a public diplomacy context involving the US embassy in Seoul and South Korean college students. Validating reliability and validity of Hon and J. E. Grunig's (1999) OPR measures in evaluating the quality of relationships between the US embassy and South Korean college students, the findings help further advance the theoretical and practical convergence of public relations and public diplomacy. In addition, with statistically significant links between South Korean college students' perceived relationships with the US embassy and their attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the United States and its citizens, the findings suggest that public diplomacy outcomes are related to OPR management, to some degree.
Demographics in Demographic—Economic Models: Notes on Two Activity—Commodity Frameworks

Introduction In a note in this volume Hynes and Jackson (1988) discuss, inter alia, a model developed some time ago by myself and Batey (Madden and Batey, 1980). They make a number of criticisms, some of which are quite justified, but others of which I suggest are misguided. The main problem with their critique is that it fails to undertake a rigorous analysis either of the Madden-Batey model or of the alternative (the Hynes-Jackson model) which they offer. The absence of such analysis forces the authors to adopt declamatory rather than definitive postures in their critique and in their proposed solution. This brief note first picks up one or two points of contention in the Hynes and Jackson paper, second, offers analyses of the two models in question, which I submit enable us to understand the underlying structures and limitations of both models, and, last, reminds readers of some of the developments in demographic economic modelling that have taken place since the original Madden Batey paper of 1980.
Poverty and Political Risk

The paper explains the negative correlation between developing countries' per capita incomes and measures of political risk by relating a government's decision to tax foreign investors to distributional interests in the host country's population. Using a dynamic general-equilibrium model in which agents make irreversible investments abroad to insure against country-specific technology shocks, it is shown that the political risk for foreign investors is prohibitive if the host country's initial per capita income is too low and if the benefits of international diversification are not high enough to generate a sufficiently strong opposition against discriminatory taxation. Copyright 2002 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Finite Sample Analyses for TD(0) With Function Approximation

TD(0) is one of the most commonly used algorithms in reinforcement learning. Despite this, there is no existing finite sample analysis for TD(0) with function approximation, even for the linear case. Our work is the first to provide such results. Existing convergence rates for Temporal Difference (TD) methods apply only to somewhat modified versions, e.g., projected variants or ones where stepsizes depend on unknown problem parameters. Our analyses obviate these artificial alterations by exploiting strong properties of TD(0). We provide convergence rates both in expectation and with high-probability. The two are obtained via different approaches that use relatively unknown, recently developed stochastic approximation techniques.
The Determinants of Net Interest Margins of Commercial Banks in Mainland China

This paper studies empirically the determinants of Chinese commercial banks' net interest margins from 1996 to 2003. It applies an extension to the Ho and Saunders (1981) model to identify the elements affecting net interest margins. The results indicate that the determinants of net interest margins in the Chinese market include market competition structure, average operating costs, degree of risk aversion, transaction size, implicit interest payments, opportunity cost of reserve, and management efficiency.
Minority Turnout and the Creation of Majority-Minority Districts

In the construction of majority-minority districts, it has typically been assumed that turnout of minority voters is low compared to that of Whites. But what happens in the minority-dominated districts that are created? With a considerably enhanced ability to elect a candidate of their own choosing, does turnout increase? We test whether the creation of majority-minority legislative districts in Florida increased turnout of Black and Hispanic voters in 1992. The results are mixed. Over-time comparisons suggest that turnout of both groups might have benefitted from the creation of majority-minority districts. Cross-sectional analyses, however, suggest both increases and decreases in turnout in the newly created minority districts. We cannot yet conclude that the creation of minority-dominated districts has a consistent effect on minority turnout.
Production efficiency of British building societies

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative efficiency of British building societies and to find out whether efficiency factor is the driving force behind the merging of small building societies. Efficiency indices for societies are derived from a 1981 sample of cross-section data. The results indicate wide disparities in efficiency. These differences are not related to the size of building societies, but apparently to managers' skill and motivation.
Rethinking the values of higher education - students as change agents?

Foreword Many terms and phrases are used to describe the relationship between universities and students, such as 'consumers', 'active participants', 'co-producers', 'partners', 'community of learning' and 'apprentices'; all are useful, but each has limitations and particular connotations. When the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) made the decision to include students as members of Institutional audit and review teams, consequently imbuing them with the authority and responsibility that come with the role, we were asked questions about what this implied for the relationship between students and the higher education sector. Given the level of interest in this and the amount of times we have been asked for an opinion, we felt it was appropriate to commission some 'think pieces' from a range of leaders in the sector with different perspectives. from the University of Exeter have produced the following thought provoking piece entitled Rethinking the values of higher education-students as change agents? The paper sets out a positive vision of the relationship between student and institution and offers some real examples of initiatives pursued at the University that are making a positive difference to the student experience, changing the culture and nature of the relationship between students and the academic community within which they learn. This paper adds a significant, new and complementary perspective to those articulated in the paper we published in autumn 2009 from the The student experience and changing relationships between students, their institutions and their learning are at the heart of current debates about the future direction of higher education. These pieces are important contributions to that discussion.
Effect of ion energy on charge loss from Floating Gate memories

Heavy ions typical of the space environment have energies which exceed by orders of magnitude those available at particle accelerators. In this paper we are irradiating state of the art floating gate memories by using a medium energy (SIRAD) and a high energy (RADEF) facilities. The corruption of stored information decreases when increasing ion energy. The proposed model deals with the broader track found for higher energy ions. Implications for testing procedures and for reliability considerations are discussed.
Identifying the Aggregate Productivity E¤ects of Entry and Size Restrictions: An Empirical Analysis of License Reform in India

Recent studies have stressed the importance of distortions in resource allocation across heterogeneous establishments in generating large TFP e¤ects. There is however little direct empirical evidence from actual policy experiments on the magnitude of these e¤ects. In this paper we propose and implement a simple methodology that empirically identi es the separate e¤ects of entry and size restrictions on aggregate TFP and apply it to an analysis of the policy of industrial licensing in India. The licensing policy was notably reformed in the mid-1980s, and we take advantage of this policy experiment to identify the e¤ects of the licensing regime using factory-level data covering this period. Our results suggest that the easing of constraints on size were responsible for a 5-6% aggregate TFP improvement, and that the easing of entry restrictions resulted in a nearly 15-16% TFP improvement. JEL Codes: L5, O14, O47
Productive and Allocative Inefficiencies in U.K. Building Societies: A Comparison of Non-parametric and Stochastic Frontier Techniques

A nonparametric frontier approach is utilized to calculate the efficiency of U.K. building societies. This paper extends previous work in the area in two main ways. First, the analysis focuses upon allocative and technical efficiency rather than simply decomposing the latter into its constituent components, pure technical and pure scale efficiency, as a number of previous papers have done. Secondly, the results on overall efficiency obtained using the nonparametric frontier approach are contrasted with the results obtained using a stochastic frontier cost function approach. Copyright 1996 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester
Child Labour in the Philippines: Determinants and Effects

This paper analyses the supply-side socioeconomic determinants of child labour in the Philippines using data from the National Household Survey and the Labour Force Survey of the Philippines. The research methodology is that of a sequential probit model which assumes that household decisions are made in a hierarchical manner. Using this model, the impact of various household and economic characteristics on the probability of child labour is estimated. The findings highlight specific populations that should be targeted, for example, single working mothers in urban areas and poor households in rural areas. Working towards elimination of child labour will involve a multi-angled policy approach with policies complementing each other.
Arbeitsangebotseffekte des Steuer- und Transfersystems in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland / Labour Supply Effects of the Tax and Benefit System in the Federal Republic of Germany

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag analysiert die Wirkungen des deutschen Steuer- und Transfersystems auf das Arbeitsangebot verheirateter Frauen. Er beruht auf einem umfassenden mikroanalytischen Simulationsmodell für Steuern, Sozialversicherungsbeiträge und Transfers für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und auf einem mikroökonometrisch fundierten Arbeitsangebotsmodell für verheiratete Frauen mit endogenen Erwerbsentscheidungen, endogenen Löhnen und endogenen Einkünften aus allen Einkunftsarten. Dieses Modell wird mit Daten von 22201 Haushalten für die Veranlagungszeiträume 1984 bis 1996 geschätzt, und es wird verwendet um die Wirkungen des Steuerentlastungsgesetzes 1999/2000/2002 und einer Reihe weiterer aktueller Reformen des Steuer-, Sozialversicherungs- und Transfersystems zu analysieren. Summary The paper analyses the impact of the German tax, social security and benefit system on the labour supply of married women. It is based on a comprehensive microsimulation model for individual income taxes, social security contributions and tranfers, and on a microeconometric labour supply model with endogenous labour force participation, wages and non-labour income. The model is estimated based on data for 22,201 households for the financial years 1984-1996 and it is used to assess the impact of recent tax-benefit reforms in Germany.
Local government financial reporting: A survey of Western Australian practice and the examination of some explanatory economic and political factors

This thesis is an exploratory study that examines a measure of the extent and nature of financial reporting by Western Australian local governments against the requirements and recommendations specified in the legislation, regulations and accounting standards. In addition, several economic and political factors which may provide some explanation for the variation in reporting practices of Western Australian local government councils is ex~ amined. Three disclosure measures are reported to provide descriptive information about Western Australian local government councils, compliance with mandatory reporting requirements, their voluntary disclosure of additional financial information and their policy of disseminating their annual financial information to the municipality. Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficients are established to measure the I'elationship between the economic and political factors and the disclosure indexes. Linear regression models are developed to assess the explanatory power of these economic and political factors in relation to councils' identified reporting practices in the financial years, 1990/91 and 1991/92. The survey results indicate, that as expected, councils in the main comply with the accounting directions specified in the state government's legislation and regulations. In addition, to the regulatory reporting requirements, the Local Government Act 196Q-1982 allows councils to disclose additional financial information considered necessary or desirable. The financial statements were examined for voluntarily adoption of Australian Accounting