Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chinese Forest Policies in the Age of Decentralisation (1978–1997)

SUMMARY The period between 1978 and 1997 saw the slow introduction of a series of market reforms that would gradually redefine the organisation of the national economy. This was accompanied by reforms that addressed the problems of the forestry sector, both in the collective (privately owned) forests in the Southeast, and in the state-owned forests in the Northeast. In the more densely inhabited Southeast, the government distributed forestland to households, which were now allowed to invest and obtain incomes from the sale of forest products, while being responsible for their conservation. In the more sparsely inhabited Northeast, the government undertook financial reforms to attempt to address the indebtedness and mismanagement of the state-owned forest enterprises and state linchang. These reforms were accompanied with the slow introduction of a price of timber that would be market-determined, but were gradual and partial, the government maintaining strict controls in particular over the amount of timber harvested.
Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes--And How to Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics

Why do so many otherwise smart people make foolish financial choices? Why do investors sell stocks just before they skyrocket -- and cling to others as they plummer? Why do shoppers overspend when using credit cards rather than cash? What do our habits of tipping or buying lottery tickets indicate about our relationship with money? In this fascinating investigation of the ways we spend, invest, save, borrow, and waste money, Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich reveal the psychological causes -- the patterns of thinking and decision making -- of irrational behavior. Most important, they focus on the decisions we make every day and, using entertaining examples, provide invaluable tips on avoiding the financial faux pas that can cost thousands of dollars each year.
Put-call parity and market efficiency

OPTIONS HAVE CONSTITUTED THE most dynamic segment of the securities markets since the inception of the Chicago Board Options Exchange in April 1973, which was followed shortly thereafter by four other registered option exchanges. Until June 1977, only call options were traded on these registered option exchanges. At that time, each of the exchanges was permitted to commence trading in put options on five underlying securities. The initial success of the put options promises to provide the next major thrust to the registered options markets when they can be traded on all of the underlying securities listed on the exchanges. The advent of put trading on the registered exchanges is important because a deterministic relationship should exist between put and call prices, irrespective of investor demands, if both options are written on the same underlying security and have the same exercise (striking) price and expiration date. ' This relationship exists because the put, call, and the underlying stock form an interrelated securities complex, in which any two of the three instruments can be combined in such a manner to yield the profit and loss opportunities of the third instrument. Because of conversion possibilities, theoretical put-call parity models can be developed to determine a put (call) price given a corresponding call (put) price and other relevant information. If the actual put or call price should deviate substantially from the parity price, an opportunity exists for investors to set up a riskless arbitrage position and earn more than the risk-free rate of return. The original put-call parity model was developed by Stoll [10] and later extended and modified by Merton [5]. These models were used by Stoll [10] and and Gould and Galai [3] to empirically investigate parity among over-the-counter (OTC) put and call options. While these studies basically supported the put-call parity theory, some inefficiencies in the relationship were also found to exist. Today's options market is vastly different from the OTC market, however. Major changes made by the registered options exchanges, including the standardization of contractual terms such as the exercise price and expiration date, and the creation of a central clearing corporation, have transformed the options market place from a thin, negotiated market to a competitive, auction market.2 Another
Limit Orders, Depth, and Volatility

We investigate the role of limit orders in the liquidity provision in the Hong Kong stock market, which is based on a computerized limit-order trading system. Consistent with Handa and Schwartz (1996), results show that market depth rises subsequent to an increase in transitory volatility, and transitory volatility declines subsequent to an increase in market depth. We also examine how transitory volatility affects the mix between limit orders and market orders. When transitory volatility arises from the ask (bid) side, investors will submit more limit sell (buy) orders than market sell (buy) orders. This result is consistent with the existence of limit-order traders who enter the market and place orders when liquidity is needed.
Assessment of probiotic potential and anticancer activity of newly isolated vaginal bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum 5BL

Numerous bacteria in and on its external parts protect the human body from harmful threats. This study aimed to investigate the potential beneficial effects of the vaginal ecosystem microbiota. A type of bacteria was isolated from vaginal secretions of adolescent and young adult women, cultured on an appropriate specific culture medium, and then molecularly identified through 16S rDNA gene sequencing. Results of 16S rDNA sequencing revealed that the isolate belongs to the Lactobacillus plantarum species. The isolated strain exhibited probiotic properties such as low pH and high bile salt concentration tolerance, antibiotic susceptibility and antimicrobial activity against some pathogenic bacteria. The anticancer effects of the strain on human cancer cell lines (cervical, HeLa; gastric, AGS; colon, HT‐29; breast, MCF‐7) and on a human normal cell line (human umbilical vein endothelial cells [HUVEC]) were investigated. Toxic side effects were assessed by studying apoptosis in the treated cells. The strain exhibited desirable probiotic properties and remarkable anticancer activity against the tested human cancer cell lines (P ≤ 0.05) with no significant cytotoxic effects on HUVEC normal cells (P ≤ 0.05). Overall, the isolated strain showed favorable potential as a bioactive therapeutic agent. Therefore, this strain should be subjected to the other required tests to prove its suitability for clinical therapeutic application.
The multiple boundaries of the firm

The notion of firm boundaries has received considerable attention in theories of the firm that address the problems of investment incentives and mitigation of hold-up problems. In this paper we attempt to develop a different approach to the problem of vertical firm boundaries, based on recent advances in the capabilities view of the firm. Our arguments rely on the pioneering insights of Penrose, Richardson and Loasby to elaborate a view of the boundaries determined by the interaction of the firm's direct and indirect capabilities with other actors. We develop the notion of indirect capabilities to highlight how firm boundaries respond to the distribution of capabilities in the economy as well as the modes of access to complementary and external capabilities. We conclude that the evolution of firm boundaries must be understood in the context of decisions on how the firm relates to other actors in its environment.
Competition, Imitation, and R&D Productivity in a Growth Model with Industry-Specific Patent Protection

Abstract Recent empirical studies suggest a need for a flexible patent regime responding to industry differences. In practice, industry-specific modifications of patent length already exist but lack theoretical foundation. This paper intends to make up for this neglect by scrutinizing in what direction industry characteristics influence optimal patent length. It is found that patents ought to be shorter, the more intense competition, the higher R&D productivity, and the more intricate reverse engineering in an industry are. Unlike similar Schumpeterian growth models, this model assumes Cournot competition and introduces an empirically substantiated measure of industry differences in the ability to catch up with a technological leader. It is found that for most empirically plausible cases the familiar inverted-U relation between patent length and growth carries over to the Cournot set-up.
Applied nutritional investigation Effect of eicosapentaenoic/docosahexaenoic fatty acids and soluble fibers on blood lipids of individuals classified into different levels of lipidemia

Objective: This study evaluated the effect of a formulation containing eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid combined with soluble fibers (-glucan and guar gum) on fasting blood lipids used as coronary heart disease biomarkers of individuals classified into different levels of lipidemia by multivariate techniques. Methods: Serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triacylglycerol, plasma glucose concentrations, body mass index, age, and waist cir- cumference were determined in 99 healthy volunteers. Three clusters or subgroups were identified according to coronary heart disease risk levels. Within each cluster, individuals were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups, with each group receiving samples of a functional formulation containing 460 mg of -3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and/or 580 mg of soluble fibers, and placebo to be consumed in one bottle per day (200 mL) for 6 wk. Results: No significant changes were observed for triacylglycerol (P 0.281) and total cholesterol (P 0.082) concentrations across the three subgroups. Soluble dietary fibers improved the sensory quality of the formulation containing eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. The effi- ciency of cluster analysis to discriminate individuals in subgroups was confirmed by one-way analysis of variance (P 0.003). Conclusion: The -3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation equivalent to fish consumed 2.5 to 3 times per week by a functional food-containing soluble dietary fiber showed no beneficial result in terms of changes in blood lipids in individuals classified according to different levels of lipidemia. Small numbers of patients in each cluster and possibly the low dose of fish oil and soluble dietary fibers used in this study may have also contributed to the lack of these differences. Multivariate techniques proved to be a very efficient tool to solve the heterogeneity problem usually observed in human designs and to evaluate the results within subgroups categorized by n variables extracted from the same population. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Sharpening the edge of market-driven intangibles and innovations

A review of the extant literature concludes that market-driven intangibles and innovations are increasingly considered to be the most critical firm-specific resources, but also finds a lack of elaboration of which types of these resources are most important. In this paper, we incorporate these observations into a conceptual model and link it to highly developed institutional settings for the model evaluation. From the point of view of firm revenue management, we can anticipate that performance advantages created through deployment of intellectual and relational capital in marketing and innovation are more likely to be superior. In essence, they constitute the integration of organisational intangibles both in cognitive and behavioural level to create an idiosyncratic combination for each firm. Our research findings show feasible paths for sharpening the edge of market-driven intangibles and innovations. We discuss the key results for research and practice.
ARTERIOVENOUS MALFORMATION OF THE BRAIN:Histological Study and Micrometric Measurement of Abnormal Vessels

An autopsy case of arteriovenous malformation (AVM) of the brain In a 29‐year‐old housewife was reported. Several important and characteristic findings were obtained by detailed histological examination and micrometric measurement of abnormal vessels composing the nidus of the AVM. Structural imperfectness and immaturity of their vascular wall suggested that the AVM is a histoembryogenlc maldevelopment. Prominent dilatation in calibre, hypertrophy of muscular layer, hyallnization, and abnormal increasing of elastic fibers were interpreted as the result of changed cerebral hemodynamics caused by an arteriovenous fistulous communication.
Bioactive Glass for Large Bone Repair

There has been an ongoing quest for new biomedical materials for the repair and regeneration of large segmental bone defects caused by disease or trauma. Autologous bone graft (ABG) remains the gold standard for bone repair despite their limited supply and donor‐site morbidity. The current tissue engineering approach with synthetically derived bone grafts requires a bioactive ceramic or polymeric scaffold loaded with growth factors for osteoinduction and angiogenesis, and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) for osteogenic properties. Unfortunately, this approach has serious drawbacks: the low mechanical strength of scaffolds, the high cost of growth factors, and a lack of optimal strategies for growth‐factor delivery. Here, it is shown that, for the first time, a synthetic material alone can repair large bone defects as efficiently as the gold standard ABG. Through the use of strong and resorbable bioactive glass scaffolds, complete bone healing, and defect bridging can be achieved in a rabbit femur segmental defect model without growth factors or BMSCs. New bone and blood vessel formation, in both inner and peripheral scaffolds, demonstrates the excellent osteoinductive and osteogenic properties of these scaffolds similar as ABG.
Prevalence of self-reported hypersensitivity to electric or magnetic fields in a population-based questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVES The prevalence of medically unexplained symptoms attributed to exposure to electromagnetic fields is still largely unknown. Previous studies have investigated reported hypersensitivity to electricity in selected groups recruited from workplaces or outpatient clinics. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of self-reported hypersensitivity to electric or magnetic fields in the general population and to describe characteristics of the group reporting such hypersensitivity with regard to demographics, other complaints, hypersensitivities, and traditional allergies. METHODS A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in 1997 among 15,000 men and women between 19 and 80 years of age in Stockholm County. The response rate was 73%. RESULTS One and a half percent of the respondents reported hypersensitivity to electric or magnetic fields. Prevalence was highest among women and in the 60- to 69-year age group. The hypersensitive group reported all symptoms, allergies, and other types of hypersensitivities included in the survey (as well as being disturbed by various factors in the home) to a significantly greater extent than the rest of the respondents. No specific symptom profile set off the hypersensitive group from the rest of the respondents. CONCLUSIONS The results should be interpreted with caution. But they suggest that there is widespread concern among the general population about risks to health posed by electric and magnetic fields. More research is warranted to explore ill health among people reporting hypersensitivity to electric or magnetic fields.
Dopaminergic Therapy Increases Go Timeouts in the Go/No-Go Task in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by resting tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. Dopaminergic medications such as L-dopa treat these motor symptoms, but can have complex effects on cognition. Impulse control is an essential cognitive function. Impulsivity is multifaceted in nature. Motor impulsivity involves the inability to withhold pre-potent, automatic, erroneous responses. In contrast, cognitive impulsivity refers to improper risk-reward assessment guiding behavior. Informed by our previous research, we anticipated that dopaminergic therapy would decrease motor impulsivity though it is well known to enhance cognitive impulsivity. We employed the Go/No-go paradigm to assess motor impulsivity in PD. Patients with PD were tested using a Go/No-go task on and off their normal dopaminergic medication. Participants completed cognitive, mood, and physiological measures. PD patients on medication had a significantly higher proportion of Go trial Timeouts (i.e., trials in which Go responses were not completed prior to a deadline of 750 ms) compared to off medication (p = 0.01). No significant ON-OFF differences were found for Go trial or No-go trial response times (RTs), or for number of No-go errors. We interpret that dopaminergic therapy induces a more conservative response set, reflected in Go trial Timeouts in PD patients. In this way, dopaminergic therapy decreased motor impulsivity in PD patients. This is in contrast to the widely recognized effects of dopaminergic therapy on cognitive impulsivity leading in some patients to impulse control disorders. Understanding the nuanced effects of dopaminergic treatment in PD on cognitive functions such as impulse control will clarify therapeutic decisions.
The Economics of Price Scissors

We analyze consequences of changing the terms of trade between agriculture and industry on capital accumulation and on welfare of workers in different sectors. The issue was central to Soviet industrialization debate and it remains important in today's developing world. Through a simple general equilibrium model, we show that a price squeeze on peasants increases accumulation (as Preobrazhensky argued), but it makes both urban and rural workers worse-off (contrary to Preobrazhensky's contention). The desirable changes in terms of trade are shown to depend on intertemporal valuations, but, within a range, not on rural-urban welfare trade-off. Our characterization of the optimal terms of trade is remarkably simple, in which the roleof welfare weights and of relevant empirical parameters are easily as certained.We then extend our analysis to economies with labor mobility and unemployment and, using a simple model with rigid industrial wage, show that the optimal terms of trade entail a tax on urban sector,a subsidy to rural sector, and a level of urban employment such that the urban wage exceeds the marginal product of urban worker.
Prevalence of diabetes and hypertension among a tribal population in Tamil Nadu

Background: Diabetes and hypertension is affecting at an alarming rate in both rural and urban populations in India and very few studies had been carried out among the tribal population. Objective: To determine the prevalence rate of type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension and its associated risk factors among the tribal population in Salem District in Tamil Nadu. Materials and Methods: A total of about 525 tribal population above 40 years of age from various tribal places in Yercaud. All of them were screened for diabetes, by checking the random blood glucose levels and blood pressure, body mass index, dietary patterns, and physical activity levels were also recorded. Their knowledge about diabetes was also assessed by a set of 10 questions. Results: Among the study population, people who had RBS ΃ 200 was 28 (male = 11 and female = 17) and between 140 and 200 were 39 (male = 18 and female = 21) and people whose were in the prehypertensive stage was 185 (males 92 and female 93) and people in the stage 1 hypertension was 102 (male = 47 and female = 54) and in stage 2 hypertension was 64 (male = 33 and female = 29). The co-morbidity (diabetes and hypertension) was present in among 45 (male = 25 and female = 20). Among the study population only 1 was obese and 39 were overweight. Among the various risk factors smoking, alcohol and positive family history were found to have a statistical significant association for males whereas among females only the family history was found to have a statistically significant association for both diabetes and hypertension. The knowledge of diabetes among the study population was very poor. None of them were aware about the normal levels of blood sugar and the risk factors. Conclusion: The study documented that the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension is increasingly high in the tribal areas and their awareness levels were very poor.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Coding and Non-coding Regions in Antisense Ribosome Inhibition of Gene Expression in Tetrahymena

Abstract In Tetrahymena thermophila, an “antisense ribosome” technology has been developed for inhibiting gene expression and generating novel mutants. Short segments of genes are inserted in antisense orientation into an rDNA vector in a region corresponding to an external loop of the folded rRNA. DNA segments derived from the 5′-ends of genes have proven most effective in reducing cognate gene expression. To investigate the efficacy of other genic regions, we generated Tetrahymena cell lines with antisense ribosome constructs containing 100-bp DNA segments derived from the 5′-ends, 3′-ends, and internal coding regions of two non-essential genes, granule lattice protein 1 and macronuclear histone H1. The 5′- and 3′-end constructs inhibited gene expression, but antisense ribosomes derived exclusively from coding regions had little effect.
Start-up rates, entrepreneurship culture and the business cycle: Swedish patterns from national and regional data

It is often claimed that there are locally embedded values and attitudes towards entrepreneurship, exerting a strong influence on the rate and level of entrepreneurial activity in regions. The concept of regional entrepreneurship culture aims to capture such phenomena, and refers in a general sense to the level of social acceptance and encouragement of entrepreneurs and their activities in a region. This paper discusses regional entrepreneurship culture as a source of persistent differences in regional rates of new firm formation, and presents a number of empirical regularities for Sweden to illustrate the empirical relevance of the main arguments. Using data on rates of new firm formation across Swedish regions over time, the paper further explores the association between start-up activity and the business cycle, as well as how the geographic distribution of start-up rates changes during a major economic crisis.
Crowdsourcing Tasks in Open Query Answering

Open query answering is the idea of answering queries that are not given using the vocabulary of the queried knowledge base but instead the vocabulary of the inquirer. Many aspects of open query answering can be tackled through the combination of human effort with algorithmic techniques. In this paper we explore its applicability to crowdsourcing, using a framework in which human and computational intelligence can co-exist by augmenting existing Linked Data and Linked Service technology with crowdsourcing functionality. We analyze how the task can be decomposed and translated into Mechanical Turk projects in order to achieve this vision.