Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Erythroid anion transporter assembly is mediated by a developmentally regulated recruitment onto a preassembled membrane cytoskeleton

Analysis of the expression and assembly of the anion transporter by metabolic pulse-chase and steady-state protein and RNA measurements reveals that the extent of association of band 3 with the membrane cytoskeleton varies during chicken embryonic development. Pulse-chase studies have indicated that band 3 polypeptides do not associate with the membrane cytoskeleton until they have been transported to the plasma membrane. At this time, band 3 polypeptides are slowly recruited, over a period of hours, onto a preassembled membrane cytoskeletal network and the extent of this cytoskeletal assembly is developmentally regulated. Only 3% of the band 3 polypeptides are cytoskeletal-associated in 4-d erythroid cells vs. 93% in 10-d erythroid cells and 36% in 15-d erythroid cells. This observed variation appears to be regulated primarily at the level of recruitment onto the membrane cytoskeleton rather than by different transport kinetics to the membrane or differential turnover of the soluble and insoluble polypeptides and is not dependent upon the lineage or stage of differentiation of the erythroid cells. Steady-state protein and RNA analyses indicate that the low levels of cytoskeletal band 3 very early in development most likely result from limiting amounts of ankyrin and protein 4.1, the membrane cytoskeletal binding sites for band 3. As embryonic development proceeds, ankyrin and protein 4.1 levels increase with a concurrent rise in the level of cytoskeletal band 3 until, on day 10 of development, virtually all of the band 3 polypeptides are cytoskeletal bound. After day 10, the levels of total and cytoskeletal band 3 decline, whereas ankyrin and protein 4.1 continue to accumulate until day 18, indicating that the cytoskeletal association of band 3 is not regulated solely by the availability of membrane cytoskeletal binding sites at later stages of development. Thus, multiple mechanisms appear to regulate the recruitment of band 3 onto the erythroid membrane cytoskeleton during chicken embryonic development.
Twin peaks : growth and convergence in models of distribution dynamics

Convergence concerns poor economies catching up with rich ones. At is- sue is what happens to the cross sectional distribution of economies, not whether a single economy tends towards its own steady state. It is the latter, however, that has preoccupied the traditional approach to con- vergence analysis. This paper describes an alternative body of research that overcomes this shortcoming in the traditional approach. The new findings on persistence and stratification; on the formation of conver- gence clubs; and on the distribution polarizing into twin peaks of rich and poor|suggest the relevance of a class of theoretical ideas, dierent from those surrounding the production-function accounting traditionally favored.
Gathering Information before Signing a Contract

After being offered a contract, an agent has the possibility to observe the state of nature. This enables him to refuse the contract in unfavorable states but burdens him with an observation cost. The authors show that the principal offers a contract in which the agent has no incentive to observe the state of nature and they explore its terms. Later, they show that the principal finds it profitable to organize competition between several agents, even though he has monopoly power and can push a single agent down to his reservation utility. Copyright 1992 by American Economic Association.
Is Crime Contagious? by Jeffrey R. Kling, Princeton University and NBER

We test the hypothesis that criminal behavior is “contagious” – or susceptible to what economists term “endogenous effects” – by examining the extent to which lower local-area crime rates decrease arrest rates among individuals. Using data from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized housing-mobility experiment, in operation since 1994 in five U.S. cities, we exploit the fact that the effect of treatment group assignment yields different types of neighborhood changes across the five demonstration sites and use treatment-site interactions to instrument for measures of post-randomization neighborhood crime rates as well as neighborhood poverty or racial segregation in analysis of individual arrest outcomes. We find no evidence that violence is contagious; neighborhood racial segregation appears to be the most important explanation for across-neighborhood variation in arrests for violent crimes. Our only evidence for contagion comes with less serious crimes. Some estimates suggest an effect for males, but these results are imprecise. We also find evidence that young males are more likely to engage in property crimes when violent crimes are relatively more prevalent within the community. These findings are consistent with a “resource swamping” model in which increases in the prevalence of more serious crimes dilutes the police resources available for deterring less serious crimes.
The Effects of Affirmative Action Policies in University Admissions on Human Capital Development of Minority Children: a Test of the Expectations Hypothesis

It has been well documented that minority children leave primary school with lower levels of acquired skill than do their white counterparts. The causes of this “skill gap”, however, are not well understood. This paper attempts to analyze one possible cause: the impact of perceived labor market discrimination on the human capital development of minority children. Using the CNLSY79 data, I take advantage of recent changes in affirmative action laws regarding university admissions in California and Texas as a natural experiment. I employ both difference-in-difference-in-difference and individual fixed effects methodologies to test for changes in achievement test scores among minority children between the ages of 7 and 14. The results show a significant drop in test scores among thirteen and fourteen year old African-Americans in the affected states relative to whites, but no significant impact among Hispanics. Younger age groups show negative, but insignificant effects. These results suggest that expectations do play a role in the human capital development of minority children and further research in this area is warranted.
Towards Effective Technology Education in New Zealand.

Introduction New Zealand is a small former British colony in the South Pacific with a population of 3.9 million people. The small economy of the country is heavily dependent on overseas trade. Historically, a large proportion of New Zealand’s exports, mainly agricultural products, went to the United Kingdom. In the past 20 years, however, New Zealand has had to adapt to a changing world, so that now our largest exports are to Australia, Japan, the United States, and China. New Zealand has, of necessity, moved away from its dependence on dairy, meat and wool exports, as the new industries of forestry, horticulture, fishing, manufacturing and tourism have become more significant (Department of Statistics, 1999). These changes, together with the huge advances in the associated technology, have created dramatic changes to our economy, and consequently, the fabric of New Zealand society. There has been an increasing awareness of the delicate balance of our ecology, culture, economy and growth of a new independence. Major cultural changes, such as those that have resulted from our anti-nuclear stance, together with the re-emergence of a sense of identity within the indigenous Maori people, has resulted in the adoption of the Maori language an official language of the country. Along with this a unique New Zealand identity and culture has developed. The result is that New Zealand has of necessity grown away from the traditional colonial influence of England. These words in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1928) are still true: “we are living in a new world.new knowledge and new ways of life bring with them new customs and forms of speech unknown before” (preface). Such changes have never been more explicit than in the field of technology, which has changed our ways, customs, and speech as no other aspect of daily life in New Zealand has. This paper examines the historical concept of technical education in New Zealand as it developed from the British model. It examines how England and Wales designed and introduced a new technology curriculum, and how, of necessity, a New Zealand technology curriculum has been developed which is more suited to New Zealand’s developing culture. The paper focuses on the ____________________________
Optimal Annuitization Policies

Abstract At, or about, the age of retirement, most individuals must decide what additional fraction of their marketable wealth, if any, should be annuitized. Annuitization means purchasing a nonrefundable life annuity from an insurance company, which then guarantees a lifelong consumption stream that cannot be outlived. The decision of whether or not to annuitize additional liquid assets is a difficult one, since it is clearly irreversible and can prove costly in hindsight. Obviously, for a large group of people, the bulk of financial wealth is forcefully annuitized, for example, company pensions and social security. For others, especially as it pertains to personal pension plans, such as 401(k), 403(b), and IRA plans as well as variable annuity contracts, there is much discretion in the matter. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the question of when and if to annuitize. Specifically, my objective is to provide practical advice aimed at individual retirees and their advisors. My main conclusions are as follows: • Annuitization of assets provides unique and valuable longevity insurance and should be actively encouraged at higher ages. Standard microeconomic utility-based arguments indicate that consumers would be willing to pay a substantial “loading” in order to gain access to a life annuity. • The large adverse selection costs associated with life annuities, which range from 10% to 20%, might serve as a strong deterrent to full annuitization. • Retirees with a (strong) bequest motive might be inclined to self-annuitize during the early stages of retirement. Indeed, it appears that most individuals—faced with expensive annuity products—can effectively “beat” the rate of return from a fixed immediate annuity until age 75�80. I call this strategy consume term and invest the difference. • Variable immediate annuities (VIAs) combine equity market participation together with longevity insurance. This financial product is currently underutilized (and not available in certain jurisdictions) and can only grow in popularity.
Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorders with the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment

Objective Using parent-completed questionnaires in (preventive) child health care can facilitate the early detection of psychosocial problems and psychopathology, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A promising questionnaire for this purpose is the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA). The screening accuracy with regard to ASD of the BITSEA Problem and Competence scales and a newly calculated Autism score were evaluated. Method Data, that was collected between April 2010 and April 2011, from a community sample of 2-year-olds (N = 3127), was combined with a sample of preschool children diagnosed with ASD (N = 159). For the total population and for subgroups by child's gender, area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was examined, and across a range of BITSEA Problem, Competence and Autism scores, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratio's, diagnostic odds ratio and Youden's index were reported. Results The area under the ROC curve (95% confidence interval, [95%CI]) of the Problem scale was 0.90(0.87–0.92), of the Competence scale 0.93(0.91–0.95), and of the Autism score 0.95(0.93–0.97). For the total population, the screening accuracy of the Autism score was significantly better, compared to the Problem scale. The screening accuracy of the Competence scale was significantly better for girls (AUC = 0.97; 95%CI = 0.95–0.98) than for boys (AUC = 0.91; 95%CI = 0.88–0.94). Conclusion The results indicate that the BITSEA scales and newly calculated Autism score have good discriminative power to differentiate children with and without ASD. Therefore, the BITSEA may be helpful in the early detection of ASD, which could have beneficial effects on the child's development.
The Long Shadow of Jewish Persecution on Financial Decisions

For centuries, Jews have been associated with financial services. We find that present-day households in German counties where Jewish persecution was higher in the Middle Ages and the Nazi period invest less in stocks, have lower savings in bank deposits, and are less likely to get a mortgage, but not to own a house. The forced migrations of the Ashkenazi communities across the German lands after the 11th century help assess the extent to which the e ffect of Jewish persecution on present-day financial decisions is causal. We document direct evidence from the field consistent with a persistent norm of distrust in finance, transmitted across generations, driving the eff ects. Instead, indirect evidence is inconsistent with current antisemitism, generalized trust, or supply-side forces explaining our results.
Homelessness in nine local authorities : case studies of policy and practice

Part of a major research programme commissioned by the Department of the Environment and concerned with homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation, the case studies examined were carried out in Gloucester, Nottingham, Westminster, Birmingham, Cardiff, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Hillingdon, Islington and the New Forest. The report finds great variability of local policies and procedures, and although this flexibility is in some ways welcome there may be areas in which the legislation could be clarified. Suggestions are also made on organization, relations with homeless clients, and how to avoid the use of temporary accommodation. The book would be of interest to local authority policy makers, individuals and bodies concerned with housing and homelessness.
The Planetary Bargain: Corporate Social Responsibility Comes of Age

What and Why Socially Responsible Enterprises - The Need for a Planetary Bargain - The Seven Azimuths: Who are the Stakeholders ? - Codes of Ethics - SRE in Practice - The Multi-cultural View in Selected Industrialised Countries - Frameworks to Measure SRE - The Theoretical Literature behind Measuring Corporate Performance - Empirical Application of SRE Indicators - Developing Country Implications - Conclusion the Next millennium
Travel Demand Forecasts by Using Repeated Cross-Sectional Data: Attempt to Express Parameters as Functions of Gross Domestic Product per Capita

Forecasts by disaggregate travel demand models are often based on data from the most recent time point, even when cross-sectional data are available from multiple time points. However, this is not a good use of data. In his previous work, the author proposed a method for improving the forecasting performance of models by utilising not only the most recent dataset but also an older dataset. He assumes that the parameters are functions of time, which means that parameter values vary over time. He analysed journeys to work mode choice behaviours in Nagoya, Japan. Behaviours in 2001 are forecast using a model with only the most recent 1991 dataset and models that combine the 1971, 1981, and 1991 datasets. His models using data from three time points outperformed the model using only 1991 dataset. This paper extends the author's work by expressing parameters as functions of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Although functions of time ascribe all reasons of parameter changes to the trends of the times, functions of GDP per capita explain parameter changes as the effects of economic conditions. Functions of time have a difficulty for applying models to areas with different economic conditions; this problem is less serious for functions of GDP per capita. Since the GDP per capita has only positive domain, more flexible functional forms can be investigated. The author found that assuming parameters as functions of GDP per capita also outperforms the model using only 1991 dataset.
Enhanced Microbial, Functional and Sensory Properties of Herbal Yogurt Fermented with Korean Traditional Plant Extracts

This study evaluated the effects of two Korean traditional plant extracts (Diospyros kaki THUNB. leaf; DK, and Nelumbo nucifera leaf; NN) on the fermentation, functional and sensory properties of herbal yogurts. Compared to control fermentation, all plant extracts increased acidification rate and reduced the time to complete fermentation (pH 4.5). Supplementation of plant extracts and storage time were found to influence the characteristics of the yogurts, contributing to increased viability of starter culture and phenolic compounds. In particular, the increase in the counts of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus was highest (2.95 and 1.14 Log CFU/mL respectively) in DK yogurt. Furthermore, supplementation of the plant extracts significantly influenced to increase the antioxidant activity and water holding capacity and to produce volatile compounds. The higher antioxidant activity and water holding capacity were observed in NN yogurt than DK yogurt. Moreover, all of the sensory characteristics were altered by the addition of plant extracts. Addition of plant extracts increased the scores related to flavor, taste, and texture from plain yogurt without a plant extract, as a result of volatile compounds analysis. Thus, the overall preference was increased by plant extracts. Consequently, supplementation of DK and NN extracts in yogurt enhanced the antioxidant activity and physical property, moreover increased the acceptability of yogurt. These findings demonstrate the possibility of using plant extracts as a functional ingredient in the manufacture of herbal yogurt.
A Prospective Study of Body Mass Index, Weight Change, and Risk of Cancer in the Proximal and Distal Colon

Background: Body mass index (BMI) is an established risk factor for colon cancer, but risks may differ between genders and colon subsites. Moreover, whether weight change influences risk is not yet clarified. We investigated these issues in a large, Norwegian, population-based cohort study. Methods: Participants' weight was measured at examinations up to three times between 1974 and 1988. Hazard ratios (HR) and confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using Cox regression. Results: During follow-up of 38,822 men and 37,357 women, we identified 228 proximal and 174 distal colon cancer cases in men and 237 and 159 cases, respectively, in women. The association between BMI and colon cancer risk differed between subsites in men (P = 0.02) but not in women (P = 0.95). In men, HRs (95% CIs) per 5 kg/m2 were 1.07 (0.86-1.33) and 1.49 (1.19-1.87) for proximal and distal colon, respectively. In women, corresponding HRs (95% CIs) were 1.15 (0.99-1.34) and 1.25 (1.05-1.49). Among overweight men (BMI ≥25 kg/m2), weight gain ≥10 kg gave higher colon cancer risk than weight maintenance (HR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.21-3.63), whereas risks were similar among men with stable weight, weight loss, or gains <10 kg. Weight change was not associated with risk in women. Conclusions: The influence of BMI on colon cancer risk differed between subsites in men. Weight gains <10 kg did not influence risk. Impact: Our results support gender differences and the hypothesis of different etiologies for colon subsites. Whether weight loss in the overweight decreases risk of colon cancer warrants further study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(6); 1511–22. ©2010 AACR.
Towards A European Nationality: Citizenship, Immigration and Nationality Law in the EU

List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: Citizenship, Immigration and Nationality: Towards a Convergence in Europe? R.Hansen & P.Weil Citizenship Policy in Germany: The Case of Ethnicity over Residence? S.Green The History of French Nationality: A Lesson for Europe P.Weil From Subjects to Citizens: Immigration and Nationality in the United Kingdom R.Hansen Nationality Law and International Migration: The Italian Case F.Pastore Migration and Spanish Nationality Law F.Fuentes Immigration, Immigrants and Nationality Law in the Netherlands 1945-1998 K.Groenendijk & E.Heijs Nationality Law in Greece C.L. Rozakis Nationality Law in Belgium M.Lienard-Ligny Migratory Movements and the Law of Nationality in Portugal During the Last Half-Century R.Ramos Nationality Law in Scandinavia, Denmark, Finland and Sweden E.Ersboll Nationality Law and Naturalisation in Austria R.Baubock & D.Cinar Irish Nationality Law C.Symmons Index
HYPOTHETICAL (NON)BIAS IN CHOICE EXPERIMENTS: EVIDENCE FROM FRESHWATER PRAWNS

A mail survey choice experiment and in-store controlled experiment were conducted concurrently in the same location to test for hypothetical bias in choice experiments using a new product—freshwater prawns. Findings suggest that hypothetical bias in the mail survey was not present for the new product, but some hypothetical bias was detected for substitute products, depending on the choice of econometric estimation method. However, the general conclusion is the choice experiments are an effective means of assessing potential market demand for new products with little evidence for hypothetical bias.
The prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of beta-hemolytic streptococci colonizing the throats of schoolchildren in Assam, India.

INTRODUCTION Studies on the carriage rate of beta-hemolytic streptococci among children form an important component of public health practice to prevent disease complications such as rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease, nephritis, and other local or systemic infections. METHODOLOGY Throat swabs collected from asymptomatic schoolchildren were inoculated into appropriate media for isolation of beta-hemolytic streptococci. They were identified by standard biochemical methods and sero-grouped. Antibiotic sensitivity was evaluated using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Beta-hemolytic streptococci were isolated from 106 (7.7%) out of the 1,384 throat swabs and Group F was the predominant sero-group isolated. The highest resistance observed among all the beta-hemolytic streptococci was to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.