Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening Incentives and Privacy Protection in Financial Markets: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

type="main"> We study a model in which firms offer financial products to individuals, post prices for their products, and screen consumers who apply to purchase them. Any information obtained in the screening process may be traded to another firm selling related products. We show that firms' ability to sell consumer information can lead to lower prices, higher screening intensities, and increased social welfare. By exploiting variations in the adoption of local financial-privacy ordinances in five California Bay Area counties, we are able to provide simple estimates of the effects of stricter financial-privacy laws on mortgage denial rates during 2001–2006. Consistent with the model's predictions, denial rates for home-purchase loans and refinancing loans decreased in counties where opt-in privacy ordinances were adopted. Moreover, estimated foreclosure start rates during the financial crisis of 2007–2008 were higher in counties where the privacy ordinance was adopted.
Enterprise resource planning in Nigerian service firms: a structural equation modelling approach

This paper provides a holistic view of the ERP implementation process, by reviewing the hard and soft factors that cause success and failure for ERP implementation, as well as examine the effectiveness of the critical success factors (CSFs) of ERP on both primary (operational) and secondary (organisational) measures of business performance in Nigerian service firms. The aim was achieved through an experience survey using a questionnaire within 22 Nigerian service firms, with 590 randomly selected senior and management staff, which have implemented the ERP programme in the past decade. Using the framework from Markus and Tanis (2000) process-oriented ERP life cycle model, several hypotheses were tested, via structural equation modelling (SEM). With the exception of the influence of chartering phase CSFs on operational performance, findings suggests the positive effects of the CSFs of ERP on both operational and organisational performances of Nigerian service firms. In addition, this study also suggests the positive effects of the operational performance on organisational performance of Nigerian service firms.
Wind reduction downwind from a savanna woodland edge

A study was made in 1987-89 of the wind protection provided by a sparse tree canopy in a savanna woodland (mainly Acacia tortilis) edge in N. Tanzania. Wind speeds were measured at two heights (1.0 and 2.5 m) along transects perpendicular to the prevailing wind; tree density ranged from 60 to 150 stems/ha. A simple model was formulated for average wind reduction within such canopies. Average wind speeds decreased with increasing distance from the woodland edge, until they become almost constant (saturation reduction). Airflow around single trees was studied for more understanding of these results. It is suggested that preservation or regeneration of trees should be encouraged for wind protection in planning and developing crop land.
Postoperative Management Protocol for Incidental Dural Tears During Degenerative Lumbar Spine Surgery: A Review of 3,183 Consecutive Degenerative Lumbar Cases

Study Design. Retrospective review. Objectives. To review the experience of a single institution with degenerative lumbar surgery and to identify cases of incidental dural tears (DTs); and to report on the efficacy of our postoperative management protocol for DT, which relies on early mobilization. Summary of Background Data. DTs are a common complication of degenerative lumbar spine surgery. However, the management strategies for this complication vary from one surgeon to another. Methods. A total of 3,183 degenerative lumbar spine cases (decompression and/or fusion) were reviewed. Cases complicated by an incidental DT were identified. Patients who required a return to the operating room for a second procedure were identified and the operative findings were reviewed. Results. The incidence of DT during primary lumbar surgeries was 7.6% (153 of 2,024 cases), which compares to an incidence of 15.9% for revision cases (185 of 1,159 cases). If recognized during the index procedure, all DTs were repaired using a 4-0 silk suture. Six patients (4 primary, 2 revisions) who did not improve despite our postoperative management protocol were taken to the operating room for irrigation and debridement, repair of the defect, and placement of a subfascial drain to closed suction. All 6 patients went on to do well and did not have any further complications. Conclusions. DTs are common during degenerative lumbar spine surgery. Revision surgery is twice as likely as primary surgery to result in this complication. Our postoperative early mobilization protocol appears to be an effective and safe management strategy for treating this complication (98.2% success rate). Very few patients (6 of 338, or 1.8%) needed a reoperation.
The WTO and the Global Economy

The ongoing integration of the world economy (“globalisation”) and the World Trade Organisation as it approaches its third birthday, are the subject of a great deal of discussion and press coverage. This article focuses on an assessment of the WTO in the context of the evolving global economy. Section 2 reviews recent developments pertaining to the WTO. Several challenges facing the WTO, now and on the horizon, are briefly reviewed in Section 3. The WTO’s ability to deal with these challenges is examined in Section 4. The discussion shifts, in Section 5, to a brief consideration of findings regarding the importance of institutions to national economic development, and of their implications for the role of the WTO in global economic development.
Renewing Canada's Manufacturing Economy: A Regional Comparison, 1973-1996

Regional economies are continually undergoing adjustment as their firm populations react to changing tastes, technologies, and the challenges of outside competition. Adjustment typically takes place as the stock of jobs is renewed in each industry. This micro-dynamic process of renewal has a substantial impact on the structure of national and regional economies. The primary objective of this paper is to measure the degree of renewal within the Canadian manufacturing economy as whole and within individual provinces. Using a longitudinal micro-data set-which covers the population of manufacturing plants in Canada from 1973 to 1996-the study shows that the manufacturing sector experienced considerable job renewal. Two-thirds of jobs in 1996 were newly created since 1973. There was considerable variation in provincial renewal rates. A decomposition analysis suggests this variation is not purely an artifact of the types of industries found in provinces, but reflects other characteristics of provincial economies. Copyright 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Implementation of differential repeat-pass SAR interferometry for (i) the search for earthquake precursory land-cover deformation in Taiwan in co-ordination with the integrated Search for Taiwanese Earthquake Precursors iSTEP' Taiwanese program for promoting research excellence; and (ii) the assessm

Worldwide, medium-to short-term earthquake prediction is becoming ever more essential for safeguarding man due to an un-abating population increase, but hitherto, there have been no verifiable methods of reliable earthquake prediction developed -except for a few isolated examples of such in China and in Greece. This dilemma is a result of previous and still current approaches to earthquake prediction which are squarely based on the seismic measurement of crustal movements, observable only after a tectonic stress-change discharge (earthquake) has occurred. The prediction models derived from past histories of measurements were mainly carried out during the past 40-50 years, although initiated soon after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. During the past decade it was proved and shown that it is not possible to derive reliable models for earthquake predictions from crustal movement measurements alone - as valuable and as indispensable those indeed are - and that an entirely new approach must be taken and rigorously pursued over many years and decades to come, and most likely throughout this twenty-first century. Of considerable importance will be the full integration of multi-band (P-K Band) repeat-pass differential interferometric Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (POL-SAR) space borne and high-altitude platform monitoring operations which will be considered here in conjunction with "seismo-electromagnetic " ground measurements. It will be shown that Taiwan is ideally suited for studying earthquake related electromagnetic precursor studies in that the island is separated from other continental regions, and there exist the resources, the dedication and will power for advancing our knowledge most rapidly. Both land-based and sub-oceanic measurement networks already exist, which need to be upgraded and perfected. With the aid of experienced and knowledgeable experts, this will be done soon.
Influenza A Virus Polymerase Is an Integral Component of the CPSF30-NS1A Protein Complex in Infected Cells

ABSTRACT The NS1A protein of influenza A virus binds the cellular CPSF30 protein, thereby inhibiting the 3′-end processing of all cellular pre-mRNAs, including beta interferon pre-mRNA. X-ray crystallography identified the CPSF30-binding pocket on the influenza virus A/Udorn/72 (Ud) NS1A protein and the critical role of two hydrophobic NS1A amino acids outside the pocket, F103 and M106, in stabilizing the CPSF30-NS1A complex. Although the NS1A protein of the 1997 H5N1 influenza A/Hong Kong/483/97 (HK97) virus contains L (not F) at position 103 and I (not M) at position 106, it binds CPSF30 in vivo to a significant extent because cognate (HK97) internal proteins stabilize the CPSF30-NS1A complex in infected cells. Here we show that the cognate HK97 polymerase complex, containing the viral polymerase proteins (PB1, PB2, and PA) and the nucleocapsid protein (NP), is responsible for this stabilization. The noncognate Ud polymerase complex cannot carry out this stabilization, but it can stabilize CPSF30 binding to a mutated (F103L M106I) cognate Ud NS1A protein. These results suggested that the viral polymerase complex is an integral component of the CPSF30-NS1A protein complex in infected cells even when the cognate NS1A protein contains F103 and M106, and we show that this is indeed the case. Finally, we show that cognate PA protein and NP, but not cognate PB1 and PB2 proteins, are required for stabilizing the CPSF30-NS1A complex, indicating that the NS1A protein interacts primarily with its cognate PA protein and NP in a complex that includes the cellular CPSF30 protein.
Trade liberalisation and the skill composition of migrant flows: the case of Morocco

Empirically, little is known about the effects of trade liberalisation on the skill composition of emigration flows in developing countries. The available computational literature has focused, for the most part, on United States-Mexico migration patterns after the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. More recent works have investigated the relation between trade liberalisation and emigration in Morocco, without looking to the impact of trade liberalisation on skilled and unskilled migration. This paper investigates the effects of trade liberalisation on the skill composition of migrant flows in Morocco. Because trade agreements involve substantial changes in prices, resource allocation and income, they also affect migration incentives, when migration is motivated by the wage differential between receiving and sending countries. Trade liberalisation will be problematic for an unskilled-labour abundant country like Morocco, if it gives incentives to skilled workers to move across borders. An appealing way of addressing this topic is to formulate a dynamic computable general equilibrium model that illustrates the transmission channels by which trade liberalisation affects local wages and migration incentives. The model is calibrated on the Moroccan Social Accounting Matrix of 2003. The results show that both the free trade agreement with the European Union and multilateral liberalisation reduce skilled and unskilled migration flows, still more pronounced in the multilateral case.
Economic Growth: The Role of Policies and Institutions. Panel Data Evidence from OECD Countries

This paper discusses links between policy settings, institutions and economic growth in OECD countries on the basis of cross-country time-series regressions. The econometric approach allows short-term adjustments and convergence speeds to vary across countries, imposing restrictions only on the long-run coefficients. In addition to the ‘primary’ influences of capital accumulation and skills embodied in the human capital, the results confirm the importance for growth of R&D activity, the macroeconomic environment, trade openness and well developed financial markets. They also confirm that many of the policy influences operate not only ‘directly’ on growth but also indirectlyviathe mobilisation of resources for fixed investment. The paper also reports some bivariate correlations between OECD indicators of product regulation and growth. They provide some supporting evidence that the negative impact of stringent regulations and administrative burden on the efficiency of product .
The governance of Natura 2000 sites: the importance of initial choices in the organisation of planning processes

The management of Natura 2000 sites faces several challenges. Responsible authorities need to achieve specific conservation objectives and they need to balance these objectives with social and economic interests. A study of two cases, one in England and one in the Netherlands, shows that the initial choices about the organisation of a deliberative planning process can create a solid basis for further co-operation. This paper contributes to the knowledge about the design and consequences of deliberative planning processes. It shows how a specific process design can strengthen the possibilities to develop social capital, trust and reciprocity, but also how it can result in a deliberative quicksand, characterised by ongoing discussions and even conflicts between the various stakeholders.
The Relative Importance of Food, Atmosphere, and Fairness of Wait

Food quality came out as the only one of nine factors being tested that had a significant effect on intent to return for 239 diners at an Irish-pub-style full-service restaurant in the southeastern United States. Even so, food provided only a partial explanation of the repeat-patronage decision. Examining customer satisfaction, food quality again was at the top of the list, but the restaurant’s atmosphere and the fairness of the seating procedures also had significant effects. Together, those three factors explained about half of the variability in a regression model of customer satisfaction. Given that food was such a strong factor in the repeat-patronage decision, diners’ suggestions to this restaurant are of interest to other restaurateurs. The diners suggested that the restaurant expand its menu. In particular, they wanted to see more items that fit the restaurant’s Irish-pub theme. Finally, diners were especially interested in having additional healthful menu items.
Bronchiectasis in Alaska Native children: causes and clinical courses.

Although bronchiectasis has become a rare condition in U.S. children, it is still commonly diagnosed in Alaska Native children in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta. The prevalence of bronchiectasis has not decreased in persons born during the 1980s as compared with those born in the 1940s. We reviewed case histories of 46 children with bronchiectasis. We observed that recurrent pneumonia was the major preceding medical condition in 85% of patients. There was an association between the lobes affected by pneumonia and the lobes affected by bronchiectasis. Eight (17%) patients had surgical resection of involved lobes. We conclude that the continued high prevalence of bronchiectasis appears to be related to extremely high rates of infant and childhood pneumonia. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2000;29:182-187. Published 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
From “Rubber Stamps” to “Iron Stamps”: The Emergence of Chinese Local People's Congresses as Supervisory Powerhouses

This article analyses Chinese local people's congresses' supervision of governments in order to see whether people's congresses have played a meaningful role in the reform era. The article will show that the main strategies of people's congresses have been to gain the support of the Chinese Communist Party and to co-operate with governments, rather than to use confrontation, in an effort to overcome their lower political status. But after primarily achieving these goals by the early 1990s, people's congresses have also started to employ the confrontation strategy towards governments. At the same time, people's congresses have actively pioneered new supervisory measures so that they overcome current problematic legal and legislative systems. As a result, legislative supervision began to influence governments and officials significantly in the early 1990s. So people's congresses, along with the Party and governments, have become important political actors in local politics, even though they are not as influential as the other two institutions.
Phase-Locked Loop Noise Reduction via Phase Detector Implementation for Single-Phase Systems

A crucial component of grid-connected converters is the phase-locked loop (PLL) control subsystem that tracks the grid voltage's frequency and phase angle. Therefore, accurate fast-responding PLLs for control and protection purposes are required to provide these measurements. This paper proposes a novel feedback mechanism for single-phase PLL phase detectors using the estimated phase angle. Ripple noise appearing in the estimated frequency, most commonly the second harmonic under phase-lock conditions, is reduced or eliminated without the use of low-pass filters, which can cause delays to occur and limits the overall performance of the PLL response to dynamic changes in the system. The proposed method has the capability to eliminate the noise ripple entirely and, under extreme line distortion conditions, can reduce the ripple by at least half. Other modifications implemented through frequency feedback are shown to decrease the settling time of the PLL up to 50%. Mathematical analyses with the simulated and experimental results are provided to confirm the validity of the proposed methods.
A Reexamination of the Efficiency of the Betting Market on National Hockey League Games

A recent paper byWoodland andWoodland examines the efficiency of odds betting on professional hockey games, finding that actual returns on underdog bets consistently exceed expected returns and evidence of a reverse favorite-longshot bias. This article corrects the Woodland and Woodland calculation of bookmaker commissions for unchanged money lines. The authors’ revision substantially lowers the commission and thus is potentially important for tests of efficiency. The article also examines the impact of changes in money lines, which further reduce commissions but raise actual returns. The impact of these revisions on tests of efficiency is examined using the Woodland and Woodland sample. In general, the authors show that their revised no line change test statistic is a more stringent test of efficiency than either the Woodland andWoodland test statistic or any reasonable line change test statistic. However, the authors’ revised test statistics continue to find the inefficiency documented by Woodland and Woodland.
Estimation of genetic parameters for test day records of somatic cell score.

The present study estimated variance components for test day records of somatic cell score and production traits. Data consisted of 235,100 test day observations recorded between 1986 and 1994 on lactations 1 to 3 of 15,922 Holstein cows from 143 herds. Records were considered as repeated observations within a lactation and as different traits across lactations. The multiple-trait animal model for analysis included random animal additive genetic and permanent environment effects by lactation. Fixed effects included herd test date and a set of four covariables for days in lactation, estimated by parity, age, and season, which accounted for the shape of the lactation curve. Gibbs sampling chains were carried out separately for somatic cell score and milk production and fat and protein yields. Heritabilities of somatic cell score for lactations 1 to 3 were . 09, . 09, and . 11, respectively. Genetic correlations between lactations were high (.88, .79, and .95 between lactations 1 and 2, 1 and 3, and 2 and 3, respectively). Correlations between permanent environment effects were smaller (.29, .19, and .46 between lactations 1 and 2, 1 and 3, and 2 and 3, respectively). Heritabilities and correlations between permanent environment effects were higher for production traits than for somatic cell score. Genetic correlations between lactations for production traits were similar to those for somatic cell score. Variances between lactations differed significantly, indicating that observations from different lactations should no be considered as repeated observations of the same trait.
Thyroid Disorders in Central Ghana: The Influence of 20 Years of Iodization

Background Ghana began mandatory iodization of salt in 1996. This study compares the prevalence of thyroid disorders before and after the introduction of iodization. Methods This is a retrospective study of thyroid cases from the middle belt of Ghana between 1982 and 2014. To demonstrate a link between iodization and hyperthyroidism and autoimmunity, we compared the prevalence of hyperthyroidism and autoimmune thyroid disorders before and after the iodization programme. Results A total of 10,484 (7548 females, 2936 males) cases were recorded. The rate of thyroid cases seen was 343/100,000. Nontoxic nodular goiters (25.7%) and toxic nodular goiters (22.5%) represented the second commonest thyroid disorders recorded. The prevalence of hyperthyroid disorders seen after 1996 was significantly higher than the prevalence seen before the iodization (40.0 versus 21.1%, p < 0.001). The prevalence of autoimmune disorders recorded after iodization was significantly higher than that before the iodization programme started (22.3% versus 9.6%, p < 0.001). Conclusions This study has revealed a significant increase in thyroid admissions in Central Ghana over the decades. A connection between iodine fortification and iodine-induced hyperthyroidism and between iodine fortification and autoimmune thyroiditis has been shown in this study.
Deskilling: A New Discourse and Some New Evidence

This article provides a brief introduction to a research program which has been under way since 2007 to examine, using data from a large-sample panel survey, whether jobs in Australia are becoming more or less skilful over time. It redefines the debate on deskilling which ran through the 1970s and 1980s by expanding the focus beyond simple job quality to issues of current policy interest, notably the contribution of skill to innovation and productivity. To map this kind of dynamism it is necessary to use a metric capable of capturing change over short periods. This is achieved by adding a third dimension, skill-intensity, to Spenner's classic definition of skill in terms of two loosely related constructs, worker autonomy/control and substantive job complexity. Data drawn from the first eight waves of HILDA are analysed to demonstrate that this metric is capable of capturing statistically significant change in the average skill content of jobs over much shorter periods than was possible with the metrics used in earlier decades. The broadly parallel aggregate trendlines for skill-intensity and autonomy/control suggest that these two dimensions are linked in the way Spenner suggests, even though major discrepancies appear between them in some industries and occupations.