Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circadian Rhythmicity and Photoperiodism in the Pitcher‐Plant Mosquito: Can the Seasonal Timer Evolve Independently of the Circadian Clock?

The two major rhythms of the biosphere are daily and seasonal; the two major adaptations to these rhythms are the circadian clock, mediating daily activities, and the photoperiodic timer, mediating seasonal activities. The mechanistic connection between the circadian clock and the photoperiodic timer remains unresolved. Herein, we show that the rhythmic developmental response to exotic light:dark cycles, usually used to infer a causal connection between the circadian clock and the photoperiodic timer, has evolved independently of the photoperiodic timer in the pitcher‐plant mosquito Wyeomyia smithii across the climatic gradient of eastern North America from Florida to Canada and from the coastal plain to the mountains. We conclude that the photoperiodic timing of seasonal events can evolve independently of the daily circadian clock.
A qualitative study of the pedagogical content knowledge and personal orientations toward economics of award-winning secondary economics teachers

Historically, economic education has been predominantly characterized by low student achievement, lack of teacher preparation, and quantitative research findings. Detailed descriptions of what effective economic instruction looks like in secondary classrooms remain scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of how the personal orientations toward economics of three award-winning secondary economic teachers influenced their instruction and how these teachers demonstrated their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in their instruction. Specifically investigated was how the economic teachers demonstrated horizon content knowledge, specialized content knowledge, knowledge of content and teaching, and knowledge of content and students. Data collection methods included classroom observations, teacher interviews and questionnaires, student surveys and tests, and artifacts. Guided by a PCK theoretical framework, a qualitative analysis of the data suggested that the most influential personal orientation factors included the teachers’ life and professional experiences, disciplinary background, political leanings, economic course beliefs, and economic instructional goals. All three teachers consistently demonstrated their PCK by connecting economic content to other grades and subjects as well as other economic concepts and skills. Economic content was also regularly used to prepare students for citizenship, including casting more informed votes and understanding current events. However, authentic discussions and controversial issues were mostly lacking. An emphasis was placed on developing students’ economic reasoning skills, including real-world applications of the economic way of thinking and decision making models. Active learning instructional practices were also frequently incorporated, and economic content was almost always related to students’ interests and experiences. Modest gains were achieved in students’ economic attitudes and knowledge midway through the yearlong course. Implications for classroom instruction and teacher education include teaching a basic economic course focused on life skills, integrating more assignments in social studies methods courses that develop PCK in economics, and offering an economic methods course.
ESTIMATING THE ECONOMIC LOSSES FROM DISEASES AND EXTENDED DAYS OPEN WITH A FARM-LEVEL STOCHASTIC MODEL

OF THESIS ESTIMATING THE ECONOMIC LOSSES FROM DISEASES AND EXTENDED DAYS OPEN WITH A FARM-LEVEL STOCHASTIC MODEL This thesis improved a farm-level stochastic model with Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the impact of health performance and market conditions on dairy farm economics. The main objective of this model was to estimate the costs of seven common clinical dairy diseases (mastitis, lameness, metritis, retained placenta, left displaced abomasum, ketosis, and milk fever) in the U.S. An online survey was conducted to estimate veterinary fees, treatment costs, and producer labor data. The total disease costs were higher in multiparous cows than in primiparous cows. Left displaced abomasum had the greatest costs in all parities ($404.74 in primiparous cows and $555.79 in multiparous cows). Milk loss, treatment costs, and culling costs were the largest three cost categories for all diseases. A secondary objective of this model was to evaluate the dairy cow’s value, the optimal culling decision, and the cost of days open with flexible model inputs. Dairy cow value under 2013 market conditions was lower than previous studies due to the high slaughter and feed price and low replacement price. The first optimal replacement moment appeared in the middle of the first parity. Furthermore, the cost of days open was considerably influenced by the market conditions.
The New Economy and Demand for Skills

There has been an increasing dispersion in earnings observed in many OECD countries over the last two decades along with shedding of low skill workers and increased demand for skilled workers. This has been attributed to a number of diffent causes including skill-biased technological change. In this paper the attributes of different occupations are used to obtain measures of three distinct skill dimensions- motor skills, interactive skills and cognitive skills- plus education. The paper presents an analysis of skill change for each of the skill dimensions over the period 1986 to 1996. Further analysis is carried out using regression modelling to determine whether the IT intensity of an industry has had any influence on the extent of skill change over the period being analysed. The main finding is that industries that spend a relatively high proportion of capital expenditure on IT equipment, after controlling for other factors, also have experienced a decrease in the average interactive skill level of the workforce. Other measures of IT intensity are positively related with most skill dimensions, the main exception being motor skills.
Global Oil and the Nation State

I. The Governance of Private Mineral Resources Economic Science and Natural Resource Ownership II. Case Studies: British Coal, American and Mexican Oil British Coal American Oil (1860s-1970s) Mexican Oil (1880s-1970s) Conclusions III. The Governance of Publicly Owned Mineral Resources Non-Proprietorial Governance Proprietorial Governance Ricardian Rent Theory and Taxation Politics and Natural Resource Ownership IV. The International Oil Companies as Tenants Oil Concessions in Venezuela Oil Concessions in the Middle East The Fifty-Fifty Profit Sharing System The Failure of Compromise V. The Oil-Exporting Countries Oil Prices and Production Control Oil Prices and Fiscal Regimes Declaratory Statements of Petroleum Policy The OPEC Revolution The Sovereign Landlords VI. The Consuming Countries The International Energy Agency International Investment Treaties and Natural Resources VII. The National Oil Companies in the Exporting Countries Case Studies: United Kingdom, Alaska, and Venezuela VIII. The Governance of Oil Private Governance Public Governance International Governance Global Oil and Territorial States.
Health Status Determinants in the OECD Countries. A Panel Data Approach with Endogenous Regressors

The purpose of this study is to analyse the determinants of life expectancy as proxy for health status of the OECD countries‘ population. A production function of health is used to explain life expectancy at birth for total and ageing population and according to gender. Socio-economic factors, health resources and lifestyles are defined as the main determinants of heath status. The estimation approach assumes that income and education are endogenous and a panel data approach is used to control for this problem. Our evidence shows that income, education and health resources (through consultations) are important factors affecting positively life expectancy and risky lifestyles (tobacco and alcohol consumption) are harmful to health. However there are differences between males and females. Income and lifestyles are the major determinants affecting men‘s health while for women education and the effective use of health services (through consultations) explain mostly life expectancy both at birth and late age.
World Technology Usage Lags

We present evidence on the differences in the intensity with which ten major technologies are used in 185 countries across the world. We do so by calculating how many years ago these technologies were used in the U.S. at the same intensity as they are used in the countries in our sample. We denote these time lags as technology usage lags and compare them with lags in real GDP per capita. We find that (i) technology usage lags are large, often comparable to lags in real GDP per capita, (ii) usage lags are highly correlated with lags in per-capita income, and (iii) usage lags are highly correlated across technologies. The productivity differentials between the state of the art technologies that we consider and the ones they replace combined with the usage lags that we document, lead us to infer that technology usage disparities might account for a large part of cross-country TFP differentials.
Market Segmentation by Motivations to Travel

Abstract Knowledge about tourist motivations would enable tourism destination planners to better satisfy consumer needs. Recent studies evidence the heterogeneous nature of tourist motivations, and highlight the importance of motivations (e.g., Bansal & Eiselt, 2004). The context-dependency of motivations to specific destinations and tourist market emphasizes the need of further research. The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, to explore the primary reasons influencing British tourists' decision making while taking a summer holiday in two resorts (Fethiye and Marmaris), located in Mugla (Turkey), and second, to identify customer segments, depending on their socio-demographic characteristics and holiday-taking patterns. On the basis of multi-step cluster analysis, five segments were found: fuzzy tourists, recreational-type, active, escape seekers and relax-quiet tourists. Managerial implications and further research are also discussed.
The Major Cow Milk Allergen Bos d 5 Manipulates T-Helper Cells Depending on Its Load with Siderophore-Bound Iron

The mechanisms of allergic sensitization to milk are still elusive. The major allergen Bos d 5 belongs to the lipocalin-family and thus is able to transport numerous ligands. In this study we investigated its ability to bind to iron-siderophore complexes and tested the immune-modulatory properties of Bos d 5 in either forms. Structural and in silico docking analysis of Bos d 5 revealed that Bos d 5 is able to bind to iron via catechol-based flavonoids (quercetin, myricetin, luteolin) that act as siderophores as confirmed by spectral-analysis and iron staining. Calculated dissociation constants of docking analyses were below 1 µM by virtual addition of iron. When incubated with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), only the apo-form of Bos d 5 led to an increase of CD4+positive cells and significantly elevated IL13 and IFNγ-levels. In contrast, holo-Bos d 5 decreased numbers of CD4 expressing cells and induced apoptosis. Taken together, our data give evidence that Bos d 5 is capable of binding iron via siderophores. Moreover, our data support for the first time the notion that the form of application (apo- or holo-form) is decisive for the subsequent immune response. The apo-form promotes Th2 cells and inflammation, whereas the holo-form appears to be immunosuppressive.
The measurement of capabilities

It has often been claimed that it is impossible to measure human capabilities but within the methodological conventions of household survey design, this chapter shows that some non-financial capability indicators do already exist and this chapter demonstrates how similar indicators, covering a wide range of life domains, can be constructed. This chapter draws on a continuing research project which contributes to the operationalization of the capabilities approach by devising over sixty capability indicators which can be used to extend coverage of indices such as HDI, illustrating different ways in which such indicators may be analysed, and discussing some of the associated methodological issues that have emerged in the process. Based on usable observations from a national UK sample of 1,000 adults, this chapter uses latent class analysis to identify an impoverished group of respondents with low capabilities across the board, builds models of experienced violence and subjective wellbeing as a function of experienced and anticipated violence, and explores the relationship between capability indicators and subjective wellbeing. Substantive findings include: the identification of a group with low all round capabilities associated with low health and low income; evidence that fear of future violence can be a more significant determinant of subjective wellbeing than past experience of violence; and evidence which supports the view that a large diverse set of non-financial dimensions of capability have a detectable impact on subjective wellbeing. The chapter concludes by discussing some of the econometric issues that have emerged in the course of this work.
The empirical relevance of geographical economics

Some parts of the world are clearly more developed than others. Not only do large disparities in economic prosperity persist between countries; also between regions in the same country, or between cities in the same region large differences in welfare are often the rule rather than the exception. Geographical economics – the study of where economic activity takes place, and why – offers theoretical explanations for these observed spatial patterns of economic development and explains how economic activity in one place may influence that in another. This thesis assesses the empirical relevance of these theories. It identifies, discusses, and offers solutions to, some of the problems involved when taking the insights from geographical economic theory to the data. Using data at various geographical scales and employing different econometric techniques, it shows the relevance of geographical economic theory in understanding such diverse issues as the differences in economic success between Sub-Saharan African countries, the observed increase in regional inequality in South Africa after the end of the Apartheid regime, and the long-term effects of the heavy destruction during World War II on West German cities.
The Interrelated Develop Model of Entrepreneur Process and the Transformation of Industry Cluster

The paper applies an evolutionary perspective to the study of clusters by analyzing the interrelated develop process of entrepreneurs and industry cluster transformation. It argues how the exogenous and endogenous forces of high-tech industry in which an entrepreneur lives and works has a fundamental impact upon their ability to recognize and exploit opportunities, correspondingly, this paper also explores the entrepreneur's venture creation process in high-technology industry cluster, demonstrated the co-existence of high levels of both internal and external linkages of a local entrepreneur can greatly affects entrepreneur development and the possibility for the cluster to undertake the transformation. Across this phase the paper identifies some key factors whose presence affected this promoting process.
Addressing the Climate Change—Sustainable Development Nexus

While calls are being made to deal with the linkages between climate change and sustainable development to arrive at an integrated policy, concrete steps in this direction have been very limited so far. One of the possible instruments through which both issues may be approached simultaneously is a multistakeholder partnership, a form of governance with the potential to address existing regulatory, participation, resource and learning gaps as it harnesses the strengths of private, public, and nonprofit partners. There is some insight into partnerships for climate change, but largely limited to developed countries, and those in developing countries most often do not involve companies. To help fill this gap, this article explores the role of multistakeholder partnerships in addressing climate change and sustainable development in developing-country settings. It elaborates on the governance function of partnerships, on actor involvement, the gaps addressed, as well as synergies and trade-offs in the climate change-sustainable development nexus and how partnerships may help address them. As the number of such partnerships is still limited, we discuss seven illustrative partnerships and draw conclusions as to further conceptualizations and implications for research and practice.
Collaborative practice to support young people with ASN during the school to post-school transition in Scotland : the perspectives of young people, their families and professionals

The school to post-school transition has been identified as a time when young people with Additional Support Needs (ASN) need extra support. This thesis focuses on the school to post-school transition planning and preparation process for young people with ASN in Scotland. In particular, the author scrutinised the collaborative planning and preparation that takes place amongst professionals to support young people with ASN and their families during this transition. The author also examined the influence of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 upon the process. A mixed-methods research design was used to undertake three studies. Study 1 was a national on-line survey of professionals involved in post-school transition planning and preparation. Study 2 was a longitudinal study in which professionals involved in transition planning and preparations from one local authority were interviewed at 2 time periods (2004 before the implementation of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and 2010). Minutes of transition meetings from both periods were also examined. Study 3 was a case study of a further education college undertaken in the same local authority as Study 2, to understand the experiences of transition planning and preparation from the perspectives of the young people with ASN who had experienced post-school transition and their families, along with school and college professionals. Participants (young people, parents and professionals) were interviewed. Visual resources were developed by the author to support the interviews with the young people. Data in all the studies were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Finally, the findings of the three studies are presented and discussed. These include the perception that transition planning and preparation has become more young person centred since the Act was introduced. Implications for policy makers, practitioners, and future research are also discussed.
Efficient training for pairwise or higher order CRFs via dual decomposition

We present a very general algorithmic framework for structured prediction learning that is able to efficiently handle both pairwise and higher-order discrete MRFs/CRFs1. It relies on a dual decomposition approach that has been recently proposed for MRF optimization. By properly combining this approach with a max-margin method, our framework manages to reduce the training of a complex high-order MRF to the parallel training of a series of simple slave MRFs that are much easier to handle. This leads to an extremely efficient and general learning scheme. Furthermore, the proposed framework can yield learning algorithms of increasing accuracy since it naturally allows a hierarchy of convex relaxations to be used for MRF inference within a max-margin learning approach. It also offers extreme flexibility and can be easily adapted to take advantage of any special structure of a given class of MRFs. Experimental results demonstrate the great effectiveness of our method.
The Distribution of High-Redshift Galaxy Colors: Line-of-Sight Variations in Neutral Hydrogen Absorption

We model, via Monte Carlo simulations, the distribution of observed U-B, B-V, and V-I galaxy colors in the range 1.75 < z < 5 caused by variations in the line-of-sight opacity due to neutral hydrogen (H I). We also include H I internal to the source galaxies. Even without internal H I absorption, comparison of the distribution of simulated colors with the analytic approximations of Madau et al. reveals systematically different mean colors and scatter. Differences arise in part because we use more realistic distributions of column densities and Doppler parameters. However, there are also mathematical problems of applying mean and standard deviation opacities, and such application yields unphysical results. These problems are corrected using our Monte Carlo approach. Including H I absorption internal to the galaxies generally diminishes the scatter in the observed colors at a given redshift, but for redshifts of interest this diminution only occurs in the colors using the bluest bandpass. Internal column densities less than 1017 cm2 do not affect the observed colors, while column densities greater than 1018 cm2 yield a limiting distribution of high-redshift galaxy colors. As one application of our analysis, we consider the sample completeness as a function of redshift for a single spectral energy distribution (SED) given the multicolor selection boundaries for the Hubble Deep Field proposed by Madau et al. We argue that the only correct procedure for estimating the z > 3 galaxy luminosity function from color-selected samples is to measure the (observed) distribution of redshifts and intrinsic SED types and then consider the variation in color for each SED and redshift. A similar argument applies to the estimation of the luminosity function of color-selected, high-redshift QSOs.
A Novel Clustering Algorithm Based on a Modified Model of Random Walk

We introduce a modified model of random walk, and then develop two novel clustering algorithms based on it. In the algorithms, each data point in a dataset is considered as a particle which can move at random in space according to the preset rules in the modified model. Further, this data point may be also viewed as a local control subsystem, in which the controller adjusts its transition probability vector in terms of the feedbacks of all data points, and then its transition direction is identified by an event-generating function. Finally, the positions of all data points are updated. As they move in space, data points collect gradually and some separating parts emerge among them automatically. As a consequence, data points that belong to the same class are located at a same position, whereas those that belong to different classes are away from one another. Moreover, the experimental results have demonstrated that data points in the test datasets are clustered reasonably and efficiently, and the comparison with other algorithms also provides an indication of the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.