Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human Capital Spillovers, Labor Migration and Regional Development in China

This study applies unique data from the 1990s period of economic liberalization in China to evaluate the effects of human capital spillovers on urbanization and regional agglomeration of human capital. We examine these effects via a utility maximizing directional migration model, which accounts for heterogeneous migration costs and benefits among population strata. We use model estimates to decompose and evaluate human capital spillover effects as derive from three distinct sources, including productivity effects (social returns to schooling), skill premia (skill complementarity in production), and non-wage benefits (quality of life and learning opportunities). In contrast to extant literature emphasizing skill complementarity, we find significantly stronger non-wage than wage effects in the determination of regional human capital agglomeration. However, among low-skill migrants, non-wage benefits are substantially reduced - due likely to urban segregation that deprives low-skill migrants of social externalities. This finding suggests limited human capital spillovers among low-skill migrants and hence dampened long-run growth benefits to Chinese urbanization. Finally, we find that urban concentration of skilled workers was more important than foreign direct investment, the prominent source of technology transfer in China during the 1990s, in attracting skilled workers.
Relative Capture of Local and Central Governments: An Essay in the Political Economy of Decentralization

A common presumption is that decentralization is prone to a potential pitfall owing to the greater vulnerability of local governments to capture by local elites. We investigate the determinants of relative capture of local and national governments theoretically, in the context of an extended version of the Baron-Grossman-Helpman model of electoral competition with lobbying by special interest groups. A number of factors do provide support to the traditional presumption, such as reduced cohesiveness of interest groups, higher levels of voter awareness, and greater electoral competition at the national level. A number of other factors may, however, create an opposite tendency for lower capture at the local level. These include less electoral uncertainty at the national level, and a higher value of campaign funds in national elections owing to their fungibility across different districts. Relative capture also depends on heterogeneity across districts with respect to levels of local inequality and poverty: accordingly decentralization will tend to increase capture in high inequality districts and lower it in low inequality districts. Power-sharing between parties at the national level, due either to coalition governments or proportional representation, limits the extent of national capture. We conclude that empirical research is necessary to investigate the extent and determinants of relative capture.
Student, Faculty, and Administrator Attitudes and Perceptions of Virtual High School Classes at One Suburban New Jersey Public High School

The 2005 Summit on High Schools led to redesigning schools and promoting 21St Century Skills. Consequently, this study assesses the implementation of supplemental online courses, offered through the Virtual High School (VHS), at one suburban New Jersey public high school. The following questions guided this research project: (1) How do the VHS courses compare to those in a traditional setting; (2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of online high school courses, and the VHS program; (3) How effectively does the VHS program meet the needs of the students; (4) Do online courses link to 2 lSt Century Skills and college readiness; and (5) Should this high school and others nationwide, consider and implement curriculum policy changes that pertain to online high school courses. The research design used a qualitative, cross-sectional case study of the attitudes and perceptions of those directly involved with the supplemental VHS classes. The division of the homogenous focus groups included three student groups, one faculty group, and one administrator group, for a combined total of 14 participants. The findings indicated approval of the VHS program and a plan to continue the supplemental courses for the Academic Year 201 0-201 1. With an equally rigorous curriculum, the ideal virtual student is an independent, self-motivated thinker. Virtual activities relied more heavily on written assessments, and at times, posed communication challenges with teachers and peers. Nonetheless, college and career readiness necessitates 2 1 Century technology skills. The high school implemented two policy changes that will further ensure student success: (1) permitted juniors and seniors to enroll in a VHS course, and (2) incorporated an interview process that will enable the site coordinator to clearly outline course objectives and program expectations. Additional recommendations include transcript policy revisions, and continued monitoring of Special Education, English Language Learners, and differentiated instruction. Since Picciano and Seaman (2009) projected that online learning may reach between 5 and 6 million K-12 (mostly high school) students by the year 201 6, educational leaders should promote virtual school opportunities and implement online course prerequisites (p. 22).
Do I have what it takes? Equilibrium Search With Uncertainty About the Self

This paper presents a general equilibrium model of the labor market in which an unemployed worker’s decision to stop search, and enter a state of nonparticipation, is made in a non-stationary environment. Nonstationarity arises because each time a worker decides to search, and is unsuccessful, this decreases the worker’s selfconfidence, and subjective belief about the probability of future success. This nonstationarity gives rise to structural flows from unemployment to nonparticipation in equilibrium. In contrast, existing search models typically appeal to stochastic shocks to generate transitions from unemployment into nonparticipation. The behavioral assumptions in our model regarding uncertainty and updating of beliefs are microfounded in experimental evidence from a companion paper. Other important implications of the model include a novel channel through which unemployment duration leads to decreasing starting wages: unemployment duration reduces self-confidence, and thus affects workers’ threat points in wage bargaining. The role of self-confidence in job search also points to a different way in which variables such as gender, race, and age may affect search behavior, and a way in which unemployment may damage self-esteem and mental health. Importantly, because search outcomes are only a noisy signal about ability in our model, some individuals can become overly discouraged and stop search too early due to wrong beliefs. We discuss how the model provides a new, unifying explanation for empirical evidence on search behavior and unemployment.
Oblique proton fire hose instability in the expanding solar wind: Hybrid simulations: FIRE HOSE

Oblique fire hose instability is investigated using hybrid s mulations for proton betas of the order of one and for proton parallel temperature s sufficiently greater than the perpendicular ones. The simulations confirm previous simulati on results showing that this instability has a self-destructing properties and efficiently re duces the proton temperature anisotropy. A parametric study using one-dimensional standard hybrid s imulations shows that stronger changes in the temperature anisotropy and stronger wave emissions a ppear for larger initial temperature anisotropies. An ideal, slow plasma expansion, model le by a two-dimensional hybrid expanding box simulation, leads to a generation of proton te mperature anisotropy. The anisotropy leads first to destabilization of the dominant parallel fire h ose which interacts mainly with minor supra-Alfvénic protons whereas the evolution of core p otons is determined by the expansion. Consequently, the effective anisotropy is only sligh t y reduced and the system eventually becomes unstable with respect to the oblique fire hose in tability. The oblique fire hose strongly scatters the protons and removes the anisotropy di srupt ng the parallel fire hose. An important portion of the fluctuating wave energy is dissipat ed o protons and only long-wavelength waves remains in the system. The system with a low wave activi ty then develops again larger temperature anisotropies and the evolution repeats itself . It is concluded that both parallel and oblique proton fire hose instabilities constrain the proton emperature anisotropy in the expanding solar wind with the latter one constituting a final fronti er for the anisotropy. These results give a possible explanation of some apparent discrepancies between observations and linear predictions. In addition, a simple bounded anisotropy mode l is developed to include some of the kinetic effects of the fire hose instabilities in fluid mod els.
AAV-Mediated, Optogenetic Ablation of Müller Glia Leads to Structural and Functional Changes in the Mouse Retina

Müller glia, the primary glial cell in the retina, provide structural and metabolic support for neurons and are essential for retinal integrity. Müller cells are closely involved in many retinal degenerative diseases, including macular telangiectasia type 2, in which impairment of central vision may be linked to a primary defect in Müller glia. Here, we used an engineered, Müller-specific variant of AAV, called ShH10, to deliver a photo-inducibly toxic protein, KillerRed, to Müller cells in the mouse retina. We characterized the results of specific ablation of these cells on visual function and retinal structure. ShH10-KillerRed expression was obtained following intravitreal injection and eyes were then irradiated with green light to induce toxicity. Induction of KillerRed led to loss of Müller cells and a concomitant decrease of Müller cell markers glutamine synthetase and cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein, reduction of rhodopsin and cone opsin, and upregulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein. Loss of Müller cells also resulted in retinal disorganization, including thinning of the outer nuclear layer and the photoreceptor inner and outer segments. High resolution imaging of thin sections revealed displacement of photoreceptors from the ONL, formation of rosette-like structures and the presence of phagocytic cells. Furthermore, Müller cell ablation resulted in increased area and volume of retinal blood vessels, as well as the formation of tortuous blood vessels and vascular leakage. Electrophysiologic measures demonstrated reduced retinal function, evident in decreased photopic and scotopic electroretinogram amplitudes. These results show that loss of Müller cells can cause progressive retinal degenerative disease, and suggest that AAV delivery of an inducibly toxic protein in Müller cells may be useful to create large animal models of retinal dystrophies.
Factors in Contact Lens Symptoms: Evidence from a Multistudy Database

Purpose This study aimed to examine the effects of demographic, lens performance, and ocular surface response measures on contact lens–related discomfort and dryness, using a large contact lens study database. Methods A total of 4164 records were extracted from a database of 220 subjects participating in 46 silicone hydrogel contact lens studies. Subjects discontinued lens wear for 24 hours and were then fit with either comfilcon A or enfilcon A lenses. The fit and performance of the lenses, along with subjective comfort and dryness, were assessed on insertion and after 3 and 6 hours of wear. After 6 hours of wear, ocular surface health was also assessed by fluorescein slitlamp examination. Results Decreased comfort at 3 hours after insertion was associated with excessive lens movement (p < 0.001), front surface deposits (p = 0.004), poor wettability (p = 0.014), and Asian ethnicity (p < 0.001). After 6 hours of wear, decreased comfort remained associated with greater lens movement (p = 0.032) and Asian ethnicity (p < 0.001), along with inferior corneal staining (p < 0.001). Dryness after 3 hours of wear was associated with greater lens movement (p < 0.001), Asian ethnicity (p < 0.001), increased deposits (p < 0.001), and poor wettability (p < 0.001). Dryness after 6 hours of wear remained associated with greater lens movement (p < 0.001) and Asian ethnicity (p < 0.001), along with inferior corneal staining (p < 0.001) and inferior lens decentration (p = 0.001). Conclusions Excessive lens movement, inferior lens decentration, poor surface wettability and deposits, inferior corneal staining, and Asian ethnicity are associated with discomfort and dryness. Clinicians should consider all these factors to achieve the most comfortable and successful contact lens fit.
A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus

In the first exhaustive treatment of the field in 20 years, Scott Shane extends the analysis of entrepreneurship by offering an overarching conceptual framework that explains the different parts of the entrepreneurial process - the opportunities, the people who pursue them, the skills and strategies used to organize and exploit opportunities, and the environmental conditions favorable to them - in a coherent way. Given the level of interest devoted to entrepreneurship in the economy and among academics at business schools, one would think that researchers would have deep insights into this phenomenon. However, those who look closely at academic investigations of entrepreneurship realize that scholarly understanding of this field is quite limited. Unlike its sister fields of accounting, marketing, finance, organizational behavior and strategic management, entrepreneurship is rather poorly explained by academics. Scott Shane resolves this by considering the nexus of enterprising individuals and valuable opportunities and by using that nexus to understand the processes of discovery and exploitation of opportunities, the acquisition of resources, entrepreneurial strategy and the organi
The impact of vision impairment on vision-specific quality of life in Germany.

PURPOSE To validate the German-translated Impact of Vision Impairment (IVI) questionnaire, a vision-specific quality of life (QoL) scale, and determine the relationship between the severity of vision impairment, ocular conditions, and VRQoL. METHODS This cross-sectional study was clinic based, with 184 patients with low vision recruited from an outpatient clinic at a German eye hospital. Participants underwent a clinical examination and completed the German IVI scale. The validity of the IVI scale was assessed using Rasch analysis. The main outcome measure was the overall functional and emotional score provided by the IVI. RESULTS Overall, there were more female (n = 111, 60.3%) than male participants. Participants' mean ± SD age and visual acuity in the better eye were 69.0 ± 15.5 years and. 0.41 ± 0.35 logMAR, respectively. The main cause of vision loss was age-related macular degeneration (n = 54, 29.3%). Rasch analysis demonstrated the validity of the German IVI to assess VRQoL through two subscales: vision-specific functioning and emotional well-being. In adjusted multivariate analysis models, those with mild or moderate/severe vision impairment reported significantly poorer vision-specific functioning (mean change, -6.5, P = 0.018 and -11.98, P < 0.001 for mild and moderate to severe VI, respectively) and emotional well-being (mean change, -2.35; P = 0.043 and -3.13, P = 0.004 for mild and moderate/severe VI respectively) compared with non-visually impaired patients. CONCLUSIONS Using a psychometrically valid German IVI, even mild vision impairment was independently associated with poor VRQoL. These findings reinforce the importance of early preventative and rehabilitative efforts to prevent longitudinal deterioration in vision loss.
Transient Activation during Block Transition

Functional MRI (fMRI) data analysis of blocked-task paradigms typically considers brain activity present across a temporally extended task block relative to a reference block. An open question remains as to whether processes evolving with distinct temporal profiles are also present and can inform us about further functional-anatomic processes underlying task performance. To explore this question, a meta-analysis of data from these separate studies was performed. The meta-analysis specifically focused on detecting transient activation occurring at the onset and offset of task blocks. The composite data set from 39 subjects included four distinct task conditions (from various intentional encoding paradigms) that had equivalent block timing. Task block activation included a network of regions consistent with prior analyses of intentional encoding. Activation related to the block transitions included a set of transiently activated regions, consistent across all four separate task conditions. The most prominent activation was found in right frontal cortex along the dorsal extent of inferior frontal gyrus (near BA 6/44). Importantly, in one condition, this transient activation was present in the absence of a response across the task block suggesting dissociation between processes in support of ongoing task demands and those associated with transitions between blocks. Other prominent transient activations included posterior superior temporal sulcus, medial occipitoparietal sulcus, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate sulcus in the right hemisphere. These findings are discussed in relation to models of set shifting and competitive interactions between brain regions.
A Wideband Beamformer Extended to MIMO Radar

MIMO radar algorithms are the latest generation of techniques which can be applied to phased array radars. They offer the potential to improve the resolution, number of targets that can be identified, and ¿exibility in beam pattern design. To date, most of the work on MIMO radar has been performed assuming the signals are narrowband. However, wideband signals can also improve radar resolution, among other benefits, and are sometimes unavoidable when stringent range resolution specifica-tions must be met. This paper presents a method for extending the MIMO narrowband model to a wideband model. This is necessary to obtain improved results from parameter estimation when the transmitted signals are wideband. The results show that the method greatly improves the results compared to those obtained when no techniques are implemented to compensate for a wideband signal. However, best performance is still obtained with a narrowband signal, and therefore the technique presented might only be of interest when a wideband signal is required.
The Effect of Protein Length on the Ploidy Level and Environmental Tolerance of Organisms

This paper summarizes previous work linking protein aggregation to the heterozygosity of organisms. It also cites the literature showing a correlation between species' morphological complexity and the lengths of their proteins. These two findings are combined to form a theory that may potentially explain the ploidy levels of organisms. Organisms can employ heterozygosity to inhibit protein aggregation. Hence, complex organisms tend to be diploid because they tend to synthesize long, aggregation-prone proteins. On the other hand, simple organisms tend to be haploid because they synthesize short proteins that are less prone to aggregation. The theory may also explain ecological trends associated with organisms of different ploidy level. Two mathematical models are also developed that may explain: 1) how protein aggregation results in truncation selection that maintains numerous polymorphisms in natural populations, and 2) the relationship between protein turnover, metabolic efficiency, and heterosis.
Structural Breaks and Predictive Regressions Models of South African Equity Premium

In this paper, we test for the structural stability of both bivariate and multivariate predictive regression models for equity premium in South Africa over the period of 1990:01 to 2010:12, based on 23 financial and macroeconomic variables. We employ a wide range of methodologies, namely, the popular Andrews (1993) statistic and the Bai (1997) subsample procedure in conjunction with the Hansen (2000) heteroskedastic fixed-regressor bootstrap. We also used the Elliott and Muller (2003) statistic and Bai and Perron (1998, 2003a, 2004) methodologies. We find strong evidence of at least two structural breaks in 22 of 23 bivariate predictive regression models. We also obtain evidence of structural instability in the multivariate predictive regression models of equity premium. Our results also show that the predictive ability of the 23 variables can vary widely across different regimes.
Monogonont Rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus, Possesses Exceptionally Large, Fragmented Mitogenome

In contrast to the highly conserved mitogenomic structure and organisation in most animals (including rotifers), the two previously sequenced monogonont rotifer mitogenomes were fragmented into two chromosomes similar in size, each of which possessed one major non-coding region (mNCR) of about 4–5 Kbp. To further explore this phenomenon, we have sequenced and analysed the mitogenome of one of the most studied monogonont rotifers, Brachionus calyciflorus. It is also composed of two circular chromosomes, but the chromosome-I is extremely large (27 535 bp; 3 mNCRs), whereas the chromosome-II is relatively small (9 833 bp; 1 mNCR). With the total size of 37 368 bp, it is one of the largest metazoan mitogenomes ever reported. In comparison to other monogononts, gene distribution between the two chromosomes and gene order are different and the number of mNCRs is doubled. Atp8 was not found (common in rotifers), and Cytb was present in two copies (the first report in rotifers). A high number (99) of SNPs indicates fast evolution of the Cytb-1 copy. The four mNCRs (5.3–5.5 Kb) were relatively similar. Publication of this sequence shall contribute to the understanding of the evolutionary history of the unique mitogenomic organisation in this group of rotifers.
The impact of financial development on economic growth: Empirical analysis of emerging market countries

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework that integrates the endogenous growth and functions of financial markets and institutions theory in order to investigate how the financial market and the banking sector develop indicators that affect economic growth in these countries. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is an empirical analysis of the relationship between financial development and economic growth for 42 emerging markets, over 12 years, using endogenous growth model. Findings - First, the results suggest that stock market development has a significant effect on economic growth, and this effect remains strong even after the influence of banking sector and other control variables using a growth model. Second, the research findings largely support the view that there is a stable, long-term equilibrium relationship between the evolution of the stock market and the evolution of the economy. Originality/value - The evidence supports the view that the relation between stock market development and economic growth in emerging economies is bi-directional. The findings describe that the stock market and the banking sector in emerging economy are complementary rather than substitutes in providing financial services to the economy.