Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The basal ganglia communicate with the cerebellum

The basal ganglia and cerebellum are major subcortical structures that influence not only movement, but putatively also cognition and affect. Both structures receive input from and send output to the cerebral cortex. Thus, the basal ganglia and cerebellum form multisynaptic loops with the cerebral cortex. Basal ganglia and cerebellar loops have been assumed to be anatomically separate and to perform distinct functional operations. We investigated whether there is any direct route for basal ganglia output to influence cerebellar function that is independent of the cerebral cortex. We injected rabies virus (RV) into selected regions of the cerebellar cortex in cebus monkeys and used retrograde transneuronal transport of the virus to determine the origin of multisynaptic inputs to the injection sites. We found that the subthalamic nucleus of the basal ganglia has a substantial disynaptic projection to the cerebellar cortex. This pathway provides a means for both normal and abnormal signals from the basal ganglia to influence cerebellar function. We previously showed that the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum has a disynaptic projection to an input stage of basal ganglia processing, the striatum. Taken together these results provide the anatomical substrate for substantial two-way communication between the basal ganglia and cerebellum. Thus, the two subcortical structures may be linked together to form an integrated functional network.
Excess Burden and the Cost of Inefficiency in Public Services Provision

In this paper we revisit the literature on the economic consequences from inefficiency in public services provision. Following Dupuit (1844) and Pigou (1947) we argue that it is important to take the financing side explicitly into account. The fact that public expenditure financing must rely on distortional taxation implies that both direct and indirect costs are relevant when estimating the economic impacts of inefficiency in public services provision. Using Hicks' compensating variation (following Diamond and McFadden (1974) and Auerbach (1985)) we show that these magnification mechanisms are not only conceptually relevant, they are also important from a quantitative point of view. Specifically, we rely on a range of estimates of public sector efficiency (from Afonso, Schuknecht and Tanzi (2005, 2006)) to illustrate numerically that the relative importance of indirect costs of public sector provision inefficiency, linked to financing through distortional taxation increases with the magnitude of the inefficiency.
The effects of the international-domestic interest rate gap on US output

This paper examines how the relationships linking money to real output are altered when an international-domestic interest rate gap is included in the model. The results indicate that both the international-domestic interest rate gap and term structure exert a statistically significant effect on real economic activity. In addition, fluctuations in these variables contain significant information about future changes in real output. An interesting finding is that while the term structure dominates the international-domestic interest rate gap when estimating the entire time period, 1970:1–1996:4, the international-domestic interest rate gap clearly dominates in the more recent time period, 1985:1–1996:4.
The Political Economy of Turkey's Justice and Development Party

The paper embodies three broad objectives. The first objective is to uncover the economic foundations of the JDP's dramatic electoral success in November 2002. The following elements deserve emphasis in this context. (a) The party constitutes a cross-class alliance incorporating into its orbit both winners and losers from the neo-liberalization process. Business support, notably from small and medium-sized business units falling under the umbrella of the nation-wide business association, MUSIAD, constitutes a crucial element of the JDP's electoral support. Yet, business support constitutes only one element of the party's electoral success. (b) The superior performance of JDP'S predecessors, the Welfare and the Virtue Parties, at the level of municipal governments is another element of key importance. (c) The failures of conventional parties of either the center-right or the center-left in achieving sustained and equitable economic growth, avoiding costly financial crises and tackling the problem of pervasive corruption have also paved the way for the party's unprecedented electoral success in the recent era. The second broad objective is to provide a critical assessment of the JDP government's performance on the economic front, with the qualification that a proper assessment would require a longer time frame. Focusing on the party's relations with the IMF, an attempt will made to evaluate the achievements and limitations of the JDP government to date with respect to the implementation of the economic program in the realm of fiscal adjustment and longer-term economic reforms. Looking towards the future, the paper will also consider some of the problems that the JDP government faces in establishing a sustained, equitable and crisis-free trajectory of economic growth in Turkey in the next few years. The third broad objective is to examine the repercussions of the foreign policy stance of the JDP notably with respect to Turkey-EU and Turkey-US relations in the economic sphere, attempting the highlight the critical linkages between the between the political and the economic spheres in the process.
Level or Growth, Which is More Important? Influence of Human Capital on Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment

The paper examines the spillover benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI) in relation to their contribution to economic growth, by utilizing a cross-country panel framework over the last four decades. The findings suggest that only when the host country has a certain threshold level of human capital, FDI contributes positively to economic growth through technology diffusion. It is also found that in general terms, the growth of human capital, and not the level of human capital, in the host economy interacts more strongly with FDI to produce the positive externalities. This indicates that countries can compensate for their lower levels of human capital stock by substituting it with higher rates of human capital growth.
Revisions of Earnings Forecasts and Security Returns: Evidence from Three Countries

Prior evidence has demonstrated that for North American markets EPS forecast revisions are associated with security price changes, although this evidence is much stronger for pre-announcement changes than for post-announcement. As there is considerable interest in using analysts' forecasts for stock selection purposes in Europe, it is clearly of some importance to determine whether forecast revisions are associated with security returns, and whether the revisions can be used to trade successfully. We use a large sample of individual analysts' forecast revisions in Europe's three largest markets - the U.K., France and Germany ? and demonstrate that forecast revisions follow significant abnormal returns and can also be used to identify significant, post announcement returns. This result is found in all years bar one, is stronger for the U.K. than the other markets, for downward than for upward revisions, for less researched rather than more researched firms and for forecasts diverging from the consensus rather than converging. Although surprisingly strong evidence against the EMH these results are consistent with certain other studies which also demonstrate delayed market reaction to news.
Margin requirements, volatility, and the transitory component of stock prices

Official margin requirements in the U.S. stock market were established in October 1934 to limit the amount of credit available for the purpose of buying stocks. Since then, higher or rising margin requirements are associated with lower stock price volatility, lower excess volatility, and smaller deviations of stock prices from their fundamental values. The results hold throughout the post-1934 period and are not very sensitive to the exclusion of the turbulent depression years from the sample. Thus, margin requirements seem to be an effective policy tool in curbing destabilizing speculation. Copyright 1990 by American Economic Association.
Empirical Studies of Self‐Employment

This paper presents a review of empirical studies of self-employment for the Australian, Canadian, Dutch, UK and US labour markets. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are analysed. Analyses using cross-sectional data examine the propensity to be self-employed at any one point in time, whereas longitudinal studies focus on the transition into self-employment from wage/salary employment and the survival rate in this state over time. Various hypotheses advanced in the economics and sociology literatures on self-employment are tested. These include the relationship between managerial ability and the propensity to be self-employed and the impact of financial constraints on entry into self-employment stressed in economic models of entrepreneurship, and the relationships between self-employment choice and the nature of the work and group characteristics (e.g., ethnic enclaves) stressed in sociological models of entrepreneurship. The evidence shows that self-employment outcomes are significantly affected by factors such as individual abilities, family background, occupational status, liquidity constraints and ethnic enclaves. Copyright 1999 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Systems thinking and absorptive capacity in high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises from South Korea

This article develops and tests absorptive capacity’s relationship with one of its important forerunners – systems thinking – which, although postulated as an important element, has received little empirical attention in the absorptive capacity literature. Our contribution lies in the introduction of unique pathways through which systems thinking influences absorptive capacity and how it affects various interrelated dimensions of high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises’ performance, by examining evidence from South Korea’s semiconductor industry.
The Practitioner’s Model: Designing a Professional Development Program for Online Teaching

This article describes the experiences of staff responsible for developing and delivering professional development (PD) in online teaching in three universities in the same Australian state. Each university draws on a similar pool of staff and students, and operates under the same government regulations, but has used different models of policy and resourcing to implement their PD program. The implications of this are discussed, and a model for an “ideal” implementation presented.
Association of urinary bisphenol A concentration with medical disorders and laboratory abnormalities in adults.

CONTEXT Bisphenol A (BPA) is widely used in epoxy resins lining food and beverage containers. Evidence of effects in animals has generated concern over low-level chronic exposures in humans. OBJECTIVE To examine associations between urinary BPA concentrations and adult health status. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Cross-sectional analysis of BPA concentrations and health status in the general adult population of the United States, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2004. Participants were 1455 adults aged 18 through 74 years with measured urinary BPA and urine creatinine concentrations. Regression models were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income, smoking, body mass index, waist circumference, and urinary creatinine concentration. The sample provided 80% power to detect unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) of 1.4 for diagnoses of 5% prevalence per 1-SD change in BPA concentration, or standardized regression coefficients of 0.075 for liver enzyme concentrations, at a significance level of P < . 05. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Chronic disease diagnoses plus blood markers of liver function, glucose homeostasis, inflammation, and lipid changes. RESULTS Higher urinary BPA concentrations were associated with cardiovascular diagnoses in age-, sex-, and fully adjusted models (OR per 1-SD increase in BPA concentration, 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18-1.63; P = .001 with full adjustment). Higher BPA concentrations were also associated with diabetes (OR per 1-SD increase in BPA concentration, 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.21-1.60; P < .001) but not with other studied common diseases. In addition, higher BPA concentrations were associated with clinically abnormal concentrations of the liver enzymes gamma-glutamyltransferase (OR per 1-SD increase in BPA concentration, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.14-1.46; P < .001) and alkaline phosphatase (OR per 1-SD increase in BPA concentration, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.18-1.85; P = .002). CONCLUSION Higher BPA exposure, reflected in higher urinary concentrations of BPA, may be associated with avoidable morbidity in the community-dwelling adult population.
Tumor-suppressive microRNA-497 targets IKKβ to regulate NF-κB signaling pathway in human prostate cancer cells.

BACKGROUND Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent malignant tumors, PCa-related death is mainly due to the high probability of metastasis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in cancer initiation, progression and metastasis by regulating their target genes. METHODS real-time PCR was used to detected the expression of microRNA-497. The molecular biological function was investigated by using cell proliferation assays, cell cycle assay, and migration and invasion assay. We used several Algorithms and confirmed that IKKβ is directly regulated by miR-497. RESULTS Here, we found miR-497 is downregulated in human prostate cancer (PCa) and inhibites the proliferation activity, migration and invasion of PC3-AR cells. Subsequently, IKKβ is confi rmed as a target of miR-497. Furthermore, knockdown of IKKβ expression resulted in decreased proliferation activity, migration and invasion. Finally, similar results was found after treatment with a novel IKK-β inhibitor (IMD-0354) in PC3-AR cells. CDK8, MMP-9, and PSA were involved in all these process. CONCLUSION Taken together, our results show evidence that miR-497 may function as a tumor suppressor genes by regulating IKK-β in PCa, and may provide a strategy for blocking PCa metastasis.
Ocular dominance and disparity coding in cat visual cortex

Abstract The orientation selectivity, ocular dominance, and binocular disparity tuning of 272 cells in areas 17 and 18 of barbiturate-anesthetized, paralyzed cats were studied with automated, quantitative techniques. Disparity was varied along the axis orthogonal to each cell's best orientation. Binocular correspondence was established by means of a reference electrode positioned at the boundary of lamina A and Al in the area centralis representation of the lateral geniculate nucleus. Measures were derived that expressed each cell's disparity sensitivity and best disparity and the shape and slope of its tuning curve. Cells were found that corresponded to categories described by previous authors (“disparity-insensitive,” “tuned excitatory,” “near,” and “far” cells), but many others had intermediate response patterns, or patterns that were difficult to categorize. Quantitative analysis suggested that the various types belong to a continuum. No relationship could be established between a cell's best orientation and its ocular dominance or any aspect of its disparity tuning. There was no relationship between a cell's ocular dominance and its sensitivity to disparity. Ocular dominance and best disparity were related. As reported by others, cells with best disparities close to zero (the fixation plane) tended to have balanced ocularity, while cells with best disparities in the near or far range had a broad distribution of ocular dominance. Among cells with receptive fields near the vertical meridian, those preferring far disparities tended to be dominated by the contralateral eye, and those preferring near disparities by the ipsilateral eye. It is suggested that this relationship follows from the geometry of near and far images and the pattern of decussation in the visual pathway. There was a significant grouping of cells with similar best disparities along tangential electrode tracks. We believe that this grouping is due to the columnar organization for ocular dominance and the relationship between ocular dominance and best disparity. No evidence was found for a columnar segregation of disparity-sensitive and disparity-insensitive cells.
ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE AS A DRIVER OF SUPERIOR QUALITY

We explore theoretically and empirically how efforts to enhance environmental performance may enable other types of manufacturing improvements. Drawing on a unique data set comprised of detailed surveys of 42 automotive assembly plants, associated quality metrics, and in‐depth qualitative data from 17 automotive assembly plants, we show that attaining superior environmental performance can be a significant driver of superior quality. We highlight the synergistic and reciprocal nature of environmental and broader manufacturing improvement efforts, and show that environmental improvement tools and know‐how can be an important source of competitive advantage.
Effect of the subprime mortgage crisis on a leading emerging market

This study examines how the US subprime mortgage crisis affects the behaviour of the Korean stock and futures market and how the futures traders react to the shocks related to the crisis. Analysing a unique and high-quality daily data set on the ABX subprime index of the United States, Korea's implied volatility index (VKOSPI), and the KOSPI200 index and futures, we find a significant linkage and contagion effect between the US subprime market and the Korean market during the crisis period. However, the explanatory power of the ABX index return dissipates during the period of the recovery (after 2010). Our analysis, based on unique information about the types of futures traders, indicates that foreign investors are quite sensitive to the subprime shocks, whereas domestic investors are not. Furthermore, the empirical findings indicate that domestic individual investors invest their money in the opposite direction of the ABX index's movement during the subprime crisis period.
Continuing Vocational Training Forms and Establishment Productivity in Germany

Abstract This paper provides evidence of the productivity effects of different continuing vocational training forms in Germany. Using the waves 1997-2001 of the IAB establishment panel, it is found that formal external courses have the largest positive impact on productivity. Formal internal courses and quality circles have a smaller positive impact. Self-induced learning, participation at seminars and talks and job rotation do not enhance productivity while training on the job has a negative productivity impact. Establishments with an inefficient production structure decide to offer training in order to boost productivity. This paper also shows that taking into account selectivity of the training decision, unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity, human resource practices, as well as establishment and employee characteristics has an important impact on the measurement results.
Vimentin filament precursors exchange subunits in an ATP-dependent manner

Significance Although vimentin intermediate filaments (VIFs) are the most stable cytoskeletal component in motile cells, VIFs undergo dramatic reorganization during cell spreading, cell division, and motility. Here, we studied the first step of IF assembly using the vimentinY117L mutant, which forms oligomers called unit-length filaments (ULFs) but cannot assemble into mature VIFs. We discovered that ULFs, unlike VIFs, are extremely dynamic and rapidly exchange subunits with the soluble vimentin pool. Surprisingly, this process requires ATP but seems independent of the vimentin phosphorylation events previously shown to trigger filament disassembly. We believe that dynamic exchange of subunits could play a role in the regulation of ULF assembly and maintenance of a soluble vimentin pool during the reorganization of the filament network. Intermediate filaments (IFs) are a component of the cytoskeleton capable of profound reorganization in response to specific physiological situations, such as differentiation, cell division, and motility. Various mechanisms were proposed to be responsible for this plasticity depending on the type of IF polymer and the biological context. For example, recent studies suggest that mature vimentin IFs (VIFs) undergo rearrangement by severing and reannealing, but direct subunit exchange within the filament plays little role in filament dynamics at steady state. Here, we studied the dynamics of subunit exchange in VIF precursors, called unit-length filaments (ULFs), formed by the lateral association of eight vimentin tetramers. To block vimentin assembly at the ULF stage, we used the Y117L vimentin mutant (vimentinY117L). By tagging vimentinY117L with a photoconvertible protein mEos3.2 and photoconverting ULFs in a limited area of the cytoplasm, we found that ULFs, unlike mature filaments, were highly dynamic. Subunit exchange among ULFs occurred within seconds and was limited by the diffusion of soluble subunits in the cytoplasm rather than by the association and dissociation of subunits from ULFs. Our data demonstrate that cells expressing vimentinY117L contained a large pool of soluble vimentin tetramers that was in rapid equilibrium with ULFs. Furthermore, vimentin exchange in ULFs required ATP, and ATP depletion caused a dramatic reduction of the soluble tetramer pool. We believe that the dynamic exchange of subunits plays a role in the regulation of ULF assembly and the maintenance of a soluble vimentin pool during the reorganization of filament networks.
An Economic Analysis of Class Size and Achievement in Education

In this paper, the assumptions and methods of economic theory are used to study the behavior of ‘rational teachers’. The results are used as the basis to prove that an increase in the number of students in a class lowers their level of achievement. It is also shown that these results are the foundation of those obtained by Glass and Smith (1978), Glass et al. (1982) and Lippman (1990).