Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Redistribution and technology adoption under uncertainty : a political economy perspective

We examine the role of politico-economic influences on macroeconomic performance within the framework of an endogenous growth model with costly technology adoption and uncertainty. The model is aimed at understanding the diversity in growth and inequality experiences across countries. Agents adopt either of two risky technologies, one of which is only available through financial intermediaries, who are able to alleviate some of this risk. The entry cost of financial intermediation depends on the proportion of government revenue that is allocated towards cost-reducing financial development expenditure, and agents vote on this proportion. The results show that agents at the top and bottom ends of the distribution prefer alternative means of re-distribution, thereby effectively blocking the allocation of resources towards cost-reducing financial development expenditure. Thus political factors have a role in delaying financial and capital deepening and economic development. Furthermore, the model provides a political-economy perspective on the Kuznets curve; uncertainty interacts with the political economy mechanism to produce transitional inequality patterns that, depending on initial conditions, can unearth the Kuznets-curve experience. Finally, the political outcomes are inefficient relative to policies aimed at maximizing the collective welfare of agents in the economy.
Tuning and Fine-Tuning of Synapses with Adenosine

The ‘omnipresence’ of adenosine in all nervous system cells (neurons and glia) together with the intensive release of adenosine following insults, makes adenosine as a sort of ‘maestro’ of synapses leading to the homeostatic coordination of brain function. Besides direct actions of adenosine on the neurosecretory mechanisms, where adenosine operates to tune neurotransmitter release, receptor-receptor interactions as well as interplays between adenosine receptors and transporters occur as part of the adenosine’s attempt to fine tuning synaptic transmission. This review will focus on the different ways adenosine can use to trigger or brake the action of several neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Adenosine receptors cross talk with other G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), with ionotropic receptors and with receptor kinases. Most of these interactions occur through A2A receptors, which in spite their low density in some brain areas, such as the hippocampus, may function as metamodulators. Tonic adenosine A2A receptor activity is a required step to allow synaptic actions of neurotrophic factors, namely upon synaptic transmission at both pre- and post-synaptic level as well as upon synaptic plasticity and neuronal survival. The implications of these interactions in normal brain functioning and in neurologic and psychiatric dysfunction will be discussed.
Politically Connected Boards and the Structure of CEO Compensation Packages in Taiwanese Firms

This paper examines the relationship between the level of political connection of the board and CEO equity-based compensation. Using a sample of Taiwanese firms in 2001-2004, the paper provides evidence that the level of political connection of a board is negatively related to the level of CEO total compensation. It is also found that politically connected boards grant a lower proportion of equity-based compensation to CEOs and thereby reduce the alignment between the interests of CEOs and those of shareholders. The findings obtained by analysing the sample of Taiwanese firms could be useful to policy makers in emerging economies, where there is wide scope for political intervention. A government’s reluctance to relinquish control over publicly listed firms can have significantly negative consequences on the alignment between the interests of CEOs and shareholders in the firms.
Analysis of Public Service Announcements on National Television, 2001–2006

Although public service announcements (PSAs) are used extensively in social marketing campaigns, few studies have examined the overall landscape of PSAs. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of all PSAs aired on national television from 2001–2006. Data are from an all-inclusive industry database. Units of analysis were the number of ads, estimated amount of airtime, and estimated dollar value of airtime. Over 183,000 PSAs aired on average each year from 2001–2006, estimated to be worth about $1.6 billion per year. PSAs represented 2% of advertisements on national television, with more (30.5%) PSAs airing overnight between 1:00 am and 5:00 am than at other times of the day, and more appearing in the fall than other times of the year. The most common topic of PSAs was health. Sports programs contained a smaller percentage of PSAs than other types of programs. The results can help policymakers ensure that PSAs air in sufficient quantity and at effective times, inform campaign decisions about allocation of funds and placements of PSAs, and point to the need to monitor PSAs for each campaign.
Social Capital and Economic Development

The paper reviews the literature on social capital and development and identifies key properties of this concept that are then used in a model illustrating the potential welfare effects from social capital, in terms of both wellbeing and economic benefits. The model focuses on access to inputs into the growth process and identifies necessary conditions for benefits from social capital in terms of the availability of the right kind of intermediary making access to capital resources possible, and the presence of supportive institutions which make minimum human capital and complementary goods available.
Bringing a perspective of transformative learning to globalized consumption

This article examines the development of market-driven values and the creation of consumer-driven lifestyles. It critically examines the effect of market globalization and its creation of negative quality of life indicators. Several resistance movements are given as examples as to how market values are challenged. The movement away from market desires involves a deep change in perspective which is identified as transformative learning.
Cognitive and Emotional Reactions to Questions in the Comparison Question Test

The effect of situational factors on perceptions of items on the polygraph Comparison Question Test (CQT) was assessed. In an initial experiment, 86 students (30 men, 56 women; M age = 20.3 yr., SD = 4.0) imagined one of eight scenarios that varied by guilt or innocence, the commission of a real crime or mock crime, and interrogation by a police officer or a professor. They then rated generic CQT questions for importance and emotional concern. All participants rated crime-relevant questions as being more important than past-crime comparison questions. “Guilty” participants also rated these questions as being more emotionally concerning, but “innocent” participants showed no differences in their ratings of concern for the two question types. Interrogator or crime type did not affect the general pattern of responding. A second experiment involving 80 students (21 men, 58 women, 1 non-specified; M age = 22.5 yr., SD = 7.3) replaced the generic CQT questions with content-specific questions developed by the participant. Those imagining guilt showed no differences in their ratings of relevant and comparison questions, whereas those imagining innocence rated comparison questions as more concerning. Again, interrogator type and crime type had little effect on results. Overall, these findings indicated distinctions in cognitive and emotional appraisal for CQT questions, with the nature of emotional concern dependent on guilt/innocence status and the personal relevance of comparison questions. Evidence suggests that the CQT is robust to other situational factors, such as crime type and interrogator type.
Security Economics in the European Context: Implications of the EUSECON Project

This paper presents key aspects and policy implications of a multi-annual research project on economic analyses of European security issues (EUSECON), with an emphasis on intentional threats of organised crime, piracy and terrorism. The first part argues that rational models can provide significant insights on the emergence and current patterns of terrorism and piracy. These findings could lead to new priorities or to more nuanced interventions in response to these threats. The second part focuses on the direct and indirect costs of both terrorism and organised crime. EUSECON provided new data about the scope of related illegal economic activities and explored the sensitivity of markets, societies and polities in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. It emerges that political actors are at greatest risk of over-responding, whereas mature economies display a high degree of resilience. Finally, the third part discusses economic approaches to policy evaluation. EUSECON clarified the benefits of transnational security cooperation, but also highlights the difficulties of rigorous costeffectiveness and cost-benefit calculations. Therefore, a more evidence-based approach to security policymaking, which is increasingly touted by EU decision-makers, remains elusive. In conclusion, European security policy needs further scrutiny from an economic perspective, in order to answer the increasing complexity of security challenges under the increasing financial or political constraints.
Glamour and Value Strategies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

This paper evaluates the performance of glamour and value strategies and tests the extrapolation model for the Japanese equity market. In general, value stocks outperform glamour stocks by between 6 and 12 percent per annum for the five years after portfolio formation. Evidence from past, future and expected growth provides strong support for the story developed in Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994). It is difficult to attribute the value premia to the difference, if any, in risk factors. In addition, the book-to-market premium is much closer to an arbitrage opportunity than the size premium. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997.
Broadening the Education of Software Engineers - Some Lessons and Pointers

Professional Issues in Software Engineering (PISE) has been taught as part of the computer systems undergraduate degree programme at the University of Limerick using a multi-institutional collaborative pedagogy. PISE considers the ethical, legal and social consequences of the design, implementation and use of computer and information systems. Students from UL collaborated with students from other universities in USA, England and Malta, working together in geographically distributed virtual learning groups to consider ethical issues in software engineering. This paper reflects the longitudinal evaluation of teaching and assessment methods that have been developed over 20 years.
The Spectre of Terrorism and Nigeria's Industrial Development:A Multi-Stakeholder Imperative

Since 2009, Nigeria has gradually slipped into a terrorist enclave where terror acts have become the regular signature of the country's social memoirs. Aside the complex permutations of socio-economic and political upheavals already facing the polity, the sudden emergence of a supercilious army of terror extremists has not only exposed the polity's unpreparedness for such an intimidating challenge, but has also brought a spectral bite to industrial development. Efforts to achieve development in industry in the country, a strong criterion for economic development and the improvement of the country's Human Development Indices may continue to suffer setbacks in the face of a blistering climate of terror and bombings. The effect of terrorist activities s~ch as suicide bombings, kidnappings. destruction of lives. public ;n rastructure. private and entrepreneurial investments, the climate of ear . Panic and confusion and a heated and ungovernable polity has ~~nlinued to make Nigeria an unsuitable bride for foreign investments. rn IS not only poses a threat to the budding democracy in place. it also ~~~ enda~ger efforts to achieve industrial development in the country. be ace th1s challenge headlong, a multi-stakeholder imperative has conne inevitable. Tt1is research work investigated the role ot government, private sector, civil society, faith and the tnternational community in fighting the terror monster and providing the leeway for industrial development in the country, without which the standard of living, employment opportunities and other human . development indices may maintain their downward trend outright. ·
Bone healing in surgically created defects treated with either bioactive glass particles, a calcium sulfate barrier, or a combination of both materials. A histological and histometric study in rat tibias.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to histologically analyze the influence of bioactive glass and/or a calcium sulfate barrier on bone healing in surgically created defects in rat tibias. MATERIAL AND METHODS Sixty-four rats were divided into 4 groups: C (control), CS (calcium sulfate), BG (bioactive glass), and BG/CS (bioactive glass/calcium sulfate). A surgical defect was created in the tibia of each animal. In Group CS, a calcium sulfate barrier was placed to cover the defect. In Group BG the defect was filled with bioactive glass. In Group BG/CS, it was filled with bioactive glass and protected by a barrier of calcium sulfate. Animals were sacrificed at 10 or 30 days post-operative. The formation of new bone in the cortical area of the defect was evaluated histomorphometrically. RESULTS At 10 days post-operative, Group C presented significantly more bone formation than Groups CS, BG, or BG/CS. No statistically significant differences were found between the experimental groups. At 30 days post-operative, Group C demonstrated significantly more bone formation than the experimental groups. Groups CS and BG/CS showed significantly more bone formation than Group BG. No statistically significant differences were found between Group CS and BG/CS. CONCLUSIONS (a) the control groups had significantly more bone formation than the experimental groups; (b) at 10 days post-operative, no significant differences were found between any of the experimental groups; and (c) at 30 days post-operative, the groups with a calcium sulfate barrier had significantly more bone formation than the group that used bioactive glass only.
Tobler's First Law and Spatial Analysis

‘‘ I invoke the first law of geography: everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things’’ (Tobler 1970). How could a sentence justifying heuristic calculations in a crude urban growth simulation generate an icon now known as Tobler’s First Law (TFL)? Why has this law resonated so strongly in geography? Waldo Tobler could invoke a first law of geography since the proposition that near things are more related seemed reasonable in 1970. It is enduring since near and related are useful concepts at the core of spatial analysis and modeling. And in 2004 and beyond, TFL is still useful since the rise of geographic information science and technologies allow greater sophistication when measuring and analyzing these concepts. This is ironic considering that Tobler apparently invoked the law in part to apologize for the slow computers at that time. I am going to sidestep the issue of whether TFL is in fact a law by noting that science accepts the concept of empirical laws, or compact descriptions of patterns and regularities. These are not required to be immutable truths (Casti 1990; Swartz 2001). We certainly have ample evidence to support TFL: you may have noticed on the way to work this morning that the world is orderly with respect to space. Scientific laws are also not required to be causal, for example, Newton’s Law of Gravity is not an explanation. Although not causal, TFL is consistent with an elegant process argument: overcoming space requires expenditure of energy and resources, something that nature and humans try to minimize (although not exclusively, of course). I accept TFL as reasonable regularity that generally holds true. The issues I am going to examine are the central roles of ‘‘near’’ and ‘‘related’’ to spatial analysis and the increasing levels of sophistication that we can achieve when measuring and analyzing these concepts. I also suggest that relations among near entities do not imply a simple, sterile geography; complex geographic processes and structures can emerge from local interactions. Indeed, the sensitivity of geographic and other phenomena to local interactions implies that we should carefully measure and analyze relations among near things.
Deep level defects in n-type GaN grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Deep-level transient spectroscopy has been used to characterize electronic defects in n-type GaN grown by reactive molecular-beam epitaxy. Five deep-level electronic defects were observed, with activation energies E1=0.234±0.006, E2=0.578±0.006, E3=0.657±0.031, E4=0.961±0.026, and E5=0.240±0.012 eV. Among these, the levels labeled E1, E2, and E3 are interpreted as corresponding to deep levels previously reported in n-GaN grown by both hydride vapor-phase epitaxy and metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Levels E4 and E5 do not correspond to any previously reported defect levels, and are characterized for the first time in our studies.
Law and Disorder: Local Implementation of Mongolia's Land Law

With the dismantling of herding collectives in Mongolia in 1992, formal regulatory institutions for allocating pasture vanished, and weakened customary institutions were unable effectively to fill the void. Increasing poverty and wealth differentiation in the herding sector, a wave of urban–rural migration, and the lack of formal or strong informal regulation led to a downward spiral of unsustainable grazing practices. In 1994, Mongolia's parliament passed the Land Law, which authorized land possession contracts (leases) over pastoral resources such as campsites and pastures. Implementation of leasing provisions began in 1998. This article examines the implications of the Law's implementation at the local level, based on interviews with herders and officials in all levels of government, and a resurvey of herding households. Amongst many findings, the research shows that poorer herders were largely overlooked in the allocation of campsite leases; that the poor had become more mobile and the wealthy more sedentary; that there had been a sharp decline in trespassing following lease implementation, but that many herders and officials expected pasture leasing to lead to increased conflict over pastures. The Land Law provides broad regulatory latitude and flexibility to local authorities, but the Law's lack of clarity and poor understanding of its provisions by herders and local officials limit its utility. The existing legal framework and local attitudes stand in clear opposition to the implied goal of land registration and titling — an all-embracing land market and the supremacy of private property rights.
Ritual legitimation, de-coupling and the budgetary process: Managing organizational hypocrisies in a multinational company

The study of participation in the budgetary cycle has formed a prominent part of the research literature concerned with the budgetary process. More recently there has emerged a body of literature concerned to explore the political and symbolic nature of the budgetary process. The paper reports upon the outcomes of an empirical study of the introduction of "budgetary participation" in a division of a European subsidiary of a large North Amercian car manufacturer. We detail the long process of consultational and negotiation within the subsidiary, and between it and the European Headquarters. The study provides a revealing instance of the roles of formal budget participation as a ritual of control and legitimation without the substantive involvement of middle managers and suggested to us the introduction of de-coupling and organizational hypocrisy alongside the introduction of budget participation. The study pays close attention to the contingent effects of the wider political context of the division and the relationships between the division, its organizational context and organizational environment, and how this context played upon the budgetary process in the division. The outcomes that we analyze at 'Delta' reflect the de-coupling strategies and organizational hypocrisies commonly found in public sector organizations. In this wider setting the corporation persists with the ritual of 'tight' budget negotiation and target setting and apparent underachievement in performance. Yet, we conclude that the complex technological and political context to the formation and siting of Delta continued and may continue to support its existence.
Induction of Circadian Rhythm of Feeding Activity by Testosterone Implantations in Arrhythmic Japanese Quail Males

Studies in vertebrates have shown that hormones can influence circadian rhythms of behavior. We investigated whether testosterone could induce rhythmicity in arrhythmic Japanese quail, kept in DD. The animals used were 31/2-week-old castrated males from a line of quail selected for the lack of the circadian rhythm of feeding activity. After 3 weeks in DD, 8 birds were implanted with an empty implant and 16 others with a testosterone implant. Two weeks later, the operation was repeated. After implantation, we noticed that 15 out of 16 testosterone-treated birds showed a circadian rhythm of feeding activity, in contrast to the control birds, which remained arrhythmic. The clarity of this rhythm increased significantly after each implantation. A positive correlation was found between the indexes of clarity of the rhythm (autocorrelation coefficient ratio and area of the peak of spectrum) and the plasma testosterone level. The period of the induced free-running rhythm was identical to the specific value of the endogenous circadian rhythm in immature quail. The circadian period showed a significant lengthening with the second implantation. This lengthening looks like the variation previously observed in maturing rhythmic or implanted quail. So, it would appear that testosterone can act on rhythmicity on at least two levels: by inducing the circadian rhythm and increasing its clarity and by modulating its period. To explain these results, several hypotheses can be considered. First, the observed arrhythmy may be the consequence of an internal desynchronization of oscillators, responsible for generating the circadian rhythm of feeding activity, and testosterone could play a role in the coupling of these oscillators. Alternatively, we suggest that testosterone could act on the transcription of genes implicated in the control of the rhythmicity or may regulate by rapid signals the cellular rhythmic activity. The possible functional values of the enhancing of circadian rhythmicity by testosterone at different stages of the bird's life were discussed.
Agricultural Productivity, Infrastructures and the Optimal Timing of Opening Trade

This study develops a dynamic Ricardian trade model that incorporates productive infrastructures into the manufacturing sector. The costs of building infrastructures are financed by tax. We investigate the relationship between the timing of opening trade and total welfare. The main results are as follows: (1) there is the optimal tax rate maximizing the total welfare; (2) an increase in agricultural productivity can accelerate the timing of opening trade, which, however, does not necessarily improve total welfare; and (3) total welfare under specialization in manufacturing can be higher than that under specialization in agriculture depending on the prevailing conditions.
GDNMOS and GDBIMOS devices for ESD protection in 28nm thin film UTBB FD-SOI technology

GDNMOS (Gated Diode merged NMOS) and GDBIMOS (Gated Diode merged BIMOS) were fabricated using the 28nm thin film UTBB FD-SOI CMOS technology. Different connectivity conditions were measured and simulated. The devices are reconfigurable and promising for ESD protection applications.