Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet

From the Publisher: Is the Internet poised to replace television as the central means of political communication? Will the advent of computer communication create a new era of citizen activism? Will the Internet ultimately lend itself more to political accountability and access or to exclusion and extremism? Is cyberspace truly the domain of the ideological right? In answering these questions, "Cyberpolitics" goes beyond the hype to analyze the content of political discussion on the Internet and to see how the Internet is being used politically. Empirical research translated into dozens of graphically compelling figures and tables illuminates for the first time Internet characteristics heretofore only speculated about: Who are the "cybercitizens" using the Internet, how do they participate in the political process, and who uses the Internet most effectively to accomplish political ends? The bottom line the authors reach should be reassuring to Internet utopians and dystopians alike: As the Internet grows, it will change the nature of political action, discourse, and effect less than it will itself be changed by politics. Along the way, we learn a lot about politics on the Internet and off-in the U.S. and around the world; left, right, and center. Author Biography: Kevin A. Hill is assistant professor of political science at Florida International University. John E. Hughes is assistant professor of political science at Monmouth University.
A ( Bubble-Free ) General Equilibrium Approach to Asset Pricing Experiments

We use laboratory experiments to test the modern, consumption-based general equilibrium approach to asset pricing which posits that agents buy and sell assets for the purpose of intertemporally smoothing consumption. These asset pricing models are widely used by macroeconomists and finance researchers but have not yet been subjected to experimental testing. This laboratory approach enables us to induce several fundamental factors which, according to the theory, determine asset prices, such as risk and time preferences, and the process for dividend payments. Preliminary evidence suggests that either intertemporal consumption-smoothing or what can be interpreted as bankruptcy risk in our design (or both) induce stable prices and strongly inhibit the formation of asset price bubbles, a stark departure from most recent asset pricing experiments. This paper is very preliminary and incomplete. Please do not circulate. Contact: sean.crockett@baruch.cuny. edu Contact: jduffy@pitt.edu
Spirometric reference equations for European females and males aged 65–85 yrs

The aim of this study was to describe spirometric reference equations for healthy never-smoking European adults aged 65–85 yrs and to compare the predicted values of this sample with those from other studies including middle-aged and/or older adults. Reference equations and normal ranges for forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in six seconds (FEV6), FEV1/FVC ratio and FEV1/FEV6 ratio were derived from a healthy subgroup of 458 subjects aged 65–85 yrs. Spirometry examinations followed the 1994 American Thoracic Society recommendations and the quality of the data was continuously monitored and maintained. Reference values and lower limits of normal were derived using a piecewise polynomial model with age and height as predictors. The reference values of FEV1 and FVC from the present study were higher than those given by prediction equations from the European Community for Coal and Steel. By contrast, use of prediction equations from Caucasian-American elderly subjects (Cardiovascular Health Study) consistently overpredicted FVC and FEV1 in females by 8.5 and 2.1%, respectively. In males, equations from the Cardiovascular Health Study overpredicted FVC by 2.8%, whilst underpredicting FEV1 by 2.5%. In conclusion, these results underscore the importance of using prediction equations appropriate to the origin, age and height characteristics of the subjects being studied.
The Adoption of Labor Standards Conventions: Who, When and Why?

The ratification of ILO Labour Standards Conventions is a key explanatory variable in the empirical literature linking labour standards to economic performance. The assumption is that ratification gives information about labour standards implemented in a country. This Paper investigates the determinants of ratification directly and, indirectly, the determinants of labour standards. We find considerable variation across different Conventions, and across developing and developed countries. But there are some systematic and interesting patterns. While economic variables such as per capita income do not explain ratification, legal systems do. Most interestingly, for some Conventions, even after controlling for basic economic characteristics and domestic legal institutions, we find that peer effects are in play and the probability of adopting an international standard depends on how many other countries in a peer group have already adopted that standard.
Effective and sustainable university-school partnerships : beyond determined efforts by inspired individuals

Teaching Australia commissioned the Victoria University research team to undertake a research study to identify the characteristics of successful relationships between universities and schools, particularly for the school-based professional experience component of teacher education programs. The specific aims were: (1) to identify examples of effective and sustainable university-school partnerships as part of preservice teacher preparation programs, as well as research, induction and continuing professional learning for practising teachers; and (2) to analyse these programs to identify the characteristics of effectiveness and sustainability. Effective partnerships are critical to achieving high quality teacher education. The report presents detailed case studies of several partnership initiatives which show what makes collaboration effective and how to sustain it over the long term. The report includes an inquiry kit comprising a set of tools adapted from the research materials to support the development and improvement of local partnerships.
Diamond Synthesis from Graphite in the Presence of Water and SiO2: Implications for Diamond Formation in Quartzites from Kazakhstan

Recent studies of microdiamonds from orogenic belts related to continental collisions induced experimentalists to explore new crystallization media possible for diamond synthesis. This has led to considerable progress in diamond-synthesis experiments under high pressures and high temperatures. Diamond was found to grow in a wide variety of systems, which drastically differ from the metal-solvent-catalyst media that have been known since the 1950s in industrial diamond syntheses. The newer systems include a variety of melts consisting of silicate, carbonate, sulfur-carbon, as well as carbon-oxygen-hydrogen (C-O-H) supercritical fluid systems in the presence of different oxides. Our experimental program has focused on systems compositionally approximating natural sites of ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks, where abundant microdiamonds occur. Yet to be explored are SiO2-rich systems that constitute an important diamond-bearing lithology in the world-famous Kokchetav ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic (UHPM) terrane. The purpose of this study is to determine what effect the presence of SiO2 has on the synthesis of diamond from C-O-H supercritical fluid. Experiments performed in a Walker-style multianvil apparatus at T = 1450-1500°C and P = 8-8.5 GPa on the Si-C-O-H system at different levels of oxygen fugacity (fO2) have led us to the conclusion that diamond crystallization requires more reduced media than its counterpart synthesized in Mg-C-O-H and Ca-Mg-C-O-H systems at similar pressures, temperatures, and times.
War Crimes and Misdemeanors: Understanding 'Zero-Tolerance' Policing as a Form of Collective Punishment and Human Rights Violation

A fundamental principle of criminal law is that individuals may only be punished for offenses which they have personally committed; any punishment must be personal and individual. To that end, international law proscribes as collective punishment any sanction imposed on a population without regard to individual culpability for the offense that provokes the penalty. Compstat-based zero-tolerance or order-maintenance policing, the prevailing thesis in contemporary law enforcement, punishes entire communities for the crimes of a few. More specifically, zero-tolerance policing seeks to deter violent crime not by apprehending those relatively few perpetrators of crime, but by indiscriminate search-and-seizure operations and wholesale misdemeanor arrests for minor quality-of-life offenses in the neighborhoods where violent crimes occur, typically poor communities of color. As a form of collective punishment, such policing is contrary to international human rights law.In one eight-block section of Brooklyn, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) stopped, questioned, and searched 52,000 people in four years, 94% of whom had committed no offense. Residents of communities targeted for this type of intensive policing by Compstat are not only stopped and searched without individualized suspicion, but they are also routinely arrested and jailed on criminal trespassing charges for failing to provide police with identification. The indiscriminate policing in these neighborhoods closely resembles a counterinsurgency strategy known as cordon and search, in which troops seal off geographic areas and subject entire communities to violent search-and-seizure operations to suppress terrorist activity and seize weapons. Scholars and human rights activists have condemned the indiscriminate use of this tactic against civilian populations in Afghanistan, Uganda, and Sri Lanka as contrary to the Geneva Conventions and as collective punishment, since it penalizes entire communities for the crimes of a few of its members.Drawing on some of the language and principles of international humanitarian and human rights law, this Article offers a new theoretical framework to address the harm caused by zero-tolerance policing on targeted communities. It highlights the collective nature of the sanctions imposed by the strategy and the resulting erosion of the core due process norm of individual culpability. The policing strategy at issue is not characterized by the sensational atrocities typically associated with collective punishment regimes but by a mass of seemingly small harms that have, over time, perpetuated racial and socioeconomic segregation of inner-city communities and deepened resentment towards law enforcement among significant numbers of law-abiding citizens.
Stars and Gas in the Galaxy Pair II Zw 70/71

II Zw 71 (UGC 9562) has been classified as a "probable" polar ring galaxy, based on its optical appearance. We present 21 cm and optical observations of this galaxy and its companion, the blue star-forming dwarf II Zw 70. Our 21 cm observations show that 5 × 108 solar masses of H I are present in a polar ring orbiting II Zw 71 and show a spatially and kinematically contiguous streamer with 2.5 × 108 solar masses of H I gas between the two galaxies. This gaseous bridge, plus our observations of Hα line emission in the polar ring and in II Zw 71, are strong evidence for an ongoing interaction between the two galaxies. However, the configuration of the streamer suggests that the polar ring itself may well have predated the current interaction, which then stimulated an outburst of star formation in the ring gas.
Representatives or experts? : civil society organizations in the EU´s external relations

It is often claimed that the participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can mitigate the democratic deficit of the European Union. This claim rests on the assumption that civil society organizations channel citizens' concerns to the European institutions, a view which is also shared by the European Commission. But whom do Brussels-based CSOs actually represent? Some have accused Brussels CSOs of being elitist and detached from their membership bases, but not much evidence has been provided by either these critics or by the CSO sympathizers. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap by exploring the geographical representativeness of EU CSOs and the extent to which they involve their members in organizational activities and decision-making. CSOs in European Trade Policy (ETP) and in European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) serve as case studies. It is assumed that the different political opportunity structures in these policy fields, namely the Commission's demand for geographical representativeness and member representation in ETP and the Council's interest in CSOs' knowledge and expertise in ESDP, are also reflected in the organizational structures of CSOs. The results confirm this hypothesis with regard to the geographical outreach of the organizations interviewed, but not with regard to the ways CSOs involve their members. CSOs in External Trade Policy have member organizations in a large number of European countries while many CSOs in ESDP lack a membership base. However, the member-based organizations of both policy fields involve their members in strategic decision-making and in diverse organizational activities and they communicate frequently with them. Evidence for a detachment of CSO secretariats in Brussels from their membership bases is scarce in the CSOs subject to this study.
Why the Current Account Matters in a Monetary Union: Lessons from the Financial Crisis in the Euro Area

The current account has always been a neglected variable in the management of the Euro area and in the assessment of its members' performance; so has, as a consequence, the savings-investment balance. This paper first reviews the arguments that explain this attitude and justify, under some conditions and in some cases, the persistence of current account deficits. It then examines some peculiar features of the growth experience under monetary union in four Euro area countries which do not conform to the conventional convergence pattern. Models establishing the optimality of a succession of current account deficits in a catching-up process implicitly assume that the intertemporal budget constraint is satisfied, so that the accumulation of foreign liabilities is matched by future surpluses. In section 3 we first introduce explicitly this constraint in a simple two-period, two-good model and show that its fulfilment requires that growth be driven by an adequate increase of the country's production capacity of traded goods and services. By examining the composition of output and demand we show that this has not been the case in the four countries considered and argue that monetary union has helped relax the necessary discipline. The common monetary policy moreover did nothing to prevent an extraordinary growth of credit that fed the imbalances in the four countries. The paper closes addressing some policy issues related to the future sustainability o the monetray union.
A Questionnaire Approach for User Trust Adoption in Palestinian E-Government Initiative

Problem statement: The present study attempts to identify the constru ct that impacts the user's trust in e-Government initiative and its adoption in Palestinian public sector organizations. Approach: It utilized a quantitative approach using survey b ased questionnaire as its primary research methodology. Results: The related constructs were: Information quality, system quality and service quality, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, security and privacy. All these constructs were modified to suit the context of the study. This study outlines the details of each construct and its relevance tow ard the research issue. Conclusion/Recommendations: The outcome of the study represents series of appr oaches applied in a PhD research study which focuses on Pa lestine as its case study.
Preliminary Study on Risk Management in E-Government Outsourcing Projects

Electronic Government (E-Government) in Malaysia is one of the seven flagships introduced to accelerate the objective of Vision 2020. It is the intention of E-Government to improve the internal government's operation and its delivery services to Malaysian. Most E-Government projects in Malaysia are outsourced to service providers. There are many ris ks involved with outsourcing and managing those ris ks should be seen as one of the critical success facto r in project success. Therefore, this paper discuss es the phase and the performance of risk management practices in IT outsourcing. A set of questionnaire was distributed to government agencies to assess their risk management practices. The result showed that o ut of 10 government agencies, only three practice risk ma nagement and subsequently succeeds in managing their IT outsourcing project. The findings showed that th e consequences of not practicing risk management will result in poor controlling and managing of IT outso urcing projects. Based on the findings, future empi rical and exploratory survey will be conducted to support the findings of the pilot study.
Macroprudential Policy and Central Bank Communication

In response to the financial crisis of 2007-2010, many central banks are getting involved in macroprudential supervision. Central bank communication will constitute a central policy tool for that purpose. The paper asks how such communication will affect financial markets, exploiting the fact that many central banks have had some financial stability role in the past, and have communicated extensively on this through the publication of Financial Stability Reports (FSRs) and financial stability-related statements. Building a unique dataset, it provides an empirical assessment of the financial market reactions to more than 1000 releases of FSRs and speeches in 36 countries over the past 14 years. The findings suggest that FSRs have a significant and potentially long-lasting effect on stock market returns, and also tend to reduce market volatility. Speeches and interviews, in contrast, have little effect on market returns and tend to increase volatility during tranquil times, but can have a substantially larger effect during periods of financial stress. Moreover, central bank communication can affect markets even when leaning against asset price booms. The findings underline the importance of differentiating between communication tools and content when designing a communication strategy on macroprudential issues.
E2F1 and E2F2 Determine Thresholds for Antigen-Induced T-Cell Proliferation and Suppress Tumorigenesis

ABSTRACT E2F activity is critical for the control of the G1 to S phase transition. We show that the combined loss of E2F1 and E2F2 results in profound effects on hematopoietic cell proliferation and differentiation, as well as increased tumorigenesis and decreased lymphocyte tolerance. The loss of E2F1 and E2F2 impedes B-cell differentiation, and hematopoietic progenitor cells in the bone marrow of mice lacking E2F1 and E2F2 exhibit increased cell cycling. Importantly, we show that E2F1 and E2F2 double-knockout T cells exhibit more rapid entry into S phase following antigenic stimulation. Furthermore, T cells lacking E2F1 and E2F2 proliferate much more extensively in response to subthreshold antigenic stimulation. Consistent with these observations, E2F1/E2F2 mutant mice are highly predisposed to the development of tumors, and some mice exhibit signs of autoimmunity.
The First FIRST Gravitationally Lensed Quasar: FBQ 0951+2635

The V = 16.9 quasar FBQ 0951+2635 at redshift z = 1.24 appears double on CCD exposures taken in subarcsecond seeing. The two objects are separated by 1. ″1 and differ in brightness by 0.9 mag. VLA observations show the radio source to be double with the same separation and position angle. Spectra taken with the Keck II Telescope show the two components to have nearly identical emission-line spectra, but with somewhat different absorption-line systems. Subtraction of two stellar point-spread functions from the pair of components consistently leaves a residual object. Depending upon whether this third object is extended or a point source, it may be as much as 1/10 or as little as 1/100 as bright as the brighter QSO component. The observations leave little doubt that the two brighter objects are gravitationally lensed images of the same quasar. The third object might be either the lensing galaxy or a third image of the quasar, but both interpretations have serious shortcomings.
Metformin Treatment in the Period After Stroke Prevents Nitrative Stress and Restores Angiogenic Signaling in the Brain in Diabetes

Diabetes impedes vascular repair and causes vasoregression in the brain after stroke, but mechanisms underlying this response are still unclear. We hypothesized that excess peroxynitrite formation in diabetic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury inactivates the p85 subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) by nitration and diverts the PI3K–Akt survival signal to the p38–mitogen-activated protein kinase apoptosis pathway. Nitrotyrosine (NY), Akt and p38 activity, p85 nitration, and caspase-3 cleavage were measured in brains from control, diabetic (GK), or metformin-treated GK rats subjected to sham or stroke surgery and in brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMVECs) from Wistar and GK rats subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation injury. GK rat brains showed increased NY, caspase-3 cleavage, and p38 activation and decreased Akt activation. Metformin attenuated stroke-induced nitrative signaling in GK rats. GK rat BMVECs showed increased basal nitrative stress compared with controls. A second hit by hypoxia/reoxygenation injury dramatically increased the nitration of p85 and activation of p38 but decreased Akt. These effects were associated with impairment of angiogenic response and were restored by treatment with the peroxynitrite scavenger 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrinato iron III chloride or the nitration inhibitor epicatechin. Our results provide evidence that I/R-induced peroxynitrite inhibits survival, induces apoptosis, and promotes peroxynitrite as a novel therapeutic target for the improvement of reparative angiogenesis after stroke in diabetes.
Extracting Phenotypic Information from the Literature via Natural Language Processing

In recent years, the amount of biomedical knowledge has been increasing exponentially. Several Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems have been developed to help researchers extract, encode and organize new information automatically from textual literature or narrative reports. Some of these systems focus on extracting biological entities or molecular interactions while others retrieve and encode clinical information. To exploit gene functions in the post-genome era, it is necessary to extract phenotypic information automatically from the literature as well. However, few NLP projects have focused on this. We present the development of a system called BioMedLEE that extracts a broad variety of phenotypic information from the biomedical literature. The system was developed by adapting MedLEE, an existing clinical information extraction NLP engine. A feasibility evaluation study of BioMedLEE was performed using 300 randomly chosen journal titles. Results showed that experts achieved an average precision rate of 65.4%, (95%CI: [58.0%, 72.8%]) and a recall rate of 73.0%, (95%CI: [66.2%, 80.0%]). BioMedLEE had 64.0% precision and 77.1% recall respectively, according to expert agreements.
An Economic Evaluation of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001

[© Brookings Institution] This paper summarizes and evaluates the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. Enacted in 2001, EGTRRA is the biggest tax cut in 20 years, and features income tax rate cuts, new targeted incentives and estate tax repeal. Our central conclusions are that EGTRRA will reduce the size of the future economy, raise interest rates, make taxes more regressive, increase tax complexity, and prove fiscally unsustainable.