Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NGC 4569: Recent evidence for a past ram pressure stripping event

Deep 21-cm H i line observations of the Virgo cluster spiral galaxy NGC 4569 have been obtained with the VLA in its D configuration and with the Effelsberg 100-m telescope. A low surface density arm was discovered in the west of the galaxy, whose velocity field is distinct from that of the overall disk rotation. The observed gas distribution, velocity field and velocity dispersion are compared to snapshots of dynamical simulations that include the effects of ram pressure. Two different scenarios were explored: (i) ongoing stripping and (ii) a major stripping event that took place about 300 Myr ago. It is concluded that only the post–stripping scenario can reproduce the main observed characteristics of NGC 4569. It is not possible to determine if the gas disk of NGC 4569 had already been truncated before it underwent the ram pressure event that lead to its observed H i deficiency.
On the Stoney Formula for a Thin Film/Substrate System With Nonuniform Substrate Thickness

Current methodologies used for the inference of thin film stress through system curvature measurements are strictly restricted to stress and curvature states which are assumed to remain uniform over the entire film/substrate system. Recently Huang, Rosakis, and co-workers [Acta Mech. Sinica, 21, pp. 362–370 (2005); J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 53, 2483–2500 (2005); Thin Solid Films, 515, pp. 2220–2229 (2006); J. Appl. Mech. , in press; J. Mech. Mater. Struct. , in press] established methods for the film/substrate system subject to nonuniform misfit strain and temperature changes. The film stresses were found to depend nonlocally on system curvatures (i.e., depend on the full-field curvatures). These methods, however, all assume uniform substrate thickness, which is sometimes violated in the thin film/substrate system. Using the perturbation analysis, we extend the methods to nonuniform substrate thickness for the thin film/substrate system subject to nonuniform misfit strain.
Cytotoxicity of Paclitaxel in Breast Cancer Is due to Chromosome Missegregation on Multipolar Spindles

The chemotherapy drug paclitaxel causes tumor regression and cell death by inducing high rates of chromosome missegregation on multipolar spindles. The Secret Life of Paclitaxel The classic chemotherapy drug paclitaxel is a standard part of treatment for breast cancer and other malignancies. Although it is commonly understood to act as a microtubule poison and lead to mitotic arrest, this knowledge is largely based on studies of cells in culture, with drug concentrations that may not be realistic. Now, Zasadil and coauthors measured the concentration of paclitaxel in real patients undergoing treatment with the drug, and then investigated the response of cancer cells to paclitaxel at these lower and more realistic concentrations. Unexpectedly, the cells treated under these conditions did not undergo mitotic arrest, but instead proceeded through mitosis with abnormal spindles, resulting in chromosome missegregation, which leads to tumor cell death. This intriguing discovery demonstrates that we may not know as much as we thought about the effects of one of our most common chemotherapy drugs. In addition, the findings from this study may lead to clinical applications both in optimizing the selection of chemotherapy drug combinations and in determining which patients are likely to respond to paclitaxel treatment. The blockbuster chemotherapy drug paclitaxel is widely presumed to cause cell death in tumors as a consequence of mitotic arrest, as it does at concentrations routinely used in cell culture. However, we determine here that paclitaxel levels in primary breast tumors are well below those required to elicit sustained mitotic arrest. Instead, cells in these lower concentrations of drug proceed through mitosis without substantial delay and divide their chromosomes on multipolar spindles, resulting in chromosome missegregation and cell death. Consistent with these cell culture data, most mitotic cells in primary human breast cancers contain multipolar spindles after paclitaxel treatment. Contrary to the previous hypothesis, we find that mitotic arrest is dispensable for tumor regression in patients. These results demonstrate that mitotic arrest is not responsible for the efficacy of paclitaxel, which occurs because of chromosome missegregation on highly abnormal, multipolar spindles. This mechanistic insight may be used to improve selection of future antimitotic drugs and to identify a biomarker with which to select patients likely to benefit from paclitaxel.
Quenching of flames by fluid advection

We consider a simple scalar reaction‐advection‐diffusion equation with ignition‐type nonlinearity and discuss the following question: What kinds of velocity profiles are capable of quenching any given flame, provided the velocity's amplitude is adequately large? Even for shear flows, the answer turns out to be surprisingly subtle.
The Predictability of House Prices

The level and direction of autocorrelation in house price movements differ across areas and change over time. This finding reconciles the conflicting reports in the literature. When quarterly house price indices exhibit negative autocorrelation, autocorrelation shows a positive connection to volatility and a negative connection to rate of return. Autocorrelation between longer time periods is mainly positive; it exhibits a negative relationship with volatility and a positive relationship with rate of return. Volatile house price indices tend to have lower rates of return. It would be possible to obtain excess returns by following a trading strategy based on the estimated autocorrelation.
Gestation and Parental Rights: Why is Good Enough Good Enough?

In this paper I explore the question of whether gestation can ground parental rights. I consider Anca Gheaus’s (2012) claim that the labour and bonding of gestation give one the right to parent one’s biological child. I argue that, while Gheaus’s gestational account of parental rights is the most successful of such accounts in the literature, it is ultimately unsuccessful, because the concept ‘maternal-fetal bonding’ does not stand up to scrutiny. Gheaus argues that the labour expended in gestation generates parental rights. This is a standard, Lockean sort of a move in parental ethics—it usually relies on the claim that I have proprietary rights over the products of my labour. However, Gheaus argues that a standard labour account of parental rights could not generate parental rights over one’s own birth child via gestation without ownership, since the labour would merely afford one a right to enjoy the goods of parenthood. At best, then, labour alone would generate a right to a child. But, Gheaus argues, not only do gestational mothers expend labour in the course of the pregnancy; they also develop emotional ties to the fetus. They ‘bond’ with it. This, Gheaus argues, coupled with labour, gives the birth mother parental rights over her birth child. Fathers, on her account, acquire rights over their birth child by contributing labour—in the form of antenatal support—during the course of the pregnancy. I argue that because ‘bonding’ is not an appropriately morally salient phenomenon, Gheaus’s account does not work unless it relies on a proprietary claim, and this is prima facie reason to reject the account. Further, the fact that it only confers parental rights on fathers by proxy also gives us reason to reject the account. I then offer a brief sketch of a more promising, positive account of parental rights.
Economic management in organic agriculture.

Introduction The old question, ‘But is it profitable to farm organically? ’ will always be with us, at least for those who have not followed organic agriculture closely. The answer to this question is that ‘it depends’. Whether land under organic management can be as productive as conventional farming depends on, among other factors, what is included in the comparison. How long is the time frame under consideration? Looking at any time within the first period of one rotation is not likely to show organic agriculture in a positive light. Similarly, if only the private (on-farm) costs are considered while neglecting the public (off-farm) costs or externalities, such as consumer and environmental health, the organic system may not always compare well. The willingness of some consumers to pay extra for organic produce, or of some governments to support organic agriculture, reflects the thought that these externalities should be counted. The taxing of certain agricultural inputs such as pesticides, as some Scandinavian countries do (Schou and Streibig 1999, Jesper Schou, pers. comm. 2005) is another way in which to acknowledge and force producers to internalise externalities of agricultural activities. It aids in redressing the difference in agricultural production costs between the two systems, thus influencing the answer to the profitability question. But, one may say, even if farmers can make a living when receiving premiums and subsidies, what are the chances that organic farming can feed the world without destroying it – as some would like us to believe that that is what would happen with increasing conversion to organic management (Avery 1995).
Prudent walks and polygons

We have produced extended series for two-dimensional prudent polygons, based on a transfer matrix algorithm of complexity O(n5), for a series of n-step polygons. For prudent polygons in two dimensions we find the growth constant to be smaller than that for the corresponding walks, and by considering three distinct subclasses of prudent walks and polygons, we find that the growth constant for polygons varies with class, while for walks it does not. We give exact values for the critical exponents γ and α for walks and polygons, respectively. We have extended the definition of prudent walks to three dimensions and produced series expansions, using a back-tracking algorithm, for both walks and polygons. In the three-dimensional case we estimate the growth constant for both walks and polygons and also estimate the usual critical exponents γ, ν and α.
Design challenges facing clinical trials of the effectiveness of new HIV-prevention technologies

Recent successes of antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in preventing HIV infection have raised questions whether further placebo controlled trials of new HIVprevention technologies are ethically justifiable. A trial with active agent(s) in the comparator group can be designed either as a superiority or non-inferiority trial. In a non-inferiority trial the hypothesis tested is that the intervention is not inferior to, by a predefined clinically relevant amount, or at least as effective as, the comparator. Noninferiority trials pose challenges in data interpretation. Firstly it is possible to show equivalence of two non-effective interventions. If the active comparator intervention is ineffective, the new intervention would be shown to be noninferior to this inactive intervention, while neither intervention is superior to placebo or no intervention. The second challenge is that any effect that dilutes the true efficacy of an intervention in a trial, such as non-adherence, loss to follow-up or protocol violations, makes it easier for the two interventions to be declared equivalent. Nondifferential low adherence is unlikely to lead to the conclusion that an inferior intervention is non-inferior. However, differential adherence between study arms, which is more likely in non-blinded trials, is likely to bias the results and lead to incorrect conclusions. Investigators conducting non-inferiority trials will have to pay special attention to supporting, measuring and maintaining high adherence. The goal in future noninferiority trials should be to maintain similar levels of high adherence in all study arms, but at a minimum to reduce the likelihood of differential adherence across study arms. 2012 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins AIDS 2012, 26:000‐000
CENTER FOR ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

This paper extends the analysis of aggregate factor supply to a model which accounts simultaneously for the consumption/saving and labor/leisure choices. A translog utility maximization model is used to derive the set of consumption and leisure demand equations; these n turn are estimated on U.S. aggregate time series data. The empirical results are striking: we estimate (quite precisely) substantial own and cross price elasticities for current and future consumption and labor supply. The implied interest elasticity of saving is approximately 0.4. The results suggest that previous studies of labor supply and/or consuinp— tion which have ignored cross—price effects are misspecified. We also strongly reject the hypothesis that implicit social security had no effect on factor supply. Taxation and Aggregate Factor Supply: Preliminary Estimates* M.J. Boskin** and L.J. Lau**
Successful principal leadership in times of change : an international perspective

1. Starting With What We Know: K. Leithwood and C. Day. 2. Successful School Principalship in Tasmania: B. Mulford. 3. Models of Successful Principal Leadership: Victorian Case Studies: D. Gurr and L. Drysdale. 4. Sustaining Success in Challenging Contexts: Leadership in English Schools: C. Day. 5. Successful Leadership Based on Democratic Values: J. Moller et al. 6. Successful Principalship - The Swedish Case: J. Hoog, O. Johansson and A. Olofsson. 7. Communicative Strategies among Successful Danish School Principals: L. Moos et al. 8. Successful Leadership: Does Context Matter and If so, How? : D. Belchetz and K. Leithwood. 9. Successful Principalship in Shanghai: A Case Study: K. Wong. 10. Against the Odds: Successful Principals in Challenging U.S. Schools: C. Giles et al. 11. Building and Sustaining Successful Principalship: Key Themes: C. Day and K. Leithwood. 12. What We Learned: A Broad View: K. Leithwood and C. Day.
Globalization and its impact on national spaces of competition

The political consequences of globalization are manifold. On the one hand, the processes covered by this term lead to the establishment of new forms of political authority and of new channels of political representation at the supranational level and open up new opportunities for transnational, international and supranational mobilization (Della Porta et al . 1999). On the other hand, the same processes have profound political implications at the national level. National politics are challenged both ‘from above’ – through new forms of international cooperation and a process of supranational integration – and ‘from below’, at the regional and local level. While the political consequences of globalization have most often been studied at the supra- or transnational level (Zurn 1998; Held et al . 1999; Greven and Pauly 2000; Hall and Biersteker 2002; Grande and Pauly 2005), we shall focus on the effects of globalization on national politics. We assume that, paradoxically, the political reactions to economic and cultural globalization are bound to manifest themselves above all at the national level: given that the democratic political inclusion of citizens is still mainly a national affair, nation-states still constitute the major arenas for political mobilization (Zurn et al . 2000). Our study focuses on Western European countries, where globalization means, first of all, European integration. For the present argument, however, this aspect of the European context is not essential. Europeanization and European integration can also be seen as special cases of the more general phenomenon of globalization (Schmidt 2003).
Measuring Welfare Effects in Models with Random Coefficients

In economic research, it is often important to express the marginal value of a variable in monetary terms. In random coefficient models, this marginal monetary value is the ratio of two random coefficients and is thus random itself. In this paper, we study the distribution of this ratio and particularly the consequences of different distributional assumptions about the coefficients. It is shown that important characteristics of the distribution of the marginal monetary value may be sensitive to the distributional assumptions about the random coefficients. The median, however, is much less sensitive than the mean. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Online and Offline Domain Adaptation for Reducing BCI Calibration Effort

Many real-world brain–computer interface (BCI) applications rely on single-trial classification of event-related potentials (ERPs) in EEG signals. However, because different subjects have different neural responses to even the same stimulus, it is very difficult to build a generic ERP classifier whose parameters fit all subjects. The classifier needs to be calibrated for each individual subject, using some labeled subject-specific data. This paper proposes both online and offline weighted adaptation regularization (wAR) algorithms to reduce this calibration effort, i.e., to minimize the amount of labeled subject-specific EEG data required in BCI calibration, and hence to increase the utility of the BCI system. We demonstrate using a visually evoked potential oddball task and three different EEG headsets that both online and offline wAR algorithms significantly outperform several other algorithms. Moreover, through source domain selection, we can reduce their computational cost by about $\text{50}\%$, making them more suitable for real-time applications.
Galaxy Rotation Curves without Nonbaryonic Dark Matter

We apply the modified acceleration law obtained from Einstein gravity coupled to a massive skew-symmetric field Fμνλ to the problem of explaining galaxy rotation curves without exotic dark matter. Our sample of galaxies includes low surface brightness (LSB) and high surface brightness (HSB) galaxies and an elliptical galaxy. In those cases for which photometric data are available, a best fit via the single parameter (M/L)stars to the luminosity of the gaseous (H I plus He) and luminous stellar disks is obtained. In addition, a best fit to the rotation curves of galaxies is obtained in terms of a parametric mass distribution (independent of luminosity observations)—a two-parameter fit to the total galactic mass (or mass-to-light ratio M/L) and a core radius associated with a model of the galaxy cores—using a nonlinear least-squares fitting routine including estimated errors. The fits are compared to those obtained using Milgrom's phenomenological MOND model and to the predictions of the Newtonian/Kepler acceleration law.
IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN PENSION-FUND ASSETS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH? - A CROSS-COUNTRY STUDY

Pension fund assets have increased markedly during recent decades, and there are signs that this trend will continue, particularly given demographic changes and the current pattern of pension reform towards funded systems. However, research on the extent to which growth in pension assets contributes directly to economic growth is quite scarce. This is surprising since superiority of funding to pay-as-you-go links notably to the question whether funding improves economic performance sufficiently to generate the resources required to meet the needs of an ageing population. In this paper, we design a modified Cobb-Douglas production function with pension assets as a shift factor. We then employ a dataset covering 38 countries to investigate the direct link between pension assets and economic growth, using a variety of appropriate econometric methods. We find positive results for both OECD countries and Emerging Market Economies (EMEs), with some evidence for a larger effect for EMEs than OECD countries.
Livelihood Diversification Strategies in the Himalayas

This article examines livelihood diversification strategies of rural households using survey data from the Himalayas. We present and explore an analytical framework that yields different activity choices as optimal solutions to a simple utility maximization problem. By classifying the range of activities of rural households into a few distinct categories based on their profitability and by considering portfolios of farm and nonfarm activities, we provide novel insights into diversification behaviour of rural households. The evidence shows that while the poor are mainly agricultural labourers and work in the low-return non-farm sector, the better-off diversify in high-return nonfarm activities. As expected, we find strong evidence that education plays a major role in accessing more remunerative non-farm employment. A somewhat less intuitive finding is that larger household size is associated with higher probability of diversification into the high-return non-farm sector. The finding that the farm size is not a constraint to diversification in lucrative non-farm employment is also surprising. Geographical location plays a role in diversification behaviour of rural households indicating the importance of local context.
M ay 1 99 9 Disks , Extrasolar Planets and Migration

We review results about protoplanetary disk models, protoplanet migration and formation of giant planets with migrating cores. We first model the protoplanetary nebula as an α–accretion disk and present steady state calculations for different values of α and gas accretion rate through the disk. We then review the current theories of protoplanet migration in the context of these models, focusing on the gaseous disk–protoplanet tidal interaction. According to these theories, the migration timescale may be shorter than the planetary formation timescale. Therefore we investigate planet formation in the context of a migrating core, considering both the growth of the core and the build–up of the envelope in the course of the migration.
Institutional changes and breakpoints in Israeli trade

This paper examines the structural changes in Israeli trade trends since the 1970s. Structural change tests do not reject the null of no breaks in Israeli trade trends after Israel signed FTA agreements with the EEC and the USA, or after Israel's 1991 new trade policy. The tests, however, show significant evidence for breakpoints in 1993 in Israel's trade shares with three countries who had adhered strongly to the Arab boycott. This result suggests that the Middle East peace process, which began in 1991, considerably weakened the boycott and brought about positive changes in Israeli long-term trade patterns.
The Study of Chinese Tourists' Motivations to Canada

China has emerged as an important inbound tourist market for Canada, especially after the United States implemented new border crossing regulations between Canada and the United States. Though Canada was granted approved destination status (ADS) just recently by the Chinese government, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Canada has increased significantly in recent years. To better understand why Chinese tourists choose Canada as a tourist destination, the study focused on the motivations of Chinese tourists who visit Canada by applying the concept model of push and pull factors. The results show that Chinese tourists are attracted by the unique attractions, high quality of Canadian life, appealing travel ads, shopping opportunities, and Canadian cosmopolitan city life. The reasons for visiting Canada include prestige, family ties, exploration, and escape/leisure.