Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade, Human Capital, and Technology Spillovers: An Industry-Level Analysis

This paper studies whether trade promotes North-South and South-South technology spillovers at the industry level, and how the absorptive capacity of the South affects the impact of the technology spillovers. Using data from 16 manufacturing industries in 25 developing countries from 1976 to 1998, the paper shows: (i) North-South trade-related RD (ii) South-South trade-related RD and (iii) human capital is very important in facilitating North-South and South-South technology spillovers: an increase in human capital could lead to over three times the size of technology spillovers from an increase in trade-related foreign RD Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
A Reinterpretation of Chapter 17 of Keynes's general Theory: Effective Demand Shortage Under Dynamic Optimization

This article is an attempt to formalize Chapter 17 of Keynes's General Theory using a continuous dynamic optimization model with perfect foresight. I present two subjective interest rates: the time preference rate and the liquidity premium that, respectively, govern the consumption-saving and portfolio decisions. Under optimal household behavior, they are equalized to the market rate of interest. In the monetary economy described by Keynes, however, the equality can be inconsistent with the condition of market equilibrium, in which case persistent stagnation occurs. A new analytic method based on dynamic optimization is proposed as an alternative to IS-LM analysis. Copyright 2001 by American Economic Association.
Dynamic Procedures and Incentives in Public Good Economies

This paper considers economies involving one public good, one private good, and convex technology and proposes an informationally decentralized dynamic nontatonnement procedure that converges in general from the initial endowments to an allocation in the core. The procedure may be seen as enunciating a plausible method of cooperation among the agents for achieving an optimal provision of a public good and an equitable sharing of its cost. The viewpoint of noncooperative game theory is also considered and it is shown that there exists a trade-off between the requirements of local incentive compatibility and equitable cost sharing. Copyright 1993 by The Econometric Society.
A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing's Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage

Marketing needs a new mindset to fulfill its proper role in creating and sustaining strategic advantage. To extend its influence beyond the boundaries of current offerings, the firm, and conventional practice, marketing and markets must be viewed through a service lens. This lens allows marketing to take a lead role in assisting the enterprise to enable value co-creation by customers who have jobs to be done. This article offers four new premises to guide marketing thought and practice for achieving and sustaining strategic advantage.
The numerical greatest common divisor of univariate polynomials

This paper presents a regularization theory for numerical computation of polynomial greatest common divisors and a convergence analysis, along with a detailed description of a blackbox-type algorithm. The root of the ill-posedness in conventional GCD computation is identified by its geometry where polynomials form differentiable manifolds entangled in a stratification structure. With a proper regularization, the numerical GCD is proved to be strongly well-posed. Most importantly, the numerical GCD solves the problem of finding the GCD accurately using floating point arithmetic even if the data are perturbed. A sensitivity measurement, error bounds at each computing stage, and the overall convergence are established rigorously. The computing results of selected test examples show that the algorithm and software appear to be robust and accurate.
Fibre tracks: explaining investment in fibre optic backbones

This paper examines the US portion of the global communications network known as the Internet. The stages in the Internet's evolution, telecommunications deregulation, and a rush by new competitors to new market opportunities associated with the Internet combined to prompt a flurry of investment in new fibre-optic networks. Frameworks to explain new networks built upon, and added to, existing telecommunications networks include network economies and the opportunity-rich paths located between the large markets on the east and west coasts of the country and a capital-driven set of new and old network suppliers. The paper then reviews the small but growing body of research on the geographic structure of the Internet. The empirical section of the paper focuses on analyses of the variation among urban areas both in bandwidth on interurban Internet backbone networks and in the number of web design firms in the USA. Bandwidth investment was attracted not only to cities with larger populations but also to cities with ‘knowledge economies’, indicated by doctoral degree-granting institutions and economic dynamism. The paper concludes with remarks about future research priorities.
Optimal Bail Out Policy, Conditionality and Constructive Ambiguity

This paper addresses the issue of the optimal behaviour of the Lender of Last Resort (LOLR) in its microeconomic role regarding individual financial institutions in distress. It has been argued that the LOLR should not intervene at the microeconomic level and let any defaulting institution face the market discipline, as it will be confronted with the consequences of the risks it has taken. By considering a simple cost benefit analysis we show that this position may lack a sufficient foundation. We establish that, instead, uder reasonable assumptions, the optimal policy has to be conditional on the amount of uninsured debt issued by the defaulting bank. Yet in equilibrium, because the rescue policy is costly, the LOLR will not rescue all the banks that fulfill the uninsured debt requirement condition, but will follow a mixed strategy. This we interpret as the confirmation of the "creative ambiguity" principle, perfectly in line with the central bankers claim that it is efficient for them to have discretion in lending to individual institutions. Alternatively, in other cases, when the social cost of a bank's bankruptcy is too high, it is optimal for the LOLR to bail out the insititution, and this gives support to the "too big to fail" policy.
Assessment of intramolecular contact predictions for CASP7

Predictions of intramolecular residue–residue contacts were assessed as part of the seventh community‐wide Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction experiment (CASP7). As in past assessments, we focused on contacts that lie far apart in sequence as these are likely to be more informative in predicting protein structure. One lab did somewhat better than others according to our assessment, and there is some reason to think that this lab's results represent progress over CASP6. In general, contacts inferred from 3D structural predictions are similar in accuracy to those predicted by contact prediction methods. However, contact prediction methods were more accurate for some targets. Proteins 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Copolymer 1 reduces relapse rate and improves disability in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: results of a phase III multicenter, double-blind placebo-controlled trial. The Copolymer 1 Multiple Sclerosis Study Group.

We studied copolymer 1 (Copaxone) in a multicenter (11-university) phase III trial of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). Two hundred fifty-one patients were randomized to receive copolymer 1 (n = 125) or placebo (n = 126) at a dosage of 20 mg by daily subcutaneous injection for 2 years. The primary end point was a difference in the MS relapse rate. The final 2-year relapse rate was 1.19 +/- 0.13 for patients receiving copolymer 1 and 1.68 +/- 0.13 for those receiving placebo, a 29% reduction in favor of copolymer 1 (p = 0.007) (annualized rates = 0.59 for copolymer 1 and 0.84 for placebo). Trends in the proportion of relapse-free patients and median time to first relapse favored copolymer 1. Disability was measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), using a two-neurologist (examining and treating) protocol. When the proportion of patients who improved, were unchanged, or worsened by > or = 1 EDSS step from baseline to conclusion (2 years) was evaluated, significantly more patients receiving copolymer 1 were found to have improved and more receiving placebo worsened (p = 0.037). Patient withdrawals were 19 (15.2%) from the copolymer 1 group and 17 (13.5%) from the placebo group at approximately the same intervals. The treatment was well tolerated. The most common adverse experience was an injection-site reaction. Rarely, a transient self-limited systemic reaction followed the injection in 15.2% of those receiving copolymer 1 and 3.2% of those receiving placebo. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Policy transfer via modularity

Non-prehensile manipulation, such as pushing, is an important function for robots to move objects and is sometimes preferred as an alternative to grasping. However, due to unknown frictional forces, pushing has been proven a difficult task for robots. We explore the use of reinforcement learning to train a robot to robustly push an object. In order to deal with the sample complexity of training such a method, we train the pushing policy in simulation and then transfer this policy to the real world. In order to ease the transfer from simulation, we propose to use modularity to separate the learned policy from the raw inputs and outputs; rather than training ``end-to-end," we decompose our system into modules and train only a subset of these modules in simulation. We further demonstrate that we can incorporate prior knowledge about the task into the state space and the reward function to speed up convergence. Finally, we introduce "reward guiding" to modify the reward function and further reduce the training time. We demonstrate, in both simulation and real-world experiments, that such an approach can be used to reliably push an object from many initial positions and orientations.
Cognitive Intervention for Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Needs Analysis

Background: Evidence suggests women with breast cancer who had received chemotherapy experienced cognitive problems. Although these are largely subtle deficits, they can negatively impact a patient's quality of life, ability to work, and subsequent employment decisions. Objective: The present study explored what healthcare information and support are available to help women understand the effects of chemotherapy on daily functioning at home and at work. It also explored what information and support they would find useful as interventions. Methods: Qualitative interviews were carried out with 31 patients attending a breast cancer clinic 4 months after treatment completion (phase 1) and with 5 oncology health professionals (phase 2). Fifteen women who took part in the interviews completed a short questionnaire on suitable interventions (phase 3). Results: Participants reported problems with fatigue, low mood, memory, and attention. Problems with remembering tasks at work were most common. Participants requested more information and support on cognitive difficulties. Oncology health professionals discussed the need for information and support for patients on managing cognitive problems. From the findings, 4 interventions and delivery modes were identified and validated. These were information and activites on cognitive strategies, help with emotional distress associated with cognitive difficulties, and advice for families and employers. Conclusion: Despite mixed evidence for cognitive problems associated with chemotherapy, there is a need for an intervention, and this may be related to managing emotional distress associated with perceived cognitive problems. Implications for Practice: Nurses should include potential cognitive problems when providing information to patients.
Associations Between Breastfeeding Practices and Young Children's Language and Motor Skill Development

OBJECTIVES. We examined the associations of breastfeeding initiation and duration with language and motor skill development in a nationally representative sample of US children aged 10 to 71 months. METHODS. Using cross-sectional data on 22399 children from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health, we examined relationships between breastfeeding practices and children's language and motor skills development. Outcomes were based on each mother's response to questions regarding her level of concern (a lot, a little, not at all) about her child's development of expressive language, receptive language, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills. Breastfeeding data were based on mothers' recall. Methods of variance estimation were applied and multivariate polynomial regression modeling was done to estimate the effects of breastfeeding initiation and duration on children's development after adjustment for confounders. RESULTS. Mean age of the sample was 2.79 years; 67% were non-Hispanic white, 16% were Hispanic, and 9% were non-Hispanic black. Approximately 17% of mothers reported concerns about their child's expressive language development; ∼10% had receptive language concerns; ∼6% had concerns about fine motor skills; and 5% reported general motor skills concerns. Multivariate analysis revealed that mothers who initiated breastfeeding were less likely than mothers of never-breastfed children to be concerned a lot about their child's expressive and receptive language development and fine and general motor skills. Mothers of children breastfed 3 to 5.9 months were less likely than mothers of never-breastfed children to be concerned a lot about their child's expressive and receptive language and fine and general motor skills. CONCLUSIONS. As with all cross-sectional data, results should be interpreted with caution. Our findings suggest breastfeeding may protect against delays in young children's language and motor skill development. Fewer concerns about language and motor skill development were evident for children breastfed ≥3 months, and concerns generally decreased as breastfeeding continued ≥9 months.
Review: Effective Implementation of the New ESC Guidelines for the Management of Chronic Heart Failure in Routine Clinical Practice

European guidelines for the management of chronic heart failure (CHF) have been recently updated. Key changes include emphasis on CHF with preserved ejection fraction, and recognition of the role of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) in the management of CHF patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction who remain symptomatic despite optimal therapy, or who are intolerant to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Recent trials that clearly demonstrated significant mortality and morbidity benefits were integral to these new recommendations. Additionally, a high dose of an ARB, as demonstrated in the Candesartan in Heart Failure Assessment of Reduction in Mortality and morbidity (CHARM) programme, can significantly reduce hospitalisation for heart failure in these settings. The guidelines recommend that only those ARBs and doses used in clinical trials should be considered, taking into account current licensed indications. Clinicians who are directly involved in the management of CHF must play a key role in the dissemination of these guidelines to colleagues to ensure that optimal CHF management is integrated into standard practice.
How emotional intelligence and organizational culture contribute to shaping learning organization in public service organizations

Learning organization embraces the organization like its body and increases its current abilities and capabilities to encounter future events. Here, the process of learning expands throughout the organization and through it all personnel can acquire necessary knowledge and experience, perform their working duties in the best possible way and the organization can meet its predetermined objectives. This research studies the relation between emotional intelligence and organizational learning, while organizational culture adjusts such a relation. For this purpose, in addition to a review of the theoretical framework of the research and design of the conceptual model, the components of the research were determined though survey method and tested using the managers, deputy managers and experts working in service providing organizations of Kermanshah. Key words: Learning organization, organizational learning, emotional intelligence, organizational culture.
Inflation and Asset Life: The Darby versus the Fisher Effect

Abstract Our paper extends prior work on abandonment and replacement policies by analyzing the effects of both the Darby and the Fisher interest rate hypotheses. In most of the new cases developed, the effect of increased inflation on economic life is ambiguous. In the abandonment problem, we find a greater tendency under the Fisher hypothesis than under the Darby hypothesis for increased inflation to result in an extension of economic life. In contrast, for the replacement problem, there is a greater tendency under the Fisher hypothesis (than under Darby) for inflation to shorten the asset holding period.
Glomerulonephropathies in Plasmodium inui-infected rhesus monkey: a primate model and possible applications for human quartan malaria

SUMMARY None of the few animal models proposed for the study of human quartan malaria nephritic syndrome have shown complete pathological findings that are similar to those seen in humans. This study investigated the histopathological changes in kidneys in 10 Plasmodium inui infected Macaca mulatta monkeys by light and electron microscopy in order to develop a suitable animal model for human quartan malaria. Ten healthy adult rhesus monkeys were infected with P. inui and clinical chemistry and haematologic tests were done before and after infection. A renal biopsy sample was collected before infection as a baseline control and another biopsy was collected after infection. Histopathological changes examined by light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed abnormalities in all infected monkeys to variable degrees. Several electron-dense discrete or diffused mesangial deposits, and increase in mesangial cells and matrix were associated with the morphological changes observed by light microscope. This pattern is consistent with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type reported in humans infected with Plasmodium malariae. Results strongly support that the P. inui-infected rhesus monkey develop an immune-complex-mediated glomerulonephritis in the course of the infection. Therefore, this experimental model represents a useful tool to better understand the different parameters and the consequences of quartan malaria infections comparable to situations in humans.
Unemployment insurance reform – 1991–2006 : a new balance between rights and obligations in France, Germany, Portugal and Spain

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, focusing on unemployment insurance schemes, the article seeks to identify the development of social rights and obligations in four countries (France, Germany, Portugal and Spain), representative of the conservative regime, over the period 1991–2006. Second, the article aims to verify whether or not there was a common reform trajectory in time as well as in space, given the already known divergence over the appropriateness of classifying Mediterranean countries within the framework of a specific regime. Based on analysis of 25 legislative changes concerning entitlement and eligibility criteria, the study presents three major findings. First, the four insurance schemes reveal a new balance between (weaker) social rights and (stronger) obligations, which may indicate a trend toward a re-commodification of work. Second, Portugal adopted a specific trajectory while the Spanish reform process more closely resembled that carried out by France and Germany. Finally, two waves of reform may be identified: first, between 1991 and 1997 and justified by cost-containment concerns and, subsequently, from 2001 onwards, associated with a stronger recalibration of benefit rights.
Privatization and Competition in the Delivery of Local Services: An Empirical Examination of the Dual Market Hypothesis

This paper empirically analyses the hypothesis of the existence of a dual market for contracts in local services. Large firms that operate on a national basis control the contracts for delivery in the most populated and/or urban municipalities, whereas small firms that operate at a local level have the contracts in the least populated and/or rural municipalities. The dual market implies the high concentration and dominance of major firms in large municipalities, and local monopolies in the smaller ones. This market structure is harmful to competition for the market as the effective number of competitors is low across all municipalities. Thus, it damages the likelihood of obtaining cost savings from privatization.
Differential substrate recognition by isozymes of plant protein-only Ribonuclease P

Ribonuclease P (RNase P) catalyzes the cleavage of leader sequences from precursor tRNA (pre-tRNA). Typically, these enzymes are ribonucleic protein complexes that are found in all domains of life. However, a new class of RNase P has been discovered that is composed entirely of protein, termed protein-only RNase P (PRORP). To investigate the molecular determinants of PRORP substrate recognition, we measured the binding affinities and cleavage kinetics of Arabidopsis PRORP1 for varied pre-tRNA substrates. This analysis revealed that PRORP1 does not make significant contacts within the trailer or beyond N−1 of the leader, indicating that this enzyme recognizes primarily the tRNA body. To determine the extent to which sequence variation within the tRNA body modulates substrate selectivity and to provide insight into the evolution and function of PRORP enzymes, we measured the reactivity of the three Arabidopsis PRORP isozymes (PRORP1–3) with four pre-tRNA substrates. A 13-fold range in catalytic efficiencies (104–105 M−1 s−1) was observed, demonstrating moderate selectivity for pre-tRNA substrates. Although PRORPs bind the different pre-tRNA species with affinities varying by as much as 100-fold, the three isozymes have similar affinities for a given pre-tRNA, suggesting similar binding modes. However, PRORP isozymes have varying degrees of cleavage fidelity, which is dependent on the pre-tRNA species and the presence of a 3′-discriminator base. This work defines molecular determinants of PRORP substrate recognition that provides insight into this new class of RNA processing enzymes.
Windfall of Low Interest Payments and Fiscal Sustainability in the Euro Area: Analysis Through Panel Fiscal Reaction Functions

type="main"> We estimate various panel fiscal reaction functions, including those of the main categories of general government revenue and expenditure for 12 Euro area member states over the 1970-2013 period. We find that in the peripheral countries where sovereign bond yields decreased sharply in the years 1996-2007, fiscal stance ceased to respond to sovereign debt accumulation. This was due to lack of sufficient adjustment in government current expenditure and direct taxes. In contrast, in the core member states, which did not benefit from yields’ convergence related to the Euro area establishment, responsiveness of fiscal stance to inherited sovereign debt increased during 1996-2007. This was achieved mainly through pronounced adjustments in government current expenditure. The findings are robust to various changes in modelling approach.