Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonality and the Effect of Advertising on Price

This paper lays out an econometric strategy for estimating the effect of advertising on prices, by exploiting seasonal demand and imperfect targeting. We present two simple models of duopoly where firms choose prices and advertising. In times of high demand for the product, a larger fraction of consumers who obtain an advertisements are interested in the product, and so the effectiveness of advertising is greater, and firms advertise more. We use this to justify IV estimation of price on log advertising (and trend), in which monthly dummies are used as instruments. Using Israeli data we find a sufficiently large degree of advertising seasonality to justify estimation by the LIML or Fuller-k method. Among those industries, only a few exhibit a significant response of price to advertising. The interpretation of these results depends on the nature of the marginal cost curve: under constant returns to scale a negative response is consistent with informative advertising, and a positive with brand enhancing advertising. Under sufficiently increasing returns to scale, informative advertising will lead to a price increase, yet for some of the products we are able choose among these two types of advertising based on knowledge of the likely cost structure of the industry. Nevertheless, in almost all cases, significant and insignificant, the magnitude of the measured response is very small.
Consumer response to Genetically Modified Salmon: A study on benefit importance in the adoption process

ii Acknowledgements iv List of Tables x Abbreviations and Acronyms xi 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Context 1 1.2 Environment 2 1.3. Research Gap 3 1.4 Theoretical Framework 4 1.4. 1 The Diffusion of Innovations 4 1.5 AquaBounty’s Transgenic Salmon 5 1.6 Methodology 6 1.7 Structure of the research 6 2.0 Literature Review 8 2.1 Public Response to Genetically Modified Food 8 2.2 Benefit and risk perception 9 2.2.1 Benefit and Risk information 11 2.2.2 Trust and its impact on benefits and risks 13 2.2.3 Summary of perception, information and trusts’ impact on benefits and risk 15 2.3 Knowledge and Attitudes 16
The energy efficiency problematics in sports facilities: identifying savings in daily grass heating operation

Recently, reflections on modern sports stadiums' environmental impacts have gained substantial attention. Large-scale stadiums of e.g. professional soccer teams are characterized by having installations of grass heating systems serving the crucial commercial asset and at the same being the sub-system with the highest yearly thermal energy consumption. Public buildings of this size imply situation-specific operational modes combined with high levels of safety and comfort requirements. In this paper we provide a first study on the energy savings potential of a professional soccer stadium's grass heating system during day-to-day operation. In practice, limited heating capacities of the arena have to be adhered to, which causes the current operation to often result in under-performance of other, less critical facility units. Our analysis of dynamic operational and contextual data serves as foundation for long-term energy efficiency measures. We study relevant parameters related to the current control schemes and the stadium's context. Concretely, the grass root temperature as critical observable is studied with respect to weather conditions and the resulting thermal behavior. We provide an improved control strategy and quantify the anticipated savings of this strategy to be as high as 34% compared to the last heating season. For the future, the documented thermal characteristics will enable the formulation of more advanced control strategies to positively influence the grass heating operation. This will lead to further improvements in balancing the heating demand across all thermal facility sub-systems by integrating operational context with forecasts of the thermal behavior in the future.
Mapping replication dynamics in Trypanosoma brucei reveals a link with telomere transcription and antigenic variation

Survival of Trypanosoma brucei depends upon switches in its protective Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) coat by antigenic variation. VSG switching occurs by frequent homologous recombination, which is thought to require locus-specific initiation. Here, we show that a RecQ helicase, RECQ2, acts to repair DNA breaks, including in the telomeric site of VSG expression. Despite this, RECQ2 loss does not impair antigenic variation, but causes increased VSG switching by recombination, arguing against models for VSG switch initiation through direct generation of a DNA double strand break (DSB). Indeed, we show DSBs inefficiently direct recombination in the VSG expression site. By mapping genome replication dynamics, we reveal that the transcribed VSG expression site is the only telomeric site that is early replicating – a differential timing only seen in mammal-infective parasites. Specific association between VSG transcription and replication timing reveals a model for antigenic variation based on replication-derived DNA fragility. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.12765. 001
No Boundaries: Genomes, Organisms, and Ecological Interactions Responsible for Divergence and Reproductive Isolation.

Revealing the genetic basis of traits that cause reproductive isolation, particularly premating or sexual isolation, usually involves the same challenges as most attempts at genotype-phenotype mapping and so requires knowledge of how these traits are expressed in different individuals, populations, and environments, particularly under natural conditions. Genetic dissection of speciation phenotypes thus requires understanding of the internal and external contexts in which underlying genetic elements are expressed. Gene expression is a product of complex interacting factors internal and external to the organism including developmental programs, the genetic background including nuclear-cytotype interactions, epistatic relationships, interactions among individuals or social effects, stochasticity, and prevailing variation in ecological conditions. Understanding of genomic divergence associated with reproductive isolation will be facilitated by functional expression analysis of annotated genomes in organisms with well-studied evolutionary histories, phylogenetic affinities, and known patterns of ecological variation throughout their life cycles. I review progress and prospects for understanding the pervasive role of host plant use on genetic and phenotypic expression of reproductive isolating mechanisms in cactophilic Drosophila mojavensis and suggest how this system can be used as a model for revealing the genetic basis for species formation in organisms where speciation phenotypes are under the joint influences of genetic and environmental factors.
CHANGING RANKS AND THE INEQUALITY IMPACTS OF TAXES AND TRANSFERS

The common image of distributional effects of taxes and transfers is that they narrow the income gaps between people at different income levels. However, policies may reduce inequality by rearranging rankings as well. This paper presents a method for decomposing changes in the Gini coefficient into exclusive, exhaustive effects representing gapnarrowing and reranking components. We then explain and illustrate the relationship between these measures and various concepts of horizontal equity in the literature. The paper applies the decomposition by estimating the gap-narrowing and reranking effects of U.S. taxes and transfers in 1991.
Countable state shifts and uniqueness of g -measures

In this paper we present a new approach to studying g-measures which is based upon local absolute continuity. We extend an earlier result that square summability of variations of g ensures uniqueness of g-measures. The first extension is to the case of countably many symbols. The second extension is to some cases where g ≥ 0, relaxing the earlier requirement that inf g > 0.
Exploring the hierarchy of mobility performance in high-functioning older women.

BACKGROUND Preventing mobility disability depends on matching interventions to individual needs. The purpose of this study is to improve targeting by determining whether mobility performance is associated with, and predicts, mobility disability hierarchically. The hypothesis is that poorer performance tested by more demanding tasks is more strongly associated with current and future mobility "limitation" (self-reported task modification or difficulty) than is that tested by less demanding tasks, in a graded manner. METHODS Data come from the Women's Health and Aging Study II (n = 436) at baseline and at 36-month follow-up. Logistic and multinomial regression models examined associations between performance on mobility tests and reported limitation in walking one-half mile, adjusting for risk factors for disability. RESULTS We found that 76.6% of prevalent and 88.4% of new-onset self-reported limitation fit within the hypothesized hierarchical pattern. The estimated strength of association between a decrement in lower extremity performance and reported limitation increased with task demand for the primary outcome, reported limitation in walking one-half mile. For example, the odds ratios for prevalent report of walking limitation, versus no limitation, for 10% lower performance walking, dressing, repeating chair stands, and climbing, respectively, were 1.05 (95% confidence interval, 0.97-1.17), 1.08 (1.00-1.16), 1.15 (1.06-1.25), and 1.22 (1.12-1.33). CONCLUSIONS This study partially supports the hypothesis that mobility performance tends to follow a hierarchical pattern. For studying mild mobility disability, walking speed may not be as useful as more demanding tests. Identifying declines in performance through more demanding tests such as climbing should improve the ability to target preventive interventions to individuals at risk of mild mobility decline within a high-functioning population.
To live or let die – complexity within the E2F1 pathway

The E2F1 transcription factor is a recognized regulator of the cell cycle as well as a potent mediator of DNA damage-induced apoptosis and the checkpoint response. Understanding the diverse and seemingly dichotomous functions of E2F1 activity has been the focus of extensive ongoing research. Although the E2F pathway is frequently deregulated in cancer, the contributions of E2F1 itself to tumorigenesis, as a promoter of proliferation or cell death, are far from understood. In this review we aim to provide an update on our current understanding of E2F1, with particular insight into its novel interaction partners and post-translational modifications, as a means to explaining its diverse functional complexity.
Choice modelling: assessing the environmental values of water supply options

Three criticisms of the contingent valuation method (CVM) are considered in this article. One technique that would appear to answer such criticisms is choice modelling (CM). CM permits value estimates for different goods sharing a common set of attributes to be pieced together using the results of a single multinomial (conditional) logit model. The CM approach to environmental value assessment is illustrated in the context of a consumer‐based assessment of future water supply options in the Australian Capital Territory. CM is found to provide a flexible and cost‐effective method for estimating use and passive use values, particularly when several alternative proposals need to be considered.
A survey on project factors that motivate Finnish software engineers

Previous studies suggest that motivation is a critical factor in developer productivity and project outcome, i.e., software project failures are significantly associated with low motivation of software teams. Surveys with software engineers also indicate that culture can affect software development team motivation through differences in developers' motivational factors. In this study, we conduct a survey with 15 Finnish software engineers and 21 non-Finnish software engineers who live in Finland to investigate 1) the relationship between team motivation and project outcome, and 2) the factors that motivate Finnish software engineers. We compare the motivational factors found from the Finnish data with those identified in prior research with developers from four different countries. An analysis of the data from our 36 subjects indicates that project outcome is not associated with team motivation in Finland though this result contradicts prior research. There is a single motivational factor, “team work” that appears to be culturally independent. Unique team motivational factors for Finnish software engineers are found to be “the authority of project manager” and “the vision of project manager”. Our results indicate that cultural differences affect team motivation and that project managers need to consider these when working in a global environment.
Evaluation may be easier than generation (extended abstract)

Kearns et al. [18] de(cid:12)ned two notions for learning a distribution D. The (cid:12)rst is with generator, where the learner presents a generator that outputs a distribution identical or close to D. The other is with an evaluator, where the learner presents a procedure that on input x evaluates correctly (or approximates) the probability that x is generated by D. They showed an example where e(cid:14)cient learning by a generator is possible, but learning by an evaluator is computationally infeasible. Though it may seem that generation is, in general, easier than evaluation, in this paper we show that the converse may be true: we provide a class of distributions where e(cid:14)cient learning with an evaluator is possible, but coming up with a generator that approximates the given distribution is infeasible. We also show that some distributions may be learned (with either a generator or an evaluator) to within any (cid:15) > 0, but the learned hypothesis must be of size proportional to 1=(cid:15). This is in contrast to the distribution-free PAC model where the size of the hypothesis can always be proportional to log1=(cid:15). (cid:3)
On The Classification of Binary Optimal Self-Orthogonal Codes

The classification of binary [<i>n</i>,<i>k</i>,<i>d</i>] codes with <i>d</i> ges <i>s</i>2<i>k</i>-1 and without zero coordinates is reduced to the classification of binary [(2<i>k</i>-1)<i>c</i> (<i>k</i>,<i>s</i>,<i>t</i>)+<i>t</i>,<i>k</i>,<i>d</i>] code for <i>n</i> =(2<i>k</i>-1)<i>s</i>+<i>t</i>, <i>s</i> ges 1 and 1 les <i>t</i> les 2<i>k</i>-2, where <i>c</i>(<i>k</i>,<i>s</i>,<i>t</i>) les min{<i>s</i>, <i>t</i>} is a function of <i>k</i>, <i>s</i>, and <i>t</i>. Binary [15<i>s</i> +<i>t</i>, 4] optimal self-orthogonal codes are characterized by systems of linear equations. Based on these two results, the complete classification of [15<i>s</i> +<i>t</i>,4] optimal self-orthogonal codes for <i>t</i> isin {1,2,6,7,8,9,13,14} and <i>s</i> ges 1 is obtained, and the generator matrices and weight polynomials of these 4-dimensional optimal self-orthogonal codes are also given.
Robust modeling and analysis for wireless data resource management

Recent publications recognize that decentralized algorithms useful in wireless data applications can be obtained via microeconomics and game theory. In these studies, each agent maximizes, under appropriate rules and constraints, a quality-of-service (QoS) index. A key solution is a "Nash equilibrium"; i.e., an allocation from which no agent is better off by unilaterally "deviating". The actual maximization may be made by software which may not be directly "controllable" by a human user. The model and, especially, the chosen QoS index should be as general as possible, so that the derived results be applicable to a wide variety of channel conditions, modulation schemes, and other physical-layer characteristics. Likewise, the chosen index should exhibit predictable and reliable technical behavior, without exacting a high complexity cost. This note describes a model, and particularly, a QoS index which can accommodate a wide variety of physical layer situations. The proposed index is shown to exhibit solid technical behavior, be physically significant, intuitively appealing, and applicable to a wide variety of physical layer situations. A game in which terminals carrying multi-rate traffic seek to maximize this index is analyzed, and closed-form equilibrium conditions and power levels are derived "from first principles". All terminals want the same signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), but some cannot reach the necessary power level. At equilibrium, a number of terminals transmit full power, and others achieve the same optimal SIR. A basic rationale to search for these equilibria is provided.
Competitive Performance of Transgenic Wheat Resistant to Powdery Mildew

Genetically modified (GM) plants offer an ideal model system to study the influence of single genes that confer constitutive resistance to pathogens on the ecological behaviour of plants. We used phytometers to study competitive interactions between GM lines of spring wheat Triticum aestivum carrying such genes and control lines. We hypothesized that competitive performance of GM lines would be reduced due to enhanced transgene expression under pathogen levels typically encountered in the field. The transgenes pm3b from wheat (resistance against powdery mildew Blumeria graminis) or chitinase and glucanase genes from barley (resistance against fungi in general) were introduced with the ubiquitin promoter from maize (pm3b and chitinase genes) or the actin promoter from rice (glucanase gene). Phytometers of 15 transgenic and non-transgenic wheat lines were transplanted as seedlings into plots sown with the same 15 lines as competitive environments and subject to two soil nutrient levels. Pm3b lines had reduced mildew incidence compared with control lines. Chitinase and chitinase/glucanase lines showed the same high resistance to mildew as their control in low-nutrient treatment and slightly lower mildew rates than the control in high-nutrient environment. Pm3b lines were weaker competitors than control lines. This resulted in reduced yield and seed number. The Pm3b line with the highest transgene expression had 53.2% lower yield than the control whereas the Pm3b line which segregated in resistance and had higher mildew rates showed only minor costs under competition. The line expressing both chitinase and glucanase genes also showed reduced yield and seed number under competition compared with its control. Our results suggest that single transgenes conferring constitutive resistance to pathogens can have ecological costs and can weaken plant competitiveness even in the presence of the pathogen. The magnitude of these costs appears related to the degree of expression of the transgenes.
Vitamin D receptor activators inhibit vascular smooth muscle cell mineralization induced by phosphate and TNF-α.

BACKGROUND Vascular calcification is a highly regulated process. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) has been shown to accelerate the highly regulated osteogenic process in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Vitamin D receptor activators (VDRAs) have been associated with beneficial cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease. We examined whether maxacalcitol, a vitamin D(3) analog, exhibits a suppressive effect on VSMC mineralization induced by phosphate and TNF-α. METHODS Human VSMCs were treated with either vehicle, maxacalcitol (10(-9) to 10(-7) M), or calcitriol (10(-9) to 10(-7) M) in 2.5 mM of phosphate media with TNF-α (1 ng/mL) for 9 days. VSMC mineralization was determined and expression of genes associated with the osteogenic process was examined by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) messenger RNA (mRNA) in VSMCs and MMP-2 protein in media was also analyzed. RESULTS Vehicle-treated VSMCs exhibited massive mineralization, which was inhibited by maxacalcitol in a concentration-dependent manner. Calcitriol also inhibited the mineralization. While vehicle-treated VSMCs exhibited increased mRNA expression of genes associated with the osteogenic process (Cbfa1/Runx2 and osteocalcin) compared with VSMCs grown in normal media without TNF-α (control), maxacalcitol and calcitriol suppressed the increase in mRNA species. Furthermore, vehicle-treated VSMCs exhibited increased MMP-2 mRNA and protein in the media that were suppressed notably by maxacalcitol. CONCLUSIONS Both the VDRAs abrogated the acceleration of the osteogenic process induced by phosphate and TNF-α in VSMCs, which was linked to inhibition of mineralization in VSMCs. MMP-2 blockade by VDRAs may contribute to an inhibitory effect on vascular calcification.
Agricultural Trade Distortions During the Global Financial Crisis

The recent upward spike in the international price of food led some countries to raise export barriers. As in previous price spike periods, that response by some food-exporting countries was accompanied by a lowering of import restrictions by numerous food-importing countries. Both actions exacerbate the international price spike. This paper provides new evidence n the extent of change in domestic relative to international prices in both groups of countries, and compares it with responses during previous food price spike periods. Stronger WTO disciplines on export restrictions are needed to limit government responses that exacerbate such price shocks.
Do Localization Economies Matter in Cluster Formation? Questioning the Conventional Wisdom with Data from Indian Metropolises

The large and growing literature on industrial clustering suggests that firms seek locations that provide localization economies (benefits from having common buyers and suppliers, a specialized or skilled labor pool, and informal knowledge transfers). This study of manufacturing industry clusters in three Indian metropolises suggests instead that industry location decisions are guided by market imperfections, specifically rigidities in the land market caused by state action (segregationist or environmental policies, the absence of exit policies, and activist industrial promotion policies). For the investigation the authors use geographically disaggregated industry location and size data from Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, to analyze eight industrial sectors (food and beverages, textiles, leather, printing and publishing, chemicals, metals, machinery, and electrical and electronics). The authors test for evidence of global and local clustering and distinguish between and test for coclustering and colocation of industries. The results are indicative rather than absolute and suggest that for location decisions general urbanization economies are more important than are localization economies.
An adaptive distributed re-clustering scheme for mobile wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks, hierarchical clustering schemes have been widely used to enhance the quality of service. However, in mobile wireless sensor networks, node mobility dynamically influences the topology of the clustered network, thus affects the optimal cluster performance such as compactness and separation of clusters. To eliminate the influence of node mobility, a novel adaptive distributed re-clustering scheme is proposed in this paper. In this scheme, nodes are clustered initially. At each time after that, nodes estimate their current locations and predict the most possible locations of next time. Each boundary node of a cluster periodically obtains location information of the nodes in the neighbouring clusters and autonomously evaluates the optimal cluster according to the information. If a re-clustering process is necessary, the boundary node will switch its assigned cluster through communicating with cluster headers of current cluster and the optimal cluster. The simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme in increasing the performance on compactness and separation of clusters, and reveal the outperformance of the proposed scheme on packet delivery ratio comparing with existing schemes.