Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of Dentate Granule Cell Neurogenesis with Brain Irradiation Does Not Prevent Seizure-Induced Mossy Fiber Synaptic Reorganization in the Rat

Aberrant reorganization of dentate granule cell axons, the mossy fibers, occurs in human temporal lobe epilepsy and rodent epilepsy models. Whether this plasticity results from the remodeling of preexisting mossy fibers or instead reflects an abnormality of developing dentate granule cells is unknown. Because these neurons continue to be generated in the adult rodent and their production increases after seizures, mossy fibers that arise from either developing or mature granule cells are potential substrates for this network plasticity. Therefore, to determine whether seizure-induced, mossy fiber synaptic reorganization arises from either developing or mature granule cell populations, we used low-dose, whole-brain x-irradiation to eliminate proliferating dentate granule cell progenitors in adult rats. A single dose of 5 Gy irradiation blocked cell proliferation and eliminated putative progenitor cells in the dentate subgranular proliferative zone. Irradiation 1 d before pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus significantly attenuated dentate granule cell neurogenesis after seizures. Two irradiations, 1 d before and 4 d after status epilepticus, essentially abolished dentate granule cell neurogenesis but failed to prevent mossy fiber reorganization in the dentate molecular layer. These results indicate that dentate granule cell neurogenesis in the mature hippocampal formation is vulnerable to the effects of low-dose ionizing irradiation. Furthermore, the development of aberrant mossy fiber remodeling in the absence of neurogenesis suggests that mature dentate granule cells contribute substantially to seizure-induced network reorganization.
Three Essays on Competition and Innovation

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are driving the modern innovation process. To better understand these dynamics, the current dissertation analyses the interactions between innovation and competition. The scope of this work can be divided into two areas: The first one deals with a question of how markets could be organized to produce the most optimal outcome. The second one analyses the feedback effects of innovative activity on competition and the organisation of economic activity. Regarding the impact of competition on innovation, an empirical analysis reveals that ICTdriven innovations dominate in concentrated industries, whereas innovations based on other technologies flourish in moderately competitive markets. This suggests that there are some features that make ICT-enabled innovations exceptional, compared to innovations based on other technologies. Concerning the impact of innovation on competition, two findings are worth emphasising. First, as shown in a theoretical analysis, although profitable from an individual producer’s perspective, the adoption of a technology increasing product variety across the entire industry erodes firms’ payoffs. In addition, firms’ decisions with respect to the technology adoption are not always efficient from the social welfare point of view. Second, another empirical analysis included in this work reveals that ICT leads to more competition and facilitates the emergence of hybrid organization forms, subject to firm’s and industry’s characteristics. Although this dissertation reveals only a small piece of the complexity of the ICT-driven innovation process, it casts some new light on the importance of market structure for ICTenabled innovation and the feedback effect of the technology on firms’ environment. Interestingly, the outcomes of this thesis show that these interactions are often far from straightforward and in many cases counterintuitive.
Volatility and Growth: Credit Constraints and Productivity-Enhancing Investment

We examine how credit constraints affect the cyclical behavior of productivity-enhancing investment and thereby volatility and growth. We first develop a simple growth model where firms engage in two types of investment: a short-term one and a long-term productivity-enhancing one. Because it takes longer to complete, long-term investment has a relatively less procyclical return but also a higher liquidity risk. Under complete financial markets, long-term investment is countercyclical, thus mitigating volatility. But when firms face tight credit constraints, long-term investment turns procyclical, thus amplifying volatility. Tighter credit therefore leads to both higher aggregate volatility and lower mean growth for a given total investment rate. We next confront the model with a panel of countries over the period 1960-2000 and find that a lower degree of financial development predicts a higher sensitivity of both the composition of investment and mean growth to exogenous shocks, as well as a stronger negative effect of volatility on growth.
The Question of Jury Competence and the Politics of Civil Justice Reform: Symbols, Rhetoric, and Agenda-Building

Civil juries are under heavy attack. The critics allege that juries are capricious, biased toward plaintiffs, unpredictable, and overgenerous in their verdicts. They find juries often incompetent to pass judgment on issues brought before them, particularly in complex cases such as medical malpractice and products liability. Further, the critics claim that jury trials add to the already crippling delays and backlogs plaguing the American court system.
Population Growth, Factor Accumulation, and Productivity

In research on how population growth affects economic performance, some researchers stress that population growth reduces the natural resources and capital (physical and human) per worker while other researchers stress how greater population size and density affect productivity. Despite these differing theoretical predictions, the empirical literature hs focused mainly on the relationship between population growth and output per person (or crude proxies for factor accumulation). It has not decomposed the effect of population through factor accumulation and the effect through productivity. The author uses newly created cross-country, time-series data on physical capital stocks and the educational stock of the labor force to establish six findings: There is no correlation between the growth of capital per worker and population growth. The common practice of using investment rates as a proxy for capital stock growth rates is completely unjustified, as the two are uncorrelated across countries. There is either no correlation, or a weak positive correlation, between the growth of years of schooling per worker and the population growth rate. Enrollment rates are even worse as a crude proxy for the expansion of the educational capital stock, as the two are negatively correlated. There is no correlation, or a weak negative correlation, between measures of total factory productivity growth and population growth. Nearly all of the weak correlation between the growth of output per person and population growth is the result of shifts in participation in the labor force, not of changes in output per worker.
Controlled bacteria-gold nanorod interactions for enhancement of optoacoustic contrast

Gold-based contrast agents, gold nanorod (GNR), were designed for the enhancement of optoacoustic signal. After synthesis, the GNR-CTAB complexes were modified by pegylation (PEG), or replacement of CTAB (cetyl trimethylammonium bromide) with MTAB (16-mercaptohexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide) for coverage of gold nanorods with heparin (GNR-HP). Modified GNR are purified through centrifugation and filtration. GNRCTAB can be used as a model of positively charged gold surface for quantitative optoacoustic sensing in GNRbacteria interactions, whereas GNR-PEG and GNR-HP can be used as negatively charged gold surface models. We studied controlled agglomeration of contrast agents with the bacteria E.Coli and Vibrio Cholerae. For bacterial sensing, the localized plasmon resonance peak shifts as a function of electrostatic binding, which was detected with two different wavelengths through 3D optoacoustic imaging.
Applying Portfolio Credit Risk Models to Retail Portfolios

In recent years, several methodologies for measuring portfolio credit risk have been introduced that demonstrate the benefits of using internal models to measure credit risk in the loan book. These models measure economic credit capital and are specifically designed to capture portfolio effects and account for obligor default correlations. An example of an integrated market and credit risk model that overcomes this limitation is given in Iscoe et al. [1999], which is equally applicable to commercial and retail credit portfolios. However, the measurement of portfolio credit risk in retail loan portfolios has received much less attention than the commercial credit markets. This article proposes a methodology for measuring the credit risk of a retail portfolio, based on the general portfolio credit risk framework of Iscoe et al. The authors discuss the practical estimation and implementation of the model. They demonstrate its applicability with a case study based on the credit card portfolio of a North American financial institution. They also analyze the sensitivity of the results to various assumptions.
Exchange Rate Exposure of Swedish Banks

This thesis examines in the exchange rate exposure of the four major Swedish banks’ by estimating the sensitivity in stock return to exchange rate changes. By using weekly data, estimated exposures are constructed by regressing stock returns on exchange rates. Further the thesis compares the exposure among the banks and applies exchange rate determinants in an attempt to seek explanations for the different degrees of exposure. Findings suggest that Swedbank has the pre-eminently highest exposure to the included exchange rates followed by SEB, Nordea and where Handelsbanken has no exposure to any of the individual exchange rates. All banks but Nordea is significantly exposed to the TCW index, which is a weighted exchange rate index. The exchange rate exposure determinants, firm size and foreign assets over total assets, does not seem to explain the variation in the degree of exposure among the banks, implying that the exposure originates from other firm specific characteristics.
A Comparative study Between Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm and Hard Clustering Algorithm

Data clustering is an important area of data mining. This is an unsupervised study where data of similar types are put into one cluster while data of another types are put into different cluster. Fuzzy C means is a very important clustering technique based on fuzzy logic. Also we have some hard clustering techniques available like K-means among the popular ones. In this paper a comparative study is done between Fuzzy clustering algorithm and hard clustering algorithm.
Population, Technology, and Growth: From Malthusian Stagnation to the Demographic Transition and Beyond

This paper develops a unified model of growth, population, and technological progress that is consistent with long-term historical evidence. The economy endogenously evolves through three phases. In the Malthusian regime, population growth is positively related to the level of income per capita. Technological progress is slow and is matched by proportional increases in population, so that output per capita is stable around a constant level. In the post-Malthusian regime, the growth rates of technology and total output increase. Population growth absorbs much of the growth of output, but income per capita does rise slowly. The economy endogenously undergoes a demographic transition in which the traditionally positive relationship between income per capita and population growth is reversed. In the Modern Growth regime, population growth is moderate or even negative, and income per capita rises rapidly. Two forces drive the transitions between regimes: First, technological progress is driven both by increases in the size of the population and by increases in the size of the population and by increases in the average level of education. Second, technological progress creates a state of disequilibrium, which raises the return to human capital and induces patients to substitute child quality for quantity.
A Cascaded Multilevel Inverter Based on Switched-Capacitor for High-Frequency AC Power Distribution System

The increase of transmission frequency reveals more merits than low- or medium-frequency distribution among different kinds of power applications. High-frequency inverter serves as source side in high-frequency ac (HFAC) power distribution system (PDS). However, it is complicated to obtain a high-frequency inverter with both simple circuit topology and straightforward modulation strategy. A novel switched-capacitor-based cascaded multilevel inverter is proposed in this paper, which is constructed by a switched-capacitor frontend and H-Bridge backend. Through the conversion of series and parallel connections, the switched-capacitor frontend increases the number of voltage levels. The output harmonics and the component counter can be significantly reduced by the increasing number of voltage levels. A symmetrical triangular waveform modulation is proposed with a simple analog implementation and low modulation frequency comparing with traditional multicarrier modulation. The circuit topology, symmetrical modulation, operation cycles, Fourier analysis, parameter determination, and topology enhancement are examined. An experimental prototype with a rated output frequency of 25 kHz is implemented to compare with simulation results. The experimental results agreed very well with the simulation that confirms the feasibility of proposed multilevel inverter.
Monopolistic Competition in Electricity Networks

This paper models an electricity market with generators and customers located on a network. Generators bid cost functions and are dispatched by a system operator that minimizes the system cost while considering network constraints. We prove the existence of equilibrium and show that transmission constraints render the market imperfectly competitive. It is shown that competition among generators is similar to the interaction among firms in a monopolistic competition setting. A lower bound for market prices is obtained. Our results provide insights not captured by previous models. At a methodological level, we generalize standard oligopoly theory tools by using stability analysis.
The Uruguay Round: A Global General Equilibrium Assessment

In this paper we provide an economic assessment of the Uruguay Round agreements on tariffs, textiles and clothing, and agriculture, highlighting scale economies, imperfect competition, and dynamic linkages between trade, incomes, and investment. We present estimates of the welfare effects of the individual agreements and their overall impact on different regions in the world. We also provide a decomposition of estimates with respect to various assumptions about model structure. The inclusion of imperfect competition, scale economies, and capital accumulation effects proves to be important, not least for developing countries.
Career progression of black managers

The Career Progression of Black Managers This research programme examined the factors that affect the career progression of Black managers in the United Kingdom. The research comprised two distinct but related studies. The first study was a qualitative investigation of the factors affecting the career progression of Black managers (n = 64). The main finding from the first study was that for some the achievement of high salaries and senior positions may be at the expense of one's positive Black racial identity attitudes and wellbeing. The second study was a quantitative examination of aspects revealed as important correlates of career success in study 1. Two hundred and sixty-one respondents (97 Black and 163 White respondents) across all major industry sectors participated. The results of the second study confirmed that Black managers were more disadvantaged than their White peers. The proposition that for some Black managers a "sell out" effect occurs was supported.
The Greek paradox of falling competitiveness and weak institutions in a high GDP growth rate context (1995-2008)

In this paper, we deal with some pieces of evidence that are necessary to explain the paradox of rapid GDP growth despite the dismal competitiveness of the Greek economy during 1995-2008. It is shown how the structural weaknesses of the Greek economy have hit the domestic economy investigating their impact on the current turmoil. It is argued that the previously favourable global economic environment acted as a locomotive to domestic growth, whereas now that it is gone, structural problems of poor governance, low competitiveness, and a ballooning public deficit and debt have come to the surface. We offer a specific explanation of the current unfortunate state of the economy briefly considering avenues of necessary reforms to overcome it.
Social work students and social change: on the link between views on poverty, social work goals and policy practice

This article seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the factors that are associated with social work students’ willingness to engage in policy practice. It examines a model according to which the willingness to engage in policy practice is linked to the importance that students attribute to the goals of social work and to their views on poverty. The sample consisted of 138 social work students in one of Israel's leading universities. The measures consisted of four questionnaires developed specifically for this study. The findings revealed strong relationships between students’ views regarding the causes of poverty and their attitudes towards the preferred ways to deal with poverty. In addition, strong relationships were found between the importance that students attributed to the goals of social work and their willingness to engage in policy practice. However, no significant relationships were found between students’ views on poverty and their willingness to engage in policy practice. Different explanations for these findings are advanced in the article.
Form factor effects in the direct detection of isospin-violating dark matter

Isospin-violating dark matter (IVDM) provides a possible mechanism to ameliorate the tension among recent direct detection experiments. For IVDM, we demonstrate that the results of direct detection experiments based on neutron-rich target nuclei may depend strongly on the density dependence of the symmetry energy which is presently largely unknown and controls the neutron skin thickness that reflects the relative difference of neutron and proton form factors in the neutron-rich nuclei. In particular, using the neutron and proton form factors obtained from Skyrme-Hartree-Fock calculations by varying the symmetry energy within the uncertainty region set by the latest model-independent measurement of the neutron skin thickness of 208Pb from PREX experiment at JLab, we find that, for IVDM with neutron-to-proton coupling ratio fixed to fn/fp=-0.7, the form factor effect may enhance the sensitivity of Xe-based detectors (e.g., XENON100 and LUX) to the DM-proton cross section by a factor of 3 in the DM mass region constrained by CMDS-II(Si) and even by more than an order of magnitude for heavy DM with mass larger than 80 GeV, compared with the results using the empirical Helm form factor. Our results further indicate that the form factor effect can significantly modify the recoil spectrum of Xe-based detectors for heavy IVDM with fn/fp=-0.7.
Current Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Total Asset Turnover, Return on Asset, Price to Book Value sebagai Faktor Penentu Return Saham

The purpose ofthis studyistoexamineandanalyze thefinancial ratio is measuredwithCurrent Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Total Asset Turnover, Return On Asset, Price to Book Value towards share return. The populationin this study areallReal Estate and Property Industri Listed inthe indonesia stock exchange since period 2012-2013, with the total of47companys. Thestudysamplewas takenby purposive sampling method, with the total of 31company. This study usesdata analysisof multiple linear regression analysis to estimated of dependent variable’s value from independent variable’s. Based onthe research results, it can be known that only price to book value has a significant effect toward share return and for current ratio, debt to equity ratio, total asset turnover, return on asset has not a significant effect toward share return.
Teaching Random Assignment: Do You Believe It Works?

Educational Evaluation & Research Wayne State University Textbook authors admonish students to check on the comparability of two randomly assigned groups by conducting statistical tests on pretest means to determine if randomization worked. A Monte Carlo study was conducted on a sample of n = 2 per group, where each participant’s personality profile was represented by 7,500 randomly selected and assigned scores. Independent samples t tests were conducted and the results demonstrated that random assignment was successful in equating the two groups on 7,467 variables. The students’ focus is redirected from the ability of random assignment to create comparable groups to the testing of the claims of randomization schemes. Key words: Random assignment, Monte Carlo, comparable groups Introduction Random assignment is one of the more difficult concepts in designing experiments. Researchers harbor considerable distrust in the ability of random assignment to create comparable groups. Interestingly, the seeds of distrust in random assignment are sown in statistics and research textbooks. For example, in a pretest-posttest treatment vs control group design, Tuckman (1994) noted, “It is not uncommon to assign Ss randomly to groups and then to check on the distribution of control variables by comparing the groups to assess their equivalence on these variables” (p. 130). Students are told to check on the comparability of the two groups by conducting statistical tests on the pretest means, as Krathwohl (1993) stated, “The pretest tells us whether randomization worked and the groups are really comparable” (p. 452). This article is based on a presentation delivered in 1999 to the American Educational Research Association, Special Interest Group Educational Statisticians, Montreal, Canada. The author gratefully acknowledges discussions with Drs. Lori Rothenberg and Randy Lattimore on earlier versions of this article. Email the author at: shlomo@wayne.edu. This problem is exacerbated when researchers consider the typical small samples available for research in applied fields. For example, Gall, Borg, and Gall (1996) stated, The probability that random assignment will produce initially equivalent treatment groups increases as the size of the sample in each group increases. For example, equivalent groups will more likely result if 100 individuals are randomly assigned to two treatment groups (n = 50 per group) than if 10 individuals are assigned to those to groups (n = 5 per group). p. 489. Similar statements are found in Cook and Campbell (1979), Crowl (1996), Vockell and Asher (1995), and others. A Previous Demonstration Strube (1991) noted “small samples cause other problems that argue against their routine use”. Indeed, small samples present difficulties with regard to the generalizability of results. Strube (1991) endeavored to show that “the probability of an erroneous inference” is “generally no greater than the nominal Type I error rate” (p. 346). In this respect, Strube’s (1991) article was convincing. However, Strube’s (1991) demonstration may not have been the most