Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade Liberalisation and Insider Power: The Case of Brazil

This paper investigates the impact of market-oriented economic reforms on union behaviour in Brazil. Previous work shows that openness, deregulation and similar measures constrain union power. In contrast, our results show that insider power has increased in the more competitive environment since the implementation of the reforms in Brazil in the early 1990s. We argue that this is associated with the structure of wage bargaining, and with the low quality of the labour force. Unions take advantage of the higher demand for qualified workers in a more competitive economy by increasing wage pressure.
Identifying critical success factors of ERP systems at the higher education sector

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though the difficulties and high failure rate in implementing ERP systems at university environments have been cited in the literature, research on critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP implementations in this context is rare and fragmented. This paper is part of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP implementations and evaluations in HEIs in the Australasian region; it identifies, previously reported, critical success factors (CSFs) in relation to ERP system implementations and discusses the importance of these factors.
El futuro de la tasa de actividad española: un enfoque generacional

En este trabajo se desarrolla una proyeccion de la tasa de actividad agregada de la economia espanola entre 2004 y 2020. Se construyen proyecciones independientes por nacionalidad y sexo a partir de los micro datos de la Encuesta de Poblacion Activa desde 1977. En el caso de los hombres y mujeres de nacionalidad espanola se ha tenido en cuenta tanto el impacto de la tasa de desempleo estructural o NAIRU como los efectos derivados de la cohorte de nacimiento, el nivel educativo y la edad. Para los hombres y mujeres inmigrantes, las especificaciones empiricas incorporan el impacto tanto de la edad como del cambio de composicion que han sufrido estos flujos en los ultimos anos, asi como el efecto cohorte adicional observado para las mujeres. Como resultado del analisis empirico, se observa que es previsible que los efectos cohorte para hombres y mujeres de nacionalidad espanola se agoten en el futuro proximo. Sin embargo, los cambios en la composicion de los inmigrantes podria seguir incrementado la tasa de actividad de este colectivo. La incorporacion en el mercado laboral espanol de hombres y mujeres con un nivel educativo elevado asi como el propio cambio generacional presentado por las mujeres, y a pesar del progresivo envejecimiento de la poblacion, hacen prever una continuacion en el incremento de la tasa de actividad que se viene observando desde 1995.
Effect Of Constructivist-Based Teaching Strategy On Academic Performance Of Students In Integrated Science At The Junior Secondary School Level

Integrated sacience plays vital role in Nigerian science education programme because it prepares pupils at the Junior Secondary School level for the study of core science subjects at the Senior Secondary School level which in turn brings about students’ interest in science oriented courses at the tertiary institutions. Despite government’s efforts to encourage science teaching and learning among Nigerian students right from the Junior Secondary School level, the enrolment of students in core science subjects and science oriented courses at the Senior Secondary School level and tertiary institutions level respectively is not encouraging. This is as a result of Junior Secondary School students’ negative attitude towards integrated science. Research reports indicate that this negative attitude was caused, majorly, by teachers’ conventional (lecture) method of teaching integrated science. Research reports on the effectiveness of constructivist-based teaching strategy revealed that the strategy enhanced students’ academic performance. In view of this, this study examines the effectiveness of constructivist-based teaching strategy on academic performance in integrated science by Junior Secondary School students in South-West Nigeria. Quasi-experimental research design was used to achieve the purpose of this study. Participants were 120 Junior Secondary School Students randomly selected from four out of the 25 co-educational Junior Secondary Schools in Ijebu-ode local government area of ogun state, South-west Nigeria. Findings revealed that the constructivist instructed students had higher scores on the posttest and the delayed posttest, compared to those exposed to conventional (lecture) method of teaching. We concluded that if integrated science teachers could incorporate constructivist-based teaching strategy into their teaching methods, there would be an improvement in academic performance of Junior Secondary School Students in integrated science. The researchers recommended that integrated science teachers should incorporate constructivistbased teaching strategy in their methods of teaching
Correlation of Antiarrhythmic Effects of Diphenylhydantoin with Digoxin‐Induced Changes in Myocardial Contractility, Sodium‐Potassium Adenosine Triphosphatase Activity, and Potassium Efflux

To clarify the suppressant action of diphenylhydantoin (DPH) on digitalis-induced arrhythmias we studied effects of DPH and digoxin, alone and in combination, on contractile force, sodium-potassium adenosinetriphosphatase (Na+-K+ ATPase) activity, and potassium (K+) balance in dog hearts perfused with Krebs-Ringer's solution. Neither control perfusion nor DPH alone (3 × 10−5M) altered Na+-K+ ATPase activity or produced K+ loss; DPH alone depressed contractile force. Digoxin alone (10−6M) caused a 59% rise in contractile force at the onset of arrhythmia along with a net rate of K+ loss (K+ efflux) of 50 ± 12, μmoles/min and a decrease in Na+-K + ATPase activity from 13.8 to 5.2 μmoles phosphorus/mg protein hour−1 (P< 0.001). Perfusion with combined DPH and digoxin delayed toxicity by 13 minutes (or 82%), at which time contractile force was higher (92% above base line, P<0.05), K+ efflux was greater (87 ± 20 μmoles/min), and Na + -K+ ATPase activity was lower (2.6 μmoles/mg hour−1, P<0.05) than they were with digoxin alone. Combined DPH and digoxin perfusion lasting only until the time toxicity appeared with digoxin alone, however, yielded higher Na+-K+ ATPase activity (7.7 μmoles/mg hour−1, P<0.02) and less rise in contractile force (25% above base line, P<0.05). Thus, DPH appeared to retard digoxin-induced inhibition of Na+-K+ ATPase activity. Nevertheless, digoxin in the presence of DPH ultimately produced greater inhibition of Na +-K+ ATPase activity, greater increase in contractile force, and greater K + efflux prior to toxicity than did digoxin without DPH. These findings suggest that the antiarrhythmic effects of DPH cannot be attributed solely to prevention of inhibition of Na+-K+ ATPase activity or to diminution of K + efflux, two changes characteristically accompanying digoxin administration.
Neurobiology of Disease Disease Progression despite Early Loss of Polyglutamine Protein Expression in Sca7 Mouse Model

Nine neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington's disease (HD) and spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) are caused by an expansion of a polyglutamine (polyQ) stretch in the respective proteins. Aggregation of expanded polyQ-containing proteins into the nucleus is a hallmark of these diseases. Recent evidence indicates that transcriptional dysregulation may contribute to the molecular pathogen-esis of these diseases. Using SCA7 and HD mouse models in which we recently described a retinal phenotype, we investigated whether altered gene expression underlies photoreceptor dysfunction. In both models, rhodopsin promoter activity was early and dramatically repressed, suggesting that downregulation of photoreceptor-specific genes plays a major role in polyQ-induced retinal dysfunction. Because the rhodopsin promoter drives mutant ataxin-7 expression in our SCA7 mice, we also assessed whether downregulation of mutant SCA7 transgene would reverse retinopathy progression and aggregate formation. Although residual expression of mutant ataxin-7 was found negligible from 9 weeks of age, SCA7 transgenic mice showed a progressive decline of photoreceptor activity leading to a complete loss of electroretinographic responses from 1 year of age. At this age, aggregates were cleared in only half of the photore-ceptors, indicating that their formation is not fully reversible in this model. We demonstrate here that abolishing full-length mutant ataxin-7 expression did not reverse retinopathy progression in SCA7 mice, raising the possibility that some polyQ-induced pathological events might be irreversible.
Unconventional Fiscal Policy at the Zero Bound

When the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates binds, monetary policy cannot provide appropriate stimulus. We show that in the standard New Keynesian model, tax policy can deliver such stimulus at no cost and in a time-consistent manner. There is no need to use inefficient policies such as wasteful public spending or future commitments to inflate. We conclude that in the New Keynesian model, the zero bound on nominal interest rates is not a relevant constraint on both fiscal and monetary policy.
Empirical relationship between local scattering function and joint probability density function

The fading process describing the propagation effects caused by scattering between two mobile transceivers shows strong non-stationary properties. For its characterization the local scattering function (LSF) and the instantaneous delay Doppler probability density function (pdf) have been introduced. In this paper, a relation between LSF and the joint pdf is investigated. In previous works, it was conjectured that a proportionality relationship between LSF and pdf might exist, similar to the relationship between the scattering function and the delay Doppler pdf in the wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering case. The goal here is to demonstrate this proportionality empirically based on the analysis of channel measurements. Both the LSF and the delay Doppler pdf can be combined in order to create a model for mobile-to-mobile (M2M) channels. The LSF is hereby used to process the measurement data and extract information like the stationarity time. With this information the joint delay Doppler pdf can be used to create a realistic simulation environment of the wireless channel for M2M communication systems.
The entropy of elliptical galaxies in Coma: a clue for a distance indicator

We have fitted the surface brightness of a sample of 79 elliptical galaxies pertaining to the Coma cluster of galaxies using the Sersic profile. This model is defined through three primary parameters: scale length (a), intensity (\Sigma_0), and a shape parameter (\nu); physical and astrophysical quantities may be computed from these parameters. We show that correlations are stronger among primary parameters than the classical astrophysical ones. In particular, the galaxies follow a high correlation in \nu and a parameters. We show that the \nu and a correlation satisfies a constant specific entropy condition. We propose to use this entropy relation as distance indicator for clusters.
Low Power Sensor Node for a Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor networks are finding widespread use in diverse applications. The sensor nodes, which are also called as motes, are getting smaller, but their battery charge density is not getting increased in the same ratio. Since the life of a sensor network depends on the life of the sensor nodes, the lifetime of the sensor nodes have to be maximized. This can happen if the battery lasts long. In this paper, we introduce power-aware sensor node architecture and a battery-aware task scheduling algorithm that uses both dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) and reverse body biasing (RBB) to maximize the battery life time. Significant reduction in energy requirement is possible based on the proposed approach
Recurrent Processing in V1/V2 Contributes to Categorization of Natural Scenes

Humans are able to categorize complex natural scenes very rapidly and effortlessly, which has led to an assumption that such ultra-rapid categorization is driven by feedforward activation of ventral brain areas. However, recent accounts of visual perception stress the role of recurrent interactions that start rapidly after the activation of V1. To study whether or not recurrent processes play a causal role in categorization, we applied fMRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation on early visual cortex (V1/V2) and lateral occipital cortex (LO) while the participants categorized natural images as containing animals or not. The results showed that V1/V2 contributed to categorization speed and to subjective perception during a long activity period before and after the contribution of LO had started. This pattern of results suggests that recurrent interactions in visual cortex between areas along the ventral stream and striate cortex play a causal role in categorization and perception of natural scenes.
Investigating the relationship between "effective" teachers and theoretical notions of effective teaching: An analysis of whole-group discussions

The literature base on teacher effectiveness has rapidly expanded in the past decade. Once dominated by social scientists, the literature is now heavily influenced by economists. Utilizing value-added modeling, economists have mainstreamed attempts to isolate the effect that a teacher has on student achievement. Findings from these attempts, however, confuse an improvement in measuring teachers with an improvement in measuring teaching. The field of education is still missing transparent, debatable measures of teaching practices. This study proposes a new measure, the adjusted whole-group discussion score, for one teaching practice—conducting whole-group discussions. It then uses that measure on a purposefully sampled group of teachers, and investigates its relationship to statistically derived measures of teacher effectiveness—that is, value-added estimates. This study is one of the first to go inside the classrooms of teachers being labeled effective through value-added modeling and to shed light on their classroom practices. In so doing, the study highlights different aspects of good teaching, which include being accountable to facts and procedures and being accountable to authentic discourse. Moreover, it articulates specific classroom discussion moves that can be used in targeted interventions. Findings illustrate that teachers with similar value-added scores can have markedly different teaching practices and that high value-added estimates do not necessarily reflect a full range of classroom teaching practices. The main policy implication of these findings is that, similar to students who need individualized instruction, teachers need individualized intervention.
WEBB SCALES FAST-START MANEUVERS

[Figure][1] Paolo Domenici discusses Paul Webb's paper entitled ‘The effect of size on the fast-start performance of rainbow trout Salmo gairdneri, and a consideration of piscivorous predator–prey interactions’. A copy of the paper can be obtained from <http://jeb.biologists. org/cgi/
Learning to Branch in Mixed Integer Programming

The design of strategies for branching in Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) is guided by cycles of parameter tuning and offline experimentation on an extremely heterogeneous testbed, using the average performance. Once devised, these strategies (and their parameter settings) are essentially input-agnostic. To address these issues, we propose a machine learning (ML) framework for variable branching in MIP.Our method observes the decisions made by Strong Branching (SB), a time-consuming strategy that produces small search trees, collecting features that characterize the candidate branching variables at each node of the tree. Based on the collected data, we learn an easy-to-evaluate surrogate function that mimics the SB strategy, by means of solving a learning-to-rank problem, common in ML. The learned ranking function is then used for branching. The learning is instance-specific, and is performed on-the-fly while executing a branch-and-bound search to solve the MIP instance. Experiments on benchmark instances indicate that our method produces significantly smaller search trees than existing heuristics, and is competitive with a state-of-the-art commercial solver.
The Analysis and Prediction of Microphysical States and Polarimetric Radar Variables in a Mesoscale Convective System Using Double-Moment Microphysics, Multinetwork Radar Data, and the Ensemble Kalman Filter

AbstractDoppler radar data are assimilated with an ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) in combination with a double-moment (DM) microphysics scheme in order to improve the analysis and forecast of microphysical states and precipitation structures within a mesoscale convective system (MCS) that passed over western Oklahoma on 8–9 May 2007. Reflectivity and radial velocity data from five operational Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) S-band radars as well as four experimental Collaborative and Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) X-band radars are assimilated over a 1-h period using either single-moment (SM) or DM microphysics schemes within the forecast ensemble. Three-hour deterministic forecasts are initialized from the final ensemble mean analyses using a SM or DM scheme, respectively. Polarimetric radar variables are simulated from the analyses and compared with polarimetric WSR-88D observations for verification. EnKF assimilation of radar data using a multimoment microphysics scheme for .
Concept possession, experimental semantics, and hybrid theories of reference

Contemporary debates about the nature of semantic reference have tended to focus on two competing approaches: theories which emphasize the importance of descriptive information associated with a referring term, and those which emphasize causal facts about the conditions under which the use of the term originated and was passed on. Recent empirical work by Machery and colleagues suggests that both causal and descriptive information can play a role in judgments about the reference of proper names, with findings of cross-cultural variation in judgments that imply differences between individuals with respect to whether they favor causal or descriptive information in making reference judgments. We extend this theoretical and empirical line of inquiry to views of the reference of natural and nominal kind concepts, which face similar challenges to those concerning the reference of proper names. In two experiments, we find evidence that both descriptive and causal factors contribute to judgments of concept reference, with no reliable differences between natural and nominal kinds. Moreover, we find evidence that the same individuals’ judgments can rely on both descriptive and causal information, such that variation between individuals cannot be explained by appeal to a mixed population of “pure descriptive theorists” and “pure causal theorists. ” These findings suggest that the contrast between descriptive and causal theories of reference may be inappropriate; intuitions may instead support a hybrid theory of reference that includes both causal and descriptive factors. We propose that future research should focus on the relationship between these factors, and describe several possible frameworks for pursuing these issues. Our findings have implications for theories of semantic reference, as well as for theories of conceptual structure.
Market-wide Price Pressures, Excess Comovement, and a Transient Factor in Stock Returns

We investigate sources and implications of excess comovement in stock returns. Using an asset pricing model under asymmetric information we show that (1) commonality in noise trading across assets introduces a transient (common) factor in asset returns that is responsible for their comovement in excess of correlation generated by a common component in their fundamental values, and (2) there is a close tie between excess comovement and negative cross-autocorrelations, and only a model with both fundamental and transient return factors can generate positive and negative signs for return cross-autocorrelations. Empirically, we show that negative signs are frequently observed in the cross-autocorrelations of daily returns on a broad range of stock portfolios, which supports the presence of a transient common factor in stock returns. We use cross-autocovariance moment conditions to estimate an extended version of our model, and recover permanent and transient return factors. Our two-factor model fits daily portfolio returns very well, and the transient factor significantly helps in explaining the dynamics of short term returns. We provide evidence that infrequent trading does not significantly influence our results. We estimate “information frictions” (delays in price response to factor shocks) and show that the fundamental friction is decreasing, while transient friction is increasing, in firm size. For the fundamental friction, we find an annual premium in the range of 1.7% to 4.1%. Within the subset of small firms, fundamental and transient friction premia are more pronounced and statistically significant.
The Effect of Discrimination on Earnings: Evidence from Military Test Score Results.

The test score performance of a large sample of youth on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, cross-classified by schooling and race, was used to estimate the relative importance of current and past discrimination in explaining 1960 racial differentials in earnings. Our results indicate that, for schooling levels below college graduate, between 50 and 55 percent of the differentials were attributable to (then) current labor market discrimination and the remaining 50 to 45 percent to the lagged effect of past discrimination, both market and nonmarket. Since these results must be viewed in the context of the imperfect statistical procedure that produced them, a detailed discussion of biases is presented.
SME adoption of IT: the case of electronic trading systems

Literature on the institutional adoption of information technology (IT) can be classified into two approaches, one emphasizing rationalistic goal-oriented behavior and the other focusing on external forces. These approaches, however, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Organizations adopt IT both to achieve efficiency and in response to a variety of environmental and internal pressures. Consequently, there is a clear need for an integrated model that incorporates both institutional pressures and goal-oriented behavior. We develop, operationalize, and empirically test a model that explains the intention of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) brokerages to adopt electronic trading systems (ETS). This model integrates the rational factors driving goal-oriented behavior with the internal and external pressures to which these brokerages are subjected. The model is parsimonious, yet explains 67% of the variance in the intention to adopt ETS. The theoretical and practical implications of this model are discussed.