Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
China: Shadow WTO agricultural domestic support notifications

"This paper reviews recent agricultural policy changes in China and presents estimates of domestic support for the period 1996-2005. A set of relevant alternative subsidy-definition scenarios and their effects on the calculated levels of support are analyzed, and a projection of domestic support through 2013 is presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of new WTO rules that may be negotiated in the Doha Round and their implications for China. Based on standard WTO subsidy calculation methods, our results indicated that China's domestic support for the period 1996-2005 has been well below the limits agreed at its WTO accession. The market price support (MPS) component of the aggregate measure of support (AMS) in China has been below zero, and this has dwarfed the relatively small but positive non-product specific AMS and led to a zero current total AMS after de minimis. China has no AMS commitments but can provide trade-distorting domestic support to agricultural producers up to 8.5 percent of the value of production (or RMB561 billion). Thus there appears to be substantial room for China to extend its amber box subsidy measures through heavy use of the de minimis provision. We project domestic support notifications through 2013 based on specified assumptions about domestic policies, including changes in administered prices and commodity program coverage. New rules potentially negotiated in the Doha Round are expected to provide more constraints on subsidies. Due to China's developing country status, with no AMS commitments under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture the impacts of these new constraints are shown to be limited, although our projections indicate that China may exceed its WTO commitment levels under certain price and commodity coverage scenarios. " from authors' abstract
Does the financial crisis influence the month and the trading month effects

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the month and the trading month effects under changing financial trends. The Greek stock market was chosen to implement the authors' assumptions because during the period 2002-2012, there were clear and long-term periods of financial growth and recession. Thus, the authors examine whether the financial trends influence not only the Greek stock market’s returns, but also its anomalies. Design/methodology/approach – Daily financial data from the Athens Exchange General Index for the period 2002-2012 are used. The sample is separated into two sub-periods: the financial growth sub-period (2002-2007), and the financial recession sub-period (2008-2012). Several linear and non-linear models were applied to find which is the most appropriate, and the results suggested that the T-GARCH model better fits the sample. Findings – The empirical results show that changing economic and financial conditions influence the calendar effects. The trading month effect, especially, completel.
Evolution equation of a stochastic semigroup with white-noise drift

We study the existence and uniqueness of the solution of a functionvalued stochastic evolution equation based on a stochastic semigroup whose kernel p(s; t; y; x) is Brownian in s and t. The kernel p is supposed to be measurable with respect to the increments of an underlying Wiener process in the interval [s; t]. The evolution equation is then anticipative and choosing the Skorohod formulation we establish existence and uniqueness of a continuous solution with values in L(R). As an application we prove the existence of a mild solution of the stochastic parabolic equation dut = xudt+ v (dt; x) ru+ F (t; x; u)W (dt; x) where v and W are Brownian in time with respect to a common ltration. In this case, p is the formal backward heat kernel of x + v (dt; x) rx. Supported by the DGICYT grant no. PB96-0087 ySupported by NSF International Opportunities Postdoctoral Fellowship no. INT9600278 and NSF-NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship no. DGE-9633937 AMS Subject Classi cation: Primary 60H15, secondary 60H07
Functional Correlates Of Verbal Working Memory In Healthy Aging And Early Alzheimer's Disease

FUNCTIONAL CORRELATES OF VERBAL WORKING MEMORY IN HEALTHY AGING AND EARLY ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE by MICHAEL ADAM SUGARMAN December 2012 Advisor: Dr. John L. Woodard Major: Psychology (Clinical) Degree: Master of Arts Deficits in the working memory system are common in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, little is known regarding the neurobiological basis of this impairment. The current study examined the neurobiological functional correlates of the working memory system in early AD patients and cognitively intact control participants using a word list repetition task performed during positron emission tomography (PET). Compared to a reading control task, both the AD and control groups utilized a network of parietal, frontal, and cerebellar regions while completing the word rehearsal task. However, control participants displayed greater activation in all regions, especially in the parietal lobes. In the frontal lobes, AD patients displayed right-lateralized recruitment compared to bilateral frontal recruitment in the control group. Comparison of 10-word list rehearsal to 5-word indicated a shift from parietal activity to more prominent frontal and cerebellar activity in the control group with increased load demands. This type of shift in activity was not observed in the patient group. Additionally, parietal activity was inversely correlated with working memory performance in the control group only. Left cerebellar activity was correlated with behavioral performance in both groups. Overall, it appears that the working memory deficits observed in AD patients may be related to dysfunction in
Labour Market Effects of Unemployment Accounts: Insights from Behavioural Economics

This paper reconsiders the behavioural effects of replacing the existing unemployment insurance system with unemployment accounts (UAs). Under this alternative system, workers are required to save a fraction of their wage in special accounts whereas the unemployed are allowed to withdraw savings from these accounts. Previous studies argued that such a reform will improve employment incentives considerably and thereby lead to a dramatic decrease in unemployment levels and durations. We show that this expected impact hinges critically on the assumptions on intertemporal choice. Using recent insights from behavioural economics, we demonstrate that the theoretical impact of UAs on unemployment is limited. This study points out that the overall effect of introducing an UA system on labour market behaviour is ambiguous rather than substantially positive.
Implicit self-esteem.

People tend to be biased in favor of their ingroup even when ingroups are minimally defined (Tajfel and Turner, 1979). Tajfel and Turner (1986) argued that such an ingroup bias arises out of people's motivation to achieve a satisfactory image of the self through a positive social identity, leading to behaviors that enhance the ingroup and derogate the outgroup. As such, how one evaluates the self, and how one evaluates important social identities, should be related. In selfreport measures positivity of the self-concept, or personal self-esteem, is correlated with evaluations of social identity, or collective self-esteem (Crocker, Luhtanen, Blaine, and Broadnax, 1994; Luhtanen and Crocker, 1992). However, the level of stigmatization of one's social identity has no effect on personal selfesteem (Crocker and Major, 1989), and the relationship between self-esteem and ingroup favoritism is unclear (Abrams and Hogg, 1988). A source of such ambiguity may be the unreliability of self-report measures of self-esteem. While self-report measures of personal self-esteem seek to assess affective self-regard, they also manage to capture constructs such as impression management and selfdeception. We propose that an indirect measure of self-esteem, similar to indirect measures developed in attitude research, has the potential of shedding light on the relationship between personal self-esteem and ingroup favoritism. A potential indirect measure is provided by the Implicit Association Test ( I N ; Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz, 1998), which assesses automatic (and not necessarily consciously reportable) concept-attribute associations. The IAT has already been used to measure automatic associations of ethnic groups with evaluation (implicit prejudice, or implicit ingroup favoritism), and of gender
Even and odd holes in cap-free graphs

It is an old problem in graph theory to test whether a graph contains a chordless cycle of length greater than three (hole) with a specific parity (even, odd). Studying the structure of graphs without odd holes has obvious implications for Berge's strong perfect graph conjecture that states that a graph G is perfect if and only if neither G nor its complement contain an odd hole. Markossian, Gasparian, and Reed have proven that if neither G nor its complement contain an even hole, then G is β-perfect. In this article, we extend the problem of testing whether G(V, E) contains a hole of a given parity to the case where each edge of G has a label odd or even. A subset of E is odd (resp. even) if it contains an odd (resp. even) number of odd edges. Graphs for which there exists a signing (i.e., a partition of E into odd and even edges) that makes every triangle odd and every hole even are called even-signable. Graphs that can be signed so that every triangle is odd and every triangle is odd and every hole is odd are called odd-signable. We derive from a theorem due to Truemper co-NP characterizations of even-signable and odd-signable graphs. A graph is strongly even-signable if it can be signed so that every cycle of length ≥ 4 with at most one chord is even and every triangle is odd. Clearly a strongly even-signable graph is even-signable as well. Graphs that can be signed so that cycles of length four with one chord are even and all other cycles with at most one chord are odd are called strongly odd-signable. Every strongly odd-signable graph is odd-signable. We give co-NP characterizations for both strongly even-signable and strongly odd-signable graphs. A cap is a hole together with a node, which is adjacent to exactly two adjacent nodes on the hole. We derive a decomposition theorem for graphs that contain no cap as induced subgraph (cap-free graphs). Our theorem is analogous to the decomposition theorem of Burlet and Fonlupt for Meyniel graphs, a well-studied subclass of cap-free graphs. If a graph is strongly even-signable or strongly odd-signable, then it is cap-free. In fact, strongly even-signable graphs are those cap-free graphs that are even-signable. From our decomposition theorem, we derive decomposition results for strongly odd-signable and strongly even-signable graphs. These results lead to polynomial recognition algorithms for testing whether a graph belongs to one of these classes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 30: 289–308, 1999
Order Dynamics in the Italian Treasury Security Wholesale Secondary Market

MTS markets are an example of quote driven electronic order book markets for Government securities. Proposals are firm, immediately executable and aggregated in a limit order book. In this paper we analyse the evolution of the interaction between the order book and order flow by exploring the determinants of the flows of limit and market orders over three years. We are able to test several hypotheses coming from theoretical models. This is, to our knowledge, one of the first empirical test of these hypotheses based on Government bond data. We find that market and limit orders show positive autocorrelation and clustering as in Biais et al. (1995). No activity is clustered as well. This diagonal effect could also explain the positive impact of book depth near the quote on the flows of new limit orders. On the contrary, depth beyond the second best price seems to play no role in book dynamics. Furthermore, increasing competition, measured as an increase in the number of operators, has a negative effect on orders. In addition, we find mild support to the theoretical prediction of a positive effect of book depth on order aggressiveness. Best spread, instead, behaves consistently with theoretical models: a larger best spread encourages new limit orders inside-thequote.
Austrian Corporatism and Gradual Institutional Change in the Relationship between Apprenticeship Training and School-based VET

Within the context of collective skill formation systems, Austria presents a case in which a well-developed vocational education and training (VET) system provides a differentiated set of pathways for youth as they prepare their transitions from school to work. If we wish to draw lessons from a comparison of collective skill systems, the dynamic relationship between a strong dual apprenticeship training system and a robust school-based training system is one of the key factors differentiating VET in Austria from the VET systems in Germany and Switzerland. Indeed, we argue that the Austrian collective skill system as well as contemporary changes within it cannot be understood without understanding full-time vocational schooling in Austria. [https://global.oup. com/academic/product/the-political-economy-of-collective-skill-formation-9780199599431;jsessionid=A6DFC60A487815E0A05546BA1D9828A0? cc=lu&lang=en& Click here for more information]
Virtual Network Embedding in SDN/NFV based Fiber-Wireless Access Network

Network Virtualization, which allows multiple Virtual Networks (VN) coexisting on a common Substrate Network (SN) with the guarantee of logical independence and security, provides a new solution for the global resource optimization of Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) access network. However, little attention has been paid to the implementation of the customized functions and protocols of VNs. Software-Defined Network (SDN), which changes how networks are managed by providing a logically centralized controller, is a revolution of network and becomes a promising way for the control and management of virtualized FiWi access network. Furthermore, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has come into view for its ability of providing multiple network functions with low cost. Particularly, Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) is one of the most import issues in network virtualization. Prior works ignore the flexibility of resource reconfiguration of SN. In this paper, the architecture of SDN/NFV based FiWi access network virtualization is proposed. Under the proposed architecture, we further propose a VNE algorithm based on network reconfiguration. Two network reconfiguration operations are exploited and a channel reallocation scheme is proposed to restrict the channel reallocation cost of wireless radio interface. Simulation is implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed algorithm in increasing the VN acceptance ratio and the revenue of infrastructure provider.
Mouse heat shock transcription factors 1 and 2 prefer a trimeric binding site but interact differently with the HSP70 heat shock element

To understand the function of multiple heat shock transcription factors in higher eukaryotes, we have characterized the interaction of recombinant mouse heat shock transcription factors 1 and 2 (mHSF1 and mHSF2) with their binding site, the heat shock element (HSE). For our analysis, we utilized the human HSP70 HSE, which consists of three perfect 5'-nGAAn-3' sites (1, 3, and 4) and two imperfect sites (2 and 5) arranged as tandem inverted repeats. Recombinant mHSF1 and mHSF2, which exist as trimers in solution, both bound specifically to this HSE and stimulated transcription of a human HSP70-CAT construct in vitro. Footprinting analyses revealed differential binding of mHSF1 and mHSF2 to the HSP70 HSE. Specifically, mHSF1 bound all five pentameric sites, whereas mHSF2 failed to interact with the first site of the HSE but bound to sites 2 to 5. Missing-nucleoside analysis demonstrated that the third and fourth nGAAn sites were essential for mHSF1 and mHSF2 binding. The binding of the initial mHSF1 trimer to the HSE exhibited preference for sites 3, 4, and 5, and then binding of a second trimer occurred at sites 1 and 2. These results suggest that HSF may recognize its binding site through the dyad symmetry of sites 3 and 4 but requires an adjacent site for stable interaction. Our data demonstrate that mHSF1 and mHSF2 bind specifically to the HSE through major groove interactions. Methidiumpropyl-EDTA footprinting revealed structural differences in the first and third repeats of the HSE, suggesting that the DNA is distorted in this region. The possibility that the HSE region is naturally distorted may assist in understanding how a trimer of HSF can bind to what is essentially an inverted repeat binding site.
Investor Happiness

We study investor happiness in a panel survey of brokerage clients at a UK bank. When investors anticipate future happiness, they set their aspirations according to personal portfolio risk, objectives, investment horizon, con dence, and other individual characteristics. They are accurate in their forecasts, only rarely are investors unhappy with outcomes they predicted they would be happy with, and vice versa. However, determinants of experienced happiness only partially correspond to the ones found for anticipated happiness. In particular, relative performance plays an important role investors do not anticipate. Having outperformed other people contributes to investor happiness, as does active trading success.
Automatic protein structure classification through structural fingerprinting

In this paper, we present a new scheme named "CP-Mine" for automatic three-dimensional (3D) protein structure classification using structural fingerprints. We represent a 3D protein structure as a CPset, which is a set of inter-SSE contact patterns (CPs) existing in the protein. Suppose we have a database of protein structures whose class labels are already known, and suppose there are distinct protein structure classes in the database. For each class, we generate its fingerprint by mining the frequent CPsets from all the member protein structures belonging to this class. When we want to predict the class label of an unknown protein, we also generate the CPset of this protein, and find the intersection between this CPset and the fingerprint of each protein structure class one by one. Then, the labels of the classes with the highest degree of intersection are returned as the answer. The proposed method is a pure classification scheme in that any kind of structural comparison, alignment or searching is not needed to be performed. The preliminary experimental results shows that our method can classify the protein structures accurately and efficiently.
Stress-induced pulse pressure change predicts women's carotid atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Individuals who exhibit large increases in blood pressure and heart rate during mental stress may be at risk for accelerated atherosclerosis. This report evaluates the association between stress-induced hemodynamic responses and carotid atherosclerosis in 254 healthy postmenopausal women. METHODS The magnitude of change in blood pressure and heart rate from rest to public speaking and mirror image tracing, two stressful tasks, was measured. Average intima-media thickness (IMT) and focal plaque in the common carotid artery, bulb, and internal carotid artery were measured with the use of duplex ultrasonography on average 2.3 years later. RESULTS The average IMT was 0.77 mm, with a range of 0.60 to 1.37; 52.5% had at least one plaque. Correlational analysis showed that greater IMT was associated with greater pulse pressure change during mental stress (r = 0.17, P < 0.01). Statistical adjustments for possible confounders (age, hormone replacement therapy use, resting pulse pressure, smoking status, and triglyceride levels) did not alter the results. The plaque index was associated with greater pulse pressure change during the mirror image tracing task (odds ratio = 1.47, P = 0.01) for women with a plaque score of > or = 2 versus 1 or 0, adjusted for possible confounders. CONCLUSIONS Mental stress-induced pulse pressure changes may influence the development of early atherosclerosis in the carotid artery of women. Widening of pulse pressure during stress, as well as at rest, may be a marker of compromised compliance in the vessel wall.
Design & implementation of high speed low power scan flip-flop

Over the years, The semiconductor industry has made tremendously impressive improvement in terms of density of very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. Increasing demand for System on Chip(SoC) design can be viewed as a consequence of this trend. In SoC testing, Scan-path test is being used widely to reduce test generation complexity for circuit containing storage devices and feedback paths with combinational logic. Since a lot of scan flip flops are used in scan path testing of SoC, improving the performance of scan flip-flops is significantly important. In the past decade, many flip-flop designs have been proposed which incorporate Scan functionality into flip-flop architecture, to combat flip-flop latency. However, no attempts have been made towards FPGA implementation of these designs. In this paper, we have attempted to provide a FPGA approach to solve the issue. We have implemented the Dynamic node scan Flip-flop on Spartan 6 family device. Our scan flip-flop architecture has 14.38% reduction in Power-Delay Product over the previous architecture.
Ground Lease-Based Land Use System versus Common Interest Development

In recent decades, we observe brisk growth of ground lease-based land use systems, such as shopping malls, and Common Interest Developments in retail and residential real estate, respectively. I argue that the ground lease system is an efficient response to the hold-up problem in urban land use because of two facts: the bundled consumption of land and collective goods, and landowners’ limited ex-post mobility. It incorporates the core insight of Henry George view with Tiebout competition. But, due to bundled consumption, different characteristics of retail and residential real estate determine the dominance of the ground lease systems and CIDs, respectively. (JEL R52)
Inflammatory Diseases of the Central Nervous System (17-Feb-2005)

Inflammatory diseases form an important core of diseases of the Central Nervous System. By definition, neurological diseases of dogs and cats are characterized by central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. The one exception is feline spongiform encephalopathy, caused by an atypical infectious agent, a scrapie-like, transmissible prion protein. The hallmark of CNS inflammation is infiltration of peripheral blood leukocytes into the neuroparenchyma and its coverings, resulting in various types of encephalitis and/or meningitis, and sometimes associated with altered vascular integrity that leads to edema [1]. Miscellaneous inflammatory disorders such as diskospondylitis and otitis media-interna (both typically bacterial in nature) are discussed under Degenerative and Compressive Structural Disorders, and Peripheral Nerve Disorders, respectively.