Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade Credit: Theories and Evidence

In addition to borrowing from financial institutions, firms may be financed by their suppliers. Although there are many theories explaining why non-financial firms lend money, there are few comprehensive empirical tests of these theories. This paper attempts to fill the gap. We focus on a sample of small firms whose access to capital markets may be limited. We find evidence that firms use trade credit relatively more when credit from financial institutions is not available. Thus while short term trade credit may be routinely used to minimize transactions costs, medium term borrowing against trade credit is a form of financing of last resort. Suppliers lend to firms no one else lends to because they may have a comparative advantage in getting information about buyers cheaply, they have a better ability to liquidate goods, and they have a greater implicit equity stake in the firm's long term survival. We find some evidence consistent with the use of trade credit as a means of price discrimination. Finally, we find that firms with better access to credit from financial institutions offer more trade credit. This suggests that firms may intermediate between institutional creditors and other firms who have limited access to financial institutions.
Harvesting in an Eight Species Ecosystem

The theory for a general equilibrium ecosystem model that can include large number of interacting species is presented. Features include: 1) individual plants and animals are assumed to behave as if they are maximizing their net energy intake, 2) short and long-run equilibriums are obtained, 3) species' population adjustments depend on individual net energies. The theory is applied using simulations of an eight-species Alaskan marine ecosystem for which a "natural" equilibrium is calculated. Humans are introduced by adding a regulated open access fishery that harvests one of the species. Fishing impacts the fish population as well as the populations of other species, including Stellar sea lions, an endangered species. The sensitivity of fish and non-fish species populations to harvesting are calculated.
The Entrepreneur's General Personality Traits and Technological Developments

Technological newness and innovativeness are important aspects of small firm development, growth and wealth creation. The contribution of the study to entrepreneurship personality research and to technology-related research in entrepreneurship is that the model of the general personality driven technological development was developed and empirically tested. Hypotheses relating the big five personality factors (OCEAN: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) and technological developments were tested by using multiple regression analysis on survey data from a sample of 160 entrepreneurs from Slovenia. The model reveals two personality factors, which are predictive of technological developments: openness (positive impact) and neuroticism (negative impact). In addition, a positive impact of firm age on technological developments was found. Other personality factors (conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness) of entrepreneurs may not be considered important for their firm technological developments.
Road pricing in Great Britain - winners and losers - technical report

The gains and losses for individuals resulting from the introduction of road user charges were investigated for different regions in Great Britain. A simple policy of making a charge per vehicle kilometre for the use of all roads at a rate that reflects the level of congestion and environmental damages was assessed. This charge rate will vary by the current traffic level, the size of the vehicle, capacity of the road and the nature of the locality. Practical schemes would probably be simpler. Traffic as predicted for the year 2010 was used, and changes in the number of people in the cars and changes in the time of travel were simulated. Additional revenue and revenue neutral situations were examined. The revenue additional policy does more to reduce accidents, fuel consumption and vehicle emissions. The traffic reduction in Outer London would be Greatest in Great Britain and typically greater than in Inner London. There is significant traffic reduction in other conurbations. Rural areas would experience a traffic increase. A revenue additional scheme would affect the rural poor more than the urban poor . There was not a marked relatinoship between deprivation and road pricing as high deprivation is found in most types of area in Great Britain. No systematic relationship between electoral ward income deprivation and the speed and price changes that might arise from road pricing. Car-less people would benefit from clearer roads with no increase in cost. Under a revenue additional policy for most other regions the additional spending would be 1-2% of household budgets for car users, except in the North East where the additional spending might be 3%.
Identification of a DNA methylation signature in blood cells from persons with Down Syndrome

Down Syndrome (DS) is characterized by a wide spectrum of clinical signs, which include segmental premature aging of central nervous and immune systems. Although it is well established that the causative defect of DS is the trisomy of chromosome 21, the molecular bases of its phenotype are still largely unknown. We used the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip to investigate DNA methylation patterns in whole blood from 29 DS persons, using their relatives (mothers and unaffected siblings) as controls. This family-based model allowed us to monitor possible confounding effects on DNA methylation patterns deriving from genetic and environmental factors. Although differentially methylated regions (DMRs) displayed a genome-wide distribution, they were enriched on chromosome 21. DMRs mapped in genes involved in developmental functions, including embryonic development (HOXA family) and haematological (RUNX1 and EBF4) and neuronal (NCAM1) development. Moreover, genes involved in the regulation of chromatin structure (PRMD8, KDM2B, TET1) showed altered methylation. The data also showed that several pathways are affected in DS, including PI3K-Akt signaling. In conclusion, we identified an epigenetic signature of DS that sustains a link between developmental defects and disease phenotype, including segmental premature aging.
Personal Earnings Inequality in the Czech Republic

This paper analyzes the inequality of personal earnings in the Czech Republic since the early transition from communism, using relative distribution method. It applies data from two surveys, Microcensus and Living Conditions, covering the period from 1988 to 2008. The trend suggested by many recent empirics, “hollowing of the middle”, was confirmed in the early stages of transition, but later subsided. Earnings polarization was apparent for all sex and education subgroups between the years 1988 and 1996. For international comparison the European dataset EU-SILC 2008 has been used, focusing on four countries: Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Poland. Earnings distributions by gender and education have been analyzed, establishing that male earnings distribution is more homogenous than female, and earnings of highly educated people are more concentrated in the middle than earnings of less educated people.
Standardizing Knowledge in a Multicultural Society

Abstract Across the United States, in an attempt to raise standards for student learning, states have developed curriculum standards that specify what students are to learn. Raising standards has become synonymous with standardizing curriculum. This study critically examines the reading/language arts and history-social science standards documents in California to explore how the standards movement has reconfigured codes of power, and in whose interests. To address this question, we used Bernstein’s (1975) theory of codes of power in curriculum. Bernstein suggested that codes of power can be uncovered by examining how curriculum is classified and framed. Our analysis suggests that the state’s curriculum standards fit within a political movement to reconfigure power relations among racial, ethnic, language, and social class groupings. This is not simply about trying to improve student learning, but more important, about reasserting who has a right to define what schools are for, whose knowledge has most legitimacy, and how the next generation should think about the social order and their place within it.
Sustainability of China's Economic Growth

In recent years China’s growth rate has been significantly lower. The official growth rate was 7.8 per cent in 1998, and the predicted growth rate for 1999 is 7.4 per cent. There has been continued deflation since 1997. Export growth became negative in early 1999, and turned positive in September 1999. A positive but low growth in exports can be expected for 1999. The trade balance remains in surplus, at US $19 billion in September 1999, but import growth has been much higher than export growth. Foreign reserves are high, reaching US $150 billion in September 1999. While foreign direct investment remains high, it has hardly increased over the previous year. The nominal growth rate of investment in fixed assets used to be 15–20 per cent, but more recently, it was only 8–10 per cent.
Changes in Preservice Teachers' Observations of Middle Georgia Schools and Teacher Practice in the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities from 1998 to 2006

This mixed method study found that teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion practices in the middle Georgia area in the past six years have become more inclusive. The study also showed that teachers’ attitudes about inclusion varied from elementary, middle and high schools; and those teachers’ attitudes do affect the implementation of inclusion. The participants were preservice teachers in elementary, middle, high school and special education classrooms. They completed a questionnaire to evaluate their field placements by rating their experiences and noting their observations of inclusive education in local schools where they were required to volunteer 20 hours weekly for about six weeks. The responses over the years show that attitudes toward inclusion have become more favorable among teachers and that understanding of the meaning of inclusion improved in the preservice teachers. The percent responding positively about inclusion varied from 84% to 87% over the years. The results also show the differences between host teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion--elementary teachers’ attitudes were more positive than teachers of older students.
Effects of Testosterone and Photoperiodic Condition on Song Production and Vocal Control Region Volumes in Adult Male Dark-Eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis)

In seasonally breeding male oscines, song learning and expression are controlled by brain regions (vocal control regions, VCRs) that exhibit seasonal neural plasticity in adulthood. Several VCRs contain androgen receptors, and gonadal androgens play important roles in the control of seasonal structural and functional changes of VCRs. Recent studies also found that adult VCRs are influenced by factors other than gonadal hormones, including photoperiod, but the relative importance of these factors and their mechanisms of action are poorly understood. To address this issue, we investigated the contributions of photoperiod and testicular androgens to the regulation of VCR volumes and to the control of song expression in adult dark-eyed juncos, Junco hyemalis. Exposing castrated (CX) photosensitive males to long days (LD) enhanced their high vocal center (HVc) volumes compared to those of males held on short days (SD). These volumes were not further increased by concurrent testosterone (T) treatment, revealing a marked and gonadal androgen-independent stimulatory influence of photoperiod on the size of this brain region. HVc sizes were smaller in LD-exposed photorefractory than photosensitive males irrespective of whether birds were intact or had been castrated before photoperiodic manipulations, but HVc sizes increased in response to T treatment in intact photorefractory males. Thus, LD exposure can increase HVc volumes in the absence of gonadal T, but large volume induction in photorefractory males requires elevated plasma T levels. Testosterone treatment of SD-exposed photosensitive males increased HVc, but not Area X, MAN, or RA volumes. Only T-treated males sang and this treatment given to castrates was equally effective behaviorally when administered to photosensitive, photostimulated, or photorefractory juncos. This result indicates that the stimulating influence of LD exposure on HVc volumes is insufficient to induce song in the absence of elevated plasma T levels.
The Parameterized Complexity of Oriented Colouring

The oriented colouring problem is intuitive and related to undirected colouring, yet remains NP-hard even on digraph classes with bounded traditional directed width measures. Recently we have also proved that it remains NP-hard in otherwise severely restricted digraph classes. However, unlike most other problems on directed graphs, the oriented colouring problem is not directly transferable to undirected graphs. In the article we look at the parameterized complexity of computing the oriented colouring of digraphs with bounded undirected width parameters, whereas the parameters "forget" about the orientations of arcs and parse them as edges. Specifically, we provide new complexity results for computing oriented colouring on digraphs of bounded undirected rank-width and a new algorithm for this problem on digraphs of bounded undirected tree-width.
The barriers to effective marketization of corporate equity in Libya

Libya is an emerging market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Early efforts to encourage financial market development in the 1990s were re-energised after the lifting of UN sanctions in 2003 following dramatic changes in the Libyan financial market. One of these critical decisions was the establishment of the Libyan stock market in 2006. This thesis attempts to explore the challenges that may face the Libyan stock market by examining the barriers which affect the development of the Libyan stock market. In this endeavour the researcher develops a best practice model to help the Libyan stock market achieve its ambitions. The aim of this thesis is to fill the gap in academic research on MENA financial market by investigating the role of ten selected factors on the development of the Libyan stock market. In this thesis, trust is introduced as a major moderator of the ten selected factors under study. Although, there are many examples in the literature of how to understand and interpret trust and, in particular, behavioural economics, transaction cost economy and more general social process theory leads to different understandings of the concept of trust. In this thesis it is argued that the concept of transaction cost economy allied with social process theory provide useful insights. In order to explore and understand the situation of the Libyan stock market as a human construct; and the factors which may affect Libya and its stock market development, the interpretive accounting research (IAR) appears to be the most suitable paradigm for this research. Thus this study uses qualitative methods and mainly semi-structured interviews.
α-L-iduronidase therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis type I

More than 500 patients with mucopolysaccharidosis type IH (MPS IH; Hurler syndrome) have been treated with hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) throughout the world since the introduction of transplantation as therapy almost 30 years ago. More recently, the availability of recombinant α-L-iduronidase (IDUA) has resulted in the widespread treatment of less severe forms of MPS I with enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). In addition, over 50 MPS IH patients have been treated with a combination of ERT and HCT. The rationale for both ERT and HCT stems from the pivotal experiments performed 4 decades ago that showed α-L-iduronidase supplied in the environment can correct the accumulation of substrate in MPS I cells. Our purpose is to address the multiple applications associated with the therapeutic delivery of IDUA: intermittent delivery of recombinant protein (ERT), continuous administration through cellular therapy (HCT), the use of other stem cells or, potentially, correction of the enzyme defect itself through gene therapy approaches. Even though gene therapy and non-hematopoietic stem cell approaches, have yet to be tested in a clinical setting, it is possible that all these approaches will in the near future be a part of a paradigm shift from unimodal to multimodal therapy for MPS I.
The Survival Advantage: Underlying Mechanisms and Extant Limitations

Recently, researchers have begun to investigate the function of memory in our evolutionary history. According to Nairne and colleagues (e.g., Nairne, Pandeirada, and Thompson, 2008; Nairne, Thompson, and Pandeirada, 2007), the best mnemonic strategy for learning lists of unrelated words may be one that addresses the same problems that our Pleistocene ancestors faced: fitness-relevant problems including securing food and water, as well as protecting themselves from predators. Survival processing has been shown to promote better recall and recognition memory than many well-known mnemonic strategies (e.g., pleasantness ratings, imagery, generation, etc.). However, the survival advantage does not extend to all types of stimuli and tasks. The current review presents research that has replicated Nairne et al.'s (2007) original findings, in addition to the research designs that fail to replicate the survival advantage. In other words, there are specific manipulations in which survival processing does not appear to benefit memory any more than other strategies. Potential mechanisms for the survival advantage are described, with an emphasis on those that are the most plausible. These proximate mechanisms outline the memory processes that may contribute to the advantage, although the ultimate mechanism may be the congruity between the survival scenario and Pleistocene problem-solving.
Noun phrase chunking with APL2

The identification of phrases in a sentence can be useful as a pre-processing step before attempting the full parsing. There is already much literature about finding simple non-recursive non-overlapping Noun Phrases. We have modified the learning paradigm CLOG [4] to produce transformation lists, and we arrived to several interesting conclusions about Noun Phrase chunking. IBM APL2 was used to build a prototype that was later rewritten in C++ for performance purposes.
Adaptation to flooding in upland and lowland ecotypes of Cyperus rotundus, a troublesome sedge weed of rice: tuber morphology and carbohydrate metabolism.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In recent years, Cyperus rotundus has become a problem weed in lowland rice (Oryza sativa) grown in rotation with vegetables in the Philippines. As the growth of C. rotundus is commonly suppressed by prolonged flooding, the ability of the weed to grow vigorously in flooded as well as upland conditions suggests that adapted ecotypes occur in these rotations. Studies were conducted to elucidate the mechanisms that permit C. rotundus to tolerate flooded soil conditions. METHODS Upland and lowland ecotypes of C. rotundus were compared in terms of growth habit, carbohydrate reserves and metabolism, and activities of enzymes involved in alcoholic fermentation - alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC). KEY RESULTS The lowland ecotype has much larger tubers than the upland ecotype. Prior to germination, the amylase activity and total non-structural carbohydrate content in the form of soluble sugars were greater in the tubers of lowland plants than in those of upland C. rotundus. At 24 h after germination in hypoxic conditions, PDC and ADH activities in the lowland plants increased, before decreasing at 48 h following germination. In contrast, ADH and PDC activities in the upland plants increased from 24 to 48 h after germination. CONCLUSIONS Tolerance of lowland C. rotundus of flooding may be attributed to large carbohydrate content and amylase activity, and the ability to maintain high levels of soluble sugars in the tubers during germination and early growth. This is coupled with the modulation of ADH and PDC activities during germination, possibly to control the use of carbohydrate reserves and sustain substrate supply in order to avoid starvation and death of seedlings with prolonged flooding.
Formal Fiscal Restraints and Budget Processes as Solutions to a Deficit and Spending Bias in Public Finances: US Experience and Possible Lessons for EMU

Against the commonly accepted view that in the run-up to EMU the Maastricht fiscal restraints were quite effective in re-aligning public finances in Member States that were showing large excessive deficits, Strauch and von Hagen stress that there are some objections concerning this initial sign of institutional effectiveness. They note that the restraining effect is much less apparent in the early stages of the post-1992 period for some larger countries. Moreover, some countries might have consolidated their public finance position even without the Maastricht fiscal criteria, given their debt level and the macro-economic environment. The authors argue that formal fiscal restraints may be an effective instrument for avoiding excessive deficits, provided they incorporate certain institutional features: the fiscal target must be clear-cut and comprehensive, enforcement should rely on independent agents, and the formal restraints involved should be difficult to amend. They find that EMU fiscal rules show some weaknesses with respect to these guidelines. The authors also stress that the budget process can be an effective instrument for solving the problem posed by a “deficit and spending bias” in public finance. In their opinion this holds also if strict fiscal rules already exist.
OF SEMI-AUTOMATIC APPROACHES TO BUILD CONCEPT MAPS

Concept Maps are graphical tools for knowledge organization and representation. In this decade, we have seen an increasing interest in building concept maps from data sources by applying computational resources, setting out to overcome the issues related to building them from scratch. Nevertheless, we have observed an absence of consistent references, which could allow for a unified vision of this research field. Therefore, considering this gap, we put forward, in this article, a set of classes, organized according to some perspectives, to analyze semiautomatic approaches for building of concept maps. This paper is a part in a research concerned with the use of concept maps in e-learning.