Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating The Effect Of Bank Competition On Financial Stability In Ten African Countries

This paper explores the relationship between bank competition and financial sector stability using 2005–2010 data for ten African countries. The study utilises a Generalized Method of Moments approach to regress bank stability indices – Z-score, non-performing loans ratio and return on banks assets – on bank competition indices – Lerner-Index, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index total assets and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index total deposits. The findings show a robust positive relationship between market power and financial stability. This unequivocally suggests that there is a trade-off between bank competition and financial sector stability in these countries, as per the competition-fragility view.
Simvastatin Induces Neuroprotection in 6‐OHDA‐Lesioned PC12 via the PI3K/AKT/Caspase 3 Pathway and Anti‐Inflammatory Responses

In addition to their original applications for lowering cholesterol, statins display multiple neuroprotective effects. Inflammatory reactions and the PI3K/AKT/caspase 3 pathway are strongly implicated in dopaminergic neuronal death in Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aims to investigate how simvastatin affects 6‐hydroxydopamine‐lesioned PC12 via regulating PI3K/AKT/caspase 3 and modulating inflammatory mediators.
Intra-household Wealth Inequality and Economic Development: Evidence from Karnataka, India

Inequality within the household is neglected in wealth inequality re-search due to paucity of data and established theoretical frames for accounting for intrahousehold distribution. We develop a framework for welfare theoretic interpretation of intrahousehold wealth inequality. Illustrative data from India shows that 32% of total wealth inequality is attributable to intrahousehold inequality that results in a median welfare loss of as much as 80% for plausible values of inequality aversion.
Nursing home staff turnover: impact on nursing home compare quality measures.

PURPOSE We used data from a large sample of nursing homes to examine the association between staff turnover and quality. DESIGN AND METHODS The staff turnover measures came from primary data collected from 2,840 nursing homes in 2004 (representing a 71% response rate). Data collection included measures for nurse aides, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses. We examined 14 indicators of care quality that came from the Nursing Home Compare Web site. RESULTS We found that reducing turnover from high to medium levels was associated with increased quality, but the evidence was mixed regarding the quality improvements from further lowering turnover to low levels. IMPLICATIONS Our investigation shows that the relationship between turnover and quality might not be linear. Nevertheless, in general, high turnover is associated with poor quality.
Entrepreneurship in Science: Case Studies from Liquid Crystal Application

Current UK policy on the knowledge-driven economy places a heavy weight of expectation on the fostering of entrepreneurial attitudes amongst university scientists. Interviews with the owner-managers of innovative companies in liquid crystal technology suggest that scientist-entrepreneurs are not simply scientists who have become imbued with the entrepreneurial spirit. They are also characterised by particular approaches to science and market intelligence. As scientists, they are fascinated by science-based effects (rather than science as a body of knowledge), knowledge of which tends to be acquired through interpersonal networks. Their knowledge of markets, similarly, tends to be acquired by networking with users. The result is a dynamic mental landscape in which application possibilities constantly churn against user needs to yield a stream of new product concepts, and in which there exists the possibility of insuring against the risks of career moves and strategic changes of direction. Assuming these findings can be replicated in further research, the implication is that the formation of scientist-entrepreneurs may need to foster 'concrete' attitudes towards science and a networking style of operation.
Communities and Managerial Competencies Supporting SMEs Innovation Networking: A Longitudinal Case Study

Over the last few decades, the need for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to rely on networking to get access to innovation and larger knowledge bases has become evident. This paper analyzes the birth and evolution of an Italian innovation community created by a group of SMEs searching for innovation. Coming from quite different fields, these SMEs converged around a challenging project in the field of biomedical and rehabilitation devices. The aim of the paper is twofold: (1) to investigate what type of competences and tasks have to be accomplished to effectively manage an innovation community (IC) and what managerial roles (promotors) emerge by crossing competences and tasks; and (2) to what extent community members' absorptive capacity (ACAP) influences their ability to acquire and exploit innovation generated by the community. Using an in‐depth longitudinal case study analysis, we identified three different stages in community evolution. We also studied which promotors' roles that emerged in each stage and determined their relationship both between each other and to community performance. Furthermore, we investigated to what extent an existing knowledge base in a specific domain and previous experiences in networking influenced community members' ability to exploit innovation. We found that a specific correspondence among competences and tasks is needed to guarantee community performance and that promotors should interact among themselves to enable the community to reach its goal. Concerning ACAP, we found that prior experience and familiarity in networking are not predictive of new knowledge exploitation.
The relationship between temperature and CO2 emissions: evidence from a short and very long dataset

The debate regarding rising temperatures and CO2 emissions has attracted the attention of economists employing recent econometric techniques. This article extends the previous literature using a dataset that covers 800 000 years, as well as a shorter dataset, and examines the interaction between temperature and CO2 emissions. Unit root tests reveal a difference between the two datasets. For the long dataset, all tests support the view that both temperature and CO2 are stationary around a constant. For the short dataset, temperature exhibits trend-stationary behaviour, while CO2 contains a unit root. This result is robust to nonlinear trends or trend breaks. Modelling the long dataset reveals that while contemporaneous CO2 appears positive and significant in the temperature equation, including lags results in a joint effect that is near zero. This result is confirmed using a different lag structure and Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model. A Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach to account for endogeneity suggests an insignificant relationship. In sum, the key result from our analysis is that CO2 has, at best, a weak relationship with temperature, while there is no evidence of trending when using a sufficiently long dataset. Thus, as a secondary result we highlight the danger of using a small sample in this context.
Money, prices and fiscal lags: a note on the dynamics of inflation

The author examines the monetarist-structuralist debate regarding inflation in South America and argues that both positions are limited in their scope. Moreover, the prevailing tendency to rely on a hybrid of the two is not adequate to make up for this limitation. This is because both conceptions tend to underrate, if not to disregard entirely, the part of inertia in the process. While the most familiar source of inflationary inertia is the anticipation of new prices, the more dangerous is built-in inertia arising from objective circumstances. In this regard the author spotlights a specific element of inertia, derived from the fiscal system. Due to a variety of factors, government expenditure generally follows the rise of the price level more rapidly than does government income. Thus, a general price expansion is liable to originate a certain amount of â€œpassiveâ€ fiscal deficit. The author explores this hypothesis through a model that is not intended to replace the monetary or structural interpretations or any mixture of the two, but rather seeks to shed light on some interesting and relevant features that have previously escaped scrutiny and may be of use in identifying certain relevant factors.
Assessment of performance-driven investment strategies of distribution systems using reference networks

Distribution systems are inherent monopolies and therefore they have generally been regulated to protect customers and to ensure cost-effective operation. In the UK this is one of the functions of the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM). Initially the regulation was based on the value of assets but there is now a trend towards performance-based regulation. To achieve this, a methodology is needed that enables the reliability performance associated with alternative investment strategies to be compared with the investment cost of these strategies. At present there is no accepted approach for such assessments. An approach based on the concept of reference networks is proposed. The essential idea is to analyse a small number of networks that represent the real feeders of the system being considered. The main stages are: to classify the real feeders into coherent clusters, to construct a representative network for each cluster, to assess the reliability of these representative networks and to re-aggregate the results to give those for the overall system. These representative networks are then analysed repetitively for different investment scenarios and the corresponding reference networks derived. The approach can be used to assess individual companies on an absolute basis or to compare the relative performance between companies. The approach, its implementation in conjunction with a number of distribution companies, and its effectiveness when approach using the underground part of a real system are described.
Stakeholder Service Perspectives: a Triadic Analysis of Service Quality in South Mississippi Fine Dining Restaurants

The primary goal of this study was to replicate and extend earlier work by Fallon and Schofield that examined the relationship between customer, wait staff and manager perceptions in fine dining restaurants. Subjects included 266 participants from three fine-dining restaurants in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Participants completed a survey instrument revised from the Fallon and Schofield instrument. Participants ranked the most important question in each section of the survey instrument to determine which factor in each quality dimension was most important. There were no significant differences among the participants by restaurant. Composite data were examined to identify differences in perception among participants using analysis of variance. A relationship between wait staff and customers confirmed the earlier work by Fallon and Schofield that managers ranked quality service dimensions higher than other participant groups. Customers ranked service higher as compared with wait staff, which is a new finding for this research.
Mobilization of endothelial precursor cells: Systemic vascular response to musculoskeletal trauma

Postnatal vasculogenesis, the process by which vascular committed bone marrow stem cells or endothelial precursor cells (EPC) migrate, differentiate, and incorporate into the nacent endothelium contributing to physiological and pathological neovascularization, has stimulated much interest. Its contribution to tumor nonvascularization, wound healing, and revascularization associated with skeletal and cardiac muscles ischaemia is established. We evaluated the mobilization of EPCs in response to musculoskeletal trauma. Blood from patients (n = 15) following AO type 42a1 closed diaphyseal tibial fractures was analyzed for CD34 and AC133 cell surface marker expression. Immunomagnetically enriched CD34+ mononuclear cell (MNCCD34+) populations were cultured and examined for phenotypic and functional vascular endothelial differentiation. Circulating MNCCD34+ levels increased sevenfold by day 3 postinjury. Circulating MNCAC133+ increased 2.5‐fold. Enriched MNCCD34+ populations from day 3 samples in culture exhibited cell cluster formation with sprouting spindles. These cells bound UEA‐1 and incorporated fluorescent DiI‐Ac‐LDL intracellularily. Our findings suggest a systemic provascular response is initiated in response to musculoskeletal trauma. Its therapeutic manipulation may have implications for the potential enhancement of fracture healing. © 2006 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 25:44–50, 2007
Trading futures spreads: an application of correlation and threshold filters

A clear motivation for this paper is the investigation of a correlation filter to improve the return/risk performance of spread trading models. A further motivation for this paper is the extension of trading futures spreads beyond the ‘Fair Value’ type of model used by Butterworth and Holmes (2002). The trading models tested are the following: the cointegration ‘fair value’ approach; reverse moving average (of which the results of the 20-day model are shown here); traditional regression techniques; and Neural Network Regression. Also shown is the effectiveness of two types of filter: a standard filter and a correlation filter on the trading rule returns. Results show that the best model for trading the WTI–Brent spread is the MACD model, which proved to be profitable, both in- and out-of-sample. This is evidenced by out-of-sample annualised returns of 26.35% for the standard filter and 26.15% for the correlation filter (inclusive of transactions costs).
Data-Reuse-Driven Energy-Aware Cosynthesis of Scratch Pad Memory and Hierarchical Bus-Based Communication Architecture for Multiprocessor Streaming Applications

As technology advances, it becomes feasible to implement a large multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoCs) to satisfy the increased performance demands of embedded applications. The increased complexity of systems leads to an increased power consumption. Reducing the consumption is an important task, considering that the available power may be limited in battery-operated embedded systems. The selection of memory and communication architectures affects the power efficiency of the design. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that enables the energy-aware cosynthesis of both memory and communication architectures for streaming applications. As opposed to earlier techniques, we propose a powerful compile-time analysis of memory access behavior in multiprocessor systems, which adds flexibility in selecting scratch-pad-based memory architectures. We propose and compare three memory/communication synthesis techniques, namely, an optimal mixed integer-linear-programming (ILP)-based cosynthesis technique, a mixed ILP (MILP)-based traditional two-step synthesis approach, where memory and communication synthesis is sequentially performed, and a cosynthesis heuristic that synthesizes energy-efficient hierarchical bus-based communication architectures with guaranteed throughput. Our experimental results on a number of streaming applications show that both the traditional two-step synthesis approach and heuristic result in up to 50% worse power consumption in comparison with our proposed cosynthesis approach. However, on some of the streaming benchmarks, our cosynthesis heuristic approach was able to find optimal or near-optimal results in a much shorter time than the MILP cosynthesis approach.
Caveolin-1 Is Not Essential for Biosynthetic Apical Membrane Transport

ABSTRACT Caveolin-1 has been implicated in apical transport of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins and influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA). Here we have studied the role of caveolin-1 in apical membrane transport by generating caveolin-1-deficient Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells using retrovirus-mediated RNA interference. The caveolin-1 knockdown (cav1-KD) MDCK cells were devoid of caveolae. In addition, caveolin-2 was retained in the Golgi apparatus in cav1-KD MDCK cells. However, we found no significant alterations in the apical transport kinetics of GPI-anchored proteins or HA upon depletion of caveolin-1. Similar results were obtained using embryonic fibroblasts from caveolin-1-knockout mice. Thus, we conclude that caveolin-1 does not play a major role in lipid raft-mediated biosynthetic membrane trafficking.
Aging and Confidence Judgments in Item Recognition

We examined the effects of aging on performance in an item-recognition experiment with confidence judgments. A model for confidence judgments and response time (RTs; Ratcliff & Starns, 2013) was used to fit a large amount of data from a new sample of older adults and a previously reported sample of younger adults. This model of confidence judgments allows us to distinguish between changes evidence from memory and changes in decision-related components and it accounts for both RT distributions and response proportions. Older adults took longer to respond than younger adults, older adults exhibited a small decrease in the strength of evidence from memory compared with younger adults and a slight bias toward judging items as “old. ” The difference in RTs between the 2 age groups was primarily explained by the difference in the nondecision component. Although our small sample size makes the general conclusions about aging tentative, the results are consistent with other research examining the effects of aging in two-choice RT tasks and response-signal tasks, and the study demonstrates that confidence judgment choice proportion and RT distribution data from older adults can be fit with the response time and confidence 2 (RTCON2) model.
Long-term effects of a low dosage of grape seed proanthocyanidin extract on blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats

Most studies on the antihypertensive effects of bioflavonoids have reported short-term effects (within 7 weeks) at high concentrations (40-100 mg kg-1 day-1). The present study by contrast has investigated long-term effects of low concentrations of bioflavonoids on arterial blood pressure and left ventricular performance in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Spontaneously hypertensive rats were divided into a treated (n = 16) and a control (n = 16) group. The treated group received daily a grape seed proanthocyanidin extract (GSPE) at a concentration of 4mg kg-1day-1 over six months. Arterial blood pressure (ABP) was measured once monthly on six randomly selected rats from both groups using an indirect tail-cuff method. After three months, the remaining rats underwent catheterizations to measure left ventricular performance and aortic pressure. The possible role of nitric oxide (NO) in the effects of GSPE was investigated by blocking NO synthase with N-nitro-Larginine methyl ester (L-NAME). Animals in the treated group had significantly lower arterial end-diastolic pressures (AEDP) after three months of treatment compared with control animals, and this trend continued until six months. In the treated group, left ventricular systolic pressures (LVSP) were reduced by 16.6% (P = 0.005), their dP / dtmax (left ventricular pressures) were reduced by 19.7% (P = 0.050), and cardiac work was reduced by 22.0% (P = 0.045) at the end of three months. Treatment with L-NAME suggested a contribution of NO to the effects of GSPE on blood pressure. A low concentration of GSPE administered over six months lowered AEDP significantly, and the L-NAME response suggested that NO is involved. The decreased AEDP had a lowering effect on left ventricular dynamics of hypertensive rats.
A Brief Political History of South Australian Agriculture

Abstract: This paper aims to explain why South Australian agricultural land use is focused on continually increasing productivity, when the majority of produce is exported, at the long-term expense of agriculturally-based communities and the environment. A historical analysis of literature relevant to the agricultural development of South Australia is used chronologically to report aspects of the industry that continue to cause concerns in the present day. The historically dominant capitalist socio-economic system and ‘anthropocentric’ world views of farmers, politicians, and key stakeholders have resulted in detrimental social, environmental and political outcomes. Although recognition of the environmental impacts of agricultural land use has increased dramatically since the 1980s, conventional productivist, export oriented farming still dominates the South Australian landscape. A combination of market oriented initiatives and concerned producers are, however, contributing to increasing the recognition of the environmental and social outcomes of agricultural practice and it is argued here that South Australia has the opportunity to value multifunctional land use more explicitly via innovative policy.
Household Demand for Internet Connection

This article examines the determinants of Internet connections in Western Australia and some of the regional and socioeconomic differences in Internet adoption. Data on Internet connections from a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are matched to demographic variables, such as household income and other socioeconomic and regional characteristics. Data provided by ISPs do not distinguish whether connections are actively being used, neither do they indicate anything about the intensity of use. Rather, they simply provide the total number of connections at the point-of-presence (POP). The study proceeds on the assumption that connections are the best indicator of the extent of Internet access in any given area at the time of the study. The estimates provide information on the major factors affecting household Internet connection and, therefore, provide information on how factors such as economic and demographic change impact Internet usage. This provides additional insights into the demand for e-commerce and will inform policy makers about the limitations to access of on-line services by the most disadvantaged in the community.
On the Optimality of Portfolio Insurance

This paper examines the optimality of an insurance strategy in which an investor buys a risky asset and a put on that asset. The put's striking price serves as the insurance level. In complete markets, it is highly unlikely that an investor would utilize such a strategy. However, in some types of less complete markets, an investor may wish to purchase a put on the risky asset. Given only a risky asset, a put, and noncontinuous trading, an investor would purchase a put as a way of introducing a risk-free asset into the portfolio. If, in addition, there is a risk-free asset and the investor's utility function displays constant proportional risk-aversion, then the investor would buy the risk-free asset directly and not buy a put. In sum, only under the most incomplete markets would an investor find an insurance strategy optimal.