Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sticks and Carrots: The Effect of Contract Frame on Effort in Incomplete Contracts

ABSTRACT: In this study, we examine the effect of incentive contract framing on agent effort in an incomplete contract setting. Prior research suggests that when governed by complete incentive contracts, agents exert greater effort under penalty contracts relative to bonus contracts. However, in an incomplete contract setting, in which the incentive contract does not govern all tasks for which the agent is responsible, the agent's trust in the principal is relevant. In this setting, we predict that bonus contracts create a more trusting environment, and this effect spills over to tasks not governed by the incentive contract, such that bonus contracts elicit greater effort on these tasks as compared to penalty contracts. We develop and experimentally validate a theoretical model of the effects of contract frame on trust and effort in this incomplete contract setting. The main intuition behind the model is that the framing of an incentive contract affects the degree to which the contract terms are interpret.
Brain Signaling and Behavioral Responses Induced by Exposure to 56Fe-Particle Radiation

Abstract Denisova, N. A. , Shukitt-Hale, B. , Rabin, B. M. and Joseph, J. A. Brain Signaling and Behavioral Responses Induced by Exposure to 56Fe-Particle Radiation. Radiat. Res. 158, 725–734 (2002). Previous experiments have demonstrated that exposure to 56Fe-particle irradiation (1.5 Gy, 1 GeV) produced aging-like accelerations in neuronal and behavioral deficits. Astronauts on long-term space flights will be exposed to similar heavy-particle radiations that might have similar deleterious effects on neuronal signaling and cognitive behavior. Therefore, the present study evaluated whether radiation-induced spatial learning and memory behavioral deficits are associated with region-specific brain signaling deficits by measuring signaling molecules previously found to be essential for behavior [pre-synaptic vesicle proteins, synaptobrevin and synaptophysin, and protein kinases, calcium-dependent PRKCs (also known as PKCs) and PRKA (PRKA RIIβ)]. The results demonstrated a significant radiation-induced increase in reference memory errors. The increases in reference memory errors were significantly negatively correlated with striatal synaptobrevin and frontal cortical synaptophysin expression. Both synaptophysin and synaptobrevin are synaptic vesicle proteins that are important in cognition. Striatal PRKA, a memory signaling molecule, was also significantly negatively correlated with reference memory errors. Overall, our findings suggest that radiation-induced pre-synaptic facilitation may contribute to some previously reported radiation-induced decrease in striatal dopamine release and for the disruption of the central dopaminergic system integrity and dopamine-mediated behavior.
Interactions with lectins and agglutination profiles of clinical, food, and environmental isolates of Listeria

On the basis of preliminary trials with 14 collection strains of Listeria, five lectins (Canavalia ensiformis, concanavalin A; Griffonia simplicifolia lectin I; Helix pomatia agglutinin; Ricinus communis agglutinin; and Triticum vulgaris wheat germ agglutinin) were selected to set up a microtiter agglutination assay. The lectin agglutination profiles of 174 clinical, food, and environmental strains of Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria innocua, and Listeria seeligeri were investigated. Data on the standard determination of the antigenic structure were available for clinical strains; nonclinical isolates were assigned to serogroup 1 or 4 with commercial antisera. The listeria-lectin interaction was related to serological type rather than species; in particular, the strains assigned to serogroup 1 or belonging to serovars 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, 3a, 3b, and 7 were never agglutinated by G. simplicifolia lectin I. The five-lectin set proved to be capable of detecting differences between serologically identical isolates of L. monocytogenes. Of the 150 isolates of this species, 144 were distributed over 15 different lectin agglutination profiles and 6 autoagglutinated, the overall typeability being 96%. However, the profiles encountered among L. monocytogenes isolates were not randomly distributed. With strains assigned to serogroup 1 or belonging to serovars 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, and 3b, the clinical isolates fell into only two of the eight patterns recorded overall; with strains of serogroup 4 and serovar 4b, food and environmental isolates were distributed over eight of the nine patterns found in total, while clinical isolates were distributed over five patterns. In a comparative study of 15 epidemiologically relevant isolates of L. monocytogenes from five distinct outbreaks, strains with identical phage types and/or DNA fingerprints displayed identical lectin profiles. The heterogeneity of agglutination profiles may form the basis of a new approach to L. monocytogenes typing.
American Public Policy: An Introduction

1. Public Policy: An Introduction. 2. Contexts of Public Policy. 3. The Economy: Changing Government-Business Relationships. 4. Economic Issues: Taxing, Spending, and Budgeting. 5. Energy and Environmental Policies: Policy Instability. 6. Crime and Criminal Justice: Dilemmas of Social Control. 7. Poverty and Social Welfare Policy. 8. Health Care: Historic Change? 9. Education: Conflict in Policy Direction. 10. Legal and Social Equality: The Struggle Against Oppression and Bigotry. 11. Immigration Policy: The Barely Open Door. 12. Foreign Defense Policy: Security and Interests in a Dangerous World. 13. Private Morality and Public Policy: Moral Values, the Constitution, and the Open Society.
Creating probabilistic maps of the face network in the adolescent brain: A multicentre functional MRI study

Large‐scale magnetic resonance (MR) studies of the human brain offer unique opportunities for identifying genetic and environmental factors shaping the human brain. Here, we describe a dataset collected in the context of a multi‐centre study of the adolescent brain, namely the IMAGEN Study. We focus on one of the functional paradigms included in the project to probe the brain network underlying processing of ambiguous and angry faces. Using functional MR (fMRI) data collected in 1,110 adolescents, we constructed probabilistic maps of the neural network engaged consistently while viewing the ambiguous or angry faces; 21 brain regions responding to faces with high probability were identified. We were also able to address several methodological issues, including the minimal sample size yielding a stable location of a test region, namely the fusiform face area (FFA), as well as the effect of acquisition site (eight sites) and scanner (four manufacturers) on the location and magnitude of the fMRI response to faces in the FFA. Finally, we provided a comparison between male and female adolescents in terms of the effect sizes of sex differences in brain response to the ambiguous and angry faces in the 21 regions of interest. Overall, we found a stronger neural response to the ambiguous faces in several cortical regions, including the fusiform face area, in female (vs. male) adolescents, and a slightly stronger response to the angry faces in the amygdala of male (vs. female) adolescents. Hum Brain Mapp, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Effects on American Foreign Direct Investment in the United Kingdom from not Adopting the Euro

The decision of the United Kingdom not to adopt the common European currency can be understood as a policy intervention in a single country within the European Union. The aim of this article is to analyse the consequences of this decision on the foreign direct investment received by this country. This is done by the application of a synthetic control method designed for policy evaluation. As a result, evidence of a significant cost in terms of inward foreign direct investment from the United States is obtained.
Dépenses « visibles » et perspectives de réélection dans un scrutin à deux tours : Le cas des élections municipales françaises

Nous etudions l’influence des variables economiques et politiques sur les resultats obtenus par les candidats des partis sortants aux elections municipales francaises. Les contributions de l’article sont les suivantes: (1) nous travaillons sur la probabilite de reelection des sortants a chacun des deux tours, (2) nous integrons explicitement les specificites induites par le mode de scrutin et le degre de concurrence electorale, et (3) nous montrons que, en France, outre les variables traditionnelles, la structure des budgets communaux, via les depenses de fonctionnement (et notamment les depenses salariales), influence effectivement le choix des electeurs, mais seulement au premier tour. Les « depenses visibles » (d’equipement) ressortent moins fortement dans les grandes que dans les petites communes. Enfin, les considerations politiques et partisanes ressortent de facon essentielle pour expliquer les resultats au second tour.
CCR7 Plays No Appreciable Role in Trafficking of Central Memory CD4 T Cells to Lymph Nodes

CCR7−/− mice exhibit profound anomalies in lymph node and spleen architecture, which complicates the study of CCR7-mediated T cell trafficking in vivo. To circumvent this problem, we established in vivo models in which wild-type and CCR7−/− populations coexist within mice possessing normal lymphoid organs and must compete for developmental niches within the tissues of these mice. Under the conditions we have created in vivo, we find the entry of memory CD4 T cells into lymph nodes from the blood to be independent of CCR7. Thus, the central memory CD4 T cells that traffic though lymph nodes, which are often defined by their expression of CCR7, do not appear to gain any competitive homing advantage by expressing this receptor. Furthermore, in contrast to cutaneous dendritic cell populations, we found that CCR7 deficiency had no appreciable effect on the exit of CD4 T cells from inflamed skin. Finally, we found that wild-type and CCR7−/− precursors were equally represented within the major thymic subpopulations, despite previous findings that CCR7 plays a role in seeding the thymus from bone marrow–derived T cell precursors.
Financial Valuation and Risk Management Working Paper No . 452 Technical Trading Revisited : False Discoveries , Persistence Tests , and Transaction Costs

We revisit the apparent historical success of technical trading rules on daily prices of the DJIA index from 1897 to 2011, and use the False Discovery Rate as a new approach to data snooping. The advantage of the FDR over existing methods is that it selects more outperforming rules which allows diversifying against model uncertainty. Persistence tests show that, even with the more powerful FDR technique, an investor would never have been able to select ex ante the future best-performing rules. Moreover, even in-sample, the performance is completely offset by the introduction of low transaction costs. Overall, our results seriously call into question the economic value of technical trading rules that has been reported for early periods.
On complex adaptive systems and agent-based modelling for improving decision-making in manufacturing and logistics settings: Experiences from a packaging company

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the tactical and operational decision making of manufacturing and logistics operations by providing novel insights into modelling and simulation, based on complex adaptive systems (CAS). Design/methodology/approach – The research approach is theoretically based on CAS with agent‐based modelling (ABM) as the implementation method. A case study is presented where an agent‐based model has contributed to increased understanding and precision in decision making at a packaging company in the UK.Findings – The results suggest that ABM provides decision‐makers with robust and accurate “what‐if” scenarios of the dynamic interplay among several business functions. These scenarios can guide managers in the process of moving from policy space to performance space, i.e. concerning priorities of improvement efforts and choices of production/manufacturing policies, warehouse policies, customer service policies and logistics policies. Furthermore, it is found that ABM can include.
Pricing to market of Italian exporting firms

This article investigates the pricing-to-market (PTM) behaviour of Italian exporting firms, using quarterly survey data by sector and by region over the period 1999q1 to 2005q2. A partial equilibrium imperfect competition model provides the structure according to which the orthogonality of structural shocks is derived. Impulse response analysis shows non-negligible reactions of export-domestic price margins to unanticipated changes in cost competitiveness and in foreign and domestic demand levels, even though these effects appear to be of a transitory nature. For the period 1999 to 2001, a typical PTM behaviour emerges, while, during the most recent years favourable foreign demand conditions allowed firms to increase their export-domestic price margins in face of a strong deterioration of their cost competitiveness. Macroeconomic implications of the observed PTM behaviour are also discussed.
Diminishing Choices: Gender, Small Bags of Fertilizer, and Household Food Security Decisions in Malawi

This paper examines two decisions farmers in southern Malawi make every planting season: whether or not to acquire increasingly expensive chemical fertilizers and whether or not to buy and plant equally expensive hybrid maize seed. Both choices are interrelated. Maize is the staple food crop in Malawi and the key to food security; and traditionally, 95 percent of the total land area cultivated in maize has been planted to local open-pollinated varieties instead of the newer semi-flint hybrids. Local maize is very popular with smallholder subsistence farmers as is hybrid maize, that when fertilized, intensifies production improving food security at both household and national levels. In the current economic environment, however, planting hybrid maize has two drawbacks. The first is the high price of seed and the second is its high requirements of fertilizer. With fertilizer unaffordable to many farmers, especially to women farmers of poorer female-headed households, planting hybrid maize is impractical. This paper disaggregates Malawi's farmers into subgroups of men, married women, and female headed households, describes the decision processes they make, and examines whether small bags of fertilizer will make any difference to the dilemma they now face.
Behavior Change of Crickets in a Robot-Mixed Society

This paper presents a study on cricket behavior using an interdisciplinary robot/insect mixed society setup. Field crickets of the species Gryllus bimaculatus were allowed to interact with micro-robots equipped with decoys. This allows the stimulation of insect behaviors that are usually difficult to bring out evoke insects alone, allowing consistent behavioral research. We performed a set of experiments focused on the comparative study of the behavior of dominant and subordinate male crickets after a dominance dispute is settled. From these experiments we were able to collect evidence on the differences between subordinate and dominant behavior towards different decoys.
Configurable portable/ambulatory instrument for the analysis of the coordination between respiration and swallowing

Physiological studies of swallowing and the diagnosis and treatment of dysphagia are crucially dependent of detailed information of respiratory and feeding events. Home telemonitoring is of great interest in this area, where large numbers of people have long term conditions. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) describe a new configurable instrument that can be used in ambulatory and telemedicine applications and (2) evaluate the performance of this device in the description of physiological and abnormal events during water swallowing. The instrument is able to detect when water is beginning to enter the mouth of the volunteer, to unobtrusively monitor the respiration, and to characterize the elevation of the larynx. The performance of the system was tested in normal subjects and patients with dysphagia, showing results in close agreement with the physiology. We concluded that the developed system could be a useful tool for the ambulatory evaluation of respiratory and feeding events and for the implementation of telemedicine services, contributing to reduce the costs of the assistance offered to patients with dysphagia.
Is Value Really Riskier Than Growth?

We investigate the relative risk of value to growth using a model that considers time-variation in investors’ risk preferences and return distributions. In this model, three well-known conventional equilibrium risk measures are allowed to regime-switch over time; beta, downside beta, and higher moments (co-skewness and co-kurtosis). Our empirical results show that none of these risk measures support that value is not riskier than growth in the post-1963 period. On the contrary, we find that the large positive value-minus-growth portfolio returns are explained by over-reaction (under-reaction) to positive (negative) market movements in a short, specific time periods, during which the average returns of the value-minus-growth portfolios are more than 2% a month. We propose a quasi-rational explanation for this asymmetric response, namely that the large positive value-minus-growth portfolio returns are driven by the return reversal subsequent to overreaction to signals.
What drives the willingness to pay for crop insurance against extreme weather events (flood and drought) in Pakistan? A hypothetical market approach

Pakistan has become a poster child for extreme weather events such as floods and droughts in recent years. The frequency and severity of these events are expected to increase in the future due to predicted climatic changes. This scenario suggests the likelihood of increased crop damage in flood- or drought-prone areas, and hence the need for risk-reducing mechanisms. This paper attempts to determine whether crop insurance is an acceptable tool against flood and drought events in rural Pakistan. It also analyses the factors influencing a farmer's willingness to pay insurance premiums. In a rural farm-household survey, farmers were asked about their willingness to pay for a hypothetical crop insurance programme employing a “double-bounded dichotomous contingent valuation method”. The results revealed that around 30% of the respondents accepted the idea of crop insurance as a tool to reduce and mitigate the financial risks associated with floods and droughts. Our findings suggest that the frequency and severity of the previous weather-related extremes, socio-economic settings, farm typology and the farming communities’ ability to pay need to be taken into consideration when introducing crop insurance programmes against flood or drought in Pakistan. Furthermore, disseminating awareness among farming communities about the future climatic changes and the associated risks of the occurrence of extreme weather events is imperative. The government's willingness to share/subsidize insurance premiums may increase the demand for crop insurance among smallholders in Pakistan and protect them from the negative repercussions of these extreme weather events in order to sustain their livelihoods.
News Coverage of Human Rights

News coverage of human rights is important for education, the protection of rights, and the development of foreign policy. The relationship between the media and human rights makes it essential to know how human rights are reported by the media. Previous studies on news coverage of human rights have examined only the amount of coverage, not its content. This study analyzes human rights coverage in the New York Times, Time magazine, and the CBS Evening News for a ten-year period, 1978-1987. An examination of the different indexes determined what rights and which countries received media attention. I found that the three news outlets present a similar view of human rights, focusing on civil and political rights; there is very little attention given to economic, social, and cultural rights. Geographical coverage focuses on a small number of countries primarily in two regions, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Estimating crop supply response in the presence of farm programmes: application to the CAP

This paper proposes an analytical framework allowing estimation of the effects of the new instrumentation of the CAP in the arable crop sector--price cuts, compensatory payments and land set-aside schemes--on crop acreage allocations, supplies and yields. Duality theory is used to model crop supply response in the presence of voluntary acreage control programmes and direct aids per hectare to producers. The definition of a profit function where total land is fixed but allocatable to the various crops allows us to obtain, via the envelope theorem, output and variable input equations, which can be used with the first-order conditions for an optimal land allocation as a basis for comparative statics analysis of the three main instruments of the CAP. Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.
TEACHER MADE ASSESSMENT AUTHENTICITY IN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO STUDENTS’ ENGLISH ACHIEVEMENT

Abstract The present study aims at analyzing the authenticity of teacher made assessment in State Senior High Schools in Buleleng Regency in terms of assessment planning, assessment implementation as perceived by teachers and students and the students’ English achievement. It also investigates assessment contribution to students’ English achievement. The mixed method design research took 32 English teachers and 32 classes of students as the sample. The data were gained by collecting assessment documents, administering questionnaires and interview. The study found that the assessment have high authenticity level of planning, high authenticity level of implementation as perceived by teachers and high authenticity level of level implementation as perceived by students. The students’ achievement after being assessed by using their teacher made assessment is considered high. The study also confirmed that there is a significant contribution of the authenticity of teacher made assessment to students’ English achievement. More specifically, assessment implementation as perceived by students gives the highest contribution. Keywords : authenticity, teacher made assessment, English achievement