Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recombination Can either Help Maintain Very Short Telomeres or Generate Longer Telomeres in Yeast Cells with Weak Telomerase Activity

ABSTRACT Yeast mutants lacking telomerase are able to elongate their telomeres through processes involving homologous recombination. In this study, we investigated telomeric recombination in several mutants that normally maintain very short telomeres due to the presence of a partially functional telomerase. The abnormal colony morphology present in some mutants was correlated with especially short average telomere length and with a requirement for RAD52 for indefinite growth. Better-growing derivatives of some of the mutants were occasionally observed and were found to have substantially elongated telomeres. These telomeres were composed of alternating patterns of mutationally tagged telomeric repeats and wild-type repeats, an outcome consistent with amplification occurring via recombination rather than telomerase. Our results suggest that recombination at telomeres can produce two distinct outcomes in the mutants we studied. In occasional cells, recombination generates substantially longer telomeres, apparently through the roll-and-spread mechanism. However, in most cells, recombination appears limited to helping to maintain very short telomeres. The latter outcome likely represents a simplified form of recombinational telomere maintenance that is independent of the generation and copying of telomeric circles.
Independent Factor Autoregressive Conditional Density Model

In this article, we propose a novel Independent Factor Autoregressive Conditional Density (IFACD) model able to generate time-varying higher moments using an independent factor setup. Our proposed framework incorporates dynamic estimation of higher comovements and feasible portfolio representation within a non-elliptical multivariate distribution. We report an empirical application, using returns data from 14 MSCI equity index iShares for the period 1996 to 2010, and we show that the IFACD model provides superior VaR forecasts and portfolio allocations with respect to the Conditionally Heteroskedastic Independent Component Analysis of Generalized Orthogonal (CHICAGO) and DCC models.
An Analysis of Sexual Harassment in Korean Hotels from the Perspective of Female Employees

Abstract Female employees in Confucian and collective societies are particularly susceptible to sexual harassment. Occupational norms can also influence sexual harassment. First, this paper introduces the legal development of the sexual harassment law in Korea. Second, it examines the prevalence of sexual harassment in Korean luxury hotels. The results of the first survey in the Korean hotel industry detail female employees' experiences, the characteristics of harassers, the reaction to harassment, effects of harassment and effective methods of prevention. The results of this paper will aid hotel practitioners, especially in Asian countries where sexual harassment laws have not been well developed, to monitor activities in workplaces where sexual harassment might occur.
The Minimum Wage, Restaurant Prices, and Labor Market Structure

Using store-level and aggregated Consumer Price Index data, we show that restaurant prices rise in response to minimum wage increases under several sources of identifying variation. We introduce a general model of employment determination that implies minimum wage hikes cause prices to rise in competitive labor markets but potentially fall in monopsonistic environments. Furthermore, the model implies employment and prices are always negatively related. Therefore, our empirical results provide evidence against the importance of monopsony power for understanding small observed employment responses to minimum wage changes. Our estimated price responses challenge other explanations of the small employment response, too.
Career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present longitudinal data regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was designed to incorporate questions relating to current and previous employments, recent training/education and personal details. The original study was sent to graduates by their respective colleges and there were 444 respondents to the survey. The follow‐up questionnaire in the current study was sent to all those who had responded to the initial survey and who had provided addresses (374). Findings – There is a significant drop‐out rate from employment in the tourism/hospitality industry in Ireland, which is particularly obvious amongst women. Those employed in the industry identified poor remuneration and unsuitable working hours as the major issues in need of redress. There is constant reference to work conditions within the tourism/hospitality industry throughout this study and, in particular, their ap.
Does director affiliation lead to analyst bias?

This study examines the ability of security analysts to provide objective earnings forecasts for firms with which the analyst’s brokerage firm has a director affiliation. The affiliation that we examine is where the brokerage firm has, on its board of directors, a director or an upper management individual from the firm which an analyst at the brokerage firm provides coverage. We find that affiliated analysts tend to provide earnings forecasts that are insignificantly different from unaffiliated analysts in terms of accuracy. However, we also find that forecasts provided by affiliated analysts tend to be significantly more pessimistic than those provided by their unaffiliated counterparts. This pessimistic bias in their earnings forecast will more easily allow the covered firm to beat earnings expectations when earnings are realized. We find that this bias surfaced after the Global Settlement decision, an enforcement agreement between large investment banks and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding issues surrounding conflicts of interest.
Characterization of the fission yeast mcs2 cyclin and its associated protein kinase activity.

We have previously described the isolation of mcs2‐75, a mutation obtained as an allele‐specific suppressor of a dominant allele of cdc2. mcs2 was cloned and determined to be an essential gene, the product of which shares homology with the cyclin family of proteins. In contrast to the behavior of some, but not all cyclins, the mcs2 protein is constant in its abundance and localization throughout the cell cycle. A kinase activity that co‐precipitates with mcs2 can be detected when myelin basic protein (MBP) is provided as an exogenous substrate. This kinase activity is constant throughout the cell cycle. mcs2 does not appear to associate with the cdc2 protein kinase or an antigenically related kinase. Finally, a protein kinase termed csk1 (cyclin suppressing kinase) was isolated as a high copy suppressor of an mcs2 mutation. csk1 is not essential, however, the level of kinase activity that co‐precipitates with mcs2 is reduced approximately 3‐fold in strains harboring a csk1 null allele. Therefore, csk1 may encode a protein kinase physically associated with mcs2 or alternatively may function as an upstream activator of the mcs2‐associated kinase.
Determinants of Performance in Microenterprises: Preliminary Evidence from Argentina*

This paper proposes a theoretical multilevel framework that studies the determinants of microenterprises' performance. Using a unique data set of nearly 300 microenterprises located in rgentina, we find that human capital (proxied by educational level and degree of dedication), innovation, and intensity of use of own capital are important determinants of the microenterprise's performance. Moreover, we found that public policies give support primarily to microenterprises arising from unemployment. Additionally, these firms were found to be relatively less successful in terms of their performance, suggesting a pro‐poor bias. Finally, we provide a taxonomy of microenterprises which distinguishes four different microentrepreneurial profiles.
Squeezing the Interest Rate Smoothing Weight with a Hybrid Expectations Model

Successful descriptions of short-term nominal interest rates inertial behavior have frequently been obtained with small scale macro models in which a Central Banker minimizes a loss function embedding an argument labelled as interest rate smoothing. The rationale for this argument is not straightforward. Indeed, there has been a lively debate about it in the literature. In this paper we perform an empirical exercise to evaluate the relationship existing between private sector’s rational expectations and interest rate gradualism. Our findings strongly support rational expectations as an element capable to remarkably reduce the importance of the interest rate smoothing weight in replicating the observed path of the federal funds rate. However, we find a predominance of adaptive expectations in shaping the paths of inflation ad output gap. Our results also suggest that the Fed has followed a ’Strict Inflation Targeting’ strategy under Greenspan’s regime.
A HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE

Allan H. Meltzer's critically acclaimed history of the Federal Reserve is the most ambitious, most intensive, and most revealing investigation of the subject ever conducted. Its first volume, published to widespread critical acclaim, spanned the period from the institution's founding in 1913 to the restoration of its independence in 1951. Book 1 of the two-part second volume chronicles the evolution and development of the Federal Reserve from the Federal Reserve Accord in 1951 to the first phase of the Great Inflation in the 1960s, revealing the inner workings of the Fed during a period of rapid and extensive change. Book 2 chronicles the evolution and development of the Federal Reserve from the Nixon administration to the mid-1980s, when the Great Inflation ended.
Dynamic Capabilities in Early-Phase Entrepreneurship

The dynamic capabilities perspective has received increasing attention in the field of strategic management research. By focusing not only on the competitive advantage that is provided by a certain resource constellation, but also on the change of firms' resources over time to fit changing business environments, this perspective underlines the strategic importance of innovation. Despite the apparent interest in the dynamics of firm resources, there is still limited empirical evidence for how the strategic matching of resources and market needs is actually done, particularly in more rapidly changing environments. In order to investigate this process, an empirical study of 59 start-ups in the Swedish mobile Internet industry was performed. A first finding from the study is that start-ups which change market focus have a significantly higher probability to survive their first years. Furthermore, it is seen that in most cases, the change in market focus takes place without any related change in the technological resources that are used by the firm, indicating that an important factor at this stage is the flexible use of resources in searching for a suitable match between resources and market opportunities. This mode of learning and adaptation is very different from earlier proposed models focusing on the acquisition and transformation of resources. Instead, the early-stage dynamic capabilities reveal themselves as bricolage, that is, the capacity to re-interpret and re-combine already existing resources and thereby improve their fit with the demands of the market environment. The results suggest that earlier proposed dynamic capabilities frameworks need to be modified, by taking into account the single entrepreneur as a source of dynamic capabilities, and by introducing the concept of resource flexibility. In terms of managerial implications, the findings underline the importance for entrepreneurs to balance the striving for distinctive capabilities that provide competitive advantage and the experimentation and improvisation needed to adapt to changes in the market. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
High anti-collagen type-II antibody levels and induction of proinflammatory cytokines by anti-collagen antibody-containing immune complexes in vitro characterise a distinct rheumatoid arthritis phenotype associated with acute inflammation at the time of disease onset

Objective: To investigate whether the cytokine-inducing properties of surface-bound collagen type II (CII)-containing immune complexes (IC), which were reported earlier, have any clinical impact. Methods: Anti-CII serology was analysed in 274 patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Patients with increased levels of anti-CII were followed serially for 1–5 years with regard to anti-CII IC-induced levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)α, interleukin (IL)1β and IL8. Levels of antibodies and IC-induced cytokines were compared with clinical indices over 5 years of follow-up. Results: 5/100 healthy controls and 24/274 (8.8%) patients with RA exhibited increased levels (>29 arbitrary units (AU)/ml) of anti-native CII antibodies, a non-significant difference. 9/274 (3.3%) patients with RA and no controls comprised a discrete group with high anti-CII levels >450 AU/ml. These high anti-CII level sera were associated with induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines by anti-CII-containing IC formed in vitro. 8/9 patients with high baseline anti-CII levels exhibited a parallel decline in antibody levels, IC-induced cytokines, C reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Anti-CII-positive patients had significantly increased levels of CRP and ESR at baseline, but not later during the follow-up. Conclusions: Anti-native CII-positive patients with RA have a distinct clinical phenotype characterised by an early acute phase response that might be driven by anti-CII-containing IC in joint cartilage.
Smart & Good Schools: A New Paradigm for High School Character Education

Writing in the Journal of Research in Character Education, character education researcher and historian James Leming (2006) points out a paradox: On the one hand, a “motivating rationale” for contemporary character education has been adolescent behavior such as “suicide rates, teen violence, declining academic performance, increasing drug usage, and precocious sexual activity”; on the other hand, “to date general character education efforts have been primarily focused on elementary and middle school levels” (p. 83). Although character-related challenges are perceived to be greatest at the high school level, character education interventions have primarily targeted the elementary and middle school developmental levels. Leming’s assessment that character education efforts “have made few inroads in high schools” (2006, p. 84) is corroborated by Berkowitz and Bier’s (2006) What Works in Character Education. In this monograph, thirty-three character education programs or strategies are identifi ed that have demonstrated empirical effectiveness; the great majority of these approaches, they note, were developed for the elementary or middle school levels (Berkowitz & Bier, 2006). Since 1998, the Character Education Partnership has sponsored an annual National Schools of Character competition (c.f., Character Education Partnership, 2006); the ten schools named as winners each year are typically elementary schools, occasionally middle schools, and only rarely high schools; in fact, in the last two years of the program, no high schools were recognized as National Schools of Character (Character Education Partnership, 2005, 2006). Since the mid-1990s, approximately 5,000 school leaders and teachers from thirty-fi ve states and sixteen countries have attended our annual Summer Institute in Character Education (www.cortland.edu/character); a relatively small percentage of the total have been high school personnel.
Female part-time work in the European Union : An empirical study based on the ECHP

In this paper, the question of female part-time work in the EU is explored using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). Our empirical study has two main objectives : first, to describe the labour market transitions of women working part-time and, second, in the case of mothers with young children, to identify the determinants of the choice between full-time work, part-time work and non- employment. In many countries, part-time employees, especially those working less than 20 hours per week, tend to be concentrated in low-skilled, low-paid jobs. Starting from this observation, in the first part of our study, we put the emphasis on the transition into full-time employment : Does the transition rate from part-time to full-time work vary from country to country ? What are the characteristics of female part-time workers who are more likely than others to move into full-time employment ? Rather than studying the subsequent changes in employ- ment status among a subsample of employees working part-time in a given year, we are interested in the (short- term) occupational trajectories of individuals who entered into part-time work in year t. Based on data from waves 1-7 (1994-2000) of the ECHP, this analysis of labour market transitions is carried out for all EU-15 countries except Sweden. In the second part of the study, attention is focused on the labour supply decisions of mothers with young children in each of the EU-15 member States. For these women, part-time work is more likely to be voluntary, i.e. "chosen" for family reasons, than involuntary. Here, we attempt to answer the following questions : Do the effects of individual and family characteristics on the part-time / full-time choice vary across EU countries ? To what extent can the differences observed in the impact of such factors be explained by the specificities of national family policies, regarding the reconciliation of work and family life ? To analyse the employment choices of mothers, we use a set of multinomial logit models. These models are estimated on data from the seventh wave (2000) of the ECHP.
Indian Economic Outlook 2008-09 and 2009-10

This paper provides an outlook for the Indian economy in the light of the extraordinary global financial crisis, that started in the US, but which has now transformed into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The Indian economy was slowing down even before the onset of global crisis and so the timing of this external shock could not have been worse. The analysis undertaken for this paper shows that the global crisis is likely to bring the Indian GDP growth rate down considerably. This will pose a big challenge requiring urgent and sustained policy attention to prevent this downturn from becoming unnecessarily prolonged. There is real downside risk that the growth rate could plummet to the pre-1980s levels if appropriate countercyclical measures are not taken immediately and are not urgently followed by necessary structural reforms. The paper provides a short-term forecast for GDP growth based on a model of leading economic indicators. We present three scenarios in the paper assuming differentiated impact of the external crisis. Finally the paper suggests a set of policy measures to get the Indian economy back on the path of sustained rapid and inclusive growth.
The flailing hegemon: Managing U.S. military decline

This chapter argues that aspiring hegemons face a wide array of complex and distinct military challenges. Managing scarce military resources requires a subtle and complex global strategy that is likely to generate cognitive overload for the political system. As a result of cognitive overload, aspiring hegemons are likely to flail around, rapidly shifting from one global strategy to another. Such strategic flailing will occur independently of whether or not the economy is in crisis, though clearly economic crisis will exacerbate the tendency towards strategic incoherence. The chapter examines U.S. global strategy since the end of the Cold War, looking at the focus on “rogue regimes,” a growing concern with “global chaos,” worry about the rise of a peer competitor (China), and the debates about the root causes of, and best strategies to mitigate, terrorism. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of culture and notions of national identity and their role in the formulation of grand strategy.
Falls in children birth to 5 years: Different mechanisms lead to different injuries

BACKGROUND Falls are the most common cause of injury-related hospitalization in children younger than 5 years old. Most anticipatory guidance surrounding falls is around falls from windows or stairs; however, falls from furniture also are important causes of morbidity. The purpose of this study was to compare the number of children injured, ages of injured children, and injuries sustained in falls from furniture and falls from stairs in hospitalized children younger than 5 years. METHODS All records of individuals from 0 year through 4 years, hospitalized at our institution for a fall from furniture or stairs between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 2006, were retrospectively reviewed. A standard data set was abstracted from each chart. Frequencies were used to characterize the study population. &khgr;2 and t tests were used to determine differences between groups. RESULTS A total of 171 patients were hospitalized for falls from stairs and 318 for falls from furniture. There were no differences between the groups with regard to age, sex, race, type of insurance, length of stay, Injury Severity Score, or total cost. The most common pieces of furniture from which children fell were beds (33.0%), couches (18.9%), and chairs (17.9%). Children who fell from stairs were significantly more likely to have injuries to their head (64.3% vs. 38.1%); those that fell from furniture were more likely to sustain arm injuries (33.3% vs. 9.9%). There were significantly more skull fractures in those that fell from stairs (39.8% vs. 20.1%) and humerus fractures in those that fell from furniture (30.8% vs. 9.4%) (p < 0.001). Falls from furniture increased during the study period, while falls from stairs fell; the difference was not statistically significant, however. CONCLUSION Falls from furniture and stairs are important causes of morbidity in children. More children were hospitalized for falls from furniture than from stairs. Falls down stairs are decreasing while falls off furniture are increasing. More anticipatory guidance should be developed and given to families regarding falls from furniture to help prevent these injuries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic/epidemiologic study, level III.