Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Calculation, Community and Cues

This article summarizes and extends the main lines of theorizing on public opinion on European integration. We test theories of economic calculus and communal identity in a multi-level analysis of Eurobarometer data. Both economic calculus and communal identity are influential, but the latter is stronger than the former. We theorize how the political consequences of identity are contested and shaped - that is to say, politically cued - in national contexts. The more national elites are divided, the more citizens are cued to oppose European integration, and this effect is particularly pronounced among citizens who see themselves as exclusively national. A model that synthesizes economic, identity, and cue theory explains around one-quarter of variation at the individual level and the bulk of variation at the national and party levels.
Dynamic Asset Allocation for Stocks, Bonds, and Cash

Closed-form solutions for HARA optimal portfolios are obtained in a dynamic portfolio optimization model in three assets (stocks, bonds, and cash) in a Vasicek-type model of stochastic interest rates with correlated stock prices. The HARA is a buy-and-hold combination of a zero-coupon bond with maturity matching the investor's horizon and a "CRRA mutual fund. " This simple characterization facilitates insights about investor behavior over time and provides explanations on the rational use of convex versus concave investment strategies. The model illuminates clearly the role of the different market parameters and relative risk aversion in portfolio strategies.
Are Revisions to Usda Crop Production Forecasts Smoothed?

This article uses Nordhaus' framework to determine the efficiency of the revision process for USDA corn and soybean production forecasts over the 1970/1971 through 2004/2005 marketing years. Positive autocorrelation and consistency of directional changes in forecast revisions suggest these forecasts are “smoothed. ” Evidence is provided that the loss in forecast accuracy due to smoothing is statistically and economically significant in several cases. A conservative bias in farm operators' assessments of yield potential and in the procedure for translating enumerator's information about plant fruit counts into objective yield estimates are identified as plausible sources of smoothing. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Interest rate and exchange rate exposures of banking institutions in pre-crisis Korea

This study empirically investigates interest rate and exchange rate exposures of banking institutions in pre-crisis Korea. Using the sensitivity of stock returns as a measure of the exposure, it is shown that Korean commercial banks and merchant banking corporations had been significantly exposed to both interest rate and exchange rate risks, and that the subsequent profitability of commercial banks was significantly associated with the degree of pre-crisis exposure. The evidence suggests that, along with the negative exposure of banking institutions, the sharp depreciation of the Korean won and high interest rates at the end of 1997 further deteriorated the banking sector's capital adequacy worsening the financial crisis. The Korean case highlights the importance of upgrading financial supervision and risk management practices as a precondition for successful financial liberalization.
An empirical investigation of the audit expectations gap in Iran

Purpose – This paper investigates whether an audit expectation gap exists among independent auditors and users of financial statements in Iran.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a survey instrument to identify the audit expectation gap in Iran. The research method is similar to that adopted by Schelluch, Best et al., Fadzly and Ahmad and Dixon et al.Findings – Audit expectation gaps are found to exist in the areas of auditor responsibility for fraud detection, soundness of the internal controls, and preparation of financial statements. Results indicate no significant difference between users and independent auditors regarding the reliability and utility of audited financial statements. The insignificant results in terms of audit function could be attributed to the culture of trust between auditors and stakeholders in Iran.Research limitations/implications – Despite normal precautionary steps to increase the response rate, non‐response bias may affect the findings. Another limitation of the study.
An econometric analysis of sustainable agriculture and rural development in Nigeria: A Vector Autoregressive Approach (VAR)

Nigeria is a vast agricultural country, endowed with substantial natural resources which include: 68 million hectares of arable land, fresh water resources covering about 12.6 million hectares, 960 km of coastline and an ecological diversity which enables the country to produce a wide variety of crops and livestock, forestry and fisheries products. Available statistics show that agriculture is the most important Nigerian economic sector in terms of its contribution to the GDP, after oil. The sector contributes about 41% of the country’s GDP, employs about 65% of the total population and provides employment to about 80% of the rural population. Despite the articulation of government policies, strategies and programs and the commitment of Government and donors to the broader framework of sustainable agriculture and pro-poor rural development, the rural economies of Nigeria remain underdeveloped and many complex issues regarding the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation remain unresolved. This study consequently examined the relationship between sustainable agriculture and rural development in Nigeria. Vector Auto Regression analytical technique (VAR) was employed for the empirical study. The a priori expectation is that sustainable agriculture will impact positively on rural development in Nigeria. The results of the finding show that the past values of agricultural output could be used to predict the future behaviour of rural development in Nigeria. The main conclusion of this study therefore is that while agriculture remains dominant in the Nigerian economy, it is unsustainable; the food supply does not provide adequate nutrients at affordable prices for the average citizen and rural development is deteriorating. The findings and the conclusion of the study suggested the need for the policy makers to promote agriculture to a sustainable level. In doing this, rural development will be enhanced.
Slow inactivation of Na+ current and slow cumulative spike adaptation in mouse and guinea‐pig neocortical neurones in slices.

1. Spike adaptation of neocortical pyramidal neurones was studied with sharp electrode recordings in slices of guinea‐pig parietal cortex and whole‐cell patch recordings of mouse somatosensory cortex. Repetitive intracellular stimulation with 1 s depolarizing pulses delivered at intervals of < 5 s caused slow, cumulative adaptation of spike firing, which was not associated with a change in resting conductance, and which persisted when Co2+ replaced Ca2+ in the bathing medium. 2. Development of slow cumulative adaptation was associated with a gradual decrease in maximal rates of rise of action potentials, a slowing in the post‐spike depolarization towards threshold, and a positive shift in the threshold voltage for the next spike in the train; maximal spike repolarization rates and after‐hyperpolarizations were unchanged. 3. The data suggested that slow adaptation reflects use‐dependent removal of Na+ channels from the available pool by an inactivation process which is much slower than fast, Hodgkin‐Huxley‐type inactivation. 4. We therefore studied the properties of Na+ channels in layer II‐III mouse neocortical cells using the cell‐attached configuration of the patch‐in‐slice technique. These had a slope conductance of 18 +/‐ 1 pS and an extrapolated reversal potential of 127 +/‐ 6 mV above resting potential (Vr) (mean +/‐ S.E.M.; n = 5). Vr was estimated at ‐72 +/‐ 3 mV (n = 8), based on the voltage dependence of the steady‐state inactivation (h infinity) curve. 5. Slow inactivation (SI) of Na+ channels had a mono‐exponential onset with tau on between 0.86 and 2.33 s (n = 3). Steady‐state SI was half‐maximal at ‐43.8 mV and had a slope of 14.4 mV (e‐fold)‐1. Recovery from a 2 s conditioning pulse was bi‐exponential and voltage dependent; the slow time constant ranged between 0.45 and 2.5 s at voltages between‐128 and ‐68 mV. 6. The experimentally determined parameters of SI were adequate to simulate slow cumulative adaptation of spike firing in a single‐compartment computer model. 7. Persistent Na+ current, which was recorded in whole‐cell configuration during slow voltage ramps (35 mV s‐1), also underwent pronounced SI, which was apparent when the ramp was preceded by a prolonged depolarizing pulse.
Determination of serotonin release from platelets by enzyme immunoassay in the diagnosis of heparin‐induced thrombocytopenia

[ 14C]‐Serotonin release assay (14C‐SRA) from platelets is considered to be the most sensitive test for laboratory confirmation of heparin‐induced thrombocytopenia (HIT). This study compared 14C‐SRA with an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to determine the release of serotonin from platelets in the presence of heparin and serum from HIT patients. The normal range (median, 2·5 and 97·5 percentiles) of serotonin release from platelets in healthy subjects (n = 149) is 38 ng/ml (19 and 62) measured by EIA‐SRA. Serum from HIT patients (n = 42) released 2548 ng/ml (244 and 7987) serotonin in the presence of 0·1 IU/ml heparin and 29 ng/ml (13 and 76) in the presence of 100 IU/ml heparin. One hundred per cent and 15% of HIT samples exhibited an elevated serotonin release from platelets in the presence of 0·1 IU/ml low molecular weight (LMW) heparin, 2100 ng/ml (869 and 5968), or danaparoid, 272 ng/ml (143 and 403), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the EIA‐SRA was 100% and 97·4% and of the 14C‐SRA 100% and 92·9% in HIT patients. No false‐positive results were found in patients receiving heparin (n = 28), in patients with elevated levels of bilirubin (n = 5), in patients with antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (n = 10) or in non‐HIT patients (n = 78) with both assays. The EIA technique to quantify serotonin release from platelets provides a reliable non‐radioactive method to diagnose heparin‐induced thrombocytopenia and to assess in vitro crossreactivity of low molecular weight heparins and heparinoid.
From Public to Private Sector: Motives and explanations for sector switching

Abstract Sector switching is interesting in relation to understanding how to get and keep people working in the public sector as well as to understand public and private differences. This paper focuses on why public employees leave public organizations to work in the private sector. We use a design studying higher educated Danish employees who recently worked in the state, comparing those who shift job to another public organization with those who switch to the private sector. We focus on different motives for job shifts which may influence sector switching such as salary, job security, organizational characteristics and public service motivation.
Neuropsychological and Neuroanatomical Correlates of the Social Norms Questionnaire in Frontotemporal Dementia Versus Alzheimer’s Disease

Traditional neuropsychological batteries may not distinguish early behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) without the inclusion of a social behavioral measure. We compared 33 participants, 15 bvFTD, and 18 matched patients with early-onset AD (eAD), on the Social Norms Questionnaire (SNQ), neuropsychological tests and 3-dimensional T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The analyses included correlations of SNQ results (total score, overendorsement or “overadhere” errors, and violations or “break” errors) with neuropsychological results and tensor-based morphometry regions of interest. Patients with BvFTD had significantly lower SNQ total scores and higher overadhere errors than patients with eAD. On neuropsychological measures, the SNQ total scores correlated significantly with semantic knowledge and the overadhere subscores with executive dysfunction. On MRI analysis, the break subscores significantly correlated with lower volume of lateral anterior temporal lobes (aTL). The results also suggest that endorsement of social norm violations corresponds to the role of the right aTL in social semantic knowledge.
Adapting Spatial Filter Methods for Nonstationary BCIs

A major challenge in applying machine learning methods to Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) is to overcome the possible nonstationarity in the data from the dat- ablock the method is trained on and that the method is applied to. Assuming the joint distributions of the whitened signal and the class label to be identical in two blocks, where the whitening is done in each block independently, we propose a simple adaptation formula that is applicable to a broad class of spatial filtering methods including ICA, CSP, and logistic regression classifiers. We characterize the class of linear transformations for which the above assumption holds. Experimental results on 60 BCI datasets show improved classification accuracy compared to (a) fixed spatial filter approach (no adaptation) and (b) fixed spatial pattern approach (proposed by Hill et al., 2006 (1)).
Rethinking Health Care Policy: The New Politics of State Regulation

States are increasingly important players in the current efforts to reform U.S. health care, as the federal government withdraws from this responsibility. Robert B. Hackey analyzes the varied routes states have taken in reformulating health care policy and provides a road map of what specific strategies work and why. In this comparative case study, Hackey focuses on four states - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island - that have had markedly different experiences with regulating health care over the past two decades. Hackey's detailed comparisons show how the states' policies changed over time, moving from regulatory to market-oriented solutions, and examines which policy programs appear best poised to meet the future. Hackey uses regime theory to explain how the states' policy choices concerning cost control and entry regulation were shaped by the prevailing political culture and institution of each state. He concludes that the autonomy of state government form special interests is vital to the successful adoption, implementation and outcome of state initiatives. "Rethinking Health Care Policy" offers policymakers, planners and specialists useful insights into the politics of state regulation and into future directions for health care reform.
Variance Swap Premium under Stochastic Volatility and Self-Exciting Jumps

We introduce a stochastic volatility model with self-exciting jump intensity to capture the change in pricing dynamic triggered by big negative stock returns. The stochastic variance and jump intensity, and their risk premium are estimated jointly from daily stock returns and option data over 2007-2010. The model is calibrated to cumulants implied from option prices instead of option prices directly. We find evidence that the time varying jump intensity plays a very important role in the sub-prime crisis and explained most of the risk premium, while in other calmer periods, stochastic variance accounts for most of the risk premium.
The Role of Stock Market Development on Economic Growth in Nigeria: A Time Series Analysis (Pp. 213-230)

This study investigated the role of stock market development on economic growth of Nigeria using a 15-year time series data from 1994-2008. The method of analysis used is Ordinary Least Square (OLS) techniques. The study measures the relationship between stock market development indices and economic growth. The stock market capitalization ratio was used as a proxy for market size while value traded ratio and turnover ratio were used as proxy for market liquidity. The results show that market capitalization and value traded ratios have a very weak negative correlation with economic growth while turnover ratio has a very strong positive correlation with economic growth. Also, stock market capitalization has a strong positive correlation with stock turnover ratio. This result implies that liquidity has propensity to spur economic growth in Nigeria and that market
“The Big Sort” That Wasn't: A Skeptical Reexamination

In 2008 journalist Bill Bishop achieved the kind of notice that authors dream about. His book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, was mentioned regularly during the presidential campaign; most notably, former president Bill Clinton urged audiences to read the book. Bishop's thesis is that Americans increasingly are choosing to live in neighborhoods populated with people just like themselves. In turn, these residential choices have produced a significant increase in geographic political polarization. Bishop does not contend that people consciously decide to live with fellow Democrats or Republicans; rather political segregation is a byproduct of the correlations between political views and the various demographic and life-style indicators people consider when making residential decisions. Whatever the cause, Bishop contends that the resulting geographic polarization is a troubling and dangerous development.
Deletion of amino acids 29 to 81 in adhesion protein YadA of Yersinia enterocolitica serotype O:8 results in selective abrogation of adherence to neutrophils

In order to analyze the multiple functions of the yersinia adhesin YadA in more detail, we constructed an N-terminally truncated YadA protein (deletion of amino acids [aa] 29 to 81) of Yersinia enterocolitica serotype 0:8. The region aa 29 to 81 of YadA is located between the signal sequence and the amino-terminal hydrophobic domain (aa 80 to 101), which is involved in surface polymerization and collagen binding. The deletion of aa 29 to 81 (resulting in YadADelta29-81) had no effect on the well-known features of YadA such as autoagglutination, serum resistance, HEp-2 cell adherence, binding of collagen, and binding of the complement-inhibiting factor H. In contrast to this, mutant WA(pYVO8-A-Delta29-81), producing the truncated YadADelta29-81 had lost the ability to adhere to polymorphonuclear leukocytes and to induce an oxidative burst. This functional deficiency was comparable to that of a yadA-null mutant (K. Ruckdeschel, A. Roggenkamp, S. Schubert, and J. Heesemann, Infect. Immun. 64:724-733, 1996). Moreover, mutant WA(pYVO8-ADelta29-81) turned out to be attenuated in virulence comparably to the yadA-null mutant, as demonstrated with orogastrically and intravenously infected mice. In summary, this study shows that specific functions of YadA (i) can be impaired by designed mutations and (ii) are important in distinct stages of the infection process.
African Business Research: A Review of Studies Published in the Journal of African Business and a Framework for Enhancing Future Studies

ABSTRACT The development of Africa depends on productivity and effectiveness of businesses. One objective of the Journal of African Business (JAB) is to facilitate business effectiveness through dissemination of research and practitioner knowledge. Reviewing 96 articles published over a seven year period (2000–2006) published in JAB, the study looked for patterns in the research described (i.e., disciplinary focus, geographic coverage, characteristics of authors, etc). The study also focused on the degree of correspondence (or fit) between Western theory and data provided. Four important findings are: (1) JAB published research from diverse disciplines; (2) there seems to be a bias toward Business rather than Management disciplines, (3) a majority of the research is empirical; and (4) there seems to be a lack of context-specific theories. A proposed framework and implications for future research are discussed.
The Measurement of U.S. Real Capital Input, 1929-1967

The purpose of this paper is to develop methods for the measurement of real capital input. These methods are based on perpetual inventory estimates of capital stock and corresponding estimates of capital service prices. Stocks and service prices are adjusted for relative utilization of capital. The resulting estimates represent a separation of income from capital into price and quantity components. Estimates of capital input in current and constant prices are constructed for corporate business, non‐corporate business, and households and non‐profit institutions in the United States for the period 1929–1967. These estimates are prepared in a form suitable for integration into the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts.
Blind image deblurring based on sparse representation and structural self-similarity

In this paper, we propose a blind motion deblurring method based on sparse representation and structural self-similarity from a single image. The priors for sparse representation and structural self-similarity are explicitly added into the recovery of the latent image by means of sparse and multi-scale nonlocal regularizations, and the down-sampled version of the observed blurry image is used as training samples in the dictionary learning for sparse representation so that the sparsity of the latent image over this dictionary can be guaranteed, which implicitly makes use of multi-scale similar structures. Experimental results on both simulated and real blurry images demonstrate that our method outperforms existing state-of-the-art blind deblurring methods.
Students’ perceptions of lecturing approaches: traditional versus interactive teaching

Background There is an increasing trend toward transcending from traditional teaching to student-centered methodologies that actively engage students. We aimed to analyze students’ perceptions of effective interactive teaching using PollEverywhere Audience Response System (ARS) as a worthwhile teaching methodology. It can be of great help in maintaining students’ attention and in facilitating the lecturer to pick up students’ misunderstandings and correct them. Materials and methods This system was introduced to the undergraduate dental curriculum to increase student’s motivation and attention, giving immediate feedback on student understanding during an anatomy module. Computer science (CS) students who were more familiar with the use of this technology were also involved in the study for comparison and validation of the findings. The lecturer strategically inserted questions using PollEverywhere ARS. Students’ perception of the effective interactive teaching using this technology was evaluated statistically using a questionnaire and focus groups. Results It promoted interactivity, focused attention, and provided feedback on comprehension. A total of 95% reported that it increased their participation and found that it clarified their thinking and helped to focus on key points. Another 81.7% mentioned that it increased their motivation to learn. Students regarded it as a useful method for giving real-time feedback, which stimulated their performance and participation. Data from CS students echoed the findings from the dental students. Reports from focus groups demonstrated that this strategy was helpful in focusing students’ attention and in clarifying information. Discussion PollEverywhere encouraged all students to participate during the learning process. This has proven to be an effective tool for improving students’ understanding and critical thinking. Conclusion Students regarded PollEverywhere as an effective teaching innovation that encouraged deeper ongoing retention of information. It was found to be an effective teaching aid in monitoring students’ progress and identifying deficiencies. This is of benefit in a module where interactivity is considered important.