Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Centre De Referència En Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series North-south Trade and Directed Technical Change North-south Trade and Directed Technical Change Crei and Cepr

In a world where poor countries provide weak protection for intellectual property rights (IPRs), market integration shifts technical change in favor of rich nations. Through this channel, free trade may amplify international wage di¤erences. At the same time, integration with countries where IPRs are weakly protected can slow down the world growth rate. An important implication of these results is that protection of intellectual property is most bene…cial in open countries. This prediction, which is novel in the literature, is consistent with evidence from a panel of 53 countries observed in the years 1965-1990. The paper also provides empirical support for the mechanism linking North-South trade to the direction of technical change: an increase in import penetration from low-wage, low-IPRs, countries is followed by a sharp fall in R&D investment in a panel of US manufacturing sectors. This is a revised and extended version of a previous paper circulated under the title " Globalization, Divergence and Stagnation ". We are grateful to Daron Acemoglu, Torsten Persson, Jaume Ventura, Fabrizio Zilibotti for advice and to Kala Krishna and two anonymous referee for suggestions. We also thank
Centre De Referència En Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Understanding the Effects of Government Spending on Consumption Understanding the Effects of Government Spending on Consumption

Recent evidence on the effect of government spending shocks on consumption cannot be easily reconciled with existing optimizing business cycle models. We extend the standard New Keynesian model to allow for the presence of rule-of-thumb (non-Ricardian) consumers. We show how the interaction of the latter with sticky prices and deficit financing can account for the existing evidence on the effects of government spending. Summer Institute 2002, the 1st Workshop on Dynamic Macroeconomics at Hydra, and the EEA Meetings in Stockholm for useful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are our own responsability. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily correspond to those of the Bank of Spain.
Centre De Referència En Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Working Paper Nº 11 Monetary Policy and Exchange Rate Volatility in a Small Open Economy Monetary Policy and Exchange Rate Volatility in a Small Open Economy

We lay out a small open economy version of the Calvo sticky price model, and show how the equilibrium dynamics can be reduced to a tractable canonical system in domestic inflation and the output gap. We employ this framework to analyze the macroeconomic implications of three alternative rule-based policy regimes for the small open economy: domestic inflation and CPI-based Taylor rules, and an exchange rate peg. We show that a key difference among these regimes lies in the relative amount of exchange rate volatility that they entail. We also discuss a special case for which domestic inflation targeting constitutes the optimal policy, and where a simple second order approximation to the utility of the representative consumer can be derived and used to evaluate the welfare losses associated with those suboptimal rules.
Centre De Referència En Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Working Paper Nº 107 Ignorance Promotes Competition: an Auction Model with Endogenous Private Valuations an Auction Model with Endogenous Private Valuations ¤

We study a situation in which an auctioneer wishes to sell an object to one of N risk-neutral bidders with heterogeneous preferences. The auctioneer does not know bidders' preferences but has private information about the characteristics of the object, and must decide how much information to reveal prior to the auction. We show that the auctioneer has incentives to release less information than would be e±cient and that the amount of information released increases with the level of competition (as measured by the number of bidders). Furthermore, in a perfectly competitive market the auctioneer would provide the e±cient level of information. ¤ I gratefully acknolwledge ¯nancial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under DGES grant BEC 2000-1026. I especially would like to acknowledge Lambros Pechlivanos with whom I started to think about this project. His comments and discussions were crucial in the initial development of this paper. I would like to thank, Kyle Bagwell, two anonymous referees and Marco Celentani for their extremely useful suggestions. I also want to acknowledge the helpful comments of i \Lady Brandon treats her guests exactly as an auctioneer treats his objects. She either explains them entirely away, or tells one everything about them except what one wants to know" Oscar
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Efficient Applications in User Transparent Parallel Image Processing

Although many image processing applications are ideally suited for parallel implementation, most researchers in imaging do not benefit from high performance computing on a daily basis. Essentially, this is due to the fact that no parallelization tools exist that truly match the image processing researcher’s frame of reference. As it is unrealistic to expect imaging researchers to become experts in parallel computing, tools must be provided to allow them to develop high performance applications in a highly familiar manner. In an attempt to provide such a tool, we have designed a software architecture that allows transparent (i.e., sequential) implementation of data parallel imaging applications for execution on homogeneous distributed memory MIMDstyle multicomputers. This paper gives an assessment of the architecture’s effectiveness in providing significant performance gains. In particular, we describe the implementation and automatic parallelization of three well-known example applications that contain many fundamental imaging operations: (1) template matching, (2) multi-baseline stereo vision, and (3) line detection. Based on experimental results we conclude that our architecture constitutes a powerful and user-friendly tool for obtaining high performance in many important image processing research areas.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Effect of pre-contraction on beta-adrenoceptor-mediated relaxation of rat urinary bladder

Purpose The human physiological bladder contraction is largely mediated by acetylcholine acting on muscarinic receptors, but in pathophysiological settings the relative role of non-cholinergic stimuli gains importance. (cid:1) -Adre- noceptor agonists are currently in clinical development as treatments for the overactive bladder syndrome. Therefore, we have explored the ability of the (cid:1) -adrenoceptor agonist isoprenaline to induce rat isolated bladder strip relaxation on pre-contraction with the muscarinic agonist carbachol as compared to bladder tone induced by several non-cholinergic stimuli.
THE EFFECTS OF DESTINATION IMAGE ON TRIP BEHAVIOR: EVIDENCES FROM LANGKAWI ISLAND, MALAYSIA

he positive relationship between destination image and satisfaction is well established in the tourism literature. However, the influence of destination image on other tourist behavior variables continues to be debated. Thus, this paper aims to explain the direct and indirect influence of destination image on trip behavior such as tourist expectation, perceived quality, perceived value, tourist satisfaction and loyalty. The present research was conducted in Langkawi Island, a well known tourist destination in Malaysia, with 500 targeted sample. Structured questionnaires were conveniently distributed to the tourists and 482 useable data were analysed. Regression analyses give support to all hypotheses tested. Destination image has a significant positive influence on tourist expectation, perceived quality, perceived value, tourist satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between destination image and loyalty. Satisfaction fully
Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Targeting the G Protein Provides a New Approach for an Old Problem

ABSTRACT Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) annually affecting >2 million children in the United States <5 years old. In the elderly (>65 years old), RSV results in ∼175,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States with a worldwide incidence of ∼34 million. There is no approved RSV vaccine, and treatments are limited. Recently, a phase 3 trial in the elderly using a recombinant RSV F protein vaccine failed to meet its efficacy objectives, namely, prevention of moderate-to-severe RSV-associated LRTI and reduced incidence of acute respiratory disease. Moreover, a recent phase 3 trial evaluating suptavumab (REGN2222), an antibody to RSV F protein, did not meet its primary endpoint of preventing medically attended RSV infections in preterm infants. Despite these setbacks, numerous efforts targeting the RSV F protein with vaccines, antibodies, and small molecules continue based on the commercial success of a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against the RSV F protein (palivizumab). As the understanding of RSV biology has improved, the other major coat protein, the RSV G protein, has reemerged as an alternative target reflecting progress in understanding its roles in infecting bronchial epithelial cells and in altering the host immune response. In mouse models, a high-affinity, strain-independent human MAb to the RSV G protein has shown potent direct antiviral activity combined with the alleviation of virus-induced immune system effects that contribute to disease pathology. This MAb, being prepared for clinical trials, provides a qualitatively new approach to managing RSV for populations not eligible for prophylaxis with palivizumab.
Climate Change: Impact on Agriculture and Costs of Adaptation

"The Challenge The unimpeded growth of greenhouse gas emissions is raising the earth’s temperature. The consequences include melting glaciers, more precipitation, more and more extreme weather events, and shifting seasons. The accelerating pace of climate change, combined with global population and income growth, threatens food security everywhere. Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Higher temperatures eventually reduce yields of desirable crops while encouraging weed and pest proliferation. Changes in precipitation patterns increase the likelihood of short-run crop failures and long-run production declines. Although there will be gains in some crops in some regions of the world, the overall impacts of climate change on agriculture are expected to be negative, threatening global food security. Populations in the developing world, which are already vulnerable and food insecure, are likely to be the most seriously affected. In 2005, nearly half of the economically active population in developing countries—2.5 billion people—relied on agriculture for its livelihood. Today, 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. This Food Policy Report presents research results that quantify the climate-change impacts mentioned above, assesses the consequences for food security, and estimates the investments that would offset the negative consequences for human well-being. This analysis brings together, for the first time, detailed modeling of crop growth under climate change with insights from an extremely detailed global agriculture model, using two climate scenarios to simulate future climate. The results of the analysis suggest that agriculture and human well-being will be negatively affected by climate change: * In developing countries, climate change will cause yield declines for the most important crops. South Asia will be particularly hard hit. * Climate change will have varying effects on irrigated yields across regions, but irrigated yields for all crops in South Asia will experience large declines. * Climate change will result in additional price increases for the most important agricultural crops–rice, wheat, maize, and soybeans. Higher feed prices will result in higher meat prices. As a result, climate change will reduce the growth in meat consumption slightly and cause a more substantial fall in cereals consumption. * Calorie availability in 2050 will not only be lower than in the no–climate-change scenario—it will actually decline relative to 2000 levels throughout the developing world. * By 2050, the decline in calorie availability will increase child malnutrition by 20 percent relative to a world with no climate change. Climate change will eliminate much of the improvement in child malnourishment levels that would occur with no climate change. * Thus, aggressive agricultural productivity investments of US$7.1–7.3 billion are needed to raise calorie consumption enough to offset the negative impacts of climate change on the health and well-being of children. " from Text
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and postmenopausal breast cancer risk : a nested case control study in the Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and postmenopausal breast cancer risk: a nested case control study in the Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort Breast Cancer Research 2009, 11:R64 doi:10.1186/bcr2356 Marjorie L McCullough (marji.mccullough@cancer.org) Victoria L Stevens (victoria.stevens@cancer.org) Roshni Patel (roshni.patel@cancer.org) Eric J Jacobs (eric.jacobs@cancer.org) Elizabeth B Bain (elizabeth.b.bain@cancer.org) Ronald L Horst (Ron.Horst@heartlandassays.com) Susan M Gapstur (susan.gapstur@cancer.org) Michael J Thun (michael.thun@cancer.org) Eugenia E Calle (jeanne.calle@cancer.org)
Analyse de la modélisation de l'émission multi-fréquences micro-onde des sols et de la neige, incluant les croutes de glace à l'aide du modèle Microwave Emission Model of Layered Snowpacks (MEMLS).

Snow grain-size characterization, its vertical and temporal evolution is a key parameter for the improvement and validation of snow and radiative transfer models (optical and microwave) as well as for remote-sensing retrieval methods. We describe two optical methods, one active and one passive shortwave infrared, for field determination of the specific surface area (SSA) of snow grains. We present a new shortwave infrared (SWIR) camera approach. This new method is compared with a SWIR laserbased system measuring snow albedo with an integrating sphere (InfraRed Integrating Sphere (IRIS)). Good accuracy (10%) and reproducibility in SSA measurements are obtained using the IRIS system on snow samples having densities greater than 200 kgm, validated against X-ray microtomography measurements. The SWIRcam approach shows improved sensitivity to snow SSA when compared to a near-infrared camera, giving a better contrast of the snow stratigraphy in a snow pit.
Midcrustal discontinuities and the assembly of the Himalayan midcrust

Detailed quartz lattice preferred orientation (LPO) data define two structural discontinuities in the exhumed high‐grade metamorphic core of the Himalaya exposed in the upper Tama Kosi region of east central Nepal. The structures are marked by abrupt breaks in a general trend of up structural section increasing quartz LPO‐defined deformation temperatures. Deformation associated with the upper structural discontinuity, which occurs within sillimanite grade rocks, is postpeak metamorphism in both the hanging wall and the footwall. New geochronologic data constrain the timing of metamorphism in the hanging wall of the upper discontinuity to between 24 and 16 Ma, indistinguishable from previously published ages for the footwall. Movement across this structure represents Early Miocene strain localization and thickening in the Himalayan midcrust. Movement across the lower discontinuity, which occurs between staurolite and kyanite grade rocks, appears to be synmetamorphic with material in its footwall at approximately 10 Ma, but postpeak metamorphism for material in its hanging wall. This movement is interpreted to reflect the underplating and incorporation of material into the metamorphic core. The recognition of two thrust‐sense discontinuities in the exhumed Himalayan core in the Tama Kosi region is consistent with other similar structures recognized along the Himalaya. The widespread nature of these structures reinforces that they are important to our understanding of the evolution of the kinematics of large, hot orogens.
Do Improvement Harvests Mitigate Oak Decline in Missouri Ozark Forests

Since the 1970s, oak decline has been a chronic problem throughout the oak-dominated forests of the Missouri Ozarks. Prior research indicates that environmental stress, particularly drought, leads to the onset of oak decline. Consequently, some scientists and managers have advocated thinning and intermediate harvesting to maintain or improve tree vigor and growth, thereby leaving stands less susceptible to pathogens and pests that are frequently the ultimate cause of mortality of declining trees. However, few studies have experimentally evaluated the effectiveness of cutting treatments for mitigating oak decline, and some scientists have cautioned that cutting in declining stands exacerbates the problem. We conducted a replicated, 14-year study in southeastern Missouri to determine if improvement harvests would reduce the severity of oak decline symptoms and increase forest growth compared with untreated stands. Although we found that improvement harvests did not mitigate oak decline, they did not make decline worse and had the benefits of increasing the diameter growth of trees in the residual stand. Even in the absence of the improvement harvests, more than 70% of red oaks that initially exhibited little or no crown dieback remained in the same crown dieback classes during the 14-year study period. We also observed that more than 50% of the red oaks that initially exhibited moderate to severe decline symptoms appeared to improve during the study, regardless of harvest treatment. In contrast, fewer than 18% of declining white oaks improved during the study period.
Ecophysiology of a Mangrove Forest in Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico

Abstract. We studied gas exchange, leaf dimensions, litter production, leaf and litterfall chemistry, nutrient flux to the forest floor, retranslocation rates, and nutrient use efficiency of mangroves in Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico. The fringe forest had a salinity gradient from the ocean (35‰) to a salt flat (100‰) and a basin (about 80‰). Red (Rhizophora mangle), white (Laguncularia racemosa), and black (Avicennia germinans) mangroves were zoned along this gradient. Photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, leaf area and weight, leaf specific area, and nutrient use efficiency decreased with increasing salinity, while xylem tension, nutrient retranslocation, and leaf respiration increased with increasing salinity. The concentration of some leaf elements increased with salinity (N, P, Mg, Na) while others decreased (Ca). Leaf specific area was less variable than leaf area or weight. Maximum photosynthesis (12.7 µmol CO2 m-2s-1), leaf conductance (283 mmol CO2 m-2s-1), and litterfall (16.9 Mg ha-1 yr-1) in the fringe were high in comparison with those of other world mangroves. Nutrient flux to the forest floor was also high and nutrient use efficiency was low in this forest. Part of the reason for these high values and low use-efficiencies was the high proportion of nutrient-rich flowers and propagules in litterfall. Nevertheless, access to freshwater in the form of groundwater discharge and about 1 m of annual rainfall play a role in the high productivity of the Jobos mangroves.
Multi-word Tokenization for Sequence Compression

Large Language Models have proven highly successful at modelling a variety of tasks. However, this comes at a steep computational cost that hinders wider industrial uptake. In this pa005 per, we present MWT: a Multi-Word Tokenizer that goes beyond word boundaries by representing frequent multi-word expressions as single tokens. MWTs produce a more compact and efficient tokenization that yields two benefits: (1) Increase in performance due to a greater coverage of input data given a fixed sequence length and budget; (2) Faster and lighter inference due to the ability to reduce the sequence length with negligible drops in performance. Our results show that MWT is more robust across shorter sequence lengths, thus allowing for major speedups via early sequence truncation.
A realistic 3-D resistivity model explaining anomalous large magnetotelluric phases: the L-shaped conductor model

SUMMARY Anomalous large off-diagonal phases exceeding 90 ◦ pose a major issue impeding the accurate interpretation of magnetotelluric data due to the inadequacy of 1-D or 2-D resistivity models in explaining them. In this study, we propose a realistic 3-D resistivity model to explain anomalous phase data through the use of an L-shaped conductor model. The model presented here consists of a large, elongated conductor (a regional conductor) and a small, square conductor attached to a longer side of the regional conductor. In this model, telluric current is locally reversed and hence out of the ordinal quadrant phase is derived at the edge of the local conductor. Although conventional distortion analyses for galvanic distortion cannot remove anomalous phase problem, we showed that some impedance parameters are not distorted by the anomalous telluric current. Because the ‘L’ shaped conductor model is simple and broadly applicable to realistic resistivity distributions, it represents an important contribution to the construction of an appropriate model to explain various magnetotelluric data, including anomalous phase data.
Effects of Freshwater Forcing on the Atlantic Deep Circulation: A Study with an OGCM Forced by Two Different Surface Freshwater Flux Datasets

Abstract Numerical experiments are conducted using a sea ice–coupled ocean general circulation model (OGCM) forced by two different freshwater flux datasets. These two datasets are the National Centers for Environmental Prediction– National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) reanalysis and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)-based climatological datasets, which are widely used to force OGCMs. It is found that the strength of the simulated Atlantic deep circulation considerably differs between the two experiments. To explain the resulting difference, these two freshwater fluxes are compared and additional experiments are carried out, focusing on the difference at northern high and midlatitudes, at low latitudes, and in the Southern Ocean, separately. An examination of these experiments shows that the difference in the simulated Atlantic deep circulation comes mainly from the difference in the river runoff data, especially at the northern high latitudes. Although the amou.
Integrated Geophysical Methods Approach to Subsurface Geologic Mapping Utilizing High‐Resolution Transient Electromagnetic Surveys

Detailed subsurface geological information is not available for many areas in which critical engineering decisions are required. Remedial investigations at sites with possible subsurface contamination require detailed geological information for planning monitoring well placement, depth, and installation details, and for modeling ground water flow and possible contaminant transport. The detailed geological information is also needed for subsequent remediation alternative feasibility studies. Among the information required are surficial soil thickness and variation, depths to the water table, depths to major stratigraphic interfaces, vertical and lateral heterogeneity within units or formations, and depths to the “basement. ” A geophysical investigation performed at an Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Maryland, site demonstrates the capability of geophysical methods for contributing to a detailed subsurface geological mapping program.Seismic refraction, electrical resistivity, transient electromagnetic surface.