Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fiscal Adjustments and the Short-Term Trade-Off between economic growth and equality

This article examines the short-term economic impact of alternative fiscal adjustment strategies, with an especial focus on their effect on economic growth and income distribution Based on a sample of 53 adjustment episodes occurred in the fifteen EU Member States between 1960-2000, this article shows that different strategies of fiscal adjustment bring about different economic consequences. Expenditure-based adjustments that are preceded by bad economic and fiscal initial conditions, that are accompanied by a devaluation, and that succeed in cutting the least productive expenditures of the budget, are likely to have anti-Keynesian effects and to be expansionary. Nevertheless, they do so at the expense of increasing income inequality. The opposite is true for revenue-based consolidations. The nineties epitomize the story of expansionary fiscal consolidations via strong wealth and credibility effects, but also the rebirth of the trade-off between growth and equality, mediated by fiscal policy.
A new typology of forms of international collaboration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the inconsistent use of terminology in international collaboration, and develop a clearer typology that reflects the commercial and practical realities of modern business.Design/methodology/approach – A critique of existing typologies provided the basis for the development of a more practical framework. The new typology was populated with the most prominent collaborative forms to emerge from the analysis of academic research and commercial practice.Findings – “Structure” and “purpose” emerged as the most logical determinants in differentiating and classifying collaborative forms. Actual commercial ventures mapped on to the new typology demonstrate a good fit between these two considerations and the collaboration strategies adopted.Originality/value – This work contributes much needed clarity in differentiating and classifying forms of collaboration. The key determinants of structure and purpose reflect more accurately the commercial and practical realities.
Using Time Series Techniques to Forecast and Analyze Wake and Sleep Behavior

Smart home technologies provide numerous benefits for providing healthcare to individuals in a non-invasive manner. Our goal of this research is to use smart home technology to assistance people recovering from injuries or coping with disabilities to live independently. In this paper, we propose an algorithmic method, Behavior Forecasting (BF), to model and forecast both the wake and sleep behaviors that are exhibited by an individual. The BF method consists of (1) detecting wake/ sleep cycles, (2) defining numeric values that reflect sleep behavior and numeric values that reflect wake behavior, (3) forecasting the numeric wake and sleep values based on past behavior, (4) analyzing the effect of wake behavior on sleep by using wake behaviors when forecasting for the next sleep behavior observed, and vice versa, and (5) improving the performance of score prediction by using both past wake and past sleep scores. We evaluate the performance of our BF method with data collected from CASAS smart homes. We found that incorporating time series techniques such as a periodogram improves the detection of regular sleep and wake cycles. We also found that regardless of the utilized forecasting method, we can model wake behavior and sleep behavior with the minimum accuracy of 87%. These results suggest that we can effectively model wake and sleep behaviors in a smart environment. Furthermore, that future wake behavior can be determined from sleep behaviors and vice versa.
The Penn World Table (Mark 5): An Expanded Set of International Comparisons, 1950-1987

The Penn World Table displays a set of national accounts economic time series covering many countries. Its expenditure entries are denominated in a common set of prices in a common currency so that real quantity comparisons can be made, both between countries and over time. It also provides information about relative prices within and between countries, as well as demographic data and capital stock estimates. This updated, revised, and expanded Mark 5 version of the table includes more countries, years, and variables of interest to economic researchers. The Table is available on personal computer diskettes and through BITNET.
Assessing Factors Affecting Construction Equipment Productivity Using Structural Equation Modeling

The performance of the construction industry can be improved by understanding the factors that affect the productivity of its equipment. A hypothetical framework was used to analyze six vital construction equipment parameters to understand how they affect productivity in construction projects. Data collected through a survey of 110 respondents in the construction industry were analyzed using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The final model obtained using SEM consisted of 31 attributes from six construction equipment productivity factors, namely management (MG), materials (MT), human (HM), technical (TN), environmental (EM), and other factors (OT). Construction equipment productivity was found to be significantly influenced by MT and OT in construction projects. This was mainly because of their corresponding subfactors, such as operating life and equipment age, and the occurrence of accidents during construction. Consequently, based on survey feedback from various construction professionals, present gaps in construction equipment productivity were analyzed, and recommendations were made to overcome the main limiting factors under MT and OT. This study identified and quantified the interrelationships between various construction equipment productivity constraints. Therefore, the results can help experts and specialists better comprehend how to overcome delays due to idle time and improve construction equipment productivity.
Hair Braiding Method to Prevent Hair From Entering the Operating Field on the Scalp

AbstractIn scalp and cranial surgeries, it had been conventional to shave hair for surgical manipulations and prevention of infection. In recent years, it has been conventional to perform surgeries with minimal hair shaving. Such a method has been found to have a low risk of infection, and it takes into account esthetic considerations for patients. However, since long hair can become a hindrance to surgery, it is essential to preoperatively manage such hair and maintain a clear operating field. In this study, we braided patients’ long hair to obtain a good operating field during scalp or cranial surgery. The advantages of our method are that it can be performed easily in a short period of time, does not require special instruments, and does not damage hair because rubber bands are used minimally. It is a useful method that minimizes shaving of long-haired patients for surgeries of the head and reduces cumbersome steps.
WSN02-6: RPMA: Receiver Prohibition Multiple Access for Collision-controlled Wireless Mesh Networks and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

There are two main problems with the current paradigm for medium access control (MAC) in multihop wireless LANs, especially when quality of service (QoS) is required. The first is that it employs mandatory carrier sensing to avoid collisions, but such a transmitter- centric paradigm is vulnerable to the hidden terminal problem, and is inefficient in terms of spatial reuse especially when power controlled. The second is that it relies on RTS/CTS dialogues to mitigate the hidden terminal problem, but RTS/CTS messages are collision-prone and thus unreliable/ineffective for this purpose. In this paper, we propose a MAC scheme based on the receiver-centric paradigm called receiver prohibition multiple access (RPMA) with mixed-band busytone (MB) that can resolve the aforementioned problems. Advantages of RPMA-based protocols over IEEE 802.11/11e include collision freedom/controllability, higher energy efficiency, as well as being not vulnerable to collisions of RTS/CTS messages. Advantages of MB-based protocols over previous busytone protocols include the capability for interference prevention against CSMA or frequency-hopping devices that are not aware of busytone or MB. A resultant RPMA/MB protocol may be more complex and require additional hardware as compared to IEEE 802.11/11e, but it is expected to become feasible and competitive in cost with the advance of VLSI technology. Moreover, it can achieve the aforementioned advantages with backward compatibility to IEEE 802.11/11e, in the presence of other CSMA or frequency- hopping appliances.
Selective proteolytic cleavage of recombinant human interleukin 4. Evidence for a critical role of the C-terminus.

Human interleukin 4 is a 129 amino acid lymphokine secreted by activated T cells that exerts pleiotropic biological effects on B and T lymphocytes and other hematopoietic cells. Structure-function relations were studied by employing selective proteolytic cleavage of purified recombinant human interleukin 4 (rhuIL-4). Limited proteolysis with endoprotease Glu-C from Staphylococcus aureus (V8) produced two digestion products that were observed on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with apparent molecular weight values of 19K (I) and 15K (II), respectively. These species were isolated by reversed-phase HPLC. Amino acid sequencing indicated that species II was an 84 amino acid core fragment extending from Gln-20 to Glu-103 and containing a hydrolyzed peptide bond at Glu-26. On the basis of known disulfide bond assignments, it was concluded that species II was stabilized by two disulfide bonds (Cys-24/Cys-65 and Cys-46/Cys-99). Analysis of its secondary structure by circular dichroism revealed a high content of alpha helix. Species I was the full-length rhuIL-4 with selective cleavage at Glu-26 and Glu-103. Both species I and II were inactive in an in vitro assay based on proliferation of peripheral blood lymphocyte blasts and lacked the ability to bind to teh rhuIL-4 receptor on Daudi cells. In order to elucidate further the role of the residues removed by S. aureus V8 protease, rabbit antisera were raised to synthetic peptides corresponding to residues 1-26 at the N-terminus and 104-129 at the C-terminus. Only antisera directed to the C-terminal peptide inhibited binding of 125I-rhuIL-4 to Daudi cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Investment decisions in manufacturing: Assessing the effects of real oil prices and their uncertainty

SUMMARY We investigate the effects of real oil prices and their uncertainty on investment decisions. Making use of plant-level data, we estimate dynamic, discrete-choice models that allow modeling investment inaction, under different assumptions related to initial conditions and unobserved heterogeneity. We find that increases in real oil price changes and in real oil price uncertainty significantly reduce the likelihood of investment action, in line with the predictions of irreversible investment theory. We also document that investment decisions exhibit strong, pure state dependence and are also significantly affected by initial conditions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A grid oriented lightpath provisioning system

Multi-domain resource sharing is the fundamental feature of computing and data grid applications. In this paper, we address the issue of multi-domain optical network resource sharing and present a network management system designed for end-to-end lightpath provisioning across multiple independently managed domains. Our network management system, called user-controlled lightpath provisioning (UCLP) system, is based on the grid services concept and built on the Jini and JavaSpaces technologies. The UCLP system provides a traffic engineering approach to control network infrastructure for computing and data grid applications.
From the Rule of Law to the Law of Rules

Globalization can be read as consequential reordering, where national rules of law increasingly have to confront the progress of a transnational law of rules. We use conceptual building blocks from political science and sociological institutionalism to approach two sets of issues. First, we explore the nature of this consequential reordering and some of its structuring dynamics. We underscore some of the key features of the emergent transnational law of rules system and contrast it with more traditional, nationally bound, rule of law systems. Second, we consider the potential local, or national, impact of such profound reordering. In the conclusion, we identify key channels and mechanisms of impact as well as potential sources of resistance or of local adaptation. An exploration of those early propositions would be useful to both scholars and practitioners as it would make it possible to read, understand, and even anticipate the variability of cases and situations.
Effects of Cellular Uncoupling on Conduction in Anisotropic Canine Ventricular Myocardium

Experiments were performed on canine superfused ventricular epicardial tissue slices to determine the effects of 1.0–2.0 mM heptanol, an uncoupling agent, on conduction longitudinal and transverse to myocardial fiber orientation. Conduction velocities were measured between proximal and distal pairs of epicardial electrodes oriented transverse and longitudinal to the direction of a conducted wavefront evoked by pacing at a basic cycle length of 2,000 msec from one margin of the tissue before and after the addition of heptanol. In a separate group of tissues, the dual bipolar orthogonal electrode was used to sequentially map epicardial activation at 40 to 45 sites in a 1 cm x 2 cm area before and 30 minutes after the introduction of heptanol. In a third group of tissues, transmembrane potentials were recorded with standard microelectrode techniques to determine the effects of heptanol on action potential characteristics. Heptanol did not significantly effect action potential amplitude or maximum rate of depolarization. After 1.0 mM heptanol, conduction velocity began to decrease in 1-2 minutes and reached a steady state in 15-20 minutes. Conduction velocity in the longitudinal direction decreased from a control value of 0.56±0.13 to 0.46±0.10 M/sec (±SD) at 30 minutes after heptanol (p = 0.005). In the transverse direction, it decreased from 0.24±0.09 to 0.17 ±0.05 M/sec (p = 0.002). The ratio of longitudinal to transverse conduction velocities increased from 2.54 1.00 to 2.94 0.82 (p = 0.042). Thus, heptanol preferentially slowed conduction in the transverse direction. Because heptanol did not greatly influence active membrane properties, we used cable equations to calculate the time course of the change in effective junctional resistivity, which rose from 133.2 &OHgr; · cm before heptanol to 312.2 &OHgr; · cm 30 minutes after heptanol administration. We conclude that heptanol slows conduction velocity by selectively increasing junctional resistivity. The preferential slowing of conduction in the transverse direction is most likely due to the fact that more junctional resistances are encountered per unit distance in the transverse than in the longitudinal direction.
The Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2 Protein Complex Facilitates Homologous Recombination-Based Double-Strand Break Repair inSaccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT Saccharomyces cerevisiae mre11Δ mutants are profoundly deficient in double-strand break (DSB) repair, indicating that the Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2 protein complex plays a central role in the cellular response to DNA DSBs. In this study, we examined the role of the complex in homologous recombination, the primary mode of DSB repair in yeast. We measured survival in synchronous cultures following irradiation and scored sister chromatid and interhomologue recombination genetically. mre11Δ strains were profoundly sensitive to ionizing radiation (IR) throughout the cell cycle. Mutant strains exhibited decreased frequencies of IR-induced sister chromatid and interhomologue recombination, indicating a general deficiency in homologous recombination-based DSB repair. Since a nuclease-deficientmre11 mutant was not impaired in these assays, it appears that the role of the S. cerevisiae Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2 protein complex in facilitating homologous recombination is independent of its nuclease activities.
SPONTANEOUS LABOR AND ELECTIVE INDUCTION—A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED STUDY

Abstract. In a prospective randomized study spontaneous and oxytocin induced labor “for convenience” have been compared with respect to uterine activity, duration of labor, the condition of the fetus and the newborn infant. The study consists of 84 normal patients, of whom 43 were induced at full term by amniotomy and oxytocin infusion using the Cardiff Infusion System Mark II; 41 patients served as controls. No difference in maternal age, number of previous pregnancies and pelvic score one week before the day of delivery were found between the groups. The following parameters were calculated: duration of labor, uterine activity, amount of bleeding in the third stage of labor, number of early and late decelerations as well as number of episodes of bradycardia in the CTG‐recordings, birth weight, Apgar score one and five minutes post‐delivery and blood gases in mother and child 60 seconds after delivery. No significant differences between the two groups were found. It is concluded that there are no increased risks to mother or fetus compared to normal labor provided that there is cephalic presentation and normal pregnancy, careful selection with respect to the length of pregnancy and the condition of the cervix and that the Cardiff infusion system is used with intrauterine pressure recording and continuous fetal heart monitoring.
Recombinant Canine Distemper Virus Strain Snyder Hill Expressing Green or Red Fluorescent Proteins Causes Meningoencephalitis in the Ferret

ABSTRACT The propensity of canine distemper virus (CDV) to spread to the central nervous system is one of the primary features of distemper. Therefore, we developed a reverse genetics system based on the neurovirulent Snyder Hill (SH) strain of CDV (CDVSH) and show that this virus rapidly circumvents the blood-brain and blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barriers to spread into the subarachnoid space to induce dramatic viral meningoencephalitis. The use of recombinant CDVSH (rCDVSH) expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) or red fluorescent protein (dTomato) facilitated the sensitive pathological assessment of routes of virus spread in vivo. Infection of ferrets with these viruses led to the full spectrum of clinical signs typically associated with distemper in dogs during a rapid, fatal disease course of approximately 2 weeks. Comparison with the ferret-adapted CDV5804P and the prototypic wild-type CDVR252 showed that hematogenous infection of the choroid plexus is not a significant route of virus spread into the CSF. Instead, viral spread into the subarachnoid space in rCDVSH-infected animals was triggered by infection of vascular endothelial cells and the hematogenous spread of virus-infected leukocytes from meningeal blood vessels into the subarachnoid space. This resulted in widespread infection of cells of the pia and arachnoid mater of the leptomeninges over large areas of the cerebral hemispheres. The ability to sensitively assess the in vivo spread of a neurovirulent strain of CDV provides a novel model system to study the mechanisms of virus spread into the CSF and the pathogenesis of acute viral meningitis.
Resistance and Threshold Switching Voltage Drift Behavior in Phase-Change Memory and Their Temperature Dependence at Microsecond Time Scales Studied Using a Micro-Thermal Stage

We study the drift behavior of RESET resistance RRESET and threshold switching voltage Vth in phase-change memory (PCM) and their temperature dependence. To extend the temperature-dependent measurement to microsecond time scales, we integrate an innovative micro-thermal stage (MTS) on the PCM cell. The MTS changes the temperature of the programmed region of the PCM cell within a few microseconds by placing the Pt heater in close proximity of the programmed region. First, we experimentally verify the existing phenomenological RRESET and Vth drift model for constant annealing temperature at various temperatures between 25°C and 185°C down to 100 μs and show that the measured temperature dependence of the drift coefficient agrees well with what is expected from the existing drift models. Based on the existing drift model for a constant annealing temperature, we derive the analytical expression for the RRESET drift for time-varying annealing temperature and experimentally verify the analytical expression. The derived analytical expression is important to understand the impact of thermal disturbance on PCM reliability such as variations in RRESET and Vth.
Lipid and Peptide Control of Phosphatidylinositol 4-Kinase IIα Activity on Golgi-endosomal Rafts*

The most abundant and widely expressed mammalian phosphoinositide kinase activity is contributed by phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase IIα (PI4KIIα). In this study we demonstrate that PI4KIIα is a novel GTP-independent target of the wasp venom tetradecapeptide mastoparan and that different mechanisms of activation occur in different subcellular membranes. Following cell membrane fractionation mastoparan specifically stimulated a high activity Golgi/endosomal pool of PI4KIIα independently of exogenous guanine nucleotides. Conversely, GTPγS stimulated a low activity pool of PI4KIIα in a separable dense membrane fraction and this response was further enhanced by mastoparan. Overexpression of PI4KIIα increased the basal phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase activity of each membrane pool, as well as the mastoparan-dependent activities, thereby demonstrating that mastoparan specifically activates this isozyme. Both mastoparan and M7, at concentrations known to invoke secretion, stimulated PI4KIIα with similar efficacies, resulting in an increase in the apparent Vmax and decrease in Km for exogenously added PI. Mastoparan also stimulated PI4KIIα immunoprecipitated from the raft fraction, indicating that PI4KIIα is a direct target of mastoparan. Finally we reveal a striking dependence of both basal and mastoparan-stimulated PI4KIIα activity on endogenous cholesterol concentration and therefore conclude that changes in membrane environment can regulate PI4KIIα activity.
Wireless powered communication networks in interference channel

In this paper, we study a wireless powered communication network (WPCN) in a two-user interference channel, where two hybrid access-points (H-APs) support a user in each cell. In this two cell scenario, the H-APs first transmit the energy signal to charge both users in the downlink (DL) phase. Then, in the subsequent uplink (UL) phase, each user sends its information signal to the corresponding H-AP utilizing the harvested energy. Due to asynchronous time allocation of the DL and the UL between two cells, cross-link interference affects the overall performance. In this system, we aim to maximize the sum-rate by jointly optimizing the time durations for the DL and the UL phases of each cell, and the UL transmit power of all users. As the sum-rate maximization problem becomes non-convex, it is difficult to obtain an optimal solution. To solve this problem, we propose a new algorithm where the time allocation and the transmit power are alternatively updated based on the weighted sum-minimum mean square error criteria and the projected gradient method. In simulation results, we verify that the proposed algorithm for the asynchronous protocol outperforms conventional schemes.
Determinants of Civil Conflict in Colombia: How Robust are they?

We analyze how the determinants of the civil conflict in Colombia at the municipal level respond to changes in the empirical strategy. We estimate several econometric models that vary in three dimensions: 1) the data set, 2) the measure of conflict, and 3) the estimation method. We find substantial differences in the signs and statistical significance of the marginal effects in response to using a different data set, changing the definition of conflict, and employing different empirical methodologies.