Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The volatility impact of the European monetary system on member and non-member currencies

The objective of the European Monetary System (EMS) is to increase the coherence of its member economies and to facilitate the process towards the European Monetary Union. One major element in the process has been the coordinated effort in reducing the volatility of the member currencies through the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). To the same end, the Basle-Nyborg agreement of the European Union (EU) central bankers aims at strengthening the credibility of the EMS through providing credit facilities for intramarginal interventions. In this paper, the impact that the establishment of the EMS and the ratification of the Basle–Nyborg agreement had on the exchange rates of all EU currencies is studied. A multivariate GARCH(1,1) model is applied to all EU exchange rates in three subperiods: from January 1975 to the establishment of the EMS (March 1979); from March 1979 to the Basle–Nyborg agreement (September 1987); and from September 1987 to October 1991. Comparisons of the estimated parameters are performed across subperiods and between EMS and non-EMS currencies. The characteristics of the estimated conditional variances across subperiods are further examined with nonparametric tests. The findings suggest that the EMS and, especially, the Basle–Nyborg agreement have stabilized the European currencies.
Histochemical detection of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) contrast medium uptake in experimental brain ischemia

Recently, macrophage infiltration in different central nervous system (CNS) pathologies has been visualized with ultrasmall particles of iron oxide (USPIO) as a new cell‐specific contrast medium for MRI. However, validation of these findings at the histological level has been hampered by the fact that the in situ detection of iron uptake by conventional Prussian blue staining is not sensitive enough to detect low amounts of iron in the brain. Here, an improved method for the histochemical detection of USPIO uptake in ischemic brain lesions is reported. The procedure relies on the sequential enhancement of Prussian blue staining by diaminobenzidine and silver/gold impregnation. After photothrombotic cortical brain infarction, this method allowed sensitive in situ detection of iron‐laden macrophages which matched both macrophage immunostaining and USPIO‐induced signal alterations in high‐resolution 7 T MRI. This staining method provides a basis for correlative histological assessment of USPIO‐enhanced MRI in a broad spectrum of CNS pathologies. Magn Reson Med 52:403–406, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS: THE DARK SIDES OF MANAGERIALISTIC ‘ENLIGHTENMENT’

For many years the proponents of New Public Management (NPM) have promised to improve public services by making public sector organizations much more 'business-like'. There have been many investigations and empirical studies about the nature of NPM as well as its impact on organizations. However, most of these studies concentrate only on some elements of NPM and provide interesting, but often anecdotal, evidence and insights. Perhaps exactly because of the large amount of extremely revealing and telling empirical studies, there is, therefore, a lack of a systematic identification and understanding of the nature of NPM and its overall relevance. This paper contributes to a systematic identification and understanding of the concept of NPM as well as its multi-dimensional impact on public sector organizations. First, the paper aims at (re-) constructing a comprehensive taxonomy of NPM's main assumptions and core elements. Secondly, the paper tries to provide a more comprehensive and meta-analytical analysis of primarily the negative consequences of NPM-strategies for public sector organizations as well as the people working in them.
Breakthrough markets, innovation and internet firms

We examine the extent to which financial factors affected stock price movements of internet firms between 1998 and 2007. We classify internet firms into two categories: breakthrough internet firms (BIFs) and reformed internet firms (RIFs), and examine the differences between them. We find that many internet firms suffer from losses, especially in their early years, and that cash flows have played a more important role in the valuation of internet firms than net income or sales. We also find that leverage has a negative effect on stock returns for both types of internet firms with a greater effect for RIFs than for BIFs, and that growth has a positive impact on stock returns for BIFs but a negative impact for RIFs. Overall, BIFs on average perform better than RIFs. These findings imply that blue ocean strategies or innovations do not always create profits but may cost more in early years of strategy, and that breakthrough markets are better for the firms to increase their values than reformed markets. In addition, the results also imply that innovation can be achieved by small firms in the perfect competition, different from the Schumpeterian hypothesis.
Quantitative assessment of daytime motor activity provides a responsive measure of functional decline in patients with Huntington's disease

Voluntary motor impairment is a functionally important aspect of Huntington's disease (HD). Therefore, quantitative assessment of disturbed voluntary movement might be important in follow‐up. We investigated the relation between quantitatively assessed daytime motor activity and symptom severity in HD and evaluated whether assessment of daytime motor activity is a responsive measure in the follow‐up of patients.
Radiation proteomics: A brief overview

Acute biological effects caused by the exposure to high doses of radiation, either ionizing or nonionizing, are relatively well‐known but the delayed effects, occurring decades after exposure, are difficult to predict. The knowledge of the acute and delayed effects of the low doses of ionizing radiation (e.g. bystander effect) or nonionizing radiation (e.g. radiation emitted by wireless communication devices) is not yet reliably established. Often the acute effects of low doses are small and difficult to discover and replicate in scientific studies. Chronic effects of prolonged exposures to low‐dose radiation for decades are virtually unknown and often not possible to predict on the basis of the knowledge gained from acute exposures to high doses of radiation. Physiological significance of the biological effects induced by low doses of radiation is not known. The same lack of predictability of outcomes applies to the delayed effects of high‐dose radiation exposures. Proteomics, supplemented with other “omics” techniques, might be the best way forward to find out the target molecules of radiation, the biomarkers of radiation exposure and the physiological and health significance of the acute and delayed biological effects caused by the exposures to high‐ and low‐dose radiation. However, the currently available database of radiation effects on proteomes is far too small to be useful in formulation of new hypotheses concerning health consequences of radiation exposures.
Alkannin and Shikonin: Effect on Free Radical Processes and on Inflammation ‐ A Preliminary Pharmacochemical Investigation

Alkannin and shikonin, two natural products from Alkanna tinctoria and Lithospermum erhythrorhizon (Boraginaceae), are used in folk medicine where they are claimed to possess, among other properties, wound healing and anti‐inflammatory activity. We investigated, together with the structurally related naphthazarin, their in vitro antioxidant and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity as well as their in vivo antiinflammatory activity. I was found that all examined compounds significantly inhibited in vitro lipid peroxidation of ra hepatic microsomal membranes, competed with DMSO for free hydroxyl radicals, and reduced inflammation (mouse paw edema induced by FCA) very efficiently.The examined compounds proved equal or superior to the common reference compounds for each of these properties. I is concluded that the claimed and/or proven actions of alkannin and shikonin are attributable at least partly to their intervention in free radical processes.
“Best value for money” in procurement

Recent years witnessed a gradual change on how to evaluate successful procurement, in both the private ad the public sector. Indeed from a price-only criterion for measuring success, decisions shifted to a multi-criteria approach where various dimensions of quality, as well as price, are considered. The most common way to express such shift is to say that procurement should deliver “best value for money” (BVM). That is, to award the contract, both monetary and non-monetary components of an offer are to be considered. Whether in competitive bidding or negotiations BVM is typically formalized by a scoring formula, namely a rule for assigning dimensionless numbers to different elements of an offer, often expressed in different units of measurement. The contract would then be awarded according to the total score obtained by an offer. This paper discusses the notion of BVM and some typical forms of scoring rules, as a way to formalize the procurer’s preferences.
Vectorisation, Okapi et calcul de similarité pour le TAL : pour oublier enfin le TF-IDF (Vectorization, Okapi and Computing Similarity for NLP : Say Goodbye to TF-IDF) [in French]

Through some experiments on several tasks, we show how this simple calculation of similarity can inﬂuence system performance. We consider two particular alternatives. The ﬁrst is the weighting scheme Okapi-BM25, well known in IR and directly interchangeable with TF-IDF. The other, called vectorization, is a technique for calculating text similarities that we have developed which offers some interesting properties.
Another Dutch Miracle? Explaining Dutch and German Pension Trajectories

This paper compares old-age pension policy trajectories in the Netherlands and Germany. These two advanced welfare states have developed different financial arrangements despite similarities in policy legacies, political institutions and party systems. Both countries established and extended comprehensive pay-as-you-go financed public pension schemes in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the Netherlands achieved a fully fledged multi-tiered pension system with a strong funded component, while until recently the German system relied almost exclusively on pay-as-you-go financing. The Netherlands has, therefore, a financially more viable and sustainable set of pension arrangements than Germany, at least under the current and foreseeable economic and demographic conditions. The paper reconstructs the pension trajectories in the two countries in order to explore the role of path dependency, political choice and contingency in explaining this divergence. It is argued that divergence is essentially unrelated to different strategic choices or variations in institutional capacities for reform. Instead, divergence is the largely unintended consequence of a series of incremental decisions in combination with contingent events and developments.
Cooperation, competition and coopetition in innovation communities

This study explores competitors’ engagement in innovation communities. Some view working with competitors as a risky endeavour, some see it as potentially beneficial and others take it as something in-between. We address this issue by posing two questions: (1) why do rival firms cooperate, compete or ‘coopete’ (a syncretic approach); and (2) how do rival firms engage in these activities? To achieve this, we first review the relevant literature to construct conceptual arguments, and then investigate three innovation communities in the UK. The findings concern the importance of common and conflicting interests as fundamental drivers of a firm’s cooperative and competitive stance in an innovation community. While a ‘win–win’ strategy has been over-emphasised, data reveal that the fear of ‘lose–lose’ is vital to drive firm cooperation. Finally, our study suggests that rival relationships link to a strategic incentive alignment between common and conflicting interests; that is, rivals cooperate when common interests are higher, and compete on other occasions. Data seem to suggest that in a conflicting situation firms often maximise their private benefits at the expense of common interests. Data also suggest that this alignment varies in different innovation stages and in both an inter-organisational and an intra-organisational setting. This paper contributes to the existing work on the competitive/relational strategy of firms in the innovation space.
Household Wealth, Female Labor Force Participation and Fertility Decisions

This paper investigates the effects of household wealth and female and male wage rates on female labor force participation and fertiliry decisions. The standard life-cycle model of consumer behavior is the theoretical framework from which a reduced form discrete choice model is derived. An Instrumental Variables estimator is employed to control for measurement error in household wealth. We find that, once controlled for wages, an increase in household wealth has no significant effect on the female labor force participation probability and a significant positive effect on the probability of conceiving a child. Our empirical results do not support the theory that household wealth affects the reservation wage (hence the participation decision) but do support the idea that households save until their accumulated savings are high enough to deal with the costs of having children. These costs may include a withdrawal from the labor market which severely affects household income.
The Role of Geographic Location in the Financial and Innovation Performance of Publicly Traded Pharmaceutical Companies: Empirical Evidence from the Untied States

In this paper we examine the role of geographic location in the financial and innovation performance of publicly traded companies in the US pharmaceutical industry. Regional production clusters are identified and mapped. Particular attention is given to Porter's work on competitive advantage (the diamond paradigm) (Porter, 1990 The Competitive Advantage of Nations). Several metrics of business performance at the company level are collated with local factor conditions, the relative presence of related or supporting industries, and the degree of interfirm rivalry within production clusters (among other things). Our main hypothesis is that company performance responds positively to the location-specific assets identified by Porter. We explore this hypothesis using a series of t-tests and regression models based on secondary data. The empirical results lend partial support to Porter's model. Specifically, the data show that companies located within major clusters exhibit stronger financial performance than their counterparts located elsewhere. Cluster membership is also found to play a positive role in product innovation (as measured by patent counts). Overall, the data show that different metrics of company performance are influenced by different combinations of strategic and locational variables.
Bandpass filter using TM-mode dielectric rod resonators with novel input coupling

In this paper a bandpass filter is presented, which is based on TM-mode operation in dielectric rods. The bandpass filter consists of 7 resonators, has a center frequency of 1950 MHz, a bandwidth of 60MHz and two cross-couplings by cascaded quadruplet configurations for improved blocking performance. The layout will be discussed. A novel input coupling assembly is introduced. Parametric study for the coupling performance is presented. Furthermore, measurement results are shown.
Exploring public awareness of threats to the Great Barrier Reef environment

A key element in understanding public support for environmental conservation is awareness and understanding of the relevant environmental threats. This paper will present the results of an eight year research program including surveys of residents living adjacent to, and visitors to, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia and content analyses of media coverage of this protected area. The paper uses social representations theory to analyse and link these two data sets. The research critically examined the relationships between characteristics of the survey respondents, actual visitation to the area, perceived threats to this environment and overall attitudes towards the environmental health and conservation needs of the GBR. The results indicated that respondent perceptions of threats were influenced by media coverage, but this media coverage was problematic in a number of ways. In addition, further analysis of the survey data found that key user groups held different and conflicting social representations of the environmental status and threats to the GBR, and these social representations included perceptions of threats to the GBR that did not match the situation as presented by the protected area managers.
Estimating Consumer Surplus in the Censored Linear Model

The TOBIT estimator of the linear model is commonly used to control for censoring. However, when predicting either demand or consumer surplus, simply substituting the resulting coefficient estimates back into the linear functional form is incorrect. This failure stems from the non-linear impact of variations in cut-off price in an otherwise uniform population. Several techniques that recognize this potential problem are recommended. The performance of these recommended techniques is investigated with a Monte Carlo simulation.
Inter-layer adaptive filtering for scalable extension of HEVC

This paper introduces a novel inter-layer adaptive filtering method for scalable extension of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, which is being developed by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC). The scalable extension of HEVC is currently utilizing an interlayer texture prediction method, in which the prediction of texture at enhancement layer is derived from the collocated reconstructions of base layer. The proposed method applies an adaptive filter to the reconstructions of base layer and generates the predictor of enhancement layer. It aims at enhancing the coding efficiency of enhancement layer by further reducing the redundant texture information in interlayer texture prediction. Two techniques are presented in this paper. The first one applies the adaptive filter to the reconstructions of base layer, which is followed by the fixed upsampling in spatial scalability. In the second one, an adaptive upsampling filter is further applied to filtered base layer reconstructions to generate the pixels at interpolated positions. Compared with the Scalable Mode under Consideration (SMuC) version 0.1. 1 of HEVC scalable extension, average 0.8% and 3.2% bit-rate reductions are achieved for spatial scalability and SNR scalability respectively.
Estimating dynamic demand for cigarettes using panel data: the effects of bootlegging, taxation and advertising reconsidered

Abstracct-A dynamic demand for cigarette consumption is estimated using pooled data of 46 states over the period 1963 to 1980. A price elasticity of -0.2 and an insignificant income elasticity is found using pooled estimation techniques. The "bootlegging" effect is modeled explicitly using "neighboring" price. The effect is found to be significant. Two major policy issues are analyzed in light of these new estimates: (1) Cigarette taxation is found to be an effective tool for generating revenues even though there may be spillover effects to neighboring states where bootlegging is significant. (2) The effects of the Fairness Doctrine Act and the advertising ban on cigarette consumption are re-examined. We find mild support for the effectiveness of subsidized anti-smoking messages in reducing cigarette consumption, and no support for the thesis that the ban on advertising helps to increase per capita consumption.
Visualization of plastid movement in the pollen tube of Arabidopsis thaliana

Organelle dynamics in the plant male gametophyte has received attention for its importance in pollen tube growth and cytoplasmic inheritance. We recently revealed the dynamic behaviors of plastids in living Arabidopsis pollen grains and tubes, using an inherent promoter-driven FtsZ1–green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion. Here, we further monitored the movement of pollen tube plastids with an actin1 promoter-driven, stroma-targeted yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). In elongating pollen tubes, most plastids localized to the tube shank, where they displayed either retarded and unsteady motion, or fast, directional, and long-distance movement along the tube polarity. Efficient plastid tracking further revealed a population of tip-forwarding plastids that undergo a fluctuating motion(s) before traveling backward. The behavior of YFP-labeled plastids in pollen basically resembled that of FtsZ1–GFP-labeled plastids, thus validating the use of FtsZ1–GFP for simultaneous visualization of the stroma and the plastid-dividing FtsZ ring.
Exploring the Gender Differences in Protective Factors

Understanding the causes of why individuals desist from or are resilient to delinquency and drug use has become a salient social concern. Much research has centered on the effects that protective factors possess in fostering resiliency but that research has not fully explored how the effects of protective factors might vary across gender. Using a sample of 711 individuals from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child—Mother data set, the authors investigate how individual protective factors vary across gender on two measures of resiliency that document the lack of involvement in serious delinquency and drug use. They also examine whether the accumulation of protective factors varies across gender in fostering resiliency. The findings suggest that although males and females rely on different individual protective factors to foster resiliency, the accumulation of protective factors appears to be equally important for males and females in promoting resiliency. The authors discuss theoretical and policy implications.
Salmon aquaculture in Chile

Abstract Commercial salmon and trout farming has emerged as a major industry in Chile during the last two decades. Salmon is not a native species to Chile; however, excellent climatic conditions are provided for farming activities in the southern part of the country. After negligible production volumes during the early years, the harvest levels accelerated in the late 1980s, and since 1992 Chile has been the second largest producer of farmed salmon and trout in the world after Norway. This report reviews the development of the Chilean salmonid industry from its early stages until today with respect to production patterns, legislation and main markets. A cost comparison between Chilean and Norwegian farmed salmon is also provided. Finally, the international competitiveness and future challenges of the Chilean salmonid farming industry are analysed.
BILATERAL MONOPOLIES AND INCENTIVES FOR MERGER

We analyze a duopoly in which firms acquire inputs through bilateral monopoly relations with suppliers. We combine a bargaining model with a duopoly model to examine how input prices and profits are affected by the structures of the upstream and downstream industries, by the demand relations among the final products, and by the nature of bargaining between suppliers and firms. We find that the implications for the incentives for merger are significantly different from what they would be in an environment in which input prices are not determined in bargaining.