Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial Development and Economic Growth in India

This article examines the impact of the developments in the financial sector on economic growth in India in the post-reform period. The model of Mankiw et al. (1992) was extended to establish a relationship between financial development and economic growth. The model was then estimated using quarterly data for the period 1993 to 2005 for India, using the techniques of cointegration and vector error correction method. Cointegration results show that capital–output ratio and rate of growth of human capital have positive effects on real rate of growth of GDP, irrespective of the indicator of stock market development. An increase in the market capitalization dampens economic growth, whereas turnover has no significant effect, and an increase in the money market rate of interest has a positive effect on economic growth. Real wealth, debt burden, real effective exchange rate and the rate of growth of labour have negative effects. Vector error correction method shows that the ECM term relating to market capitalization and inflation help adjust short-run dynamics of economic growth when we use market capitalization as the indicator of the stock market development. The findings lend no support to the theoretical prediction that the stock market development would play an important role in enhancing economic growth in India. On the contrary, reform measures on the market rate of interest that were introduced in the Indian banking system appear to have promoted economic growth significantly.
Stilbene derivatives inhibit the activity of the inner mitochondrial membrane chloride channels

Ion channels selective for chloride ions are present in all biological membranes, where they regulate the cell volume or membrane potential. Various chloride channels from mitochondrial membranes have been described in recent years. The aim of our study was to characterize the effect of stilbene derivatives on single-chloride channel activity in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The measurements were performed after the reconstitution into a planar lipid bilayer of the inner mitochondrial membranes from rat skeletal muscle (SMM), rat brain (BM) and heart (HM) mitochondria. After incorporation in a symmetric 450/450 mM KCl solution (cis/trans), the chloride channels were recorded with a mean conductance of 155 ± 5 pS (rat skeletal muscle) and 120 ± 16 pS (rat brain). The conductances of the chloride channels from the rat heart mitochondria in 250/50 mM KCl (cis/trans) gradient solutions were within the 70–130 pS range. The chloride channels were inhibited by these two stilbene derivatives: 4,4′-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DIDS) and 4-acetamido-4′-isothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (SITS). The skeletal muscle mitochondrial chloride channel was blocked after the addition of 1 mM DIDS or SITS, whereas the brain mitochondrial channel was blocked by 300 μM DIDS or SITS. The chloride channel from the rat heart mitochondria was inhibited by 50–100 μM DIDS. The inhibitory effect of DIDS was irreversible. Our results confirm the presence of chloride channels sensitive to stilbene derivatives in the inner mitochondrial membrane from rat skeletal muscle, brain and heart cells.
Legal challenges of cross-border insolvencies in Sub-Saharan Africa with reference to Tanzania and Kenya : a framework for legislation and policies

Although a substantial body of literature has developed in recent years in the area of cross-border insolvency, this scholarship has been dominated by scholars from the United States and Europe, so that a perspective from most of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries is lacking. This study addresses this perspective. It makes an in-depth examination and discussion of the challenges that SSA countries face in reform and application of cross-border insolvency law given the ever-growing multinational trade and investment. The study focuses on the risk of failure of SSA legislative processes to properly address the potential challenges of cross-border insolvencies in a manner that is sensitive to the local contexts and which provides a balance with international insolvency benchmarks. It examines cross-border insolvency theories; the global drivers for convergence of insolvency law through global insolvency norms; and the implications for cross-border insolvency regulations arising from cross-border trade and investment arrangements, such as the bilateral investment treaties, before considering the state and future of the legislative frameworks of SSA countries.
3D Printed Multimaterial Microfluidic Valve

We present a novel 3D printed multimaterial microfluidic proportional valve. The microfluidic valve is a fundamental primitive that enables the development of programmable, automated devices for controlling fluids in a precise manner. We discuss valve characterization results, as well as exploratory design variations in channel width, membrane thickness, and membrane stiffness. Compared to previous single material 3D printed valves that are stiff, these printed valves constrain fluidic deformation spatially, through combinations of stiff and flexible materials, to enable intricate geometries in an actuated, functionally graded device. Research presented marks a shift towards 3D printing multi-property programmable fluidic devices in a single step, in which integrated multimaterial valves can be used to control complex fluidic reactions for a variety of applications, including DNA assembly and analysis, continuous sampling and sensing, and soft robotics.
Surviving the political consequences of neoliberal policies

In many countries in Latin America and also western Europe, leftist parties have succeeded in winning repeated re-election even though they have implemented neoliberal economic policies when in government. According to the existing literature, these parties should suffer electoral punishment since they are diverging from their traditional policy course and their electoral promises, and their neoliberal policies are potentially costly for their core support groups. Analysing the cases of left-of-centre parties in Spain and Costa Rica, this article argues that policy implementation strategies, together with strategic use of institutional rules, help to obfuscate the policies' impact, deflect blame, and make re-election possible. The reform of welfare and the way we live now: a critique of Giddens and the Third Way
The Organizational Impact of Technological Change: A Comparative Theory of National Institutional Factors

This paper offers a parsimonious theory of national institutional factors that promote or inhibit the formation of start-up firms in the USA and Japan. Three factors are proposed: the technical labor market, the venture capital market and the structure of buyer-supplier ties. Complementarities between these factors cause them to work as a system, while their differences elevate or reduce the level of incentive constraints and appropriability constraints acting on incumbent and start-up firms respectively. As a result, incumbents might be displaced in an industry in one country while incumbent firms in the same industry in another country might persevere, due to the presence or absence of start-up firms. This suggests that there may be no single best way to organize for innovation in different institutional settings; rather, firms must seek to exploit the virtues of their environment, even as they act to mitigate the hazards it poses. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.
Terrorism and Tourism:The Vulnerability of Beach Vendors' Livelihoods in Bali

Tourism has been encouraged in many of the world's poorer countries as a means of stimulating development. However, tourism is vulnerable to external shocks, which can damage a host country's economy, especially where reliance on tourism is high. This paper focuses on Bali, Indonesia where tranquillity was shattered by terrorist bombs in October 2002, and again in October 2005. It examines the impact of the 2002 bombings on the island's beach vendors, members of the informal sector who work at the margins of tourism. The UK's Department for International Development's (DFID) model of sustainable development is used as a guide to assess notional changes in vendor livelihoods and reveals the sharp reduction in their access to financial capital once tourism had collapsed. Fieldwork showed that livelihoods were sustained with difficulty after the terrorist attacks and that social capital played a major role in survival. Although visitor numbers to Bali are recovering, the research reveals significant changes in vendors' livelihood patterns. Social capital remains strong though it has changed in certain respects as a consequence of terrorist activity, one of the most negative changes being an increase in local religious tensions. The authors question the wisdom of encouraging tourism as a major vehicle for development without simultaneously promoting alternative income-generating opportunities to offer a safety net against external shocks to a vulnerable tourism industry.
Avaliação de empresas por múltiplos aplicados em empresas agrupadas com análise de cluster

Este estudio verifico si hay evidencias de que el metodo de evaluacion de empresas por multiplos tiene su rendimiento aumentado, cuando se aplica en conjunto con el analisis de cluster para la seleccion de las empresas comparables, dado que ese abordaje busca producir agrupaciones con homogeneidad maximizada, y la evaluacion por multiplos requiere empresas comparables semejantes a la empresa blanco. Para analizarse el rendimiento, se evaluo el rango intercuartil de los errores de tasacion generados cuando las comparables pertenecian al mismo sector economico versus cuando pertenecian al mismo cluster. Adicionalmente se llevaron a cabo pruebas para comparar las medias de las diferencias de los errores de tasacion considerandose la empresa comparable como siendo del mismo sector economico de la empresa blanco y considerandose que la empresa blanco pertenece al mismo cluster de la empresa comparada. Los resultados sugieren reduccion de la dispersion de los errores de tasacion, teniendo el rango intercuartil como referencia, indicando mejora de rendimiento del metodo de evaluacion por multiplos cuando utilizado en conjunto con el analisis de cluster. Sin embargo, las pruebas para comparacion de las medias de las diferencias de los errores de tasacion por sector economico versus cuando pertenecian al mismo cluster, no refuerzan la conclusion del analisis del rango intercuartil, indicando que no hay mejora de rendimiento de la metodologia de evaluacion por multiplos asociada a la herramienta de cluster. Los resultados obtenidos refuerzan la practica de los analistas de mercado de comparar la empresa blanco con las empresas actuantes en el mismo sector economico.
Modeling the Reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy for Arable Crops Under Uncertainty

The size of the insurance and wealth effects of a change in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for arable crops is estimated. The impact of price uncertainty is accounted for in the specific decision-making structure of the European Union (EU) arable crop producers under nonlinear mean-variance risk preferences. A system of output supply, input demand, and land allocation equations is estimated on a sample of Italian specialized arable crop farms. The simulation of the impact of the recent reforms confirms that farmers' output responses are consistently affected by the size of the insurance and wealth effects.
The Contribution of Social Capital to Household Welfare in a Paper-Recycling Craft Village in Vietnam

This study examined whether the contribution of social capital to household economic outputs was greater than that of other types of capital, whether different dimensions of social capital contribute equally to household income, and whether the role of social capital varies among different categories of households. We developed a reduced-form model of the household production function, in which social capital is treated as a production factor similar to other conventional factors such as physical capital, labor, and human capital, with household income and expenditure as dependent variables. The results show that social capital has a strong and positive contribution to household income, and the positive contribution of social capital to the general (the poor) house-hold’s income is greater than that of the paper-recycling (the rich) household’s income. In contrast to other studies, the number of memberships in associations does not have an impact on household income.
Stimuli‐Responsive magnetic nanoparticles for monoclonal antibody purification

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are important therapeutic proteins. One of the challenges facing large‐scale production of monoclonal antibodies is the capacity bottleneck in downstream processing, which can be circumvented by using magnetic stimuli‐responsive polymer nanoparticles. In this work, stimuli‐responsive magnetic particles composed of a magnetic poly(methyl methacrylate) core with a poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide‐co‐acrylic acid) (P(NIPAM‐co‐AA)) shell cross‐linked with N, N'‐methylenebisacrylamide were prepared by miniemulsion polymerization. The particles were shown to have an average hydrodynamic diameter of 317 nm at 18°C, which decreased to 277 nm at 41°C due to the collapse of the thermo‐responsive shell. The particles were superparamagnetic in behavior and exhibited a saturation magnetization of 12.6 emu/g. Subsequently, we evaluated the potential of these negatively charged stimuli‐responsive magnetic particles in the purification of a monoclonal antibody from a diafiltered CHO cell culture supernatant by cation exchange. The adsorption of antibodies onto P(NIPAM‐co‐AA)‐coated nanoparticles was highly selective and allowed for the recovery of approximately 94% of the mAb. Different elution strategies were employed providing highly pure mAb fractions with host cell protein (HCP) removal greater than 98%. By exploring the stimuli‐responsive properties of the particles, shorter magnetic separation times were possible without significant differences in product yield and purity.
Scale Economies, Scope Economies, and Technical Change in Federal Reserve Payment Processing

In the past decade, the U.S. economy has witnessed a tremendous surge in the usage of electronic payment processing services and an increased importance of the firms that provide these services. In this paper,we estimate scale economies, scope economies, and technical change in the Federal Reserve's provision of payments processing from 1990 to 2000. We find considerable scale economies and evidence of some scope economies for the provision of automated clearinghouse, Fedwire, and Book-Entry services no matter whether we specify a separable quadratic or a translog cost function. In addition, we find that disembodied technical change also contributed to the overall reduction in costs throughout the 1990s.
The oxygen uptake response running to exhaustion at peak treadmill speed.

PURPOSE Peak treadmill speed (V(max)), which is the final speed reached and sustained for a minute during a speed-incremented continuous maximal oxygen uptake ([OV0312]O(2max)) test, is an effective predictor of endurance performance. This study assesses the reliability of V(max) and [OV0312]O(2max), and examines the oxygen uptake response while running to exhaustion at V(max). METHODS Eleven recreationally active runners completed two speed-incremented [OV0312]O(2max) tests (test 1 and test 2) to determine [OV0312]O(2max) and V(max). In addition, the subjects completed a constant speed test (test 3) at V(max) to determine time to exhaustion (T(max)). RESULTS No significant differences existed between test 1 and test 2 for [OV0312]O(2max) (P = 0.68) and V(max) (P = 0.10). Means (+/- SD) for [OV0312]O(2max) and V(max) were 51.1 +/- 5.8 mL.kg-1.min-1 and 17.4 +/- 1.3 km.h-1, respectively; 95% limits of agreement for V(max) were -0.1 +/- 1.4 km.h-1. However, as heteroscedasticity was present in the [OV0312]O(2max) test data, 95% ratio limits of agreement were reported (1.01 *// 1.08). During test 3, 6 of the 11 subjects attained an oxygen uptake equivalent to their previously recorded [OV0312]O(2max). The time to attain [OV0312]O(2max) was 155.0 +/- 48.0 s, which represented 66.5% of T(max) (237.0 +/- 35.0 s). Although 5 of the 11 subjects did not attain an oxygen uptake response equivalent to that previously recorded, no significant difference existed between the oxygen uptakes for the three tests (P = 0.52). CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that V(max) and [OV0312]O(2max) attained during a speed incremented maximal oxygen uptake test were reliable. However, while running at V(max), not all the subjects attained an oxygen uptake response equivalent to that previously recorded during incremental tests 1 and 2.
Predicting Intended and Actual Travel Behaviors: An Examination of Chinese Outbound Tourists to Australia

ABSTRACT This exploratory study examines the predictive power of psychographic and demographic variables on intended and actual travel behaviors. A pre-tour and after-tour survey on the intended and actual travel behaviors of 397 Chinese 1 outbound tourists to Australia was conducted. Four of the five intended travel behaviors (Sightseeing, Culture and Heritage Activity, Shopping and Dining, and Entertainment) and three of the five actual travel behaviors (Sightseeing, Culture and Heritage Activity, and Entertainment) proved to be statistically significant with a combination of psychographic and demographic contributors. The results of this study are discussed and the market implications indicated.
Single-Phase PLLs: A Review of Recent Advances

Single-phase phase-locked loops (PLLs) are popular for the synchronization and control of single-phase grid-connected converters. They are also widely used for monitoring and diagnostic purposes in the power and energy areas. In recent years, a large number of single-phase PLLs with different structures and properties have been proposed in the literature. The main aim of this paper is to provide a review of these PLLs. To this end, the single-phase PLLs are first classified into two major categories: 1) power-based PLLs and 2) quadrature signal generation-based PLLs. The members of each category are then described and their pros and cons are discussed. This paper provides a deep insight into characteristics of different single-phase PLLs, and therefore, can be considered as a reference for researchers and engineers.
An Empirical Proposal on Power, Knowledge and Truth of Correlations among the Minimum Wage, Foreign Direct Investment in the Industrial Sector and Export

การวจยครงน มวตถประสงคเพอชใหเหนถง ความสมพนธระหวาง อตราคาจางขนตำ การลงทนโดยตรงจากตางประเทศในภาคอตสาหกรรม และการสงออก ซงกำลงถกวพากษวจารณอยางรนแรง โดยผมอำนาจหนาท จากทงภาครฐและภาคเอกชน นบตงแตการประกาศนโยบายประกนรายไดอตราคาจางขนตำของผใชแรงงานอยท 300 บาทตอวน ของพรรคเพอไทย ดวยวธวทยาเชงปรมาณขนสง โดยนำขอมลอนกรมเวลาของ อตราคาจางขนตำ การลงทนโดยตรงจากตางประเทศในภาคอตสาหกรรม และการสงออก มาวเคราะหดวยสถตขนสง การวเคราะหถดถอย การทดสอบความสมพนธเชงดลยภาพในระยะยาวดวยวธของโจฮานเซน และการทดสอบความเปนเหตเปนผลรายคดวยวธของแกรนเจอรผลการวเคราะหดวยการวเคราะหถดถอย พบวา อตราคาจางขนตำมความสมพนธในทศทางเดยวกน ทงกบการลงทนโดยตรงจากตางประเทศในภาคอตสาหกรรม และการสงออก ขณะทการทดสอบความสมพนธเชงดลยภาพในระยะยาวดวยวธของโจฮานเซน อตราคาจางขนตำ กลบไมมความสมพนธกบการลงทนโดยตรงจากตางประเทศในภาคอตสาหกรรม แตมความสมพนธกบการสงออก ในลกษณะเปนเหตเปนผลซงกนและกน ตามผลการทดสอบความเปนเหตเปนผลรายคดวยวธของแกรนเจอรชใหเหนวา การกลาวอางวาการขนของอตราคาจางขนตำจะกระทบตอความสามารถในการแขงขนของประเทศ ดานการลงทนโดยตรงจากตางประเทศในภาคอตสาหกรรม และการสงออก ภายใตสถานะของผมอำนาจหนาท และยดกมการประกอบสรางความร รวมถงความจรงครอบงำสงคม นจงอาจมใชการบกพรองโดยสจรต แตเปนความพยายามหนงของการตอสเชงวาทกรรม วาดวยความไมเปนธรรมทางเศรษฐกจ และการกดขทางชนชน อนเปนรากเหงาของปญหาเชงโครงสรางทสำคญของประเทศไทยThis research has an objective to demonstrate the correlations among the minimum wage, foreign direct investment in the industrial sector, and export, which has been criticized severely by the authorities from both the public and private sectors, since the Pua Thai Party’s policy announcement on the guarantee of labors’ minimum wage at 300 baht per day. The research employs an advanced quantitative methodology, analyzing time-series data of the minimum wage, foreign direct investment in the industrial sector, and export by advanced statistical methods, regression, the Johansen Cointegration Test, and the Pairwise Granger Causality Test.The regression analysis reveals that the minimum wage correlates in the same direction with both foreign direct investment in the industrial sector and export, whereas when applied the Johansen Cointegration Test, the minimum wage has no cointegration with foreign direct investment but has a causal relationship with export according to the Pairwise Granger Causality Test.This indicates that the claim that the minimum wage increase will affect the competiveness of the country with regard to foreign direct investment in the industrial sector and export, has been reinforced by the authorities using their superior status to dominate the process of building a body of knowledge as well as to distort the truth so as to possess a control over the society. This is thus not a good-faith mistake but an effort of discourse fights on the economic unfairness and social-class discrimination, which is the root of Thailand’s important structural problems.The English Version of this article can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2193918
Googling the WTO: What Search Engine Data Tell Us About the Political Economy of Institutions

How does international law affect state behavior? Existing models addressing this issue rest on individual preferences and voter behavior, yet these assumptions are rarely questioned. Do citizens truly react to their governments being taken to court over purported violations? I propose a novel approach to test the premise behind models of international treaty-making, using web-search data. Such data are widely used in epidemiology; in this article I claim that they are also well suited to applications in political economy. Web searches provide a unique proxy for a fundamental political activity that we otherwise have little sense of: information seeking. Information seeking by constituents can be usefully examined as an instance of political mobilization. Applying web-search data to international trade disputes, I provide evidence for the belief that US citizens are concerned about their country being branded a violator of international law, even when they have no direct material stake in the case at hand. This article constitutes a first attempt at utilizing web-search data to test the building blocks of political economy theory.
The Long-run Relationship Between Renewable Electricity Consumption and GDP: Evidence From Panel Data

The article examines whether a long-run relationship between per capita renewable electricity consumption and gross domestic product (GDP) exists employing panel integration and cointegration techniques for a dynamic heterogeneous panel of 19 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 1980–2008. Our findings support the existence of a long-run equilibrium relation between renewable electricity consumption and GDP. Further, the evidence points to unidirectional causality from a GDP to renewable electricity consumption.