Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sharing Variable Returns of Cooperation

A finite set of agents jointly undertake a project. Depending on the aggregate of individual agent characteristics the project runs losses or profits, which have to be shared. This paper adopts the mechanistic view and concentrates on devices that a contingent planner may use in order to share the net profits. The Moulin and Shenker (1994) representation theorem is used to show that additive mechanisms with the constant returns property relate 1 to 1 to rationing methods. Refinements are discussed dealing with monotonicity and equity properties that relate to the dispersion of shares. The second part introduces the notion of a consistent solution. Each rationing method induced by a consistent mechanism is consistent. If such mechanism is continuous as well, then the corresponding rationing method is parametric in the terminology of Young (1998) and Moulin (2000). Most prevalent mechanisms (average, serial, Shapley-Shubik) are consistent as member of the class of incremental mechanisms. Each interval consistent incremental mechanism is shown to be a composition of marginal mechanisms and the average mechanism. Immediately the average mechanism is the unique strongly consistent solution. Finally a characterization of mechanisms within the general class is discussed using super-additivity.
Endogenous Growth: Estimating the Romer Model for the Us and Germany

By contrasting endogenous growth models with facts, one is frequently confronted with the prediction that levels of economic variables, such as R&D expenditures, imply lasting effects on the growth rate of an economy. As stylized facts show, the research intensity in most advanced countries has dramatically increased, mostly more than the GDP. Yet, the growth rates have roughly remained constant or even declined. In this paper we modify the Romer endogenous growth model and test our variant of the model using time series data. We estimate the market version both for the US and Germany for the time period January 1962 to April 1996. Our results demonstrate that the model is compatible with the time series for aggregate data in those countries. All parameters fall into a reasonable range.
National culture and high commitment management

This paper examines the relationship between national culture and high commitment management (HCM). A model linking national culture and HCM is developed and hypotheses concerning the relationship between national culture and the take‐up of specific HCM practices are derived. Empirical results demonstrating the relationship between national culture and the take‐up of particular HCM practices across nine countries are presented. The paper further establishes that the adoption of certain individual HCM practices is more closely associated with superior employee performance in countries with certain cultural characteristics than in others. However, when HCM is implemented as a package of practices, it is found to be associated with superior employee performance across different cultural settings. The paper concludes that national culture plays an exogenous determining role in the adoption of HCM practices, with the result that the globalisation of HCM practices should be undertaken with sensitivity.
Discerning applicants’ interests in rural medicine: a textual analysis of admission essays

Background Despite efforts to construct targeted medical school admission processes using applicant-level correlates of future practice location, accurately gauging applicants’ interests in rural medicine remains an imperfect science. This study explores the usefulness of textual analysis to identify rural-oriented themes and values underlying applicants’ open-ended responses to admission essays. Methods The study population consisted of 75 applicants to the Rural Physician Leadership Program (RPLP) at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Using WordStat, a proprietary text analysis program, applicants’ American Medical College Application Service personal statement and an admission essay written at the time of interview were searched for predefined keywords and phrases reflecting rural medical values. From these text searches, derived scores were then examined relative to interviewers’ subjective ratings of applicants’ overall acceptability for admission to the RPLP program and likelihood of practicing in a rural area. Results The two interviewer-assigned ratings of likelihood of rural practice and overall acceptability were significantly related. A statistically significant relationship was also found between the rural medical values scores and estimated likelihood of rural practice. However, there was no association between rural medical values scores and subjective ratings of applicant acceptability. Conclusions That applicants’ rural values in admission essays were not related to interviewers’ overall acceptability ratings indicates that other factors played a role in the interviewers’ assessments of applicants’ acceptability for admission.
Behavior of spindles and spindle plaques in the cell cycle and conjugation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The interdependence of spindle plaque with other aspects of cell division and conjugation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been investigated. Three forms of the spindle plaque appear sequentially before the formation of the complete, intranuclear spindle. The single plaque is present initially in the mitotic cycle; it becomes transformed into a satellite-bearing single plaque during the latter part of G1. Subsequently, plaque duplication yields the double plaque characteristic of the early phase of budding, which coincides with the period of chromosome replication (S). The eventual separation of these plaques to form a complete spindle, with a single plaque at each pole, is nearly coincident with the completion of S. The form of the plaque differs in two independent cases of G1 arrest: the single plaque is found in a cell in stationary arrest of growth, whereas a cell arrested by mating factors in preparation for conjugation contains a satellite-bearing single plaque. The latter form is retained during zygote formation, where it serves as the initial site of fusion of each prezygotic nuceus with the other. This fusion results in the formation of a single zygotic nucleus with a satellite-bearing single plaque, which is subsequently transformed into a double plaque as the zygote buds. The double plaque is situated adjacent to the site of bud emergence in both vegetative cells and zygotes.
Genetic definition of the Escherichia coli zwf "soxbox," the DNA binding site for SoxS-mediated induction of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase in response to superoxide

In Escherichia coli K-12, transcription of zwf, the gene for glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, is subject to growth rate-dependent regulation and is activated by SoxS in response to superoxide stress. To define genetically the site of SoxS activation, we undertook a detailed deletion analysis of the zwf promoter region. Using specifically targeted 5' and 3' deletions of zwf sequences, we localized the SoxS activation site to a 21-bp region upstream of the zwf promoter. This minimal "soxbox" was able to confer paraquat inducibility when placed upstream of a normally unresponsive gnd-lacZ protein fusion. In addition, we used these findings as the basis for resecting unnecessary sequences from the region upstream of the promoters of two other SoxS-regulated genes, sodA and nfo. Like the zwf soxbox, the regions required for SoxS activation of sodA and nfo appear to lie just upstream or overlap the -35 hexamers of the corresponding promoters. Importantly, the sequence boundaries established here by deletion analysis agree with the primary SoxS recognition sites of zwf, sodA, and nfo that we previously identified in vitro by gel mobility shift and DNase I protection assays with a purified MalE-SoxS fusion protein.
The Effect of Security Alliances on Exchange-Rate Regime Choices

Because an exchange-rate arrangement by nature involves more than one country and because it has various economic and political implications, it is affected inevitably by interstate political relations. Most previous research explains the exchange-rate regime choice as a function of individual country attributes, ignoring the role of interstate political relations and the anchor-currency choice. In this paper, I examine how security alliances influence a country's choices over the flexible-fixed regime and the anchor currency. Alliances increase the ex ante attractiveness of pegging to one's ally, because security ties can reduce concerns over relative gains, motivate active collaboration by the anchor-currency ally to defend the regime, and signal to the currency market the durability of the regime. Hence, a country is biased toward pegging to its ally, relative to either pegging to a nonally or choosing the flexible regime. I test the argument for both the Bretton Woods and the post- Bretton Woods periods. I find that alliance ties affect both the anchor currency and the flexible-fixed regime choices, as expected. But these effects appear to function through the defense-pact alliance alone and are most pronounced for the developing countries.
Tree and spline based association analysis of gene–gene interaction models for ischemic stroke

In the biology of complex disorders, such as atherothrombosis, interactions among genetic factors may play an important role, and theoretical considerations suggest that gene–gene interactions are quite common in such diseases. We used a nested case‐control sample from the Physicians' Health Study, a randomized trial assessing the effects of aspirin and beta‐carotene on cardiovascular disease and cancer among 22071 US male physicians, to examine these relationships for ischemic stroke. Data were available on 92 polymorphisms from 56 candidate genes related to inflammation, thrombosis and lipid metabolism, assessed in 319 incident cases of ischemic stroke and 2090 disease‐free controls. We used classification and regression trees (CART) and multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) models to explore the presence of genetic interactions in these data. These models offer advantages over typical logistic regression methods in that they may uncover interactions among genes that do not exhibit strong marginal effects. Final models were selected using either the Bayes Information Criterion or cross‐validation. Model fit was assessed using 10‐fold cross‐validation of the entire selection process. Both the CART and two‐way MARS‐logit models identified an interaction between two polymorphisms linked to inflammation, the P‐selectin (val640leu) and interleukin‐4 (C(582) T) genes. Internal validation of these models, however, suggested that effects of these polymorphisms are additive. Although further external validation of these models is necessary, these methods may be valuable in exploring and identifying potential gene–gene as well as gene–environment interactions in association studies. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hidden effects of variable order review intervals in inventory control

Purpose – Whereas inventory theory traditionally assumes the periodic review inventory model (R, T), with an order‐up‐to level R, has a random demand and lead time coupled with a deterministic review interval T, firms often deviate from a strict adherence to a fixed review interval when they attempt to capture transportation scale efficiencies. Employing this policy introduces additional supply chain variability. This paper aims to provide an expression for the standard deviation of demand during the protection period, important in setting safety stock, as well as an expression for the amount of order variance amplification induced by a stochastic review interval.Design/methodology/approach – Analytical modeling is used to develop the expression for the standard deviation of demand during the protection period as well as the calculation for the amount of order variance amplification induced by a stochastic review interval.Findings – In terms of the variance of demand over the protection period, a stochast.
Capital Structure, Compensation and Incentives

This article illustrates an incentive-aligning role of debt in the presence of optimal compensation contracts. Owing to information asymmetry, value-maximizing compensation contracts allow managerial rents following high investment outcomes. The manager has an incentive to increase these rents by choosing investments that generate greater information asymmetry. An aptly chosen debt level mitigates this incentive, because investments that generate greater information asymmetry have more volatile outcomes. The greater volatility would make the debt risky, causing the shareholders to focus on high outcomes and therefore compensation contracts that reduce managerial rents. At the optimum, the manager avoids opportunistic investments, and the shareholders offer value-maximizing compensation contracts. Empirically, the analysis predicts a negative relationship between leverage and market-to-book that is reversed at extreme market-to-book ratios, a negative relationship between leverage and profitability, a negative relationship between leverage and pay-for-performance, and a positive relationship between pay-for-performance and investment opportunities. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
A deteriorating inventory model with displayed stock-level-dependent demand and partially backlogged shortages with all unit discount facilities via particle swarm optimisation

The goal of this research is to develop a price break inventory model for a single deteriorating item with imprecise inventory costs by considering all unit discount policy and variable demand rate dependent on displayed stock level. Shortages are partially backlogged with a variable rate dependent on the length of the waiting time up to the arrival of fresh lot. Analysing the relative size of the displayed stock-level-dependency parameters of demand and the storage capacity of the showroom/shop, different scenarios have been considered. Then, for each scenario, the model has been formulated as a constrained optimisation problem with interval objective and solved with the help of different versions of particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and interval order relations. To illustrate the model, three numerical examples have been solved by different versions of PSO and the results have been compared. Finally, to study the effect of changes of different parameters on optimal policies, sensitivity analyses have be.
Dietary PUFA and cancer

The aim of the present paper is to give a brief overview on the role of dietary fat in carcinogenesis and as possible anticancer agents. Dietary fat is an essential nutrient and important source for the essential fatty acids (FA), linoleic and α-linolenic acids, which contribute to proper growth and development. However, dietary fat has been associated with the development of colorectal, breast, prostate, endometrial and ovarian cancers, with the type and quality of fat playing an underlying role. Tumour growth is the disruption of the homoeostatic balance regulating cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis and is associated with altered lipid metabolism. Animal cancer models and human cancer biopsy tissue demonstrate that a characteristic lipid profile is associated with the growth and development of neoplastic lesions. This entails alterations in membrane cholesterol, phospholipid and PUFA metabolism. Particularly, alterations in cell membrane FA metabolism involving the n-6 and n-3 PUFA, are associated with changes in membrane structure, function, cellular oxidative status, activity of enzymes and signalling pathways. These events are a driving force in sustaining the altered growth of cancerous lesions and provide unique targets for intervention/cancer modulation. Challenges in utilising FA in cancer modulation exist regarding intake and effect on cell structure and biochemical interactions within the cell in the prevention of cancer development. Therefore, utilising dietary PUFA in a specific n-6:n-3 ratio may be an important chemopreventive tool in altering the growth characteristics of cancer cells.
Asian Currency Crisis and the International Monetary Fund, 10 Years Later: Overview

This paper is an overview of the Asian currency crisis in Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea in 1997–1998, with an emphasis on the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It provides a detailed account of the development of the crisis and analyses and evaluates the content of IMF advice and its consequences. The size of the IMF package for each of these three countries is judged to have been too small. This paper also has a comparative perspective; the Mexican crisis is reviewed as a precursor to the Asian crisis to see what the IMF learned, and how it prepared, for future crises. The causes of the crises and IMF conditionality for the post-Asian crisis countries, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, and Argentina, are also compared to the Asian crisis countries. By agreeing to maintain a fixed exchange rate, for example, the IMF is judged to have been “softer” in its approach to the post-Asian crisis countries.
Measuring Risk of Portfolio : GARCH-Copula Model

In this paper, we use the copulas functions in financial application, namely to examine the assumption of asymmetric dependence and to calculate some measures of risk. The first step consists of deducing filtered residuals for each return series by an asymmetric Glosten-Jagannathan-Runkle Generalized Autoregressive conditional Hetero skedasticity (GJR-GARCH) model. For the second step, we use an estimation of a Generalized Pareto Distribution for the upper and lower tails to determine the empirical semiparametric marginal Cumulative Distribution Function. In our approach, we propose to use a portfolio consisting of increments from five countries. The GJR-GARCH copula is then applied to the data and used to reduce correlation between the simulated residuals of each series. The marginal distributions of filtered residuals are fitted with a semi-parametric Cumulative Distribution Function using the copulas’ functions and Generalized Pareto Distribution for tails. For each series, we compute Value-at-Risk and Conditional Value-at-Risk.
Indoor sound source localization and number estimation using infinite Gaussian mixture models

This paper deals with sound source number estimation and localization in indoor environments using a circular microphone array. The problem is approached in the time-frequency (TF) domain by performing a single source localization algorithm at selected TF points and consequently generating one direction of arrival (DOA) estimate at each of the points. The resulted DOA estimates are assumed from an infinite Gaussian mixture model. The number and the means of Gaussian components correspond to the number and the true DOAs of the sources, respectively. The proposed algorithm is tested using real experiments.
Milk whey protein concentration and mRNA associated with beta-lactoglobulin phenotype.

Two common genetic variants of β-lactoglobulin (β-lg), A and B, exist as co- dominant alleles in dairy cattle (Aschaffenburg, 1968). Numerous studies have shown that cows homozygous for β-lg A have more β-lg and less α-lactalbumin (α-la) and casein in their milk than cows expressing only the B variant of β-lg (Ng-Kwai-Hang et al . 1987; Graml et al . 1989; Hill, 1993; Hill et al . 1995, 1997). These differences have a significant impact on the processing characteristics of the milk. For instance, the moisture-adjusted yield of Cheddar cheese is up to 10% higher using milk from cows of the β-lg BB phenotype compared with milk from cows expressing only the A variant (Hill et al . 1997). All these studies, however, describe compositional differences associated with β-lg phenotype in established lactation only. No information is available on the first few weeks of lactation, when there are marked changes in the concentrations of β-lg and α-la (Perez et al . 1990).
Consumer attitudes towards sustainability attributes on food labels

Concerns about climate change and the general status of the environment have increased expectation that food products have sustainability credentials, and that these can be verified. There are significant and increasing pressures in key export markets for information on Greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of products throughout its life-cycle. How this information is conveyed to consumers is a key issue. Labelling is a common method of communicating certain product attributes to consumers that may influence their choices. In a choice experiment concerning fruit purchase decisions, this study estimates willingness to pay for sustainability attributes by consumers in Japan and the UK. The role of label presentation format is investigated: text only, text and graphical, and graphical only. Results indicate that sustainability attributes influence consumers’ fruit purchase decisions. Reduction of carbon in fruit production is shown to be the least valued out of sustainability attributes considered. Differences are evident between presentation formats and between countries, with increased nutrient content being the most sensitive to format and country while carbon reduction is the most insensitive and almost always valued the least.
Gfi-1 encodes a nuclear zinc finger protein that binds DNA and functions as a transcriptional repressor

The Gfi-1 proto-oncogene encodes a zinc finger protein with six C2H2-type, C-terminal zinc finger motifs and is activated by provirus integration in T-cell lymphoma lines selected for interleukin-2 independence in culture and in primary retrovirus-induced thymomas. Gfi-1 expression in adult animals is restricted to the thymus, spleen, and testis and is enhanced in mitogen-stimulated splenocytes. In this report, we show that Gfi-1 is a 55-kDa nuclear protein that binds DNA in a sequence-specific manner. The Gfi-1 binding site, TAAATCAC(A/T)GCA, was defined via random oligonucleotide selection utilizing a bacterially expressed glutathione S-transferase-Gfi-1 fusion protein. Binding to this site was confirmed by electrophoretic mobility shift assays and DNase I footprinting. Methylation interference analysis and electrophoretic mobility shift assays with mutant oliginucleotides defined the relative importance of specific bases at the consensus binding site. Deletion of individual zinc fingers demonstrated that only zinc fingers 3, 4, and 5 are required for sequence-specific DNA binding. Potential Gfi-1 binding sites were detected in a large number of eukaryotic promoter-enhancers, including the enhancers of several proto-oncogenes and cytokine genes and the enhancer of the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) major immediate-early promoter, which contains two such sites. HCMV major immediate-early-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter constructs, transfected into NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, were repressed by Gfi-1, and the repression was abrogated by mutation of critical residues in the two Gfi-1 binding sites. These results suggest that Gfi-1 may play a role in HCMV biology and may contribute to oncogenesis and T-cell activation by repressing the expression of genes that inhibit these processes.
Stepping up to strike: a union mobilization case study of Polish migrant workers in the Netherlands

This article examines a union mobilization of Polish temporary agency workers in the Netherlands. The case study contributes to the migrant organizing literature a micro-level account of the dynamics of mobilization from the viewpoint of the migrants and organizers involved. The findings emphasize the importance of key actors in building solidarities within and between different groups of workers in fragmented workplaces, with implications for unions seeking new ways to respond to changing employment practices. This study highlights some of the possibilities and limitations of organizing among contractually fragmented workforces.