Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local Economic Role of Nature‐based Tourism in Kuhmo Municipality, Eastern Finland

The study was carried out to examine and quantify the economic role of nature‐based tourism on a local, municipality level. In contrast to mass tourism, nature‐based tourism is characterized by individualism, small tourist groups and geographically scattered supply of services, which makes economic and regional development evaluation difficult. Kuhmo municipality in the Eastern Finland wilderness has a long tradition in small‐scale nature‐based tourism. A so‐called Nordic model was applied to quantify direct, indirect and induced income and employment impacts. The model was developed further in order to track income leakage. The data consisted of 385 tourist groups, i.e. people travelling together, and 100 tourism companies interviewed in Kuhmo. The gross income impact amounted to 3.45 million Euros a year, equalling exactly half of the total tourism income. The share of income leakage was 48%, leaving 1.98 million Euros as a net income impact. Nature‐based tourism employed 53 man‐year‐units in Kuhmo, which was 48% of tourism jobs and 1.6% of total employment. Compared to general tourism, there was no major difference in the amount of daily expenditure. Yet, the pattern of expenditure was different and generated less direct and more indirect effects. The results show that nature‐based tourism already plays a role in maintaining the population in peripheral, rural locations and in bringing precious additional jobs to regions suffering from heavy structural unemployment.
Endogenous growth theory twenty years on: a critical assessment

Endogenous growth literature emerged from dissatisfaction with one result of the neoclassical growth model: the independence of the growth rate from the saving ratio, which is seen as a variable subject to policy influence. There are at least three generations of EGT models: the old one of the sixties; the new one of the late eighties; and the most recent one, from the second half of the nineties. EGT models of any vintage fall into one of two fields: neo-Solowian (or semi-endogenous models) or fully endogenous models. Models from the sixties would generally fall into the first class and for good reasons. Indeed, most of the early generation of fully endogenous models from the late eighties fell under the ‘Jones critique’ (Jones 1995b), which pointed out some of the difficulties of these models. The most recent models have found various ways to avoid those problems. It is shown that these stratagems were anticipated by Marvin Frankel in the sixties and by Lucas in the eighties. One suspects that these devices arose in order to fix the theory rather than from, say, some ex-ante empirical observation (which is often provided ex post). More importantly, this paper indicates some problems common to all vintages of EGT models, beginning with the Cambridge capital theory critique, and suggests some alternative routes for growth analysis outside neoclassical theory.
EFFICIENCY CHANGE AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS IN THE U.S. CATFISH-PROCESSING SECTOR, 1986 TO 2005

Productivity growth of the catfish-processing sector in the United States was measured over the time period of 1986 through 2005. The analysis evaluated the efficiency with which products are produced by catfish processing plants. The Malmquist index is employed to decompose the total factor productivity into growth associated with technical efficiency change and technological progress. The relationship between Farrell's measure of technical efficiency and the Shepard's distance function provides the theoretical foundation for estimating the Malmquist production index using data envelopment analysis. The results indicate that, between 1986 and 2005, there was no technical progress or adoption of new techniques with significant impact on catfish processing. Technical efficiency change, which is associated with input use efficiency, varied with type of fish size processed. It decreased from 1985 to 1995 as the industry struggled to establish the most efficient fish size to process. Between 1995 and 2005 the fluctuation continued but at a higher mean. Productivity growth and long-term competitiveness are likely to result from adoption of new processing innovations by the catfish-processing sector.
Development and Characterization of Repetitive 1-kJ Marx-Generator-Driven Reflex Triode System for High-Power Microwave Generation

This paper presents the design and development of a repetitive Marx generator rated at 1 kJ, 300 kV, 12 kA, and 10 Hz and which is suitable to drive the load directly. Bipolar charging of a Marx generator scheme has been adopted to get the following: 1) faster rise time and 2) relatively low charging voltage. The faster rise time is due to the reduced number of spark gaps down to six for 12 in-series capacitors (0.15 μF and 50 kV) of a six-stage bipolar-charging Marx generator. Interstage inductive charging further enhances the efficiency of the overall system as compared to resistive charging. The generator is characterized by an aqueous resistive load for both polarities at the output voltage. Output voltages of the same magnitude have been achieved for both polarities. The matched impedance is found to be 25 Ω for which a suitable reflex triode is designed. Intense electron beams and high-power microwaves have been generated using this Marx generator and reflex triode system. Experimental results demonstrating the Marx generator and the reflex triode operation are presented and discussed.
Optimal Inflation Rates with the Trending Relative Price of Investment

I study the effect of the trending relative price of investment on the optimal target rate of inflation in an estimated dynamic general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy. The price of investment has a decreasing trend relative to that of consumption because of investment-specific technological progress. If the prices of investment goods are sticky, a benevolent planner puts weight on stabilizing these prices, which works to raise the optimal target rate of inflation in terms of the price of consumption. The estimated model shows a high degree of price stickiness in an investment sector and the resulting optimal target rate of inflation is significantly positive. This result is robust to an extended model in which the prices of some categories of investment goods are flexible.
Measuring Perception of Naturalness

K.E. Overvliet, S. Soto-Faraco, T.A. Whitaker, L. Johnstone Sorensen , F. McGlone , and G. van der Heijden Parc Cientific de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, krista.overvliet@gmail.com School of Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, whitaket@tcd.ie National Physical Laboratory (NPL), London, UK, linda.sorensen@npl.co.uk Unilever Research Port Sunlight Laboratory, UK, francis.mcglone@unilever.com Biometris / Plant Research International, Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands, gerie.vanderheijden@wur.nl
Educational mismatches and skills: New empirical tests of old hypotheses

In this paper, we empirically explore how the often reported relationship between overeducation and wages can best be understood. Exploiting the newly published Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data (OECD 2013), we are able to achieve a better estimation of the classical ORU-model (Duncan and Hoffman, 1981), by controlling for heterogeneity of observable skills. Our findings suggest that 1) a considerable part of the effect of educational mismatches can be attributed to skills heterogeneity, and 2) that the extent to which skills explain educational mismatches varies by institutional contexts. These observations suggest that skills matter for explaining wage effects of education and educational mismatches, but the extent to which this is the case also depends on institutional contexts.
A scheme of access service recommendation for the Social Internet of Things

The rapid increase in the complexity and the extent of personalization of services in the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to a greater demand for frequent collaboration among heterogeneous devices. Moreover, with the inseparable relations between human and devices, the paradigm of Social IoT (SIoT) is gaining popularity in recent years. How to effectively facilitate the access to quality services and credible devices in large‐scale networks via defining, establishing, and managing social architectures among things has become a critical issue. In this paper, a scheme of access service recommendation for the SIoT is presented with the understanding of inherent constraints and factors that influence the security and stability of IoT networks. In which, timeliness properties are considered in each transaction for dynamic performance enhancements. With the benefits of promoting service discovery and composition, social relationships among things are introduced in the proposed scheme. An energy‐aware mechanism is also utilized as a restrictive factor in trustworthiness evaluation. Finally, the recommendation is based not only on the past performance but also on the social relationship and the energy status of nodes. Simulation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of our scheme from three aspects including rating accuracy, dynamic behavior, and network stability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Proposition-Probability Model of Argument Structure and Message Acceptance

Drawing on aspects of logic, classical rhetoric, psycholinguistics, social psychology, and probability theory, this article develops the proposition-probability model (PPM) of argument structure and message acceptance in which verbal arguments are decomposed into arrays of three types of propositions: (a) product claims, (b) data supporting those claims, and (c) conditional rules specifying the relationship between the data and the claims. The propositions making up a given argument can be stated, entailed, presupposed, conversationally implicated, and/or linguistically signaled. Message acceptance is based on the formation and/or modification of beliefs corresponding to the propositions in a given argument. For purposes of making precise predictions regarding the effectiveness of various argument structures, these beliefs are represented in terms of probabilities associated with each proposition. Several postulates are derived from the PPM, and directions for future research on communication and persuasion are discussed. Copyright 2002 by the University of Chicago.
Interactions of surfactants with lipid membranes

Abstract Surfactants are surface-active, amphiphilic compounds that are water-soluble in the micro- to millimolar range, and self-assemble to form micelles or other aggregates above a critical concentration. This definition comprises synthetic detergents as well as amphiphilic peptides and lipopeptides, bile salts and many other compounds. This paper reviews the biophysics of the interactions of surfactants with membranes of insoluble, naturally occurring lipids. It discusses structural, thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of membrane–water partitioning, changes in membrane properties induced by surfactants, membrane solubilisation to micelles and other phases formed by lipid–surfactant systems. Each section defines and derives key parameters, mentions experimental methods for their measurement and compiles and discusses published data. Additionally, a brief overview is given of surfactant-like effects in biological systems, technical applications of surfactants that involve membrane interactions, and surfactant-based protocols to study biological membranes.
On the Use of International Commodity Futures Spread for Forecasting China's Net Imports of Commodities

In this paper, we show that the price spreads of copper and aluminium's futures in the London Metal Exchange (LME) and the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) have strong predictive power of China's net imports of the corresponding commodities 2 months later. The modified Diebold–Mariano test of Harvey et al. (International Journal of Forecasting, 13, 1997, 281) indicates that our futures‐based model significantly outperforms the ARIMA model and static model in terms of 1‐month‐ahead out‐of‐sample forecasts of net imports. Moreover, the market timing test of Clements (Evaluating Econometric Forecasts of Economic and Financial Variables, 2005, Palgrave Macmillan, Xxxxx) indicates that there is a significantly high correlation between the predicted signs of our model and the actual outcomes. When sorting all sign predictions according to the absolute magnitude of the out‐of‐sample movements, our proposed model achieves a 100 per cent forecasting accuracy for both copper and aluminium when predicting the largest movements at the top 10 percentile.
Ambient UVA‐Induced Expression of p53 and Apoptosis in Human Skin Melanoma A375 Cell Line by Quinine

This study aimed to analyze the phototoxic mechanism and photostability of quinine in human skin cell line A375 under ambient intensities of UVA (320–400 nm). Photosensitized quinine produced a photoproduct 6‐methoxy‐quinoline‐4‐ylmethyl‐oxonium identified through LC‐MS/MS. Generation of 1O2, O2•−, and •OH was measured and further substantiated through their respective quenchers. Photosensitized Quinine (Q) caused degradation of 2‐deoxyguanosine, the most sensitive nucleotide to UV radiation. The intracellular ROS was increased in a concentration‐dependent manner. Significant reduction in metabolic status measured in terms of cell viability (54%) at 25 μg mL−1 was observed through MTT assay. Results of MTT assay accord NRU assay. Single strand DNA breaks and apoptosis were increased significantly (P < 0.01) as observed through comet assay and EB/AO double staining. Photosensitized quinine caused cells to arrest in G2 phase of cell cycle and induced apoptosis (5.08%) as revealed through FACS. Real‐Time PCR showed upregulation of p21 (4.56 folds) and p53 (2.811 folds) genes expression. Thus, our study suggests that generation of reactive oxygen species by quinine under ambient intensity of UVA may result into deleterious phototoxic effects among human population.
Alternative mechanisms of action of cationic antimicrobial peptides on bacteria

Cationic antimicrobial peptides are a novel type of antibiotic offering much potential in the treatment of microbial-related diseases. They offer many advantages for commercial development, including a broad spectrum of action and modest size. However, despite the identification or synthetic production of thousands of such peptides, the mode of action remains elusive, except for a few examples. While the dogma for the mechanism of action of antimicrobial peptides against bacteria is believed to be through pore formation or membrane barrier disruption, some peptides clearly act differently and other intracellular target sites have been identified. This article presents an updated review of how cationic antimicrobial peptides are able to affect bacterial killing, with a focus on internal targets.
STOCK RETURN AND MACROECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS IN MODEL- SPECIFICATION FRAMEWORK : EVIDENCE FROM INDIAN STOCK MARKET

This paper presents a systematic analysis of monthly return data for studying the influence of macroeconomic fundamentals in explaining variations in Indian stock returns with due considerations being given on both linear and higher –order autocorrelations of returns as well on proper specification of both the conditional mean and conditional variances. Using several autocorrelation-based tests we found significant evidence of both the first and second order dependences in monthly stock returns, and hence rejection of weak-form efficiency for the Indian stock market. As regards the return data analysis in appropriate model-specification framework Hansen test and Chow test were first used, and a break in the structural relationship was found to have occurred during the first half of 1995. This finding may be attributed to the effect of economic liberalization programme initiated in the early ‘90s by India. Thereafter all possible relevant macro variables were considered in the context of our study of the relation between stock returns and macro variables, and the following variables viz., real economic activity, growth in money supply, inflation, foreign capital market activity and foreign direct investment were finally found to have significant effects on monthly returns in the post-liberalization period. Moreover, the analysis based on BDS test suggests that nonlinear dependence in the form of ARCH/GARCH model is not adequate, and that modelling with higher order moments is needed to explain the remaining nonlinear dynamics in the return. However, in the pre-liberalization period only exchange rate change was found to have significant effect in explaining variation in stock return.
A Soybean Transcript Map: Gene Distribution, Haplotype and Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism Analysis

The first genetic transcript map of the soybean genome was created by mapping one SNP in each of 1141 genes in one or more of three recombinant inbred line mapping populations, thus providing a picture of the distribution of genic sequences across the mapped portion of the genome. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were discovered via the resequencing of sequence-tagged sites (STSs) developed from expressed sequence tag (EST) sequence. From an initial set of 9459 polymerase chain reaction primer sets designed to a diverse set of genes, 4240 STSs were amplified and sequenced in each of six diverse soybean genotypes. In the resulting 2.44 Mbp of aligned sequence, a total of 5551 SNPs were discovered, including 4712 single-base changes and 839 indels for an average nucleotide diversity of θ = 0.000997. The analysis of the observed genetic distances between adjacent genes vs. the theoretical distribution based upon the assumption of a random distribution of genes across the 20 soybean linkage groups clearly indicated that genes were clustered. Of the 1141 genes, 291 mapped to 72 of the 112 gaps of 5–10 cM in the preexisting simple sequence repeat (SSR)-based map, while 111 genes mapped in 19 of the 26 gaps >10 cM. The addition of 1141 sequence-based genic markers to the soybean genome map will provide an important resource to soybean geneticists for quantitative trait locus discovery and map-based cloning, as well as to soybean breeders who increasingly depend upon marker-assisted selection in cultivar improvement.
Understanding Stock Return Volatility

This article studies the e¤ect of limited commitment on stock return volatility in a dynamic general-equilibrium economy populated by investors with heterogeneous beliefs. Due to heterogeneity of beliefs, investors disagree about the fundamentals, introducing an additional risk factor labeled sentiment risk. Limited commitment introduces an endogenous solvency constraint that scales up sentiment risk every time it binds. This is labeled solvency risk. I show that in equilibrium the market price of risk, which drives short-run stock return volatility, has three components: endowment risk, sentiment risk, and solvency risk. The solvency risk component in the market price of risk is novel and is the main contribution of the paper. I show that this model is better able to explain features of stock return volatility than conventional models, including volatility clustering, excess volatility, and asymmetry between stock market returns and volatility. Moreover, a multifactor consumption CAPM is obtained and the model predicts that the di¤erent components that drive volatility should be priced in the cross section of stock returns, in line with recent empirical evidence. I am specially grateful to Bernard Dumas for helpful discussions. I also thank Jerome Detemple, Darrell Du¢ e, Julien Hugonnier, Urban Jermann, Leonid Kogan and Karen Lewis for valuable suggestions. Versions of the paper where presented at University of Lausanne, Study Centre Gerzensee and University of Southern Denmark (Symposium on Stochastic Dynamic Models in Finance and Economics). I thank participants for their comments. Financial support from NCCR FinRisk is acknowledged with thanks. ySwiss Finance Institute and University of Lausanne (Institute of Banking and Finance). E-mail: emilio.osambela@s -phd.ch
Methodological Issues of Medium-Term Macroeconomic Projections - The Case of Potential Output

Potential output measures a country's attainable aggregate living standard and is thus one of the most important categories of economics. It is also a key indicator for monetary and fiscal policy. Despite its prominence, however, potential output is a difficult concept to pinpoint theoretically and even more so empirically. The study discusses these difficulties and also the marked revision of potential output estimates by major international organisations. The authors furthermore present the results of their attempts to quantify Germany's potential output based on a production function approach coupled with the Kalman-filter technique to estimate the NAIRU. The authors find that potential output and potential output growth greatly depend on how the NAIRU and potential total factor productivity are modelled. Given the difficulties involved in robustly estimating potential output, especially in real time, economic policy makers need to learn to pursue their policy objectives without reference to this variable.
Transcriptome survey reveals candidate genes involved in lipid metabolism of Carya illinoinensis.

Pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch] kernel contains high proportion of fatty acid, which has the benefits of reducing the risk of blood and heart diseases. However, the molecular mechanism of lipid metabolism in pecan kernels has remained unclear. In this study, the changes of fatty acids in developing pecan kernels (cultivar Pawnee) was monitored using gas chromatography (GC) method, and the transcriptome analysis was performed on four critical stages of lipid accumulation. Twenty-five fatty acids were identified and a total of 73,262 unigenes were obtained after assembling, in which 7709 unigenes were annotated in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. The top annotated pathway within “Metabolism” catalog in KEGG was “Carbohydrate metabolism”. A putative pecan lipid metabolic pathway was reconstructed including 26 homologs consist of 93 unigenes. The stearoyl-ACP desaturase (SAD) and the omega-6 fatty acid desaturase (FAD2) were found play vital roles in the formation of the high oleic acid content and corresponding fatty acid ratio in pecan kernel. The acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase), the glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT), the diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT), and the phospholipid: diacylglycerol acyltransferase (PDAT) were found may play important roles in pecan lipid accumulation too. Transcription factor (TF) families like AP2-EREBP, bZIP, ARF, and C3H might have positive transcriptional regulations to lipid biosynthesis in pecan, while MYB might have negative transcriptional regulations. To our knowledge, this is the first report of global transcriptional profile of pecan kernels. These data will provide a theoretical basis for future genetic modification of fatty acids in pecan and other oilseed. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers