Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neo-liberalization Processes and Spatial Planning in France, Germany, and the Netherlands: An Exploration

Abstract ‘Is the English experience distinctive? ’ It is this question, asked by the guest editors of this Special Issue, that triggered this article focusing on the impact of neo-liberal ideologies on planning in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The multi-faceted concept of neo-liberalism is used here as a perspective to interpret the recent developments in the three countries. Proposed changes to planning in England are also briefly considered. Although there are clear differences in the magnitude and actual manifestation of neo-liberalism in planning across the analyzed countries, with England clearly showing some of the more radical and disruptive effects, there seems to be a clear direction in which planning in North West Europe is heading. Due to processes of globalization, individualization, and Europeanization, questions also arise in each country regarding the position and objectives of planning. Neo-liberalization processes tend to further accentuate these questions as planning more often than not is grounded on a different set of principles. Yet, this does not necessarily completely dissociate planning from neo-liberalism. In particular, the French and German experiences indicate that even in broadly ‘neo-liberal times’, there is still a demand for spatial planning.
The American Put Option and Its Critical Stock Price

We derive an expression for the critical stock price for the American put. We start by expressing the put price as an integral involving first-passage probabilities. This approach yields intuition for Merton's result for the perpetual put. We then consider the finite-lived case. Using (1) the fact that the put value ceases to depend on time when the critical stock price is reached and (2) the result that an American put equals a European put plus an early-exercise premium, we derive the critical stock price. We approximate the critical-stock-price function to compute accurate put prices. Copyright The American Finance Association 2000.
Productivity Management in India: A Delphi Study

Concepts underlying productivity management and other measures of organisational performance are discussed. Expert opinions can clarify many “misunderstood” concepts which need an interdisciplinary approach for exploration. The Delphi technique, as a structured group communication process employing the group process or participative approach, has been recommended with a view to formulating appropriate policies. Four issues, namely organisational objectives related to productivity improvement, productivity measures, problems faced in implementing productivity improvement techniques or tools, and recommendations to overcome the problems in manufacturing organisations in India are extensively investigated through a Delphi study, conducted during 1987‐88.
The ups and downs of life: population expansion and bottlenecks of helminth parasites through their complex life cycle

SUMMARY The fundamental assumption underpinning the evolution of numerous adaptations shown by parasites with complex life cycles is that huge losses are incurred by infective stages during certain transmission steps. However, the magnitude of transmission losses or changes in the standing crop of parasites passing from upstream (source) to downstream (target) hosts have never been quantified in nature. Here, using data from 100 pairs of successive upstream–downstream life stages, from distinct populations representing 10 parasite species, we calculated the total density per m2 of successive life stages. We show that clonal amplification of trematodes in their first intermediate host leads to an average 4-fold expansion of numbers of individuals at the next life stage, when differences in the longevity of successive life stages are taken into account. In contrast, trophic transmission to the definitive host results in almost no numerical change for trematodes, but possibly in large decreases for acanthocephalans and nematodes, though a correction for longevity was not possible for the latter groups. Also, we only found a positive association between upstream and downstream stage densities for transmission involving free-swimming cercariae in trematodes, suggesting a simple output-recruitment process. For trophic transmission, there was no coupling between downstream and upstream parasite densities. These first quantitative estimates of ontogenetic rises and falls in numbers under natural conditions provide new insights into the selective pressures acting on parasites with complex cycles.
A Voting-Based Architecture for Survivable Hierarchical IDSes

The growth of computer networks and Internet, and increasing computer attacks complexity has made Intrusion Detection harder and caused the IDS itself to become the attack target. The most successful distributed IDS architecture is the hierarchical architecture. One of the most important problems of this architecture is existence of single points of failure. In this paper, we present a method to eliminate these single points of failure out of the architecture. In the proposed design, the relation between the nodes is peer to peer, and no node has intrinsic superiority over other nodes. In addition we analyzed the proposed architecture and we calculated the minimum number of compromised nodes, required to compromise the root node with respect to probability of every node’s correct evaluation ( p), the degree ( deg) and number of levels ( l) of the hierarchy tree. And finally we have implemented a prototype of this architecture and tested its functionality.
Rethinking Leadership: A Collection of Articles

Foreword by Carl Glickman Prologue: On Rethinking Leadership: A Conversation With Tom Sergiovanni by Ron Brandt Section 1. Leadership as a Moral Craft Leadership and Excellence in Schooling Administering as a Moral Craft New Sources of Leadership Authority Leadership as Stewardship Section 2. The Developmental Stages of Leadership Adding Value to Leadership Gets Extraordinary Results Why Transformational Leadership Works and How to Provide It The Roots of School Leadership Why We Should Seek Substitutes for Leadership Section 3. Leading the Learning Community Changing Our Theory of Schooling Leadership as a Practice Getting Practical The Eight Basic Competencies Section 4. Value-Added Leadership The Lifeworld of Leadership The Virtues of Leadership Craftsman Leaders Are Critical Index
Workers ’ Remittances and Economic Growth : Evidence from Azerbaijan and Armenia

The basic objective of every state is to uplift social welfare of the society. There are different ways to boost the process of socio -economic growth, welfare and development but the role of workers’ remittances is not the sole but very decisive and eminent in its nature. Therefore, this aims to explore theoretically and empirically the impacts of workers’ remittances on economic growth of Azerbaijan and Armenia’s economies. The statistical analysis has been made through simple log linear regression model and the method of least square has been used. The finding of the study indicates that worker remittances are significant and have positive impacts on economic growth and development for the study area. Thus, findings suggest that the relevant authorities of both the countries need to formulate appropriate conducive policies in order to encourage worker remittances. In addition, it is further, suggests that workers’ remittances received from other countries must also be utilized more efficiently to have similar
Interaction of human mitochondrial transcription factor A in mitochondria: its involvement in the dynamics of mitochondrial DNA nucleoids

Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is a key regulator of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). TFAM interacts with itself and forms dimers; however, the precise interaction domain in vivo has not yet been determined. We herein showed that human TFAM formed oligomers in mitochondria by in situ chemical cross‐linking. We used the separated fluorescent protein, monomeric Kusabira‐Green, as a reporter to monitor their self‐association in mitochondria. This reporter successfully detected the TFAM–TFAM interaction in cells as fluorescent signals on mitochondria. We also found that the N‐terminal high‐mobility group box domain was sufficient for this interaction. The expression of the dimer‐defective mutant induced enlarged mtDNA nucleoids, suggesting the importance of dimerization in the distribution of mtDNA. The reporter system also supported the association and mixture between independent nucleoids through TFAM by a cell fusion assay using hemagglutinating virus of Japan. We here, for the first time, visualized the interaction of TFAM molecules in mitochondria and proposed its implications for the dynamics of mtDNA nucleoids.
B7-H1-Induced Apoptosis as a Mechanism of Immune Privilege of Corneal Allografts1

The programmed death-1 (PD-1) costimulatory pathway has been demonstrated to play a role in the regulation of immune responses and peripheral tolerance. We investigated the role of this pathway in establishing an immune privilege status of corneal allografts in mice. B7-H1, but not B7-DC or PD-1, was expressed constitutively in the eye, i.e., cornea, iris-ciliary body, and retina. After corneal allografting, PD-1+CD4+ T cells infiltrated and adhered with B7-H1+ corneal endothelium. Blockade of PD-1 or B7-H1, but not B7-DC, led to accelerated corneal allograft rejection. In B7-H1-expressing corneal allografts, apoptosis of the infiltrating PD-1+CD4+ or CD8+ T cells was observed, after which there was allograft acceptance. In contrast, B7-H1 blockade suppressed apoptosis of infiltrating PD-1+ T cells, which led to allograft rejection. In vitro, destruction of corneal endothelial cells by alloreactive T cells was enhanced when the cornea was pretreated with anti-B7-H1 Ab. This is the first demonstration that the constitutive expression of B7-H1 plays a critical role in corneal allograft survival. B7-H1 expressed on corneal endothelial cells maintains long-term acceptance of the corneal allografts by inducing apoptosis of effector T cells within the cornea.
Volunteer tourism: at the crossroads of commercialisation and service?

Volunteer tourism as a phenomenon and as a market has come a long way since its ideologically driven early days. It is now an established and ever commercialised market that meets the demand for a different travel experience for the more morally conscious traveller, while at the same time it provides opportunities for economic gain for the organisations that act as brokers of such experiences. This interaction raises several ethical issues in terms of serving a mission while making economic gains. In general, there is an acceptable relationship between monetary gain and altruistic service, within the context of enlightened self-interest provided that the beneficiary of economic gains diverts profits into serving their mission. This paper examines the supply for volunteer tourism for evidence of commercialisation and profit-driven behaviour and investigates a relationship between monetary gain and serving a mission by creating public goods.
A Logic for Partial System Description

In this article, we investigate a notion of approximation based on partial descriptions of a given situation. We adopt a relative approach which focuses on the relations that exist between different partial descriptions, and propose a general algebraic framework for formalizing this notion of partial description where we take two types of relation into consideration: a partial order telling whether a partial description provides more information than another, and a notion of point of view which relates each partial description to a way of observing the system and getting information about it. We then use this framework to introduce an intuitionistic modal logic based on our notion of partial description.
An application of support vector machines for image retrieval

Various methods including artificial neural networks have been used to classify a large image database efficiently and shown to be highly successful in this application area. This paper presents a new, scaling and rotation invariant encoding scheme for shapes. Support vector machines (SVMs) are used for the classifications of shapes encoded by the new method. In order to evaluate one-class SVMs, this paper examines the performance of the proposed method by comparing it with that of multilayer perception, one of the artificial neural network (ANNs) techniques, based on real real-world image data. The experiment shows that the results of one-class SVMs outperform those of ANNs.
Creating Environmental Awareness with Upcycling Making Activities: A Study of Children in Germany and Palestine

This study explores the development of environmental awareness and computational literacy among children by means of upcycling making activities in Germany and Palestine. Our research supports the idea that the combination of handcraft and digital work, documentation and social interaction in the upcycling can foster the development of a maker identity in children. Findings indicate that upcycling can sensitize children for environmental issues of global relevance, foster their environmental learning and encourage them in the exploration of creative answers.
Redirection of center-of-mass velocity during the step-to-step transition of human walking

SUMMARY Simple dynamic walking models based on the inverted pendulum predict that the human body's center of mass (COM) moves along an arc during each step, with substantial work performed to redirect the COM velocity in the step-to-step transition between arcs. But humans do not keep the stance leg perfectly straight and need not redirect their COM velocity precisely as predicted. We therefore tested a pendulum-based model against a wide range of human walking data. We examined COM velocity and work data from normal human subjects (N=10) walking at 24 combinations of speed (0.75 to 2.0 m s–1) and step length. These were compared against model predictions for the angular redirection of COM velocity and the work performed on the COM during redirection. We found that the COM is redirected through angular changes increasing approximately linearly with step length (R2=0.68), with COM work increasing with the squared product of walking speed and step length (R2=0.82), roughly in accordance with a simple dynamic walking model. This model cannot, however, predict the duration of COM redirection, which we quantified with two empirical measures, one based on angular COM redirection and the other on work. Both indicate that the step-to-step transition begins before and ends after double support and lasts about twice as long – approximately 20–27% of a stride. Although a rigid leg model can predict trends in COM velocity and work, the non-rigid human leg performs the step-to-step transition over a duration considerably exceeding that of double support.
Mental time travel for self and other in three- and four-year-old children

Humans possess the unique ability to mentally travel backward in time to re-experience past events (i.e., episodic memory) and forward in time to pre-experience future events (i.e., episodic foresight). Although originally viewed as different cognitive skills, they are now both viewed as components of the episodic memory system. Recently, it has been suggested that the episodic system may allow us to not only pre-experience and predict our own future but also that of another person. In the current study, we investigate this possibility by examining the ability of three- and four-year-old children to plan for their own future and for that of another person. We found that both three- and four-year-old children performed equally, when planning for their own future or when planning for the experimenter's future. These data are consistent with the finding that planning for someone else's future recruits the same neural structures that are used when planning for one's own future.
An alternative method to test for contagion with an application to the Asian financial crisis

This paper investigates the size properties of a test for contagion based on an asymptotic t-distribution. The simulations show that this asymptotic test does not have correct size properties. An alternative test method based on case-resampling bootstrapping is introduced to improve on the correctness of inference. The simulations show that this new test has much better size properties. It also has quite high power properties and it is robust to ARCH effects. The method is applied to testing for contagion from Thailand to Indonesia during the Asian financial crisis.
Colorectal Cancers with the Uncommon Findings of KRAS Mutation and Microsatellite Instability

Sporadic colorectal cancers with microsatellite instability (MSI) frequently contain a mutation of the BRAF gene. Additionally, it has been shown that BRAF mutations in colorectal cancers are mutually exclusive of KRAS mutation. We evaluated 14 cases of colorectal cancer with MSI that were BRAF wild type but demonstrated a KRAS mutation. The codon 12/13 region in exon 2 of the KRAS oncogene and the codon 600 region in exon 15 of the BRAF gene were analyzed with standard PCR methods. MSI was evaluated by using the Bethesda panel of markers. The methylation status of the mismatch repair system was ascertained using the SALSA® MS-MLPA® methylation-specific DNA detection. The mismatch repair proteins MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2 were evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. A total of 530 colorectal cancers were studied for MSI and KRAS gene mutation. Fourteen (2.6%) cancers with both MSI and a KRAS mutation were identified, and all cancers were BRAF wild type. Methylation was present in 7 (50%), 5 demonstrated methylation of MLH1, 1 showed methylation of MGMT, and 1 showed methylation of MSH2. Four patients had simultaneous cancers, some of which showed different genetic changes. Immunohistochemical staining suggested a germ line mutation for 4 of 10 cases with complete staining information. KRAS mutation may occur with MSI in colorectal cancers with wild-type BRAF. If a mutation in KRAS co-exists with MSI, then strong methylation of the MLH1 gene is unlikely. These tumors demonstrate that a small number of colorectal cancers will develop with atypical patterns of molecular genetic changes, suggesting that a specific pattern of genetic changes may not be as crucial as the overall accumulation of changes, consistent with the ‘unique tumor principle'.
An Empirical Model of Price and Output Behavior

This paper proposes a model of short-run price and output behavior and undertakes an initial empirical investigation of the model with data from the manufacturing sector of the U.S. Economy. The model provides a relatively precise specification of the various factors that influence prices and output, and joint maximum likelihood techniques are used to estimate the parameters of the model. The empirical results support the proposition that demand-oriented forces primarily influence output while cost-push forces primarily influence prices and indicate that real interest rates affect both prices and output.
Class selection of amino acid metabolites in body fluids using chemical derivatization and their enhanced 13C NMR

We report a chemical derivatization method that selects a class of metabolites from a complex mixture and enhances their detection by 13C NMR. Acetylation of amines directly in aqueous medium with 1,1′-13C2 acetic anhydride is a simple method that creates a high sensitivity and quantitative label in complex biofluids with minimal sample pretreatment. Detection using either 1D or 2D 13C NMR experiments produces highly resolved spectra with improved sensitivity. Experiments to identify and compare amino acids and related metabolites in normal human urine and serum samples as well as in urine from patients with the inborn errors of metabolism tyrosinemia type II, argininosuccinic aciduria, homocystinuria, and phenylketonuria demonstrate the method. The use of metabolite derivatization and 13C NMR spectroscopy produces data suitable for metabolite profiling analysis of biofluids on a time scale that allows routine use. Extension of this approach to enhance the NMR detection of other classes of metabolites has also been accomplished. The improved detection of low-concentration metabolites shown here creates opportunities to improve the understanding of the biological processes and develop improved disease detection methodologies.
History and equilibrium: A partial defense of equilibrium economics

This paper responds to the argument, made by many heterodox economists, that equilibrium theory should be abandoned in favor of theories that pay more attention to history. It considers some of the main ways in which the concept of equilibrium has been understood in economics, and the reasons why there has been confusion in discussions of equilibrium. The conclusion is drawn that the focus should be less on equilibrium as a concept than on equilibrium analysis as a method, and limited defense of this method is offered.
‘Desperately seeking finance?’ The demand for finance by women-owned and -led businesses

Abstract The study reported here addresses some issues on gender, entrepreneurship and finance that have been identified as problematic in the literature. For example, much of the research to date is based on the assumption of entrepreneurship as male entrepreneurship; few studies have controlled for structural characteristics that may impact on the relationship between owner gender and a venture's ability to raise finance; and women are less likely than men to seek growth and external financing. Through the conduct of in-depth semi-structured interviews, an attempt has been made to give ‘voice’ to women's intrinsically interesting experiences as the enactment of a situated practice, and not just in comparison with the assumed norm of male entrepreneurial activity. The findings suggest that when variables such as individual and firm characteristics are controlled for, generalizations found in the literature may not be supported. Further, the paper highlights that neither women entrepreneurs nor their businesses are homogeneous in nature and that greater heterogeneity in the study of female entrepreneurship in general, and access to finance in particular, is required.
Wielding the green stick: criminal enforcement at the EPA under the Bush and Obama administrations

The criminal prosecution of environmental offenders by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of the agency’s most politicised yet poorly understood responsibilities. Through content analysis of the Agency’s criminal prosecutions in 2001–2011, we undertook analysis of nearly 1000 cases to understand better whether and how the outcomes of the criminal enforcement division change under presidential administrations. Using a principal-agent framework, our results suggest presidents do matter for enforcement outcomes. Yet, the more interesting conclusion is that these outcomes are not extremely divergent, suggesting that the Agency is able to navigate the often conflicting dictates of various political principals, under similar budgetary constraints, and in step with an Agency culture that values strong enforcement. Moreover, we find that such enforcement efforts are substantively valuable, as many of these cases involve serious and willful violations of law that result in significant harm to humans and the environment.