Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quarterly Bayesian DSGE Model of Pakistan Economy with Informality

In this paper we use the Bayesian methodology to estimate the structural and shocks‟ parameters of the DSGE model in Ahmad et al. (2012). This model includes formal and informal firms both at intermediate and final goods production levels. Households derive utility from leisure, real money balances and consumption. Each household is treated as a unit of labor which is a composite of formal (skilled) and informal (unskilled) labor. The formal (skilled) labor is further divided into types “r” and households have monopoly over each type “r” labor which depends upon degree of education. We go a step further by converting the existing annually calibrated model to quarterly frequency. As a result our impulse response functions have more relevant and realistic policy implications. From the results we do find the shock absorbing role of the informal sector, however, with short term existence. The model estimation diagnostics also confirm robustness and reasonability of the estimation results.
Formation of LTB4 by fMLP‐stimulated alveolar macrophages accounts for eosinophil migration in vitro

Guinea pig alveolar macrophages obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage were isolated by adherence for 2 h and stimulated with 1 μM of N‐formyl‐l‐methionyl‐l‐leucyl‐l‐phenylalanine (fMLP) for different time intervals. The supernatants then were tested for their chemotactic effect on guinea pig peritoneal normodense eosinophils and for release of thromboxane B2, leukotriene B4 (LTB4), and platelet activating factor (PAF). The supernatant from fMLP‐stimulated alveolar macrophages induced a significant eosinophil attraction (96.0 ± 11.9, number of migrating eosinophils [mean ± SEM], n = 17) as compared to unstimulated macrophages (4.8 ± 1.4, n = 15). This effect was not accounted for by fMLP carry‐over to the macrophages because, in contrast to human eosinophils, fMLP has no chemotactic effect on guinea pig eosinophils. Pretreatment of eosinophils with BN 52021 (100 μM), a specific PAF antagonist, and with indomethacin (10 μM), a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, failed to inhibit migration of eosinophils induced by supernatants from either stimulated or unstimulated alveolar macrophages. In contrast, inhibition of the 5‐lipoxygenase enzyme with N‐(3‐phenoxycinamyl)‐acetohydroxamic acid (1 μM) suppressed eosinophil migration by alveolar macrophage supernatants (94.1 ± 2.6% of inhibition, n = 6). Desensitization of eosinophils by and to LTB4 (10 nM) inhibited migration induced by supernatants from stimulated alveolar macrophages (87.5 ± 5.4% of desensitization toward LTB4 and 83.1 ± 5.4% of desensitization toward supernatants, n = 5). Under the present experimental conditions, LTB4 is the only agent implicated in eosinophil migration induced by supernatants from fMLP‐stimulated alveolar macrophages.
Relative Prices, Trade, Technology and Wage Inequality: Evidence from India

This article examines the link between relative export, import and domestic goods’ prices and relative wages over the years by empirically testing the Stolper–Samuelson theorem for India. It also examines the role of other factors such as manufacturing trade, liberalization phase, inflation, foreign and domestic technology, etc. on rising wage inequality in the manufacturing sector in India. The results seem to prove the validity of Stolper–Samuelson theorem. The results also throw some light on Rybczynski theorem, which shows the relationship between output and endowment and factor price insensitivity elasticity, and the link between factor endowments and factor prices. The empirical testing is done using estimates of the translog production function and translog cost function along with the share equations. The elasticity of substitution between factors of production has been worked out using Allen’s and Morishima’s formulae, which in turn use estimates of the translog cost function.
Nonword reading and Stroop interference: What differentiates attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and reading disability?

Background: Attention deficits and impaired reading performance co-occur more often than expected by chance; however, the underlying mechanism of this association still remains rather unexplored. Method: In two consecutive studies, children aged 8 to 12 years with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and children with reading disability (RD) were examined using a 2 (ADHD versus no ADHD) × 2 (RD versus no RD) factorial design. To further delineate deficient interference control from reading processes, we used a newly developed self-paced word/nonword reading task (Experiment 1, n = 68) and a modified computerized Stroop paradigm, including an orthographic phonological neighbor (OPN) condition (Experiment 2, n = 84). Results: RD (compared to non-RD groups) was associated with impairments in both word and nonword reading, while children with ADHD also showed impaired nonword reading. In the Stroop task, RD, but not ADHD, had a significant impact on task performance. Interestingly, a significant interaction between ADHD, RD, and task condition emerged, which was due to particularly slower reaction times to nonwords in children with RD only, while task performance in children with comorbid ADHD and RD resembled that of ADHD only. Conclusions: Thus, our results demonstrate that impairments in nonword reading were not specific to RD but were also present in children with ADHD. In addition, RD and not ADHD was characterized by poor interference control in the Stroop task. These findings question whether unique cognitive deficits are specific to either ADHD or RD.
A New Class of Welfare Maximizing Stable Sharing Rules for Partition Function Games with Externalities

We propose a class of sharing rules for the distribution of the gains from cooperation for partition function games with externalities. We show that this class of sharing rules is characterized by three axioms: coalitional efficiency, additivity and anonimity which are adapted to the context of partition function games. The sharing rules stabilize, in the sense of d'Aspremont et al. (1983), the coalition which generates the highest global welfare among the set of potentially internally stable coalitions. The new class of sharing rules is particularly powerful for economic problems that are characterized by positive externalities from coalition formation (outsiders benefit from the expansion of the coalition) and which therefore often suffer from free-riding.
Farm-level evidence on risk balancing behavior in the EU-15

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to present empirical evidence of risk balancing behavior by European farmers. More specifically, the authors investigate strategic adjustments in the level of financial risk (FR) in response to changes in the level of business risk (BR). Design/methodology/approach - – The authors conducted a correlation relationship analysis and run several linear fixed effects regression models using the European Union (EU)-15 FADN panel data set for the period 1995-2008. Findings - – Overall, the paper finds EU evidence of risk balancing. The correlation relationship analysis suggests that just over half of the farm observations are risk balancers whereas the other (smaller) half are not. The coefficient in our fixed effects regression suggests that a 1 percent increase in BR reduces FR by 0.043 percent and has a standard error so low that the existence of non-risk balancers is doubtful. The results reject evidence of strong-form risk balancing – inverse trade-offs between FR and BR keeping total risk (TR) constant – but cannot reject weak-form risk balancing – inverse trade-offs between FR and BR with some observed changes in TR. Furthermore, the extent of risk balancing behavior is found to differ between different European countries and across farm typologies. Practical implications - – This study provides European policy makers a first insight into risk balancing behavior of EU farmers. When risk balancing occurs, BR-reducing agricultural policies induce strategic upwards leverage adjustments that unintentionally reestablish or even increase total farm-level risk. Originality/value - – Making use of the large and unique FADN database, to the best of the authors knowledge, this study is the first that provides European (EU-15) evidence on risk balancing behavior, is conducted at an unprecedented large scale, and presents the first risk balancing evidence across countries and farming systems.
No Place Like Home: Familiarity in Mutual Fund Manager Portfolio Choice

We show that familiarity affects the portfolio decisions of mutual fund managers. Controlling for fund location, funds overweight stocks from their managers' home states by 12% compared with their peers. In team-managed funds, home-state overweighting is 37% larger than the fund location effect. The home-state bias is stronger if the manager is inexperienced, is resource-constrained, or spent more time in his home state. Home-state stocks do not outperform other holdings, confirming that home-state investments are not informed. The overweighting also leads to excessively risky portfolios. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. , Oxford University Press.
Global alteration of ocean ecosystem functioning due to increasing human CO2 emissions

Significance People are not only concerned about climate change and its effects on plant and animal diversity but also about how humans are fundamentally changing the globe’s largest ecosystem that sustains economic revenue and food for many countries. We show that many species communities and ocean habitats will change from their current states. Ocean acidification and warming increase the potential for an overall simplification of ecosystem structure and function with reduced energy flow among trophic levels and little scope for species to acclimate. The future simplification of our oceans has profound consequences for our current way of life, particularly for coastal populations and those that rely on oceans for food and trade. Rising anthropogenic CO2 emissions are anticipated to drive change to ocean ecosystems, but a conceptualization of biological change derived from quantitative analyses is lacking. Derived from multiple ecosystems and latitudes, our metaanalysis of 632 published experiments quantified the direction and magnitude of ecological change resulting from ocean acidification and warming to conceptualize broadly based change. Primary production by temperate noncalcifying plankton increases with elevated temperature and CO2, whereas tropical plankton decreases productivity because of acidification. Temperature increases consumption by and metabolic rates of herbivores, but this response does not translate into greater secondary production, which instead decreases with acidification in calcifying and noncalcifying species. This effect creates a mismatch with carnivores whose metabolic and foraging costs increase with temperature. Species diversity and abundances of tropical as well as temperate species decline with acidification, with shifts favoring novel community compositions dominated by noncalcifiers and microorganisms. Both warming and acidification instigate reduced calcification in tropical and temperate reef-building species. Acidification leads to a decline in dimethylsulfide production by ocean plankton, which as a climate gas, contributes to cloud formation and maintenance of the Earth’s heat budget. Analysis of responses in short- and long-term experiments and of studies at natural CO2 vents reveals little evidence of acclimation to acidification or temperature changes, except for microbes. This conceptualization of change across whole communities and their trophic linkages forecast a reduction in diversity and abundances of various key species that underpin current functioning of marine ecosystems.
Evidence-based Policy: The Promise of `Realist Synthesis'

Evaluation research is tortured by time constraints. The policy cycle revolves more quickly than the research cycle, with the result that `real time' evaluations often have little influence on policy making. As a result, the quest for evidence-based policy (EBP) has turned increasingly to systematic reviews of the results of previous inquiries in the relevant policy domain. However, this shifting of the temporal frame for evaluation is in itself no guarantee of success. Evidence, whether new or old, never speaks for itself. Accordingly, there is debate about the best strategy of marshalling bygone research results into the policy process. In the first of this pair of articles (published in the previous issue of Evaluation) a critical review of the existing EBP strategies was conducted. This companion article considers the merits of a new methodology for systematic reviews, namely `realist synthesis'.
Acquiescence and the Willingness to Pay for Environmental Protection: A Comparison of the ISSP, WVS, and EVS

Objectives: This study examines the effect of countries’ wealth on individuals’ willingness to pay for environmental protection. Former studies using the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) report a positive effect, while studies using the World Values Survey (WVS) or the European Values Study (EVS) find the opposite. In this article, we explain and reconcile these opposing findings. Methods. First, we analyze the three data sets (ISSP, WVS, and EVS) separately by applying multilevel analyses and replicate the different findings. Second, we take respondents’ acquiescence into account and demonstrate that wealth has a positive effect on the willingness to pay in the combined data set. Results. Respondents in poorer nations in Asia and Eastern Europe have higher levels of acquiescence than respondents in richer Western nations. This difference conceals the wealth effect of studies analyzing the WVS or EVS. If acquiescence is properly taken into account, the wealth effect is confirmed. Conclusion. Theory predicts that wealth and the willingness to protect the environment should be positively associated. This wealth effect is confirmed by our analyses of the ISSP, WVS, and EVS.
Perceived Environmental Threats and Strategic Choices: Evidence from Pharmaceutical Firms in China

This paper aims to explore the non-linear relationship between perceived environmental threats and strategic choices in a dynamic environment. Based on secondary data from pharmaceutical companies listed on Shenzhen or Shanghai Stock Exchange in China, this study adopts a Heckman selection model to test the hypothesis. The first stage of the model assesses the likelihood of top managers to perceive environmental threats based on a series of firm-specific and TMT-specific factors. One factor from this first model that captures the confounding effect of strategy self-selection is used in second stage of the model which estimates the complicated relationship between perceived threats and strategic choice. The empirical results indicate that when perceived threats are larger than opportunities, the perception of threats has a U-shaped relationship with proactiveness of strategic choice. When perceived threats are smaller than opportunities, the perceived threat has an inverse U-shaped relationship with proactiveness of strategic choice. The findings contribute to managerial cognition literature by arguing the non-linear relationship between perceived threats and strategic choice. Also this study makes an empirical contribution by measuring the degree of perceived threats and proactiveness of strategic choice in continuous variables rather than in categorical variables.
Anticipating Policy and the Logics of Practice: Australian Institutional and Academic Responses to the Globalising 'Quality Research' Agenda

Research assessment is now an international trend. This article mobilises a critical policy sociology informed by Bourdieu to unpack the differential effects of research policy shifts in Australia on universities, academics and the field of educational research. It argues in anticipating policy moves - from surveying the logics of practice that have emerged elsewhere from research assessment - that institutional, individual and field responses, while specific to the Australian policy context and mix, have assumed a logic of practice counter productive to "quality" research, education as a field, and equity.
Temporal fine structure in cochlear implants: Preliminary speech perception results in Cantonese-speaking implant users

Abstract Conclusion: Acute comparisons between continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) and a temporal fine structure (TFS) coding strategy in Cantonese-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users did not reveal any significant differences in speech perception. Performance with the unfamiliar TFS coding strategy was on a par with CIS. Benefits of extended fine structure use observed in other studies should be investigated for tonal languages. Objectives: CIS-based stimulation strategies lack an explicit representation of fine structure, which is crucial for tonal language speech perception. The aim of this study was to assess speech recognition with a TFS coding strategy in Cantonese-speaking CI users with no prior fine structure experience. Methods: The fine structure coding strategy encodes TFS on a few apical channels, while the remaining more basal channels carry CIS stimuli. Twelve MED-EL implantees and long-term CIS users participated in a study comparing recognition for Cantonese lexical tones and CHINT sentences between CIS and fine structure stimulation. Results: Mean tone identification scores in 12 subjects were 59.2% with CIS and 59.2% with fine structure stimulation using 4 TFS channels, mean scores of CHINT sentences in 8 subjects were 54.2% with CIS and 55.9% with TFS stimulation. Differences between the two strategies were not significant for any speech test. Two additional versions of TFS strategy and pulse rates were tested in six subjects. No significant differences between strategies were found.
Targeting Nominal Income Growth or Inflation?

Within a simple New Keynesian model emphasizing forward-looking behaviour of private agents, I evaluate optimal nominal income growth targeting versus optimal inflation targeting. When the economy under consideration is mainly subject to shocks that do not involve monetary policy trade-offs for society, inflation targeting is preferable. Otherwise, nominal income growth targeting may be superior because it induces inertial interest rate behaviour that improves the inflation-output gap trade-off. Somewhat paradoxically, inflation targeting is relatively less favourable the more society cares for inflation, and the more persistent are the effects of inflation-generating shocks.
A Multi-Stage, Multi-Channel Processing System for Overlapping Speech Separation in a Real Scenario

This paper addresses the problem of overlapping speech separation in a noisy room using a microphone array. The presented approach proposes a multistage processing framework to separate the desired sources and reduce the corruptive effects of noise, reverberation and interference. More specifically, 1) a beamformer separates the sources based on their location diversities, 2) a postfilter maximizes the output SNRs, and 3) a novel filter is derived to suppress the coherent terms at each output with respect to its contrasting one. Finally, 4) the clean signal is estimated using a modified masking filter. Exploiting the fact that a desired signal remains coherent within time frames, the mask is smoothed between frames to preserve this coherency and reduce the musical noise. Experiments on AMI-Wall Street Journal corpus show a significant improvement in speech quality, SNR, Source to Reverberation Ratio, and naturalness of the proposed method, compared to some methods in Blind Source Separation.
Terrorism, crime and public spending: Panel VAR evidence from europe

Within a panel VAR framework and utilizing generalized impulse response and forecast error variance decomposition analysis, we explore the dynamic effects of terrorism and crime on public order and safety spending across European countries during the period 1994–2006. Our findings show that a ‘shock’ in terrorism and/or in crime, significantly increases the subsequent trajectory of public order and safety spending. As a by-product, we find that public spending is ineffective in reducing observed crime or terrorism.
The community assessment risk screen (CARS): identifying elderly persons at risk for hospitalization or emergency department visit.

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate an instrument for identifying community dwelling elderly patients at increased risk for hospitalizations or emergency department (ED) encounters. STUDY DESIGN Prospective cohort study. PATIENTS AND METHODS The development cohort consisted of 411 Medicare fee-for-service patients and the validation cohort consisted of 1054 individuals enrolled in a Medicare Risk Demonstration. Baseline demographic, health status, and utilization measures were obtained from telephone interviews and mailed questionnaires. Service utilization data for the development cohort were obtained from Medicare claims files. Utilization and cost data for the validation cohort were obtained from submitted claims. RESULTS Logistic regression identified 3 characteristics that were predictors of hospitalizations or ED visits during the following year in the development cohort: having 2 or more comorbidities, taking 5 or more prescription medications, and having had a hospitalization or ED encounter in the previous 12 months. A scoring system (range 0 to 9) was developed for each predictor variable and patients in the validation cohort were assigned to low (0 to 3) and high (4 to 9) risk categories. When compared with the low-risk group, the high-risk group was significantly (P < .01) more likely to be hospitalized (33% versus 14%), to have an ED visit (34% versus 15%), and to have higher per-member-per-month (PMPM) charges ($977 versus $445) during the following 12 months. CONCLUSION The Community Assessment Risk Screen (CARS) is a simple instrument that can be used to identify elderly patients who are at higher risk for health service use and increased costs.
Following the Grain: State Formation and Trans-local Grain-trading Networks in the Philippines

Abstract With respect to the major approaches of state-society relations and Chinese business networks in Southeast Asia, two knowledge gaps are identified. First, little is known about how two sets of dualistic conceptual entities may be connected in the often-contentious state formation process between: (1) the ruling minority and ruled majority; and (2) the nationalising state and grain-producing frontiers. Second, very little is known about the role that the Chinese business networks played and how they contributed to the state formation processes. Using a Philippine trans-local grain-trading network as a site of investigation, the paper seeks to fill these knowledge gaps by delineating an integrative approach – designated as rhizomatic political economy – which argues that Southeast Asian state formation may hinge on the instrumentalisation of Chinese business networks and what is identified as their rhizomatic power/knowledge system. They are not just business-brokers in the trans-local grain trade that connects the national capital and grain-producing locales, but also serve as political brokers to implement state measures in regards to food and interior security affairs.