Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ACCOUNTING FOR THE AUDIT COMMISSION

THE Audit Commission for Local Authorities in England & Wales (the Commission) was established under the Local Government Finance Act 1982 (the Act) and took up its responsibilities in early 1983. The aim of external auditing of local government, under the direction of the Commission, is now not merely the continuation of traditional financial and regularity audits, but also to judge the “economy”, “efficiency”, and “effectiveness” of local authorities’ operational arrangements and accomplishments. In its first four years, the Commission claims to have identified f492 million of potential savings by local authorities, and forecasts further savings in excess of f150 million annually. The Commission was established, and functions, in a period of considerable controversy about the performance, roles, size, and funding of local government and the wider public service. Its aims, analyses, audit findings, recommendations and emphasis have been the focus of widescale attention and some controversy. To what extent has the establishment of the Commission and the new value for money (VFM) audits been a radical change from the past? Was, and is, there evidence that such extended audits are feasible? Were VFM audit techniques already established and proven in the private sector? What were the context and conditions of possibility which permitted and precipitated the Commission? What are the aims and characteristics of the Commission’s approach? What limitations and barriers does it confront? Does it aim only to evaluate or more fundamentally to change local authorities? What are its accomplishments? What is its future? External auditing of local activities wholly or partly funded by a local levy on the public has a long history. With the dissolution of the monasteries and the termination of their charitable role, poor relief (locally administered and financed by local taxation) emerged and with it checks that the proceeds of such taxation were properly expended. ’
Characterization of constitutive heterochromatin in Cebus apella (Cebidae, Primates) and Pan troglodytes (Hominidae, Primates): Comparison to human chromosomes

Using G bands, some homologies between the chromosomes of Cebus apella (CAP) and human chromosomes are difficult to establish. To solve this problem, we analyzed these homologies by fluorescence in situ hybridization using human whole chromosome probes (ZOO‐FISH). The results indicated that 1) the human probe for chromosome 2 partially hybridizes with CAP chromosomes 13 and 5, 2) the human probe for chromosome 3 partially hybridizes with CAP chromosomes 18 and 20, 3) the human probe for chromosome 9 partially hibridizes with CAP chromosome 19, and 4) the human probe for chromosome 14 hybridizes with the p‐terminal and q‐terminal regions of CAP chromosome 6. However, none of the human probes employed hybridized with the heterochromatic regions of CAP chromosomes. For this reason, we characterized the heterochromatic regions of CAP chromosomes and of the chromosomes of Pan troglodytes (PTR), to allow comparison between CAP, PTR, and human chromosomes using in situ digestion of fixed chromosomes with the restriction enzymes AluI, HaeIII, and RsaI and by fluorescent staining with DA/DAPI. The results show that 1) centromeric heterochromatin is heterogeneous in the three species studied and 2) noncentromeric heterochromatin is homogeneous within each of the three species, but is different for each species. Thus, centromeric heterochromatin undergoes a higher degree of variability than noncentromeric heterochromatin. Am. J. Primatol. 49:205–221, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Influence of zinc bacitracin, light regimen and dustbathing on the health and welfare of broiler chickens

1. The influence of zinc bacitracin, an antibiotic growth promoter, and the combined influence of two environmental factors (8 h of darkness and access to sand) on health and welfare variables were studied in 96 broiler chickens (kept as pairs). 2. Chickens fed with zinc bacitracin (ZB) had a higher frequency of tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) and a higher frequency of dustbathing than chickens fed without zinc bacitracin. 3. When 42 d old, chickens exposed to 8 h of darkness and access to sand were heavier than chickens reared under continuous light and with no access to sand. 4. Fluctuating asymmetry was higher in the 'light/no sand' groups than in the 'night/sand + ZB' group. 5. There was a negative correlation between tonic immobility and weight and a positive correlation between weight and TD.
Investigating Heterogeneity in Brand Preferences in Logit Models for Panel Data

In analyzing panel data, the issue of heterogeneity across households is an important consideration. If heterogeneity is present but is ignored in the analysis, it will result in biased and inconsistent estimates of the effects of marketing mix variables on brand choice. The authors propose the use of a random effects specification to account for heterogeneity in brand preferences across households in a logit framework. The model parameters are estimated by both parametric and semiparametric approaches. The authors also compare their results with those obtained from logit models in which observed past choice behavioir is used to capture such heterogeneity. The different models are estimated with the IRI saltine crackers dataset. A formal statistical test of the model specifications shows that the semiparametric specification is the most preferred in terms of the overall fit of the model to the data. In addition, that specification predicts best when the models are validated in a holdout sample of households.
The Relation between Market Values, Earnings Forecasts, and Reported Earnings

Recently, much of the research into the relation between market values and accounting numbers has used, or at least made reference to, the residual income model (RIM). Two basic types of empirical research have developed. The "historical" type explores the relation between market values and reported accounting numbers, often using the linear dynamics in Ohlson (1995) and Feltham and Ohlson (1995, 1996). The "forecast" type explores the relation between market value and the present value of the book value of equity, a truncated sequence of residual income forecasts, and an estimate of the terminal value at the truncation date. The analysis in this paper integrates these two approaches. We expand the Feltham and Ohlson (1996) model by including one- and two-period-ahead residual income forecasts. This can be viewed as the use of forecasts in the "historical" model to infer "other" information about future revenues from past investments and about future growth opportunities. Alternatively, it can be viewed as the use of historical data (and the assumed dynamics) in the "forecast" to develop forecasts beyond the truncation period. In either case, the result is in a model in which the difference between market value and book value of equity is a function of current residual income, one- and two-period ahead residual income forecasts, current capital investment and start-of-period operating assets. The existence of both persistence in revenues from current and prior investments and growth in future positive NPV investment opportunities leads us to hypothesize a negative coefficient on the one-period ahead residual income forecast and a positive coefficient on the two-period-ahead residual income forecast. Our empirical results strongly support our hypotheses with respect to the forecast coefficients.
Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History

In Each Wild Idea, Geoffrey Batchen explores a wide range of photographic subjects, from the timing of the medium's invention to the various implications of cyberculture. Along the way, he reflects on contemporary art photography, the role of the vernacular in photography's history, and the Australianness of Australian photography.The essays all focus on a consideration of specific photographs -- from a humble combination of baby photos and bronzed booties to a masterwork by Alfred Stieglitz. Although Batchen views each photograph within the context of broader social and political forces, he also engages its own distinctive formal attributes. In short, he sees photography as something that is simultaneously material and cultural. In an effort to evoke the lived experience of history, he frequently relies on sheer description as the mode of analysis, insisting that we look right at -- rather than beyond -- the photograph being discussed. A constant theme throughout the book is the question of photography's past, present, and future identity.
Testing Business Cycle Asymmetries Based on Autoregressions With a Markov-Switching Intercept

Implications of two concepts of asymmetry—deepness and steepness—are investigated for autoregressive processes with a Markov-switching intercept. The formulas for the skewness of these processes and the skewness of the first differences of these processes are derived. The parameter restrictions leading to nondeepness and nonsteepness are presented for the special case of a first-order autoregression and two states. It is shown that these restrictions imply that previous tests for asymmetries in autoregressive processes with a Markov-switching intercept can lead to wrong conclusions. In an empirical application of the developed tests, the U.S. unemployment rate is found to be steep.
Performance of multi-code CDMA in a multipath fading channel

The authors provide a general investigation on the performance of multi-code code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) over Rayleigh fading plus additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels. In MC-CDMA, high speed data sources are serial-to-parallel converted to low speed streams, which are further spread by Hadamard-Walsh orthogonal sequences and random codes. Numerical results show that, in a multipath fading channel, MC-CDMA with properly assigned Hadamard-Walsh sequences outperforms conventional CDMA when the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is low and shows comparable performance at high SNR. Furthermore, for the AWGN channel, the approximate formula developed by Lee et al. (see Proceedings of IEEE PIMRC'97, San Diego, p. 297-301, 1997) shows more variation than the authors' formula. The new approach is capable of telling the impact of code cross-correlation on system performance while the earlier approach does not.
White Man's Law: Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence

In the nineteenth century many Canadians took pride in their country's policy of liberal treatment of Indians. In this thorough reinvestigation of Canadian legal history, Sidney L. Harring sets the record straight, showing how Canada has consistently denied Aboriginal peoples even the most basic civil rights. Drawing on scores of nineteenth-century legal cases, Harring reveals that colonial and early Canadian judges were largely ignorant of British policy concerning Indians and their lands. He also provides an account of the remarkable tenacity of First Nations in continuing their own legal traditions despite obstruction by the settler society that came to dominate them. The recognition of 'pre-existing Aboriginal rights' in the Constitutional Act of 1982 has shown that Aboriginal legal traditions have a definite place in contemporary Canadian law. This study clearly demonstrates that Canadian Native legal culture requires further study by scholars and more serious attention by courts in rendering decisions.
Anomaly detection and localization by diffusion wavelet-based analysis on traffic matrix

Diffusion wavelets (DW) transform has been successfully used in Multi-Resolution Analysis (MRA) of traffic matrices because it inherently adapts to the structure of the underlying network. There are many potential applications based on DW analysis such as anomaly detection, routing optimization and capacity plan, which, however, have not been well developed. This paper shows how to apply two-dimensional DW transform in traffic matrix analysis and anomaly detection. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of DW-based technique in traffic matrix analysis and anomaly detection in practical networks. It also shows this new technique is potential to be used in many other network applications.
High efficiency of lutetium silicate scintillators, Ce-doped LPS and LYSO crystals

We have introduced a new scintillator: cerium doped lutetium pyrosilicate Lu/sub 2/Si/sub 2/O/sub 7/ (Ce: LPS). A high light output (average value: 26,300 ph/MeV), a relatively good energy resolution (10%) and a fast decay time (38 ns) without afterglow make this new scintillator very attractive. We compare its properties to those of another recently developed cerium doped lutetium based silicate, Ce: Lu/sub 2(1-x)/Y/sub 2x/SiO/sub 5/ (LYSO).
Outward Foreign Direct Investments and Emerging Multinational Companies from Central and Eastern Europe

This paper summarizes a research project devoted to analyzing the development of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and emerging multinational companies from Visegrád countries: The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. After several years of foreign direct investment inflows to central and eastern European countries in recent decades, OFDI has appeared and grown dynamically from these economies. The Visegrád countries are among the leaders in that respect. This type of internationalization is affecting mainly Visegrád neighboring countries and other countries in the region. The concentration of investing companies and transactions is quite high in all four countries, and this determines both the sector and target country composition of OFDI. Intra-Visegrád investments, mainly by pairs of countries, are especially significant.
Online Handwritten Mongolian Word Recognition Using a Novel Sliding Window Method with Recurrent Neural Networks

Because of the conglutinated characteristic of Mongolian words, it's difficult to realize online handwritten Mongolian word recognition with high recognition accuracy based on segmentation-based strategy. Meanwhile, as the vocabulary of Mongolian words is large, using a segmentation-free method with deep bidirectional long short term memory(DBLSTM) network is more suitable. We design a 5 bidirectional hidden level DBLSTM network for online handwritten Mongolian word recognition. This paper mainly proposes a novel sliding window method which selects frames with different intervals to enhance recognition rate. The novel method can generate hundreds of sequence data for each sample, while only one sequence data is generated using ordinary sliding window method. More sequence data and more abundant sequence information are helpful to raise the recognition rate. We evaluated the recognition performance on our online handwritten Mongolian database with 925 classes. The proposed method achieves the word level recognition rate of 89.24% with PCA feature extractor and best path decoding, compared to that of 88.45% using ordinary sliding window method. Further, several well trained DBLSTM models based on the proposed method are combined to vote the output, finally, the word-level recognition raises to 90.35%.
From Cooperative to Opportunistic Federalism: Reflections on the Half‐Century Anniversary of the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

In 1955, the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations—the Kestnbaum Commission—embellished the intellectual framework of cooperative federalism and laid out a policy agenda for promoting it. Since then, our intergovernmental system has evolved from a predominantly cooperative federal–state–local system to one characterized by corrosive opportunistic behavior, greater policy prescriptiveness, eroding institutional capacity for intergovernmental analysis, and shifting paradigms of public management. These trends threaten to undermine effective intergovernmental relations and management. Recent developments, however, offer some promise for building new institutions of intergovernmental analysis, more effective paradigms of intergovernmental public management, and greater horizontal cooperation.
Public Segmentation and Government–Public Relationship Building: A Cluster Analysis of Publics in the United States and 19 European Countries

The purposes of this study are (a) to suggest a model of public segmentation and (b) to examine each segment's level of trust in government. By using individuals’ cognitive perceptions of government and participation in social organizations, as well as media use and demographic characteristics, as public segmentation criteria, a cluster analysis of international survey datasets of the United States and 19 European countries generated 3 public segments in each country. The largest cluster, named the underserved inactive majority, and representing a low level of income and education, low interest in politics, low trust in others, low citizenship standards, and minimal social participation, contrasted with the smallest cluster, named the satisfied active public. The identified segments differed in trust in governmental institutions, which is a key indicator of the quality of government–public relationships. Overall, the underserved inactive majority reported the lowest trust in governmental institutions, whereas citizen trust among the satisfied active public was the highest. This study highlights the theoretical and practical values of broad-based public segmentation in government public relations from the relationship-building perspective of public relations, rather than from a problem-solving perspective. Additionally, some targeted strategies for government communicators to enhance each segment's public trust in government are proposed based on the findings of this study.
Glucose‐dependent regulation of rhythmic action potential firing in pancreatic β‐cells by kATP‐channel modulation

The regulation of a K+ current activating during oscillatory electrical activity (IK,slow) in an insulin‐releasing β‐cell was studied by applying the perforated patch whole‐cell technique to intact mouse pancreatic islets. The resting whole‐cell conductance in the presence of 10 mm glucose amounted to 1.3 nS, which rose by 50 % during a series of 26 simulated action potentials. Application of the KATP‐channel blocker tolbutamide produced uninterrupted action potential firing and reduced IK,slow by ≈50 %. Increasing glucose from 15 to 30 mm, which likewise converted oscillatory electrical activity into continuous action potential firing, reduced IK,slow by ≈30 % whilst not affecting the resting conductance. Action potential firing may culminate in opening of KATP channels by activation of ATP‐dependent Ca2+ pumping as suggested by the observation that the sarco‐endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+‐ATPase (SERCA) inhibitor thapsigargin (4 μm) inhibited IK,slow by 25 % and abolished bursting electrical activity. We conclude that oscillatory glucose‐induced electrical activity in the β‐cell involves the opening of KATP‐channel activity and that these channels, in addition to constituting the glucose‐regulated K+ conductance, also play a role in the graded response to supra‐threshold glucose concentrations.
The Promyelocytic Leukemia Protein Interacts with Sp1 and Inhibits Its Transactivation of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Promoter

ABSTRACT The promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) is a nuclear phosphoprotein with growth- and transformation-suppressing ability. Having previously shown it to be a transcriptional repressor of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene promoter, we have now shown that PML’s repression of EGFR transcription is caused by inhibition of EGFR’s Sp1-dependent activity. On functional analysis, the repressive effect of PML was mapped to a 150-bp element (the sequences between −150 and −16, relative to the ATG initiation site) of the promoter. Transient transfection assays with Sp1-negativeDrosophila melanogaster SL2 cells showed that the transcription of this region was regulated by Sp1 and that the Sp1-dependent activity of the promoter was suppressed by PML in a dose-dependent manner. Coimmunoprecipitation and mammalian two-hybrid assays demonstrated that PML and Sp1 were associated in vivo. In vitro binding by means of the glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay, using the full-length and truncated GST-Sp1 proteins and in vitro-translated PML, showed that PML and Sp1 directly interacted and that the C-terminal (DNA-binding) region of Sp1 and the coiled-coil (dimerization) domain of PML were essential for this interaction. Analysis of the effects of PML on Sp1 DNA binding by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that PML could specifically disrupt the binding of Sp1 to DNA. Furthermore, cotransfection of PML specifically repressed Sp1, but not the E2F1-mediated activity of the dihydrofolate reductase promoter. Together, these data suggest that the association of PML and Sp1 represents a novel mechanism for negative regulation of EGFR and other Sp1 target promoters.
Alterations in Cholesteryl Ester Transfer, Lipoprotein Lipase, and Lipoprotein Composition After Combined Pancreas-Kidney Transplantation

IDDM patients treated with conventional subcutaneous insulin have an abnormal increase in cholesteryl ester transfer (CET), the proatherogenic step in reverse-cholesterol transport that results in the enrichment of the apolipoprotein (apo) B-containing lipoproteins (VLDL, LDL) with cholesteryl ester (CE). This disturbance is closely linked to iatrogenic hyperinsulinemia and the nonphysiologic stimulation of lipoprotein lipase (LpL), a physiologic activator of CET, because lowering systemic insulin levels by administering insulin through the intraperitoneal insulin route normalizes LpL and CET. Hyperinsulinemia persists in IDDM patients who undergo successful pancreas-kidney transplantation (PKT) when their allografts are placed in the pelvis and drain into the iliac vein. Therefore, to determine whether hyperinsulinemia promotes CET in this setting, we studied CET, LpL, and insulin levels in 14 euglycemic normolipidemic IDDM PKT patients with nearnormal kidney function (creatinine 1.5 ± 0.4 mg/dl). Consistent with our prediction, the net mass of CE transferred from HDL to VLDL + LDL was significantly increased in the PKT group (P < 0.001) compared with nondiabetic renal transplant patients receiving the same immunosuppressive drugs and healthy control subjects. Both basal and arginine-stimulated insulin levels were increased above the kidney transplant group's levels and correlated with the mass of CE transferred at 2 h (r = 0.71, P < 0.05; r = 0.66, P < 0.05, respectively). Total basal LpL activities, LpL and hepatic triacylglycerol lipase activities, and LpL mass all tended to be higher than levels in healthy control subjects. Consistent with these changes in lipase activity, VLDL particle size was significantly reduced (P < 0.025) compared with that of control subjects. These findings indicate that PKT patients with systemically draining allografts have a persisting profile of potentially atherogenic disturbances in insulin levels, LpL, and CET that resemble IDDM patients treated with conventional subcutaneous insulin injections.