Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-Run Money Growth and the Liquidity Effect

Limited participation models explain a short-run liquidity effect as arising from the redistribution of income from non-participants in the bond market to participants in the bond market. However, these models also imply that the liquidity effect is smaller the larger is long-run money growth. Using cross-country data, we show that in the short run, the correlation between money growth and the nominal interest rate, and the regression coefficient of the latter regressed on the former are larger (algebraically), the larger is long-run money growth. These results are consistent with this latter implication of the limited participation models.
Low Density Lipoproteins Modulate Collagen Metabolism in Fibroblasts

High levels of low-density lipoprotein are associated with atherosclerosis, and myocardial and arterial remodeling. We postulated that low-density lipoprotein influences collagen synthesis and degradation in fibroblasts as a potential mechanism of tissue remodeling. Incubation of cultured human skin fibroblasts with low-density lipoproteins resulted in a time-dependent and dose-dependent increase in the secretion of matrix metalloproteinase activity measured by gelatin zymography. Western blot analysis showed a concomitant increase in matrix metalloproteinase-1 protein. Northern blot analysis demonstrated an increase in collagen I messenger RNA after treatment with low-density lipoprotein. The matrix metalloproteinase-1 secretory response of fibroblasts to low-density lipoprotein was attenuated by heparin, which inhibits low-density lipoprotein uptake through the low-density lipoprotein-receptor. These observations suggest that low-density lipoprotein has a regulatory effect on collagen metabolism in fibroblasts.
Real world expression recognition: A highly imbalanced detection problem

State-of-the-art methods have reported very high performance on facial expression detection. However, nearly all these previous work was conducted in strictly controlled environment, what's more, effects of imbalanced data have been neglected. A new database, RAF-DB, is constructed to provide abundant images with expression labels from different people in different real-world conditions. Annotation result suggests that emotion in real world presents strongly imbalanced distribution. To address this problem, we conducted experiments on RAF-DB using several proposed imbalanced learning methods. A new face-aiming methods VFSG also has been put forward to perform well among over-sampling methods. Besides, we explored some other complications of the imbalanced expression detection task, imbalance ratio, expression characteristics and performance metrics. Our findings suggest that imbalanced learning strategies are indispensable for detecting rare expressions, and real-world expression database should be used which can reflect closely the authentic expression status in daily life.
The Nexus between Technological Infrastructure and Export Competitiveness of High-tech Products in East Asian Economies

The main objective of this study is to develop an econometric model and estimate the effects of the two most important indicators of a nation's state of scientific infrastructure (R&D investment and the number of R&D researchers) on high-tech product export competitiveness for a panel of 11 countries/economies from East Asia from 1994 to 2010. A GMM panel estimation method was employed to account for the dynamic effect of trade and to control for un-observed country specific effects that may arise due to an inter-country differences and intra-country dynamics. Accordingly, the empirical results reveal that other factors constant, a 1% increase in a country’s expenditure on the ratio of R&D to GDP may increase high-tech product export performance by approximately $397 million per year. Likewise, a 1% increase in the number of R&D researchers is expected to increase the ability to export high-tech products by approximately $67 million. On the other hand, the study reveals a significant variation among countries in terms of performance. This study recommends a number of policy instruments to foster R&D as an engine to enhance
Investors’ Preference Towards Risk: Evidence from the Taiwan Stock and Stock Index Futures Markets

type="main" xml:lang="en"> We apply the stochastic dominance (SD) tests proposed by Linton et al. (2005) and Davidson and Duclos (2000) for risk averters and risk seekers to examine investors’ preferences with respect to the Taiwan stock index and its corresponding index futures. We find that there is no first-order SD relationship between Taiwan spot and futures. However, for second- and third-order SD, we find that spot dominates futures for risk averters whereas futures dominates spot for risk seekers. The implication is that to maximize their expected utilities, risk averters prefer to buy stocks, whereas risk seekers prefer long index futures.
The Announcement Effects of Restricted Open Market Share Repurchases: Experience from Taiwan

In this paper we empirically examine the effects of 451 restricted share repurchase announcements in Taiwan. Their 3-day cumulative abnormal returns are all significantly positive for different purposes and Tobin's qs. However, there is no significant difference in abnormal returns for different repurchasing purposes. This indicates that mandating a purpose is not really an effective tool for limiting managerial choice. Moreover, when the related variables are controlled, the other empirical results we conducted indicate that, at least in Taiwan, the traditional signaling hypothesis and the free cash flow hypothesis can function simultaneously to explain the effects of the restricted repurchase announcements.
New Little ICE Age Instead of Global Warming?

Analysis of the sun's varying activity in the last two millennia indicates that contrary to the IPCC's speculation about man-made global warming as high as 5.8°C within the next hundred years, a long period of cool climate with its coldest phase around 2030 is to be expected. It is shown that minima in the secular Gleissberg cycle of solar activity, coinciding with periods of cool climate on Earth, are consistently linked to an 83-year cycle in the change of the rotary force driving the sun's oscillatory motion about the centre of mass of the solar system. As the future course of this cycle and its amplitudes can be computed, it can be seen that the Gleissberg minimum around 2030 and another one around 2200 will be of the Maunder minimum type accompanied by severe cooling on Earth. This forecast should prove ‘skilful’ as other long-range forecasts of climate phenomena, based on cycles in the sun's orbital motion, have turned out correct, as for instance the prediction of the last three El Niños years before the respective event.
The Economics of Conjunctive Groundwater Management with Stochastic Surface Supplies

Abstract Groundwater management with stochastic surface flows and artificial recharge is considered. Theoretical analysis characterizes the decision rules and establishes conditions for convergence of socially optimal and common property withdrawals and pumping lifts to limiting probability distributions. An empirical application to Kern County, California finds that optimal withdrawals are generally increasing in hydraulic head and decreasing in surface flows; however, nonmonotone behavior is observed in some instances. Artificial recharge is not observed in the limiting distribution due to an interaction of several factors. Optimal management implies relatively small gains over unregulated groundwater use when preferences are risk neutral.
An early marker for semantic memory impairment in patients with schizophrenia

Introduction. Semantic memory impairment is now a well‐documented phenomenon in patients with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, the characteristics of this deficit and any early markers remain contentious. Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Mohammed Al‐Uzri, Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, University Department of Psychiatry, Leicester General Hospital, Leicester LE5 4PW, UK; e‐mail: mmaul@le.ac. uk A version of this paper was originally presented at the 10th Biennial Winter Workshop on Schizophrenia, Davos, Switzerland, February 2000. We would like to thank Professor John Hodges for his help and advice with the semantic memory battery data. Thanks also to Professor Peter Halligan and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Methods. In this preliminary study, 12 schizophrenic patients underwent longitudinal assessment using a battery of semantic memory tests. Patient performance was compared to 12 matched controls. Using set criteria (derived from Warrington & Shallice, 1979), we examined whether the patients had a disorder affecting access to intact representations, or a degradation/loss of the representations themselves. The criteria were: consistency across time and modality, level of attribute information, and responsiveness to cueing. Finally, we compared patient naming for the same items across two naming tests (naming‐to‐description and picture naming) to determine cross‐modality consistency. Results. As expected, normal controls outperformed the patients on all tests. Naming‐to‐description was the most significant differentiator between patients and controls. Patients were inconsistent across both time and modality, showed minimal attributional knowledge impairment, and improved significantly with cueing on two naming tests. Conclusion. The profile of results indicates an access‐type semantic deficit in this cohort of patients with schizophrenic. Finally, on a naming‐to‐description task, the patients failed to name up to 20% of items that they could name to picture. This suggests that naming‐to‐definition may act as an early marker of semantic memory impairment.
Healthcare systems in Europe: towards an incorporation of patient access

The core of existing healthcare typologies is the public—private mix in the three areas of funding, provision and regulation of healthcare services. This article aims to contribute to the debate by adding ‘healthcare access’ as an important dimension for comparing healthcare systems. In contrast to previous analyses, I extend the concept of access by looking at regulative aspects and financial incentives that shape entry and reception of care. Based on empirical indicators for three different dimensions of healthcare access — gatekeeping, cost sharing and supply — a cluster analysis is performed that yields four access regime types: financial incentive states; strong gatekeeping/low supply states; weakly regulated/high supply states; and mixed regulation states. The countries clustered in the access regimes show a different pattern than typologies based on other system indicators. This suggests that previously used dimensions for comparison do not sufficiently capture patients’ access to healthcare.
An Important Role for the Na+‐Ca2+ Exchanger in the Decrease in Cytosolic Ca2+ Concentration induced by Isoprenaline in the Porcine Coronary Artery

The role of the Na+‐Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) in the mechanism of the isoprenaline (Iso)‐induced vasorelaxation was investigated by simultaneously monitoring the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and tension of fura‐2‐loaded medial strips of porcine coronary arteries. Normal physiological salt solution (PSS) contained 137.3 mm Na+ and 5.9 mm K+. During the sustained phase of contraction, Iso induced only a transient decrease in [Ca2+]i when contraction was induced by depolarization with 118 mm K+ solution containing 25.2 mm Na+. When contraction was induced with 30 mm K+ in PSS containing 113.2 mm Na+, Iso induced a sustained decrease in [Ca2+]i, whereas in contractions induced by 30 mm K+ in a low Na+ (25.2 mm Na+) PSS, Iso transiently decreased [Ca2+]i. Replacement of Ca2+ with Ba2+ (which cannot be extruded by the Ca2+ pumps but can be extruded through the NCX) resulted in decreased [Ba2+]i induced by Iso in normal but not in low Na+ PSS. On the other hand, Iso induced a sustained decrease in [Ca2+]i when strips were pre‐contracted by U46619, a thromboxane A2 analogue, in PSS. Various types of K+ channel blockers (iberiotoxin, 4‐aminopyridine, apamin or glibenclamide) or combinations of these blockers failed to completely inhibit the Iso‐induced decreases in [Ca2+]i and tension. However, Iso‐induced sustained decreases in [Ca2+]i during the contraction induced by U46619 were greatly inhibited in a low Na+ PSS. The Iso‐induced decrease in tension during contraction by U46619 was greatly inhibited by 2′,4′‐dichlorobenzamil, a forward‐ and reverse‐mode NCX inhibitor, but not by ouabain, a selective inhibitor of Na+,K+‐ATPase. These results indicate that the NCX is involved in the Iso‐induced reduction of [Ca2+]i and tension of the porcine coronary arterial smooth muscle.
Price Convergence Across Natural Gas Fields and City Markets*

This research reports the results of cointegration tests between natural gas spot prices at various production fields, pipeline hubs, and city markets. Cointegration between prices is evidence that spatial arbitrage is enforcing the law of one price across market locations. The results show that prices at certain city markets, Chicago and to a lesser extent California, are cointegrated with prices at field markets. However, the prices at most other locations do not move in step with gas prices in the field markets. Customer access to pipeline transportation, or competitive bypass, may explain why prices at some city markets are more responsive to production field prices than others.
Do Staggered Boards Harm Shareholders?

We examine the Cohen and Wang (2013) conclusion that a staggered board lowers firm value based on the stock price reaction to two 2010 Delaware court rulings in the Airgas, Inc. case. The first ruling weakened the potency of a staggered board and the second restored it. We find that the Cohen and Wang results, for their sample, become insignificant after excluding a few penny stocks, stocks with value below $10 million, or over-the-counter (non-exchange) stocks. The effects of the rulings are also insignificant for an alternative sample.
Analyzing Wireless Network Activity for Adaptive Smart Building Automation

Building automation (BA) systems play an essential role in most sophisticated modern buildings. In most cases these systems run on xed schedules and do not employ ne grained control based on occupancy information or occupant behavior. In this paper wireless network activity will be analyzed for the use of controlling BA systems. To analyze the wireless network data multiple IEEE 802.11, hereinafter referred to as WiFi, capture devices will be capturing all wireless network activity. This data is aggregated in a PostgreSQL database and used for analytics and for training a Multiclass Neural Network. The Multiclass Neural Network is used to classify packets to a location. These locations can then be used for systems like automatic light switches. Systems like HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) can be controlled according to analytical data like unique MAC addresses in an area. These optimizations over the current domotic sensor systems can allow for more adaptive automation and therefore lower energy usage [7].
Efficiency Gains from Mergers

The purpose of this discussion paper is to contribute to the analysis of two questions. Should a merger control system take into account efficiency gains from horizontal mergers, and balance these gains against the anti-competitive effects of mergers? If so, how should a system be designed to account for efficiency gains? The report is divided into five separate parts. The discussion paper is based on a report to the European Commission. To help answer the two questions we start with an extensive review of the relevant economic research, including both theoretical and empirical work. Next, we review the current practice in seven O.E. C.D. jurisdictions. Finally, we propose a merger control system, emphasizing the central role of informational limitations. Based on our conclusions from the empirical literature that efficiencies may need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, we construct an information-economizing two-stage decision framework for evaluating mergers. In a first stage, notified mergers are assessed using routine tools with modest information requirements. Mergers that do not pass the first stage test are subject to further investigation, including an efficiency defence. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Effizienzgewinne von Unternehmenszusammenschlussen) Das Diskussionspapier leistet einen Beitrag zur Analyse von zwei wettbewerbspolitischen Fragen: Sollen im Rahmen der Fusionskontrolle Effizienzgewinne horizontaler Zusammenschlusse berucksichtigt und den wettbewerbsbeschrankenden Wirkungen gegenubergestellt werden? Und, falls ja, wie sollten diese Effizienzgewinne im Kontrollprozess berucksichtigt werden? Grundlage fur das Diskussionspapier ist ein Gutachten, das fur die Europaische Kommission erstellt wurde. Die Untersuchung beginnt mit einer ausfuhrlichen Darstellung der relevanten okonomischen Forschung. Dabei werden sowohl theoretische als auch empirische Arbeiten berucksichtigt. Anschliesend wird die gegenwartige Praxis der Fusionskontrolle in sieben OECD-Landern erortert. Auf Basis der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse wird schlieslich ein Verfahren fur die Analyse von Unternehmenszusammenschlussen vorgeschlagen. Das vorgeschlagene Verfahren greift die empirische Erkenntnis auf, das Effizienzgewinne nicht generell aber fallweise von Bedeutung sein konnen. Es wird ein zweistufiger Entscheidungsprozess entwickelt, um einerseits die Informationskosten gering zu halten und andererseits die notwendige Prazision des Kontrollverfahrens zu sichern. In der ersten Stufe des Verfahrens prufen die Wettbewerbsbehorden angemeldete Fusionen anhand von Standardkriterien mit geringen Informationsanforderungen. Nur solche Fusionen, die diesen Test nicht bestehen, werden dann in einer zweiten Stufe einer genaueren Analyse unterzogen, bei der Effizienzgewinne berucksichtigt werden.
Exchange-Rate Volatility’s Impact on Turkey’s Exports: An Empirical Analyze for 1992-2010

Abstract Turkey has gone a process of striking economic growth owing to policies of stability pursued in the aftermath of economic crises in 1990s and early 2000 s. The Turkish national economy has maintained a 5 pct growth rate on average in the last decade by reliance on export-based development policies implemented since 1980 s. The rise in consumption expenditures in domestic markets, as well as the constructions, which have limited impact upon the size of the foreign trade significantly influence the growth rate. The size of foreign trade has grown since the 2000 s significantly and reached to 299 billion USD over this period. The increase in the size of foreign trade has positive impact upon exports; the amount of exports has dramatically increased from 25 billion USD to 113 billion USD in 2010 despite global economic crisis. On the other hand, despite the dramatic increase in the amount of exports, Turkey has also relied on imports; the rising amount of imports led to a problem of current account deficit in the economy. The exchange rate volatility is one of the factors that affect exports most. The exchange rate volatility and financial stability can affect positively or negatively the exports of the developing countries in the short or long terms. In this study, the monthly Currency sale rates (DS) and Export (X) series are considered to investigate whether the X and DS series were affected by each other in the turning points detected by Unit root test with one structural break (Zivot-Andrews) and Unit root test with two structural breaks (Lee-Strazicich). The test results reveal that exports are not affected by structural turnings in the sale of currencies; in other words, the results show that export is not sensitive to the structural breaks and changes in currency rates.
Directors' Pay in the Privatized Utilities

This exploratory paper examines the relationship between the remuneration of the highest paid director and company performance in the privatized utilities. Four conclusions regarding the structure of top directors' pay emerge from the analysis. First, the salary plus bonus remuneration of top directors in the privatized utilities has increased by 12 per cent per annum since 1990. Second, average employee pay in these utilities has grown by about 3.1 per cent per annum over the same period. This suggests that top pay growth in the privatized utilities has outstripped that of the average worker since 1990. Third, the analysis cannot isolate a robust statistical relationship between directors' compensation and measures of pre-dated company performance. Finally, directors' share option dealings can sometimes considerably inflate their overall compensation. Taken together, these findings implicitly question the current efficacy of remuneration committees for determining boardroom pay in the privatized utilities. One solution, which may enable shareholders more accurately to assess executive performance, is for complete disclosure of all components of directors' pay in the company accounts.
Cannabis and sustainable development in Ghomara's mountains (western coastal part of Rif-North of Morocco): the gender makes the difference?

The Ghomarian woman plays fundamental role in her society: the ruling agricultural activity as well as the sociocultural life depends strictly on her, but this woman still suffers some discrimination. To clear up this situation, a study concerning about 249 peoples was realized through the adoption of a quantitative and qualitative sociological approach. According to the obtained results, the woman is relatively deprived of certain fundamental rights, especially those concerning the management of cannabis farms and the work out the family environment. Nevertheless, she plays a fundamental socio-cultural role from her first age, protects customs linked to the traditions and the local culture and constitutes an axis around of which revolve all the activities and the aspects of the development in the studied region. Therefore, it is necessary to give a major importance for the role of the woman before any aiming action to improve the conditions of the sustainable development in the zone.
Impact of Mental Fatigue on Self-paced Exercise

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine whether mental fatigue influences the perceived effort required to complete fairly light and hard effort self-paced exercise challenges. 12 participants completed 2 trials in a randomised cross-over design. Each participant was required to complete a time-matched pre-exercise task: 1) a continuous cognitive activity test (EXP condition; n=12), or 2) a time-matched passive neutral observation task (CON condition; n=12). Following the pre-exercise task, participants performed 2 consecutive bouts of self-paced cycling exercise again in randomized order at fairly light (RPE 11) and hard (RPE 15) effort. Physiological, psychological and EEG indices were measured throughout both conditions. EXP participants reported significantly greater sensations of fatigue (p<0.01) and demonstrated greater EEG beta-band activation compared with CON (p<0.01) prior to exercise. Power outputs from the exercise bouts were significantly reduced for EXP in both self-paced: RPE 11 (83±7 vs. 99±7 W; p=0.005) and RPE 15 (132±9 vs. 143±8 W; p=0.028) trials. This study demonstrates that individuals with higher self-reported sensations of fatigue and elevations of EEG beta activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain prior to exercise produce less work during self-paced exercise trials than in a control condition, probably due to an altered perception of effort.