Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘Doing jibber’: female snowboarders negotiate their place in the snow

New emerging sports such as snowboarding reflect the possibility for a range of femininities and masculinities to be embodied by participants and in so doing have the potential to be more egalitarian that traditional sports. This article draws on a study conducted on snowboarding to extend the body of knowledge relating to female experiences of sport by focusing on the ways in which gendered performances are negotiated through the practice of ‘jibbing’ to suggest the ways in which such ‘new sports’ may facilitate participation based on factors other than gender. It explored how men and women negotiate the use of snow for jibbing, how this practice reflects wider understandings of gender in sport generally and in new and emerging sports specifically. The study adopted Butler's notion of gender performativity to evaluate the ways in which participants adopted repetitive acts – the ‘performance’ – of both girl and boy jibber. Findings suggest male participants often employ paternalistic ways of regulating female participation; ‘performing’ girl jibber is seen as less skilful than boy jibber, reinforcing male dominance on the snow. It was also found that while jibbing provides opportunities for women to participate, this was often in the apprentice or protégé role. Jibbing does have a criterion for acceptance, albeit covert, which ultimately works to exclude some participants. In jibbing, however, this was not based on gender.
The Effects of Rising Food Prices on Poverty in Mexico

We evaluate the impact of the rise in food prices during 2006-2008 on the poverty and extreme poverty rates in Mexico. We concentrate on the poor's consumption of staple foods, and analyze the change in their consumption brought about by changed prices. We also allow households receiving income from the farming and livestock sector to benefit from increases in prices of food products. We find a modest increase in poverty using 2006-2007 prices; however, there is a daunting effect on the poor once the 2008 prices are taken into account. After considering the positive effects of public policies announced in 2008, such as reduced taxes and tariffs on food products and greater subsidies to the extremely poor, the poverty rate measured through consumption increases from 25% to 33.5%, and the extreme poverty rate from 10.58% to 15.95%, given the increase in food prices. Further analysis using the theory of optimal taxes suggests policies oriented towards relieving the food price pressure on the Mexican poor should aim at lowering the prices of eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and chicken. Copyright (c) 2008 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
Reduction of circulating redox-active iron by apotransferrin protects against renal ischemia-reperfusion injury1

Background. Warm ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury plays an important role in posttransplant organ failure. In particular, organs from marginal donors suffer I/R injury. Although iron has been implicated in the pathophysiology of renal I/R injury, the mechanism of iron-mediated injury remains to be established. The authors therefore investigated the role of circulating redox-active iron in an experimental model for renal I/R injury. Methods. Male Swiss mice were subjected to unilateral renal ischemia for 45 min, followed by contralateral nephrectomy and reperfusion. To investigate the role of circulating iron, mice were treated with apotransferrin, an endogenous iron-binding protein, or iron-saturated apotransferrin (holotransferrin). Results. Renal ischemia induced a significant increase in circulating redox-active iron levels during reperfusion. Apotransferrin, in contrast to holotransferrin, reduced the amount of circulating redox-active iron and abrogated renal superoxide formation. Apotransferrin treatment did not affect I/R-induced renal apoptosis, whereas holotransferrin aggravated apoptotic cell death. Apotransferrin, in contrast to holotransferrin, inhibited the influx of neutrophils. Both apo- and holotransferrin reduced I/R-induced complement deposition, indicating that the effects of transferrin are differentially mediated by its iron and protein moiety. Finally, apotransferrin, in contrast to holotransferrin, dose-dependently inhibited the loss of renal function induced by ischemia. Conclusions. Redox-active iron is released into the circulation in the course of renal I/R. Reducing the amount of circulating redox-active iron by treatment with apotransferrin protects against renal I/R injury, inhibiting oxidative stress, inflammation, and loss of function. Apotransferrin could be used in the treatment of acute renal failure, as seen after transplantation of ischemically damaged organs.
The Impact of Climate on Holiday Destination Choice

The holiday destination choice is analysed for tourists from 45 countries, representing all continents and all climates. Tourists are deterred by distance, political instability and poverty, and attracted to coasts. Tourists prefer countries with a sunny yet mild climate, shun climates that are too hot or too cold. A country's tourists' aversion for poverty and distance can be predicted by that country's average per capita income. The preferred holiday climate is the same for all tourists, independent of the home climate. However, tourists from hotter climates have more pronounced preferences.
What Will It Do For My EPS? A Straightforward But Powerful Motive for Mergers

There is widespread evidence that bidders are more highly valued than their targets, and that both parties tend to be in temporarily high-valued industries. We nd that valuation dierences are also extremely important in predicting who will be acquired and when. We nd that a rm is more likely to be a target when others in the industry could acquire them in a stock-swap merger that appears accretive to the buyer even while paying the target a substantial premium. The resulting measure is similar to the dispersion of valuation multiples within an industry, but is grounded in a specic model of managerial behavior and is empirically much stronger than dispersion. Indeed, it is stronger than any measure in the existing literature, including recent industry-level merger activity. We consider two versions of accretion: a nave traditional EPS measure and a more ambitious attempt to measure the change in discounted cash ow value per share. We nd that both are important, and bidders seem to strongly prefer targets that are attractive on both metrics. Somewhat surprisingly, we nd consistent evidence that bidding managers whose wealth is tied more closely to the stock price care more about EPS accretion.
Potential relevance of cerebrospinal fluid and serum levels and intrathecal synthesis of active matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) as markers of disease remission in patients with multiple sclerosis

Background Little is known about the involvement of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and its tissue inhibitor TIMP-2 in multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective To elucidate the actual implication of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 in MS. Methods Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum levels of active MMP-2 and TIMP-2 were measured by activity assay system and ELISA, respectively, in 67 patients with relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS), categorized according clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and in 129 controls. Results Cerebrospinal fluid and serum active MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio mean values and an intrathecal active MMP-2 production were more increased in RRMS than in non-inflammatory conditions (P < 0.001, P < 0.05, and P < 0.0001, respectively) and in MRI inactive than in MRI active RRMS (P < 0.02, P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively). An intrathecal synthesis of active MMP-2 was more frequent in RRMS than in inflammatory disorders (P < 0.01). Serum active MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio and MS disease duration were positively correlated (P < 0.02). Conclusion These findings suggest a potential role for MMP-2 activity in the termination of MS neuroinflammation related to remission of the disease and seem to indicate that serum MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio may represent a useful biomarker for monitoring MS recovery phase.
Post-environmentalism: an internal critique

‘Post-environmentalism’ is an approach to ecological modernisation in the United States which criticises mainstream environmentalism's emphasis on placing limits on economic activity to address the climate crisis. Building upon Ronald Inglehart's analysis of shifting cultural values, post-environmentalists Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger reject this antipathy towards economic growth because it undermines the material conditions that enable post-material, quality of life concerns like environmentalism to flourish in the first place. Yet some of the policies advocated by Nordhaus and Shellenberger to promote economic growth actually serve as obstacles to the realisation of post-material values. An alternative account of the emergence of modern environmentalism situates it within the transition from a Fordist to a post-Fordist model of economic growth. This analysis reveals more promising possibilities for promoting post-material values such as autonomy, self-realisation, and environmental concern than the proposals put forward by Shellenberger and Nordhaus.
Crop failure rates in a geoengineered climate: impact of climate change and marine cloud brightening

The impact of geoengineering on crops has to date been studied by examining mean yields. We present the first work focusing on the rate of crop failures under a geoengineered climate. We investigate the impact of a future climate and a potential geoengineering scheme on the number of crop failures in two regions, Northeastern China and West Africa. Climate change associated with a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases the number of crop failures in Northeastern China while reducing the number of crop failures in West Africa. In both regions marine cloud brightening is likely to reduce the number crop failures, although it is more effective at reducing mild crop failure than severe crop failure. We find that water stress, rather than heat stress, is the main cause of crop failure in current, future and geoengineered climates. This demonstrates the importance of irrigation and breeding for tolerance to water stress as adaptation methods in all futures. Analysis of global rainfall under marine cloud brightening has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of climate change on global wheat and groundnut production.
The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory: A Bifactor Model, Dimensionality, and Measurement Invariance

The current study examines a bifactor model for the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) in a Dutch community sample of adolescents (N = 2,874). The primary goal was to examine the latent structure of the YPI with a bifactor modeling approach. Furthermore, the study examines the dimensionality and measurement invariance of the YPI. Results show that a bifactor model at subscale level fits the YPI best. The general psychopathy factor influences the 10 subscales of the YPI strongly, indicating that the YPI seems to be rather unidimensional than multidimensional. Nevertheless, the dimensions still explain nearly one third of the variance found. Findings imply that the bifactor model of the YPI should be used when examining relations with outcome variables, with a focus on the total score of the YPI, while factor scores should be reported with caution. Furthermore, the bifactor model appears invariant for gender, age, and ethnic background.
The Effects of a Shared Interest and Regret Salience on Tax Evasion

ABSTRACT: This study examines whether sharing the potential tax savings and the risk of penalties associated with tax evasion with another individual affects a decision maker's willingness to evade taxes. This study also explores whether increasing the salience of potential regret from an adverse audit decreases tax evasion behavior. Using a 2 × 2 experimental design with experienced taxpayers as participants, this study finds that participants are less willing to evade taxes when they share the potential tax savings and risk of penalties with another taxpayer compared to when the reporting decision affects solely the decision maker. Supplemental analysis shows that participants feel that tax evasion is more unethical when a shared interest is present. In addition, this study demonstrates that increasing regret salience from an adverse audit decreases participants' willingness to evade taxes. This study contributes to multiple literature streams, including taxpayer compliance, ethical decision making, and.
Fiscal Decentralization and Regional Disparity: A Panel Data Approach for OECD Countries

The advantages and disadvantages of public sector decentralization are widely discussed in economics and political science. While some authors argue that decentralization leads to an optimal provision of public services and a promotion of economic growth, others emphasize the dangers of competition associated with decentralization between subnational governments especially for redistributive reasons. These authors argue that poorer regions could not compete for mobile factors with the richer ones and, therefore, poor regions would get poorer and rich regions richer. This paper studies empirically the impact of fiscal decentralization on regional disparities using panel data for 17 OECD countries from 1980 to 2001. As the measurement of decentralization and regional disparity is one of the main difficulties of this research, both are discussed extensively and different measurement concepts are elaborated. The findings of this study are that a high degree of decentralization is connected with low regional disparities. Hence, poor regions have no disadvantages from decentralization, quite the contrary.
Unit Root in the Wage‐Price Spiral Is Not Hysteresis in Unemployment

Hysteresis is one of the main concepts used in Layard, Nickell and Jackman's book, Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. Attempts to clarify the concept of hysteresis, from its formal representation to its empirical applications. Emphasizes the idea that hysteresis refers back to a given set of formal properties, independently of the phenomenologies within which it is liable to be encountered. In economics, the fields concerned may indeed vary a lot (labour market, foreign trade, etc.). By highlighting all the formal properties of hysteresis, shows how the assimilation of phenomena characterized by a zero eigenvalue for linear systems (or unit-root systems for discrete-time processes) is wrong and, moreover, how the imprecise use of the concepts can lead to the particular constraints affecting unit-root econometrics being overlooked.
An automated SAR measurement system for compliance testing of personal wireless devices

An automated specific absorption rate (SAR) measurement system has been developed for compliance testing of personal wireless devices. Unlike other systems, this system uses a model with a lossy ear-shaped protrusion and the accuracy of this experimental setup has been checked by comparing the peak 1-g SARs for ten cellular telephones, five each at 835 and 1900 MHz, with the results obtained using a 15-tissue anatomically based model with the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical electromagnetic technique. The SAR measurement system uses a three-dimensional (3-D) stepper motor to move a Narda Model 8021 E-field probe to measure the SAR distribution inside a head-shaped tissue-simulant phantom near the radiating device. The head and neck part of the model with an ear-shaped protrusion of 3 mm thickness is made of a lossy outer shell of 5-7 mm thickness of epoxy laced with KCl solution. The phantom is filled with appropriate frequency-specific fluids with measured electrical properties (dielectric constant and conductivity) that are close to the average for gray and white matters of the brain at the center frequencies of interest (835 and 1900 MHz). The implantable E-field probe is calibrated using the FDTD-calculated SAR variations for a slab model at two commonly used frequencies, 835 and 1900 MHz and is checked to have good isotropic characteristics (/spl plusmn/0.23 dB) and a wide dynamic range (0.01-10 W/kg). The system is validated using a 223-mm-diameter sphere model. Peak 1-g SAR's for ten telephones using different antennas are within /spl plusmn/1 dB of those obtained using the FDTD numerical method for the anatomical model of the head and neck region.
A novel closed loop power control for UMTS

Wideband CDMA has been selected as the access technique for the next generation communication system. Consequently, it has received a significant amount of attention in provision of advanced algorithms for improved performance. Accurate power control is one the most important requirements of the CDMA systems. In this paper, two new adaptive step-size algorithms for controlling the transmitted power of the mobile stations in a CDMA-based cellular system are presented. The performance of the two algorithms are compared with that of the conventional and their superiority clearly demonstrated.
Guest Editor's Introduction: Dynamic Pricing in the Virtual Marketplace

From its simple beginnings in the town square, the "marketplace" has grown to encompass the entire global business environment. The vast and intricately woven infrastructure necessary for this level of commerce involves issues of money, credit, insurance, legal infrastructure, corporate and individual identities, and fraud detection and deterrence. As market activities move online, we have an opportunity to re-examine the processes and conventions that governed pre-Internet commerce, and to restructure those that need it for the virtual marketplace. One concept being challenged by new technologies is fixed pricing, which became prevalent in western society during the industrial revolution when mass production and widespread delivery of goods made price negotiation impractical. A Wyoming frontiersman could not negotiate with Sears, Roebuck and Co. about the mail-order catalog price of a pair of boots in the late 1890s. The Internet now has the potential to reverse that trend.
Professional Sports as Catalysts for Metropolitan Economic Development

ABSTRACT:Cities throughout the United States are facing an unprecedented number of threats from the professional sport teams they host to build new playing facilities or lose the franchise. The recent moves of NFL teams from Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Houston to St. Louis, Oakland, Baltimore, and Nashville, respectively, have given currency to these threats. To attract or retain a team, cities are offering staggering financial support and rationalize their largesse on economic grounds. Do professional sports increase income and create jobs in amounts that justify the behavior of cities? The evidence detailed in this paper fails to support such a rationale. The primary beneficiaries of subsidies are the owners and players, not the taxpaying public.
Serum resistin and adiponectin levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Aim. This study was performed to compare the serum levels of resistin and adiponectin in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and normal controls. Materials and methods. Seventy-six patients (36 obese, 40 non-obese) with PCOS and 42 healthy subjects were included in the study. Serum levels of resistin, adiponectin, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinising hormone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), 17-hydroxy progesterone, free testosterone, androstenedione, glucose, insulin and lipid parameters were measured. Insulin resistance and carbohydrate metabolism were evaluated by using the homeostasis model (HOMA) and the area under the insulin curve (AUCI). Results. Plasma resistin levels, HOMA-IR and AUCI were significantly higher and adiponectin level was lower in women with PCOS than those in healthy women. Plasma resistin levels were similar among obese and non-obese women with PCOS. No correlation was observed between resistin, body mass index (BMI), HOMA-IR, AUCI, insulin, lipid parameters and serum androgen levels. In obese PCOS patients, adiponectin levels were lower than in the lean PCOS patients. A negative correlation was observed among adiponectin, HOMA-IR, AUCI, BMI, testosterone, DHEAS, total-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein (a) levels. Conclusion. These results suggest that the serum adiponectin level may be involved in the pathogenesis of PCOS. But resistin levels were independently associated with insulin resistance and BMI in PCOS patients. Nevertheless, wider-scale trials are required to be performed on this subject.
A MODEL FOR GATHERING STAKEHOLDER INPUT FOR SETTING RESEARCH PRIORITIES AT THE LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITY

The American public is demanding higher accountability from land-grant universities as evidenced by declining financial support for higher education where the majority of agricultural research is conducted. Reasons for declining financial support may be a perception of disenfranchis ement and concern by stakeholders that public dollars spent on research only benefits a narrow segment of the economy. In light of declining public support for publicly funded research, the 1998 Farm Bill (Public Law 105-185) stated that stakeholder input must be collected when setting research priorities. This paper advances a model for collecting and implementing stakeholder input into setting research priorities at land -grant universities that is grounded in Guba and Lincoln’s Fourth Generation Evaluation theoretical model (1989). The proposed model describes a process that will streamline and facilitate gathering stakeholder input in a direct and user-friendly manner. This model should be tested and further refined at other land-grant institutions to meet the current and pressing need for greater public accountability. Implications of this study include a discussion of the importance of collecting stakeholder input and consequences of operating without community participation.
Economic and Social Impacts of Tourism in Mexico

In developing its tourist industry, the Mexican government had three main goals: earning foreign exchange, creating employment, and diverting internal migration toward tourism development poles. Statistics on employment and in-migration to Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta, Cancún, and Los Cabos show that it has been relatively successful in achieving these goals. However, Mexico has increased its dependency on loans, foreign capital, and foreign patronage and has imposed costs on the working class employed in low-waged and precarious tourist jobs, including de facto social and economic apartheid.
Globalization of Local Retailing: Threat or Opportunity? The Case of Food Retailing in Guilin, China

Small-scale retailing is characteristic of many developing and emerging economies. It has been argued that in the course of economic development a retail environment will be transformed into a more efficient system by fewer but larger retailers that often are gigantic global players. However, in many societies, small retailers have other functions in addition to retailing. As shown in a sample of small retailers in the People’s Republic of China, many retailers started their businesses due to unemployment or retirement. In countries such as China where the social security safety network is lacking, starting a small-scale business is one way to earn a living. The benefits of the modernization on retailing notwithstanding, this paper discusses how economic development and efficiencies of scale in retailing may destroy a well-functioning system that provides income for less-fortunate individuals. The findings are based on observations and interviews conducted in 1993–2010 in Guilin, China.