Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tax Competition under Minimum Rates

This paper estimates Nash-type fiscal reaction functions for European governments competing for revenue from diesel excises. It appears that European governments strategically set their excise levels by responding to their neighbors’ tax rates. This provides evidence for the presence of tax competition in diesel excises. In fact, a 10% higher rate in neighboring countries (in terms of the user price) induces a country to raise its own rate by between 2 and 3%. This impact is robust for alternative specifications. By imposing restrictions on excise levels, EU harmonization of excises in 1987 and the introduction of a minimum in 1992 exerted a positive impact on the excise level in a number of EU countries. It has not, however, significantly reduced the intensity of tax competition. Indeed, strategic tax responses have not significantly been reduced by these harmonization policies. We also find that high-tax countries appear to compete more aggressively than low-tax countries in the sense that they feature larger strategic tax responses. There is no significant difference between large and small countries. JEL Codes: H23, H77, H87, R4
A Career Lexicon for the 21st Century

The shift from circumscribed careers to boundarylessness confronts us with a problem outside our previous experience. No norms and few models exist to tell how to evaluate, plan, review, analyze, promote, or otherwise live out a boundaryless career. Change dominates over stability. But of all changes, the most fundamental are changes in assumptions about the way the world works, and what we mean by the terms we use.
Thrombocytopaenia in lupus as a marker of adverse outcome--seeking Ariadne's thread.

OBJECTIVE To assess the role of thrombocytopaenia as an independent predictor of outcome in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS This was a single-centre, retrospective, matched case-control study (1:2). Fifty consecutive Greek SLE patients were selected at random who had developed thrombocytopaenia during the disease course (cases) were compared with 100 SLE patients with no history of thrombocytopaenia, and matched for age, sex and disease duration (controls). Overall damage was assessed at the end of follow-up, using Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics index. Total number of irreversible organ-damage events for both groups were recorded. Rates for specific outcomes and incidence-rate ratios (IRRs) for damage were estimated. Multivariate analysis estimating influential clinical and immunological factors for outcome, including thrombocytopaenia, was performed. RESULTS After 583 person-years of follow-up for cases and 1155 for controls, we found that thrombocytopaenic individuals have a higher risk for damage (IRR 1.96, 1.52-2.53) compared with their matched controls and this effect persists throughout the course of their disease. They also have a predilection to certain types of damage involving heart and kidneys. Among other significant factors associated with damage in multivariate analysis (disease activity, serositis, anti-cardiolipin antibodies, central nervous system involvement), thrombocytopaenia appears as the most influential. CONCLUSION Thrombocytopaenia is a quantitive and qualitative marker of impending damage in SLE patients.
Effect of preoperative chemotherapy on the outcome of women with operable breast cancer.

PURPOSE To determine, in women with primary operable breast cancer, if preoperative doxorubicin (Adriamycin) and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan; AC) therapy yields a better outcome than postoperative AC therapy, if a relationship exists between outcome and tumor response to preoperative chemotherapy, and if such therapy results in the performance of more lumpectomies. PATIENTS AND METHODS Women (1,523) enrolled onto National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B-18 were randomly assigned to preoperative or postoperative AC therapy. Clinical tumor response to preoperative therapy was graded as complete (cCR), partial (cPR), or no response (cNR). Tumors with a cCR were further categorized as either pathologic complete response (pCR) or invasive cells (pINV). Disease-free survival (DFS), distant disease-free survival (DDFS), and survival were estimated through 5 years and compared between treatment groups. In the preoperative arm, proportional-hazards models were used to investigate the relationship between outcome and tumor response. RESULTS There was no significant difference in DFS, DDFS, or survival (P = .99, .70, and .83, respectively) among patients in either group. More patients treated preoperatively than postoperatively underwent lumpectomy and radiation therapy (67.8% v 59.8%, respectively). Rates of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) after lumpectomy were similar in both groups (7.9% and 5.8%, respectively; P = .23). Outcome was better in women whose tumors showed a pCR than in those with a pINV, cPR, or cNR (relapse-free survival [RFS] rates, 85.7%, 76.9%, 68.1%, and 63.9%, respectively; P < .0001), even when baseline prognostic variables were controlled. When prognostic models were compared for each treatment group, the preoperative model, which included breast tumor response as a variable, discriminated outcome among patients to about the same degree as the postoperative model. CONCLUSION Preoperative chemotherapy is as effective as postoperative chemotherapy, permits more lumpectomies, is appropriate for the treatment of certain patients with stages I and II disease, and can be used to study breast cancer biology. Tumor response to preoperative chemotherapy correlates with outcome and could be a surrogate for evaluating the effect of chemotherapy on micrometastases; however, knowledge of such a response provided little prognostic information beyond that which resulted from postoperative therapy.
Asymmetric Price Differential between Medium and Small Class Cars Across Countries: A Case Study - Korea and the U.S.

This paper examines how a Korean automobile firm price-discriminates between the Korean and the U.S. markets. We argue that a Korean automobile firm’s pricing behavior depends on the differences in price elasticity over the segmented markets between the countries. Our findings are that differences in price elasticity may help explain why a medium-class car’s price is higher in Korea than that in the U.S. while a small-sized car’s price is higher in the U.S. than in Korea, which implies that a Korean automobile firm 3rd degree price-discriminates on the same or similar products between Korea and the U.S. This type of 3rd degree price discrimination differs from a typical home-bias effect (charging higher prices to domestic consumers) because a small-sized car which is produced domestically sells at higher price abroad. This finding can be added as a source that violates the law of one price.
IT Applications In Logistics And Their Influence On The Competitiveness Of Companies/Supply Chains

Abstract This paper aims to study the influence of Information Technologies on the competitiveness of companies/supply chains. That is, it intends to analyse if the adoption of Information Technologies contributes to improve costs, time and customer service. To attain this objective a case study and content analysis methodology is used. Results indicate that there is a positive relation between the adoption of technologies, namely RFID, A.R. and the competitiveness of companies/supply chains. By the use of these technologies it is possible to improve several processes across the supply chain, as well as the reduction of costs related to labor, improvement in inventories and management of transport channels as well as an improvement on customer service. The improvement of these indicators has as consequence a gain in competitiveness allowing the companies to respond to the market needs in a differentiated way increasing by this way the customers’ satisfaction. As the information technologies have been considered very important for businesses it is crucial to improve our understanding on the main advantages associates with them and their contribution for competitiveness improvement of companies and supply chains, so this paper represents an important contribution for academics and professionals in this field.
Privatization in Russia: some micro‐evidence based on housing markets

Examines the importance of the role of economic incentives in privatization using data collected at the micro level from auctions of state‐owned apartments in Moscow. Describes the nature of the auctions, the data collected and the estimated hedonic price functions. Concludes that the auction prices are very well explained by economic factors, particularly after the price liberalization that happened in 1992.
Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco

In 2004 San Francisco began using Instant-Runoff Voting for local elections. Early analyses revealed that after its inaugural use the rate at which voters ranked candidates dropped dramatically, and disqualifying errors on the ballots were more common in neighborhoods where more African-American and foreign-born citizens reside (Neely and Cook 2008). We extend the inquiry over time, examine other types of elections, and refine the methodology. Are some voters more than others able to exercise the franchise in these elections and, if so, what does that imply for the equality of political voice? We find no evidence that ranking candidates is in decline. Overvotes are more common in IRV than plurality contests, but such errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se. While they occur disproportionately in precincts with more African-American residents, and are often more likely where Latino, elderly, foreign-born, and less wealthy citizens reside, the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests. We discuss what these results imply for San Francisco and other jurisdictions using or considering similar election systems.
Association between breast cancer and allostatic load by race: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2008

Breast cancer and its treatment introduce numerous physiologic, psychological, social, and economic stressors to a woman with the diagnosis. Allostatic load, a composite score of biomarkers representing physiologic dysregulation, may serve as a measure of the biological burden of breast cancer. This study investigates the association between breast cancer and allostatic load scores by comparing allostatic load scores in those with a history of breast cancer to those without, stratified by race.
Characterization of the 5-Carboxyvanillate Decarboxylase Gene and Its Role in Lignin-Related Biphenyl Catabolism in Sphingomonas paucimobilis SYK-6

ABSTRACT Sphingomonas paucimobilis SYK-6 degrades a lignin-related biphenyl compound, 5,5′-dehydrodivanillate (DDVA), to 5-carboxyvanillate (5CVA) by the enzyme reactions catalyzed by the DDVA O-demethylase (LigX), the ring cleavage oxygenase (LigZ), and the meta-cleavage compound hydrolase (LigY). In this study we examined the degradation step of 5CVA. 5CVA was transformed to vanillate, O-demethylated, and further degraded via the protocatechuate 4,5-cleavage pathway by this strain. A cosmid clone which conferred the 5CVA degradation activity to a host strain was isolated. In the 7.0-kb EcoRI fragment of the cosmid we found a 1,002-bp open reading frame responsible for the conversion of 5CVA to vanillate, and we designated it ligW. The gene product of ligW (LigW) catalyzed the decarboxylation of 5CVA to produce vanillate along with the specific incorporation of deuterium from deuterium oxide, indicating that LigW is a nonoxidative decarboxylase of 5CVA. LigW did not require any metal ions or cofactors for its activity. The decarboxylase activity was specific to 5CVA. Inhibition experiments with 5CVA analogs suggested that two carboxyl groups oriented meta to each other in 5CVA are important to the substrate recognition by LigW. Gene walking analysis indicated that the ligW gene was located on the 18-kb DNA region with other DDVA catabolic genes, including ligZ, ligY, and ligX.
Real time user authentication system for PDA

Personal digital assistants (PDA), a representative example of current and future class of portable devices, contain important personal information of the users, which relate closely to users' privacy and require increased level of protection. This paper presents an automatic speaker verification system for PDA which facilitates reliable and convenient user authentication. We apply adaptive double thresholds endpoint detection (ADED) and feature clipping (FC) to make the system robust to ambient noise. The whole system implementation is simple and compact enough to fit well with PDA's limited memory and computational power. The system runs on Compaq's ipaq3630. Batch test and field running have been taken for our system, the results are promising
Concurrent Ordering in JIT Production Systems

Deals with the kanban system in just‐in‐time (JIT) production as a system of production planning and inventory control for multi‐stage production inventory systems, Constructs a queueing network model of the kanban system with SLAM II. Aims to improve the kanban system by modifying the flow of information. Because the orders for all stages are released concurrently, the modified system is called the concurrent ordering system. By means of simulation experiments, investigates and compares the performances of the models.
Transformation and continuity of the Argentine welfare state -- evaluating social security reform in the 1990s

Beginning after World War II, Argentina institutionalized a limited conservative corporatist welfare state where occupation-linked social insurance held a central position and social assistance had a residual character. This was called a limited conservative corporatist welfare state, because the huge population within the informal sector was excluded from the main system. A populist government supported by trade unions and the economic model of import-substituting industrialization were the background for the formation of this type of welfare state. During the 1990s, elements of a liberal regime were added to the Argentine welfare state under the reform carried out by the Menem Peronist government. However, social insurance reform and labor reform were not as drastic as the economic reform. They still retained a certain continuity from the traditional systems. The government intended to carry out more drastic social security and labor reform, but was unable to do so due to the legacy of corporatism of the Peronist government.
Human Pex19p Binds Peroxisomal Integral Membrane Proteins at Regions Distinct from Their Sorting Sequences

ABSTRACT The molecular machinery underlying peroxisomal membrane biogenesis is not well understood. The observation that cells deficient in the peroxins Pex3p, Pex16p, and Pex19p lack peroxisomal membrane structures suggests that these molecules are involved in the initial stages of peroxisomal membrane formation. Pex19p, a predominantly cytosolic protein that can be farnesylated, binds multiple peroxisomal integral membrane proteins, and it has been suggested that it functions as a soluble receptor for the targeting of peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs) to the peroxisome. An alternative view proposes that Pex19p functions as a chaperone at the peroxisomal membrane. Here, we show that the peroxisomal sorting determinants and the Pex19p-binding domains of a number of PMPs are distinct entities. In addition, we extend the list of peroxins with which human Pex19p interacts to include the PMP Pex16p and show that Pex19p's CaaX prenylation motif is an important determinant in the affinity of Pex19p for Pex10p, Pex11pβ, Pex12p, and Pex13p.
Common Spatial Pattern Method for Channel Selelction in Motor Imagery Based Brain-computer Interface

A brain-computer interface (BCI) based on motor imagery (MI) translates the subject's motor intention into a control signal through classifying the electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns of different imagination tasks, e.g. hand and foot movements. Characteristic EEG spatial patterns make MI tasks substantially discriminable. Multi-channel EEGs are usually necessary for spatial pattern identification and therefore MI-based BCI is still in the stage of laboratory demonstration, to some extent, due to the need for constantly troublesome recording preparation. This paper presents a method for channel reduction in Mi-based BCI. Common spatial pattern (CSP) method was employed to analyze spatial patterns of imagined hand and foot movements. Significant channels were selected by searching the maximums of spatial pattern vectors in scalp mappings. A classification algorithm was developed by means of combining linear discriminant analysis towards event-related desynchronization (ERD) and readiness potential (RP). The classification accuracies with four optimal channels were 93.45% and 91.88% for two subjects
Joint Angular Velocity in Spastic Gait and the Influence of Muscle-Tendon Lengthening*

Background: Joint angular velocity (the rate of flexion and extension of a joint) is related to the dynamics of muscle activation and force generation during walking. Therefore, the goal of this research was to examine the joint angular velocity in normal and spastic gait and changes resulting from muscle-tendon lengthening (recession and tenotomy) in patients who have spastic cerebral palsy. Methods: The gait patterns of forty patients who had been diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy (mean age, 8.3 years; range, 3.7 to 14.8 years) and of seventy-three age-matched, normally developing subjects were evaluated with three-dimensional motion analysis and electromyography. The patients who had cerebral palsy were evaluated before muscle-tendon lengthening and nine months after treatment. Results: The gait patterns of the patients who had cerebral palsy were characterized by increased flexion of the knee in the stance phase, premature plantar flexion of the ankle, and reduced joint angular velocities compared with the patterns of the normally developing subjects. Even though muscle-tendon lengthening altered sagittal joint angles in gait, the joint angular velocities were generally unchanged at the hip and knee. Only the ankle demonstrated modified angular velocities, including reduced dorsiflexion velocity at foot-strike and improved dorsiflexion velocity through mid-stance, after treatment. Electromyographic changes included reduced amplitude of the gastrocnemius-soleus during the loading phase and decreased knee coactivity (the ratio of quadriceps and hamstring activation) at toe-off. Principal component analyses showed that, compared with joint-angle data, joint angular velocity was better able to discriminate between the gait patterns of the normal and cerebral palsy groups. Conclusions: This study showed that muscle-tendon lengthening corrects biomechanical alignment as reflected by changes in sagittal joint angles. However, joint angular velocity and electromyographic data suggest that the underlying neural input remains largely unchanged at the hip and knee. Conversely, electromyographic changes and changes in velocity in the ankle indicate that the activation pattern of the gastrocnemius-soleus complex in response to stretch was altered by recession of the complex.
Bankruptcy Risk and Optimal Capital Structure

This study finds shortcomings in empirical tests of the capital structure irrelevance hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis is that firms choose value maximizing mixes of debt and equity on account of bankruptcy costs and the tax deductibility of interest payments. Based upon the cross-sectional implications of the tax shelter-bankruptcy cost hypothesis, an alternative test of the irrelevance hypothesis is performed. The test examines the relationship between failure rates and leverage ratios for 36 lines of business. The results are inconsistent with the irrelevance hypothesis. IN THEIR LANDMARK PAPER, Modigliani and Miller [26] demonstrate that under certain assumptions the market value of a firm is independent of its capital structure. These assumptions include the absence of taxes, transactions costs, and bankruptcy costs. Recently, Miller [24] has argued that the introduction of corporate and personal taxes does not alter the capital structure irrelevance result in the absence of bankruptcy costs.1 The inclusion of bankruptcy costs, generally considered in conjunction with the tax deductibility of interest payments, has led others to conclude that capital structure will affect the value of the firm.2 In this case, value-maximizing firms may choose optimal capital structures consisting of both debt and equity. There have been numerous attempts to discriminate empirically between the Miller irrelevance (MI) hypothesis and the tax shelter-bankruptcy cost (TS-BC) hypothesis. Several are discussed in Section I of this paper. There it is argued that studies attempting to measure directly the effect of changes in capital structure on firm values are subject to serious complications and are unable to discriminate between the MI and TS-BC hypotheses. Other studies focus on cross-sectional implications of the MI and TS-BC hypotheses. The cross-sectional tests are based on the assertion that bankruptcy costs may tend to induce firms with greater "business risk" to include less debt in their capital structures, whereas the MI hypothesis does not predict such a relationship. Unfortunately, the existence of positive bankruptcy costs is not sufficient to ensure that the TS-BC hypothesis will predict the inverse relation
Lactational traits of importance in dairy cows and applications for emerging biotechnologies

Abstract New molecular and quantitative genetic technologies are the latest in a long list of technologies that have been introduced to dairy industries over many decades to improve the performance of cows. The catalysts for future advances will be sequencing of the bovine genome and development of high-throughput technologies to identify and exploit relevant variation in DNA sequences. The new technologies will allow the selection of animals based on specific genotypes that suit specific applications such as once-daily (OAD) milking or extended lactation. These technologies will also allow exploitation of between-cow variation in milk composition, which is currently hidden by bulking of milk on and between farms. Thus, there are opportunities to produce milk from herds of cows selected for specific milk composition that might be, for example, more suitable for cheese-making or have milkfat with specific properties to enhance human health. Identification of genes and gene polymorphisms associated with improved resistance to specific diseases in cows and other farm species also represents a real opportunity to improve animal health over the coming decade. New levels of genetic regulation have been identified, e.g. microRNA and epigenetics, the impacts of which on the performance of cows and humans are only just beginning to be understood. There is a potential role for veterinarians to provide or be the interface for provision of genetic advice to farmers in much the same way that nutritional advice is currently given.
New insights on strained-Si on insulator fabrication by top recrystallization of amorphized SiGe on SOI

We demonstrate the fabrication of strained Si-On-Insulator (sSOI) using a relaxation process of a compressive SiGe layer on SOI, and the transfer of lattice parameter from the relaxed SiGe to the Si layer. This process is based on a partial amorphization and recrystallization of the SiGe/Si stack. We used HRXRD (High Resolution X-Ray Diffraction) and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) to characterize the microstructure of the layers. Strain and Stress evolutions throughout the process were determined using Raman spectroscopy and wafer bow measurements. Using a stack of 40 nm Si0.7Ge0. 3 on 9 nm Si, we obtained tensile Si layer having a stress of + 1.6 GPa which corresponds to a 80% lattice parameter transfer from SiGe to Si.