Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The case for flexible exchange rates

In the first part of the article the author shows that the double objective of the return to convertibility and the liberalisation of imports cannot be reached unless exchange rates are allowed to move. In the second and third parts he treats the longer run aspect of the problem, giving exhaustive analysis of possible methods of dealing with a deficit in the balance of payments. This is done first by discussing the disadvantages of the various alternative ways that may be adopted under the system of fixed exchange rates, and second by showing that a policy of fluctuating rates is superior to these methods. In the fourth part the suggestion for combining the policy of flexible rates with establishment of stabilisation funds is discussed. In concluding the author points to the possibility of adopting in the early stages a system of “limited flexibility” under which exchange rates would be allowed to fluctuate between limits that were well defined but considerably wider than those which prevail at present. JEL: E42, F31, F32
Psychiatric comorbidity among children with gender identity disorder.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the prevalence and type of comorbidity in children with gender identity disorder (GID). METHOD The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Parent version was used to assess psychopathology according to the DSM in two groups of children. The first group consisted of 120 Dutch children (age range 4-11 years) who were referred to a gender identity clinic between 1998 and 2004 (GID group) and the second group consisted of 47 Dutch children who were referred to an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) clinic between 1998 and 2004 (ADHD group; 100% response rate for both groups). RESULTS Fifty-two percent of the children diagnosed with GID had one or more diagnoses other than GID. As expected, more internalizing (37%) than externalizing (23%) psychopathology was present in both boys and girls. Furthermore, the odds ratios of having internalizing or externalizing comorbidity were 1.28 and 1.39 times higher, respectively, in the clinical comparison group (ADHD group) than in the GID group. Finally, 31% of the children with GID suffered from an anxiety disorder. CONCLUSIONS The results of this categorical diagnostic study show that children with GID are at risk for developing co-occurring problems. Because 69% of the children do not have an anxiety disorder, a full-blown anxiety disorder does not seem to be a necessary condition for the development of GID. Clinicians working with children with GID should be aware of the risk for co-occurring psychiatric problems and must realize that externalizing comorbidity, if present, can make a child with GID more vulnerable to social ostracism.
Efficiency in Third Sector Partnerships for Delivering Local Government Services: The role of economies of scale, scope and learning

Abstract Third sector partnerships are under pressure to change in the light of the increasing cost pressures on local public services. The literature throws doubt on the level of economies of scale and suggests that more attention should be given to economies of scope and learning. The common conflation of economies of size with economies of scale has led policymakers to overemphasize larger scale providers and has distorted the strategies which third sector organizations have adopted, pushing them towards mergers and consortia based on scale.
Improving influenza immunization in pregnant women and healthcare workers.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of several strategies to increase influenza immunization in a multispecialty clinic. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective electronic database analysis of influenza vaccinations in a 6-year period at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic in Houston, Texas. METHODS We evaluated immunization rates in pregnant women and healthcare workers during 6 influenza seasons (2003-2004 to 2008-2009) after implementing the following strategies for pregnant women: assessing baseline immunization rates for obstetric providers, followed by direct encouragement and behavior modeling; implementing standing orders for influenza vaccination in pregnancy; and offering vaccination training to obstetricians and nurses. Further strategies implemented for healthcare workers included the following: conducting an employee survey about influenza knowledge, providing employee education based on survey findings and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, making employee vaccines readily available and free of charge, designating immunization nurses to serve as clinical champions, monitoring and reporting the employee influenza vaccination rate, and recognizing the clinic with the highest employee vaccination rate. RESULTS Influenza vaccination coverage rates in pregnant women increased from 2.5% at baseline to 37.4% in 2008-2009. Employee influenza vaccination coverage rates increased from 36.0% in 2003-2004 to 64.0% in 2008-2009. CONCLUSION Low influenza vaccination rates in pregnant women and healthcare workers can be substantially improved using methods shown to be effective in other clinical settings.
Do the Central Banks of Australia and New Zealand Behave Asymmetrically? Evidence from Monetary Policy Reaction Functions

We test for evidence of asymmetric behaviour in the monetary policy reaction functions of the central banks of Australia and New Zealand. For the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, we found little evidence of asymmetric behaviour, whereas the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) appears to react more aggressively to negative output relative to positive output gaps of the same size. We impose additional structure on our model to help distinguish whether the asymmetric response originates from non-linearity in the inflation equation or from non-linearity in an approximate representation of the RBA's preferences over macroeconomic outcomes. We find that the preferences of the RBA may drive the asymmetry: the RBA appears to dislike negative output gaps more than positive output gaps of the same magnitude. We show this generates only a small increase in the conditional mean of inflation that is statistically indistinguishable from the target rate of inflation.
Competition in Air Transport

This article analyses the potential of the high speed train to compete with the airline market. The context proposed is hypothetical, given that the high speed train alternative is not yet available on the route subject to research. In order to model passenger preferences relative to the characteristics of the alternatives, experimental design techniques are applied, which allow for the design of the market that will be evaluated by current airline passengers. Based upon the information collected, modal choices are analysed, estimating a logit model with both alternatives. Demand modelling allows us to predict the substitutability level of the high speed train in comparison with the plane for different types of journey and traveller. The results obtained confirm that the high speed train will have an important impact on the airline market, with a considerable deviation of passengers towards the new railway service. The simulation of different policies related to service variables stresses the fact that this impact will mainly depend on travel time, given that as this time increases, the high speed train will lose market share. © The London School of Economics and the University of Bath 2004
Array of potentiometric sensors for the analysis of creatinine in urine samples.

The development of potentiometric biosensors for creatinine based on creatinine iminohydrolase (E.C. 3.5.4.21) immobilized on chitosan membranes coupled to a nonactin based ammonium ion selective electrode is described. The response characteristics of three types of biosensors with the enzyme immobilized by three different procedures were evaluated. The biosensors with better response characteristics were obtained by coupling the ammonium ion selective electrodes to chitosan membranes with the enzyme immobilized by adsorption. The linear response range of these biosensors to creatinine was 10(-4) to 10(-2) M, the response time was between 30 and 60 s, they showed an operational lifetime of 44 days and the slope of the response to creatinine in the first day varied between 50 and 52 mV decade-1. An array of six potentiometric sensors, constituted by two creatinine biosensors and four ion selective electrodes for potassium, sodium, ammonium and calcium was calibrated and a multivariate model based on PLS1 for the response to creatinine was obtained and validated. The array was used for the analysis of creatinine in urine samples and the results were compared with the results of a clinical analysis laboratory, based on the Jaffé reaction.
The effects of local and global risk factors on the S&P 500 stock returns: an empirical investigation

In this paper we examine the impact of several local and global risk factors on the stock returns of S&P 500 industries' indices by applying a multifactor arbitrage pricing model. The local macroeconomic factors are industrial production, inflation, changes of expected inflation, term structure, exchange rate and oil prices. We also employ a global version of a single factor model to test the effect of global risk factors proxied by the world market index on industries' stock returns. The industries chosen are banking, chemicals, insurance, telecommunication and utilities. The results based on the multifactor model show that local risk factors have a strong explanatory power in explaining the variations of the monthly excess return of the S&P 500 index. A significant relationship is found between local risk factors and the industries' stock returns. Our findings also show a significant positive beta coefficient associated with the world equity index related to each industry.
Coordinating Production and Marketing with Dynamic Transfer Prices

Decentralized decision making is a fact in the modern business world accompanied by extensive research that looks into its consequences for overall firm profits. We study the interactions of decentralized marketing and operations divisions in a corporation and explore their impact on overall firm profits in the case with and without coordination of the two decentralized units. We assume that the marketing department is responsible for the price that influences the demand (sales), and the operations department is responsible for the production rate. We allow for backlogging over time. We model the interdependence involving marketing and operations decisions as a non‐cooperative differential game, with the two divisions as strategically interacting players. We find that, without coordination, strategic interactions of marketing and production result in inefficiencies that can quantitatively be substantial. Next, we introduce a dynamic transfer pricing scheme as a coordination device and evaluate if it establishes efficient (first best and fully coordinated) outcomes. We show that if production and marketing play a game with pre‐commitment strategies, there exists a dynamic transfer price that efficiently (fully) coordinates decentralized decision making and hence results in Pareto‐efficient company profits. If the two decentralized divisions play a game without pre‐commitment, dynamic transfer prices can partially coordinate decentralized decision making but fail to fully eliminate overall inefficiencies arising from strategic interactions among decentralized divisions.
Factorial validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale short form in older population in China

ABSTRACT Background: The objective of this study was to explore the factor structure of a shortened ten-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D 10) used in a national survey in China. Methods: This secondary research is based on the wave I (2011) of the China Health Aging Retirement and Longevity Study (CHARLS). CHARLS recruited a nationally representative community sample of households with members aged 45 years or above. A subsample of 742 respondents aged 60 years and older were used for this study. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test three competing models and determine the best-fit model for the elderly Chinese sample. Factorial invariance across gender was also examined. R2 coefficient was used to measure the reliability of each item. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the two-factor model as having the best fit. Depressive affect and somatic symptoms were the first factor while positive affect was loaded as the second factor. The multi-group analysis showed that the two-factor structure varied across the male and female groups in China (χ2 (df = 86) = 144.13, p < 0.001). Moreover, gender differences were indicated by individual item reliability scores, mean score, and prevalence rate of depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The CES-D 10 Scale indicated adequate reliability and validity for the community-dwelling older population in China. In addition, the data revealed that perception and expression of depressive feelings was different between male and female elderly people.
The Effects of School and Family Characteristics on the Return to Education

We measure the effects of parental education on the education profile of wages. The analysis uses sibling pairs from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience of Young Men and Young Women. We also use the variance across siblings in school characteristics to estimate the effects of school inputs on wages holding family background constant. We obtained mixed evidence on whether parental education raises the return to education. We find that teacher's salary, expenditures per pupil, and a composite index of school quality measures have a substantial positive effect on the wages of high school graduates.
Making Stakeholder Dialogue for Sustainability Issues Happen - Benefits, Reference Architecture and Pilot Implementation for Automated Sustainability Reporting a La Carte

Making stakeholder dialogue happen is a step forward in sustainability reporting. It includes mechanisms to involve key target groups and give feedback, facilities of user control and opportunities to fine tune reports to certain users, select report contents and adapt design to individual preferences. Today, one-way-communication on sustainability issues merely through one size fits all hard copies or simple electronic duplicates without any added value may hardly fulfil stakeholder expectations and reporting requirements. In contrast to the importance of these issues of communication in codes of conducts, standards, guidelines and other recommendations however, current reporting practice shows room for improvements, even for the best reporters. Hence, an outline is given on how to develop from early sustainability reporting stages towards a sophisticated approach, with emphasis on stakeholder dialogue and its core features, while fully exploiting the benefits of the internet and using its support.
The impact of a local smoke-free air law on wagering at an off-track betting facility in Indiana

Objective This study measured the impact of a local smoke-free air law on wagering at an off-track betting (OTB) facility in Indiana. Methods Regression analysis was used to compare the trend in per capita amount wagered at an OTB location that went smoke-free to the trend in per capita amount wagered at two comparison OTB locations that continued to permit smoking. Unemployment rate was included as a covariate. Results During the study period, there was a decreasing trend in the per capita amount wagered at each of the three OTB locations. There was no significant change in the trend for the location that went smoke free or for the locations where smoking has continued. Conclusions There is no economic reason to exclude OTB facilities from smoke-free legislation.
The Governance of the European Union: The Potential for Multi-Level Control

In its White Paper on the Governance of the European Union the European Commission has adopted a narrow concept of governance which focuses almost exclusively on public institutions exercising legislative and executive power (in other words institutions of government). The article suggests that a theory of multi-level control in the EU would attend to greater variety both in the available governance institutions and the techniques of control. The deployment of an analysis grounded in theories of control suggests that the European Commission is substantially holding to a long-held preference for instruments of government premised on the exercise of hierarchical power. This reform path sits uneasily with revived concerns to render the governance of the EU more democratic. Equally it inhibits the generation of more efficient governance arrangements which place greater dependence on communities, competition, and design as alternative bases of control to hierarchy. Control theory suggests that the assertion of different reform agendas and institutional structures by other actors can check the more wayward (and arguably illegitimate) tendencies within the Commission plan, whilst drawing in alternative bases of control which, when combined, may yield technically superior governance solutions.
From Lab to Road Test: Using a Reference Vehicle for Solving GNSS Localization Challenges

This three-part article describes the features and applications of the Vehicle for Experimental Research on Trajectories (VERT) as designed and used by the Geopositioning Laboratory at the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development, and Networks. The first section describes the vehicle's architecture. The second presents four different methods for estimating a high-precision reference trajectory, highlighting the critical role played by a navigation-grade inertial measurement unit in the process. The third section demonstrates and assesses VERT performance based on mewly development navigation algorithms.
Functional role of VDR in the activation of p27Kip1 by the VDR/Sp1 complex

Our previous study demonstrate that vitamin D3 induces the binding of vitamin D3 receptor (VDR) to Sp1 transcription factor and stimulates p27Kip1 expression via the Sp1 consensus sequences in the promoter. Both VDR and Sp1 are transcriptional activators, it is unclear which protein functions as the transcription component of the VDR/Sp1 complex. To address this issue, we constructed the AF‐2 deletion mutant of VDR and tested the effect of vitamin D3 on p27Kip1 expression. In consistent with our previous results, we found that expression of wild‐type VDR in SW620 colon cancer cells, which expressed very low level of endogenous VDR, increased vitamin D3‐stimulated p27Kip1 promoter activity and protein expression. On the contrary, expression of AF‐2 deletion mutant had little effect. DNA affinity precipitation assay (DAPA) showed that both wild‐type and deletion mutant of VDR bound to the DNA probe corresponding to the Sp1 binding site in the p27Kip1 promoter in a vitamin D3‐dependent manner indicating deletion of AF‐2 domain does not affect the interaction between VDR and Sp1. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (CHIP) assay also confirmed that VDR and its AF‐2 deletion mutant bound to p27Kip1 promoter in vivo. We found that deletion of AF‐2 domain abolished the interaction of coactivators SRC‐1 and DRIP205 with VDR. Taken together, our results suggest that VDR functions as the transactivation component of the VDR/Sp1 complex to trigger gene expression. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Risk‐based mortgage pricing: Present and future research

Abstract The debate surrounding predatory lending laws and the subprime mortgage market revolves around two hypotheses. The efficient‐pricing hypothesis says that the market is providing broader access to credit, offering higher rates and fees to higher‐risk borrowers, and that prices relate directly to risk. The opportunity‐pricing hypothesis says that the high interest rates and fees charged in the subprime market are well in excess of risk‐related costs. A number of facts about the subprime mortgage market support the second hypothesis. Existing research includes price information, papers inferring a correlation between high prices and high risk of credit loss from observed default rates, theoretical discussions to explain pricing dispersion, and studies trying to determine whether laws that indirectly restrict prices have reduced the supply of mortgage credit. Information asymmetries, seller obfus‐cation, and search costs contribute to the inefficiencies in this market and suggest several policy responses.
The Bone Response to Non-Weight-Bearing Exercise Is Sport-, Site-, and Sex-Specific

Objective:To examine whether skeletal adaptations to chronic non-weight-bearing exercise depend on the type of aquatic exercise (swimming or water polo) as well as on sex (men or women). Design, Setting, and Participants:This was a cross-sectional study at the Laboratory of Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece. A total of 43 water polo players, 26 swimmers, and 30 sedentary individuals, aged 17 to 34 years, were recruited (52 men, 47 women). Main Outcome Measures:Bone mineral content (BMC) and areal bone mineral density (aBMD) of the total body and of various subregions. Results:Compared with controls, swimmers had lower leg and total aBMD (P < 0.05), whereas water polo players had lower leg but higher arm and trunk aBMD (all P < 0.05). Swimmers and water polo athletes differed at the arms (men only), trunk, and total body (all higher in water polo players, at P < 0.05). Bone adaptations to water polo playing were unaffected by sex. Female swimmers, but not male swimmers, had 13% higher arm BMC than controls (P < 0.05), whereas male swimmers, but not female swimmers, had 12% lower leg BMC than controls (P < 0.05). Conclusions:Athletes participating in long-term water polo playing and swimming have substantially different total and regional aBMD. The effect is not mediated by sex in water polo players; however, sex may mediate the differences between swimmers and controls. Whether the observed differences between athlete groups and sexes arise from different bone adaptations to activity or from other factors cannot be answered by the current data. Clinical Relevance:Water polo playing may be preferable over swimming for maintaining bone health; both types of aquatic exercise at the elite level of participation, however, have unfavorable effects on the lower limb bones.
Identification of Modified Proteins by Mass Spectrometry

Because it is obvious that high‐throughput genomics do not lead to a molecular description or even a prediction of protein function, modern techniques for protein analysis become increasingly more important. Sequence analysis of proteins and peptides is not limited to the elucidation of the primary structure of a protein. The analysis of posttranslational modifications is an important task of protein chemistry in proteome research. Increased sensitivity in mass spectrometry as a result of more efficient ionization techniques and better detection systems has allowed the stepwise reduction of protein quantity for analysis. Protein spots of 2D‐PAGE separated samples are now sufficient for an unequivocal identification of a protein by mass spectrometry. In addition to protein identification, a closer look at posttranslational modifications is now also possible. It is assumed that modifications such as phosphorylation or glycosylation exist on every second protein and that they are important for the protein function.