Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organization of the efferent, vestibular nuclei and nerves of the toadfish, Opsanus tau

The efferent vestibular nuclei and nerves were studied in the toadfish, Opsanus tau, with morphological and electrophysiological techniques. The origin and course of the efferent vestibular nerves was extensively documented. One major morphological observation was that the efferent nerves comprise a peripheral network that is anatomically distinct, and separable by dissection from the primary afferents innervated by each end organ. These anatomically distinct nerves are likely to be a major asset in physiological studies of efferent vestibular function. The retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) from each of the nerves innervating the vestibular and lateral line organs was used to delineate the subgroups of efferent neurons projecting to these end organs. The efferent vestibular nuclei are located in the posterior medulla in and around the median longitudinal fasiculi (MLF). We divided the nuclei cytoarchitecturally into lateral, medial, and' dorsal subdivisions. The lateral cells had bilateral dendritic trees while the dorsal cells had ipsilateral, unilateral dendritic trees. There was a higher proportion of lateral cells that innervated the canal organs and the utricle while the dorsal cells tended to innervate the other organs. The total number of cells obtained by summing those from separate nerve label was twice the total cell count present in the nuclei. Indirectly, this indicates that some cells project to more than one end organ. Efferent neurons were penetrated with glass microelectrodes, and their end organs and patterns of connectivity with other end organs were investigated by stimulating various vestibular nerves. Posterior semicircular canal efferent cells are electrically coupled to each other and could be activated electrically or chemically by stimulating other ipsilateral or contralateral vestibular nerves. It is suggested that electrical coupling might be responsible for the uniform behavior of these cells under certain conditions. Morphological and physiological experiments suggested that the semicircular canals are innervated by their own, exclusive populations of efferent neurons while other end organs may share efferent innervation. Single cells were injected intracellularly with HRP and their morphology was studied and characterized by light microscopy. Intracellular label confirmed the morphological features demonstrated by retrograde transport of HRP and also revealed that some cells had central axon collaterals that terminated within the MLF. These morphological and physiological results provide a basis for understanding the behavior of efferent vestibular neurons in the alert animal.
Policy Analysis in a Second-Best World

This paper first describes the new literature in environmental economics on the so-called "double dividend" and then explores its implications for a broad range of economic issues. The basic finding in this literature is that in a second-best, general equilibrium setting, environmental measures raise costs and prices and thereby reduce the real wage. This rise in the cost of living reduces slightly the quantity of labor supplied in an already highly distorted labor market, giving rise to losses in social welfare that can be large relative to the basic welfare gains from improved environmental policy. These losses may be offset to some extent by using revenues (if any) from the environmental programs to reduce existing taxes on labor. This same line of analysis applies to many programs and institutions in the economy that raise the cost of living: tariffs and quotas on imports, agricultural price-support programs, monopoly pricing, programs of occupational licensure that limit entry, and many others. The paper thus suggests that traditional, partial equilibrium benefit-cost analysis has, in many instances, unwittingly omitted a potentially quite significant class of social costs from the calculations.
Compulsory Schooling Laws and the Cure for Child Labour

This paper provides an explanation for the existence of child labour which relies on the imperfect enforcement of compulsory schooling laws. In the presence of complementarities in the production of human capital that justify legislative intervention, mandatory measures ensure that coordination failures are solved so that all parents send their children to school and the socially optimal equilibrium is reached. However, if enforcement of legislation is too low, multiple equilibria emerge. In this case, compulsory schooling laws may have adverse welfare effects on all households.
Chain of influence from policy to practice in the New Zealand literacy strategy

New Zealand’s literacy strategy seeks to translate into reality the broad policy goals of equipping all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills and values to be successful citizens of the twenty‐first century. The central policy concern is reflected in international surveys showing that although the country’s student achievement is above the international average in literacy, the achievement profiles show very high variability, stratified along ethnic lines. Concerns about those not achieving as well as others form much of the focus of literacy policies in many western education jurisdictions and in New Zealand’s policy‐in‐use as expressed in the literacy strategy. Two differentially effective professional development initiatives are analysed in this paper using a sense‐making theoretical framework. These initiatives formed a major component of the literacy strategy and were aimed at raising the literacy achievement of students in both deep and surface features of reading and writing. The relevance of the framework was highlighted by the analysis of the mediation processes that occurred between the policy formulation with its accompanying implementation messages and the existing norms and belief systems of practitioners as they reconstructed the messages in the two initiatives. The first initiative focused on developing instructional leadership and evidence‐informed practices but the messages were re‐interpreted in ways that missed these central tenets. The second had a greater focus on teacher knowledge and practice accompanied by evidence‐informed decision‐making, with outcomes for teachers and students forming the contractual foundation. The central messages were conveyed through multiple system layers to teachers, with concomitant improvement in achievement, particularly for the lowest 20% of students. Material artefacts and the activities of visiting facilitators both played key roles in spanning system boundaries. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of the relationship between policy‐makers, practitioners and researchers that contributed to progress towards meeting the policy goals.
Supervisory Practices of Three Female Principals in the Era of No Child Left Behind

The purpose of this study was to describe the present status of teacher supervision and evaluation in the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as experienced by three female elementary principals and twelve female elementary teachers in a suburban school district in Western Pennsylvania. The study compared the findings from the literature in the areas of supervision and evaluation, leadership, communication style, power orientation, and ethic of care, with the beliefs and reality of present practice. The literature cited focused on the ways that female principals enact the role of an instructional leader when supervising and evaluating teachers.The study took the form of a case study in order to provide a detailed description of a single school district in Western Pennsylvania. Three elementary schools, each headed by a female principal, were studied in the district. Interview questions were constructed based on the research questions. Each interview was transcribed and content analysis was employed to identify commonalities in the data. Common themes were identified for each research question based on the responses of the principals and teachers.The study revealed profound consistency between the information cited in the literature and the information reported by the three elementary principals and twelve female elementary teachers in the areas of supervision and evaluation, leadership, communication style, power orientation, and ethic of care. The study also revealed the potential conflicts between the beliefs of the principals and the NCLB legislation and the effects of NCLB on the practices of the principals and teachers.
Net mineral requirements for growth of Saanen goat kids in early life are similar among genders

The current mineral requirements for growing goat kids are based on sheep and cattle studies without differentiating between the stages of development or gender. The aims of this study were to determine the net requirements for growth of Ca, P, Mg, Na and K of Saanen goat kids during the initial stages of growth and to analyse the effect of gender on the net requirements for growth of these macrominerals. Eighteen female, 19 intact male and 10 castrated male Saanen goat kids were studied. The kids were selected applying a completely randomized design and slaughtered when their body weight (BW) reached approximately 5, 10 and 15 kg to determine the mineral requirements for growth at these stages. The net mineral requirements for growth were similar among genders. The goat kids had slightly increased net requirements of Ca, P and Mg for growth with increasing BW from 5 to 15 kg. The net requirements for growth of Ca, P, Mg, Na and K ranged from 9.61 to 9.67 g/kg of BW gain, 7.14 to 7.56 g/kg of BW gain, 0.34 to 0.37 g/kg of BW gain, 1.26 to 1.13 g/kg of BW gain, 1.88 to 1.82 g/kg of BW gain as the animals grew from 5 to 15 kg respectively. In conclusion, when formulating diets for Saanen goat kids in early growth stage mineral levels do not need to adjusted based on gender.
Breaking the silence of eating disorders with the hope of an online self-help programme

Abstract Eating disorders are a serious debilitating health problem, causing impairments in physical and psychosocial functioning and significantly affecting sufferers’ quality of life. New technologies are being developed to meet the diverse treatment needs of people with eating disorders. This qualitative study examined participants’ views of an Internet-based self-help programme developed in the Asia-Pacific region for people with eating disorders. The aim of the study was to explore how the self-help programme facilitated individuals’ recovery and identify the factors that contribute to the success in the programme. A purposive sample of 12 people with anorexia nervosa (N = 4), bulimia nervosa (N = 2), binge eating disorder (N = 1) and eating disorder not otherwise specified (N = 5) participated in the study. The data were collected primarily by telephone interview. The programme was found to improve individuals’ awareness of eating disorders, their motivation, eating disorder symptoms and health. Recovery was enhanced by individuals’ determination and motivation to get better, the support available, their perseverance, sense of control, and personal confidence, and facilitating living environment.
Monkey algorithm for robot path planning and vehicle routing problems

Swarm intelligence algorithms usually mimic nature or behavior of living beings such as birds, animal or insects. Swarm intelligence algorithms generally provide the meta-heuristic for optimization problems based upon the group behaviors of living beings. The living beings when in group tend to exhibit extraordinary mechanisms which form the basis for the swarm intelligence algorithms. Swarm intelligence algorithms are used to solve the NP-hard and combinatorial optimization problems. Ant colony optimization based upon ant behavior in their colony, Particle swarm optimization about the swarm of birds in the search of suitable location with better food are some of the examples. Monkey algorithm is one of the swarm intelligence algorithm which considers the behaviors of monkeys in the mountains in the search of good food. This paper discusses about the Monkey algorithm and its application to the optimization problems such as optimal robot path planning and the Open vehicle routing problems.
The Multilevel Cycle of Anthropogenic Zinc

A comprehensive annual cycle for stocks and flows of zinc, based on data from circa 1994 and incorporating information on extraction, processing, fabrication, use, discard, recycling, and landfilling, was carried out at three discrete governmental unit levels—54 countries and 1 country group (which together comprise essentially all global anthropogenic zinc stocks and flows), nine world regions, and the planet as a whole. All of these cycles are available in an electronic supplement to this article, which thus provides a metadata set on zinc flows for the use of industrial ecology researchers. A “best estimate” global zinc cycle was constructed to resolve aggregation discrepancies. Among the most interesting results are the following: (1) The accumulation ratio, that is, addition to in‐use stock as a function of zinc entering use, is positive and large (2/3 of zinc entering use is added to stock) (country, regional, and global levels); (2) secondary input ratios (fractions of input to fabrication that are from recycled zinc) and domestic recycling percentages (fractions of discarded zinc that are recycled) differ among regions by as much as a factor of six (regional level); (3) worldwide, about 40% of the zinc that was discarded in various forms was recovered and reused or recycled (global level); (4) zinc cycles can usefully be characterized by a set of ratios, including, notably, the utilization efficiency (the ratio of manufacturing waste to manufacturing output: 0.090) and the prompt scrap ratio (new scrap as a fraction of manufacturing input: 0.070) (global level). Because capturable discards are a significant fraction of primary zinc inputs, if a larger proportion of discards were recaptured, extraction requirements would decrease significantly (global level). The results provide a framework for complementary studies in resource stocks, industrial resource utilization, energy consumption, waste management, industrial economics, and environmental impacts.
Oil Price Fluctuations and the Nigerian Economy

The single most important issue confronting a growing number of world economies today is the price of oil and its attendant consequences on economic output. Several studies have taken the approach of Hamilton (1983) in investigating the effect of oil price shocks on levels of gross domestic product. The focus of this paper is primarily on the relationship between oil price changes and economic development via industrial production. A vector auto regression model is employed on some macroeconomic variables from 1980 through 2004. The results indicate that oil price changes affect real exchange rates, which, in turn, affect industrial production. However, this indirect effect of oil prices on industrial production is not statistically significant. Therefore, the implication of the results presented in this paper is that an increase in oil prices does not lead to an increase in industrial production in Nigeria.
Behavioral Decision Making in the (Q,R) Purchasing Model: An Experimental Study

This paper presents and analyzes the results of a decision‐making experiment in inventory management under uncertainty. The experiment included 81 participants who played the role of a small car importer facing random demand as in the (Q,R) model. The results show strong evidence of learning and convergence, and the average reorder point (R) closely approaches the optimal level for maximizing profits. However, the participants' decisions are still biased by realizations of extreme values of demand and loss of potential sales. We argue that participants are affected by recency, loss aversion, and, possibly, their own risk aversion. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Usando el "Minsky’s Cushions of Safety” para Analizar la Crisis del Mercado Hipotecario en Estados Unidos

As financial instability has once again come to the forefront of the world economy, the financial press has often pointed to Minsky’s financial fragility hypothesis to clarify the causes of the current crisis. However, while many elements of Minsky’s vision are indeed of relevance to the United States’ financial crisis, a principle component of his hypothesis, the declining margin, or cushion of safety in financial transactions, has is in fact manifested itself in a different fashion than that proposed by Minsky. Under the traditional banking system, Minsky’s analysis states that in conditions of expansion, optimistic expectations of the ability to meet future obligations cause banks to lower margins of security. However, operating under the “originate and distribute” model of recent years, processes of credit evaluation were transferred from banks to ratings agencies. These too lowered their cushions of safety, not because of positive credit performances over time, but rather due to the mispricing of risk ingrained in the originate and distribute model. As such, while the current crisis has all the attributes of a Ponzi financing scheme and threatens to turn into a fullscale debt deflation, it is not the result of a traditional endogenous Minsky process in which narrowing margins of safety lead to fragility.
[The detection of alcoholism in a general population by using the Cage test].

OBJECTIVE To identify people with alcohol-related problems and assess the variable socio-demographic indicators of the population under study. DESIGN Crossover and observational study. SETTING The "Occidente" Basic Health Area in Córdoba. PARTICIPANTS A representative sample of those people over 15 registered in the Health Area mentioned above. (Systematic random sampling: n = 384). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS 72% of those interviewed stated that they had consumed some kind of alcoholic drink during the previous year. 35% did so at least once a week. 6.2% +/- 2.35 showed positive on the CAGE Test, most of these being: male (p < 0.001), living in a deprived area (p < 0.01), people in work (p < 0.001) and smokers (p < 0.001). Those testing CAGE (+) included a higher number of people with: hepatitis, cirrhosis, diarrhea and gastritis, although their use of health services was no different from that of the population as a whole. Logistic regression analysis enabled us to establish variable indicators of the CAGE Test (+). CONCLUSIONS Alcohol-related problems were identified basically in a typical population group. It is important to set up intervention mechanisms to tackle the problem.
Endogenously chosen travel costs and the travel cost model: an application to mountain biking at Moab, Utah

The travel cost model is frequently used to estimate net willingness to pay for recreation at remote sites by using the visitor's travel costs as a proxy for the price of recreation. However, some concern has been raised over the validity of using the visitor's stated travel costs as a proxy for price. This paper addresses some of these concerns, by examining the possible over-estimation of consumer surplus due to endogenously chosen travel costs. This paper extends past theoretical work for the linear model by developing a correction for endogenously chosen travel costs in more commonly used nonlinear models such as the Poisson or count data model. Also provided is the first empirical test of the presence of endogeneity and an estimate of the magnitude of the error from ignoring endogeneity in travel costs. After applying this test and the correction to data that was gathered for mountain biking at Moab, Utah the estimate of consumer surplus falls from US $153 to US $135, which is a 12% reduction.
REAL EFFECTS OF MONETARY POLICY IN LARGE EMERGING ECONOMIES

This paper provides evidence on monetary policy transmission for five key emerging market economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Monetary policy (interest rate) shocks are identified using modern Bayesian methods along with the more recent sign restrictions approach. We find that contractionary monetary policy has a strong and negative effect on output. We also show that such contractionary monetary policy shocks do tend to stabilize inflation in these countries in the short term, while producing a strongly persistent negative effect on real equity prices. Overall, the impulse responses are robust to the alternative identification procedures.
Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction as a predictor of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon bioaccumulation and toxicity by earthworms in manufactured‐gas plant site soils

The toxicity and uptake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by earthworms were measured in soil samples collected from manufactured‐gas plant sites having a wide range in PAH concentrations (170–42,000 mg/kg) and soil characteristics. Samples varied from vegetated soils to pure lampblack soot and had total organic carbon contents ranging from 3 to 87%. The biota‐soil accumulation factors (BSAFs) observed for individual PAHs in field‐collected earthworms (Aporrectodea caliginosa) were up to 50‐fold lower than the BSAFs predicted using equilibrium‐partitioning theory. Acute toxicity to the earthworm Eisenia fetida was unrelated to total PAH concentration: Mortality was not observed in some soils having high concentrations of total PAHs (>42,000 mg/kg), whereas 100% mortality was observed in other soils having much lower concentrations of total PAHs (1,520 mg/kg). Instead, toxicity appeared to be related to the rapidly released fraction of PAHs determined by mild supercritical CO2 extraction (SFE). The results demonstrate that soils having approximately 16,000 mg rapidly released total PAH/kg organic carbon can be acutely toxic to earthworms and that the concentration of PAHs in soil that is rapidly released by SFE can estimate toxicity to soil invertebrates.
Wages and Participation

During the last 25 years, annual hours worked by prime aged men fell by the equivalent of six 40-hour workweeks. The reduction was more pronounced among those younger than among mid-age workers, among black men than among white men, and among those with less schooling. Thus hours worked not only fell but showed increased dispersion, increases that paralleled the growth in wage dispersion that has become so familiar to students of trends in wages. The argument advanced here is that the correspondence is not coincidental; the changes in hours worked are simply the labor supply responses that follow the changes in the structure of wages.
Toward a Quantitative General Equilibrium Asset Pricing Model with Intangible Capital

We model investment options as intangible capital in a production economy in which younger vintages of assets in place have lower exposure to aggregate productivity risk. In equilibrium, physical capital requires a substantially higher expected return than intangible capital. Quantitatively, our model rationalizes a significant share of the observed difference in the average return of book-to-market-sorted portfolios (value premium). Our economy also produces (1) a high premium of the aggregate stock market over the risk-free interest rate, (2) a low and smooth risk-free interest rate, and (3) key features of the consumption and investment dynamics in the U.S. data. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. , Oxford University Press.