Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inferring Rates of Change in Flower Symmetry in Asterid Angiosperms

Discrete, version 1.01b (Pagel, 1997), is a DOS-based program that can be used to estimate individual ancestral values. Discrete was written to test for correlated evolution between twodiscrete characters, and producing ancestor reconstructions in such away requires several steps. First, Discrete deals with two characters at a time; therefore, for thepurposes of estimating ancestors for a single character, the states must be entered twice. For example, for a tip (tipA) in state 1 on a branch 2units long andwhose immediate ancestor is nodeA, the entry would be “tipA, nodeA, 2, 1,1. ” Because two characters are input, Discrete estimates two (or four) rates: a 1 and b 1 refer to q01 and q10 for the rst character, and a 2 and b 2 refer to q01 and q10 for the second character. With this in mind:
Aging brain microenvironment decreases hippocampal neurogenesis through Wnt‐mediated survivin signaling

Accumulating evidence suggests that adult hippocampal neurogenesis relies on the controlled and continued proliferation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs). With age, neurogenesis decreases through mechanisms that remain unclear but are believed to involve changes in the NPC microenvironment. Here, we provide evidence that NPC proliferation in the adult brain is in part regulated by astrocytes via Wnt signaling and that this cellular cross‐talk is modified in the aging brain, leading to decreased proliferation of NPCs. Furthermore, we show that astrocytes regulate the NPC cell cycle by acting on the expression levels of survivin, a known mitotic regulator. Among cell cycle genes found down‐regulated in aged NPCs, survivin was the only one that restored NPC proliferation in the aged brain. Our results provide a mechanism for the gradual loss of neurogenesis in the brain associated with aging and suggest that targeted modulation of survivin expression directly or through Wnt signaling could be used to stimulate adult neurogenesis.
Public investment in agricultural research and development in Australia remains a sensible policy option

There is evidence that productivity in Australia's broadacre agriculture (extensive cropping and livestock industries) has been slowing in the past decade. A series of poor seasons has been partly responsible, but an econometric analysis of structural changes in the trend of total factor productivity (TFP) indicates that stagnant public investment in agricultural R&D has also made a significant contribution to this slowdown in TFP. Related econometric analysis of the returns to public investment in agricultural R&D in the broadacre sector confirms that the rate of return to investment remains high. Despite these findings, a recent enquiry by Australia's Productivity Commission into the financing of rural research suggests that the public sector may be 'crowding out' private sector investment in agricultural R&D and recommends a reduction in public support. In this paper I briefly review the econometric analyses to date and the trends in TFP and public R&D investment. While I have not been able to conclusively test the 'crowding out' hypothesis, there seems to be little empirical evidence to prefer this hypothesis to a more traditional 'market failure' hypothesis. Clearly, stakeholders in agricultural R&D in Australia have to do a better job in communicating the case for public investment in agricultural R&D. Other developed countries are experiencing the same phenomenon and it may become an issue in the future for developing countries in Asia.
The value of MR imaging when the site of uterine cancer origin is uncertain.

PURPOSE To assess the value of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in determining the site of origin of newly diagnosed uterine cancer (corpus vs cervix) when clinical and/or histologic evaluation is indeterminate. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Institutional Review Board approved and waived informed consent for this HIPAA-compliant study of 59 women (median age, 59 years; range, 28-84 years) who underwent pelvic MR imaging to determine the anatomic origin of uterine cancer. Two radiologists independently retrospectively assessed all MR imaging studies. In 48 patients who underwent hysterectomy, surgical pathologic findings were the reference standard, and overall test yields and diagnostic likelihood ratios were measured. Accuracy in detecting invasion of adjacent structures was also calculated. For the remaining patients, imaging and biopsy findings are presented descriptively. RESULTS At hysterectomy, 32 patients had uterine corpus cancer and 16 had cervical cancer. Overall test yields for reader 1 and reader 2 were 0.85 and 0.88, respectively. When a reader attributed a tumor's origin to either the uterine corpus or cervix, the odds of the tumor originating from that site were 4.80-6.35 times greater than they would have been if no other information were available. Accuracy levels in detecting invasion of the myometrium, cervical stroma, parametria and/or adnexae, and vagina, respectively, were 72%, 69%, 74%, and 85% for reader 1 and 78%, 77%, 76%, and 85% for reader 2. CONCLUSION MR imaging is useful for determining the anatomic origin of uterine cancer and provides helpful information regarding invasion of adjacent structures.
An extension of TAM model with IDT and security/privacy risk in the adoption of internet banking services in Greece

Purpose – This paper presents an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) with concepts from the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) and customers’ perceived risk, aiming to examine the factors affecting Greek customers’ intentions to adopt internet banking services. Furthermore, several individual differences are examined, with respect to their impact on the formation of customers’ attitude about the pros and cons of the new technology.Design/methodology/approach – Based on an empirical study including off‐line banking customers that are familiar with the internet, the authors validate a causal model linking the constructs of the proposed service's compatibility, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived security and privacy risk, customers’ demographics and IT competences, with customers’ intentions to adopt internet banking services in the future. Partial least squares procedure was used to analyze 212 cases collected from residential customers via personal interviews using a properly desi.
Response to the FASB Preliminary Views: Reporting Financial Instruments and Certain Related Assets and Liabilities at Fair Value

INTRODUCTION The Financial Accounting Standards Committee of the American Accounting Association (hereafter the Committee) is charged with responding to requests for input from standard setters on financial-reporting issues. The Committee is pleased to respond to the invitation to comment on the FASB Preliminary Views document “Reporting Financial Instruments and Certain Related Assets and Liabilities at Fair Value” (hereafter the Document). The opinions in this letter reflect the views of the individuals on the committee and not those of the American Accounting Association. Our comments are organized to address the specific issues raised in the Document and follow the same numbering scheme.
Diffusion, Development and Democratization: Enfranchisement in Western Europe

Diffusion, développement et démocratisation: Le processus d'admission au droit de vote en l'Europe de l'ouest L'extension du droit de vote est un point central de la démocratisation. Mais il n'existe aucune explication « systématique » du processus d' admission au droit de vote. Cette etude expose l'amplitude de la reforme du droit de suffrage. Le tableau lustorique de l'admission du droit de vote se percoit comme un besoin pour l'elite dejustifier sa legitimite gouvernementale, cette legitimite provenant du peuple en echange du droit de vote. Le besoin de légitimité de l'elite et le support populaire à cette légitimité sont touchés, en retour, par l'expansion historique du rôle de l'Etat et par l'émergence des espoirs de démocratisation. La validite de l'explication s'établit mathématiquement à travers l'étude des implications analytiques et statistiquement dans la comparaison entre le modèle formel et les expériences de neuf pays de l'Europe de l'ouest. Le résultat principal de ces recherches montre que même si le taux de diffusion (développement) des attentes démocratiques est le même dans ces neufpays de l'échantillon, le processus d'extension du droit de vote dépend des variations dans les conditions initiates de démocratisation.
Long-Term Corn Price Forecasts and the Farm Bill Program Choice

Many crop producers are in the process of making the farm program participation decision for the five years beginning with the 2014 crop. Price expectations for this five-year period play a central role in the decision. As a case in point, the farmdoc daily articles on October 14, 2014 and December 18, 2014 illustrate the sensitivity of expected program payments to alternative price projections for 2014/15. Longterm corn price projections are available from several sources, including the USDA’s 10-year baseline forecasts. Given the importance of the program participation decision, the accuracy of these long-term forecasts is of obvious relevance. The purpose of this article is to examine the historical accuracy of two sources of long-term forecasts: i) the USDA’s 10-year baseline forecasts; and ii) the corn futures market.
Creating Nordic Capitalism: The Business History of a Competitive Periphery

1. Smith, Anthony D. , The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986, 22 29; Smith, Anthony D. , Opening Statements: Nations and their Pasts, Nations and Nationalism, vol. 2, 1996: 358 365; Gellner, Ernest, Ernest Gellner’s reply: Do Nations Have Navels? , Nations and Nationalism, vol. 2, 1996: 366 370. 2. Korsgaard, Ove, The Danish way to establish the Nation in the Hearts of the People, in National Identity and the Varieties of Capitalism: The Danish Experience, Eds John L. Campbell, Johan A. Hall & Ove K. Pedersen. Montreal, Kingston, London & Ithaca: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2006.
The Role of Interpretative Tour Guiding in Sustainable Destination Management

Sustainable tourism is lauded for simultaneously benefitting local residents, tourists, and the environment. Environmental interpretation is considered a vehicle for sustainable tourism as it minimizes the adverse environmental and social impacts of tourism by creating pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of interpretative tour guiding by comparing guided and nonguided tourists’ attitudes and behaviors. Data were collected from 230 visitors at the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal, using self-administered questionnaires. Results showed that the effectiveness of interpretation varies in relation to a number of ecological and sociocultural attitudes and behaviors. The positive change in attitude and behavior indicated that interpretation can be an effective and desirable tool in sustainable tourism. The conditions when interpretation cannot produce desirable outcomes and the theoretical and managerial implications of study findings are also discussed.
The Evolution of Moral Science: Economic Rationality in the Complex Social System

Economics in the early 20th Century established distributive justice as the marginal productivity theory of income distribution. As the system has evolved, however, the distributive principle has been lost as a result of the structural change of the production process. Faced with “casino capitalism” or the “winner-take-all” society, instead of the classic distributive justice, a lottery system dominates income distribution. Orthodox economics prefers a set of particular rationalities, e.g., the so-called game theoretic views, instead of the general rationality. These particular rationalities are examined in some detail and their failures are argued. Rationality, either in general or in a particular form, is not to be regarded as a panacea in the complex socio-economic system.This paper proposes the use of the utilitarianism of heterogeneous interacting agents. This new utilitarianism may easily be applied to the transition rates of the master equations, i.e., the probabilistic Markov process. Furthermore, a new method to reconstruct economic science is also suggested: constructing methods derived directly from new ideas in statistical physics and combinatorial stochastic process.In sum, individualistic rationality must be replaced with the utilitarianism of heterogeneous interacting agents. In this new framework, solidarity formation among the heterogeneous interacting agents should be the most important matter. Finally, a deeper consideration on the utilitarianism of heterogeneous agents is explored.
The Italian parliamentary enquiry into poverty

On the 12th of October, 1951, the Italian Parliament approved a motion for an enquiry into poverty. The task was assigned to a Parliamentary Commission where the several groups were represented proportionately to their numbers, under the chairmanship of Eio Vigorelli, now Minister of Labour in the Italian Government. The Commission delivered their general report in June, 1953, accompanied by a voluminous collection of documentary evidence: 14 volumes of statistical returns, technical enquiries, monographs on special subjects etc. In this brief article, the author sums up some of the more important conclusions reached both on the statistical field (attempts at a quantitative appraisement of economic and social depression in Italy), and on the principals that should be followed to remedy the serious deficiencies of the present legislation.
Cross-cultural Comparison for Cultural Aspects of Mobile Internet: Focusing on Korea and Hong Kong

As the use of the mobile Internet has spread globally, its cross-cultural relevance has become an interesting issue. Mobile Internet usage patterns vary across different cultures. However, despite the importance of the culture, little research has been performed on cross-cultural issues in the mobile Internet. A reason for this lack of research is the difficulty measuring cultural aspects of information technology usage reliably and accurately. This study focuses primarily on developing metrics to measure the cultural aspects of mobile Internet use where culture was found to have a profound impact on the use of information technology. This paper also provides empirical results about the reliability and validity of the proposed metrics, using survey data collected in Korea and Hong-Kong.
WTO Accession, Rural Labour Migration and Urban Unemployment in China

This paper evaluates the rural-urban migration and urban unemployment effects of China's WTO accession based on the China-US bilateral agreement on market accession. The evaluation is conducted by a 53-sector recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China benchmarked to a most recent version of the Chinese Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). The simulation results show that there is a great need for co-ordination between China's rural-urban migration policy, labour market reform and the implementation of trade liberalisation measures after China's WTO entry. The net benefit from WTO membership will be maximised if China adopts a policy gradually to relax its rural-urban migration control in conjunction with its labour market reform. Doing so not only prevents a dramatic worsening of the urban unemployment problem, but also permits enough labour market flexibility to create more employment opportunities for rural unskilled labour shifted out of the farming sector.
Urban Resurgence and the Consumer City

Cities make it easier for humans to interact, and one of the main advantages of dense, urban areas is that they facilitate social interactions. This paper provides evidence for the US suggesting that the resurgence of big cities in the 1990s is due, in part, to the increased demand for these interactions and due to the reduction in big city crime, which had made it difficult for urban residents to enjoy these social amenities. However, while density is correlated with consumer amenities, we show that it is not correlated with social capital and that there is no evidence that sprawl has hurt civic engagement.
Do Remittances Attract Foreign Direct Investment? An Empirical Investigation

Abstract Remittances are a major source of household income in many Asian, African, and Latin American countries. Households spend a significant portion of remittances on health and education. Given that human capital is one of the primary determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow, this study develops a model in which remittances are one of several determinants of the observed variation in FDI. The model is estimated using data from a group of 35 middle-income countries from Latin America, Asia–Pacific, and Africa. The estimated results ascribe no significance to remittances in explaining cross-country variation in FDI. However, geographically-disaggregated estimated results do establish a positive effect for African countries, no significant effect for Latin American countries, and a negative effect for the Asia–Pacific region.
Valuation of forward start options under affine jump-diffusion models

Under the general affine jump-diffusion framework of Duffie et al. [Econometrica, 2000, 68, 1343–1376], this paper proposes an alternative pricing methodology for European-style forward start options that does not require any parallel optimization routine to ensure square integrability. Therefore, the proposed methodology is shown to possess a better accuracy–efficiency trade-off than the usual and more general approach initiated by Hong [Forward Smile and Derivative Pricing. Working paper, UBS, 2004] that is based on the knowledge of the forward characteristic function. Explicit pricing solutions are also offered under the nested jump-diffusion setting proposed by Bakshi et al. [J. Finance, 1997, 52, 2003–2049], which accommodates stochastic volatility and stochastic interest rates, and different integration schemes are numerically tested.
Low-energy localized clustering: an adaptive cluster radius configuration scheme for topology control in wireless sensor networks

This paper addresses an adaptive and dynamic localized scheme unique to hierarchical clustering protocols in wireless sensor networks, while reducing the consumption of residual energy of cluster heads and as a result delivering a prolonged sensor network lifetime. Our proposed scheme, low-energy localized clustering (LLC) aims to minimize energy consumption of cluster heads while the entire sensor network is still being covered. For achieving this goal, LLC dynamically regulates the radius of each cluster. Through a simulation based performance of this algorithm, LLC, we show that our novel cluster radius configuration algorithm achieves the desirable properties.
Is your sustainability strategy sustainable? Creating a culture of sustainability

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to present a multidisciplinary model that can be used as both a road map for practicing managers to create a sustainability focused culture within their own organizations, and as a guide for future research into the relationship between organizational culture and sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – A narrative synthesis approach is used to integrate extant empirical and practitioner literature spanning various disciplines to build a comprehensive model, including key propositions, to assist both practitioners and researchers alike. Case examples illustrating each component of the model in practice and implications for future research based on the key tenets of the model are also provided. Findings – Building an organizational infrastructure that fosters a culture of sustainability results in positive employee- and organizational-level sustainability performance. Research limitations/implications – The model presented is an important advancement in the sus.
Psychological barriers to international adjustment: North American vs. Western European business expatriates in China

Presents the finding of a mail survey of expatriate managers working in China, mainly from the USA, France, Germany, Australia and the UK. Examines two sets of psychological barriers to adjustment and its occurrence among North American and Western Europeans. States that European managers were less likely to adjust as well as their North American counterparts would and cites Germany in particular problem country. Discusses the implications of these findings for both the expatriates and the companies which assign these individuals.
Collaborative Commissioning of Secondary Care Services by Primary Care Trusts

This article examines collaborations between primary care trusts in the commissioning of secondary care services in England. It applies principal-agent theory qualitatively to two case studies. The theory suggests that collaboration should take place if organizations share relevant information and agree joint objectives. The study findings show that sharing information is not a major problem for these case studies, but that agreeing joint objectives is.
Factors responsible for a karyotypic polymorphism in the common shrew, Sorex araneus

A Robertsonian karyotypic polymorphism in the common shrew in the Oxford area, first described in the 1950s, was re-examined. The polymorphism involves chromosome arm combinations no and pr (characteristic of the Oxford karyotypic race), ko (characteristic of the Hermitage karyotypic race) and jl (found in both races). The poly- morphism for jl was sporadic along a north-south transect through the Oxford area, with the frequency of the twin-acrocentric morph never exceeding 10%. The frequency of the Oxford race-specific metacentrics decreased and the frequency of the Hermitage race-specific metacentric ko increased from north to south along the transect. At a latitudinal grid reference of about 180 km, there was a high frequency of individuals with chromosome arms k, n, o and q in the ancestral acrocentric state. This was coincident with the area of occurrence of ko-kq and ko-no OxfordHermitage hybrids. Such hybrids are double Robertsonian heterozygotes with monobrachial homology and are likely to suffer reduced fertility in consequence. It is proposed that this is a source of selection against the monobrachial hybrids and hence results in an increase in frequency of the acrocentric morphs. This scheme goes some way to explain the dines of polymorphism for arm combinations kq, and ko, but it is suggested that other selective factors are involved. It cannot explain the cline of polymorphism for pr, which is in general terms similar to that for kq and no, but is more shallow and centred further north.