Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bolivia and the Dutch Disease: What are the Risks and How to Avoid Them?

Since the beginning of the 19th century, the Bolivian economy has always been highly dependant on its natural resource production, and therefore has always been quite vulnerable to external shocks, The paper analyse if the boom in the gas sector happened in the last years would be able to the "Dutch Disease" and describe the possible politics that would be applied of it is evidenced. Realizing an analysis of the main macroeconomics indexs and exploring the evolution of the differents economics sectors involved, evidence is found that Bolivia was not facing a Full blown Dutch Disease but is probably that in the future will face the symptoms of the Dutch Disease.
How to Build Major Transport Infrastructure Projects within Budget, in Time and with the Expected Output; a Literature Review

This paper reviews the literature on factors which help to realise major transport infrastructure projects within the forecasted budget, schedule and with the expected output. The most mentioned factors overall are as follows: (1) improving the cost and benefit estimates of projects, (2) containing the risks involved in these projects, (3) increasing accountability and (4) maintaining clear scope and objectives. Statistical research, in particular, focuses on these particular factors, but different research methodologies produce different results. Research based on case studies and interviews does not discuss accountability at all, while literature reviews and discussions show a remarkable focus on this specific factor. Furthermore, there is variety in the factors mentioned in papers investigating cost overruns, schedule overruns or output shortfalls. Overall, the research in this field focuses on failure within major transport infrastructure projects. These results show that a framework for building major transport infrastructure projects within budget, in time and with the expected output is emerging, but that more research is needed using multivariate analyses. Also, more research focusing on projects which have actually achieved their forecasts is needed.
Auditor independence: third party hiring and paying auditors

Purpose – Although the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) has introduced rules to avoid auditor independence impairment, there are still issues that are not sufficiently solved. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems of auditor independence that arise by auditors being hired and paid by the auditee, and by SOX requiring rotation of only the lead audit partner.Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of a discussion paper, exploring alternatives to overcome the mentioned issues of independence.Findings – The paper presents an alternative where auditors are hired and paid by an external third party. Besides this change, it also proposes a quality control system including the extension of the CPE program. A private entity in representation of the investors (e.g. Stock exchange) and an oversight board (e.g. PCAOB) as alternatives to hire, pay and control audit quality are discussed.Practical implications – This paper has implications for regulators, since it presents a new alternative for hi.
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Sequence Type (ST) 5 Isolates from Health Care and Agricultural Sources Adhere Equivalently to Human Keratinocytes

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus is part of the nasal microbiome of many humans and has become a significant public health burden due to infections with antibiotic-resistant strains, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains. Several lineages of S. aureus, including MRSA, are found in livestock species and can be acquired by humans through contact with animals. These livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA) isolates raise public health concerns because of the potential for livestock to act as reservoirs for MRSA outside the hospital setting. In the United States, swine harbor a mixed population of LA-MRSA isolates, with the sequence type 398 (ST398), ST9, and ST5 lineages being detected. LA-MRSA ST5 isolates are particularly concerning to the public health community because, unlike the isolates in the ST398 and ST9 lineages, isolates in the ST5 lineage are a significant cause of human disease in both the hospital and community settings globally. The ability of swine-associated LA-MRSA ST5 isolates to adhere to human keratinocytes in vitro was investigated, and the adherence genes harbored by these isolates were evaluated and compared to those in clinical MRSA ST5 isolates from humans with no swine contact. The two subsets of isolates adhered equivalently to human keratinocytes in vitro and contained an indistinguishable complement of adherence genes that possessed a high degree of sequence identity. Collectively, our data indicate that, unlike LA-MRSA ST398 isolates, LA-MRSA ST5 isolates do not exhibit a reduced genotypic or phenotypic capacity to adhere to human keratinocytes. IMPORTANCE Our data indicate that swine-associated livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) ST5 isolates are as capable of adhering to human skin and have the same genetic potential to adhere as clinical MRSA ST5 isolates from humans. This suggests that humans in contact with livestock have the potential to become colonized with LA-MRSA ST5 isolates; however, the genes that contribute to the persistence of S. aureus on human skin were absent in LA-MRSA ST5 isolates. The data presented here are important evidence in evaluating the potential risks that LA-MRSA ST5 isolates pose to humans who come into contact with livestock.
Solar power forecast with weather classification using self-organized map

This paper presents a practically efficient method for 1h to 3h ahead solar power forecast (SPF) with weather classification using a Self-Organized Map (SOM). The method requires minimal input data which are normally monitored at all sites so that additional expensive weather observatory devices are not necessary. The proposed SOM can classify weather condition into sunny, cloudy and rainy day, using only the current and past irradiance profile data as input. Then, the ANN-based SPF model for each weather condition is constructed, trained and validated, accordingly. Performance of the proposed method has been evaluated using actual field data from the 500-kW solar farm in Mae Hong Son district, Thailand. Accuracy performance obtained indicates that additional spinning reserve of less than 10 %, with respect to the installed solar power capacity, would be required when the proposed SPF method is applied to the energy management system (EMS) for the city.
Adjuvant Chemotherapy with Oral Tegaful and Uracil for Maxillary Sinus Carcinoma

We have applied tegaful and uracil (UFT) treatment as adjuvant chemotherapy to patients after the completion of primary therapy. UFT was given per os at a dose of 300 or 400 mg/day for more than 1 year. A retrospective study was conducted on 15 patients, assessed as the UFT-treated group, and 24 patients assessed as the UFT-nontreated group. The 5-year survival rate in patients treated or not treated with UFT was 76.6 and 22.6%, respectively. Among those who underwent surgery in combination with other therapy, the 5-year survival rate was 74.1% with UFT and 27.3% without UFT. In patients receiving chemotherapy plus radiotherapy alone, the 5-year survival rate was 80.0% with UFT and 19.2% without UFT. In 23 patients with proven effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy comprising 18 PR cases and 5 CR cases, a comparison was made between 10 patients treated with UFT and 13 patients not treated with UFT. As a result, the 5-year survival was 76.2 and 17.9%, respectively. In the patients with T3 disease, who occupied the majority, the 5-year survival rate was 71.4 and 23.8%, respectively. Adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT tends to show a substantial significant difference particularly in patients who were successfully treated with radiotherapy plus chemotherapy as the primary treatment. UFT was clearly shown to have a statistically significant effect, despite a small population. The findings of the present investigation point to the value of conducting further study to ascertain the effect of UFT by a randomized trial in a larger population.
Who Benefits from New Medical Technologies? Estimates of Consumer and Producer Surpluses for HIV/AIDS Drugs

The social value of an innovation is comprised of the value to consumers and the value to innovators. We estimate that for the HIV/AIDS therapies that entered the market from the late 1980's onwards, innovators appropriated only 5% of the social surplus arising from these new technologies. Despite the high annual costs of these drugs to patients, the low share of social surplus going to innovators raises concerns about advocating cost-effectiveness criteria that would further reduce this share, and hence further reduce incentives for innovation.
Duration of Fiscal Budgetary Consolidations in the European Union

This paper examines the duration of fiscal consolidations among the fifteen EU Members States using data from the European Commission for the period 1960-2000. Using the duration model approach, we estimate the hazard and survivor functions of our series. Then we discuss what is the duration model that best fits our data, and which are the explanatory variables that best exp lain the probability of ending a fiscal consolidation period. We also deal with those aspects related to sample heterogeneity and the sensitivity of the results to different possible definitions of fiscal adjustment. We find evidence that the probability of ending a period of fiscal consolidation depends on the debt level, the magnitude of the adjustment, the extent of expenditure cuts, and the degree of cabinet fragmentation. We also find that under a stricter definition of fiscal consolidation, political variables, such as coalition size and election year, gain importance with respect to economic variables as predictors of the probability of ending a fiscal consolidation period.
The determinants of employment: a sectoral analysis for Turkey

This paper analyzes the effects of wages, openness, and demand on employment in the private manufacturing industry in Turkey based on panel data for the period of 1973–2001. The wage elasticity of employment increases after trade liberalization. Nevertheless, output elasticity of labor demand is higher than wage elasticity in the total manufacturing sector for the whole estimation period, and in the high- and medium-skilled sectors in the post-1980 period. Trade effects, after controlling for output, seem to have a low economic significance. The positive effects of exports on the labor intensity of production are low or are offset by labor saving effects of foreign trade, particularly in the high- and medium-skilled sectors. On the other hand, there is some evidence of a negative import effect in the low-skilled sectors, whereas in the high- and medium-skilled group a complementary relation between domestic labor and imported inputs dominates the effects.
Introduction to Thermoelectric Oxides

Amal al-Wahish Advance Solid state 672 Instructor: Elbio Dagotto Spring 2009 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee wahish@utk.edu (Dated: May 12, 2009) Abstract Since the Geothermal and solar heat can be directly converted into electricity by using thermoelectric generators, thermoelectric oxides are potential materials to improve the efficiency of these devices. This work give an introduction to the Thermoelectric Oxides materials, starting with the basic of thermoelectric laws, including Seebeck effect, Peltier effect, and Thomsone effect and Finally give examples of thermoelectric oxides and their properties.
The Green Revolution, development of labor markets, and poverty reduction in the rural Philippines, 1985–2004

Using a long-term household panel data set collected in three rural villages in the Philippines in 1985 and 2004, this article explores how the Green Revolution and development of the labor markets have affected household income and poverty situation. The initial rise in income associated with the Green Revolution and a stronger credit access has enabled the households to allocate funds for investing in children's schooling. With the increased integration of the rural with the urban labor market, these children are able to explore labor opportunities in the nonfarm sector that resulted in a decline in poverty by about one-half. The landless households, who are less educated, benefited, too, from the expansion of the nonfarm labor market, because of the rise in rural wages associated with the rise in demand for the unskilled labor, which is by far their most important asset. Copyright 2006 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
Genetics of motility in Escherichia coli: complementation of paralysed mutants.

LTHOUGH flagella are regarded as the bacterial motor organs and have been A extensively studied, little is still known about the mechanism of their action (for a review see WEIBULL 1960). One approach to an understanding of the movement of flagella has been the study of mutants defective in motility. Nonmotile flagellated strains of Salmonella have been known for many years (COLQUHOUN and KIRKPATRICK 1932; KAUFMANN 1939; EDWARDS, MORAN and BRUNER 1946; HIRSCH 1947; FRIEWER and LEIFSON 1952). Such variants have generally been referred to as “paralyzed” and those examined in detail were found to have flagella in typical number and shape and to agglutinate with antiserum prepared against wild-type flagella. Most Salmonella can alternate between making one or the other of two kinds of flagella (phase variation), each a polymer of an antigenically different flagellin (MCDONOUGH 1965). The two flagellins are determined by different genes, designated HI and H2, yet paralyzed strains are nonmotile no matter which flagellin is being made. This observation suggests that the mutation affects some factor responsible for the functioning of the flagellum other than flagellin. Genetic studies on Salmonella have confirmed this conclusion (MITANI and IINO 1965), and the results reported in this paper show that the same is true of Escherichia coli. In addition, we have investigated the number of paralyzed complementation groups and their relationship on the bacterial chromosome. Complementation tests have already led to the classification of paralyzed mutants of Salmonella typhimurium into three groups ( ENOMOTO 1962,1966). General description of the complementation test: In a transduction, the bacteriophage carry small fragments of the donor chromosome to the recipient bacteria. In complete transduction, donor genes transferred by the phage replace their alleles on the recipient genome. STOCKER, ZINDER and LEDERBERG (1953), studying the transduction of flagellar characters by the Salmonella phage P22, observed not only swarms, arising from the complete transduction of motility to nonmotile strains, but also trails: linear groups of microcolonies extending out from the site of inoculation (see, for example, Figure 1 ) . A trail marks the path of a bacterium made motile by abortive transduction (STOCKER 1956; LEDERBERG 1956). In such an abortive transduction, the wild-type motility gene introduced by the phage neither recombines with the recipient genome, nor multiplies. It is, ’ Suppot trd by giants from the (1 5 Public Health Service and the YTational Reseach Council, Canada
Increasing Share of Agriculture in Employment in the Time of Crisis: Puzzle or Not?

In the first quarter of 2008, along with the beginning of the crisis, the employment share of agriculture in Turkey deviated from its long-run trend and started to rise. Both the timing and the direction of the change caused a public debate seeking an explanation of this phenomenon. Getting attention in the debate is the fact that labor productivity in agriculture has been declining since that quarter. How much of the increase in agricultural employment can be explained by the secular changes in its productivity? To answer this question, we use a multi-sector general equilibrium model in which employment share in agriculture is determined solely by the subsistence constraint and labor productivity in agriculture, where sectoral productivity growth rates are treated as exogenous. The model accounts for more than 90 percent of the decline in the agricultural employment share between 2000:Q2 and 2010:Q3. The model is also able to generate the increase in agricultural employment since 2008:Q1, although it slightly overpredicts the agricultural employment share. The model also predicts the sectoral allocations of labor in non-agricultural activities during the sample period. A detailed analysis of the driving forces of the growth in agricultural productivity is needed, since it lies at the heart of the secular changes in employment shares in Turkey.
The rise and fall of policy planning and research units: organizational perspective

Abstract. Some observers have suggested the success of policy planning and research units depends upon the receptivity of the political system to rationality. Others have put forward personality traits such as ‘flair’ and ‘diplomatic style’ as the major determinants of policy unit effectiveness. Neither of these would seem to provide an adequate explanation for the Canadian experience. This paper concentrates on the profile which a policy unit might assume in any given organization. A two-dimensional model is presented based on the degree of initiative and the degree of visibility of policy units. Against the background of the model, the experience of these units in the Canadian federal bureaucracy suggests that while most start as highly visible and proactive, they later tend toward being invisible and reactive. With a view to the future, a distinction is made between the policy development function and the policy unit. If policy development and analysis is to survive, greater use must be made of a task force approach. If permanent policy units are to survive and be effective, they should adopt a modest role and profile. Sommaire. Daprks certains observateurs, le succhs des services de recherche et de planification depend de la rkceptivitk du systkme politique A la rationalitk. D'autres considkr nt que des traits de caractkre tels que le a flair n ou le a style diplomatique n sont les klements dkterminants de l'efficacitb de ces services. Aucune de ces dew hypothhses ne semble expliquer totalement l'experience canadienne. L'auteur de cet expose centre ses observations sur le profil n que ces services de recherche et de planification pourraient adopter dans une organisation donnee. I1 offre un modkle bi-dimensionnel bask sur le degrd d'initiative et le degre de singularit6 de ces services. En utilisant ce modhle, l'analyse du fonctionnement de ces services dans la bureaucratie fkdkrale canadienne semble ind quer que la plupart d'entre eux sont remarquables et font preuve de beaucoup d'initiative au dkpart mais qu'ils tendent A devenir invisibles et rkactifs par la suite. Pour l'avenir, l'auteur sugghre de distinguer entre la fonction d'klaboration de politiques et le service de recherche et de planification. D'aprhs h i, si nous voulons que cette fonction d'elaboration et d'analyse des politiques survive, il faudra gkneraliser l'approche a groupe de travail m. De plus, si les services permanents de planification et de recherche dksirent survivre et etre efficaces, ils devront adopter un rdle et un profil modestes.
Research on powerline communication and design of PLC modem

Powerline communication was a competitive solution to “Last Kilometer” technology because of its advantages such as layout independent and wide coverage. The paper studied deeply the application of OFDM to powerline communication and designed the MODEM in powerline communication utilizing the PLC chips—INT5500CS—of Interllon. And its application to remote ammeter was also presented and the Internet access based on powerline communication was implemented.
Actors and venues in immigration control: Closing the gap between political demands and policy outcomes

This account reviews the state of the literature on migration since the West European Politics special issue on migration was published in 1994. Particular attention is dedicated to the theme of immigration control and the critical question of policy gaps between immigration policy goals and outcomes. Regarding policy gaps, we identify three dimensions of this thesis that are addressed in some form by the contributors to the volume. These include: the disjuncture between public opinion and policy elites at the decision-making and implementation stages; the relationship between principals (states) and agents; and the dynamic between international and domestic arenas of policy-making. Offering a comparative analytical framework to empirically map the variations that exist across countries and policy stages and levels, this essay disaggregates the various components and actors involved in migration policy-making. It suggests that in order to test the gap thesis, a more nuanced empirical analysis of an expanded migration policy field composed of multiple actors and venues is warranted.
The FLIP Variation on the TRAIL DISC: Doxorubicin Conducts the Swan Song

No Abstract Available Commentary to: Doxorubicin Pretreatment Sensitizes Prostate Cancer Cell Lines to TRAIL Induced Apoptosis which Correlates with the Loss of c-FLIP Expression Margaret M. Kelly, Brian D. Hoel and Christina Voelkel-Johnson Key Words: TRAIL, Doxorubicin, Apoptosis, Prostate cancer, c-FLIP
Monetary valuation as a tool for planning and managing ecotourism

While the techniques of monetary valuation are firmly grounded in economic theory and have a substantial record of practical application, planners and managers of ecotourism have not embraced them with particular enthusiasm. The explanation offered in this paper has two main strands. On the demand side, those involved in planning and managing ecotourism have, for a number of reasons, tended to be wary of monetary valuation. Consequently, most of the monetary valuation studies that have been commissioned and subsequently undertaken have tended to be overly conservative in their aims and scope. On the supply side, meanwhile, economists have too often failed to explain how the results of such studies could be used to promote the objectives of ecotourism. Planners and managers of ecotourism have therefore remained largely unconvinced of the practicality of monetary valuation. Arguably, however, there is a considerable latent potential for the application of monetary valuation techniques in the ecotourism context. This paper attempts to demonstrate this potential by identifying and illustrating a number of practical uses for monetary valuation in the context of planning and managing ecotourism.
Construction of Anxiety and Dimensional Personality Model in College Students

A sample of 402 volunteer male (n = 156) and female (n = 246) Kuwaiti undergraduates responded to the Arabic versions of the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The latter questionnaire has four subscales: Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie. Women obtained a higher mean score on Kuwait University Anxiety Scale and Neuroticism than did men, while men had a higher mean score on Psychoticism than did women. Factor analysis of the intercorrelations between the five variables, separately conducted for men and women, gave rise to two orthogonal factors called Anxiety-and-Neuroticism vs Extraversion, and Psychoticism vs Lie. Stepwise regression revealed that Neuroticism was the main predictor of anxiety. It was concluded that persons with high Neuroticism scores may be more vulnerable to anxiety than those with low scores.