Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unevenly spaced time series analysis:Case study using calcimetry data from BV-1 and BV-2 boreholes in Ljubljansko barje (central Slovenia)

Statistical analyses of calcimetric data from boreholes BV-1 (north of Podpeč) and BV-2 (south of Črna vas) on Ljubljansko barje in central Slovenia are given. The original data are represented as unevenly spaced time series that are translated into evenly spaced time series. To calculate the interpolation weighted influence function, a model based on the power correlated influence is defined. Parameter selection is performed based on the maximum entropy principle. In the reconstructed time series, autocorrelation and Fourier power spectrum analyses are performed. In both time series, a transition from white noise to red noise was detected. Such behaviour can be
The Systematic Beliefs of the Mass Public: Estimating Policy Preferences with Survey Data

This paper develops and estimates a model that relates individuals' policy preferences to three basic terms: (1) a common orientation that affects positions on all items in an issue domain and that explicitly represents the constraint concept; (2) a question-specific term that represents the influence of impacts and interests associated with the explicit policy in question; and (3) party identifications. Each of these components is hypothesized to vary among individuals, based on their social, economic, and demographic characteristics. This model is estimated with the domestic policy items included in the first American National Panel Study (1956-60) using the LISREL statistical method. The results indicate the existence of a large and stable common orientation that strongly influences positions on the jobs, education aid, and health care items, but that is only weakly related to the power and housing item. The model also finds small yet significant policy-specific and partisan effects. The composition and influence of these components are quite stable over the four years of the study. Thus we conclude that the structure underlying individual preferences exhibits considerable constraint and stability, in contrast to some previous analyses with these data.
Time-varying threshold cointegration and the law of one price

A theoretical model of the law of one price which allows for seasonality in transaction costs and supply and demand conditions between markets is developed. Bivariate three-regime threshold vector error correction models are applied to natural gas markets to examine seasonality in threshold levels. Results indicate that there are nonlinear adjustments to the law of one price in seven pair-wise markets (Chicago is used as the base market). In the natural gas sector, dynamic threshold effects relative to the Chicago market vary depending on season, geographical location and whether the market is an excess producing or consuming market.
CELLULAR EVENTS IN THE IMMUNE RESPONSE

Cell suspensions from the spleens of normal mice or mice injected with sheep erythrocytes were separated on a discontinous bovine serum albumin density gradient. Four bands or subpopulations were obtained and were assayed for antibody-forming cells, and for antigen-sensitive precursor cells. The antibody-forming cells were assayed by the hemolytic plaque assay and the antigen-sensitive precursors were assayed by the number of plaque-forming cells which developed after 3 or 5 day's culture with antigen. It was found that both antibody-forming cells and their precursors were present in the denser region of the gradient when spleen cell suspensions were taken from unimmunized mice. In contrast, both antibody-forming cells and precursors floated to the top in cell suspensions from mice sacrificed 1, 2, or 3 days after antigen injection. The change in density was detectable as early as 12 hr and was complete by 18 hr. The cell which changed in density was specific for the antigen that brought about that change. The significance of these findings is discussed.
Cost accounting in Germany

While English cost accounting ideas enter into international academic discussion automatically cost accounting literature written in German is only known to a relatively small number of scientists: The following paper presents some basic ideas of German cost accounting in English language in order to make it easier especially for English speaking scientists to have a first impression of German cost accounting and to find literature of special personal interest. Cost accounting in Germany was founded by Eugen Schmalenbach. Thus, his ideas about accruals accounting and valuation have to be presented first. After the Second World War, flexible standard costing because the most important concept of cost accounting in theory and business practice. The basic ideas, the use of marginal and full cost versions for decision and control and the interrelation with activity based costing are discussed. The Plant Models by Gert Lassmann are described as an example for consequent cost accounting according to the principle of cause and effect. Finally, pros and cons of the current discussion about cost accounting as a basis for long term decisions are presented.
The Hard Life of the Social Planner

Where the social planner, threatened by final producers and walled-in by innovators, releases the representative consumer from the pillory, hires two anonymous referees, and convinces the Economics Minister that final firms' purchases of monopolistically produced intermediate inputs should be taxed, not subsidized, as long as output growth does not exhibit scale effects. This normative prescription hinges on an often neglected reallocation mechanism generated by the linear accumulation laws that eliminate scale effects in most endogenous growth models. (JEL O41, O31)
Microfinance and Poverty in Bolivia

Both in its institutional range and in its penetration of financial markets, the microfinance sector in Bolivia rivals any in the world, and has played a major part in extracting the macro-economy from meltdown since the mid-1980s. We seek specifically to assess its impact on poverty, and do this through small-sample surveys on four microfinance institutions, two urban and two rural, using a range of poverty concepts: income (generated both through the borrower's enterprise and through the labour market), asset holdings and diversity, and various measures of vulnerability. All the institutions studied had, on balance, positive impacts on income and asset levels, with income impacts correlating negatively with income on account of poor households choosing to invest in low-risk, low-return assets. Microfinance may, however, augment vulnerability: average debt-service ratios of microfinance clients are disturbingly high, and if the coping mechanisms used by borrowers fail, borrowers may be forced out of the microfinance system, possibly resulting in decapitalisation and impoverishment. Poorer households are more restricted in their choice of coping strategy, and many as a consequence 'choose' coping strategies more likely to jeopardise their long-term income prospects, in particular asset sales and cuts in children's schooling. The more successful low-income borrowers are those who have voluntary savings deposits and do not rush into fixed capital purchases too early: collapse back into poverty is associated with multiple crises and the failure of one or more 'safety nets', in particular of one or more 'safety nets', in particular support from a member's solidarity group. The following actions appear to be promising for the further reduction of poverty in Bolivia: stronger efforts to mobilise rural savings, removal of lower limits on loan size, and the introduction of appropriate insurance mechanisms. In comparison with other anti-poverty measures, microfinance appears to be successful and relative cheap at reducing the poverty of those close to the poverty line, but ineffective, by comparison with labour-market and infrastructural measures, in reducing extreme poverty.
Quantifying enzymatic lysis: estimating the combined effects of chemistry, physiology and physics

The number of microbial pathogens resistant to antibiotics continues to increase even as the rate of discovery and approval of new antibiotic therapeutics steadily decreases. Many researchers have begun to investigate the therapeutic potential of naturally occurring lytic enzymes as an alternative to traditional antibiotics. However, direct characterization of lytic enzymes using techniques based on synthetic substrates is often difficult because lytic enzymes bind to the complex superstructure of intact cell walls. Here we present a new standard for the analysis of lytic enzymes based on turbidity assays which allow us to probe the dynamics of lysis without preparing a synthetic substrate. The challenge in the analysis of these assays is to infer the microscopic details of lysis from macroscopic turbidity data. We propose a model of enzymatic lysis that integrates the chemistry responsible for bond cleavage with the physical mechanisms leading to cell wall failure. We then present a solution to an inverse problem in which we estimate reaction rate constants and the heterogeneous susceptibility to lysis among target cells. We validate our model given simulated and experimental turbidity assays. The ability to estimate reaction rate constants for lytic enzymes will facilitate their biochemical characterization and development as antimicrobial therapeutics.
Current Status and Competitiveness of U.S. Poultry Exports

Summary The general objective of this study is to analyze the comparative advantage and future prospects of the U.S. poultry industry in the international arena. The domestic resource cost (DRC) ratio was estimated for the five largest poultry exporters in the world. The DRC ratio provides a comparison of economic advantages/disadvantages in poultry trade. In addition, an analysis of the future of international poultry trade was conducted based on published forecasts. Published studies have shown that poultry production and consumption are expected to increase in most countries. The United States, having one of the better DRC ratios, is predicted to retain its majority position in international poultry trade as export growth slows in the European Union and Thailand. However, domestic production in Hong Kong/China will pose a threat to U.S. exports along with the expected growth in the Brazilian poultry industry.
Unionism in the United States and other advanced OECD countries

In this paper we compare the changing pattern of unionization in OECD countries, reviewing existing evidence and presenting new information on union-nonunion differentials in labor market outcomes in these countries. Our principal source of information are the micro data files of the International Social Survey Programme cross-country surveys of 1985–87. Our analysis shows that U.S. unions have a larger effect on wages than on other outcomes than unions in other OECD countries, and we argue that the high union premium in the United States has contributed to the decline in union density and divergence of the US. industrial relations system
Limbless movement simulation with a particle‐based system

Snakes and other limbless animals continue to attract the close attention of scientists because of their unique locomotion abilities. This paper presents a novel approach to limbless movement simulation. We built our simulation framework using position‐based dynamics. We describe the body configuration of snakes using different types of distance constraints. The limbless movement is based on the formulation of a friction constraint to model the behavior of a snake's scales. In our approach, it is easy to solve collisions between objects and self‐collisions for simulated snakes. Our model includes a dynamic geometrical environment colliding with simulated animals. Detailed patterns are presented for four main types of limbless movement: serpentine, rectilinear, concertina, and sidewinding. Finally, we present the process of computing the final smooth visual mesh from the physical simulation data. This paper concludes with several simulation scenarios showing the high‐quality results of our framework for limbless movement simulation.
Long-Term Image Boundary Prediction

Boundary estimation in images and videos has been a very active topic of research, and organizing visual information into boundaries and segments is believed to be a corner stone of visual perception. While prior work has focused on estimating boundaries for observed frames, our work aims at predicting boundaries of future unobserved frames. This requires our model to learn about the fate of boundaries and corresponding motion patterns---including a notion of "intuitive physics. " We experiment on natural video sequences along with synthetic sequences with deterministic physics-based and agent-based motions. While not being our primary goal, we also show that fusion of RGB and boundary prediction leads to improved RGB predictions.
An indoor human behavior gathering system toward future support for visually impaired people

A Visually impaired people's life is changing significantly in recent information society; even the visually impaired person who masters a various functions of a smart device exists. However, the diversity of their lifestyle has not been thoroughly investigated yet, compared to that of sighted people's. Therefore, the lifestyles of visually impaired people tend to be misunderstood by others; and even wrong stereotypes of them could be spread in society. This situation has been making it hard for us to find actually useful living assistants for them. The biggest factor that prevents investigations of bare lifestyles of visually impaired people is the privacy issue caused by video recording. This study's purpose is to propose and evaluate a new sensing system that substitutes the video ethnography and raises degree of abstraction so that it would not specify personal information and invade their privacy.
Refined structure of lac repressor headpiece (1-56) determined by relaxation matrix calculations from 2D and 3D NOE data: change of tertiary structure upon binding to the lac operator.

The solution structure of the DNA binding domain of lac repressor (headpiece 1-56; HP56) has been refined using data from 2D and 3D NMR spectroscopy. The structure was derived from 1546 restraints (giving an average of 27.6 per residue), comprising 389 intraresidual, 402 sequential, 385 medium range and 325 long range distance restraints and also 30 phi and 15 chi 1 dihedral angle restraints. The structures were determined by the method of direct refinement against nuclear Overhauser enhancement peak volumes with the program DINOSAUR. The final set of 32 selected structures displayed an r.m.s. deviation from the average of 0.43(+/-0.08) A angstroms (backbone) and 0.95(+/-0.08) angstroms (all heavy atoms) for the best defined region of the protein (residues 3 to 49). The ensemble R-factor was 0.35, which indicates close correspondence with the experimental data. The structures revealed good stereochemical qualities. The conformations of the NMR structures of free and DNA complexed lac repressor headpiece were compared. The regions comprising the secondary structure elements show close correspondence for both conformations. However, the conformation of the loop between helix II and III changes considerably upon complexation of the headpiece. This change in the conformation of the loop in lac HP56 is essential for binding of the side-chains of residues Asn25 and His29 to the lac operator DNA. Finally, the lac headpiece residues that are intolerant to mutations were analysed. Most of these mutation-sensitive residues are important for a correct folding of the headpiece region, and a number of these residues are also involved in contacting the operator DNA.
The Relative Efficiency of Public and Private Firms in a Competitive Environment: The Case of Canadian Railroads

The efficiency of public and private firms is usually compared in industries which have heavy regulation and limited competition. In this paper we present a case study in which the effects of property rights can be isolated from the effects of regulation on noncompetitive markets. We compare the postwar productivity performance of the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railroads. Contrary to the predictions of the property rights literature, we find no evidence of inferior performance by the government-owned railroad. We conclude that any tendency toward inefficiency resulting from public ownership has been overcome by the benefits of competition.
Assessing the impact of fair value upon financial crises

This article challenges the notion that the reform of accounting principles in accordance with fair value would provide better information, and that more transparency would reinforce the resilience of the economy. Actually, fair value gives at each instant a seemingly relevant liquidation value, but obscures the value creation process by mixing present profit with unrealized capital gains and losses. This discrepancy increases with an increased degree of uncertainty, which is at odds with widely held beliefs about the efficiency of existing financial markets. Fair value introduces an accounting accelerator on top of the already present and typical financial accelerator. It extends to the entire economic system, the source of financial fragility typical of the 1990s. If fair value accounting is applied to banks, an extra volatility may be created unless a new wave of innovations introduces countervailing forces.
Strategic Timing of Earnings Announcements?

Using firm-specific regressions, I show that earnings response coefficient differ across firms. However, there is no evidence of differential earnings response coefficient to a certain earnings announcement time. By switching to a different announcement time from its preferred time, a firm does not gain a softer market reaction. I compare research results from a firm-specific method and from a pooled time-series and cross-sectional method and demonstrate that they differ significantly due to large heterogeneity across firms. I suggest that researchers should adopt a firm-specific approach to avoid misleading results and to achieve improved estimations.
A Mosaic of Geothermal and Marine Features Shapes Microbial Community Structure on Deception Island Volcano, Antarctica

Active volcanoes in Antarctica contrast with their predominantly cold surroundings, resulting in environmental conditions capable of selecting for versatile and extremely diverse microbial communities. This is especially true on Deception Island, where geothermal, marine, and polar environments combine to create an extraordinary range of environmental conditions. Our main goal in this study was to understand how microbial community structure is shaped by gradients of temperature, salinity, and geochemistry in polar marine volcanoes. Thereby, we collected surface sediment samples associated with fumaroles and glaciers at two sites on Deception, with temperatures ranging from 0 to 98°C. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was performed to assess the composition and diversity of Bacteria and Archaea. Our results revealed that Deception harbors a combination of taxonomic groups commonly found both in cold and geothermal environments of continental Antarctica, and also groups normally identified at deep and shallow-sea hydrothermal vents, such as hyperthermophilic archaea. We observed a clear separation in microbial community structure across environmental gradients, suggesting that microbial community structure is strongly niche driven on Deception. Bacterial community structure was significantly associated with temperature, pH, salinity, and chemical composition; in contrast, archaeal community structure was strongly associated only with temperature. Our work suggests that Deception represents a peculiar “open-air” laboratory to elucidate central questions regarding molecular adaptability, microbial evolution, and biogeography of extremophiles in polar regions.
Sexual side-effects of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs

Adequate sexual expression is essential to many human relationships and provides a sense of physical, psychological and social well-being. Epidemiological and clinical studies show that depression and schizophrenia are associated with impairment of sexual function and satisfaction, even in untreated patients. Most antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs have adverse sexual effects but it is difficult accurately to identify the incidence of treatment-emergent dysfunction, as disturbances can be reliably detected only from systematic enquiries made at baseline and during treatment. Growing awareness of the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs has led to attempts to use adjuvants or substitute treatments to resolve sexual dysfunction. More studies of the effects of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs on sexual function are needed.
[Dimethylsulfoxide-induced expression of thymic stromal lymphopoietin in human bronchial epithelial cells].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of dimethylsulfoxide on the expression of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in human bronchial epithelial cell (HBE). METHODS 16HBE cells were incubated in the presence of dimethylsulfoxide at different concentrations, and the cell proliferation changes were observed. The expressions of TSLP mRNA and protein in the cells were detected by real-time quantitative PCR and ELISA, respectively. RESULTS Dimethylsulfoxide induced significantly increased TSLP mRNA expression in HBE cells (P<0.01) in a concentration-dependent manner. The level of TSLP protein in the supernatant was also increased after dimethylsulfoxide treatment, but high concentration of dimethylsulfoxide resulted in e inhibited cell proliferation. CONCLUSION Dimethylsulfoxide may affect the immunomodulatory function of HBE cells.
Quality Management in a Supply Chain Perspective - Strategic and Operative Choices in a Textile-Apparel Network

Supply chain management (SCM) is conceived by academics and practitioners as either an extension of logistics or an all‐encompassing approach to business integration. From the authors’ point of view, SCM involves not only logistic activities but also other processes such as quality management. This paper seeks to understand how quality can be managed using a supply chain perspective and what the operative and strategic consequences are for both the individual companies and the whole supply network. It reports a case study conducted on Marzotto, an important Italian textile and apparel company, and its supply chain relationships. The study compares the quality practices in the two different kinds of supply network of which Marzotto is the focal firm. One is managed using a traditional customer‐supplier approach and the other a broader and more co‐ordinated perspective. In the latter case, it was found that the whole supply network could improve its ability to meet the expectations of the final consumer in terms of quality through the joint definition and co‐management of quality practices/procedures.
Innovation and competition: An unstable relationship

SUMMARY This paper analyzes how the establishment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982 has affected the relationship between innovation and competition. Using the same dataset as Aghion et al. (Competition and innovation: an inverted-u relationship. Quarterly Journal of Economics 2005; 120(2):701–728) I find a structural break in the early 1980s. Taking this break into consideration, the inverted-U empirical relationship between innovation and competition found by Aghion et al. does not hold. In fact, I find that there is a positive innovation–competition relationship during the period 1973–1982 and no relationship at all in the 1983–1994 period. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.