Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Essays on the Political Economy of Land Use Change

We study the determination of a land tax on agriculture in the presence of two lobbies, when agricultural land use causes a negative externality as compared to forestry. The tax a¤ects the allocation of land between agriculture and forestry. We nd that in social optimum the government imposes a land tax on agriculture because of the negative externality. In political optimum, if lobby groups organize in the agricultural and forestry sectors, their land demand elasticities determine whether land will be taxed or subsidized. Then, if land demand in agriculture is inelastic enough, land might be subsidized. This is contrary to the received public economics wisdom of taxing goods with low elasticities and constitutes a political economy avenue through which the elasticity of land demand a¤ects the tax rate. We further show that if there is technological progress in agriculture, land demand by agriculture increases and land demand by forestry falls. Then, it would be socially optimal for the land tax to increase in technology, but in the political optimum, i.e., if the government is susceptible to lobbying, the tax rate will rather fall. This reallocates more than a socially optimal amount of land from agriculture to forestry. JEL Classi cation: D29, D72, H23 Keywords: land tax, technological change, land use, deforestation 1The author thanks the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for nancing. Great thanks are also due to Per Fredriksson, Toke Aidt, François Salanie, Klaus Hammes, the participants at the EAERE-FEEM-VIU Summer School in Environmental and Resource Economics 2003 and the seminar participants at the University of Gothenburg for comments.
Identification of Drosophila Mitotic Genes by Combining Co-Expression Analysis and RNA Interference

RNAi screens have, to date, identified many genes required for mitotic divisions of Drosophila tissue culture cells. However, the inventory of such genes remains incomplete. We have combined the powers of bioinformatics and RNAi technology to detect novel mitotic genes. We found that Drosophila genes involved in mitosis tend to be transcriptionally co-expressed. We thus constructed a co-expression–based list of 1,000 genes that are highly enriched in mitotic functions, and we performed RNAi for each of these genes. By limiting the number of genes to be examined, we were able to perform a very detailed phenotypic analysis of RNAi cells. We examined dsRNA-treated cells for possible abnormalities in both chromosome structure and spindle organization. This analysis allowed the identification of 142 mitotic genes, which were subdivided into 18 phenoclusters. Seventy of these genes have not previously been associated with mitotic defects; 30 of them are required for spindle assembly and/or chromosome segregation, and 40 are required to prevent spontaneous chromosome breakage. We note that the latter type of genes has never been detected in previous RNAi screens in any system. Finally, we found that RNAi against genes encoding kinetochore components or highly conserved splicing factors results in identical defects in chromosome segregation, highlighting an unanticipated role of splicing factors in centromere function. These findings indicate that our co-expression–based method for the detection of mitotic functions works remarkably well. We can foresee that elaboration of co-expression lists using genes in the same phenocluster will provide many candidate genes for small-scale RNAi screens aimed at completing the inventory of mitotic proteins.
Frequency and motivational state: evolutionary simulations suggest an adaptive function for network oscillations

Evolutionary simulations of foraging agents, controlled by artificial neural networks, unexpectedly yielded oscillating node activations in the networks. The agents had to navigate a virtual environment to collect food while avoiding predation. Between generations their neural networks were subjected to mutations and crossovers in the connection strengths. The oscillations drastically enhanced the agents’ performance, which was due primarily to an increased switching efficacy from approach to avoidance behavior. In this paper we further analyzed networks from the last generation and found that oscillations modulated winner-take-all competition. On average the oscillations had a much higher frequency when an agent was foraging (i.e., in an appetitive state) than when it was trying to escape from a predator (i.e., in an aversive state). We suggest that also in real brains oscillation frequencies correspond with particular types of action preparations.
The Axolotl Model for Regeneration and Aging Research: A Mini-Review

Although regeneration of tissues occurs in all adult tetrapods, the ability to regenerate complex structures such as limbs is limited to urodeles (newts and salamanders). Given that many of the biological processes and the signaling pathways that control these processes are highly conserved among all tetrapods, it is likely that humans have the potential to regenerate structures in the same way as salamanders. Thus the remarkable regenerative abilities of salamanders demonstrate what we reasonably can expect in terms of enhancing our regenerative potential. Although most of what is understood about regenerative mechanisms pertains to the repair of acute injuries, we assume that these same mechanisms could be utilized therapeutically to slow or even reverse chronic damage associated with aging. The axolotl model provides the opportunity to understand the behavior of cells to give the desired outcome of controlled growth and pattern formation leading to regeneration rather than aging and cancer. In this paper we present an overview of several important aspects of regeneration biology with an emphasis on the Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) as a model organism for identifying relevant signaling pathways and factors regulating limb regeneration. We also speculate about how these mechanisms could be utilized to reverse the aging process. By understanding the mechanisms of regeneration, we eventually will be able to enhance our intrinsic regenerative abilities in order to slow and even reverse the damage of aging.
Exploring Social Networking as an Aid to Acculturation

This paper uses a qualitative methodology, autoethnography, to explore how social networking can help international students acculturate to the United States. Our findings suggest three emergent themes. Social networking tools can aid acculturation through: 1) facilitating knowledge exchange, 2) alleviating apprehension, and 3) enabling socialization and building community.
Intergenerational Income-Group Mobility and Differential Fertility

One question development economists are especially interested in, but so far left unanswered, is how the societal income distribution would be affected by introducing a family-planning program to reduce the reproduction rate of the poor, which is usually high in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to search for analytical answers to this question. The authors are able to make definite comparisons about some class of inequality measures of the steady-state societal income distributions, and these comparisons provide strong theoretical support in favor for the above-mentioned family-planning program. Copyright 1990 by American Economic Association.
Improved on-line handwriting recognition using context dependent hidden Markov models

The paper presents the introduction of context dependent hidden Markov models for cursive, unconstrained handwriting recognition with large vocabularies. Since context dependent models were successfully introduced to speech recognition (R. Bahl et al., 1980; R. Schwartz et al., 1984; K. Lee, 1990), it seems obvious, that the use of trigraphs could also lead to improved online handwriting recognition systems (A. Kosmala et al., 1997). In analogy to triphones in speech recognition, trigraphs are context dependent sub word units representing a single written character in its left and right context. The tests were conducted on a writer dependent system with three different writers and two different vocabulary sizes (1000 words and 30000 words). The results we obtained with the trigaph based system compared to the monograph system, are very encouraging: a mean relative error reduction of 46% for the 1000 word handwriting recognition system and a mean relative error reduction of 37% for the same system with the 30000 word vocabulary. We believe that this represents one of the first systematic investigations of the influence of context dependent models and parameter reduction methods for a difficult large vocabulary handwriting recognition task.
Elections as Targeting Contests

This paper develops a model of electoral turnout where parties compensate voters for showing up to the polls. Existence and uniqueness conditions are shown to impose substantial restrictions on the uncertainty about partisan support faced by the parties, and on the distribution of voting costs among citizens. The model predicts that voters in the minority will be more likely to vote, and that turnout increases with the importance of the election. The model can generate the observed correlation between election closeness and electoral turnout, lthough the cause of this correlation may depend on the distribution of voting costs.
Survey for Bat Lyssaviruses, Thailand

Surveillance for lyssaviruses was conducted among bat populations in 8 provinces in Thailand. In 2002 and 2003, a total of 932 bats of 11 species were captured and released after serum collection. Lyssavirus infection was determined by conducting virus neutralization assays on bat serum samples. Of collected samples, 538 were either hemolysed or insufficient in volume, which left 394 suitable for analysis. These samples included the following: Pteropus lylei (n = 335), Eonycteris spelaea (n = 45), Hipposideros armiger (n = 13), and Rousettus leschennaulti (n = 1). No serum samples had evidence of neutralizing antibodies when tested against rabies virus. However, 16 samples had detectable neutralizing antibodies against Aravan virus, Khujand virus, Irkut virus, or Australian bat lyssavirus; all were specifically associated with fruit bats P. lylei (n = 15) and E. spelaea (n = 1). These results are consistent with the presence of naturally occurring viruses related to new putative lyssavirus genotypes.
Death Rituals, Ideology, and the Development of Early Mesopotamian Kingship: Toward a New Understanding of Iraq's Royal Cemetery of Ur

At the beginning of Mesopotamia's Early Dynastic period, the political landscape was dominated by temple administrators, but by the end of the period, rulers whose titles we translate as "king" assumed control. This book argues that the ritual process of mourning, burying, and venerating dead elites contributed to this change. Part one introduces the rationale for seeing rituals as a means of giving material form to ideology and, hence, structuring overall power relations. Part two presents archaeological and textual evidence for the death rituals. Part three interprets symbolic objects found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, showing they reflect ideological doctrines promoting the office of kingship. This book will be particularly useful for scholars of Mesopotamian archaeology and history.
Commedia Virtuale: from theatre to avatars

Abstract We are investigating face, hand and body expressions to be applied to avatars of a virtual environment to improve their communication capabilities and enrich and facilitate their perception by users of the environment. We report on our work based on obtaining inspiration from the world of theatre. In this perspective Commedia dell'Arte and Noh theatre have been the focus of our attention. We explore key features of Commedia dell'Arte, namely improvisation, exaggerated gestures and expressive postures, and investigate how their adoption in the design of avatars can be useful for collaborative virtual environments. With the same objectives we look at another theatre style, the Noh theatre. We investigate the variety of masks and the choreography. The outcome is a visual language for avatars made up of postures, gestures and appearances. We have concluded this investigation with the production of an experimental theatre play involving real and virtual actors.
04 09 17 6 v 1 1 7 Se p 20 04 Type II Strings and Generalized Calabi-Yau Manifolds

We show that the supersymmetry transformations for type II string theories on six-manifolds can be written as differential conditions on a pair of pure spinors, the exponentiated Kähler form e and the holomorphic form Ω. The equations are explicitly symmetric under exchange of the two pure spinors and a choice of even or odd-rank RR field. This is mirror symmetry for manifolds with torsion. Moreover, RR fluxes affect only one of the two equations: e is closed under the action of the twisted exterior derivative in IIA theory, and similarly Ω is closed in IIB. This means that supersymmetric SU(3)-structure manifolds are always complex in IIB while they are twisted symplectic in IIA. Modulo a different action of the B–field, these are all generalized Calabi-Yau manifolds, as defined by Hitchin.
Blending video games with learning: Issues and challenges with classroom implementations in the Turkish context

The research design for this study focuses on examining the core issues and challenges when video games are used in the classroom. For this purpose three naturalistic contexts in Turkey were examined in which educational video games were used as the basis for teaching units on world continents and countries, first aid, and basic computer hardware and peripherals, in primary, secondary and higher education contexts respectively. Methods employed in the data collection include observing lessons, taking field notes, interviewing students and teachers, saving online discourse data, and collecting student artifacts and reflections. Findings identified issues related to (1) the design of the video game environment, (2) school infrastructure, (3) the nature of learning, the role of the teacher and classroom culture, and (4) engagement.
Forecasting with group seasonality

• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
ENEMY RELEASE? AN EXPERIMENT WITH CONGENERIC PLANT PAIRS AND DIVERSE ABOVE- AND BELOWGROUND ENEMIES

Several hypotheses proposed to explain the success of introduced species focus on altered interspecific interactions. One of the most prominent, the Enemy Release Hypothesis, posits that invading species benefit compared to their native counterparts if they lose their herbivores and pathogens during the invasion process. We previously reported on a common garden experiment (from 2002) in which we compared levels of herbivory between 30 taxonomically paired native and introduced old-field plants. In this phyloge- netically controlled comparison, herbivore damage tended to be higher on introduced than on native plants. This striking pattern, the opposite of current theory, prompted us to further investigate herbivory and several other interspecific interactions in a series of linked ex- periments with the same set of species. Here we show that, in these new experiments, introduced plants, on average, received less insect herbivory and were subject to half the negative soil microbial feedback compared to natives; attack by fungal and viral pathogens also tended to be reduced on introduced plants compared to natives. Although plant traits (foliar C:N, toughness, and water content) suggested that introduced species should be less resistant to generalist consumers, they were not consistently more heavily attacked. Finally, we used meta-analysis to combine data from this study with results from our previous work to show that escape generally was inconsistent among guilds of enemies: there were few instances in which escape from multiple guilds occurred for a taxonomic pair, and more cases in which the patterns of escape from different enemies canceled out. Our examination of multiple interspecific interactions demonstrates that escape from one guild of enemies does not necessarily imply escape from other guilds. Because the effects of each guild are likely to vary through space and time, the net effect of all enemies is also likely to be variable. The net effect of these interactions may create ''invasion opportunity windows'': times when introduced species make advances in native communities.
Ca2+/Calmodulin and Apo-Calmodulin Both Bind to and Enhance the Tyrosine Kinase Activity of c-Src

Src family non-receptor tyrosine kinases play a prominent role in multiple cellular processes, including: cell proliferation, differentiation, cell survival, stress response, and cell adhesion and migration, among others. And when deregulated by mutations, overexpression, and/or the arrival of faulty incoming signals, its hyperactivity contributes to the development of hematological and solid tumors. c-Src is a prototypical member of this family of kinases, which is highly regulated by a set of phosphorylation events. Other factor contributing to the regulation of Src activity appears to be mediated by the Ca2+ signal generated in cells by different effectors, where the Ca2+-receptor protein calmodulin (CaM) plays a key role. In this report we demonstrate that CaM directly interacts with Src in both Ca2+-dependent and Ca2+-independent manners in vitro and in living cells, and that the CaM antagonist N-(6-aminohexyl)-5-chloro-1-naphthalenesulfonamide (W-7) inhibits the activation of this kinase induced by the upstream activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), in human carcinoma epidermoide A431 cells, and by hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress, in both A431 cells and human breast adenocarcinoma SK-BR-3 cells. Furthermore, we show that the Ca2+/CaM complex strongly activates the auto-phosphorylation and tyrosine kinase activity of c-Src toward exogenous substrates, but most relevantly and for the first time, we demonstrate that Ca2+-free CaM (apo-CaM) exerts a far higher activatory action on Src auto-phosphorylation and kinase activity toward exogenous substrates than the one exerted by the Ca2+/CaM complex. This suggests that a transient increase in the cytosolic concentration of free Ca2+ is not an absolute requirement for CaM-mediated activation of Src in living cells, and that a direct regulation of Src by apo-CaM could be inferred.
The Federal Reserve's Dual Mandate: A Time-Varying Monetary Policy Priority Index for the United States

In the United States, the Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of promoting stable inflation and maximum employment. Since the Fed directly controls only one instrument-the federal funds rate-the authors argue that the Fed's priorities continuously alternate between inflation and economic activity. In this paper, the authors assume that the effective weights put by the Fed on different indicators vary over time. To test this assumption, they estimate a monetary policy priority index by adding non-linear endogenous weights to a conventional Taylor-type rule.
Cosegmentation of object categories

Location of the internship: The internship will be jointly between the WILLOW team at INRIA Paris1 and the LEAR team at INRIAGrenoble2, and will be co-supervised by Jean Ponce and Cordelia Schmid, a ENS professor and a INRIA research director respectively. Both teams are specialized in computer vision, in particular visual recognition. Armand Joulin, a researcher at FaceBook, will be an external advisor to the project. There exists the possibility to continue the research as a PhD student.
Transport supervision of perishable goods by embedded context aware objects

Intelligent freight objects can be introduced in order to simplify the solution of complex logistical planning tasks. This enables splitting logistical problems to local executable subtasks. The concept of Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) presents a model to realize such intelligent objects. A local task can be handled autonomously by a group of objects. The realization of UbiComp needs a platform that first provides the computational resources for the implementation of decision algorithms and then, secondly, the position information in order to enable context-aware features. This article presents a concept for the autonomous supervision of perishable goods and introduces the required softand hardware. Freight objects are represented by individual software components, which are realized with the JAVA framework OSGi. The whole software is designed to run on wireless sensor nodes to create embedded objects. Because temperature values can differ inside a reefer container, the signal strength of an RFID reader is used to provide position information by a cell based localization. A new approach is presented, where four RFID antennas are used to locate goods inside a container.
The case for REITs in the mixed-asset portfolio in the short and long Run

The poor performance of the Stock Market in the US up to the middle of 2003 has meant that REITs are increasingly been seen as an attractive addition to the mixed-asset portfolio. However, there is little evidence to indicate the consistency of the role REITs should play a role in the mixed-asset portfolio over different investment horizons. The results highlight that REITs do play a significant role over both different time horizons and holding periods. The findings show that REITs attractiveness as a diversification asset increase as the holding period increases. In addition, their diversification qualities span the entire efficient frontier, providing return enhancement properties at the lower end, switching to risk reduction qualities at the top end of the frontier.
An efficient approach for network traffic classification

Classifiers fail to handle high network traffic and changing node behaviors in efficient manner. Such applications require incremental learning algorithms with low computational complexity and low misclassification rate. This paper presents a model which partitions the training set into equivalence classes on the values of each feature. During classification, algorithm picks up one partial solution set per feature from respective equivalence partition. It collates weak classifiers, thus obtained to classify the test instance in partially lazy manner. The algorithm scores over contemporary classifiers in terms of better complexity for classification, incremental learning complexity and low misclassification rate.
Fixed Point Approximation for Multirate Multihop Loss Networks with Adaptive Routing

In this paper, we consider a class of loss networks where multiple tra c classes are present, each has di erent bandwidth requirement, and each tra c stream is routed according to an adaptive routing scheme. The performance metric of interest is the end-to-end call blocking probability. Blocking probabilities in a loss network have been studied quite extensively but very few considered multiple tra c classes and rates together with adaptive/state dependent routing. We propose a xed-point method, a.k. a. reduced load approximation, to estimate the end-to-end blocking probability in a multihop multirate loss network with adaptive routing. Simulation results are provided to compare with that of approximations. The approximation scheme is shown to be asymptotically correct in a natural limiting regime, and it gives conservative estimates of blocking probabilities under heavy tra c load. This work was supported by the Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communication Networks, under NASA cooperative agreement NCC3-528