Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fiscal Federalism and Government Size in Transition Economies: The Case of Moldova

This paper examines the relationship between fiscal decentralization - the assignment of revenue sources and expenditure functions across government levels - and government size in Moldova. The empirical results - based on data for a cross-section of Moldovan subnational governments in 1998 - suggest that fiscal decentralization is associated with larger subnational governments and that the country's revenue-sharing system imposes a constraint on subnational spending. Moldova is currently undergoing unprecedented reform of its system of intergovernmental fiscal relations, and consolidation of its local government. This reform package is crucial to ensure that decentralization does not increase the size of government.
The early-stage equity market in the USA

As recently as 20 years ago the USA began a transition from a declining industrial and manufacturing economy to an emerging entrepreneurial/innovation-driven economy. With this transition, the early-stage equity market has also evolved. As the institutional venture capital industry continues to focus on later stage and larger investments, the private investor market now provides the major source of seed and start-up capital. However, imperfections in the seed and start-up market have led to market inefficiencies for the high-growth firm. Two funding gaps appear to exist in the US equity market, both largely as a result of these market inefficiencies. This paper provides a broad overview of the early-stage equity market for high-growth ventures in the USA. In light of the critical role of business angels in the early-stage market, special attention will be given to this population. Also included is a discussion of angel markets and recent trends in the early-stage equity financing of entrepreneurial ventures.
SMEs and the environment: evaluating dissemination routes and handholding levels

The Better Business Pack (BBP), a toolkit intended to enable SMEs to develop plans and activities that would lead to environmental and financial benefits, is evaluated. It is found that in spite of high user evaluation of the toolkit in terms of design, user-friendliness, being up to date and recognition that little effort was required before returns could be achieved, actual financial and environmental achievements were patchy. The BBP was designed as a stand-alone package that would stimulate SMEs to embark on this path without further support. However, the nature of the dissemination route and the presence of ‘handholding’ support significantly affected success levels. Furthermore the nature of this support was crucial. The most effective support came from pre-existing networks and opportunities to learn from fellow users, rather than traditional consultancy and other external agency support. Awards for best practice were also found to be of importance. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Locking the DNA topoisomerase I protein clamp inhibits DNA rotation and induces cell lethality

Eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I (Top1) is a monomeric protein clamp that functions in DNA replication, transcription, and recombination. Opposable “lip” domains form a salt bridge to complete Top1 protein clamping of duplex DNA. Changes in DNA topology are catalyzed by the formation of a transient phosphotyrosyl linkage between the active-site Tyr-723 and a single DNA strand. Substantial protein domain movements are required for DNA binding, whereas the tight packing of DNA within the covalent Top1–DNA complex necessitates some DNA distortion to allow rotation. To investigate the effects of Top1-clamp closure on enzyme catalysis, molecular modeling was used to design a disulfide bond between residues Gly-365 and Ser-534, to crosslink protein loops more proximal to the active-site tyrosine than the protein loops held by the Lys-369–Glu-497 salt bridge. In reducing environments, Top1-Clamp was catalytically active. However, contrary to crosslinking the salt-bridge loops [Carey, J. F. , Schultz, S. J., Sission, L. , Fazzio, T. G. & Champoux, J. J. (2003) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 5640–5645], crosslinking the active-site proximal loops inhibited DNA rotation. Apparently, subtle alterations in Top1 clamp flexibility impact enzyme catalysis in vitro. Yet, the catalytically active Top1-Clamp was cytotoxic, even in the reducing environment of yeast cells. Remarkably, a shift in redox potential in glr1Δ cells converted the catalytically inactive Top1Y723F mutant clamp into a cellular toxin, which failed to induce an S-phase terminal phenotype. This cytotoxic mechanism is distinct from that of camptothecin chemotherapeutics, which stabilize covalent Top1–DNA complexes, and it suggests that the development of novel therapeutics that promote Top1-clamp closure is possible.
The National Research Council Ranking of Research Universities: Its Impact on Research in Economics

Administrators at many universities are using the National Research Councilâ€™s (NRCâ€™s) measures of departmental performance to assess the performance of their economics departments. The NRC methodology measures faculty publications, citations, and grants in specific ways, which gives departments an incentive to enhance their performance as measured by the NRC metrics. This affects departmental hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions, and gives faculty an incentive to do the type of research that can produce more publications, citations, and grants as measured by the NRC. The NRC criteria count only a subset of publications, citations, and grants, so using that metric rewards research that the NRC counts over research that produces publications, citations, and grants that the NRC does not count. This favors mainstream work over more heterodox approaches to economics, favors expensive research programs that can be federally funded, and tends to make research departments more homogeneous.
Outcomes of a Behavioral Education Model for Children With Autism in a Mainstream School Setting

The authors report 1-year outcomes for 11 children (3-7 years) with autism who attended an “Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) classroom” educational intervention in a mainstream school setting. The children learned new skills by the end of 1 year and learned additional skills during a 2nd year. Group analysis of standardized test outcomes (IQ and adaptive behavior) showed moderate to large effect size changes over 1 year, with further changes during a 2nd year. Standardized test outcomes for nine children after 2 years were also analyzed against a comparison group (n = 18) of children with autism receiving “education as usual. ” These controlled comparisons were associated with statistically significant large effects in favor of the ABA group for adaptive skills. Exploratory analysis also showed that increases in language and learning skills in the ABA class group were generally associated with positive changes in standardized test scores. A comprehensive behavioral intervention model can be successfully implemented in a mainstream school setting.
Chiral and herringbone symmetry breaking in water-surface monolayers.

We report the observation from monolayers of eicosanoic acid in the L2 phase of three distinct outof-plane first-order diffraction peaks, indicating molecular tilt in a nonsymmetry direction and hence the absence of mirror symmetry. At lower pressures the molecules tilt in the direction of their nearest neighbors. In this region we find a structural transition, which we tentatively identify as the rotatorherringbone transition L,„-L».
Using games to do exploratory experiments in graph comprehension

The paper describes a project to set up a graph-game Web site as a platform for carrying out exploratory experiments in graph comprehension. A few potential games are considered with the Shannon switching game being the most promising because of the ease with which challenging game graphs can be generated. Finally, the paper describes the architecture of the software needed to support the site.
The convergent and discriminant validity of the Chapman Scales.

Our study investigated the convergent and discriminant validity of five of Chapman's Schizotypia Scales (i.e., Physical Anhedonia, Revised Social Anhedonia, Perceptual Aberration, Magical Ideation, and Impulsive Nonconformity; L.J. Chapman, J.P. Chapman, & Raulin 1976, 1978; Eckblad & L.J. Chapman, 1983) and Meehl's Schizoidia Scale (Meehl, 1964) within a sample of 50 personality disordered subjects, many of whom possessed schizotypic traits. It was hypothesized in part that all five of the Chapman scales and the Schizoidia Scale would correlate with the schizotypal personality disorder; the Physical Anhedonia and Revised Social Anhedonia Scales would correlate with the schizoid personality disorder, whereas the Magical Ideation and Perceptual Aberration Scales would not; the Physical and Revised Social Anhedonia Scales would not correlate with the avoidant personality disorder; and the Impulsive Nonconformity Scale would correlate with the borderline and antisocial personality disorders. Only the hypotheses concerning the avoidant personality disorder and the Schizoidia Scale were not supported. The findings remained even when the effects of state anxiety and state depression were controlled. Implications of the findings with respect to the validity of the Chapman and Schizoidia Scales and the personality disorders are discussed.
Company dividends and taxes in the UK

The tax treatment of company dividend payments is an area where corporate taxation interacts with the personal income tax. This interaction raises some awkward issues, such as whether shareholders who are exempt from personal income tax should also be exempt from corporation tax, and if so, then how this can be achieved. The solutions adopted are often complex and certainly diverse, as witnessed by the range of different approaches used in the OECD countries, described in OECD (1991).
Automatic detection of clustered microcalcifications in digital mammograms: Study on applying Adaboost with SVM-based component classifiers

This paper presents a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for automatic detection of clustered microcalcifications (MCs) in digitized mammograms. The proposed system consists of two main steps. First, potential MC pixels in the mammograms are segmented out by using four mixed features consisting of two wavelet features and two gray level statistical features and then the potential MC pixels are labeled into potential individual MC objects by their spatial connectivity. Second, MCs are detected by extracting a set of 17 features from the potential individual MC objects. The classifier which is used in the first step is a multilayer feedforward neural network classifier but for the second step we have used Adaboost with SVM-based component classifier. Component classifiers which we used in our combining method are SVM classifiers with RBF kernel. The method was applied to a database of 40 mammograms (Nijmegen database) containing 105 clusters of MCs. A free-response operating characteristics (FROC) curve is used to evaluate the performance of CAD system. Results show that the proposed system gives quite satisfactory performance. In particular, 89.55% mean true positive detection rate is achieved at the cost of 0.921 false positive per image.
Recognition of multiunit neural signals

An essential step in studying nerve cell interaction during information processing is the extracellular microelectrode recording of the electrical activity of groups of adjacent cells. The recording usually contains the superposition of the spike trains produced by a number of neurons in the vicinity of the electrode. It is therefore necessary to correctly classify the signals generated by these different neurons. This problem is considered, and a new classification scheme is developed which does not require human supervision. A learning stage is first applied on the beginning portion of the recording to estimate the typical spike shapes of the different neurons. As for the classification stage, a method is developed which specifically considers the case when spikes overlap temporally. The method minimizes the probability of error, taking into account the statistical properties of the discharges of the neurons. The method is tested on a real recording as well as on synthetic data. <<ETX>>
Unified prediction of slow and fast scale instabilities by means of complementary design-oriented models

Average models are commonly used to describe switching power converter dynamics because of their design-oriented perspective, despite the fact that they are not well suited to predict the so-called fast-scale period-doubling instabilities. Conversely, such fast-scale instabilities occurrence can be predicted by mathematical discrete-time recurrent maps which capture all the dynamics of converter, but lack a design-oriented perspective. Recently a design-oriented index based on the ripple magnitude at the input of the PWM modulator has been proposed to predict fast-scale instabilities. This paper addresses the combination of both complementary design-oriented models to predict instability boundaries, thereby providing a unified prediction framework of slow and fast-scale instability occurrence to characterize the influence of each parameter upon the global converter stability. Both analytical as well as frequency-domain graphical approaches are presented.
Consumer Perceptions Of Tourist Attractions

Perceptual mapping is an important marketing research tool used by tourism marketers in product positioning, new product planning, advertising development, and strategic planning. Data collected from 3,842 Florida attractions visitors were analyzed via customer interchange analysis, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis. Clear patterns ofconsumerperceptions which suggest how tourists evaluate alternative attractions emerged from the analyses. Marketing implications based on the results are discussed.
Clinical Perspective: How Do Clinical Test Results Differentiate Chronic and Subacute Low Back Pain Patients from "Non-Patients"?

Abstract Our limited understanding of underlying conditions for back pain is reflected in the common use of pain-duration-based groupings. The aim of this paper was to investigate typical clinical tests used in examining low back pain (LBP) patients in order to discover how tests distinguish between chronic low back pain patients (CLBP) and subacute low back pain patients (SLBP) and if they distinguish these groups from those with no "patient status. " CLBP patients in this study were from a university hospital and SLBP patients were from five occupational health care centers. Control subjects were recruited from a university. Determination of the best predictors between CLBP and SLBP patients and between CLBP and SLBP patients and non-patients was made by a forward stepwise logistic model. A total of 157 subjects were included in the study. Of all the clinical tests, several tests in each category had high odds ratio, differentiating CLBP patients from controls. Only a few tests differentiated between CLBP and SLBP patients. The only clinical differences between SLBP patients and controls were in the mobility test and in one test of muscle tightness. The best predictor for CLBP was the lumbar spine flexion test. SLBP patients seemed to differ from the control group in lumbar flexion, in a specific anterior-posterior mobility test, and in tightness of hip flexor muscles. CLBP patients differed from SLBP patients in functional tests, in the presence of sensation in the feet, and in different pain provo cation tests. Whether these tests are sufficiently sensitive to classify a more specific diagnostic or clinical subgroup remains untested, and further studies with clinical tests to differentiate among pathological conditions are necessary.
Knowledge‐based organizations: perspectives from San Francisco Bay area companies

Recent literature discusses problems that organizations have had with the implementation of knowledge management programs and practices to support innovation. The article discusses findings from interviews with 50 human resource executives, staff, and consultants working for 20 San Francisco Bay area companies. A key finding was the importance of culture and other supportive infrastructure to successfully implement knowledge‐based programs and practices. Additional results from the interview data are summarized. A summary of Hewlett‐Packard Lab's experience with knowledge‐based change is discussed to amplify and provide perspective to the interview findings and the reviewed literature.
Football and dementia: A qualitative investigation of a community based sports group for men with early onset dementia

This study investigates the impact of a weekly group providing sport and physical activities for men with early onset dementia established by Notts County Football in the Community (NCFC). There were three aims: to investigate the effect of early onset dementia on individuals with the condition and their carers; to examine the perceptions of current levels of service provision for people with early onset dementia; and to analyse the impact of the group. Men with dementia (n = 5) attending the sessions, their carers (n = 5), NCFC coaching staff (n = 5) and people organizing/facilitating the sessions (n = 5) were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews explored the participants’ experiences of dementia, their opinions on current service provisions and on the sessions. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four main themes were found: loss related to the condition of dementia and its impact on relationships (‘Loss’); lack of age-appropriate services for people with early onset dementia (‘Lack of Resources’); enjoyment and positive anticipation related to the group for all involved (‘Enjoyment and Anticipation’); and ‘the Notts County Effect’ which attributed the success of the sessions to the strong brand of the football club, and to personalized service in a “dementia-free” environment. The NCFC sessions provided a safe low-cost intervention with positive effects upon quality of life for both people with early onset dementia, their carers and the staff involved. This suggests that the service may be valuable to a wider range of people living in different areas.
Avian genomics and the innate immune response to viruses

Viral diseases pose a significant threat to the poultry industry. However, there is currently a lack of antivirals and suitable vaccine adjuvants available to the poultry industry to combat this problem. The innate immune system is now recognised to be essential in the response to viral infection. However, in contrast to mammals, the innate immune response in chickens is relatively uncharacterised. The release of the full chicken genome sequence has accelerated the identification of genes involved in the immune response. The characterisation of these genes, including Toll-like receptors and cytokines has led to the identification of potential alternate antivirals and adjuvants.
Different aubergine alleles confirm the specificity of different RNAi pathways in Drosophila melanogaster

The crystal-Stellate system is one of the best-known example of heterochromatin-euchromatin interaction. The components of this system are homologous repetitive sequences clustered in three regions: 12E1 and h27 on the X, h11 on the Y. The symptom of a disrupted crystal-Stellate interaction is the presence of crystals in spermatocytes of males lacking the crystal region. Stellate silencing is based on the RNAi process. Many modifiers of this system have been isolated and many of these are involved in RNAi. One of these modifiers is auberginesting; this is a "gain of function" allele in somatic tissues. Here we report the different behavior of two aubergine alleles with respect to the RNAi pathway: aubsting and a "loss of function" heteroallelic combination aubHN/aubQC42. An increased amount of Aub interferes with the correct functioning of the somatic yellow hairpin RNAi, whereas the Aub reduction does not. We also demonstrate the different behavior of these alleles on the I trasposon silencing in ovaries. Intriguingly, both of these aubergine alleles do not silence the Stellate locus. We can conclude that the crystal-Stellate system reveals different RNAi pathways even though much still remains to be done to completely explain the molecular bases of the crystal-Stellate interaction.
Collective bargaining and the promotion of gender equality at work: opportunities and challenges for trade unions

Four areas are discussed to make the case for the importance of harnessing collective bargaining for the promotion of equality. These concern contemporary European developments; advantages of collective bargaining compared with other strategies for promoting equality in employment; the benefits which can accrue to unions from making a positive link between equality and collective bargaining, and the negative consequences of failing to make such a link. The article then discusses some of the issues which harnessing collective bargaining for equality promotion raises for trade unions. These concern the content and priorities of bargaining and the identity of negotiators and union power holders. I argue that an approach which seeks simply to 'add women on' to bargaining agendas and as union members is an inadequate one and that more radical change in trade unions is required.
SERCID: A Secure Mechanism for Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks

The unattended nature of wireless sensor networks makes them very vulnerable to malicious attacks. An adversary can physically compromise a subset of sensor nodes in a wireless sensor network to eavesdrop information. Due to some intrinsic features of wireless sensor network, it is difficult to perform efficient intrusion detection against malicious nodes in such a resource-restricted environment. In this paper, we propose a novel secure mechanism, SERCID for wireless sensor networks. The mechanism consists of a key-based secure routing algorithm and a counter-based intrusion detection algorithm. The approach is able to protect the data collection in a wireless sensor network even if there are malicious nodes in the network. The major contribution of our work is that we present an original approach to defend wireless sensor networks against both tampering and packet-dropping attacks, for the first time. We provide a relatively simple but reliable approach to support secure data collection in wireless sensor networks. Compared with existing research efforts, the proposed approach is easy to be implemented and performed in resource- constrained wireless sensor networks.
ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL — UNDERSTANDING THE FRONT-END AND BACK-END OF BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION

Business model innovation is becoming a central research topic in management. However, a lack of a common understanding of the nature of the business model leads to disregarding its multifaceted structure when analyzing the business model innovation process. This article proposes a more detailed understanding of the business model innovation process by drawing on existing knowledge from new product development literature and examining the front-end and the back-end of business model innovation of three leading Danish newspapers. We studied how changes introduced during the development of digital news production and delivery have affected key components of these business models, namely value creation, proposition, delivery and capture in the period 2002–2011. Our findings suggest the need to distinguish between front-end and back-end business model innovation processes, and to recognize the importance of organizational learning when incumbents are faced with disruptive technologies.