Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Legal, Political Science and Economics Approaches to Measuring Malapportionment: The U.S. House, the Senate and the Electoral College 1790–2010

We compare and contrast methods for measuring malapportionment from different disciplines: law, political science, and economics. For example, in political science, the comparative politics approach to measuring malapportionment has been in terms of an adaptation of standard measures of seats-votes discrepancy, such as the Loosemore-Hanby Index of Distortion. This approach examines malapportionment levels as a whole, taking into account the differences in each of the districts between the actual population and ideal population. In contrast, U.S. courts, and courts in many other countries, including Canada, France, and Germany, measure compliance with the one person, one vote standard using what is called the total population deviation, which looks only at the two extreme poles of malapportionment. In economics, the Gini index is the standard approach to measuring inequality; we adapted it to the malapportionment context. We demonstrate that which approach to measurement we take can dramatically affect some of the conclusions we reach, illustrating this point with data from the U.S. House, Senate, and Electoral College over the period 1790-2010. We demonstrate that the House and the Electoral College hardly malapportioned, regardless of which measure we use, while the level of malapportionment we observe in the Senate can depend on which measure we use.
Information Asymmetry with Heterogeneous Buyers and Sellers in the Housing Market

This study examines how heterogeneous traders on both sides of transactions behave in the housing market under information asymmetry. Two types of buyers, namely, informed and uninformed buyers, correspond to local and non-local buyers in the empirical tests. Non-local housing buyers in Hong Kong pay a 2.8% premium over local buyers in the second-hand market for housing units with similar observable attributes. We distinguish real estate developers from sellers in the second-hand market. The former has an incentive and ability to reduce information asymmetry by providing a quality guarantee on the building structure and signaling with brand name, none of which can be fulfilled by sellers in the second-hand market. Empirical results show that developers’ efforts to reduce information asymmetry allow them to fetch a higher price than sellers in the second-hand market, holding property characteristics constant. Such efforts are particularly valued by uninformed buyers as non-local buyers prefer to purchase in the first-hand market rather than in the second-hand market, especially when the problem of information asymmetry is serious.
Exhaustible Resources with Adjustment Costs: Spot and Futures Prices

We propose an equilibrium model of exhaustible resources in a comprehensive setting, including exploration, stochastic demand, and stochastic reserve, by extending the models in Pindyck (1980) and Anderson, Kellogg, and Salant (2018). The production adjustments can be quite general, e.g., sudden or gradual changes of the instantaneous production level. The model has three advantages: <br><br>(1) It can generate low elasticity of production but high elasticity of exploration with respect to prices for general exhaustible resources (e.g., coal, natural gas, etc.). <br><br>(2) In terms of spot prices, the combination of exploration and adjustment costs can significantly prolong the period of time that a spot price stays at the bottom, which explains why spot prices of many commodities can be quite low for a long time. <br><br>(3) In terms of futures prices, the model can explain some stylized facts observed in futures markets, such as backwardation, contango, Samuelson effect, and higher volatility conditional on backwardation.
Estimating Beta: The International Evidence

This paper examines different beta estimation methodologies for a large set of Developed and Emerging international markets. For all markets, estimators based on daily data outperform those based on monthly data. The optimal window length is surprisingly homogeneous, at roughly 12 months for Developed Markets, while tending to be somewhat longer for Emerging Markets. The best estimators include a double-shrinkage, a long memory (FI), and a simple combination approach. The FI model generally yields the best predictions for both Developed and Emerging Markets. For portfolio formation, the double-shrinkage, FI, and combination estimators also perform best.
Industry Electricity Price and Output Elasticities: An OECD & non-OECD Country Common Factor Dynamic Panel Analysis.

By employing dynamic panel models we estimate the price and output elasticities of aggregate industrial electricity demand for OECD and non-OECD countries. The unbalanced data span 1978-2016 and include 35 OECD/hi-income countries and 30 non-OECD/middle-income countries, and our dynamic panel estimates address nonstationarity, heterogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence. We believe these are the first such panel estimates for non-OECD countries and among the few such estimates for OECD countries to appear in the literature. The output elasticity for OECD countries typically was significantly below unity, around 0.5, and the price elasticity was in the range of -0.2 to -0.3 (and was statistically significant). For non-OECD countries, the output elasticity was greater than unity and was likely significantly larger than the output elasticity for OECD countries. Whereas, the price elasticity was small and insignificant for non-OECD countries.
Padrões Privados e a Governança Econômica Global - Caso Bonsucro (Private Standards and the Global Economic Governance - Bonsucro Case Study)

<b>Portuguese Abstract:</b>O presente artigo tem o objetivo de fazer uma análise de caso original sobre a certificação Bonsucro para elucidar o papel dos padrões privados em âmbito de comércio internacional de produtos sucroalcooleiros, sob a perspectiva da circulação de normas transnacionais e das relações jurídicas transnacionais. Para tanto, primeiramente introduz a temática de ordem jurídica transnacional e especificidades sobre a Bonsucro, em seguida aborda o tema tragédia dos comuns para elucidar que padrões privados como a Bonsucro podem ser uma das estratégias para driblar isso, articulando um novo institucionalismo, focado em governança. Ao final aponta alguns desafios que esse tipo de normatização pode acarretar. A metodologia escolhida foi o estudo de caso, com pesquisa documental, legislativa e bibliográfica. <b>English Abstract:</b> This article is a case study on the Bonsucro certification to elucidate the role of private standards in the international trade of sugar and alcohol products. The main scope is to highlight the circulation of transnational norms and the transnational legal relations. In order to do so, it first introduces the theme of transnational legal order and specificities it on the case Bonsucro, then it addresses the tragedy of common theme to argue that private standards such as Bonsucro can be one of the strategies to overcome this tragedy by articulating a new institutionalism focused on governance . At the end, it points out some of the challenges that this type of regulation may entail. The methodology chosen was the case study, with documentary, legislative and bibliographic research.
Thermal dependence of food assimilation and locomotor performance in juvenile blue-tailed skinks, Eumeces elegans

Variation in the physiological performance and behaviour of ectotherms as a result of changes in body temperature can affect important life-history traits. Studies investigating the effects of temperature on physiological performance and behaviour have thus clear ecological significance. We captured juvenile blue-tailed skinks, Eumeces elegans, from a population in Zhejiang, eastern China, and determined the effects of temperature on their food assimilation and locomotor performance. Food intake of the juveniles generally increased with increase in temperatures within the range of 24-30 ◦ C and decreased at higher temperatures. The temperature significantly affected the apparent digestive coefficient (ADC) and the assimilation efficiency (AE) of juveniles; the ADC and AE of the skinks at 32 ◦ C were higher than those of skinks at other temperatures. The sprint speed increased with increase in temperature within the range of 12-32 ◦ C and decreased at higher temperatures. These results suggest the patterns of thermal sensitivity may differ in various functional performances, and hence support the 'multiple optima hypothesis', which suggests that no specific temperature maximises all functional performance. In addition, this study indicates significant between-age difference in thermal physiology by comparing our data with those on adult skinks, including different thermal sensitivity of AE, and different ranges of thermal-performance breadth for food intake and locomotor performance between juvenile and adult E. elegans.
Can Big Data Cure Risk Selection in Healthcare Capitation Programs? A Game Theoretical Analysis

Early empirical evidence indicates that Medicare Advantage (MA), the largest capitation payment program in the U.S. healthcare market, unintentionally incentivizes health plans to cherry pick profitable patient types, which is referred to as "risk selection". Motivated by this observation, we study the root causes of risk selection in the MA market design and potential strategies to eliminate risk selection. The existing literature primarily attributes the observed risk selection in MA market to data limitations and low explanatory power (e.g. low R^2) of the current risk adjustment design in the MA market. With the availability of big data and advancements in machine learning (ML) techniques, risk selection due to imperfect risk adjustment is expected to gradually disappear from the MA market. However, our study shows that big data and ML alone cannot cure risk selection in the MA capitation program. More specifically, we show that even if the current MA risk adjustment design becomes informationally perfect (e.g. R^2=1) through availability of big data and advanced ML algorithms, health plans still have incentives to conduct risk selection through strategically subsidizing some subgroups of patients using capitation payments collected from other subgroups, which we call "risk selection induced by cross subsidization". Furthermore, we develop and present selection-proof capitation mechanisms to eliminate this type of risk selection behavior from the MA market. Our findings further indicate that through some small modifications to the existing Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) mechanism, risk selection of this kind could be eliminated from the MA market.
Características nutricionais da carne de cordeiros terminados com dietas contendo cana-de-açúcar ou silagem de milho e dois níveis de concentrado

The objective of this work was to evaluate nutritional characteristics of meat from lambs finished on feedlot with diets containing sugar cane or corn silage on two roughage:concentrate ratios (60:40 or 40:60). It was used 32 non castrated Ile de France lambs, with 15 kg of body weight distributed in a complete random experimental design in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. The animals were confined in individual stalls and slaughtered at 32 kg. Lamb meats had 74.55% of moisture, 19.61% of crude protein, 1.04% of ash and 51.28 mg/100g of cholesterol. Ether extract was greater in meat of lambs fed corn silage (3.97%) and in the meat of those animals which received more concentrate food (4.02%). Fatty acids at greater concentration in lamb meat were: C18:1w9 (37.93%), C16:0 (26.41%), C18:0 (17.09%), C14:0 (4.18%) and C18:2w6 (4.00%). The meat of lambs fed diets containing sugar cane had higher contents of C10:0 (0.47%) and C20:4w6 (4.17%), and lower contents of C16:1w7 (2.02%) and C18:3w3 (0.25%). Diet with greater amount of sugar cane (60%) promoted more contents of acids C15:0 (0.68%), C17:0 (2.13%) and C20:2 (1.34%) in the meat. Diets with sugar cane or more quantities of roughage (60%) promote lower deposition of fat in lamb meat. Type of roughage has more influence on fatty acid profile of lamb meat when compared to roughage:concentrate ratio of diets. Diets containing higher quantity of sugar cane originate lamb meat with greater concentrations of odd chain saturated fatty acids.
Ocorrência da macaúba em Minas Gerais: relação com atributos climáticos, pedológicos e vegetacionais

The objective of this work was to relate the occurrence of macauba (Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd. ex Martius) in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, to climatic, pedological and vegetation attributes. The State has three huge regions where macauba occurs: Alto Paranaiba, Zona Metalurgica, and Montes Claros. The Montes Claros region is relatively warmer and drier than the two others, although these regional macroclimatic differences do not limit the macauba occurrence. Within those regions, nine soil sequences were selected and sampled in the landscape, totalizing 27 soil profiles, being also registered the primitive vegetation in each case. The use of soil chemical and physical attributes allowed to discriminate the sets of landscape segments (sites) with and without macauba through the principal components analysis; the correlations with the chemical attributes were the most relevant. The macauba occurrence followed soil areas where the natural fertility was higher and where the primitive vegetation was forest, showing that the species advances as pioneer, avoiding extreme conditions of deficiencies of nutrients and water. The surveyed data evidence that in all cases the macauba occurrence only happened when the primitive vegetation is semideciduous forest.
The Effect of Shareholder Turnout on Voting Rights and Separation

We find that shareholder turnout at the general meeting of Norwegian public firms varies between 11% and 95%, being 59% on average. This turnout behavior implies that majority control requires less than one third of the average firm’s shares, and that attending shareholders vote for 1.7 times the shares they own. Turnout is higher when the largest shareholder is foreign, the firm is small, the debt is low, and option compensation is on the agenda. This evidence suggests that shareholders consider the general meeting a more important monitoring device the more serious the potential conflicts of interest in the firm.
Wolf predation risk associated with white-tailed deer movements

The survival of 159 yearling and adult deer (Odocoileus virginianus) was monitored by telemetry during 282 spring and 219 fall individual migrations to winter deeryards in northeastern Minnesota. A disproportionate number of deer were killed by wolves (Canis lupus) during fall migration relative to the short time they spent migrating, but not during spring migration. Predation was also significantly greater for male and female yearlings and adult females outside deeryards during winter. Survival of 79 yearlings dispersing from natal ranges was high (1.00). It appears that changing climatic conditions combined with unfamiliar terrain and undetermined factors predispose migratory deer to wolf predation during fall. These findings support an earlier hypothesis that winter yarding is an antipredator strategy.
Embryonic Development of Bhakur Catla catla Hamilton 1822 (Cyprinidae)

The present study was carried out to investigate the embryonic development of Bhakur, Catla catla . The incubation period of Bhakur was found to be 13 hrs of post fertilization at 30±1 o C of water temperature. The present work generated some important information on the early life history and developmental stages of Bhakur in Nepal. This study will help the fishery biologist in understanding the developmental biology of the fish, which might be of great use to take appropriate steps for the sustainable development of the culture, management, and production of indigenous breeds required for fish culture in Nepal climatic condition. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3126/on.v12i1. 12257 Our Nature (2014), 12(1):49-53
Dynamic Effects of Exchange Rates and Foreign Price Inflation: Evidence From Thai

In an attempt to maintain a stable exchange rate and price level in Thailand given shocks from the United States, China, Euro Area, and Japan; the top five trading partners of Thailand, this study employs the system equations of VAR model techniques. Results show that the interest rates, demand shocks, and foreign prices affect the stability of the Thailand exchange rates and price levels. More so, empirical evidences validate the existence of unidirectional causality between Thailand exchange rate and domestic (as well as foreign) price inflation.
Stromal stem cells from parathyroid glands of patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism demonstrate higher telomerase activity and osteogenic differentiation ability than normal bone marrow derived stromal stem cells.

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author EK was involved in the study conception and design of the study. Authors EK and GD had role in the analysis and interpretation of data, and drafting of the manuscript. Author SA had contributions in the study conception and design. Authors AA and ZSU helped in the acquisition of data, and authors MA and GA in critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. ABSTRACT Aims: The aim of this study was to isolate and extensively characterize parathyroid gland stem cells (PT-SCs) from secondary hyperparathyroidism cases. For this purpose, proliferation capacity, phenotypic properties, differentiation characteristics and gene expression profiles were analyzed and compared with mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow (BM-MSCs) of the human. Methods: Stem cells isolated from PT and BM were analyzed by flow cytometry, RT-PCR, Real Time-PCR, and immunocytochemistry. Both cell lines were directionally differentiated towards adipogenic, osteogenic and neurogenic cell lineages. Results: The isolated hPT-SCs share similar characteristics of hBM-MSCs by immunophenotypic, histological and molecular analyses. Both cells were shown to differentiate successfully into adipogenic and osteogenic cell lines. Embryonic stem cell markers Pou5F1, Zpf42, FoxD3, Sox2 and Nanog were also expressed beside 5 fold higher telomerase activity in hPT-SCs that could indicate the regenerative ability of the human parathyroid gland. The osteogenic cell markers were expressed by hPT-SCs, which transformed efficiently into osteogenic cell lines, both at the level of genes (BMP2, BMP4, BGLAP, Coll11a1, Runx2, Sparc) and of proteins (BMP2, BMP4, Osteocalcin, Osteonectin, Osteopontin). Higher alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity indicating osteogenic differentiation was determined in hPT-SCs from secondary hyperparathyroidism patients. Conclusion: PT-SCs might responsible for the calcified parathyroid glands and other ectopic calcifications including the vascular ones, observed in the secondary hyperparathyroidism cases, beside parathyroid hormone-dependent hypercalcemia leading diffusion of calcium phosphate precipitation in tissues.
NONLINEAR RISK

This paper analyzes the joint time-series properties of the level and volatility of expected excess stock returns. An unobservable dynamic factor is constructed as a nonlinear proxy for the market risk premia with its first moment and conditional volatility driven by a latent Markov variable. The model allows for the possibility that the risk–return relationship may not be constant across the Markov states or over time. We find an overall negative contemporaneous relationship between the conditional expectation and variance of the monthly value-weighted excess return. However, the sign of the correlation is not stable, but instead varies according to the stage of the business cycle. In particular, around the beginning of recessions, volatility rises substantially, reflecting great uncertainty associated with these periods, while expected return falls, anticipating a decline in earnings. Thus, around economic peaks there is a negative relationship between conditional expectation and variance. However, toward the end of a recession expected return is at its highest value as an anticipation of the economic recovery, and volatility is still very high in anticipation of the end of the contraction. That is, the risk–return relation is positive around business-cycle troughs. This time-varying behavior also holds for noncontemporaneous correlations of these two conditional moments.
What is the "true" internal environment of halophilic and other bacteria?

This article presents facts about, speculations on, and possible ways of determining the actual intracellular ionic environment of halophilic microorganisms and those that live in other extreme conditions. It suggests that halophilic archaebacteria have a truly salty internal environment (though one in which water and salts might well have limited freedom), whereas halophilic and salt-tolerant eubacteria may have salty external environments but much less salty internal ones.
Performance Evaluation: Subjectivity, Bias and Judgement Style in Sport Data

The number of situations that require individual judgements and evaluations, and that can be object of different sources of conscious and unconscious biases is endless. This paper proposes a practical scores aggregation procedure that attempts to reduce and mitigate the influence of bias in subjective judgements. The argument is based on the idea that bias is associated with deviations from the panel mean and/or deviations from the judge grading style. Consequently, the procedure is not specific to a particular type of bias (e.g., nationalistic or reputation bias), but it addresses general forms of bias. We also discuss a set of desirable properties. The proposed scores aggregation procedure is then applied to a unique data set from the 2000 Summer Olympic Games diving competition. The proposed procedure captures the possibility of bias by adjusting the gap of scores between divers.
Guidelines for the Description of New Species of Lower Trypanosomatids1

Morphological, cultural, and biochemical criteria that have been used in describing lower trypanosomatids, genera Blastocrithidia, Crithidia, Leptomonas, Herpetomonas, Rhynchoidomonas, and Phytomonas are reviewed. Kinetoplast structure, carbohydrate utilization, electrophoretic mobilities of isoenzymes, and kDNA fingerprinting are among the recommended criteria for species differentiation. Temperature, pH, and osmolarity tolerance are useful growth parameters. Generic placement may be assisted by the determination of nitrogenous excretion products and ornithine-arginine cycle enzymes.
Political Views and Corporate Decision-Making: the Case of Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and political beliefs in the United States. By analyzing the 2004 presidential election results of communities in which corporate headquarters are located, we establish a correlation between the political beliefs of corporate stakeholders and the CSR rating of their firms. Companies with a high CSR rating tend to be located in Democratic, or "blue" states and counties, while companies with a low CSR rating tend to be located in Republican, or "red" states and counties.
Conceptual Issues in Developing Return on Investment Estimates of Vocational Rehabilitation Programs

We provide an overview of the basic conceptual issues involved in estimating the return on investment (ROI) of state vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs. Our aim is to highlight some of the key issues in ROI evaluations, especially those associated with estimating the benefits and costs of VR. Finally, we discuss different ways of implementing ROI calculations and suggest that rate of return type analysis is appealing for VR evaluations where there is no widely accepted discount rate.