bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Bilateral Free Trade Agreements on Bilateral Foreign Direct Investment among Developed Countries
Authors: Jang Yong Joon 
Published: September 2011

AbstractPrevious studies find that a trade treaty positively impacts foreign direct investment (FDI). But does a trade treaty always have positive effects on FDI? What is the effect of bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) on bilateral FDI among developed countries? Based on the Knowledge‐Capital model, I hypothesize that bilateral FTA has negative effects on bilateral FDI in developed–developed country pairs, but positive effects in developed–developing country pairs. To test this hypothesis empirically, I conduct the within estimator, the Difference‐in‐Difference estimator and the Arellano–Bond estimator with panel data of bilateral FTA and outward FDI in 30 OECD countries and 32 non‐OECD countries between 1982 and 2005. The result supports the hypothesis. The existence of bilateral FTA decreases bilateral FDI in the OECD–OECD country pairs but increases bilateral outward FDI in the OECD–non‐OECD country pairs. The finding of negative effects of bilateral FTA on FDI is robust to different country classifications by gross national income (GNI) per capita and secondary school enrolment. Hence, the results are consistent with what Carr et al. (2001) predicts about the effects of trade cost on FDI in developed–developed country pairs and in developed–developing country pairs.
Markups, Bargaining Power and Offshoring: An Empirical Assessment1
Authors: Moreno Lourdes , Rodríguez Diego 
Published: September 2011

AbstractThis paper tests the pro‐competitive effect of imports on product and labour markets for Spanish manufacturing firms in the period 1990–2005. In doing so, it takes into account the type of imported products: final versus intermediate. Markups are estimated following the procedure suggested by Roeger and including an efficient bargaining model. The observed heterogeneity among firms is parametised to consider additional product standardisation and market concentration. The results support the imports as market discipline hypothesis for importers of final goods, while firms that offshore intermediate inputs show similar markups to nonimporters. Additionally, the union bargaining power is smaller for importers and the more homogeneous is the type of goods elaborated by firms.
China’s Macroeconomic Imbalances: Causes and Consequences
Authors: Knight John , Wang Wei 
Published: September 2011

AbstractIn recent years, China has experienced two forms of extreme macroeconomic imbalance: an expenditure imbalance in the sense of very high investment and very low consumption, giving rise to rapid capital accumulation; and an imbalance between expenditure and production, producing external imbalance, i.e. a huge surplus on the current account of the balance of payments. Both imbalances imply a low rate of time discount by both government and society: consumption in the present is forgone in favour of consumption in the future. The paper examines how these imbalances came about and goes on to consider whether they can be sustained and how they might be redressed. There is no evidence that the rapid capital accumulation has reduced the rate of profit on capital and thus the incentive to invest. However, persistent external imbalance poses a threat to investment if it generates excess liquidity and asset bubbles. The current account surplus rose remarkably in the years 2004–07. This was associated with exogenous increases in competiveness and in saving, both attributable to the economic reform policies. On current policies, the surplus is likely to rise again once the world economy recovers from its recession. This poses three sorts of problems, each of which is examined in turn: difficulties for macroeconomic stabilisation policies; risk of capital loss on the foreign exchange holdings; and the threat of retaliation by China’s trading partners. A combination of internal and external policies will be required to redress the imbalance.
Voting on Punishment Systems within a Heterogeneous Group
Authors: NOUSSAIR CHARLES N. , TAN FANGFANG 
Published: September 2011

AbstractWe consider a voluntary contributions game, in which players may punish others after contributions are made and observed. The productivity of contributions, as captured in the marginal‐per‐capita return, differs among individuals, so that there are two types: high and low productivity. Every two or eight periods, depending on the treatment, individuals vote on a punishment regime, in which certain individuals are permitted, but not required, to have punishment directed toward them. The punishment system can condition on type and contribution history. The results indicate that the most effective regime, in terms of contributions and earnings, is one that allows punishment of low contributors only, regardless of productivity. Nevertheless, only a minority of sessions converge to this system, indicating a tendency for the voting process to lead to suboptimal institutional choice.
Global Security Policies against Terrorism and the Free Riding Problem: An Experimental Approach
Authors: COLOMBIER NATHALIE , MASCLET DAVID , MIRZA DANIEL , MONTMARQUETTE CLAUDE 
Published: September 2011

AbstractThe World Trade Center attack has shed light on the urgent need to implement preventing measures against terrorism and to enhance cooperation in the global security system for all countries. However, international coordination cannot be taken for granted. It is often ineffective and likely to fail for several reasons. Perhaps the more prominent reason to explain failure in coordination is that collective actions against terrorism may suffer from the well‐known free riding problem. In this paper we experimentally investigate cooperation dilemma in counterterrorism policies by measuring to what extent international deterrence policy may suffer from free riding. In our game, contributions to the group account do not aim to increase the production of the public good but instead seek to decrease the probability that a stochastic event destroys the good. A country could choose to free ride by investing nothing in the international deterrence policy and instead invest all its resources in its own national protection or even choose to ignore totally terrorism by investing on alternative projects. We also look at the effects of institutions that allow sanctioning and rewarding of other countries to facilitate coordination on deterrence policy. We find that, in absence of institutional incentives and after controlling for risk aversion, most of countries defect by investing very weakly in collective actions against terrorism while largely investing to protect themselves. In contrast, the introduction of punishment/reward incentive systems improves significantly the contribution level to the collective security account.
Breaking Collusion in Auctions through Speculation: An Experiment on CO2 Emission Permit Markets
Authors: MOUGEOT MICHEL , NAEGELEN FLORENCE , PELLOUX BENJAMIN , RULLIÈRE JEAN‐LOUIS 
Published: September 2011

AbstractThe European Emission Trading Scheme (EU‐ETS) has chosen to adopt an auctioning procedure to initially allocate CO2 emission permits. Free allocation of permits will become an exception for the third phase (2013–2020) and most firms will have to buy all their permits on the market or via auctions. The ability of bidders to collude is a key concern about the design of the auction format. To counter collusion, the auction can be open to bidders without compliance obligations (speculators). This paper aims at studying experimentally speculation as a collusion‐breaking device in two different auction mechanisms: the uniform‐price sealed‐bid auction and the ascending clock auction. Our results suggest that a uniform sealed‐bid auction open to speculators should be chosen from a revenue maximization point of view. In this mechanism, compliance agents adopt an aggressive strategy toward speculators. This strategy significantly increases the seller's revenue, compared to the more collusive clock auction. In the latter, on the contrary, bidders accommodate speculators, letting them buy permits in the auction and buying their necessary permits on the secondary market. However, as opening the auction to speculators deteriorates efficiency, the regulator faces a trade‐off between these two objectives.
From the Evening‐Land to the Wild East: Symbolic Geography in Three Poems by Georg Trakl
Authors: Millington Richard 
Published: September 2011

ABSTRACTAlthough the historical crisis of ‘Western civilisation’ in the period preceding and during the First World War is one of the dominant themes of Expressionist poetry, the terms of East‐West discourse itself seldom feature in its diction, a circumstance that can be related to the movement's universalistic assumptions. Two exceptions to this rule are Georg Trakl's poems ‘Abendländisches Lied’ and ‘Abendland’, in which the poet exploits the time‐space juncture implicit in the compound ‘Abendland’ for his own thematic purposes. The association established in these titles between a culturally loaded space and evening provides the basis for Trakl's articulation of visions of natural and historical decline that within the poems themselves are figured concurrently on several time‐scales: diurnal, seasonal and cultural‐historical. By contrast, the lack of any equivalent association in the title of another poem, ‘Im Osten’, prefigures its portrayal of a sudden and dramatic evacuation of culture from the space it designates. A comparative reading of these three poems reveals not only to what extent and in what ways Trakl poetically revalorises familiar terms of symbolic geography, but also which semantic nuances the terms themselves carried within the context of the late Habsburg Empire.Obwohl die historische Krise der ‘westlichen Zivilisation’ in der Epoche des Ersten Weltkriegs sowie auch in den Jahren davor zu den Leitthemen der expressionistischen Lyrik gehört, spielt der Ost‐West‐Diskurs in den Texten selbst lexikalisch nur selten eine wichtige Rolle, was als Folge der universalistischen Ansprüche des Expressionismus gedeutet werden kann. Zwei Ausnahmen von dieser Regel bilden Georg Trakls Gedichte ‘Abendländisches Lied’ und ‘Abendland’, in denen der Dichter die implizite Raum‐Zeitverbindung in der Zusammensetzung ‘Abendland’ für eigene thematische Zwecke nutzt. Die in beiden Titeln evozierte Assoziation zwischen einem kulturell besetzten Raum und der Tageszeit ‘Abend’ dient Trakl als Basis für den Ausdruck seiner Visionen von natürlichem und historischem Untergang, die sich in den Gedichten selbst gleichzeitig auf mehreren zeitlichen Ebenen abspielen: tageszeitlich, jahreszeitlich und kulturell‐historisch. Im Gegensatz dazu deutet das Fehlen einer entsprechenden Assoziation im Titel des Gedichtes ‘Im Osten’ auf seine Schilderung einer plötzlichen und dramatischen kulturellen Entleerung des im Titel bezeichneten Raumes hin. Durch eine vergleichende Lektüre dieser drei Gedichte wird deutlich, nicht nur inwiefern und in welcher Weise Trakl vertraute Begriffe der symbolischen Geografie poetisch neu bewertet, sondern auch welche Bedeutungsnuancen die Begriffe selbst im Kontext der späten Habsburgermonarchie hatten.
Achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 in Bangladesh
Authors: Chowdhury S , Banu LA , Chowdhury TA , Rubayet S , Khatoon S 
Published: September 2011

Please cite this paper as: Chowdhury S, Banu LA, Chowdhury TA, Rubayet S, Khatoon S. Achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 in Bangladesh. BJOG 2011;118 (Suppl. 2):36–46.Bangladesh has made commendable progress in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5. Since 1990, there has been a remarkable reduction in maternal and child mortality, with an estimated 57% reduction in child mortality and 66% in maternal mortality. This review highlights that, whereas Bangladesh is on track for achieving MDG 4 and 5A, progress in universal access to reproductive health (5B) is not yet at the required pace to achieve the targets set for 2015. In addition, Bangladesh needs to further enhance activities to improve newborn health and promote skilled attendance at birth.
Achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 in Sri Lanka
Authors: Senanayake H , Goonewardene M , Ranatunga A , Hattotuwa R , Amarasekera S , Amarasinghe I 
Published: September 2011

Please cite this paper as: Senanayake H, Goonewardene M, Ranatunga A, Hattotuwa R, Amarasekera S, Amarasinghe I. Achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 in Sri Lanka. BJOG 2011;118 (Suppl. 2):78–87.Sri Lanka has an exemplary record in maternal and child health care. Provision of free education for over 60 years has helped to empower women. Medical care is accessible and provided free of charge. The maternal mortality ratio and the other indices of maternal and neonatal health have shown uninterrupted improvement since 1930. Midwives and the policy to increase their presence has been the key to success. Public health midwives provide care at the doorstep. Institutional midwives carry out the vast majority of deliveries, of which 99% occur in hospitals. Although on target with the Millennium Development Goals, some challenges that still remain are maternal death from postpartum haemorrhage and unsafe abortion, and perinatal deaths due to congenital abnormalities and prematurity.
Dying to give birth: the Pakistan Liaison Committee’s strategies to improve maternal health in Pakistan
Authors: Siddiqui GK , Hussein R , Dornan JC 
Published: September 2011

Please cite this paper as: Siddiqui G, Hussein R, Dornan J. Dying to give birth: the Pakistan Liaison Committee’s strategies to improve maternal health in Pakistan. BJOG 2011; 118 (Suppl. 2): 96–99.Pakistan has one of the worst maternal mortality ratios worldwide: 260–490 women die for every 100 000 live births in Pakistan. The Pakistan Liaison Group (PLG) was formed to work with and through the international office of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). It works with the RCOG representative committee in Pakistan to improve the health of women. It aims to contribute to improving maternal morbidity and mortality through strategies directed at improving the education and training of health professionals. In addition, the PLG aims to promote changes in the legislature to allow for the notification of maternal deaths so that accurate figures can be obtained, and so that health parameters can be accurately assessed and, in the long term, a confidential enquiry into maternal deaths can be initiated.
Achieving millennium development goals 4 and 5: a snapshot of life in rural India
Authors: Mullick SS , Serle E 
Published: September 2011

Please cite this paper as: Mullick SS, Serle E. Achieving millennium development goals 4 and 5: a snapshot of life in rural India. BJOG 2011;118 (Suppl. 2):104–107.The case studies presented here illustrate the poignant reality of life for mothers and children in rural India. We highlight the challenges of achieving millennium development goals (MDGs) 4 and 5, by exploring the reasons behind maternal and childhood mortality using the three‐delays model as a framework. Gender disparities, lack of empowerment of women, poor understanding of life‐threatening illness, the inability to know when and where to seek help, security issues, deficiencies in understanding cultural perceptions, poorly equipped health facilities and a lack of skilled personnel are all highlighted.
The effect of boric acid on acethylcholine, bethanechol and potasssium‐evoked responses on ileum of rat
Authors: Ince S. , Turkmen R. , Yavuz H. 
Published: September 2011

Summary1 The aim of this study was to clarify the effect of boric acid on contractions of rat isolated ileum.2 Contractile responses expressed as Emax and pD2 for acetylcholine (10−3–10−8 m, Ach), bethanechol (10−3–10−8 m) and potassium (10–80 × 10−3 m, KCl) were determined in the absence and presence of boric acid (10−3; 5 × 10−4; 10−4 m).3 The contractile response to Ach in the presence of verapamil (10−6 or 10−8 m) or in calcium‐free Tyrode’s solution was also determined in the absence and presence of boric acid.4 Boric acid did not affect the contractile response to Ach, bethanechol or KCl. Single or cumulative treatment of boric acid did not affect ileum muscle contraction evoked by KCl. The atropine‐resistant component of Ach‐induced contraction and 4‐diphenyl‐acetoxy‐N‐methyl‐piperidine methiodide‐resistant component of bethanechol‐induced contraction were not inhibited by boric acid (10−3 m). The contractile response to Ach was reduced in calcium‐free Tyrode’s solution, and the contractile response was not affected by (10−8 m). The addition of boric acid (10−3 m) in combination with verapamil (10−8 m) did not significantly affect the contractile response to Ach.5 In conclusion, boric acid does not affect contractions induced by Ach, bethanechol or potassium in rat isolated ileum.
Ontogeny of the eodiscoid trilobite Tsunyidiscus acutus from the Lower Cambrian of South China
Authors: DAI TAO , ZHANG XINGLIANG 
Published: September 2011

Abstract:  The morphology and ontogeny of the eodiscid trilobite Tsunyidiscus acutus Sun is described on the basis of numerous calcified specimens collected from the Lower Cambrian Shuijingtuo Formation in Yichang and Changyang, Hubei Province, South China. An ontogenetic series is established based on the articulated material including the previously unknown protaspides and meraspides (degrees 0 and 1). The material, revealing some prominent morphological changes such as the number of pygidial axial rings, genal spines retained throughout ontogeny and pygidial pleurae from furrowed to unfurrowed, enables a discussion on the trunk segmentation schedule, indicating that somitogenesis and tagmosis occurred independently during the ontogenetic development of T. acutus.
Estimation of Disease Incidence in Claims Data Dependent on the Length of Follow‐Up: A Methodological Approach
Authors: Abbas Sasch , Ihle Peter , Köster Ingrid , Schubert Ingrid 
Published: September 2011

ObjectiveTo analyze the impact of the length of disease‐free intervals on incidence estimation.Data SourceStatutory health insurance sample in Germany.Study DesignOverestimation of the incidence in the first quarter of 2008 for three selected diseases, diabetes mellitus, colorectal cancer, and heart failure, depending on different lengths of preceding disease‐free intervals.Data Collection/Extraction MethodsContinuously insured from 2000 until 2008 ≥18 years (N = 144,907).Principal FindingsCompared with an 8‐year disease‐free period, incidence overestimations for diabetes, colorectal cancer, and heart failure were 40, 23, and 43 percent defining a 1‐year, and 5, 9, and 5 percent defining a 5‐year disease‐free period, respectively.ConclusionsDepending on the specific disease, caution has to be taken while using short disease‐free periods because incidence estimates may be extremely overestimated.
TNF‐α‐induces airway hyperresponsiveness to cholinergic stimulation in guinea pig airways
Authors: Makwana R , Gozzard N , Spina D , Page C 
Published: September 2011

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE TNF‐α is an inflammatory cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma and it causes airway inflammation, bronchoconstriction and airway hyperresponsiveness to a number of spasmogens following inhalation.EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH We compared contractions of guinea pig isolated trachea incubated with saline or TNF‐α for 1, 2 or 4 days to electrical field stimulation (EFS), 5‐HT or methacholine. In addition, we compared bronchoconstriction in anaesthetized guinea pigs 6 h after intratracheal instillation of saline or TNF‐α to vagal nerve stimulation, i.v. 5‐HT or methacholine. Differential counts were performed on the bronchoalvelolar lavage fluid (BALF).KEY RESULTS Maximum contractions to methacholine, 5‐HT and EFS were not different between freshly prepared and saline‐incubated tissues. Exposure to TNF‐α concentration‐dependently potentiated contractions to 5‐HT and EFS, but not methacholine. All contractions were atropine‐sensitive, but not hexamethonium‐sensitive. 5‐HT‐evoked contractions were inhibited by ketanserin or epithelial denudation. Only EFS‐evoked contractions were tetrodotoxin‐sensitive. Vagal stimulation, i.v. 5‐HT or MCh caused a significant atropine‐sensitive, frequency‐ and dose‐dependent bronchoconstriction and decreased blood pressure similarly in both saline and TNF‐α pre‐treated animals. TNF‐α potentiated the bronchoconstriction to vagal stimulation and 5‐HT, but not MCh. The BALF from saline‐treated animals contained predominantly macrophages, whereas that from TNF‐α–treated animals contained neutrophils.CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS TNF‐α caused airway hyperresponsiveness to nerve stimulation in vivo and increased contractility in vitro. However, responsiveness to MCh was unchanged, suggesting a pre‐synaptic action of TNF‐α on parasympathetic nerves. TNF‐α‐induced airway hyperresponsiveness to 5‐HT suggested an increased 5‐HT2A receptor‐mediated acetylcholine release from epithelial cells.
Characterization of six microsatellite loci in the mangrove cricket Apteronemobius asahinai
Authors: SATOH Aya , YAMAMOTO Satoshi , HAYAISHI Shuhei , SOTA Teiji 
Published: September 2011

AbstractThe mangrove cricket Apteronemobius asahinai is endemic to mangrove forest floors in China, Southeast Asia and the Ryukyu archipelago (Amamiohsima, Okinawa, Miyako, Ishigaki and Iriomote Islands) of Japan. We developed six polymorphic microsatellite markers for the mangrove cricket from genomic DNA libraries enriched for CA, GA, AAG and ATG motifs. The M13‐tailed primer method was used in the process of screening of amplification and polymorphism of primers. A total of 64 specimens from two populations (one from Okinawa and the other from Iriomote) were genotyped for allelic diversity. The average number of alleles per locus was 4.67 and 6.67 for Okinawa and Iriomote populations, respectively. A significant genetic differentiation was detected between the two populations (pairwise FST 0.2404). These polymorphic microsatellite loci will be useful in ongoing studies of the population genetic structure of the mangrove cricket including several populations in the Ryukyu archipelago.
Seasonal changes in seaweed deposition, seaweed fly abundance, and parasitism at the pupal stage along sandy beaches in central Japan
Authors: YAMAZAKI Kazuo 
Published: September 2011

AbstractSeasonal relationships among stranded wrack quantity, seaweed fly abundances, and parasitism at the pupal stage were studied along three sandy beaches in central Japan. The seasonal occurrence patterns of puparia of seaweed flies Coelopa frigida and Fucellia spp. generally corresponded to seaweed deposition, which peaked in May–July and October–December. Parasitoids use fly puparia in these seasons. However, the occurrence of seaweed flies and their parasitoids varied among the three sandy beaches and did not correspond to the wrack amounts. These findings suggest that populations of seaweed flies and their parasitoids are seasonally, but not spatially, regulated by bottom‐up processes. The parasitoid assemblage of fly puparia was composed of two Aleochara (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), two Trichopria (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae), and five pteromalid species (Hymenoptera), but the rate of parasitism was less than 20% and might have had little effect on fly populations.
Tetrastichine aphid hyperparasitoids (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) in Japan
Authors: TAKADA Hajimu , KAMIJO Kazuaki 
Published: September 2011

AbstractA small collection of aphid hyperparasitic species of Tetrastichinae obtained by rearing mummified aphids in Japan were examined. In addition to the two already known species, three more species were confirmed to occur in Japan. A key to these five Japanese species and their hosts (primary parasitoids, aphids and plants) are provided. The modes of hyperparasitism and host associations of tetrastichine aphid hyperparasitoids are discussed.