bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Taxation of the Global Arms Trade? An Overview of the Issues
Authors: Brzoska Michael 
Published: May 2004

SummaryA number of proposals for a tax on the international trade with weapons have been made during the last 25 years, most recently prior to the G‐8 summit in Lyon, France, in June 2003. Originally, the major objectives were both to reduce the level of trade in arms and raise money for purposes such as development and disarmament. Later proposals included the compensation of victims of the use of specific types of weapons. Various objections have been raised against the suggestions for an international arms trade tax. Major points include the difficulties of achieving sufficient levels of compliance, tax evasion through increases in domestic production and a stimulation of the illicit trade in arms. There are also fundamental objections against demeritorizing arms transfers only, and not also domestic production of arms. In order for an international arms trade tax to work, the level of transparency in the international arms trade would need to increase. A major part of the tax burden would be borne by buyers of arms, who are predominantly developing countries. However, these are currently also major beneficiaries of large‐scale subsidies on arms exports. An international arms trade tax will lead, using available estimates of price elasticities, to an increase in expenditures on arms import. Transfers from a fund fed by an arms trade tax should be spent in those countries which substantially reduce their spending on arms imports. In general, an arms trade tax makes more sense as a measure for disarmament than as a measure for development.
The Price of Bodies: A Hedonic Pricing Model of Avatar Attributes in a Synthetic World
Authors: Castronova Edward 
Published: May 2004

SummaryThis paper explores a unique new source of social valuation: a market for bodies. The internet hosts a number of large synthetic worlds which users can visit by piloting a computer‐generated body, known as an avatar. Avatars can have an asset value, in that users can spend time to increase their skills; these asset values can be directly observed in online markets. Auction data for avatars from the synthetic fantasy world of EverQuest are used here to explore a number of questions involving the relative value of different body characteristics. Hedonic analysis of the auction price data suggests that the ‘level’, a game‐design metric that indicates the overall functionality or power of the avatar, is by far the most important attribute of the body. Other attributes that show significant price effects include: sex and class (i.e. being a wizard rather than warrior type of character). The male‐female price difference is interesting because there are actually no sex‐based differences in the abilities of the avatar bodies, by design. Price differences here must be caused by some other aspect of buyer preferences, ones unrelated to power or functionality of the avatar itself.
What Do We Know about Ourselves? on the Economics of Economics
Authors: Coupé Tom 
Published: May 2004

SummarySince quite some time, economists have been aware of the fact that also the behavior of economists generates questions that need to be answered. Why, for example, do economists use an alphabetic ordering of names when they co‐author an article? And what determines the success of an academic economist? Or, how does studying economics affect behavior? At the same time, economists have also noticed that the economics profession generates data that can be used to test theoretical ideas proposed by economists. In this paper, the author gives an overview of such research that takes economists and their behavior as a subject of study. He will focus on three topics: the education of economists, the publication habits of economists and the labor market of economists.
Take or Leave? Distribution in Asymmetric One‐Off Conflict
Authors: de Jasay Anthony , Güth Werner , Kliemt Hartmut , Ockenfels Axel 
Published: May 2004

SummaryMost social scientists' views of conflict and cooperation in society are shaped by very elementary, one‐off, two by two symmetric simultaneous move games like prisoner's dilemma, chicken, assurance or stag hunt. We think that this diet of examples leads to biased accounts in particular of distributional conflict, and therefore suggest that asymmetry in payoffs and move structure be taken into account systematically. In this paper a new paradigm of asymmetric games to study basic distributional conflicts is introduced, illustrated numerically and discussed theoretically. The results of exploratory experiments on the empirical side of the matter are also reported.
Quality of Government Services and the Civic Duty to Pay Taxes in the Czech and Slovak Republics, and other Transition Countries
Authors: Hanousek Jan , Palda Filip 
Published: May 2004

SummaryThis paper analyses a 2002 survey of the Czech and Slovak Republics, and more limited surveys of Hungary and Poland to conclude that tax evasion is lowest among those who believe that they are getting good quality government services for the taxes they pay. A 20% increase in perceived quality of government services could lead to a 13% drop in the frequency of tax evasion. The present analysis is the first of this sort to indicate that quality of government services influences the willingness to pay taxes. Governments in transition countries who suffer from weak tax collection apparatus may wish to transmit clear information on the quality of their services in order to cut down on evasion.
Industry Matters for Poverty: A Critique of Agricultural Fundamentalism
Authors: Hasan Rana , Quibria M. G. 
Published: May 2004

SummaryWe use a recently constructed cross‐country data set on absolute poverty to examine whether there is regional and sectoral variation in the relationship between poverty and economic growth. We find that the poverty‐growth linkage is strongest in East Asia and that this linkage is essentially driven by growth in the industrial sector. By contrast, industrial growth has had little positive impact on poverty reduction in any other region. These findings are consistent with the notion that East Asia's greater success in poverty reduction lies in its greater openness and market orientation, which created a pattern of labor‐intensive industrial growth that led to a rapid growth in employment and poverty reduction.
The Euro Cash Changeover Process
Authors: Stenkula Mikael 
Published: May 2004

SummaryThis article describes and analyzes the Euro cash changeover process. The European Monetary Union, EMU, is a unique event in history, although other monetary unions were formed and existed long before. Still, this giant experiment makes it possible to study changes in the monetary environment from a unique and new position. The article tries to find factors that can help to explain the different pace of transition between the countries participating in the third stage of the EMU. Even though it was common knowledge that the national currency would lose its status as legal tender at a predetermined point in time, the speed of acceptance of the new monetary standard could not be directly controlled by the relevant authorities. Hence, the whole changeover process was formed as much by the authorities as by the public. The paper focuses on four types of factors that may help to explain the differences in the pace of transition pattern between the countries: network related reasons, technical and logistic reasons, characteristics of the financial and payment systems and psychological reasons. It is found that the initial supply of Euro bank notes (so‐called frontloading), the size of the population of the country, the length of the period when the national currency and Euro bank notes were used side by side, and the number of bank branches (per capita) together can help to explain a large part of the variation in the pace of adoption of the new monetary standard across the countries. The first two of these factors support the idea that currency is a network good. Psychological factors, such as nationalism, have not been found to significantly influence the outcome.
The Economics of the FIFA Football Worldcup
Authors: Torgler Benno 
Published: May 2004

SummaryThe expansion of economics to ‘non‐market topics’ has received increased attention in recent years. The economics of sports (football) is such a sub‐field. This paper reports empirical evidence of team and referee performances in the FIFA World Cup 2002. The results reveal that being a hosting nation has a significant impact on the probability of winning a game. Furthermore, the strength of a team measured with the FIFA World Ranking does not play the important role presumed, which indicates that the element of uncertainty is working. The findings also indicate that the influence of a referee on the game result should not be neglected. Finally, the previous World Cup experiences seem to have the strongest impact on referees' performances during the game.
On Re‐Orientalizing the Indian Novel: A Case Study of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance
Authors: Almond Ian 
Published: May 2004

This study of Rohinton Mistry's recent novel A Fine Balance offers an interpretation of the novel's central themes of resistance and resignation in the light of an earlier Indian classic, Mulk Raj Anand's 1935 work Untouchable, and in particular concentrates on the Yeatsian influence present in the novel, beginning with its title. In contrast to Anand's work, where the British and the caste‐system are revealed to be the key perpetrators of the protagonists’ sufferings, there is no single source of evil responsible for the myriad difficulties Mistry's characters suffer. The influence of Yeats and in particular his concept of the calm, stoic East, re‐orientalizes Mistry's text in quite an unexpected way. A Westerner's understanding of the East as the antithesis of tragedy seeps into the novel, offering an almost mystical alternative to the bleak political landscape the book surveys.
Ishvar nodded. ‘‘And are the two children happy without Monkey‐Man?’’ Beggarmaster flipped his unchained hand in a who‐knows gesture. ‘‘They will have to get used to it. Life does not guarantee happiness’’. ‐A Fine Balance, 542
Substance identification by quantitative characterization of oscillatory activity in murine spinal cord networks on microelectrode arrays
Authors: Gramowski Alexandra , Jügelt Konstantin , Weiss Dieter G. , Gross Guenter W. 
Published: May 2004

AbstractThis paper presents a novel and comprehensive method to identify substances on the basis of electrical activity and is a substantial improvement for drug screening. The spontaneous activity of primary neuronal networks is influenced by neurotransmitters, ligands, and other substances in a similar fashion as known from in vivo pharmacology. However, quantitative methods for the identification of substances through their characteristic effects on network activity states have not yet been reported. We approached this problem by creating a database including native activity and five drug‐induced oscillatory activity states from extracellular multisite recordings from microelectrode arrays. The response profiles consisted of 30 activity features derived from the temporal distribution of action potentials, integrated burst properties, calculated coefficients of variation, and features of Gabor fits to autocorrelograms. The different oscillatory states were induced by blocking neurotransmitter receptors for: (i) GABAA; (ii) glycine; (iii) GABAA and glycine; (iv) all major synaptic types except AMPA, and (v) all major synapses except NMDA. To test the identification capability of the six substance‐specific response profiles, five blind experiments were performed. The response features from the unknown substances were compared to the database using proximity measures using the normalized Euclidian distance to each activity state. This process created six identification coefficients where the smallest correctly identified the unknown substances. Such activity profiles are expected to become substance‐specific ‘finger prints’ that classify unique responses to known and unknown substances. It is anticipated that this kind of approach will help to quantify pharmacological responses of networks used as biosensors.
Nicotine reduces Aβ in the brain and cerebral vessels of APPsw mice
Authors:   Ewa Hellström‐Lindahl,, Court Jennifer , Keverne Jessica , Svedberg Marie , Lee Mandy , Marutle Amelia , Thomas Alan , Perry Elaine , Bednar Ivan , Nordberg Agneta 
Published: May 2004

AbstractTen days treatment with nicotine reduced insoluble amyloid Aβ1–40 and Αβ1–42 peptides by 80% in the cortex of 9‐month‐old APPsw mice, which is more than that observed in 14.5‐month‐old mice following nicotine treatment for 5.5 months. A reduction in Aβ associated with cerebral vessels was observed in addition to that deposited as parenchymal plaques after 5.5 months treatment. The diminution in Aβ peptides observed was not accompanied by changes in brain α, β or γ secretase‐like activities, NGF or BDNF protein expression measured in brain homogenates. A significant increase in sAPP was observed after nicotine treatment of SH‐SY5Yneuroblastoma cells that could be blocked by the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine. Attenuation of elevated [125I]‐αbungarotoxin binding (α7) in APPsw mice was observed after 5.5 months nicotine treatment. Both these observations suggest that the reduction in insoluble Aβ by nicotine might be in part mediated via the α7 nicotinic receptor. Further studies are required to identify potential mechanisms of the nicotine's amyloid‐reducing effect.
TrkA and mitogen‐activated protein kinase phosphorylation are enhanced in sympathetic neurons lacking functional p75 neurotrophin receptor expression
Authors: Hannila Sari S. , Lawrance Gail M. , Ross Gregory M. , Kawaja Michael D. 
Published: May 2004

AbstractThis study examined the effects of hypomorphic p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) expression and high levels of nerve growth factor (NGF) on trkA phosphorylation and downstream activation of p44/42 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK). Post‐ganglionic sympathetic neurons from postnatal day 1 p75NTR exon III null mutant (p75−/−) and 129/SvJ mice were cultured in the presence of 50 ng/mL NGF and analysed by Western blotting. Levels of phosphorylated trkA are increased in p75−/− neurons compared with 129/SvJ neurons, and these higher levels are maintained with continuous exposure to NGF. MAPK is also phosphorylated to a greater extent in p75−/− neurons than in 129/SvJ neurons, both within 10 min of exposure to NGF, and with continuous NGF treatment for 5 days. These data provide new insight into the mechanism underlying enhanced neurite outgrowth in p75−/− neurons, demonstrating that trkA and MAPK signalling in sympathetic neurons are increased when p75NTR function is disrupted.
The basal ganglia network mediates the planning of movement amplitude
Authors: Desmurget M. , Grafton S.T. , Vindras P. , Gréa H. , Turner R. S. 
Published: May 2004

AbstractThis study addresses the hypothesis that the basal ganglia (BG) are involved specifically in the planning of movement amplitude (or covariates). Although often advanced, based on observations that Parkinson's disease (PD) patients exhibit hypokinesia in the absence of significant directional errors, this hypothesis has been challenged by a recent alternative, that parkinsonian hypometria could be caused by dysfunction of on‐line feedback loops. To re‐evaluate this issue, we conducted two successive experiments. In the first experiment we assumed that if BG are involved in extent planning then PD patients (who exhibit a major dysfunction within the BG network) should exhibit a preserved ability to use a direction precue with respect to normals, but an impaired ability to use an amplitude precue. Results were compatible with this prediction. Because this evidence did not prove conclusively that the BG is involved in amplitude planning (functional deficits are not restricted to the BG network in PD), a second experiment was conducted using positron emission tomography (PET). We hypothesized that if the BG is important for planning movement amplitude, a task requiring increased amplitude planning should produce increased activation in the BG network. In agreement with this prediction, we observed enhanced activation of BG structures under a precue condition that emphasized extent planning in comparison with conditions that emphasized direction planning or no planning. Considered together, our results are consistent with the idea that BG is directly involved in the planning of movement amplitude or of factors that covary with that parameter.
Elevation of intracellular cAMP evokes activity‐dependent release of adenosine in cultured rat forebrain neurons
Authors: Lu Yin , Li Ya , Herin Greta Ann , Aizenman Elias , Epstein Paul M. , Rosenberg Paul A. 
Published: May 2004

AbstractAdenosine is an important regulator of neuronal excitability. Zaprinast is a cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase inhibitor, and has been shown in the hippocampal slice to suppress excitation. This action can be blocked by an adenosine receptor antagonist, and therefore is presumably due to adenosine release stimulated by exposure to zaprinast. To explore the mechanism of this phenomenon further, we examined the effect of zaprinast on adenosine release itself in cultured rat forebrain neurons. Zaprinast significantly stimulated extracellular adenosine accumulation. The effect of zaprinast on adenosine appeared to be mediated by increasing intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and activation of protein kinase A (PKA): (i) zaprinast stimulated intracellular cAMP accumulation; (ii) a cAMP antagonist (Rp‐8‐Br‐cAMP) significantly reduced the zaprinast effect on adenosine; (iii) an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase (PDE)1 (vinpocetine) and an activator of adenylate cyclase (forskolin) mimicked the effect of zaprinast on adenosine. We also found that zaprinast had no effect on adenosine in astrocyte cultures, and tetrodotoxin completely blocked zaprinast‐evoked adenosine accumulation in neuronal cultures, suggesting that neuronal activity was likely to be involved. Consistent with a dependence on neuronal activity, NMDA receptor antagonists (MK‐801 and D‐APV) and removal of extracellular glutamate by glutamate–pyruvate transaminase blocked the effect of zaprinast. In addition, zaprinast was shown to stimulate glutamate release. Thus, our data suggest that zaprinast‐evoked adenosine accumulation is likely to be mediated by stimulation of glutamate release by a cAMP‐ and PKA‐dependent mechanism, most likely by inhibition of PDE1 in neurons. Furthermore, regulation of cAMP, either by inhibiting cAMP–PDE activity or by stimulating adenylate cyclase activity, may play an important role in modulating neuronal excitability. These data suggest the existence of a homeostatic negative feedback loop in which increases in neuronal activity are damped by release of adenosine following activation of glutamate receptors.
The Alpine Fault biogeographic hypothesis revisited
Authors: Heads Michael , Craw Robin 
Published: May 2004

AbstractThe New Zealand Alpine Fault is a major tectonic feature located on the mutual boundary of the Australian and Pacific Plates which is hypothesized to have undergone some 470 km of right‐lateral displacement. The Nelson and Westland provinces have moved north‐east relative to the rest of the South Island. Many plant and animal taxa show a conspicuous distribution gap in the central South Island, and traditionally this has been explained by glacial extirpation of the central populations. However, the gap is usually filled by a closely related taxon. Furthermore, the taxa involved occupy a wide ecological range, and include intertidal algae, shorefishes, lowland trees, and alpine herbs and insects that thrive around glaciers. The Alpine Fault biogeographic hypothesis [Heads, M., 1998a. Biogeographic disjunction along the Alpine Fault, New Zealand. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 63, 161–176;Heads, M., 1998b.Coprosma decurva(Rubiaceae), a new species from New Zealand. NZ J. Bot. 36, 65–69.], based on track and phylogenetic analyses, proposes that the disjunction has instead been caused by movement on the fault pulling apart plant and animal populations.Wallis and Trewick (2001) [Wallis, G.P., Trewick, S.A., 2001. Finding fault with vicariance: a critique of Heads (1998). Syst. Biol. 50, 602–609.] provided a critique of this idea and pointed out what they felt were nine problems with it. These problems are answered here and shown to result from Wallis and Trewick's misunderstanding of aspects of geology and biology involved in the hypothesis. In particular, they have confused the age of inception of the fault with the age of movement along it, and, by neglecting the related central taxa in the “gap”, have assumed the biogeographic hypothesis to be an uninformative two‐area statement, whereas in fact it is an informative three‐ or four‐area statement.
Phylogeny of the Myllaenini and related taxa (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae)
Authors: Ahn Kee‐Jeong , Ashe James S. 
Published: May 2004

AbstractA cladistic analysis of the tribe Myllaenini Ganglbauer and related genera is presented. Monophyly of the Myllaenini is tested, and the tribe is hypothesized to be a monophyletic group consisting of nine genera (Myllaena Erichson, Amazonopora Pace, Dimonomera Cameron, Bryothinusa Casey, Philomina Blackwelder, Polypea Fauvel, Brachypronomaea Sawada, Rothium Moore and Legner, and Lautaea Sawada), based on the synapomorphy of antero‐lateral angles of mentum prolonged into spinose processes. A history of the classification of the Myllaenini is discussed. The data set for phylogenetic analysis comprised 99 characters representing 297 character states derived from adult morphology. The analysis agrees on the monophyly of the Myllaenini and the monophyly of the Pronomaeini Ganglbauer (Pronomaea Erichson, Pseudomniophila Pace, Nopromaea Cameron and Tomoxelia Bernhauer). The tribe Dimonomerini (Dimonomera Cameron) is confirmed to be a member of the Myllaenini. Masuriini is a possible sister group of the Myllaenini. Stylopalpus Cameron shows a sister group relationship to the Pronomaeini. Several other clades are also consistently recovered. However, the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Dysacrita are ambiguous. The rogue genus Diglotta Champion is not recovered as a member of the Myllaenini or Pronomaeini. On the contrary, it forms a monophyletic clade with the liparocephaline genera Halorhadinus Sawada and Amblopusa Casey. Evolution of the defensive gland on abdominal tergite VII among aleocharine lineages is reconsidered, and the origin of an intertidal habitat in the Myllaenini is discussed.
Do larvae evolve the same way as adults in Tingidae (Insecta: Heteroptera)?
Authors: Guilbert Eric 
Published: May 2004

AbstractA recent cladistic analysis showed that adult traits of Tingidae, which exhibit a great variety of shapes, evolved homoplastically from simple to complex (Guilbert, 2001). These complex traits, often exaggerated, were hypothesized to be adaptive. However, this study, as well as another by Lis (1999), both based on adult morphology, contradict the traditional classification of Tingidae. A new analysis is performed here, that includes larval characters, which, like those of adults, have a great variety of shapes. The results corroborate the traditional classification of the Tingidae. No clear divisions among Tinginae are drawn from the analysis, but an evolutionary pattern of shapes among Tingidae emerges from this study. There is a global tendency for larval traits to evolve convergently from simple to complex, as suggested for adults. The pattern seen in adult and larval traits is independent, but consistent. These traits can be used in the same anti‐predation context, but with different roles.