On the Recovery Path during a Liquidity Trap: Do Financial Frictions Matter for Fiscal Multipliers?

This paper investigates the effects of a fiscal stimulus when financial frictions and a liquidity trap are present. These two conditions make a government spending expansion and a reduction in capital income taxes more efficient in stimulating output. In contrast, a reduction in labor income taxes may aggravate the economic conditions. In addition, small implementation delays in government spending may result in big spending multipliers in the short run. All of these results rely partly on the dynamic interaction between inflation and the external finance premium. Lastly, simulations of the ARRA stimulus package predict that the output gains due to the presence of financial frictions may lie between 1.3 % and 2.5 % of GDP.Zero Lower Bound, Financial Accelerator, Fiscal Policy

Linking small producers to supermarkets? The role of intermediaries on the fresh fruit and vegetable market in Turkey.

A wide range of the empirical studies shows to what extend the rise of supermarkets in developing countries deeply transform domestic marketing channels. In particular, the exclusion of small producers from the so-called dynamic marketing channels (that is remunerative ones) is at stake. Based on original data collected in Turkey in 2007 at the producer and the wholesale market levels, we show that the intermediaries are decisive in order to understand the impact of downstream restructuring (supermarkets) on upstream decisions (producers). The results show first that producers are not aware of the final buyer of their produce, as intermediaries hinder the visibility of the marketing channel, their choice is restricted to that of the first intermediary. Moreover, the econometric results conclude that producers who are indirectly linked to the supermarkets are more sensitive to their requirements in terms of quality and packaging than to the price premia they set accordingly to the effort made to meet their standards. Therefore, the results question the role of the wholesale market agents who act as a buffer in the chain and protect small producers from negative shocks, but who stop positive shocks as well, and reduce incentives.supermarkets, small farmers, fresh fruit and vegetables, Turkey, Agribusiness, Production Economics, Q13, L14, D24,

Establishment of immortalized innate lymphoid cell lines from the mouse lung

The purpose of this proposal was to create immortalized innate lymphoid cell (ILC) lines from normal and transgenic mic

ALTERNATIVE LEARNING SYSTEM (ALS) PROGRAM ACHIEVEMENT AND JOB PERFORMANCE OF IMPLEMENTERS

This study assessed the job performance of the district ALS implementers in relation to ALS program achievement in the Area V districts in Leyte Division for improved quality of life. Specifically, this research answered the following questions: (1) What is the profile of ALS implementers in terms of age, sex, experience, and relevant training?; (2) What is the level of the job performance of the district ALS implementers?; (3) What is the achievement level of the ALS program in terms of Basic Literacy and Accreditation and Equivalency Program?; (4) Is there a significant relationship between the implementers’ profile and their job performance?; and (5) Is there a significant relationship between the implementers’ job performance and ALS program achievement? The research hypotheses tested were: (1) There is a significant relationship between the implementers’ profile and their job performance; and (2) There is a significant relationship between implementers’ job performance and achievement of the ALS program. The findings revealed that the ALS implementers belonged to the 30 – 38 age bracket with more females than males. They have varying experiences and training attended. They performed their job very well. Literacy achievement is also satisfactory and substantially related to their job performance. Likewise, their profile, particularly sex, experience, and training were related to their job performance. It is concluded that the ALS program in Area V has been managed well by the implementers. The literacy programs are effective in attaining their teaching objectives. Job performance has a positive impact on literacy program achievement. It is recommended that a functional staff development program for ALS implementers be provided to make them more competent and productive. Strictly enforce the policies and programs to have a uniform and more accurate implementation. More incentives are given to all those involved in the ALS programs and projects for greater commitment from them.  Article visualizations

Controlling Marangoni induced instabilities in spin-cast polymer films: how to prepare uniform films

In both research and industrial settings spin coating is extensively used to prepare highly uniform thin polymer films. However, under certain conditions, spin coating results in films with non-uniform surface morphologies. Although the spin coating process has been extensively studied, the origin of these morphologies is not fully understood and the formation of non-uniform spincast films remains a practical problem. Here we report on experiments demonstrating that the formation of surface instabilities during spin coating is dependent on temperature. Our results suggest that non-uniform spincast films form as a result of the Marangoni effect, which describes flow due to surface tension gradients. We find that both the wavelength and amplitude of the pattern increase with temperature. Finally, and most important from a practical viewpoint, the non-uniformities in the film thickness can be entirely avoided simply by lowering the spin coating temperature.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. electronic supplementary material: 3 pages, 4 figure

Comparative genomic analysis of novel conserved peptide upstream open reading frames in Drosophila melanogaster and other dipteran species

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are elements found in the 5'-region of an mRNA transcript, capable of regulating protein production of the largest, or major ORF (mORF), and impacting organismal development and growth in fungi, plants, and animals. In Drosophila, approximately 40% of transcripts contain upstream start codons (uAUGs) but there is little evidence that these are translated and affect their associated mORF.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analyzing 19,389 <it>Drosophila melanogaster </it>transcript annotations and 666,153 dipteran EST sequences we have identified 44 putative conserved peptide uORFs (CPuORFs) in <it>Drosophila melanogaster </it>that show evidence of negative selection, and therefore are likely to be translated. Transcripts with CPuORFs constitute approximately 0.3% of the total number of transcripts, a similar frequency to the Arabidopsis genome, and have a mean length of 70 amino acids, much larger than the mean length of plant CPuORFs (40 amino acids). There is a statistically significant clustering of CPuORFs at cytological band 57 (p = 10^-5), a phenomenon that has never been described for uORFs. Based on GO term and Interpro domain analyses, genes in the uORF dataset show a higher frequency of ORFs implicated in mitochondrial import than the genome-wide frequency (p < 0.01) as well as methyltransferases (p < 0.02).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Based on these data, it is clear that Drosophila contain putative CPuORFs at frequencies similar to those found in plants. They are distinguished, however, by the type of mORF they tend to associate with, Drosophila CPuORFs preferentially occurring in transcripts encoding mitochondrial proteins and methyltransferases. This provides a basis for the study of CPuORFs and their putative regulatory role in mitochondrial function and disease.</p

The Value-Sensitive Conversational Agent Co-Design Framework

Conversational agents (CAs) are gaining traction in both industry and academia, especially with the advent of generative AI and large language models. As these agents are used more broadly by members of the general public and take on a number of critical use cases and social roles, it becomes important to consider the values embedded in these systems. This consideration includes answering questions such as 'whose values get embedded in these agents?' and 'how do those values manifest in the agents being designed?' Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to present the Value-Sensitive Conversational Agent (VSCA) Framework for enabling the collaborative design (co-design) of value-sensitive CAs with relevant stakeholders. Firstly, requirements for co-designing value-sensitive CAs which were identified in previous works are summarised here. Secondly, the practical framework is presented and discussed, including its operationalisation into a design toolkit. The framework facilitates the co-design of three artefacts that elicit stakeholder values and have a technical utility to CA teams to guide CA implementation, enabling the creation of value-embodied CA prototypes. Finally, an evaluation protocol for the framework is proposed where the effects of the framework and toolkit are explored in a design workshop setting to evaluate both the process followed and the outcomes produced.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure