Economic Development as a Matter of Political Geography

We start out from the hypothesis that limited government leads to low uncertainty and low transaction costs. If political institutions affect the degree of uncertainty and transaction costs, we formally show they should affect the steady state level of income per capita. The impact of uncertainty and transaction costs on income per capita is formalized in a simple capital market model with credit constraints. Empirically, we find increases in political constraints precede economic growth, which is in line with the idea that economic development is driven by political development. Furthermore, only when there are high political constraints is polity persistence positively related to income per capita. We interpret these findings in the sense that limited government is the path towards economic development, being a pre-condition for poor countries to converge towards rich countries.limited government, laws, property rights, uncertainty, transaction costs, capital market, convergence, development

Bank Relationships: Effect on the Availability and Marginal Cost of Credit for Firms in Argentina

This paper provides evidence on what affects the marginal cost and availability of bank credit for firms in Argentina. We study in particular how banks use different pieces of private and public information to screen firms and overcome informational asymmetries in the credit market. While some private information, such as balance sheet data, is transferable, private information generated in relationships is not. To capture the closeness of bank relationships, we resort to the concentration of bank credit and the number of credit lines in a bank. We also consider public information available in the Central de Deudores. The cost of credit is measured using overdrafts, the most expensive line of credit, at the bank that charges the highest rate for overdrafts. We find that the cost of credit is smaller for a firm with a close relationship to the marginal bank. Firms with large assets, a high sales/assets ratio, and a low debt/assets ratio pay a lower interest rate at the margin. A good credit history (no debt arrears and no bounced checks) and collateral also reduce the marginal interest rate. The availability of credit is measured by unused credit lines as a proportion of total liabilities with the main bank. The availability of credit depends positively on a close relationship with the main bank. Large assets, a high return on assets, a high sales/assets ratio, a low debt/assets ratio, a good credit history, and collateral lead to higher credit availability. Our measure of unused credit lines is less ambiguous than traditional measures such as leverage, which may indicate financial distress rather than availability of credit.

Wikipedia vandalism detection: combining natural language, metadata, and reputation features

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which anyone can edit. While most edits are constructive, about 7% are acts of vandalism. Such behavior is characterized by modifications made in bad faith; introducing spam and other inappropriate content. In this work, we present the results of an effort to integrate three of the leading approaches to Wikipedia vandalism detection: a spatio-temporal analysis of metadata (STiki), a reputation-based system (WikiTrust), and natural language processing features. The performance of the resulting joint system improves the state-of-the-art from all previous methods and establishes a new baseline for Wikipedia vandalism detection. We examine in detail the contribution of the three approaches, both for the task of discovering fresh vandalism, and for the task of locating vandalism in the complete set of Wikipedia revisions.The authors from Universitat Politècnica de València thank also the MICINN research project TEXT-ENTERPRISE 2.0 TIN2009-13391-C04-03 (Plan I+D+i). UPenn contributions were supported in part by ONR MURI N00014-07-1-0907. This research was partially supported by award 1R01GM089820-01A1 from the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences, and by ISSDM, a UCSC-LANL educational collaboration.Adler, BT.; Alfaro, LD.; Mola Velasco, SM.; Rosso, P.; West, AG. (2011). Wikipedia vandalism detection: combining natural language, metadata, and reputation features. En Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing. Springer Verlag (Germany). 6609:277-288. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19437-5_23S2772886609Wikimedia Foundation: Wikipedia (2010) [Online; accessed December 29, 2010]Wikimedia Foundation: Wikistats (2010) [Online; accessed December 29, 2010]Potthast, M.: Crowdsourcing a Wikipedia Vandalism Corpus. In: Proc. of the 33rd Intl. ACM SIGIR Conf. (SIGIR 2010). ACM Press, New York (July 2010)Gralla, P.: U.S. senator: It’s time to ban Wikipedia in schools, libraries, http://blogs.computerworld.com/4598/u_s_senator_its_time_to_ban_wikipedia_in_schools_libraries [Online; accessed November 15, 2010]Olanoff, L.: School officials unite in banning Wikipedia. Seattle Times (November 2007)Mola-Velasco, S.M.: Wikipedia Vandalism Detection Through Machine Learning: Feature Review and New Proposals. In: Braschler, M., Harman, D. (eds.) Notebook Papers of CLEF 2010 LABs and Workshops, Padua, Italy, September 22-23 (2010)Adler, B., de Alfaro, L., Pye, I.: Detecting Wikipedia Vandalism using WikiTrust. In: Braschler, M., Harman, D. (eds.) Notebook Papers of CLEF 2010 LABs and Workshops, Padua, Italy, September 22-23 (2010)West, A.G., Kannan, S., Lee, I.: Detecting Wikipedia Vandalism via Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Revision Metadata. In: EUROSEC 2010: Proceedings of the Third European Workshop on System Security, pp. 22–28 (2010)West, A.G.: STiki: A Vandalism Detection Tool for Wikipedia (2010), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:STikiWikipedia: User: AntiVandalBot – Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AntiVandalBot (2010) [Online; accessed November 2, 2010]Wikipedia: User:MartinBot – Wikipedia (2010), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MartinBot [Online; accessed November 2, 2010]Wikipedia: User:ClueBot – Wikipedia (2010), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ClueBot [Online; accessed November 2, 2010]Carter, J.: ClueBot and Vandalism on Wikipedia (2008), http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/~carter11/ClueBot.pdf [Online; accessed November 2, 2010]Rodríguez Posada, E.J.: AVBOT: detección y corrección de vandalismos en Wikipedia. NovATIca (203), 51–53 (2010)Potthast, M., Stein, B., Gerling, R.: Automatic Vandalism Detection in Wikipedia. In: Macdonald, C., Ounis, I., Plachouras, V., Ruthven, I., White, R.W. (eds.) ECIR 2008. LNCS, vol. 4956, pp. 663–668. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Smets, K., Goethals, B., Verdonk, B.: Automatic Vandalism Detection in Wikipedia: Towards a Machine Learning Approach. In: WikiAI 2008: Proceedings of the Workshop on Wikipedia and Artificial Intelligence: An Evolving Synergy, pp. 43–48. AAAI Press, Menlo Park (2008)Druck, G., Miklau, G., McCallum, A.: Learning to Predict the Quality of Contributions to Wikipedia. In: WikiAI 2008: Proceedings of the Workshop on Wikipedia and Artificial Intelligence: An Evolving Synergy, pp. 7–12. AAAI Press, Menlo Park (2008)Itakura, K.Y., Clarke, C.L.: Using Dynamic Markov Compression to Detect Vandalism in the Wikipedia. In: SIGIR 2009: Proc. of the 32nd Intl. ACM Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, pp. 822–823 (2009)Chin, S.C., Street, W.N., Srinivasan, P., Eichmann, D.: Detecting Wikipedia Vandalism with Active Learning and Statistical Language Models. In: WICOW 2010: Proc. of the 4th Workshop on Information Credibility on the Web (April 2010)Zeng, H., Alhoussaini, M., Ding, L., Fikes, R., McGuinness, D.: Computing Trust from Revision History. In: Intl. Conf. on Privacy, Security and Trust (2006)McGuinness, D., Zeng, H., da Silva, P., Ding, L., Narayanan, D., Bhaowal, M.: Investigation into Trust for Collaborative Information Repositories: A Wikipedia Case Study. In: Proc. of the Workshop on Models of Trust for the Web (2006)Adler, B., de Alfaro, L.: A Content-Driven Reputation System for the Wikipedia. In: WWW 2007: Proceedings of the 16th International World Wide Web Conference. ACM Press, New York (2007)Belani, A.: Vandalism Detection in Wikipedia: a Bag-of-Words Classifier Approach. Computing Research Repository (CoRR) abs/1001.0700 (2010)Potthast, M., Stein, B., Holfeld, T.: Overview of the 1st International Competition on Wikipedia Vandalism Detection. In: Braschler, M., Harman, D. (eds.) Notebook Papers of CLEF 2010 LABs and Workshops, Padua, Italy, September 22-23 (2010)Hall, M., Frank, E., Holmes, G., Pfahringer, B., Reutemann, P., Witten, I.: The WEKA Data Mining Software: An Update. SIGKDD Explorations 11(1) (2009)Breiman, L.: Random Forests. Machine Learning 45(1), 5–32 (2001)Davis, J., Goadrich, M.: The relationship between Precision-Recall and ROC curves. In: ICML 2006: Proc. of the 23rd Intl. Conf. on Machine Learning (2006

Identification of Polymerase and Processivity Inhibitors of Vaccinia DNA Synthesis Using a Stepwise Screening Approach

Nearly all DNA polymerases require processivity factors to ensure continuous incorporation of nucleotides. Processivity factors are specific for their cognate DNA polymerases. For this reason, the vaccinia DNA polymerase (E9) and the proteins associated with processivity (A20 and D4) are excellent therapeutic targets. In this study, we show the utility of stepwise rapid plate assays that i) screen for compounds that block vaccinia DNA synthesis, ii) eliminate trivial inhibitors, e.g. DNA intercalators, and iii) distinguish whether inhibitors are specific for blocking DNA polymerase activity or processivity. The sequential plate screening of 2,222 compounds from the NCI Diversity Set library yielded a DNA polymerase inhibitor (NSC 55636) and a processivity inhibitor (NSC 123526) that were capable of reducing vaccinia viral plaques with minimal cellular cytotoxicity. These compounds are predicted to block cellular infection by the smallpox virus, variola, based on the very high sequence identity between A20, D4 and E9 of vaccinia and the corresponding proteins of variola

Mapeamento de termiteiros em pastagem da região do cerrado por krigagem indicatriz.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo mapear a incidência de termiteiros ativos em uma pastagem de Andropogon sp. utilizando krigagem indicatriz para estimar isolinhas de probabilidades de existirem termiteiros ativos, dada a informação obtida.Na publicação: Suzana Druck Fuks

Mudanças de Gestão, Precarização do Trabalho e Riscos Industriais

O texto discute as mudanças mais recentes nas práticas de gestão do trabalho e suas implicações sobre as situações de riscos encontradas no ambiente intra e extra-fabril no trabalho industrial. Com base nos resultados de pesquisa realizada em 44 empresas do parque industrial da Bahia, analisa as consequências da implantação da gestão da qualidade total e da terceirização nestas empresas sobre as condições de saúde do trabalhador. E aponta as principais tendências que confirmam a precarização do trabalho na região. Management changes, unstable working conditions and industrial risks Tânia M.A. Franco Maria da Graca Druck Angela M. Borges Angela M.A. Franco This paper discusses recent changes in management and work practices and their effects on the risk in the industrial working environment in and outside the factory. Analysing the results of a research carried out among 44 industries in Bahia, the paper points out the main trends of precarious working conditions occuring as a result of the introduction of total quality management and of out sourcing which produced changes in the worker's conditions of health in this region of Brazil. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.b

Análise do movimento do herbicida tebutiuron, por simulação, na cultura da cana-de-açúcar em área de recarga do aquífero Botucatu, Ribeirão Preto/SP.

Com o objetivo de conhecer o comportamento do herbicida Tebutiuron, em área de agricultura intensiva de cana-de-açúcar, localizada na região de Ribeirão Preto, SP, utilizou-se o simulador CMLS-94 - "Chemical Movement in Layered Soils" (Nofziger & Hornsby, 1994). O cenário das simulações foi baseado na data de plantio de cana, 20 de setembro, com aplicação inicial do produto um mês após o plantio, na dose de 1,1 Kg/ha, para um período de simulação de quatro anos. Os resultados mostraram que o Tebutiuron, simulado em solos LR, Transição LR para LE, LE e AQ chega a atingir 30 metros de profundidade no solo AQ, fornecendo indícios de contaminação do lençol freático

Biological Functions of Mammalian Nit1, the Counterpart of the Invertebrate NitFhit Rosetta Stone Protein, a Possible Tumor Suppressor

The "Rosetta Stone" hypothesis proposes that the existence of a fusion protein in some organisms predicts that the separate polypeptides function in the same biochemical pathway in other organisms and may physically interact. In Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, NitFhit protein is composed of two domains, a fragile histidine triad homolog and a bacterial and plant nitrilase homolog. We assessed the biological effects of mammalian Nit1 expression in comparison with Fhit and observed that: 1) Nit1 expression was observed in most normal tissues and overlapped partially with Fhit expression; 2) Nit1-deficient mouse kidney cells exhibited accelerated proliferation, resistance to DNA damage stress, and increased cyclin D1 expression; 3) cyclin D1 was up-regulated in Nit1 null mammary gland and skin; 4) Nit1 overexpression induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in vitro; and 5) Nit1 allele deficiency led to increased incidence of N-nitrosomethylbenzylamine-induced murine forestomach tumors. Thus, the biological effects of Nit1 expression are similar to Fhit effects. Adenoviruses carrying recombinant NIT1 and FHIT induced apoptosis in Fhit- and Nit1-deficient cells, respectively, suggesting that Nit1-Fhit interaction is not essential for function of either protein. The results suggest that Nit1 and Fhit share tumor suppressor signaling pathways, while localization of the NIT1 gene at a stable, rather than fragile, chromosome site explains the paucity of gene alterations and in frequent loss of expression of the NIT1 gene in human malignancies

Applicant Reactions to the AAMC Standardized Video Interview During the 2018 Application Cycle

PURPOSE: This study examined applicant reactions to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Standardized Video Interview (SVI) during its first year of operational use in emergency medicine (EM) residency program selection in order to identify strategies to improve applicants\u27 SVI experience and attitudes. METHOD: Individuals who self-classified as EM applicants applying in the Electronic Residency Application Service 2018 cycle and completed the SVI in summer 2017 were invited to participate in two surveys. Survey 1, which focused on procedural issues, was administered immediately after SVI completion. Survey 2, which focused on applicants\u27 SVI experience, was administered in fall 2017, after SVI scores were released. RESULTS: The response rates for surveys 1 and 2 were 82.3% (2,906/3,532) and 58.7% (2,074/3,532), respectively. Applicant reactions varied by aspect of the SVI studied and their SVI total scores. Most applicants were satisfied with most procedural aspects of the SVI, but most applicants were not satisfied with the SVI overall or with their total SVI scores. About 20-30% of applicants had neutral opinions about most aspects of the SVI. Negative reactions to the SVI were stronger for applicants who scored lower on the SVI. CONCLUSIONS: Applicants had generally negative reactions to the SVI. Most were skeptical of its ability to assess the target competencies and its potential to add value to the selection process. Applicant acceptance and appreciation of the SVI will be critical to the SVI\u27s acceptance by the graduate medical education community