Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
European Real Exchange Rates after Bretton Woods: A Re-examination

This paper examines the hypothesis of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), i.e. the proposition that the equilibrium real exchange rate is a constant in the long run, in the case of Europe of the 15. For that purpose, we study the statistical properties of 14 European bilateral real exchange rates against the Deutschmark, over the period 1973-1998. These rates are constructed using consumer prices (CPI), wholesale prices (WPI) and unit labor costs (ULC). The results of various unit-root tests show that globally there is little evidence to support PPP, i. e. the stationarity hypothesis of real exchange rates is rejected. At the most, some meanreverting process are verified; in two cases with CPI, seven cases with WPI and three cases with ULC. Furthermore, general PPP with consumer prices is verified in only one case, namely between France and Germany. Finally, the evidence on bilateral real exchange rates suggests that inference on PPP is not sensitive to whether the country is a member of an European exchange system (snake and/or EMS). There is no systematic influence of exchange rate regimes.
Developing a framework for the effective planning and implementation of advanced manufacturing technology

Uses information gathered from the advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) literature to develop an integrated conceptual framework for effectively planning and implementing these systems. Then examines the efficacy of this framework by investigating the relationship between adoption of various advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), the way that firms plan for and implement them and their eventual performance. A detailed survey instrument was administered to a cross‐section of manufacturing firms in the USA to collect the required data. The results of this investigation indicate that the rate of adoption for integrated technologies was higher among firms that adopted more extensive formal planning approaches. In addition, these firms were found to be outperforming other firms. Also provides managerial and research implications of these and the other findings of this study.
UNDERSTANDING EXCHANGE RATE VOLATILITY WITHOUT THE CONTRIVANCE OF MACROECONOMICS

Exchange rate regimes differ primarily by the activity of the exchange rate, not observable macroeconomic ‘fundamentals’. Fixed exchange rates are typically stable and floating exchange rates are volatile, but macro phenomena are regime-independent. Fundamentals only seem to be relevant for exchange rates at low frequencies or when inflation is high. A basic task of international finance is explaining these cross-regime differences in exchange rate volatility. The evidence suggests that a switch in exchange rate policy is accompanied by a change in market structure; macroeconomic considerations are superfluous. We formalize this observation in a non-linear model with multiple equilibria.
Executive Compensation and Agency Effects

The separation of ownership from control in large corporations can cause agency problems. This study analyzes the effects of the dispersion of corporate ownership on the compensation of the top executives of Fortune 500 companies. The effects are estimated across the executive hierarchy and for different components of the compensation package in contrast to more limited previous studies. The results indicate that there is a significant agency effect on executive pay, though the magnitude is small relative to company size. The effects are greatest for the most liquid form of remuneration, salaries, and are nonuniform across executive categories, with the strongest effect found for the Chairman of the Board. Copyright 1995 by MIT Press.
Beef safety shocks and dynamics of vertical price adjustment: The case of BSE discovery in the U.S. beef sector

This article addresses the dynamic impact of the 2003 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy discovery on the U.S. beef sector. Time series analysis and historical decomposition with weekly feedlot, wholesale, and retail beef price series is used to address the dynamics of price adjustment and causality along the U.S. beef marketing channel. The results show price transmission is bidirectional, determined through interaction between the different stages, and price adjustment is asymmetric with respect to both speed and magnitude. The results reveal a differential impact of the exogenous shock on producers and retailers, which leads to widening of price margins and points to imperfect price transmission, specifically at the retail level, with consequences for the efficiency and equity of the marketing channel. lEconLit citations: Q11, Q13r. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 333-348, 2007.
Critical incidents in the development of quality management in steel manufacturers' production

The objective of this study was to examine the development of quality management in Rautaruukki Plc. 's production division. The idea is to describe critical incidents in the development of quality management in light of the historical development, current state and theoretical framework, as well as analyse whether this description follows the development process described in the literature. The theoretical framework ? developed through the literature ? describes the historical development of quality management and the development and assessment models of quality management as well as some essential sectors, tools and techniques of quality management. The case study is based on ten interviews made in four production sites of the case organisation. The interviews were used to create a description of the historical development and the applications of the different sectors of quality management. We have also created three alternative scenarios to outline the future of the organisation.
The association between olfactory impairment and total mortality in older adults.

BACKGROUND Population-based data on the relationship between impaired olfaction and risk of mortality among older adults are lacking. We used a representative cohort of adults aged 60 years or older to assess whether olfactory loss is a predictor of mortality, independent of potential confounders. METHODS Olfaction was measured by the San Diego Odor Identification Test (SDOIT) among 1,636 participants enrolled in the Blue Mountains Eye Study (2002-2004). Five-year all-cause mortality was confirmed using the Australian National Death Index. RESULTS More than one in five participants (21.8%) with olfactory impairment had died over the 5 years compared with less than 10% of participants without olfactory loss. Moderate olfactory loss (SDOIT score ≤3) was associated with a 68% increased risk of all-cause mortality (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio, 1.68; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-2.56). This association did not persist after further adjustment for cognitive impairment. The association between olfactory loss and all-cause mortality was more marked among older participants (≥70 years) than younger participants (<70 years) with olfactory impairment (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio, 1.48; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-2.15). However, adjusting for cognitive impairment diminished this association. CONCLUSIONS Older adults with moderately impaired olfaction compared with those with normal olfaction had a higher risk of dying 5 years later. The relationship between olfaction and mortality, however, may be largely mediated by cognitive impairment in these older adults. Our findings highlight the value of identifying olfactory loss in the preclinical stage in the older patient before the development of related comorbidities.
The U-Shaped Female Labor Force Function in Economic Development and Economic History

The labor force participation rate of married women first declines and then rises as countries develop. Its þ-shape is revealed both across the process of economic development and through the histories of currently advanced countries. The initial decline in the participation rate is due to the movement of production from the household, family farm, and small business to the wider market, and to a strong income effect. But the income effect weakens and the substitution effect strengthens at some point. This paper explores why the change takes place and why the þ-shape is traced out. When women are poorly educated their only wage labor outside the home and family is in manual work, against which a strong social stigma exists. But when women are educated, particularly at the secondary level, they enter white-collar work, against which no social stigma exists. Data for more than one-hundred countries and for United States history are used to explore the hypothesis of the þ-shaped female labor force function.
Of straw men and melting pots: a response to Cara Aitchison's (2010) ‘Labouring the leisure society thesis…’

In a previous issue of the World Leisure Journal (Volume 52, Issue 4, 2010), Chris Rojek (2010a) authored a paper on leisure and emotional intelligence that included commentary from a number of scholars involved in leisure studies. I co-authored a reply (Edginton & Dieser, 2010) and of the various commentaries presented, I was most moved by that of Cara Aitchison (2010). The aim of this paper is to provide a ‘‘reply’’ to Aitchison’s commentary and engage in a dialogue in the hope that there can be greater understanding regarding the continuing contemporary importance of Rojek’s discussion of the ‘‘leisure society’’ thesis. I provide a counter-argument to Aitchison’s thinking and argue that the leisure society thesis is alive and well in the United States and its persistence, viewed from the perspective of a Foucauldian understanding of power, can be traced to its connections with the American political ideology of the melting pot.
Planning for long-term care: concept, definition, and measurement.

PURPOSE This study explores the development and testing of an instrument to measure long-term-care planning behavior. DESIGN AND METHODS Researchers operationalized proposed constructs and response styles as statements in a questionnaire. A telephone survey involved 150 randomly selected residents of Miami-Dade County, Florida who were between the ages of 55 and 70. Responses underwent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability testing. RESULTS The trimmed long-term-care planning instrument of 23 items had five subscales with high internal reliability (coefficients >.70), a comparative fit index of.987, and a root mean square error of approximation of.050. Responses involved making choices about housing, readiness to use help from family and friends, maintaining one's health, saving and investing money, and not accepting the need to ask for help. IMPLICATIONS Future research of long-term-care planning behaviors can use the instrument. Practitioners may use the instrument as a diagnostic inventory, alone or in combination with personalized educational interventions aimed at increasing awareness of and planning for future dependency and long-term-care assistance.
Hedgehog signaling stimulates the formation of proliferating Müller glia-derived progenitor cells in the chick retina

Müller glia can be stimulated to de-differentiate and become proliferating progenitor cells that regenerate neurons in the retina. The signaling pathways that regulate the formation of proliferating Müller glia-derived progenitor cells (MGPCs) are beginning to be revealed. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Hedgehog (Hh) signaling influences the formation of MGPCs in the chick retina. We find that Hh signaling is increased in damaged retinas where MGPCs are known to form. Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) is normally present in the axons of ganglion cells, but becomes associated with Müller glia and MGPCs following retinal damage. Activation of Hh signaling with recombinant human SHH (rhShh) or smoothened agonist (SAG) increased levels of Ptch1, Gli1, Gli2, Gli3, Hes1 and Hes5, and stimulated the formation of proliferating MGPCs in damaged retinas. In undamaged retinas, SAG or rhShh had no apparent effect upon the Müller glia. However, SAG combined with FGF2 potentiated the formation of MGPCs, whereas SAG combined with IGF1 stimulated the nuclear migration of Müller glia, but not the formation of MGPCs. Conversely, inhibition of Hh signaling with KAAD-cyclopamine, Gli antagonists or antibody to Shh reduced numbers of proliferating MGPCs in damaged and FGF2-treated retinas. Hh signaling potentiates Pax6, Klf4 and cFos expression in Müller glia during the formation of MGPCs. We find that FGF2/MAPK signaling recruits Hh signaling into the signaling network that drives the formation of proliferating MGPCs. Our findings implicate Hh signaling as a key component of the network of signaling pathways that promote the de-differentiation of Müller glia and proliferation of MGPCs. Summary: In the chick retina, Hedgehog signaling contributes to retinal repair by promoting the de-differentiation of Muller glia and the proliferation of Muller glia-derived progenitor cells.
Objective-driven discriminative training and adaptation based on an MCE criterion for speech recognition and detection

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to greatly appreciate my advisor, Prof. Biing-Hwang (Fred) Juang, for his great supports and guides during my Ph.D. study. I am very fortunate to have him as my advisor. He has always encouraged me to look closely at the research problems and has patiently waited for me to produce the results. This work would not have been possible without his encouragement and support during the last several years. It has been truly honor to be his student. I would also like to specically thank Dr. Mark Clements and Dr. Xiaoli Ma for serving on the reading committee of this dissertation. Their valuable feedback on my research has provided me an opportunity to improve the quality of this work. I would also like to thank Dr. Nikil Jayant and Dr. Francesco Fedele for serving on my thesis committee and for providing me with insightful comments.
Immunization with Immune Complexes Modulates the Fine Specificity of Antibody Responses to a Flavivirus Antigen

ABSTRACT The antibody response to proteins may be modulated by the presence of preexisting antigen-specific antibodies and the formation of immune complexes (ICs). Effects such as a general increase or decrease of the response as well as epitope-specific phenomena have been described. In this study, we investigated influences of IC immunization on the fine specificity of antibody responses in a structurally well-defined system, using the envelope (E) protein of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus as an immunogen. TBE virus occurs in Europe and Asia and—together with the yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Japanese encephalitis viruses—represents one of the major human-pathogenic flaviviruses. Mice were immunized with a dimeric soluble form of E (sE) alone or in complex with monoclonal antibodies specific for each of the three domains of E, and the antibody response induced by these ICs was compared to that seen after immunization with sE alone. Immunoassays using recombinant domains and domain combinations of TBE virus sE as well as the distantly related West Nile virus sE allowed the dissection and quantification of antibody subsets present in postimmunization sera, thus generating fine-specificity patterns of the polyclonal responses. There were substantially different responses with two of the ICs, and the differences could be mechanistically related to (i) epitope shielding and (ii) antibody-mediated structural changes leading to dissociation of the sE dimer. The phenomena described may also be relevant for polyclonal responses upon secondary infections and/or booster immunizations and may affect antibody responses in an individual-specific way. IMPORTANCE Infections with flaviviruses such as yellow fever, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile, and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) viruses pose substantial public health problems in different parts of the world. Antibodies to viral envelope protein E induced by natural infection or vaccination were shown to confer protection from disease. Such antibodies can target different epitopes in E protein, and the fine specificities of polyclonal responses can differ between individuals. We conducted a mouse immunization study with TBE E protein alone or complexed to monoclonal antibodies specific for each of the three protein domains. We demonstrated that phenomena such as epitope shielding and antibody-induced structural changes can profoundly influence the fine specificity of antibody responses to the same immunogen. The study thus provided important new information on the potential immunomodulatory role of preexisting antibodies in a flavivirus system that can be relevant for understanding individual-specific factors influencing antibody responses in sequential flavivirus infections and/or immunizations.
Minding the gaps - an investigation into language policy and practice in four Eastern Cape districts

South Africa's new Language in Education Policy (LiEP) has been described as one of the most progressive in the world but few schools have implemented it. This article describes research that investigates the gap between the policy goals and what is actually happening in schools in four districts in the Eastern Cape. The research attempts to make explicit community and school language practices and the factors that support or frustrate the formation and enactment of a school language policy in these four linguistically diverse sites. It appears that school governing bodies are not well equipped to make decisions about school language policy which meet the requirements of the national LiEP and economic imperatives to acquire English override considerations of multilingualism and additive bilingualism as expressed in the policy.
Nuclear and Non-nuclear Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in Taiwan

This study investigates the linear and nonlinear causality among nuclear energy consumption (NEC), non-nuclear energy consumption (N-NEC), and real gross domestic product (RGDP) for Taiwan data from 1980–2010. The Hiemstra and Jones (1994) test for nonlinear causality reveals the absence of linear Granger causality among NEC, N-NEC and RGDP which supports the unidirectional causality from NEC (RGDP) to RGDP (N-NEC). This result provides empirical evidence for the energy policy formulators to encourage NEC and limit N-NEC to achieve economic growth.
Internal communication effectiveness enhances bottom-line results

Watson Wyatt's latest research has found convincing evidence that companies with highly effective internal communication practices produce superior financial results and enjoy greater organizational stability. Nine communication best practices drive higher market premiums, larger shareholder returns, greater employee engagement, and lower turnover. The author shares the study's highlights, provides insights into why these practices work, and explains the steps any company can take to improve its internal communication effectiveness and position itself to reap substantial financial rewards in the future. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Executive summary: Football for health – prevention and treatment of non‐communicable diseases across the lifespan through football

This supplement contains 16 original articles describing how football conducted as small sided games affects fitness and health of untrained individuals across the lifespan. The intermittent nature of football and high exercise intensity result in a broad range of effects. The heart changes its structure and improves its function. Blood pressure is markedly reduced with the mean arterial blood pressure being lowered by ~10 mmHg for hypertensive men and women training 2–3 times/week for 12–26 weeks. Triglycerides and cholesterol are lowered and body fat declines, especially in middle‐aged men and women with type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, muscle mass and bone mineral density increases in a number of participant groups, including 65–75‐year‐old men. The functional capacity is elevated with increases in VO2max of 10–15%, and 50–100% improvements in the capacity to perform intermittent work within 16 weeks. These effects apply irrespective of whether the participants are young, overweight, elderly or suffering from a disease. The studies clearly show that the participants enjoy playing football and form special relationships with their team mates. Thus, football is a healthy activity, providing a unique opportunity to increase recruitment and adherence to physical activity in a hitherto underserved population, and to treat and rehabilitate patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes and prostate cancer.
Differential Modulation of Donor-Specific Antibodies After B-Cell Depleting Therapies to Cure Chronic Antibody Mediated Rejection

Background Donor-specific antibodies (DSA) are considered as reliable biomarkers for antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) diagnosis. However, it is unclear whether DSA monitoring is necessary and could predict graft outcome after antirejection treatment. Methods We analyzed 28 non-sensitized kidney transplant patients with ABMR associated with de novo anti–human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DSA. Donor-specific antibody levels were measured by single antigen bead assays 12 months after antirejection therapy onset. Patients were placed in three groups according to their antirejection treatment: group I (n = 10), plasma exchange-Rituximab; group II (n = 8), Bortezomib; and group III (n = 10), optimization of maintenance immunosuppression. Half of the patients in group I demonstrated concomitant acute cellular rejection (ACR+). Results De novo DSA were mainly anti-DQ (60%). Anti–class I and anti–DR DSA disappeared after treatment in group I and remained negative during follow-up, whereas anti–DQ DSA persisted without any modulation. In contrast, class I-II HLA-DSA mean fluorescence intensity remained unchanged in groups II and III. Graft loss was observed in 80% and 20% of patients from group I (ACR+) and group III, respectively. One year after the ABMR treatment, a 16-mL/min decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate was observed in patients from group I (ACR−) and group III. Group II showed better outcomes with a mean estimated glomerular filtration rate decline of 6.4 mL/min. Conclusion Modulation of DSA at and after treatment of ABMR did not correlate with graft outcome over a 12-month period.
Political Relationships, Global Financing and Corporate Transparency: Evidence from Indonesia

This study examines the role of political connections for firms' financing strategies and their long-run financial performance. We view political connections as an example for domestic arrangements which can reduce the benefits of global financing. Consistent with this argument, we find that firms with close political ties are less likely than firms with weak connections to have publicly traded foreign securities. We also show that estimates of the performance consequences of foreign financing are severely biased if value-creating domestic arrangements such as political connections are ignored. Political relationships not only alter firms' financing strategies, they also impact the long-run performance of companies. Tracking returns across several changes in regimes, we document that firms have difficulty re-establishing connections with a new government when their patrons fall from power. As a result, closely-connected firms underperform under new regimes and subsequently increase their foreign financing.