Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Industry classification and the capital structure of Ghanaian SMEs

Purpose - This study seeks to examine the effect of industry classification on the capital structure of SMEs in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach - The analytical technique employed is regression framework with various capital structure measures as dependent variables, and with industry as the independent variable. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and other non-parametric tests were also used to examine the differences in the capital structure of the SMEs across industries. Findings - The results of this study indicate that SMEs in the agricultural sector exhibit the highest capital structure and asset structure or collateral value, while the wholesale and retail trade industry have the lowest debt ratio and asset structure. The regression results indicate that agriculture and pharmaceutical and medical industries depend more on long-term and short-term debt than does the manufacturing sector. Information and communication, and wholesale and retail trade sectors are more likely to use short-term credit than the manufacturing sector. The results also show that the construction and mining industry is less likely to depend on short-term debt, while hotel and hospitality depend more on long-term debt and less on short-term finance. The results clearly indicate that industry effect is important in explaining the capital structure of SMEs and that there are variations in capital structure across the various industries. Originality/value - The main value of this paper is the analysis of the effect of industry classification on SMEs' capital structure from the Ghanaian perspective. The study provides insights on the financing behaviour of SMEs across various industries in Ghana.
Insider Trading and the Dissemination of Firms' Forecast Information

It is generally supposed that corporate insiders have access to information superior to that of outsiders. Empirical work on insider trading by Jaffe (1974) and Finnerty (1976a, 1976b) has found that insiders do earn higher returns on their shareholdings than outsiders, on average. Further, insiders in different managerial positions appear to earn differential abnormal returns (Baesel and Stein 1979). 1 Investors subscribe to services which summarize insider trading activity2 and act on the information released in the SEC's Official Summary of Insider Trading (Jaffe 1974). This evidence suggests that insiders do indeed have superior information and use that information in trading in their firms' securities. This paper investigates more directly the link between observed insider information and insider trading and also the link between insider trading and information-dissemination activities. The tests reported here examine the security trading of corporate insiders around the time they make public announcements about their
Factors Influencing Soil Conservation Decisions in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Upland Farmers in the Philippines

This study examines the factors that influence the adoption intensity of a soil conservation technology in a developing country. Factors that influence adoption intensity may not be the same as those that influence the incidence of adoption. In this study, adoption intensity is defined as the percentage of total upland acreage planted with Sloping Agricultural Land Technology by farmers in the Philippines. Because of the dependent variableâ€™s truncated nature, a Tobit model is used in the analysis. Economic theory and previous research provide the basis for the soil conservation decision variables included in the study. Results suggest that age of the head of household, tenure status, availability of family labor, and government programs have significant influence on adoption intensity. Contrary to expectations, income and education of farmers do not have significant impacts on adoption intensity. These results are discussed in term of their implications for conservation programs in developing countries.
Race-Ethnic and Gender Differences in Nonstandard Work Shifts

This article, based on the May 1997 Current Population Survey, presents a detailed analysis of the extent to which employed American men and women of various race-ethnic groups work non-standard work hours—namely, evenings, nights, and rotating or highly variable work shifts— and the reasons they report for doing so. Differences in occupational structure among race-ethnic groups largely explain their differences in the prevalence of nonstandard work shifts. Yet even when standardizing for occupation, both male and female non-Hispanic Blacks have higher levels working nonstandard shifts than their Hispanic or White counterparts. Moreover, the relatively low pay of such jobs and the large proportions of those working nonstandard hours who give job-constraining reasons for doing so support the contention that late and rotating work schedules are an important dimension of labor force disadvantage, especially among men. Furthermore, the literature indicates greater health risks and social costs for working such hours. Differences in weekend employment by race-ethnicity are small. Based on job growth projections, it is speculated that over the next decade, nonstandard work schedules will disproportionately involve more women, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics.
Does Trading Remove or Cause Friction?

This study shows that trading causes friction in the market. However, when the market opens, trading of individuals removes market friction, while that of institutional trading does not. The situation during the rest of the day is just the opposite. The uneven behavior of trading noise across investors and time of day makes it a specific, rather than general, transaction cost, contrary to Stoll's (2000) finding. Intraday trading activity suppresses both order width and depth, as proxies for trading intensity, and therefore creates noise or friction in the market. Our findings support the proposed financial transaction tax in the European Union.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Signals Endothelial Cell Production of Nitric Oxide and Prostacyclin through Flk-1/KDR Activation of c-Src*

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent endothelial cell-specific mitogen that promotes angiogenesis, vascular hyperpermeability, and vasodilation by autocrine mechanisms involving nitric oxide (NO) and prostacyclin (PGI2) production. These experiments used immunoprecipitation and immunoassay procedures to characterize the signaling pathways by which VEGF induces NO and PGI2 formation in cultured endothelial cells. The data showed that VEGF stimulates complex formation of the flk-1/kinase-insert domain-containing receptor (KDR) VEGF receptor with c-Src and that Src activation is required for VEGF induction of phospholipase C γ1 activation and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate formation. Reporter cell assays showed that VEGF promotes a ∼50-fold increase in NO formation, which peaks at 5–20 min. This effect is mediated by a signaling cascade initiated by flk-1/KDR activation of c-Src, leading to phospholipase C γ1 activation, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate formation, release of [Ca2+] i and nitric oxide synthase activation. Immunoassays of VEGF-induced 6-keto prostaglandin F1α formation as an indicator of PGI2 production revealed a 3–4-fold increase that peaked at 45–60 min. The PGI2 signaling pathway follows the NO pathway through release of [Ca2+] i , but diverges prior to NOS activation and also requires activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase. These results suggest that NO and PGI2 function in parallel in mediating the effects of VEGF.
Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Subtyping of Ureaplasma Parvum and Ureaplasma Urealyticum in First-Pass Urine Samples from Men With or Without Urethritis

Background: Our previous study suggested a significant association between Ureaplasma urealyticum and nongonococcal urethritis (NGU). However, association of the serovars of U. urealyticum with NGU remains unclear. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay can distinguish 4 serovars of Ureaplasma parvum from each other and categorize 10 serovars of U. urealyticum into 3 subtypes: subtype 1 (serovars 2, 5, 8, and 9), subtype 2 (serovars 4, 10, 12, and 13), and subtype 3 (serovars 7 and 11). Goal: The goal of this study was to determine which subtypes of U. urealyticum are associated with NGU as determined by PCR-based assay. Study: The prevalence of U. urealyticum subtypes in 106 ureaplasma-positive men with urethritis was compared with that in 30 ureaplasma-positive men without urethritis. Results: In men with nonchlamydial NGU and men with Mycoplasma genitalium-negative nonchlamydial NGU, only U. urealyticum subtype 1 (serovars 2, 5, 8, and 9) was detected significantly more often than in men without urethritis. Conclusion: This study suggests that subtype 1 of U. urealyticum (serovars 2, 5, 8, and 9) is associated with NGU independently of Chlamydia trachomatis or M. genitalium.
Double-blind, randomized study of primary hormonal treatment of stage D2 prostate carcinoma: flutamide versus diethylstilbestrol.

PURPOSE Patients with stage D2 prostate carcinoma are often treated initially with hormones to decrease endogenous testosterone. Therapy with diethylstilbestrol (DES), leuprolide, or bilateral orchiectomy has been reported to be equivalent. DES is the cheapest preparation, but has the potential for serious cardiovascular or thromboembolic complications. Flutamide is a novel antiandrogen with fewer side effects. PATIENTS AND METHODS The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) conducted a double-blind, randomized study to compare the efficacy of flutamide (250 mg three times daily) to DES (1 mg three times daily) as the primary hormonal therapy for patients with stage D2 prostate cancer. Patients were stratified by performance status, disease sites, and history of cardiovascular disease at randomization. RESULTS Forty-eight patients received DES and 44 flutamide. Patient characteristics were evenly distributed between the two treatments. The overall response rate was similar (DES, 62%; flutamide, 50%). Grade III or worse cardiovascular or thromboembolic toxicity developed in 33.3% of patients on DES and in 17.6% on flutamide (P = .051). Other toxicities were similar between the two treatment arms. However, DES produced significantly longer time to treatment failure (26.4 v 9.7 months, P = .016) and longer survival than flutamide (43.2 v 28.5 months, P = .040). CONCLUSION As the primary hormonal therapy for stage D2 prostate cancer, DES caused more serious cardiovascular or thromboembolic complications than flutamide. Despite this, flutamide was not as active an initial agent as DES. However, the effectiveness of flutamide in conjunction with other agents compared with DES remains undetermined, and the optimal initial hormone therapy of stage D2 prostate cancer requires further studies.
Treatment of keratoacanthoma: Is intralesional methotrexate an option?

BACKGROUND Keratoacanthomas (KAs) are a variant of squamous cell carcinomas. Some KAs have shown aggressive behaviour, leading to metastasis and death. Surgical excision is the treatment of choice for most KA patients. Intralesional methotrexate (MTX) may also be a potential treatment option for KAs. OBJECTIVE To evaluate intralesional MTX as a treatment modality for KA. METHODS A retrospective chart review of nine patients with KAs treated with intralesional MTX was performed. Each patient had biopsy-proven KA. The lesion was initially debulked, and MTX was injected at the base. Patients were seen weekly in the office, and reinjected with intralesional MTX depending on the response of the lesion. Each patient was evaluated for their response to the intralesional MTX injections, the number of injections required and complications. RESULTS Patients required approximately two to four intralesional injections (12.5 mg to 25 mg per injection) before KA resolution. Eight of nine (88.9%) patients experienced complete resolution of their tumours. One patient experienced treatment failure, and underwent surgical excision of the KA. The average follow-up period was 2.8 years, and there were no recurrences. CONCLUSION The results from the present retrospective study show that intralesional MTX injection is an effective treatment option for KAs. The authors propose that intralesional MTX injection with initial debulking of the KA should be used as a first line of treatment when KAs present on the extremities, in cosmetically sensitive areas and in elderly patients with multiple comorbities.
A utilização de derivativos agrega valor à firma? Um estudo do caso brasileiro

This article examines the use of derivatives and its impact on firm value for a sample of non-financial Brazilian companies listed in the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange from 1996 to 2006. Using parametric and non-parametric methods, the results confirm that the use of derivatives adds value to the firm, indicating that, differently than asserted by Modigliani and Miller (1958), corporate financing policies do exert an impact on firm-value.
Work motivation and job satisfaction in the Nordic countries

This paper studies differences in job satisfaction and intrinsic work motivation between employees with different characteristics. Based on a study of the literature assumptions regarding these differences are developed and tested on data from a survey in the Nordic countries. In this survey 9,623 employees from randomly selected households in the Nordic countries participated. Among the findings are that Danish workers were found to be the most satisfied and that there is no difference between the genders with respect to job satisfaction in the Nordic countries.
Managerial Responses to Initial Market Reactions on Share Repurchases

While most papers in finance literature investigate how the stock market reacts to announcements of corporate events, very few study the opposite, how namely, the manager responds to the information from outside investors. In this paper, we examine this issue, using open market share repurchases. Open market share repurchase offers flexibility for the manager to decide whether or not to buy back shares. Therefore, the manager may refer to the opinions of outside investors and make the decision, based on actual buyback activities. We propose learning, over-confidence and timing hypotheses to interpret the behavior of the managerial response to initial market reaction on the share repurchase announcement. Empirically, if a repurchase announcement abnormal return is low, then the manager tends to achieve the repurchase announced ratio by purchasing more shares. In addition, the investor will positively react to this repurchase in the long run. These empirical findings are consistent with the market timing hypothesis, which implies that managers know the true value of their firms better than the market at the moment of the share repurchase announcement.
Press Coverage of Climate Change Issues in Nigeria and Implications for Public Participation Opportunities

Nigeria faces a lot of environmental problems such as extensive gas flaring, deforestation, and desertification with serious consequences on climate change. How are these issues covered and framed by Nigerian newspapers? Content analysis of systematically sampled, 438 issues from 4380 issues of four purposively selected dailies between 2007 and 2009 shows dominance of climate politics/economics issues (61.2%), foreign sourcing of reports (63.4%), straight news formatting of reports (83.6%) and framing in terms of mitigation (55.2%). Mitigation efforts aim to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases implicated in climate change. We conclude that coverage and framing constrain opportunities for popular participation in climate change discourse. To improve the situation, Nigerian newspapers should broaden the scope of climate change coverage and framing, widen local sourcing of reports, diversify the formats of reporting, and frame the issues more in the mould of adaptation (activities and measures to reduce risks posed by climatic changes) to boost involvement of people in climate change discourse through monitorial, supportive and collaborative strategy in agenda setting agenda.
Öğretmen Algılarına Göre Liselerde İş Yaşamı Kalitesi ve Örgütsel Bağlılıkla İlişkisi

Bu arastirmada ogretmenlerinin is yasami kalitesi algilarinin orgutsel baglilik algilarini yordama derecesi belirlenmeye calisilmistir. Betimsel tarama modelindeki arastirmanin evrenini, Turkiye'deki kamu ve ozel genel liselerde gorev yapmakta olan ogretmenler olusturmaktadir. Arastirmanin orneklemini ise 17 ilde gorev yapan 801 kamu ve ozel genel lise ogretmeni olusturmaktadir. Lise ogretmenlerin is yasam kalitesini belirlemek amaciyla arastirmaci tarafindan gelistirilen Is Yasami Kalitesi Olcegi, orgute bagliliklarini olcmek amaciyla da Balay'in (2000) gelistirdigi Orgutsel Baglilik Olcegi uygulanmistir. Veri analizinde, regresyon analizi uygulanmistir. Anlamlilik testlerinde ? =. 05 anlamlilik duzeyi esas alinmistir. Arastirma sonucunda, is yasami kalitesinin alt boyutlariyla orgutsel bagliligin uyum boyutu arasinda negatif iliski gorulurken, ozdeslesme ve icsellestirme boyutlari arasinda pozitif bir iliski gorulmustur. Is yasami kalitesi, orgutsel bagliligin uyum boyutundaki varyansin %28'ini yordarken, ozdeslesme boyutundaki varyansin %63'unu, icsellestirme boyutundaki varyansin ise %34'unu yordamaktadir.
Aggregation and Measurement Errors in Performance Evaluation

In this paper, we present a sequential production setting wherein employing aggregate measures for performance evaluation prove superior to those constructed specifically to measure individual activity. In our setting, unverifiable inputs translate into verifiable measures via two types of shocks: the first is production errors that cause outputs to deviate from inputs, and the second is measurement errors that result in outputs themselves being stated imprecisely. Agents are evaluated using either individual or aggregate measures, where the former measures the incremental output added by each link and the latter measures the cumulative output produced at the end of each stage. Aggregate measures can be preferred to individual measures because they increase the sample size available to infer upstream agents' unobservable acts and because they serve as an avenue for measurement errors to cancel.
The surdo-cardiac syndrome and therapeutic observations

First recognized in 1957, the surdo-cardiac syndrome includes congenital deafness, prolonged QT interval, and a high incidence of syncope and sudden death. Haemodynamic studies in two patients were normal except for an abnormal wave during left ventricular diastole probably related to abnormal left ventricular relaxation. The syncopal attacks are based on cardiac arrhythmias: both ventricular fibrillation and asystole may occur. Abnormal adrenergic stimulation of the heart is probably responsible. Propranolol appears to be effective in preventing the syncopal attacks. Artificial pacemaking provoked ventricular fibrillation in one patient and seems contraindicated.
Staphylokinase-Specific Cell-Mediated Immunity in Humans1

Staphylokinase is a highly fibrin-specific clot-dissolving agent that constitutes a promising drug for clinical development. It is of bacterial origin, and the majority of patients develop neutralizing Ab after its administration. Several antigenic regions, recognized by these Ab, have been identified, but the underlying immunogenic features of staphylokinase remain unknown. In this study, we show that staphylokinase is a T cell-dependent Ag, and that an immunological memory may be acquired, even without administration of staphylokinase. Thrombolysis with staphylokinase provokes the proliferation of staphylokinase-specific T lymphocytes, which remain elevated over 10 mo posttreatment. Interestingly, analysis of a large number of staphylokinase-specific T cell clones isolated from 10 unrelated donors revealed only six distinct immunogenic regions in the molecule. Moreover, five of the six regions are recognized by T lymphocytes from several individuals, indicating that these regions are not restricted to a single HLA-DR allele. Therefore, these new insights can guide the design of variants with a lower immunogenic profile in humans.
Frequency and causes of adrenal crises over lifetime in patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency.

OBJECTIVE To study adrenal crisis (AC) in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to classical 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD). AC was defined as an acute state of health impairment requiring i.v. glucocorticoid administration and hospital admission. DESIGN AND METHODS In a cross-sectional study with detailed retrospective assessment, AC was studied following two approaches: i) questionnaire based: 122 adult 21-OHD patients (50 men, 72 women, median age 35 years, range 18-69 years) completed a disease-specific questionnaire; and ii) patient chart based: charts of 67 21-OHD patients (32 males, 35 females, median age 31 years, range 20-66 years) were analyzed from diagnosis to last follow-up with regard to frequency and causes of AC since diagnosis. RESULTS Evaluation of questionnaires revealed 257 ACs in 4456 patient years (py; frequency 5.8 crises/100 py), while patient charts documented 106 ACs in 2181 py (4.9 crises/100 py). The chart-based evaluation showed that gastrointestinal infections (29%) and salt-wasting crisis (18%) were the main causes of AC. In 14%, the cause remained uncertain. There was no difference in the overall frequency of AC in males and females. AC mostly occurred during childhood, with more than 70% of AC in the first 10 years of life and one-third of AC in the first year of life. Still, 20% of cases of AC were observed in adults (>18 years). CONCLUSION Our data demonstrate a significant risk of AC in patients with 21-OHD over lifetime. Specific age-adapted and repeated crisis prevention training may help to reduce morbidity due to AC in 21-OHD.
Renminbi Going Global

The paper assesses the international status of the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB) by recounting and reviewing the recent polices China instituted to promote the use of the RMB in the global market. The evidence suggests that the RMB is gaining acceptance overseas. However, compared with the size of the Chinese economy, the current scale of the use of the RMB is quite small. The path to a fully fledged international RMB will be a distant goal.
Modelling Fiji–US exchange rate volatility

In this article, we examine the Fiji–US exchange rate volatility using daily data for the period 2000 to 2006. Our modelling framework is based on the EGARCH model. We find robust evidence of conditional shocks having a positive effect on exchange rate volatility, shocks having asymmetric effects on exchange rate volatility and shocks having a transitory effect on exchange rate volatility.
Timing of Convertible Debt Financing and Investment

In this paper, we examine the optimal investment policy of the firm which is financed by issuing equity, straight debt and convertible debt. We extend the model in Mauer and Sarkar (2005) over financing with convertible debt. We examine two different investment policies that maximize the equity value and the firm value and show the agency cost as the difference between each policy value. Furthermore, we investigate how the issuance of convertible debt affects investment.