Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Family Business, Board Dynamics and Firm Value: Evidence from Malaysia

Most research concentrating on family and non‐family businesses with firm performance is conducted overseas with little research actually taking place in Malaysia. Thus, this study focuses on the relationship between family controlled businesses and corporate governance mechanisms with firm value among Malaysian companies. The sample size of this study is 896 companies that were listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2000 to 2003. The findings reveal that corporate governance mechanisms do have an influence on firm value in Malaysia. However, not all elements of governance mechanisms are significant, and the effects differ between family‐businesses and non‐family businesses. The results indicate as expected that board size and leadership structure affect the firm value for all companies. Further analysis shows that family businesses do practice separate leadership structure whilst board size contributes positively towards better performance in non‐family companies. More importantly, family and non‐family businesses are different in terms of corporate governance practices. Thus, regulators need to give additional attention to the unique setting of the family companies.
Does migration lead to economic convergence in an enlarged European market

This paper examines the relationship between migration and convergence for the enlarged internal market of the European Union (EU27) for the period 1990–2007. The impact of migration on growth is estimated in two ways: by including the migration rate in a growth regression and examining its impact on the convergence coefficient; and from the actual coefficient on migration, which can be interpreted as the effect of migration on long-term growth. While the first approach gives results in favour of the importance of migration on convergence even when human capital is controlled for, the results of the latter are not statistically significant.
Growth performance, blood parameters, immune response and carcass traits of broiler chicks fed on graded levels of wheat instead of corn without or with enzyme supplementation.

Four hundred and fifty one-day Cobb broiler chicken were used to investigate the effect of partial replacement with wheat grain without or with different commercial enzyme products supplementation on growth performance, immune response, blood serum parameters and some carcass characteristics. Broiler chicken were allotted into 9 equal groups (50 chicks of mixed sex per group). Three experimental diet were formulated but the 25% or 50% corn of the basal diet was replaced by wheat grain (w/w) and the diet adjust to be iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric diets, each diet supplemented by Kemzyme plus dry or by Combozyme (enzyme blend commercial products) to be 9 experimental groups. The experimental period continued for six continuous weeks. It was observed that wheat inclusion at 25% instead of corn non significantly reduced body weight and gain of broiler chicken, while 50% replacement improved both parameters when compared with chick group fed on corn-soybean based diet. However, it was observed that wheat inclusion at 25 or 50% instead of corn grain in broiler chicken ration increased feed intake by about 1.3% and 9.8% respectively and consequently deteriorate FCR, PER, EEU and PI by about (4.6% and 4.6%), (8.2% and 6.5%), (4.9% and 4.0%) and (13.7% and (4.2%) respectively when compared with broiler chicken group fed on corn – soybean based diet. Moreover, enzyme supplementation in 25% wheat containing diet increased feed intake but, with 50% wheat inclusion decreased feed intake also, enzyme supplementation in wheat included ration improved FCR, PER, EEU and PI when compared with broiler chick group fed on the same diet without enzyme supplementation. On the other hand, wheat inclusion had no significant effect on blood serum total protein, albumin, globulin and glucose concentrations, while reduced blood serum triglycerides and cholesterol concentrations, also wheat inclusion in the broiler chicken diet had determinately effect on liver function through elevation of some blood serum enzymes when compared with chick group fed on corn-soybean based diet. Regarding immune response, it was observed that wheat inclusion instead of corn reduced phagocytic activity and index, and reduce antibody production against NDV while enzyme supplementation improve the health status of broiler chicken when compared with broiler chicken group fed on the same diet without enzyme supplementation. It was observed that both wheat grain inclusion without or with enzyme supplementation had no significant effect on carcass traits of broiler traits and the most prominent effect was leading to reduction of abdominal fat weight and relative weight and improve thymus gland weight of broiler chicks.
Does proportional representation foster voter turnout

Abstract. This paper examines the record of western democracies to measure the impact of differing electoral formulae on the rate of voter turnout. The record of 509 national elections in 20 countries provides the basis for a regression analysis that clearly identifies higher turnout rates in PR systems that cannot be explained by a wide variety of control variables or traditional arguments about PR. The data also reveal a marked increase in electoral turnout over the last century.
The Impact of a Change in Collection Frequency on Kerbside Recycling Behaviours

The research monitors the changes in recycling performance indicators arising from halving the collection frequency of a kerbside newspaper collection scheme. The changes in the performance parameters are explained in terms of the underlying behavioural changes that could have occurred within the community. This interpretation is aided by a computer simulation of the kerbside recycling activity of the community. Moving from a 2-week collection to a 4-week collection did not substantially affect the number of households recycling, nor the overall weights collected. A small weight loss, however, may have occurred, from a small minority of households, unable to accommodate the extra storage demand of the new regime. Model predictions were consistent with the observed performance data. It is postulated that the scheme could withstand considerable intervention before significant behavioural changes are induced. It demonstrates that cost-cutting interventions can be undertaken without significantly compromising individual participations. The case-study also highlights the caution needed in the interpretation of the recycling performance indicators themselves.
Differential incorporation of fatty acids into and peroxidative loss of fatty acids from phospholipids of human spermatozoa

Intact human sperm incorporated radiolabelled fatty acids into membrane phospholipids when incubated in medium containing bovine serum albumin as a fatty acid carrier. The polyunsturated fatty acids were preferentially incorporated into the plasmalogen fraction of phospholipid. Uptake was linear with time over 2 hr; at this time sufficient label was available to determine the loss of fatty acids under conditions of spontaneous lipid peroxidation. Loss of the various phospholipid types, the loss of the various fatty acids from these phospholipids, and the overall loss of fatty acids were all first order. The loss of saturated fatty acids was slow with first order rate constant k1 = 0.003 hr−1; for the polyunsaturated fatty acids, arachidonic and docosahexaenoic acids, k1 = 0.145 and 0.162 hr−1, respectively. The rate of loss of fatty acids from the various phospholipid types was dependent on the type, with loss from phosphatidylethanolamine being the most rapid. Among the phospholipid types, phosphatidylethanolamine was lost at the greatest rate. Analysis of fatty acid loss through oxidation products was determined for radiolabelled arachidonic acid. Under conditions of spontaneous lipid peroxidation at 37°C under air in the absence of albumin, free arachidonic acid was found in the medium, along with minor amounts of hydroxylated derivative. All the hydroperoxy fatty acid remained in the cells. In the presence of albumin, all the hydroperoxy fatty acid was found in the supernatant bound to albumin; none could be detected in the cells. Albumin is known as a very potent inhibitor of lipid peroxidation in sperm; its action may be explained, based on these results, as binding the damaging hydroperoxy fatty acids. These results also indicate that a phospholipase A2 may act in peroxidative defense by excising a hydroperoxy acyl group from phospholipid and providing the hydroperoxy fatty acid product as substrate to glutathione peroxidase. This formulation targets hydroperoxy fatty acid as a key intermediate in peroxidative degradation. © 1995 wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Towards Increasing Business Orientation: Finnish Management Accountants in a Changing Cultural Context

The key elements of this study consist of management accounting, communication cultures, and people pursuing management accounting in companies. Based on our evidence, we argue that management accounting practice in Finland is tied to the national culture surrounding it, i.e., Finnishness, and that the Finnish management accounting culture is currently in a significant transition. The most prominent sign of such transformation is the emergence of the controller accountant as an important player in organisational decision-making. The background for this transition can be traced, among other things, to intense internationalisation of Finnish companies in recent years.
Rating Opaque Borrowers: Why are Unsolicited Ratings Lower?

This paper examines why unsolicited ratings tend to be lower than solicited ratings. Both self-selection among issuers and strategic conservatism of rating agencies may be reasonable explanations. Analyses of default incidences of non-U.S. borrowers between January 1996 and December 2006 show that rating conservatism may play a role for industrial firms, but self-selection cannot be fully rejected. Neither can it for insurance companies, though data restrictions impede further conclusions. For unsolicited bank ratings, however, we find strong evidence that rating conservatism is an important cause. The downward bias also appears to increase along with banks' opaqueness. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.
Robustness of Stable Volatility Strategies

The paper analyzes the robustness of stable volatility strategies, i.e. strategies in which the portfolio weight of the stock is inversely proportional to its local volatility. These strategies are optimal for a CRRA investor if the stock follows a diffusion process, the expected excess return is proportional to its volatility, and the hedging demand is zero. We assess the performance of stable volatility strategies when these restrictive assumptions do not hold, in particular, when the risk premium is not proportional to volatility and when the stock price is subject to jumps. We find that stable volatility strategies are indeed robust or close to robust under a maxmin decision rule. In addition to our theoretical results, we perform a simulation analysis to evaluate strategies that scale the portfolio weight by the volatility, variance or a constant portfolio weight, and also analyze the strategies using empirical excess returns. Both analyses confirm the robustness of stable volatility strategies.
Clinical accuracy of 3D fluoroscopy-assisted cervical pedicle screw insertion.

OBJECT Cervical pedicle screw (PS) misplacement leads to injury of the spinal cord, nerve root, and vertebral artery. Recently, several investigators reported on the usefulness of a spinal navigation system that improves the accuracy of PS insertion. In this study, the authors assessed the accuracy of cervical pedicle, lateral mass, and odontoid screw insertions placed using a 3D fluoroscopy navigation system, the Iso-C3D unit. METHODS In this prospective analysis of the authors' initial 50 cases of 3D fluoroscopy-assisted cervical screw insertion, the authors inserted 176 PSs, 58 lateral mass screws, and 5 odontoid screws into the C1-7 vertebrae. They placed screws using intraoperative acquisition of data by the isocentric C-arm fluoroscope and a computer navigation system. They obtained postoperative fine-cut CT scans in all patients and assessed the accuracy of screw insertion. RESULTS A PS (>or= 3.5 mm) could be inserted into 24 (63%) of 38 pedicles at the level of C-3, 18 (53%) of 34 pedicles at C-4, 30 (65%) of 46 at C-5, 33 (80%) of 41 at C-6, and 43 (100%) of 43 at C-7. Of 176 PSs inserted into vertebrae between C-2 and C-7, 171 screws (97.2%) were classified as Grade 1 (no pedicle perforation), and 5 screws (2.8%) were classified as Grade 2 (screw perforation of the cortex by up to 2 mm). Clinically significant screw deviation in the present study was considered Grade 3 (screw perforation of the cortex by > 2 mm), and this occurred in 0% of the placements. CONCLUSIONS In this study, the authors were able to correctly insert cervical PSs using the 3D fluoroscopy and navigation system.
Multicenter Evaluation of the ePlex Respiratory Pathogen Panel for the Detection of Viral and Bacterial Respiratory Tract Pathogens in Nasopharyngeal Swabs

ABSTRACT The performance of the new ePlex Respiratory Pathogen (RP) panel (GenMark Diagnostics) for the simultaneous detection of 19 viruses (influenza A virus; influenza A H1 virus; influenza A 2009 H1 virus; influenza A H3 virus; influenza B virus; adenovirus; coronaviruses [HKU1, OC43, NL63, and 229E]; human rhinovirus/enterovirus; human metapneumovirus; parainfluenza viruses 1, 2, 3, and 4; and respiratory syncytial virus [RSV] [RSV subtype A and RSV subtype B]) and 2 bacteria (Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae) was evaluated. Prospectively and retrospectively collected nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) specimens (n = 2,908) were evaluated by using the ePlex RP panel, with the bioMérieux/BioFire FilmArray Respiratory Panel (BioFire RP) as the comparator method. Discordance analysis was performed by using target-specific PCRs and bidirectional sequencing. The reproducibility of the assay was evaluated by using reproducibility panels comprised of 6 pathogens. The overall agreement between the ePlex RP and BioFire RP results was >95% for all targets. Positive percent agreement with the BioFire RP result for viruses ranged from 85.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 80.2% to 88.9%) to 95.1% (95% CI, 89.0% to 97.9%), while negative percent agreement values ranged from 99.5% (95% CI, 99.1% to 99.7%) to 99.8% (95% CI, 99.5% to 99.9%). Additional testing of discordant targets (12%; 349/2,908) confirmed the results of ePlex RP for 38% (131/349) of samples tested. Reproducibility was 100% for all targets tested, with the exception of adenovirus, for which reproducibilities were 91.6% at low virus concentrations and 100% at moderate virus concentrations. The ePlex RP panel offers a new, rapid, and sensitive “sample-to-answer” multiplex panel for the detection of the most common viral and bacterial respiratory pathogens.
Ex Ante Evaluation of Drought-Tolerant Varieties in Eastern and Central Africa

This study presents a model to estimate potential benefits of drought-tolerant varieties of maize, sorghum and millet in Kenya, Uganda and the Amhara region of Ethiopia. In addition to the benefits from mean yield increases, the model takes into account risk benefits associated with yield-stabilising varieties. Ex ante estimates provided for different drought zones and for different household types within drought zones of each country suggest that drought resistance generates substantial benefits from both mean yield improvements and yield variance reductions for both consumers and small, medium and large producers.
Evidence That the Lipid Phosphatase SHIP-1 Regulates T Lymphocyte Morphology and Motility

SHIP-1 negatively regulates the PI3K pathway in hematopoietic cells and has an emerging role in T lymphocyte biology. PI3K and SHIP can regulate cell migration in leukocytes, particularly in neutrophils, although their role in T cell migration has been less clear. Therefore, we sought to explore the role of SHIP-1 in human CD4+ T lymphocyte cell migration responses to chemoattractants using a lentiviral-mediated expression system and a short hairpin RNA approach. Silencing of SHIP-1 leads to increased basal phosphorylation of protein kinase B/Akt and its substrate GSK3β, as well as an increase in basal levels of polymerized actin, suggesting that SHIP-1 might regulate changes in the cytoskeleton. Accordingly, silencing of SHIP-1 led to loss of microvilli and ezrin/radixin/moesin phosphorylation, which could not be rescued by the PI3K inhibitor Ly294002. There were striking morphological changes, including a loss of microvilli projections, which mirrored changes in wild type cells after stimulation with the chemokine CXCL11. There was no defect in directional T cell migration toward CXCL11 in the SHIP-1–silenced cells but, importantly, there was a defect in the overall basal motility of SHIP-1 knockdown cells. Taken together, these results implicate SHIP-1 as a key regulator of basal PI3K signaling in human CD4+ T lymphocytes with important phosphatase-independent actions, which together are key for maintaining normal morphology and basal motility.
Effects of ginsenoside Rg 1 on glucose metabolism and liver injury in streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetic rats

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2-DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose levels. T2-DM patients suffer from many complications, such as diabetic fatty liver and diabetic nephropathy. The liver, the pivotal organ involved in both glucose and lipid metabolism, is primarily damaged in T2-DM patients, especially in those with high levels of blood lipid. In this study, the hepatoprotective activity of ginsenoside Rg1 was investigated in a
Income and crop diversification among farming households in a rural area of north central Nigeria

Income and crop diversification have been identified as essential strategies for raising income and reducing rural poverty. Both strategies were analyzed based on empirical data collected from rural households. The analysis was done using the Simpson Index of Diversity (SID) and Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis. The results revealed that diversification into a number of income sources and crops grown were very high. The determinants of income diversification were number of children less than 12 years old, number of adults above 60 years old, availability of electricity in the household and distance from local market. The determinants of crop diversification were, age and level of education of the household head, number of extension visits, availability of tractor hiring services and returns from crop production. Most households occupations in the study area were no longer agriculture based, however there willingness to diversify was significantly influenced by their socioeconomic characteristics. Key words: Income, Crop, Diversification, Rural area, Households
News Media Use, Informed Issue Evaluation, and South Koreans' Support for Genetically Modified Foods

Analyzing survey data on the issue of genetically modified foods in South Korea, this study explores the role of news media in facilitating informed issue evaluation. Respondents who read a newspaper more often were more knowledgeable about the issue. Also, heavy newspaper readers were more able than light readers to hold consistent views on different aspects of the issue. When it comes to television news, heavy viewers held stronger opinions than light viewers on the key issue attributes. News media use seems to allow the audience to engage in greater cognitive elaboration, helping them to make an informed and deliberate issue evaluation.
Yield Curve Modeling and Forecasting: The Dynamic Nelson-Siegel Approach

Understanding the dynamic evolution of the yield curve is critical to many financial tasks, including pricing financial assets and their derivatives, managing financial risk, allocating portfolios, structuring fiscal debt, conducting monetary policy, and valuing capital goods. Unfortunately, most yield curve models tend to be theoretically rigorous but empirically disappointing, or empirically successful but theoretically lacking. In this book, Francis Diebold and Glenn Rudebusch propose two extensions of the classic yield curve model of Nelson and Siegel that are both theoretically rigorous and empirically successful. The first extension is the dynamic Nelson-Siegel model (DNS), while the second takes this dynamic version and makes it arbitrage-free (AFNS). Diebold and Rudebusch show how these two models are just slightly different implementations of a single unified approach to dynamic yield curve modeling and forecasting. They emphasize both descriptive and efficient-markets aspects, they pay special attention to the links between the yield curve and macroeconomic fundamentals, and they show why DNS and AFNS are likely to remain of lasting appeal even as alternative arbitrage-free models are developed. Based on the Econometric and Tinbergen Institutes Lectures, Yield Curve Modeling and Forecasting contains essential tools with enhanced utility for academics, central banks, governments, and industry.
GRP78 and CHOP modulate macrophage apoptosis and the development of bleomycin‐induced pulmonary fibrosis

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and the unfolded protein response (UPR) have been associated with fibrotic lung disease, although exactly how they modulate this process remains unclear. Here we investigated the role of GRP78, the main UPR regulator, in an experimental model of lung injury and fibrosis. Grp78+/−, Chop−/− and wild type C57BL6/J mice were exposed to bleomycin by oropharyngeal intubation and lungs were examined at days 7 and 21. We demonstrate here that Grp78+/− mice were strongly protected from bleomycin‐induced fibrosis, as shown by immunohistochemical analysis, collagen content and lung function measurements. In the inflammatory phase of this model, a reduced number of lung macrophages associated with an increased number of TUNEL‐positive cells were observed in Grp78+/− mice. Dual immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization experiments showed that the macrophage population from the protected Grp78+/− mice was also strongly positive for cleaved caspase‐3 and Chop mRNA, respectively. In contrast, the administration of bleomycin to Chop−/− mice resulted in increased quasi‐static elastance and extracellular matrix deposition associated with an increased number of parenchymal arginase‐1‐positive macrophages that were negative for cleaved caspase‐3. The data presented indicate that the UPR is activated in fibrotic lung tissue and strongly localized to macrophages. GRP78‐ and CHOP‐mediated macrophage apoptosis was found to protect against bleomycin‐induced fibrosis. Overall, we demonstrate here that the fibrotic response to bleomycin is dependent on GRP78‐mediated events and provides evidence that macrophage polarization and apoptosis may play a role in this process. Copyright © 2016 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.