Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Contagion Impacts of Corporate Fraud and Litigation

Corporate fraud and litigation are extreme events in the life of the corporation for they contain those elements which are most threatening to securities markets – potentially unbounded moral hazard, agency cost, information asymmetry and reputation effects. Fraud events are very serious—on the announcements of fraud and litigation shareholders in the announcing firm typically withdraw their funds en-masse, almost irrespective of price. On the surface, these events may seem to be idiosyncratic, or firm-specific, with local effects. But a question that logically follows is—since corporate fraud and litigation is so devastating for the affected firms—is there potential for pure intra-industry contagion to occur? This is the topic of this paper. The study’s principal finding is that strong pure contagion responses are evident following both fraud (F) disclosures and class action (C) litigation filings. In further analysis, we identify that the intensity of the contagion reactions is generally linked to well recognized measures of risk, notably: BM (Fama & French, 1993); leverage (Fama & French, 1988), up markets (or time varying risk premia (Fama & French, 1988)) and the level of regulatory protection (which has long been viewed as a means to control information asymmetry and agency risks, Ali and Kallapur, 2001). This link to risk parameters suggests that contagion susceptibility may be predictable. JEL Classification: G14, G35, G38
The Relationship Between Fluency and Accuracy in Writing

In writing classes at Japanese high schools, accuracy has traditionally been regarded as more important than fluency, and learners have concentrated more on accuracy rather than fluency in order to obtain high sceres in the accuracy-oriented written tests, However, in improving learners' communicative skills, fiuency is becoming more and more important. This study investigated the relationship between accuracy and fiueney in high school students' writing, and also considered the infiuence of the teacher's direction on learners' writing, Results showed that there was a positive cerrelation between accuracy and fluency, and that direction encouraging students to write fiuently was more influential on their writing than that encouraging them to write aecurately, Based on these findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions are presented for the teaching of writing.
Effect of Bleomycin Hydrolase Gene Polymorphism on Late Pulmonary Complications of Treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma

Background Bleomycin hydrolase (BLMH), an enzyme that inactivates bleomycin, may be a potential candidate that could influence pulmonary function in ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastin, dacarbasine)–treated Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients. Patients and Methods We hypothesized that the BLMH gene SNP A1450G (rs1050565) influences BLMH activity and late pulmonary toxicity. St. George Respiratory Questionnaire, lung scintigraphy and spirometry were used to determine lung function. TaqMan genotyping assay was used to determine genotype distribution of 131 previously treated HL patients. Results Significantly more favorable results were seen in the wild-type A/A genotype group than those in the group containing the mutated allele: A/G+G/G in retrospective pulmonary tests of ABVD treated patients. Conclusion Besides limitations of the current study, bleomycin pharmacokinetics should be further evaluated in patients with BLMH variations, hence identify those cases even in the frontline setting, where bleomycin should be omitted and replaced with targeted therapy.
How Do European Monetary and Fiscal Authorities Behave?

The objective of this study is to investigate the behaviour of monetary and fiscal authorities in the Euro area. Our main contribution is joint modeling of behaviour of the two authorities. Our investigation highlights a number of facts. The systematic monetary policies adopted by the non-German authorities in the seventies were not capable of stabilizing inflation. Such results have been achieved in the eighties and the nineties by anchoring more tightly domestic monetary policy to German monetary policy. All the main episodes of expansionary fiscal policy which have occurred in the course of the eighties and the nineties in Europe cannot be explained by the systematic behaviour of fiscal authorities. Stabilization of inflation has been achieved independently from the lack of fiscal discipline. There are important interactions between the two authorities but they depend exclusively on the responses of governments expenditures and receipts to interest rate payments on the public debt.
Protective Response to Leishmania major in BALB/c Mice Requires Antigen Processing in the Absence of DM 1

Protection from the parasite Leishmania major is mediated by CD4 T cells. BALB/c mice are susceptible to L. major and show a nonprotective immunodominant CD4 T cell response to Leishmania homolog of activated receptor for c-kinase (LACK) 158–173. Host genes that underlie BALB/c susceptibility to L. major infections are poorly defined. DM, a nonclassical MHC class II molecule, due to its peptide editing properties has been shown to 1) edit the repertoire of peptides displayed by APC, and 2) focus the display of epitopes by APC to the immunodominant ones. We tested the hypothesis that deficiency of DM, by causing presentation of a different array of epitopes by infected APC than that presented by DM-sufficient APC, may change the course of L. major infection in the susceptible BALB/c mice. We show herein that unlike their susceptible wild-type counterparts, BALB/c mice deficient in DM are protected from infections with L. major. Furthermore, DM-deficient mice fail to display the immunodominant LACK 158–173 on infected APC. In its place, infected DM−/− hosts show elicitation of CD4 T cells specific for newer epitopes not presented by wild-type L. major-infected APC. Protection of BALB/c DM−/− mice is dependent on IFN-γ. DM is thus a host susceptibility gene in BALB/c mice, and Ag processing in the absence of DM results in elicitation of a protective T cell response against L. major infections. This report suggests a novel mechanism to trigger host resistance against pathogens.
Assessment of social support, expressed emotion and compliance to treatment among hospital admitted schizophrenic patients in Malaysia

One of the important factors that may predict the relapse in schizophrenia is having poor social support, high Expressed Emotion (EE)and poor compliance. The family is an important factor that affects the patient’s mental well-being and outcome, this study aimed to assess the social support, expressed emotion and treatment compliance among hospital admitted schizophrenic patients. A cross sectional study conducted among a sample of 162 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia admitted in psychiatric ward. Various factors were being assessed including age, gender, ethnicity monthly income, duration of the illness, number of admissions to the psychiatric ward, assessment of expressed emotion and compliance with treatment. The multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS) was used to measures perceived social support. Although there was no significant association between males and female in total scale social support, only the friend subscale social support was found significantly higher in males (p=0.038). Males have significant better compliance to medication than females (p=0.000). The prevalence of concurrent substance abuse was 14.8 % and it is significantly higher among male schizophrenic patients than female patients (p=0.000). There was no significant association between gender and high EE level. Having no history of co-morbid drug misuse (mean=4.39; p=0.039), and having high level of psychoeducation within the family (mean=4,48; p=0.004) were significantly associated with higher mean scores in total scale social support. Efforts to improve social support are essential in managing patients with schizophrenia competently. The level of psychoeducation within the family is a very important factor in relation to patients’ social support. Early detection and intervention toward co-morbid substance use disorder among schizophrenic patients is vital as it has been associated with poor social support. There is no difference between male or female patients in relation to high EE and family intervention should include steps to reduce it in both genders.
The Paradox of Progress: Environmental Disruption of Metabolism and the Diabetes Epidemic

As the tide of chemicals born of the Industrial Age has arisen to engulf our environment, a drastic change has come about in the nature of the most serious public health problems.Rachel Carson, Silent Spring , 1962 Worldwide rates of diabetes and other metabolic diseases have exploded over the last several decades. Globally, more than 170 million individuals currently suffer from diabetes, and this number is projected to reach a staggering 366 million by 2030 (1). This scourge results in significant individual morbidity and mortality while contributing to the economic fragility of healthcare systems across the globe. In the U.S. alone, annual costs associated with diabetes are estimated to be $174 billion (2). As such, every effort must be made to understand the factors underlying this emerging metabolic disaster in order to mitigate its deleterious impact on the individual and society. Recently, an expanding body of scientific evidence has begun to link exposure to synthetic chemicals with a wide variety of diseases, including reproductive tract disorders and neurobehavioral diseases. The present work discusses epidemiological links between chemical exposure and disorders of glucose homeostasis, experimental data demonstrating chemical-induced changes in insulin action, and challenges facing the field of metabolic disruption as well as approaches for addressing those challenges. Originally articulated in the early 1990s, the environmental endocrine disruptor theory proposes that some exogenous chemicals interfere with endogenous hormonal axes (3). The recognition of this potential mechanism of action was a paradigm shift in toxicology that had previously focused on a chemical’s capacity to induce acute toxicity or to cause cancer via mutagenesis. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) as “an exogenous agent that interferes with the production, release, transport, metabolism, binding, action, or elimination of natural hormones in the body responsible for the maintenance of …
Opus: University of Bath Online Publication Store Word Count (exc. Figures/tables): 3731 Acknowledgements: with Support from the Pan Bath and Swindon Primary Care Research

(2012) 'Waste the waist': the development of an intervention to promote changes in diet and physical activity for people with high cardiovascular risk. 'Waste the Waist': the development of an intervention to promote changes in diet and physical activity for people with high cardiovascular risk' in This version is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. " Waste the waist " : The development of an intervention to promote changes in diet and physical activity for people with high cardiovascular risk. Abstract Objectives: To identify an evidence-based intervention to promote changes in diet and physical activity and adapt it for a UK primary care setting for people with high cardiovascular risk. Design: A three stage mixed-methods design was used to facilitate a strategic approach to programme selection and adaptation. Method Stage 1: Criteria for scientific quality and local appropriateness were developed for the selection /adaptation of an intervention to promote lifestyle change in people of high cardio-vascular risk through; (i) patient interviews, (ii) a literature search to extract evidence-based criteria for behavioural interventions, and (iii) stakeholder consultation. Stage 2: Potential interventions for adaptation were identified and ranked according to their performance against the criteria developed in Stage 1. Stage 3: Intervention mapping techniques were used to (i) specify the behavioural objectives that participants would need to reach in order to attain programme outcomes, and (ii) adapt the selected intervention to ensure that evidence-based strategies to target all identified behavioural objectives were included. Results: Four of 23 potential interventions identified met the 11 essential criteria agreed by a multidisciplinary stakeholder committee. Of these, the Greater Green Triangle programme (Laatikainen et al., 2007) was ranked highest and selected for adaptation. The intervention mapping process identified 13 additional behaviour change strategies that were used to adapt the intervention for the local context. Conclusions: Intervention mapping provided a useful set of techniques for the systematic adaptation of an existing lifestyle intervention to a new population and context, and facilitated transparent working processes for a multidisciplinary team.
The Right to Say Yes: Language Documentation in West Papua

There has been much discussion in the recent literature on language documentation about the ethical considerations faced by linguists conducting fieldwork on endangered languages. This paper discusses the author’s experiences conducting fieldwork on the Wamesa language in West Papua, Indonesia under the auspices of a regional language centre. The two groups with a stake in this research, the language centre and the Wamesa speech community, both determined that their best interests were served by allowing open access to outside researchers and by encouraging wide dissemination of data. Their motivations for taking this view, and therefore the most appropriate ways for a linguist to reciprocate their support, varied greatly: the language centre requested training in linguistic best practices, while the speech community felt they were receiving less tangible benefits, drawing on the prestige brought by the presence of an outsider and their attitudes towards language ownership. This account describes another possible model for the community/linguist relationship in which the speakers use their control over research to expand rather than restrict access, and the outcome of acting ethically is significantly different than that described in some other well-publicized field sites.
What's in a Name? Using First Names as Features for Gender Inference in Twitter

Despite significant work on the problem of inferring a Twitter user’s gender from her online content, no systematic investigation has been made into leveraging the most obvious signal of a user’s gender: first name. In this paper, we perform a thorough investigation of the link between gender and first name in English tweets. Our work makes several important contributions. The first and most central contribution is two different strategies for incorporating the user’s self-reported name into a gender classifier. We find that this yields a 20% increase in accuracy over a standard baseline classifier. These classifiers are the most accurate gender inference methods for Twitter data developed to date. In order to evaluate our classifiers, we developed a novel way of obtaining gender-labels for Twitter users that does not require analysis of the user’s profile or textual content. This is our second contribution. Our approach eliminates the troubling issue of a label being somehow derived from the same text that a classifier will use to infer the label. Finally, we built a large dataset of gender-labeled Twitter users and, crucially, have published this dataset for community use. To our knowledge, this is the first gender-labeled Twitter dataset available for researchers. Our hope is that this will provide a basis for comparison of gender inference methods.
OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE, FAMILY CONTROL AND CEO COMPENSATION: EVIDENCE FROM CONTINENTAL EUROPE

We explore the impact on CEO pay of three characteristics that distinguish the ownership of European and US firms: the degree of ownership concentration; the nature (family or non family) of the ultimate owner of the firm; and the degree of wedge between cash flow and control rights related to the use of control-enhancing devices. We collected data on CEO compensation for 11 countries in Continental European firms over 1998-2010. The results show that compensation policy in European family firms is not inefficient compared to non-family firms. However, the different level of investor protection across European Countries plays a role, given that in countries where families have the opportunity to expropriate minority shareholders, the level of CEO compensation also tends to be larger compared to non-family firms. Our findings suggest that the characteristics of CEO compensation in family firms are contingent to the institutional setting of each country, which helps to reconcile the results found by previous country-specific studies on the topic. Our study recommends that policymakers consider strengthening the controls on CEO compensation in family firms, but only in those countries with poorer investor protection, considering that in other countries family ownership does not negatively impact on the efficiency of compensation policies. EFM Classification codes: 150, 190, 110
Design of Compliant Mechanisms for Morphing Structural Shapes

Various compliant mechanism synthesis methods have been developed over the past decade; however, very little attention has been directed towards adaptive shape change problems. In this paper, we present a systematic method for synthesizing compliant mechanisms to morph a given curve or profile into a target curve utilizing minimum number of actuators (typically one). Two objective functions are formulated, using Least Square Errors and a modified Fourier Transformation, to capture the shape differences. The topology and dimensions of the optimal compliant mechanism are generated using Genetic Algorithms. Applications of this synthesis approach are demonstrated through two adaptive antenna design examples.
Theoretic analysis and enhanced x-tolerance of test response compact based on convolutional code

This paper addresses the problem of test response compaction. In order to maximize compaction ratio, a single-output encoder based on check matrix of a (n, n-1, m, 3) convolutional code is proposed. Theoretic analysis for this encoder is presented to avoid two and any odd erroneous bit cancellations, handle one unknown bit (X bit) and diagnose one erroneous bit. The X-bits tolerance capacity can be enhanced by choosing a proper memory size and weight of check matrix, which can also be obtained by an optimized input assignment algorithm. The theoretic analysis and experimental results on aliasing shows the efficiency of the proposed encoder.
History and philosophy of geography II

Prompted by recent scholarship on geographers’ role in advancing the divergent political ends of anarchism and Nazism, this report considers how disciplinary histories make space for the admirable as well as for the abominable episodes of our shared past. In addressing some of the ideological ends to which geography has been put, the report reflects on the historiographical challenge of dealing appropriately with the discipline’s stain of Nazi collusion and explores the potential that geography’s anarchist traditions have to inspire activist and critical scholarship today. In thinking more generally about practices of exclusion and marginalization in geography, the report argues for the value, and the necessity, of diversity and inclusivity in writing on the history of the discipline.
Discussion of 'A Lobbying Approach to Evaluating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002'

This article discusses the main contributions and findings of Hochberg, Sapienza and Vissing-Jorgensen's 'A Lobbying Approach to Evaluating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. ' I offer a synopsis of the Journal of Accounting Research conference discussion of the paper as well as provide some broader perspectives on the two main lines of inquiry to which the paper contributes. The first perspective focuses on the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and, in particular, how this study and others face the challenge of benchmarking of the price and quantity effects of the Act. I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the authors' identification strategy that separates out firms whose insiders actively lobbied the Securities and Exchange Commission's rule-making process in the aftermath of SOX. The second perspective considers the motivations for and consequences of lobbying activity. I survey existing research in Economics, Accounting and Management which shows that lobbying propensity is predictable, confirms it is most likely to be conducted by agents most affected by the rule changes, but also warns that there are firm-specific, industry-specific, and even issue-specific factors that can complicate these interpretations.
Crying Without a Cause and Being Easily Upset in Two-Year-Olds: Heritability and Predictive Power of Behavioral Problems

In order to estimate the influence of genetic and environmental factors on ‘crying without a cause’ and ‘being easily upset’ in 2-year-old children, a large twin study was carried out. Prospective data were available for ~18,000 2-year-old twin pairs from the Netherlands Twin Register. A bivariate genetic analysis was performed using structural equation modeling in the Mx software package. The influence of maternal personality characteristics and demographic and lifestyle factors was tested to identify specific risk factors that may underlie the shared environment of twins. Furthermore, it was tested whether crying without a cause and being easily upset were predictive of later internalizing, externalizing and attention problems. Crying without a cause yielded a heritability estimate of 60% in boys and girls. For easily upset, the heritability was estimated at 43% in boys and 31% in girls. The variance explained by shared environment varied between 35% and 63%. The correlation between crying without a cause and easily upset (r = .36) was explained both by genetic and shared environmental factors. Birth cohort, gestational age, socioeconomic status, parental age, parental smoking behavior and alcohol use during pregnancy did not explain the shared environmental component. Neuroticism of the mother explained a small proportion of the additive genetic, but not of the shared environmental effects for easily upset. Crying without a cause and being easily upset at age 2 were predictive of internalizing, externalizing and attention problems at age 7, with effect sizes of . 28–. 42. A large influence of shared environmental factors on crying without a cause and easily upset was detected. Although these effects could be specific to these items, we could not explain them by personality characteristics of the mother or by demographic and lifestyle factors, and we recognize that these effects may reflect other maternal characteristics. A substantial influence of genetic factors was found for the two items, which are predictive of later behavioral problems.
Identification of a Soybean MOTHER OF FT AND TFL1 Homolog Involved in Regulation of Seed Germination

Seed germination is an important event in the life cycle of seed plants, and is controlled by complex and coordinated genetic networks. Many genes involved in the regulation of this process have been identified in different plant species so far. Recent studies in both Arabidopsis and wheat have uncovered a new role of MOTHER OF FT AND TFL1 (MFT) in seed germination. Here, we reported a homolog of MFT in soybean (GmMFT) which strongly expressed in seeds. Detailed expression analysis showed that the mRNA level of GmMFT increased with seed development but declined during seed germination. The transcription of GmMFT also responded to exogenous application of ABA and GA3. Ectopic expression of GmMFT CDS in Arabidopsis moderately inhibited seed germination. All these evidences suggest that GmMFT may be a negative regulator of seed germination.