Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining Control and Autonomy in the Franchisor-Franchisee Relationship

This article examines the franchisor-franchisee relationship from two theoretical perspectives - agency theory and exchange theory. Taking the case of the fast-food industry in Israel, the research focuses on control and autonomy in a domestic hamburger chain - Burger Ranch - and two international chains - McDonald's and Burger King. The findings led to the design of a model that illustrates several aspects, such as the concept of franchising, the size and age of the chain, and the range of the contract, that relate to control and autonomy. The combination of agency theory and exchange theory enables us to focus on control and autonomy as multidimensional concepts, and to present various possibilities for judiciously balancing them. The case indicates that in some respects (e.g. master franchisee), the two global chains are more similar to each other than to the domestic chain. However, in other respects (e.g. size, growth rate), the domestic and one of the two global chains show more similarities than differences. The findings indicate different forms of integration of control and autonomy in the three chains.
Irrigation and Autocracy

Irrigated agriculture makes societies more likely to be ruled by authoritarian regimes. Ancient societies have long been thought to follow this pattern. We empirically show that irrigation affects political regimes even in the present. To avoid endogeneity, we use geographical and climatic variation to identify irrigation dependent societies. We find that countries whose agriculture depended on irrigation are about six points less democratic on the 21-point polity2 scale than countries where agriculture has been rainfed. We find qualitatively similar results across regions within countries. We argue that the effect has historical origins: irrigation allowed landed elites in arid areas to monopolize water and arable land. This made elites more powerful and better able to oppose democratization. Consistent with this conjecture, we show that irrigation dependence predicts land inequality both at the country level, and in premodern societies surveyed by ethnographers.
What Level of Education Matters Most for Growth? Evidence from Portugal

We decompose annual average years of schooling series for Portugal into different schooling levels series. By estimating a number of vector autoregressions, we provide measures of aggregate and disaggregate economic growth impacts of different education levels. Increasing education at all levels except tertiary have a positive and significant effect on growth. Investment in education does not significantly crowd out physical investment and average years of schooling semi-elasticities have comparable magnitude across primary and secondary levels.
Antipsychotic drug treatment in the prodromal phase of schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE The safety and tolerability of short-term treatment with a low dose of risperidone was evaluated in adolescents with prodromal symptoms and a family history of schizophrenia. METHOD Four prodromal high-risk adolescents and six first-episode patients with schizophrenia were treated with average doses of 1.0 and 1.8 mg/day of risperidone, respectively, in an 8- to 12-week open-label trial. RESULTS No significant treatment-related adverse events were noted. Severity of thought and behavior disturbance ratings declined by about 30%; performance on a test of verbal learning improved by about 100% during treatment in both prodromal and first-episode patients, changes that achieved statistical significance despite the small group sizes. CONCLUSIONS These findings are preliminary and should not be used to guide health care decisions at this time. Randomized controlled trials are needed to determine whether antipsychotic drug treatment of prodromal patients can delay or prevent onset or attenuate the clinical course of schizophrenia.
The distinctive domestic characteristics of Iceland and the rejection of membership of the European Union

This article examines the reasons for Iceland's refusal to follow other Nordic states in their movement towards European integration. It applies the approach of Peter J. Katzenstein, in his work on characteristics of smaller states, and compares the domestic features of Iceland with those of the remaining Nordic states. It argues that, by comparison with these Nordic states, the three defining characteristics of smaller states ‐ economic openness, corporatist structure, and political party systems ‐ are different in Iceland. Furthermore, in order to understand this cautious policy towards European integration, consideration has to be made of Iceland's special security experience. Also, the special characteristics of the Icelandic administration have to be examined. Iceland's membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) reduces European and international constraints on Iceland. On the other hand, the Icelandic political élite does not regard membership of the European Union (EU) as a means of further easing these constraints. On the contrary, it considers that membership will have unbearable constraints on Iceland's fishing interests and fanning community.
A class of mixed-distribution models with applications in financial data analysis

Statisticians often encounter data in the form of a combination of discrete and continuous outcomes. A special case is zero-inflated longitudinal data where the response variable has a large portion of zeros. These data exhibit correlation because observations are obtained on the same subjects over time. In this dissertation, we propose a two-part mixed distribution model to model zero-inflated longitudinal data. The first part of the model is a logistic regression model that models the probability of nonzero response; the other part is a linear model that models the mean response given that the outcomes are not zeros. Random effects with AR(1) covariance structure are introduced into the both parts of the model to allow serial correlation and subject specific effect. Estimating the two-part model is challenging because of high dimensional integration necessary to obtain the maximum likelihood estimates. We propose a Monte Carlo EM algorithm for estimating the maximum likelihood estimates of parameters. Through simulation study, we demonstrate the good performance of the MCEM method in parameter and standard error estimation. To illustrate, we apply the two-part model with correlated random effects and the model with autoregressive random effects to executive compensation data to investigate potential determinants of CEO stock option grants.
Can Sector Reforms Improve Efficiency? Insight from Irrigation Management Transfer in Central India

This paper discusses the implementation of the Participatory Irrigation Management Act in Central India where the responsibility of irrigation management was partially transferred to the end users through the formation of farmers' organizations. The paper focuses on various reforms carried out as per the Act, and their impacts on irrigation management. Analysis shows that such programmes will reap intended benefits, if the end users are involved in a more effective manner with greater autonomy and delegation of powers. Further, for greater effectiveness, the Participatory Irrigation Management Act needs to enable a few institutional changes, which can be more suitable for the end users.
Targeting small airways, a step further in asthma management

Introduction: During the last decade, small airway (SA) involvement in asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have reached increasing attention. Originally referred to as the ‘silent zone’, SA may not be that silent after all. Important clinical correlates are asthma exacerbations and airways remodelling, exercise asthma and nocturnal asthma. Thus, to control pathology in the SA has become a desirable goal in asthma management.
Health Expenditures, Longevity and Growth

This paper offers an integrated view of the relationships between health spending, medical innovation, health status, growth and welfare. Health spending triggers technological progress, which is a potential source of better outcomes in terms of longevity and quality of life, a direct source of growth for the bio-tech industries and an indirect source of growth through improved of human capital. The latter contributes to GDP per capita through two main channels: higher participation of the population in the labour force and higher labour productivity levels. In turn, income growth induces an increase in health expenditure, as richer countries tend to spend a higher share of their income on health. To analyse these interactions, the paper first focuses on demographic facts, disentangling the role of longevity and carrying out some 'thought experiments' on the indexation of active life on longevity. It then analyses the links between health care expenditures, technology and health status from a micro-level perspective. We investigate empirically the relation between GDP growth and health expenditures and develop a projection method to assess the size of total aggregate expenditures that could be channeled to the health sector up to 2050 for the US, Europe and Japan. We finally assess the potential impact of these health expenditures and better health status on potential growth and productivity.
Dividend Policy of Indian Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Trends and Determinants

The present study examines the dividend behavior of Indian corporate firms over the period 1990 - 2001 and attempts to explain the observed behavior with the help of trade-off theory, and signaling hypothesis. Analysis of dividend trends for a large sample of stocks traded on the NSE and BSE indicate that the percentage of companies paying dividends has declined from 60.5 percent in 1990 to 32.1 percent in 2001 and that only a few firms have consistently paid the same levels of dividends. Further, dividend-paying companies are more profitable, large in size and growth doesn't seem to deter Indian firms from paying higher dividends. Analysis of influence of changes in tax regime on dividend behavior shows that the tradeoff or tax-preference theory does not appear to hold true in the Indian context. Test of signaling hypothesis reinforces the earlier findings that dividend omissions have information content about future earnings. However, analysis of other non-extreme dividend events such as dividend reductions and non-reductions shows that current losses are an important determinant of dividend reductions for firms with established track record and that the incidence of dividend reduction is much more severe in the case of Indian firms compared to that of firms traded on the NYSE. Further, dividend changes appear to signal contemporaneous and lagged earnings performance rather than the future earnings performance.
Quantification of fiber orientation in the canine atrial pacemaker complex using optical coherence tomography

Abstract The atrial pacemaker complex is responsible for the initiation and early propagation of cardiac impulses. Optical coherence tomography (OCT), a nondestructive imaging modality with spatial resolutions of ∼1 to 15 μm, can be used to identify unique fiber orientation patterns in this region of the heart. Functionally characterized canine sinoatrial nodes (SAN) (n=7) were imaged using OCT up to ∼1 mm below the endocardial tissue surface. OCT images were directly compared to their corresponding histological sections. Fiber orientation patterns unique to the crista terminalis (CT), SAN, and surrounding atrial myocardium were identified with dominant average fiber angles of 89±12 deg, 110±16 deg, and 95±35 deg, respectively. Both the CT and surrounding atrial myocardium displayed predominantly unidirectionally based fiber orientation patterns within each specimen, whereas the SAN displayed an increased amount of fiber disarray manifested quantitatively as a significantly greater standard deviation in fiber angle distribution within specimens [33±7 deg versus 23±5 deg, atrium (p=0.02); 18±3 deg, CT (p=0.0003)]. We also identified unique, local patterns of fiber orientation specific to the functionally characterized block zone. We demonstrate the ability of OCT in detecting components of the atrial pacemaker complex which are intimately involved in both normal and abnormal cardiac conduction.
Opinion and action in the realm of politics.

Few concepts are more central to the analysis of democratic politics than public opinion. It is, or seems to be, a completely familiar idea, simply part of the landscape of politics we take for granted today. Yet to the specialist, getting a grip on public opinion is not that easy. Public opinion is, as Converse (I 975) once put it, "impalpable," "amorphous ," and ·'mercurial" (p . 77). Public opinion is hard to pin down. Conceding that my subject is complicated and difficult, I nevertheless hope to say something systematic and intelligible about it here. My particular topic is public opinion, but the chapter can be read more broadly as another installment in the continuing conversation between political science and social psychology. This conversation began, one could say, just after the tum of the century with publication of Graham Wallas 's Human Nature in Politics (1908), and it has been carried on over the decades by Harold Lasswell (1930) , Solomon Asch (1987), Carl Hovland (1959) , Robert Lane (1959a , 1973), David Sears (1969), Philip Converse (1970) , Herbert Simon (1985), and William McGuire (1993), among others. Following in these large footsteps, and now nearing the end of the twentieth century, I take up here a series of political topics-the competence of citizens , the ingredients of opinion, the power of social context and political discussion , the translation of
THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECT OF LABOR MARKET CONTEXT ON MARGINAL EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES

Transformation of the labor market creates a complex and dynamic environment where jobs and skills are exchanged. Studies suggest that contemporary industrial shifts provided less opportunity than in the past, and that technological change led to a complicated melange of employment outcomes. Many of the new jobs are characterized by a series of negative qualities related to income and hours. Accordingly, this analysis concentrates on inadequate employment through low-wage work and involuntary part-time work. I examine the effect of contextual factors, specifically area levels of occupational sex-segregation and the size of the service sector industry, on men and women's marginal employment outcomes. Several findings stand out. First, women post higher chances of working for low-wages than their male counterparts. However, employment in the expanding service sector does reduce men and women's chances of experiencing part-time work. Second, the protection afforded by individual level, human capital qualities remains relatively constant for women across metro areas, but labor market context significantly affects women's odds of employment marginalization. Context is not as salient for men, but the value of their personal attributes vary across labor markets. Finally, women working in areas with higher levels of occupational sex-segregation were relatively worse off than those in areas with more integration. Industrial restructuring clearly contributed to recent shifts in U.S. employment and inequality. Studies suggest that contemporary industrial shifts have provided less opportunity than in the past, greater inequality between rich and poor, and a complicated melange of inadequate employment outcomes (Colclough and Tolbert 1992; Farley 1996; Harrison and Bluestone 1988; Morris, Bernhardt, and Handcock 1994; Sassen 1994). Deindustrialization, as it is sometimes called, offers opportunity for highly-educated, skilled, or technologically-innovative men and women. However, lower skilled workers or those with less education may face relatively good job markets filled with positions that are low quality in terms of wages, hours, or benefits. This bifurcation of work is credited with not only reducing the sex-wage gap, but also increasing inequality within sex groups (Bernhardt, Morris, and Handcock 1995). By employing a new structuralist approach and focusing on the area opportunity structure, along with the traditional human capital framework, I link both the local labor market context and individual qualities that affect employment outcomes (Browne 1997; Cotter et al. 1997; McCall 2000). In this article, I examine the effect of contextual factors, specifically the area industrial composition and the openness of the labor market, on men and women's marginal employment outcomes during the early 1990s.
Option Pricing Under Autoregressive Random Variance Models

Abstract The autoregressive random variance (ARV) model introduced by Taylor (1980, 1982, 1986) is a popular version of stochastic volatility (SV) models and a discrete-time simplification of the continuous-time diffusion SV models. This paper introduces a valuation model for options under a discrete-time ARV model with general stock and volatility innovations. It employs the discretetime version of the Esscher transform to determine an equivalent martingale measure under an incomplete market. Various parametric cases of the ARV models, are considered, namely, the log-normal ARV models, the jump-type Poisson ARV models, and the gamma ARV models, and more explicit pricing formulas of a European call option under these parametric cases are provided. A Monte Carlo experiment for some parametric cases is also conducted.
Type IIA procollagen: Expression in developing chicken limb cartilage and human osteoarthritic articular cartilage

Type IIA procollagen is an alternatively spliced product of the type II collagen gene and uniquely contains the cysteine (cys)–rich globular domain in its amino (N)–propeptide. To understand the function of type IIA procollagen in cartilage development under normal and pathologic conditions, the detailed expression pattern of type IIA procollagen was determined in progressive stages of development in embryonic chicken limb cartilages (days 5–19) and in human adult articular cartilage. Utilizing the antibodies specific for the cys‐rich domain of the type IIA procollagen N‐propeptide, we localized type IIA procollagen in the pericellular and interterritorial matrix of condensing pre‐chondrogenic mesenchyme (day 5) and early cartilage (days 7–9). The intensity of immunostaining was gradually lost with cartilage development, and staining became restricted to the inner layer of perichondrium and the articular cap (day 12). Later in development, type IIA procollagen was re‐expressed at the onset of cartilage hypertrophy (day 19). Different from type X collagen, which is expressed throughout hypertrophic cartilage, type IIA procollagen expression was transient and restricted to the zone of early hypertrophy. Immunoelectron microscopic and immunoblot analyses showed that a significant amount of the type IIA procollagen N‐propeptide, but not the carboxyl (C)–propeptide, was retained in matrix collagen fibrils of embryonic limb cartilage. This suggests that the type IIA procollagen N‐propeptide plays previously unrecognized roles in fibrillogenesis and chondrogenesis. We did not detect type IIA procollagen in healthy human adult articular cartilage. Expression of type IIA procollagen, together with that of type X collagen, was activated by articular chondrocytes in the upper zone of moderately and severely affected human osteoarthritic cartilage, suggesting that articular chondrocytes, which normally maintain a stable phenotype, undergo hypertrophic changes in osteoarthritic cartilage. Based on our data, we propose that type IIA procollagen plays a significant role in chondrocyte differentiation and hypertrophy during normal cartilage development as well as in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Meta analysis of the treatment-related factors of external apical root resorption.

OBJECTIVE To elucidate possible treatment-related etiological factors--such as, duration of treatment and apical displacement--for external root resorption. DESIGN Meta-analysis of the available English-language literature. INCLUSION & EXCLUSION CRITERIA Papers with a sample size > 10, fixed appliances, pre- and post-operative radiographs, and apical displacement recorded were included. History of trauma, prior root resorption and endodontic treatment were excluded. Appropriateness of these selections was tested with a 'funnel plot' analysis. OUTCOME MEASURE Correlations between root resorption, apical displacement, and treatment duration. RESULTS Mean apical root resorption was strongly correlated with total apical displacement (r = 0.822) and treatment duration (r = 0.852). CONCLUSION The treatment-related causes of root resorption appear to be the total distance the apex had moved and the time it took.
FERRY: database-supported program execution

We demonstrate the language Ferry and its editing, compilation, and execution environment FerryDeck. Ferry's type system and operations match those of scripting or programming languages; its compiler has been designed to emit (bundles of) compliant and efficient SQL:1999 statements. Ferry acts as glue that permits a programming style in which developers access database tables using their programming language's own syntax and idioms -- the Ferry-expressible fragments of such programs may be executed by a relational database back-end, i.e., close to the data. The demonstrator FerryDeck implements compile-and-execute-as-you-type interactivity for Ferry and offers a variety of (graphical) hooks to explore and inspect this approach to database-supported program execution.
On the capacity of the Gaussian channel with a finite number of input levels

An analytic confirmation of an observation made by G. Ungerboeck (1965) that approximately optimal performance on a Gaussian channel with capacity C can be obtained with about 2/sup C+1/ levels is given. In particular, the results imply that by using about 2/sup C-1/ levels, a rate of nearly C-1 bit can be achieved, and that by using 2/sup C+1/ levels a rate of about C-0.4 bits can be achieved. >
Symbol Cyclic Shift Equalization PAM-OFDM—A Low Complexity CP-Free OFDM Scheme

In traditional orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, a cyclic prefix (CP) must be used in every block for intersymbol interference (ISI) suppression in time-dispersive channels at a price of severely impaired spectrum efficiency. To deal with this issue, the symbol cyclic shift equalization (SCSE) algorithm was proposed to implement a CP-free OFDM system. In this paper, we aim to further reduce the computational complexity of the SCSE algorithm. In particular, a pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is used at a transmitter to construct conjugate symmetric OFDM blocks, while only partial samples in an OFDM block are involved in the SCSE algorithm at the receiver side, leading to a significantly reduced implementation complexity if compared to an SCSE quadratic-amplitude modulation(QAM)/phase-shift keying (PSK)-OFDM system, where all samples in an OFDM block must be involved in the detection process. The performance of the proposed SCSE PAM-OFDM scheme is analyzed and compared to traditional OFDM systems. The results obtained from this paper verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.