Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate Hedging and Risk Management Theory: Evidence from Polish Listed Companies

Purpose - This paper aims to provide a comprehensive empirical assessment of major contemporary corporate hedging theories, i.e. financial theory, agency theory, stakeholder theory and new institutional economics. Design/methodology/approach - Hypotheses regarding the determinants of hedging are tested on a sample of 150 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The panel covers a period of five years (2001-2005). Unlike in previous research the tests are organised around theories rather than individual hypotheses. In addition to classic tests, CART analysis is used to verify hypotheses. Findings - The results show low empirical verification of all theories considered. However, the results support some single hypotheses. Tests identified currency exposure, market-to-book value, IT and service sectors and size as being determinants of hedging. Research limitations/implications - The results provide evidence for the low usefulness of contemporary theories. New models are needed to explain hedging behaviour more accurately. Practical implications - The results identify characteristics shared by firms that use hedging. Companies considering implementing hedging can check whether they share these characteristics. Originality/value - This paper adds to risk management research by providing strong empirical evidence of theory verification status. It can serve as a base for future conceptual research.
Principals’ Leadership Behavior and Teachers Commitment in Adama Town Public Secondary Schools of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

The intent of this paper was to examine the impact of Secondary School Principals Leadership Behavior on Teachers Commitment in Adama City Administration of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. To achieve this purpose, researcher used concurrent triangulation mixed approach research paradigm. By using simple random sampling technique 120 (68.4%) secondary school teachers were selected. Moreover, 29 leaders from different echelons were purposely selected for qualitative data and included in the study. To this end two different but complementary instruments: Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to solicit data from key informants in the study setting. Data were analyzed both through qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. The study result showed that almost all school principals were from non-management or leadership educational background, they lack knowhow on how to influence and get teachers to perform beyond expectation, develop sense of school citizenship and work for unifying purpose. Hence, the study recommends the importance of setting structures to promote change, as well as opportunities for individual learning and appropriate means for monitoring progress toward improvement; endorse visions that embody the best thinking about teaching and learning. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015. v6n4s1p204
The European literature review on internal auditing

Purpose – By conducting the 2006 global Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) study, The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) attempts to better understand the expanding scope of internal auditing practice throughout the world. The purpose of this review of recent internal auditing literature in Europe is to document how the internal audit function is changing in response to the shifts in global business practices.Design/methodology/approach – The literature in Europe is reviewed with a focus on developments that have implications for the expanded scope of internal auditing and the changing skill sets of internal auditors and their role in enhancing good corporate governance. This focus has implications for CBOK 2006.Findings – The literature indicates changes in the activities performed by internal auditors. The increasing complexity of business transactions, a more dynamic regulatory environment in Europe, and significant advances in information technology have resulted in opportunities and challenges for int.
Network Cities: Creative Urban Agglomerations for the 21st Century

The global economy is nurturing an innovative class of polycentric urban configurations: network cities. A network city evolves when two or more previously independent cities, potentially complementary in function, strive to cooperate and achieve significant scope economies aided by fast and reliable corridors of transport and communications infrastructure. Creative network cities place a higher priority on knowledge-based activities like research, education and the creative arts. The cooperative mechanisms may resemble those of inter-firm networks in the sense that each urban player stands to benefit from the synergies of interactive growth via reciprocity, knowledge exchange and unexpected creativity. Two case studies are discussed briefly—Randstad Holland and Kansai, Japan. Since much of their future dynamism may rely upon transnational human resources, it is foreseen that more network cities will transcend national borders during the next millennium.
Persistence in Growth Versus Market Expectations

We measure the persistence and predictability of sales and earnings growth for Australian-listed firms from 1989 to 2006. In contrast to results from the United States, there is evidence of persistence in growth. There is close to a two-thirds chance that a firm reporting growth above the industry median in one year repeats this performance in the following year. However, there is little evidence that valuation ratios—measured as revenue, earnings or book value of equity relative to market capitalisation—are particularly useful in predicting future growth. Instead, they reflect recent historical growth, especially in the case of the book-to-market ratio. Firms with low book-to-market ratios have relatively high growth over the previous five years, but their growth over the subsequent five years is almost indistinguishable from firms with high book-to-market ratios. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that value stocks outperform growth stocks because investors overstate firms' ability to consistently make high-growth investments.
How Japan's economy grew so fast: The sources of postwar expansion

might have been, and not very satisfactory as a comparative study of organizations. We are left feeling that Silin has made a strong case, for those who needed to be convinced, that complex organizations in Taiwan show the continuing influence of traditional Chinese values and interpersonal styles. He has also helped to specify a number of distinctive consequences of these cultural influences. But much more research will be required to go beyond this to an understanding of just how important Chinese traditional norms, relative to other influences in different circumstances, are in shaping organizational behavior. Flawed though it is in certain respects, this is still a very thoughtful book—one that should stimulate other scholars to continue to ponder the hardiness of traditional Chinese orientations in the midst of modern social change.
Should There Exist Secondary Markets for Executive Stock Options?

This paper investigates the potential disadvantages of the secondary markets for executive stock options (ESOs). The benefits of such markets are evident, but they might also have negative effects for shareholders. Executives might, for example, use inside information to time their ESO selling. We investigate two personal motives of managers that can be assumed to affect their optimal selling decision, that is, managers' personal portfolio management issues and the use of inside information. We explore these motives by analyzing unique data from Finland, where there are secondary markets for ESOs. The results of the study support the traditional portfolio diversification hypothesis according to which managers tend to sell their ESOs when holding an ESO is equivalent to holding the underlying stock; that is, in such a case a manager's wealth is closely tied to the stock price of the firm. With respect to the use of inside information the results indicate that ESO selling activity is not related to future stock price behaviour, suggesting that managers do not use inside information to determine the selling time of their ESOs. These results imply that the existence of secondary markets for ESOs does not weaken the usefulness of ESOs as the management compensation, although the benefits of such markets are evident.
Endogenous innovation growth theory and regional income convergence in China

Endogenous innovation growth theory is tested by using panel data for 27 provinces across China. R&D expenditure and openness are added to the standard convergence regressions to control for different structural characteristics in each province. A standardized 't-bar' test for unit roots is applied to examine the properties of the data and identify a long-run relationship among the variables. By allowing for differences in the aggregate production function across regions, we find evidence of convergence. The empirical results support the endogenous innovation growth model in which regional per capita income can converge given technological diffusion, transfer and imitation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Price Discovery in Private Negotiation Trading with Forward and Spot Deliveries

Advance production in spot markets increases seller costs because inventories must be held. This cost does not exist in production-to-demand (or forward) markets, for which production follows trading, and sales exactly match quantities produced. Data from laboratory-computerized markets that trade through private negotiation are analyzed. For the experimental supply and demand conditions, price convergence patterns show spot prices 10.8% lower and the number of trades 12.4% fewer than forward outcomes. The adverse impact of advance production and private negotiation on seller earnings is emphasized when earnings are compared with those from double auction trading.
Healing of rabbit calvarial bone defects using biphasic calcium phosphate ceramics made of submicron-sized grains with a hierarchical pore structure.

OBJECTIVES This study investigated the efficacy of new bone graft substitutes - biphasic calcium phosphates (BCP) made of submicron-sized grains with fully interconnected wide-range micron-scale pores in two different macrodesigns: donut shaped with a 300-400 microm central macropore (n-BCP-1) or rod-shaped (n-BCP-2)--in the healing of rabbit calvarial defects, and compared their bone-healing properties with those of various commercial bone substitutes, which included substitutes with similar BCP composition (MBCP and Osteon), anorganic bovine bone (Bio-Oss), and beta-TCP (Cerasorb). MATERIAL AND METHODS The surface morphology of the bone substitutes was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Defects 8 mm in diameter were created in the calvaria of 30 adult male New Zealand White rabbits and were filled with six types of bone substitutes. The percentage of newly formed bone (NB%) was evaluated histomorphometrically 4 and 8 weeks after implantation. RESULTS SEM observation showed submicron-sized grains with fully interconnected micropore structures in the n-BCP-1 and n-BCP-2 groups; these groups also showed considerable new bone formation in inner micropores as well as on the outer surfaces. The n-BCP-1 group exhibited enhanced new bone formation and direct ingrowth of bone tissue with blood vessels into central pores. Histomorphometric analysis showed significantly greater NB% in the n-BCP-1 group when compared with the other groups at 4 and 8 weeks (P<0.05). CONCLUSION A new BCP ceramics made of submicron-sized grains with a hierarchical pore structure was an effective osteoconductive material for the treatment of osseous defects of rabbit calvaria.
Decision Rules and Policy Outcomes

Contemporary political science is rightly concerned with the complex relationship between the political process and the public policies in which it results. In understanding this relationship, it may be useful to distinguish two complementary aspects of the political process: (1) those which are relevant because they account for the policy preferences of elite-members and, (2) those elements, like voting and bargaining, which are of interest because they determine policy outcomes from given configurations of elite preferences. This paper offers a theoretical model for an important component of this second aspect: it is explicitly addressed to legislative voting processes and the underlying strategies of legislators as these contribute to the determination of policy outcomes. And, for the present, we take preference-formation as given.
Pursuing the link between development and climate change adaptation: The case of rice production in Mozambique

This study applies programme theory to analyse ways in which adaptation to climate change may emerge as a consequence of development polices, specifically by examining the case of rice production in Mozambique. The case study indicates that adaptation and development interact better when policies are designed to integrate different needs, and that existing processes like the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) can help to mainstream adaptation into development policies while keeping objectives separate. The assessment shows that synergies between development and adaptation can be promoted to increase adaptive capacity and implement adaptation measures. A Sustainable Development Policies and Measures (SD-PAM) mechanism, similar to the one more commonly discussed for mitigation, can also be used to identify, finance and monitor adaptation through development activities. NAPAs can further facilitate the identification of common resources, leverage mechanisms and activities required for success in adaptation and development interventions. Adaptation can be integrated into development interventions, as well as into institutional arrangements, resource management and legal frameworks. Integration of adaptation can also support sustainable development through a systemic consideration of the assumptions and interventions in development policies. The implementation of adaptation could be advanced through targeted development interventions that create traceable adaptation benefits through mechanisms that incentivize and support sustainable development policies and measures.
Analysts' Reactions to Earnings Preannouncement Strategies

Preannouncements of earnings tend to overstate negative or understate positive news, which decreases the chance of a negative surprise when actual earnings is announced. We conduct an experiment to investigate how experienced sell-side analysts’ earnings forecasts are affected by preannouncements that either understate, accurately state, or overstate the magnitude of positive or negative total earnings news, holding total earnings news constant. We find that firms with negative (positive) total news receive the highest post-earnings announcement forecasts of future earnings when the earlier preannouncement overstates (understates) the magnitude of the news. These forecasts are consistent with the analysts’ perceptions about the firms’ future prospects, but not their perceptions of management. While analysts expect preannouncements to be lower than actual earnings, they do not adjust their forecasts for these beliefs. These insights into analysts’ responses have implications both for managers and analysts.
Oligonucleotide (GTG)5 as an epidemiological tool in the study of nontuberculous mycobacteria

Analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphisms in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (DNA fingerprinting) has proved to be a useful epidemiological tool in the study of tuberculosis within populations or communities. However, to date, no similar method has been developed to study the epidemiology of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). In this communication, we report that a simple oligonucleotide repeat, (GTG)5, can be used to accurately genotype all species and strains of NTM tested. We suggest that this technology is an easily applied and accurate tool which can be used for the study of the epidemiology of NTM.
BIRTH ATTENDANT UTILIZATION IN THE INDONESIAN MEGA-URBAN REGIONS OF JABODETABEK, BANDUNG AND SURABAYA

Indonesia's rapidly growing mega-urban regions of Jabodetabek (Jakarta Extended Metropolitan Region), Bandung and Surabaya each have a large and socio-economically heterogeneous population. The 2000 Census presents evidence that substantial spatial and socio-economic inequalities in under-five mortality risk exist in these mega-urban regions. Differences in patterns of birth attendant utilization likely contribute to these inequalities. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression of data primarily from the National Socio-economic Survey (SUSENAS) reveals that use of a skilled birth attendant is highly associated with mother's education. Highly skilled assistance is more related to the enabling factor of household expenditure quintile. The findings provide evidence for efforts to help reduce inequalities in early age mortality risk through improved access to trained birth assistance, in addition to other interventions.
Optimization of coronary attenuation in coronary computed tomography angiography using diluted contrast material.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate a personalized protocol with diluted contrast material (CM) for coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA). METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred patients with suspected coronary artery disease underwent retrospective electrocardiogram-gated coronary CTA on a 256-slice multidetector-row CT scanner. In the diluted CM protocol (n=50), the optimal scan timing and CM dilution rate were determined by the timing bolus scan, with 20% CM dilution (5ml/s during 10s) being considered suitable to achieve the target arterial attenuation of 350 Hounsfield units (HU). In the body weight (BW)-adjusted protocol (n=50, 222mg iodine/kg), only the optimal scan timing was determined by the timing bolus scan. The injection rate and volume in the timing bolus scan and real scan were identical between the 2 protocols. We compared the means and variations in coronary attenuation between the 2 protocols. Coronary attenuation (mean±SD) in the diluted CM and BW-adjusted protocols was 346.1±23.9 HU and 298.8±45.2 HU, respectively. The diluted CM protocol provided significantly higher coronary attenuation and lower variance than did the BW-adjusted protocol (P<0.05, in each). CONCLUSIONS The diluted CM protocol facilitates more uniform attenuation on coronary CTA in comparison with the BW-adjusted protocol.
Ecosystem- and community-based adaptation: learning from community-based natural resource management

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and its sister community-based adaptation (CBA) have gained traction over recent years, and policy-makers and planners are increasingly promoting ‘integrated’ EbA and CBA approaches. Improved learning from older natural resource management disciplines such as community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), however, could help inform EbA and CBA practice and policy-making. This viewpoint describes key lessons from CBNRM that EbA and CBA should address as they mature, including the need for EbA and CBA to ensure: communities are central to planning; the institutional, governance and policy context of initiatives is addressed; and, incentives and the need for better evidence of effectiveness is considered. The viewpoint argues that opportunities for scaling up EbA and CBA through mainstreaming and also replication and diversification to other sectors need exploring to reach the millions of poor people facing a climate change-constrained future. This is particularly important for the world's poorest people who are worst hit by climate change and also disproportionately reliant on ecosystems and their services.
The effect of fasting on attentional biases for food and body shape/weight words in high and low Eating Disorder Inventory scorers.

OBJECTIVE To assess attentional biases associated with food and body shape/weight words in fasted and nonfasted high and low Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) scorers. METHOD Subjects were 56 female first-year undergraduate psychology students, aged 17-24 years, participating for course credit. High and low scorers on the Drive for Thinness and Body Dissatisfaction subscales of the EDI-2 completed alternative modified dot probe tasks containing food words, body shape/weight words, and control words, under fasted and nonfasted conditions. RESULTS Fasting increased attentional bias toward high-calorie food words across all subjects. High EDI-2 scorers also showed an attentional bias toward low-calorie words, but only when nonfasted. DISCUSSION Food-related attentional biases, commonly observed in eating disorder patients, may reflect a pervasive concern with food-related stimuli as opposed to being simply a product of chronic hunger. That is, with increasing hunger, high EDI-2 scorers shift their focus away from low-calorie foods to high-calorie foods. This result suggests an attentional bias basis for the cycle of high-calorie binging when hungry and low-calorie food selections when less hungry.
Large-Dose Propofol During Cardiopulmonary Bypass Decreases Biochemical Markers of Myocardial Injury in Coronary Surgery Patients: A Comparison with Isoflurane

We investigated if increasing propofol's dosage to augment its antioxidant capacity during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) could confer cardiac protection. Fifty-four coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients were randomly assigned to small-dose propofol (Group P; n = 18), large-dose propofol (Group HiP; n = 18), or isoflurane Group (Group I; n = 18). After the induction, anesthesia was maintained with an inspired concentration of isoflurane 1%–3.5% (Group I) or a continuous infusion of propofol 60 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 (Group P) throughout the surgery. In Group HiP, this dose of propofol was increased to 120 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 for 10 min before the onset of CPB until 15 min after aortic unclamping and then decreased to 60 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 until the end of surgery. The duration of aortic cross-clamping was 83 ± 24, 88 ± 22, and 81 ± 20 min in Group P, Group HiP, and Group I, respectively (P > 0.1). Plasma malondialdehyde, a marker of oxidative stress, was significantly lower at 8 h after CPB, and Troponin I was lower at 24 h after CPB in Group HiP compared with Group P and Group I (P < 0.05). There was a significant reduction in inotropic requirements for separation from CPB in Group HiP compared with Group I. Postoperative systemic vascular resistance was significantly reduced in Group HiP as compared with Group I. Mean cardiac index was significantly higher at 24 h after CPB in Group HiP compared with Group P and Group I (P < 0.05) (Group I, 2.2 ± 0.1; Group P, 2.3 ± 0.2; and Group HiP, 2.8 ± 0.3 L · min−1 · m−2, respectively). The duration of intensive care unit stay was significantly shorter in Group Hi-P compared with Group I. We conclude that administration of a large dose of propofol during CPB attenuates postoperative myocardial cellular damage as compared with isoflurane or small-dose propofol anesthesia.