Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Broad-Based Employee Stock Options in Us 'New Economy' Firms

This paper compares the performance of 229 `New Economy' firms offering broad-based stock options to that of their non-stock option counterparts . A simple comparison of these firms reveals that the former have higher shareholder returns, Tobin's q and new knowledge generation . Multivariate analysis using panel data also suggests that the adoption of a stock option plan results in higher levels of value added per employee . However, we do not find evidence that these plans result in superior growth in Tobin's q or new knowledge generation .
Do UK Higher Education Students Overestimate Their Starting Salary

The wage expectations of university students have relevance for human capital theory, models of student enrolment, and public policy on the provision of higher education. However, these expectations have been the subject of relatively little research in European countries, with no contemporary evidence available in the UK. There has also been little consideration in the literature thus far of how much estimates may be biased by non-response and sample selection. This paper thus makes an original contribution to the literature by comparing UK undergraduate students' wage expectations with the actual wages earned by the same cohort on graduation, after attempting to correct for the aforementioned statistical issues in terms of observable characteristics. In contrast to other European studies, I conclude that, on average, full-time students overestimate their starting salary. Yet I also find substantial variation in the extent of overestimation between different subgroups.
Essays on intellectual property rights policy

This dissertation will take a theoretical approach to analyzing certain challenges in the design of intellectual property rights (‘IPR’) policy. The first essay looks the advisability of introducing IPR into a market which is currently only very lightly protected the US fashion industry. The proposed Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act is intended to introduce EU standards into the US. Using a sequential, 2-firm, vertical differentiation framework, I analyze the effects of protection on investment in innovative designs by high-quality (‘designer’) and lower-quality (‘mass-market’) firms when the mass-marketer may opt to imitate, consumers prefer trendsetting designs and firms compete in prices. I show that design protection, by transforming massmarketers from imitators to innovators, may reduce both designer profits and welfare. The model provides possible explanations for the dearth of EU case law and the increase in designer/mass-marketer collaborations. The second essay contributes to the literature on patent design and fee shifting, contrasting the effects of the American (or ‘each party pays’) rule and English (or ‘losing party pays’) rule of legal cost allocation on optimal patent breadth when innovation is sequential and firms are differentiated duopolists. I show that if litigation spending is endogenous, the American rule may induce broader patents and a higher probability of infringement than the English rule if R&D costs are sufficiently low. If, however, R&D costs are moderate, the ranking is reversed and it is the English rule that leads to broader patents. Neither rule supports lower patent breadth than the other over the entire parameter space. As such, any attempts to reform the US patent system by narrowing patents must carefully weigh
The Impact of Advanced Vocational Education and Training on Earnings in Sweden

Researchers have established a relationship between greater education and training and higher earnings but it is difficult to infer that the former causes the latter if those with higher earnings tend to engage in more education and training. The present study attempts to control for ability and family background to see if stronger inferences can be made about education and training as the independent variable. The study focuses upon advanced vocational education and training (AVET) in Sweden. This is post-secondary school education for individuals who are 20 years of age or older. The aim of this article is to estimate the effects of AVET on earnings by controlling for selection bias. We used various approaches such as instrumental variables, Hausman–Taylor estimates, fixed effects estimates and propensity score matching to achieve this aim. A panel, or longitudinal, data set for eight different labor markets in Sweden for the period 1996–2008 was used. The results indicate that earnings from AVET are higher than the return on investment in comprehensive education. The average effect on income is estimated to be in the range of 3–8 percent.
Determinants of Saving-Borrowing Decisions and Financial Inclusion in a High Middle Income Country: The Turkish Case

ABSTRACT We use a representative survey of the Turkish household sector and investigate factors impinging on saving-borrowing behavior. We run four probit regressions to elucidate (i) the saving decision, (ii) asset choice or portfolio composition for those who save, (iii) the bank loan decision and lastly (iv) the formal versus informal borrowing decision. We find income, education, marital status and region within country strongly correlate with those decisions. We offer some insights regarding the influence of variables like rural to urban migrant status and religious belief on saving and borrowing decisions. We discuss the long-term implications of our findings on the Turkish household savings performance.
Correlation Coefficients, Heteroskedasticity and Contagion of Financial Crises

A significant increase in the correlation coefficients of returns across countries during periods of high turbulence is regarded as evidence of the contagion of financial crises. However, heteroskedasticity is known to cause correlation coefficients to be biased upward. This note shows that correlation coefficients can be biased downward under heteroskedasticity when returns are following stochastic unit root processes. Further, returns are known to be nonlinear, so correlation coefficients might not be very useful in measuring relations between them. These results indicate that the time-series behavior of returns needs to be more thoroughly studied prior to measuring the contagion of financial crises with correlation coefficients.
Pathological Gambling and Depression

A number of previous studies have indicated that pathological gambling is often associated with depression. Equally, a number of theoretical models of pathological gambling have included depression as a key variable. Here we report a study of depression in pathological gamblers identified within a random sample of 1,615 adults living in the major cities of Galicia (northwest Spain). Pathological gamblers were identified on DSM–IV diagnostic criteria. Depression was evaluated with the Beck Depression Inventory, subjects being classified ‘depressive’ if they obtained a score of 18 or more. Of 19 pathological gamblers who completed the Beck Depression Inventory, 21% were depressive; by contrast, only 9% of the other subjects were depressive. The Beck scores of pathological gamblers were positively correlated with the severity of their addiction as indicated by the number of DSM–IV-specified symptoms reported.
Integration Between Business Planning and Information Systems Planning: Validating a Stage Hypothesis

This paper proposes and empirically validates a stages of growth model for the evolution of Information Systems Planning (ISP). A questionnaire survey of senior IS executives is used to gather information pertaining to the stages of growth model, which includes measurement of the nature and level of integration between business planning (BP) and ISP. The del test is used to validate empirically benchmark variables for each stage of BP-ISP integration. The results support the stages of growth model of BP-ISP integration and the benchmark variables are generally found to be successful in predicting the stage of integration.
Current Wealth Constraints on the Housing Demand of Young Owners

In addition to generating housing services, owner-occupied housing units constitute a lumpy, risky asset in household portfolios. Analysis of these dual consumption/investment roles suggests the permanent wealth budget constraint in housing demand models should be decomposed into permanent returns from human capital and current net worth. For young owners, current net worth is hypothesized to be the dominant wealth component determining the quantity of housing demanded. Using a Canadian microdata base, evidence is found that net worth does provide both greater explanatory power and higher elasticities than labor earnings. Copyright 1990 by MIT Press.
Clinico-laboratory profile of severe Plasmodium vivax malaria in a tertiary care centre in Kolkata

Background: Vivax malaria is the most widely distributed human malaria and is responsible for up to 400 million infections every year. Recently, it has become evident that Plasmodium vivax monoinfection could also result in multiple organ dysfunction and severe life-threatening disease as seen in Plasmodium falciparum infection. Materials and Methods: The aim of this study was to note the different clinical and biochemical profiles of adult patients with the severe vivax malaria with regards to complications and outcome. This was a prospective observational study carried out at a tertiary care hospital in Kolkata over 9 month′s period. Detailed history and examination findings were noted in all patients. Their clinical presentations, complications, course in ward until discharge or death was noted. Results: A total of 900 cases of vivax malaria were included in the study. Severe disease was present in 200 (22.2%) cases of malaria. There were 108 (54%) patients with single complication (SC) and 92 (46%) patients with the multiple complications (MC). Patients with SC had jaundice (48.1%) followed by cerebral involvement (25.9%), renal failure (7.4%), and pulmonary involvement (3.7%). The MC was found in various combinations and the majority (47.8%) had constellation of two different complications. The mortality rate of patients with the SC and MC was 7.4% and 34.8%. The overall mortality observed in severe vivax malaria was 20% (40/200). Conclusions: In recent years, the clinical pattern of vivax malaria has changed. Severe vivax malaria is now very common with increasing mortality. Not only the number, but also the type of complication influences the outcome of complicated malaria.
Single-Look Complex COSMO-SkyMed SAR Data to Observe Metallic Targets at Sea

In this paper, a physically based approach, which takes full benefits of speckle noise as source of information, is first applied over X-band full-resolution single-look complex slant (SCS) COSMO-SkyMed synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to observe metallic targets at sea. A constant false alarm rate (CFAR) filter based on the coherent-to-incoherent field ratio is developed, which: 1) is very effective in terms of processing time, 2) is able to provide logical true-and-false outputs characterized by a very low false alarm rate; and 3) can operate in a wide range of incidence angles. Experimental results, obtained by processing a wide data set of full-resolution SCS X-band COSMO-SkyMed SAR data, show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Part of this data set regards the challenging operational case related to the Air France Flight 447 accident occurred on June 1, 2009, off the Brazilian coasts. It is shown how COSMO-SkyMed SAR data can assist the search of aircraft debris at sea. Moreover, the proposed approach is of great applicative relevance even because of the high revisit time of COSMO-SkyMed constellation.
Dividend Initiations and Earnings Surprises

This paper examines the performance of newly public firms and compares those firms that initiated dividends with those that did not. Earnings increases following the dividend initiation and earnings surprises for initiating firms are more favorable than those for noninitiating firms. Furthermore, had noninitiating firms declared dividends that matched the dividend yield, dividend-to-sales ratio, or dividend-to-assets ratio of initiating firms, the promised dividend would have equaled about 8.5% of earnings, significantly above the 5% level for initiating firms. In contrast to DeAngelo, DeAngelo, and Skinner (1996), these results suggest that dividends signal differences in performance between otherwise comparable fims.
Meniscus Tears That Can be Left In Situ, With or Without Trephination or Synovial Abrasion to Stimulate Healing

To determine which meniscus tears to leave in situ, the clinician must know whether the meniscus tear is degenerative or nondegenerative, stable or unstable, in an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-stable or ACL-unstable knee, and whether it is in the medial or lateral compartment. Symptomatic medial meniscus tears in ACL-intact knees are almost always degenerative in nature and should be removed. Generally, the only type of medial meniscus that can be left in situ is a peripheral, vertical, nondegenerative tear, but these tears are not displaceable, are asymptomatic, and are usually seen in a patient with an ACL tear. In the lateral compartment, most tears can be left in situ and the only tears that need to be repaired are displaceable tears that extend anterior to the popliteus tendon. Although many meniscus repair techniques and fixation devices are available, all factors related to healing and stability should be considered to determine treatment.
AN ASSESSMENT OF TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY AND JOB SATISFACTION OF EARLY CAREER KENTUCKY AGRICULTURE TEACHERS

OF THESIS AN ASSESSMENT OF TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY AND JOB SATISFACTION OF EARLY CAREER KENTUCKY AGRICULTURE TEACHERS The United States is currently facing a shortage of qualified teachers; specifically, agricultural education has recorded shortages for several years. Many agriculture teachers will leave the profession well before retirement. Those teachers who leave the profession are often dissatisfied with their chosen career and exhibit low levels of teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The purpose of this census study was to describe the current level of teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction among all early career Kentucky agriculture teachers (N = 80). The study also sought to determine if a relationship existed between teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction among early career Kentucky agriculture teachers. Teacher self-efficacy was measured through three constructs: student engagement, instructional practices, and classroom management. It was concluded that early career agriculture teachers in Kentucky are efficacious and generally satisfied with teaching. A variety of relationships were found to exist between each construct and overall job satisfaction between each group of teachers.
Subunit-Selective Mutational Analysis and Tissue Culture Evaluations of the Interactions of the E138K and M184I Mutations in HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase

ABSTRACT The emergence of HIV-1 drug resistance remains a major obstacle in antiviral therapy. M184I/V and E138K are signature mutations of clinical relevance in HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) for the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) lamivudine (3TC) and emtricitabine (FTC) and the second-generation (new) nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) rilpivirine (RPV), respectively, and the E138K mutation has also been shown to be selected by etravirine in cell culture. The E138K mutation was recently shown to compensate for the low enzyme processivity and viral fitness associated with the M184I/V mutations through enhanced deoxynucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) usage, while the M184I/V mutations compensated for defects in polymerization rates associated with the E138K mutations under conditions of high dNTP concentrations. The M184I mutation was also shown to enhance resistance to RPV and ETR when present together with the E138K mutation. These mutual compensatory effects might also enhance transmission rates of viruses containing these two mutations. Therefore, we performed tissue culture studies to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of these viruses. Through experiments in which E138K-containing viruses were selected with 3TC-FTC and in which M184I/V viruses were selected with ETR, we demonstrated that ETR was able to select for the E138K mutation in viruses containing the M184I/V mutations and that the M184I/V mutations consistently emerged when E138K viruses were selected with 3TC-FTC. We also performed biochemical subunit-selective mutational analyses to investigate the impact of the E138K mutation on RT function and interactions with the M184I mutation. We now show that the E138K mutation decreased rates of polymerization, impaired RNase H activity, and conferred ETR resistance through the p51 subunit of RT, while an enhancement of dNTP usage as a result of the simultaneous presence of both mutations E138K and M184I occurred via both subunits.
The Importance of Being Useful and Fun: Factors Influencing Intention to Use a Mobile System Motivating for Physical Activity

The increase in health problems associated with a lack of physical exercise is of great concern in western countries. Mobile phone based, tailored motivational systems might help more people to exercise. A web based survey of technology acceptance of such a system (n=1004) show that behavioral intention (BI) to use the system is controlled by intrinsic motivation (IM) and perceived usefulness (PU). The effect of Self-Efficacy and Subjective Norm (SN) on BI is fully mediated by PU, the effect of Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) is mostly mediated by IM. Perceived future health does not influence BI. The magnitude of the effect of IM on BI, the positive relation between Self-Efficacy for training and BI and the lack of relation between perceived future health and BI suggest that mobile phone based tailoring systems would profit from being offered to the public as fun to use, game-like systems and only secondly as serious health enhancing tools.
Abstract 86: Lymph Node Transplantation Generates Spontaneous Lymphatic Reconnection and Restoration of Lymphatic Flow

PurPose: Although lymph node transplantation has been shown to improve lymphatic function in patients with lymphedema, the mechanisms regulating lymphatic vessel reconnection and the functional status of lymph nodes (LNs) remains poorly understood. In this study we developed a novel reporter mouse that allowed us to determine the origin of lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) and vessels forming functional connections with transferred LNs.
Sonographic lenticulostriate vasculopathy in infants: some associations and a hypothesis.

PURPOSE To describe the causes of infantile lenticulostriate vasculopathy (LSV) as demonstrated by sonography and propose the pathogenesis of these findings. METHODS Five hundred eighty-six infants were examined via echoencephalography because of seizures, psychomotor retardation, dysmorphism, congenital malformation, microcephaly, macrocephaly, bulging of anterior fontanel, consciousness disturbance, or prematurity. We directed our attention on the sonographic study to the basal ganglionic and thalamic areas. Twenty-eight of the 586 patients underwent color Doppler studies. RESULTS In 34 infants with gray-scale neurosonographic findings of LSV, 16 were associated with various causes that have been reported before. In 8 patients entities not previously associated with LSV were found: neonatal lupus, neonatal hypoglycemia, uncomplicated prematurity, encephalitis, and head injury. In the remaining 10 cases, a specific cause could not be found. The LSV was found in 16 (40%), 5 (14%), and 13 (3%) patients with perinatal, acquired, and nonspecific causes, respectively. Generally, this is an uncommon finding because it was observed in only 34 (5.8%) of the study infants; 24 of these 34 had a documented cause of the vasculopathy. With LSV associated with perinatal causes there was a greater chance of sonographic LSV's developing than with that of acquired causes. CONCLUSIONS We suggest that sonographic LSV is a nonspecific marker of a previous insult to the developing brain, and the special hemodynamics of the fetal brain plays an important role in its pathogenesis.
International entrepreneurship and knowledge acquisition in Chinese international firms

This study explores the role of a firm's external and internal factors in its acquisition of foreign knowledge. We hypothesised that international entrepreneurship is positively related to foreign knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, this relationship is moderated by factors including the organisation's organic structure and network strength. On the basis of a sample of 219 Chinese international firms, our research results indicate that the organic structure positively moderates the relationship between international entrepreneurship and foreign knowledge acquisition. In contrast, the organisation's network strength hinders the effectiveness of international entrepreneurship.
Comparison of region‐of‐interest analysis with three different histogram analysis methods in the determination of perfusion metrics in patients with brain gliomas

To compare routine ROI analysis and three different histogram analyses in the grading of glial neoplasms. The hypothesis is that histogram methods can provide a robust and objective technique for quantifying perfusion data in brain gliomas. Current region‐of‐interest (ROI)‐based methods for the analysis of dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (DSC MRI) data are operator‐dependent.
Trading Volume Around Earnings Announcements and Other Financial Reports: Theory, Research Design, Empirical Evidence, and Directions for Future Research

This paper reviews, synthesizes, and critiques the capital market literature examining trading volume around earnings announcements and other financial reports. Our purposes are to assess what we have learned from examining trading volume around these announcements and to suggest directions for future research. We conclude that researchers have yet to realize the potential Beaver (1968) identified for trading volume to yield unique insights regarding the nature of earnings announcements and other financial reports, and the effects of these announcements on market participants. This state of the literature is attributable to a dearth of volume theory early on, and more recently to a disconnect between theoretical development and empirical research. Thus, we begin by briefly summarizing developments in trading volume theory since Beaver (1968). We also discuss unique measurement challenges in trading volume research, including identifying appropriate proxies for abnormal trading volume and for individual investors’ beliefs. In light of theory and empirical measurement issues, we interpret the current literature and identify directions for future research. We conclude that extant research just scratches the surface of what trading volume can reveal about the characteristics of financial disclosures and the effects of these disclosures on investors.