Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supply Chains, Global Financial Shocks and Firm Behaviour Towards Liquidity Needs

type="main" xml:id="twec12202-abs-0001"> Driven by the increasingly important role of supply chains in global production, this paper studies empirical association between global credit-market shocks and firm behaviour towards liquidity needs across countries and industries. Focusing on the adjustment of working-capital financing, we find two pieces of supporting evidence from international firm-level panel data covering the period 2002:I–2012:IV. First, for industries where specific investment in the input supplier–customer relationship is large, firms are more exposed to credit-market shocks. We find that measures of global credit-market shocks are negatively associated with trade receivables, trade payables and inventories, conditional on the level of contract intensity in the industries where firms operate. Second, firms in emerging markets are more vulnerable to credit-market shocks than are firms in developed countries. We are also able to verify the economic significance of sales growth, operating cash flows, cash stock and firm size in the overall adjustment. Our findings highlight the importance of balance-sheet contagion along supply chains during the 2007–09 global financial crisis.
A Tyrosine-Based Motif in the Cytoplasmic Tail of Pseudorabies Virus Glycoprotein B Is Important for both Antibody-Induced Internalization of Viral Glycoproteins and Efficient Cell-to-Cell Spread

ABSTRACT Pseudorabies virus (PRV), a swine alphaherpesvirus, is capable of causing viremia in vaccinated animals. Two mechanisms that may help PRV avoid recognition by the host immune system during this viremia are direct cell-to-cell spread in tissue and antibody-induced internalization of viral cell surface glycoproteins in PRV-infected blood monocytes, the carrier cells of the virus in the blood. PRV glycoprotein B (gB) is crucial during both processes. Here we show that mutating a tyrosine residue located in a YXXΦ motif in the gB cytoplasmic tail results in decreased efficiency of cell-to-cell spread and a strong reduction in antibody-induced internalization of viral cell surface glycoproteins. Mutating the dileucine motif in the gB tail led to an increased cell-to-cell spread of the virus and the formation of large syncytia.
Comment on "The Great Depression and the Friedman-Schwartz Hypothesis"

The Great Depression has been the litmus test of macroeconomic theories. Several generations of models have tried to explain the downturn, prolonged slump, and slow recovery. Each explanation was then rejected (all or in part) by the next generation of economists for something better. The original explanation, put forth in the 1930s was the Austrian view of Hayek and Robbins who blamed the depression on the imbalances created by a credit boom and consequent overinvestment in the 1920s. The severe downturn was viewed as a necessary unwinding of the excesses of the previous boom (Laidler, 2003, Eichengreen and Mitchener, 2003). The next explanation was by the Keynesians with emphasis on the collapse of investment. Gordon (1952) viewed the collapse of the housing market as the trigger; Hansen (1939) attributed the long slump and slow recovery to the end of the U.S. frontier and the completion of capital extensive investment. Models by Tinbergen (1937) and Samuelson (1939 [1966]) emphasized the role of the multiplier and accelerator. The Keynesian approach did not incorporate monetary factors since Keynes had ruled out an active role for monetary policy with his liquidity trap hypothesis (Friedman 1970). Indeed, Temin (1976) dismissed the role of money in favor of an unexplained collapse of the consumption function in 1930 as the key
Worker Resistance: An Underdeveloped Concept in the Sociology of Work

Resistance, struggle and effort bargaining are important components of everyday life at the workplace. Yet the topic of worker resistance has been given a very limited role in our theoretical models of the workplace. As a result, the study of worker resistance has remained conceptually underdeveloped. In this paper, I develop a model of worker resistance which conceptualizes four basic agendas of resistance: deflecting abuse, regulating the amount and intensity of work, defending autonomy and expanding worker control through worker participation schemes. I argue that these four agendas of worker resistance parallel forms of the organization of the labor process as characterized by Edwards (1979) and others, with deflecting abuse being most typical of direct control, regulating the amount and intensity of work being most typical of technical control, defending autonomy being most typical of bureaucratic control, and manipulating participation opportunities being most typical of worker resistance under modern participative organizations of work. Agendas of worker resistance, however, are not reducible to forms of the organization of control at the workplace and each agenda may emerge, to differing degrees, under any given form of labor control. The proposed parallelism between agendas of resistance and forms of labor control allow the development of hypotheses about both current and future developments in labor control and worker resistance.
A randomized study comparing the use of sublingual to vaginal misoprostol for pre-operative cervical priming prior to surgical termination of pregnancy in the first trimester.

BACKGROUND Misoprostol is an effective agent for pre-operative cervical priming before surgical termination of pregnancy in the first trimester. Previous studies have shown that both oral and vaginal routes are equally effective for such a purpose. This study aimed to compare a new route of sublingual administration to the vaginal route of administration for pre-operative cervical priming in first trimester surgical abortion. METHODS Eighty women with gestational age <12 weeks were randomized by a computer-generated model to receive 400 micro g of misoprostol either sublingually or vaginally 3 h prior to vacuum aspiration. The primary outcome measure was the degree of cervical dilatation, and secondary outcomes included the force required to dilate the cervix from 3 to 8 mm, intra-operative blood loss and incidence of pre-operative side-effects. RESULTS There was no significant difference in the baseline cervical dilatation (sublingual: 7.6 +/- 1.3 mm; vaginal: 7.7 +/- 0.73 mm), cumulative force required to dilate the cervix from 3 to 8 mm (sublingual: 9.0 +/- 9.8 N; vaginal: 6.6 +/- 5.4 N) and total blood loss (sublingual: 52.1 +/- 20.2 ml; vaginal: 48.3 +/- 12.3 ml). Pre-operative side-effects were also similar. CONCLUSIONS Both sublingual and vaginal misoprostol are effective in cervical priming before surgical termination of pregnancy in the first trimester. Sublingual misoprostol has the advantage of being more convenient to administer and may be more suitable for day surgery.
Consumer's Perceptions and Adoption of Online Buying for Travel Products

Abstract This study examines: (a) the relationship between the advantages and disadvantages of electronic travel shopping, in comparison to traditional in-store shopping from high street travel agents, and consumers' perception of the innovation characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility and complexity) of e-shopping, and (b) the relationship between consumer's perception of these characteristics and their intention to adopt electronic travel shopping. These relationships are examined using a sample of 127 households in Greece. The results indicate that the advantages and disadvantages of physical efforts and time pressure related to traditional in-store travel agency shopping positively influence consumer's perception of the characteristics of e-shopping. The results further show that consumers' perception of the relative advantage and compatibility of electronic travel shopping positively influence their intention to adopt e-shopping. It is also explored whether income, education and age moderate these relationships.
Human capital disclosure practices of top Bangladeshi companies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of human capital (HC) reporting in leading Bangladeshi firms using the HC reporting framework, thereby making a contribution to the body of knowledge in the area of HC reporting practice in a developing country context.Design/methodology/approach – Using the technique of content analysis, three years of annual reports of 32 leading manufacturing and service sector companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), selected on the basis of the market capitalization, were examined to identify any HC reporting trends.Findings – The findings reveal that the HC reporting practices of leading Bangladeshi firms are not as low as projected in relation to the total list of items reported. The most commonly disclosed HC items are information on employee training, number of employees, career development and opportunities that firms provide, and employee recruitment policies. Moreover, as a result of a degree of intervention on the part of some Bangladeshi.
SINGLE AND MULTIPLE INFECTIONS WITH TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL MYCOBACTERIA.

Isolated instances of human infection with atypical mycobacteria have been appearing in the literature for many years (1-3). Their frequency was not appreciated until the introduction of the new antituberculosis drugs, which necessitated the isolation of a culture from each patient to establish its degree of susceptibility to the drugs. The first mycobacterium to be recognized in this group was Mycobacterium fortuitum, isolated from man by Cruz in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1938 ( 4), although it had previously been isolated from abscesses in cows in England by Minett (5). The first series of cases found in man in this country was reported from Chicago by Kushner and his associates in 1957 (6). M. fortuitum is unique among the pathogenic mycobacteria in its rapidity of growth. Good growth often occurs in seven to ten days. The colonies are not pigmented; consequently, they are readily mistaken for M. tuberculosis if the culture is not examined until after three or four weeks. The next of the new organisms to gain recognition was the "yellow bacillus" of Buhler and Pollak (7), which was described as a photochromogen by Runyon (3) and named Mycobacterium kansasii by Hauduroy (8). The third Mycobacterium to be differentiated was the nonphotochromogen now known as the Battey bacillus. This organism was isolated from a large series of patients in the Battey Tuberculosis Hospital in Georgia (9, 10). The fourth member of the group was isolated
The Economic and Environmental Consequences of Automobile Lifetime Extension and Fuel Economy Improvement: Japan's Case

Abstract The presenft paper develops a structural decomposition analysis with cumulative product lifetime distributions to estimate the effects of both product lifetime shifts and energy efficiency changes on the embodied energy consumptions. The empirical analysis focuses on automobile use (ordinary passenger vehicles, small passenger vehicles, and light passenger vehicles) in Japan during the period 1990–2000. It reveals that the lifetime extension of existing old vehicles during the study period was more beneficial to the environment than purchasing new passenger vehicles with a relatively high fuel economy, because the lifetime extension empirically contributed to reducing the embodied energy consumption at the production and end-use stages. We also found that the energy-saving impact of a one-year lifetime extension was approximately 1.3 times larger than that of the most significant technological improvement in the electric power generation sector. Editor's NoteOn the basis of this paper, the authors were awarded the third Leontief Memorial Prize at the 16th International Input–Output Conference in Istanbul. They received this prize, which is sponsored by Taylor & Francis, for the best conference paper by authors younger than 40 years.
Capital Structure Choice in a Nascent Market: Evidence from Listed Firms in China

"We study the capital structure decisions of listed firms in China between 1992 and 2001. The Chinese market exhibits high information asymmetry, phenomenal growth, highly concentrated ownership, and a lack of external market for corporate control. We find that Chinese firms use little long-term debt, which is positively (negatively) related to firm size and tangibility (profitability and growth options). These results are robust to the degree of seasoning after the initial public offering and private versus State ownership. Although industry membership is important, the development and growth of the stock market did not affect the long-term debt ratios over the years. " Copyright (c) 2008 Financial Management Association International.
Celebrity Endorsements in Advertisements and Consumer Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT We studied consumer perceptions of celebrity endorsements from a cross-cultural perspective. In empirically examining consumer perception of celebrity endorsement, we used Hofstede's cultural dimensions to develop research propositions and examined these propositions through focus group discussions involving consumers from India and the United States. Findings indicated that specific differences and similarities exist in how consumers across India and the United States perceive celebrity endorsements. There is a positive, although moderate, impact of celebrity endorsements on attention and exposure of consumers. Implications for marketers as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.
Games + Learning + Society (GLS) Conference 10.0

Collectible or Trading Card Games (CCGs or TCGs) are enormously popular. They achieve numbers of players normally associated with online digital games. Yet they are sparsely researched and rarely utilized in the growing field of games and learning. This paper aims to present the motivational and powerful aspects CCGs and start a discussion on what these games can potentially bring to a learning ecology. While doing so we will also present preliminary results from a mixed method survey study with a multiplayer CCG, Vampire the Eternal Struggle (V:TES). Introduction A trading card game, customizable card game, or collectible card game (CCG) combines collection of trading cards with strategic deck building and gameplay. The invention of trading cards goes back to the 19 century thanks to competition among tobacco companies (Blum, 1995). Over time, these cards evolved into the collectible phenomenon now known as the trading card game (TCG) (Lenarcic & Mackay-Scollay, 2005, p. 65). The first known game to fit the definition of a CCG was The Base Ball Card Game produced by The Allegheny Card Co. and registered on April 5, 1904 (David-Marshall, van Dreunen & Wang, 2010). The CCG concept as we are familiar today came much later. In 1993, Richard Garfield introduced Magic the Gathering, a collectible card game (CCG), to the world. By 1996, it had grown to the point where it had high–stakes tournaments. As of 2009, Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of the game, estimated a 6 million global player base. As Magic’s popularity grew, numerous other CCG’s have spawned over almost two decades with player–bases ranging from tens of thousands to millions. In this paper, we will be using CCG and TCG interchangeably. The worldwide market for CCGs is above $2.1 billion and sales are estimated to be around $800 million for 2008 in North America (David-Marshall, van Dreunen & Wang, 2010). The number of CCGs increases every year thanks to their low production cost and being add-ons to virtual worlds or massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft. Please refer to David-Marshall et al. (2010)’s white paper on TCG industry for a comprehensive overview. Despite the popularity of CCGs, there are very few examples of thought pieces or experimental studies with CCGs. In today’s world of a thousand activities for both children and adults, educators need to investigate alternate paths for learning. CCGs are one such path: One which has received little attention from educators so far. This paper delves into various questions including types of CCGs, what makes them unique, and their possible educational merits. In addition, we will present preliminary results from an online survey study with V:TES players (N=290). Participants were asked about their motivation to play the game and their strategies to build decks in 5-point and 7-point Likert scale questions and open-ended questions. We will present quotes from open-ended questions from the study throughout the paper.
Intraplatelet Cyclic Guanosine‐3′,5′‐Monophosphate Levels During Pregnancy and Preeclampsia

Objective: To investigate the intraplatelet cyclic guanosine‐3′,5′‐monophosphate (cGMP) levels during normal pregnancy and preeclampsia. Study Design: Pregnant women (n = 15), women with preeclampsia (n = 15), and nonpregnant, normotensive women (n = 15) were included. Intraplatelet cyclic guanosine‐3′,5′‐monophosphate levels were measured by an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Intraplatelet cGMP levels were significantly different among all groups (p < 0.02). The values were higher in normal pregnant women (mean 19.8 SD 2.6 fmol/105 platelets) in comparison to nonpregnant women (mean 7.6 SD 0.3 fmol/105 platelets; p = 0.001) and women with preeclampsia (mean 11.3 SD 1.8 fmol/105 platelets; p = 0.05). Plasma nitric oxide levels did not reveal differences between all groups. Conclusions: The results of this study in a high‐risk Andean population demonstrated that intraplatelet cyclic guanosine‐3′,5′‐monophosphate levels are decreased during preeclampsia compared to normal pregnancy, suggesting a lack in action of nitric oxide.
International Transmission Mechanisms and Contagion in Housing Markets

This paper explores international transmission mechanism and its role in contagion effect in the housing markets across six major Asian cities. The analysis is based on the identification of house price diffusion effects through a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model estimated using quarterly data for six major Asian cities (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Bangkok) from 1991Q1 to 2011Q2. The empirical results indicate that the open economies heavily relying on international trade such as Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), Taiwan (Taipei) and Thailand (Bangkok) show positive correlations between the economy's openness and house prices, which is consistent with the Balassa–Samuelson hypothesis. Interestingly, some region-specific conditions also appear to play important roles as determinants of house price movements, which may be driven by restrictive housing policies and demand–supply imbalances such as Singapore and Bangkok. These results are reasonably robust across several model specifications. The findings bear significant implications for formulation of investment strategy and public policies.
An analysis of the relationship between organizational strategy and human resource policies in Turkey

The paper explores the relationship between organizational strategies and human resource management strategies. Data was collected from owners or top managers and managers in charge of human resource issues of 100 small and medium sized companies operating in Turkey. Human resource strategies were analyzed on a unipolar dimension ranging from internal orientation to external orientation. An instrument was developed to measure Human resource practices based on human resource functions. Organizational strategy was measured using an instrument developed by Zajac and Shortell (1989) based on Miles and Snow’s (1978; 1987) typology. The study revealed that prospector organizations were more likely to have an externally oriented human resource approach. A general external orientation in human resources is reflected in the recruitment, retention, and performance management functions of the organizations.
Antibiotic Susceptibility of Haemophilus vaginalis (Corynebacterium vaginale) to 21 Antibiotics

A total of 56 strains of Haemophilus vaginalis were tested for their in vitro susceptibility to 21 antimicrobial agents by an agar dilution method. All strains were inhibited by 1 μg or less of penicillin, ampicillin, carbenicillin, and vancomycin per ml. The cephalosporins were less active; 4 μg of cefazolin per ml, 16 μg of cephalothin per ml, or 128 μg of cephalexin per ml was required to inhibit all strains. Kanamycin, gentamicin, tobramycin, and neomycin were relatively inactive against H. vaginalis. All strains were inhibited by 4 μg of streptomycin per ml and 2 μg of chloramphenicol per ml. Only 57% of the strains were inhibited by 4 μg of tetracycline per ml, whereas 43% were inhibited by 16 to 64 μg/ml. The combination sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim was relatively inactive against H. vaginalis. All strains tested exhibited minimal inhibitory concentrations of ≥128 μg when tested against colistin, nalidixic acid, and sulfadiazine. Erythromycin and clindamycin were the most active of the antibiotics tested; for all strains the minimal inhibitory concentrations were ≤0.06 μg/ml.
Police Legitimacy and Policing Public Protest

This paper explores police legitimacy in the context of protest policing. The overarching aim is to address how the police might enhance their legitimacy in a protest context. I draw from Beetham’s (1991) proposition that political legitimacy requires alignment between shared public values and institutional standards, and propose a means of bridging the two sets of principles. I suggest that procedural justice theory and the Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM) of crowd behaviour allow us to understand the public values that drive police legitimacy in both a general and protest context, namely an overriding concern for fair and respectful process. Next I argue that these values should be institutionally substantiated by a human rights framework. This allows us to buttress policing principles premised on public values with a normative framework and thus meet the criterion for legitimacy according to Beetham’s model. The compatibility between these three singular narratives makes a powerful and coherent argument for protest policing premised upon fairness and respect. I suggest that this style of policing is more likely to sustain public order and allows us to reconcile protester objectives - the ability and right to protest - with key policing objectives, including public order and public safety.
Fixed-Rate Endowment Mortgage and Mortgage Indemnity Valuation

We use a contingent claims framework for valuing the the default and prepayment embedded options in certain British fixed-rate endowment mortgages, with a (capped) mortgage indemnity guarantee (MIG). This methodology provides a template for the borrower, lender, and insurer to compare mortgage terms, including the fairness of contract rates, arrangement fees, prepayment penalties, any MIG premiums required, and co-insurance exposure. With empirical inputs, this model may eventually be useful as a “mark-to-value” proxy for all parties, as expected parameters change (especially interest rate and house price levels, and expected future volatilities), for purposes of determining “valued added accounting”, appropriate reserves, and indeed for setting premiums and business drivers. Fixed-rate endowment mortgages differ from fixed-rate repayment mortgages primarily because, in the event of early termination, the amount owed by the borrower is a function of the evolution of the term structure of interest rates, whereas for a repayment mortgage it is pre-determined. We compare endownment and repayment mortgages for different levels of loan-to-value ratios, interest rate and house price volatilities.