Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Takeover and Monitor under External Corporate Control

We study how both external corporate governance factors and internal corporate governance factors jointly affect the large shareholder’s takeover or monitor decision. The large shareholders monitor the management and have option to takeover the firm. External corporate governance forces impose stealing costs to the manager. In equilibrium, large shareholder’s takeover or monitoring decision, takeover premium, manager’s stealing strategy and the firm values are determined endogenously. We find that both the internal and external control factors have important effects on agency cost and strongly affect the takeover decision. Our results are also robust in the presence of managerial defense and when the market is dynamic.
Does Union Membership Really Reduce Job Satisfaction?

We investigate the effect of union membership on job satisfaction. Whilst it is common to study the effects of union status on satisfaction treating individual membership as given, in this paper, we account for the endogenous selection induced by the sorting of workers into unionised jobs. Using linked employer-employee data from the 1998 British Workplace Employee Relations Survey, we address the question of how the membership decision is related to overall job satisfaction and to satisfaction with pay. Once the endogeneity of membership is accounted for, the marked difference in job satisfaction between unionised and non-unionised workers characterising raw data disappears, indicating that a selection effect, rather than a causal effect, explains the relationship.
Does Attendance in Private Schools Predict Student Outcomes at Age 15? Evidence From a Longitudinal Study

By tracking longitudinally a sample of American children (n = 1,097), this study examined the extent to which enrollment in private schools between kindergarten and ninth grade was related to students’ academic, social, psychological, and attainment outcomes at age 15. Results from this investigation revealed that in unadjusted models, children with a history of enrollment in private schools performed better on nearly all outcomes assessed in adolescence. However, by simply controlling for the sociodemographic characteristics that selected children and families into these schools, all of the advantages of private school education were eliminated. There was also no evidence to suggest that low-income children or children enrolled in urban schools benefited more from private school enrollment.
CUDIA

In healthcare-related studies, individual patient or hospital data are not often publicly available due to privacy restrictions, legal issues, or reporting norms. However, such measures may be provided at a higher or more aggregated level, such as state-level, county-level summaries or averages over health zones, such as hospital referral regions (HRR) or hospital service areas (HSA). Such levels constitute partitions over the underlying individual level data, which may not match the groupings that would have been obtained if one clustered the data based on individual-level attributes. Moreover, treating aggregated values as representatives for the individuals can result in the ecological fallacy. How can one run data mining procedures on such data where different variables are available at different levels of aggregation or granularity? In this article, we seek a better utilization of variably aggregated datasets, which are possibly assembled from different sources. We propose a novel cross-level imputation technique that models the generative process of such datasets using a Bayesian directed graphical model. The imputation is based on the underlying data distribution and is shown to be unbiased. This imputation can be further utilized in a subsequent predictive modeling, yielding improved accuracies. The experimental results using a simulated dataset and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) dataset are provided to illustrate the generality and capabilities of the proposed framework.
Deep water mass geometry in the glacial Atlantic Ocean: A review of constraints from the paleonutrient proxy Cd/Ca

Paleonutrient proxies currently provide the strongest constraints on the past spatial distribution of deep water masses. We review the state of knowledge derived from the trace metal proxy Cd/Ca for the Atlantic Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We compile published benthic foraminiferal Cd/Ca data, supplemented with new data, to reconstruct meridional Cd sections through the Holocene and LGM Atlantic. Holocene Cd/Ca reflects the modern water masses North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) reasonably well, except for anomalously high values in the intermediate to mid‐depth far North Atlantic. LGM Cd/Ca clearly shows that NADW was replaced by the shallower Glacial North Atlantic Intermediate Water (GNAIW), with significant northward expansion of AABW. The boundary level between GNAIW and AABW was very abrupt, occurring between ∼2200 and 2500 m modern water depth. Combined Cd/Ca and Cibicidoidesδ13C data allow us to also calculate the air‐sea signature of δ13C (δ13Cas). The LGM Atlantic can be explained entirely by mixing between high‐δ13Cas GNAIW and low‐δ13Cas AABW. Negative δ13Cas values in glacial AABW were likely caused by poor ventilation during formation, probably associated with extensive sea ice coverage. Overall, our knowledge base would benefit from improved data coverage in the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean, and a better understanding of ancillary effects on the Cd/Ca proxy itself.
Polyamines: Predictive Biomarker for HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders

Objectives Spermidine/spermine-N1-acetytransferase (SSAT) is the key enzyme in the catabolism of polyamines that are involved in regulating NMDA functioning. Over expression of SSAT leads to abnormal metabolic cycling and may disrupt NMDA receptor signaling. In fact, the HIV protein Tat induces neurotoxicity involving polyamine/NMDA receptor interactions. Thus, we investigated abnormal polyamine cycling in HIV+ participants with varying degrees of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. Methods Acetyl-polyamine (SSAT products) levels were assessed by HPLC in CSF from 99 HIV-infected participants (no cognitive impairment (NCI, n=25), asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment (ANI, n=25), mild cognitive and motor disorders (MCMD, n=24), and HIV-associated dementia (HAD, n=25)). Polyamine levels in brain tissues from a subset of participants (uninfected (n=3), NCI (n=3), and MNCD (n=3)) were also assessed. Human primary astrocytes expressing HIV Tat were assessed for levels of the SSAT activity. Results Activation of the polyamine catabolic enzyme, SSAT increases polyamine flux in brain and CSF of HIV infected individuals with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. CSF levels of acetylated polyamine increase with the degree of HAND severity as indicated by significantly increased acetylpolyamine levels in HAD participants compared to NCI and ANI (p<0.0001) and between MCMD and NCI and ANI (p<0.0001). In vitro studies suggest that the HIV protein Tat may be responsible in part for astrocyte-derived acetyl polyamine release. Interpretation Our data suggest that polyamine metabolism may play a pivotal role in the neurodegeneration process among HAND patients. Changes in polyamine flux may serve as a potential predictive diagnostic biomarker for different severities of HAND.
Thermally Induced Structural Evolution and Performance of Mesoporous Block Copolymer-Directed Alumina Perovskite Solar Cells

Structure control in solution-processed hybrid perovskites is crucial to design and fabricate highly efficient solar cells. Here, we utilize in situ grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering and scanning electron microscopy to investigate the structural evolution and film morphologies of methylammonium lead tri-iodide/chloride (CH3NH3PbI3–xClx) in mesoporous block copolymer derived alumina superstructures during thermal annealing. We show the CH3NH3PbI3–xClx material evolution to be characterized by three distinct structures: a crystalline precursor structure not described previously, a 3D perovskite structure, and a mixture of compounds resulting from degradation. Finally, we demonstrate how understanding the processing parameters provides the foundation needed for optimal perovskite film morphology and coverage, leading to enhanced block copolymer-directed perovskite solar cell performance.
A robust authentication methodology using physically unclonable functions in DRAM arrays

The high availability of DRAM in either embedded or stand-alone form make it a target for counterfeit attacks. In this paper, we propose a robust authentication methodology against counterfeiting. The authentication is performed by exploiting the intrinsic process variation in write reliability of DRAM cells. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations performed in HSPICE show that the proposed authentication methodology provides high uniqueness of 50.01% average inter-die Hamming distance and good robustness under temporal fluctuations in supply voltage, temperature, and ageing effect over a 10-year lifetime.
The Company You Keep : Using Organizational Social Network Attributes to Predict Employee Engagement

Employee engagement (EE) has been shown to have important implications [1] for the success of organizations. Most researchers have discussed employee engagement in terms of factors in a top-down, hierarchical model of the organization. However, there may also be contributing factors from an employee’s organizational social network (OSN). In this paper, we show that an employee’s social network attributes can contribute to the prediction of engagement, primarily through centrality and homophily in a large, multinational company (LargeCorp). Our research expands the range of theoretical factors that can predict employee engagement from a vertical, three factor model to a more horizontal, four factor model. We also discuss how this work points toward a richer set of methods to predict and track engagement over time and its connections to the broader HCI research community.
Industry product market competition and earnings management

This study examines the relation between industry product market competition and earnings management in firms. Using several determinants of competition, namely, product substitutability, market size, and entry costs, and a range of variables to proxy for accruals and real activities manipulation, and accounting restatements that constitute material violations of accounting practices, we find a robust positive relation between competition and earnings management. This study shows that industry factors play a vital role in influencing the variation in extent of earnings management across firms. In contrast to much research on competition, it also provides evidence on the perverse effects of competition. JEL classification: D4; G34; J33; L1; M40; M41; M46
Industry Dynamics and Competition from Low‐Wage Countries: Evidence on Italy

This paper analyses the effect of competition from low-wage countries on domestic activity, using data on 230 Italian manufacturing sectors between 1995 and 2007. We find that low-wage import penetration is negatively related to employment and other measures of activity. The effect is significantly lower in more skill, capital and R&D-intensive sectors and in more vertically differentiated sectors. There is also evidence of significant effects of low-wage competition through inter-industry linkages: employment is negatively related to low-wage import penetration in downstream sectors but positively related to low-wage import penetration in upstream sectors.
KOF Working Papers

In the aftermath of the euro cash changeover consumers’ inflation perceptions rose substantially in the euro area countries while actual inflation figures remained almost unchanged. During that period media reporting on the potentially large inflationary effect of the euro introduction intensified. In this paper we argue that the information set of the public has been distorted through the significant slant in the media. Employing an unique dataset for Germany, we provide evidence that media reporting has a statistically significant and economically meaningful impact on inflation perceptions and contributed to their sharp rise in the aftermath of the euro cash
Solving Ack inefficiencies in 802.11 networks

The founding idea behind this study was that 802.11 acks and TCP acks are substantial contributors to 802.11 over-heads, yet, they both provide the same functionality; reliability. Initial experiments suggest that 802.11 acks contribute to over 20% of the overhead in 802.11 networks. Unfortunately, without 802.11 acks, paths with RTTs greater than a millisecond are unable to utilise this additional performance because lost packets, which occur frequently in unacknowledged (NoAck) 802.11, are interpreted as congestion. This study experiments with a range of PEPs (Performance Enhancing Proxies) which retransmit lost packets. A new proxy, known as D-Proxy, designed to solve the shortcomings of previous I-TCP and Snoop proxies, is experimentally developed and tested in Linux. D-Proxy is a distributed, proactive proxy that caches, analyses and resends packets based on TCP sequence numbers. The results suggest that D-Proxy can substantially improve 802.11 throughputs.
Random Bit Climbers on Multiobjective MNK-Landscapes: Effects of Memory and Population Climbing

In this work we give an extension of Kauffman's NK-Landscapes to multiobjective MNK-Landscapes in order to study the effects of epistasis on the performance of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs). This paper focuses on the development of multiobjective random one-bit climbers (moRBCs). We incrementally build several moRBCs and analyze basic working principles of state of the art MOEAs on landscapes of increased epistatic complexity and number of objectives. We specially study the effects of Pareto dominance, non-dominance, and the use of memory and a population to influence the search. We choose an elitist non-dominated sorting multiobjective genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) as a representative of the latest generation of MOEAs and include its results for comparison. We detail the behavior of the climbers and show that population based moRBCs outperform NSGA-II for all values of M and K.
Onboard Adaptive Control of AUVs using Automated Planning and Execution

In this paper we describe an integrated goal-oriented control architecture for onboard decision-making for AUVs. Onboard planning and execution is augmented by state estimation of perceived features of interest in the coastal ocean, to drive platform adaptation. The partitioned architecture is a collection of coordinated control loops, with a recurring sense, plan, act cycle and which allows for plan failures to be localized within a control loop and ensures a divide-and-conquer approach to problem solving in dynamic environments.
Robust vortex lines, vortex rings, and hopfions in three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates

Performing a systematic Bogoliubov–de Gennes spectral analysis, we illustrate that stationary vortex lines, vortex rings, and more exotic states, such as hopfions, are robust in three-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, for large parameter intervals. Importantly, we find that the hopfion can be stabilized in a simple parabolic trap, without the need for trap rotation or inhomogeneous interactions. We supplement our spectral analysis by studying the dynamics of such stationary states; we find them to be robust against significant perturbations of the initial state. In the unstable regimes, we not only identify the unstable mode, such as a quadrupolar or hexapolar mode, but we also observe the corresponding instability dynamics. Moreover, deep in the Thomas-Fermi regime, we investigate the particlelike behavior of vortex rings and hopfions.
Serological test and chest computed tomography findings in patients with Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease

The present authors have previously reported the usefulness of a serodiagnostic test to detect serum glycopeptidolipid (GPL) core antibody in diagnosing Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung disease in immunocompetent patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate correlations between the levels of antibody against GPL core and chest computed tomography (CCT) findings in patients with MAC lung disease. A total of 47 patients with MAC-positive culture from their sputum and who had radiographic abnormalities were investigated. Thirty-three patients met the American Thoracic Society criteria for MAC disease; 14 did not. All patients underwent both CCT examination and the serodiagnostic test for MAC at the same time. Small nodular shadows were seen on CCT in all 47 patients and bronchiectasis shadows were seen in 39 (83%) of them. There was a significant positive correlation between the extent of the disease and the level of GPL core immunoglobulin (Ig)A antibody. The levels of GPL core IgA antibody were significantly elevated in patients who had nodular shadows (10–30 mm) compared with patients who had small nodular shadows (<10 mm). The present results document that the levels of immunoglobulin A antibody against glycopeptidolipid core correlate with the chest computed tomography findings of Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease.
“Savoring” buffers the association between negative emotions and suicidal behaviors in the GSM community

Abstract This study examined the effects of “savoring the moment” (the ability to generate, maintain, and extend positive emotions) on the relationship between negative emotions and suicidal behavior in a sample of gender and sexual minorities (GSM). Savoring the moment moderated the associated effects of negative emotions on suicidal behavior; the relationship between negative emotions and suicidal behaviors ceased at higher levels of savoring the moment. Our finding offers preliminary evidence for savoring as a buffer to suicide among subpopulations of GSM individuals. Our findings also provide some insights into the use of positive psychological interventions in GSM suicide prevention efforts.
Who’s going to leave? An examination of absconding events by forensic inpatients in a psychiatric hospital

ABSTRACT Absconding is a potentially risky event that has wide reaching consequences both for the institution and greater community; however, few studies have examined the characteristics of clients who abscond, their motivations, and details about their absconding event, especially within a forensic context. The purpose of this research was to determine if risk factors could be identified that might predict absconding behavior. A retrospective chart review was conducted of all reported absconding events between 1 January 2012 and 31 August 2015 by clients on forensic units in a public psychiatric hospital in Ontario, Canada. In addition, these clients were matched with a comparison group. Categories of motivations for absconding including goal-directed, frustration/boredom, symptomatic/disorganized, and impulsive/opportunistic were identified. The best indicator of a client’s risk for absconding was having experienced a stressful, significant event in the two weeks prior to the absconding event. Additionally, total scores on the HCR-20 and the presence of a co-occurring substance use disorder differentiated the absconders from the comparison group. This research contributes to our knowledge base regarding absconding events by forensic psychiatric patients and highlights specific targets for clinical staff in assessing risk for absconding and managing privileges leading to more effective care planning.
A Potential Role for Shed Soluble Major Histocompatibility Class I Molecules as Modulators of Neurite Outgrowth

The neurobiological activities of classical major histocompatibility class I (MHCI) molecules are just beginning to be explored. To further examine MHCI's actions during the formation of neuronal connections, we cultured embryonic mouse retina explants a short distance from wildtype thalamic explants, or thalami from transgenic mice (termed “NSE-Db”) whose neurons express higher levels of MHCI. While retina neurites extended to form connections with wildtype thalami, we were surprised to find that retina neurite outgrowth was very stunted in regions proximal to NSE-Db thalamic explants, suggesting that a diffusible factor from these thalami inhibited retina neurite outgrowth. It has been long known that MHCI-expressing cells release soluble forms of MHCI (sMHCI) due to the shedding of intact MHCI molecules, as well as the alternative exon splicing of its heavy chain or the action proteases which cleave off it's transmembrane anchor. We show that the diffusible inhibitory factor from the NSE-Db thalami is sMHCI. We also show that COS cells programmed to express murine MHCI release sMHCI that inhibits neurite outgrowth from nearby neurons in vitro. The neuroinhibitory effect of sMHCI could be blocked by lowering cAMP levels, suggesting that the neuronal MHCI receptor's signaling mechanism involves a cyclic nucleotide-dependent pathway. Our results suggest that MHCI may not only have neurobiological activity in its membrane-bound form, it may also influence local neurons as a soluble molecule. We discuss the involvement of complement proteins in generating sMHCI and new theoretical models of MHCI's biological activities in the nervous system.
Slug Is Increased in Vascular Remodeling and Induces a Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferative Phenotype

Objective Previous studies have confirmed Slug as a key player in regulating phenotypic changes in several cell models, however, its role in smooth muscle cells (SMC) has never been assessed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the expression of Slug during the phenotypic switch of SMC in vitro and throughout the development of vascular remodeling. Methods and Results Slug expression was decreased during both cell-to-cell contact and TGFβ1 induced SMC differentiation. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), a known inductor of a proliferative/dedifferentiated SMC phenotype, induces the expression of Slug in SMC. Slug knockdown blocked TNFα-induced SMC phenotypic change and significantly reduced both SMC proliferation and migration, while its overexpression blocked the TGFβ1-induced SMC differentiation and induced proliferation and migration. Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis showed that in SMC, Slug knockdown induced changes mainly in genes related to proliferation and migration, indicating that Slug controls these processes in SMC. Notably, Slug expression was significantly up-regulated in lungs of mice using a model of pulmonary hypertension-related vascular remodeling. Highly remodeled human pulmonary arteries also showed an increase of Slug expression compared to less remodeled arteries. Conclusions Slug emerges as a key transcription factor driving SMC towards a proliferative phenotype. The increased Slug expression observed in vivo in highly remodeled arteries of mice and human suggests a role of Slug in the pathogenesis of pulmonary vascular diseases.