Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consistency of the Results of Different MCA Methods: A Critical Review

Multiple criteria decision analysis (MCA) has become an indispensable tool for dealing with complex and unstructured decision problems in environmental and natural resource management which involve a number of conflicting objectives and a variety of stakeholders. Despite their popularity, choosing which of the many multicriteria methods to use is tricky. Different methods may yield different results and therefore the decision may depend on the method selected. In this paper we review a number of experiments conducted to compare the results of different MCA methods when applied to the same decision problem. I compare and critically examine the hypotheses postulated and the results obtained from these experiments. Despite the equivocal results yielded in some experiments, many authors recommend applying two or more MCA methods, especially in the case of unstructured decision problems. This multimethod MCA application may be regarded as a type of validation which is more extensive than standard sensitivity analysis and which enables the decisionmaker to review the preferences and judgments previously elicited by a single method.
Constraints on adaptation: explaining deviation from optimal sex ratio using artificial neural networks

Determining processes constraining adaptation is a major challenge facing evolutionary biology, and sex allocation has proved a useful model system for exploring different constraints. We investigate the evolution of suboptimal sex allocation in a solitary parasitoid wasp system by modelling information acquisition and processing using artificial neural networks (ANNs) evolving according to a genetic algorithm. Theory predicts an instantaneous switch from the production of male to female offspring with increasing host size, whereas data show gradual changes. We found that simple ANNs evolved towards producing sharp switches in sex ratio, but additional biologically reasonable assumptions of costs of synapse maintenance, and simplification of the ANNs, led to more gradual adjustment. Switch sharpness was robust to uncertainty in fitness consequences of host size, challenging interpretations of previous empirical findings. Our results also question some intuitive hypotheses concerning the evolution of threshold traits and confirm how neural processing may constrain adaptive behaviour.
Foreign Exchange Volume: Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing?

This paper examines whether currency trading volume is informative, and under what circumstances. Specifically, we use transactions data to test whether trades occurring when trading intensity is high are more informative - dollar for dollar - than trades occurring when intensity is low. Theory admits both possibilities, depending primarily on the posited information structure. We present what we call a hot-potato model of currency trading, which explains why low-intensity trades might be more informative. In the model, the wave of inventory-management trading among dealers following innovations in order flow generates an inverse relationship between intensity and information content. Empirically, low-intensity trades are more informative, supporting the hot-potato hypothesis. "
Volatility of Stock Index and Exchange Rates in Malaysia during Economic Crisis

In this study we apply time-series analysis to examine empirically the contemporaneous as well as lagged relation between stock index returns volatility and exchange rates returns volatility during Asian economic crisis. The generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH 1,1) is used to take into account for the nonlinear dependent in the data generating process. The results exhibit that both contemporaneous squared returns and contemporaneous absolute returns of exchange rate help to explain volatility of the stock index.
The effect of explanations on prospective applicants reactions to firm diversity practices

Drawing on the recruitment, marketing, and explanation literatures, we examine how the language used to describe diversity practices in employee recruitment advertisements influences the organizational attractiveness perceptions of white, black, and Asian prospective applicants. Results show that prospective applicants' reactions to advertised support for identity-conscious diversity practices were moderated by applicants' race, applicants' previous discrimination experiences, and the type of explanation a firm used to support its use of diversity practices. The results of this article provide new insights into how firms can effectively attract a diverse applicant pool. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Cesarean delivery rates in adolescent pregnancy

Objectives To investigate the rates of cesarean deliveries in two different hospitals, which serve different populations in Turkey. Methods The study was conducted at two centers, one of which is a university hospital in a rural area and the other a community hospital in capital city, for 5 years (1999–2003). The subjects were < 18 years old adolescent mothers. The adult controls ( ⩾ 18 years) were further divided in two age groups: 18–35 years and > 35 years. Results A total of 40,391 pregnant women were evaluated in both hospitals. Cesarean delivery rates in adolescent pregnancies were not higher than adults. Moreover, in community hospital, cesarean delivery rate in adolescents was significantly lower (17.12% vs. 28.84%). Conclusions We concluded that, the cesarean deliveries are not increased, and even decreased in adolescent pregnancies and biological immaturity is not a significant problem in adolescent pregnancy.
Networking Ability and the Financial Performance of New Ventures: Moderating Effects of Venture Size, Institutional Environment, and Their Interaction

Building on prior research, this study provides insights on the complex interaction between individual, organizational, and environmental factors in the field of new venture success. Specifically, we develop and test hypotheses on how venture size, institutional context, and their interaction moderate the effect of entrepreneurs' networking ability on the financial performance of new ventures. Based on a sample of 283 new ventures in ermany and razil—two countries that differ significantly in terms of their institutional frameworks—our analyses reveal moderating effects of venture size and the interaction between venture size and institutional environment.
Examining the Use of Technical Currency Analysis

Although the use of technical analysis in foreign exchange markets is well known, enduring and possibly profitably used, it is not well understood. In this paper implications of the efficient market hypothesis for the use of technical currency analysis are examined by an evaluation of the response to a postal questionnaire by foreign exchange professionals in Germany. The results indicate that technical currency analysis should be interpreted not as either a marginal phenomenon or representing secondary information or a self-eliminating or second-best strategy, but possibly as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Copyright @ 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved.
Incentives to Membership in Canadian Political Parties

This article analyses data from the 2000 Study of Canadian Political Party Members to address the question of why individuals join political parties in Canada and to trace their paths to activism. Because Canadian parties are essentially brokerage parties charactensed by ideological flexibility and limited substantive roles for their members, membership in a party islikely to be motivated less by ideological concerns than by membership in a social network mobilised in support of a particular individual. As a consequence, most accounts assume that individuals are mobilised into party membership by family, friends, and neighbors in order to support candidates for the leadership or local nomination. In contrast to this expectation, we find that for all five major Canadian political parties, it is the members' ideological or policy-related commitment to the party that is by far the most important motivation for joining. Although parties do, to varying degrees, rely on social networks for recruitment into party life, ideological concurrence between member and party acts as a constraint on recruitment. The data also indicate considerable differences between the two traditional brokerage parties and the newer, more ideologically oriented parties.
Organizational Founding, Strategic Renewal and the Role of Accounting: Management Accounting Concepts in the Formation of the 'Penny Post'

ABSTRACT: Organizational strategies, processes, and procedures may become institutionalized during the early history of an organization, leading to dysfunctional rigidities when the environment changes. The postal system worldwide is under significant pressure to change its business model, including rescinding the provision of universal service and uniform pricing, as the posts are privatized and opened to competition. Cost accounting has become a key mechanism to achieve reform in the postal system. But is the introduction of a cost‐based logic new to the design of post office reforms? Were the core policies of the post office originally developed without reference to cost? This paper analyzes the key document in the creation of the current postal business model: Rowland Hill's (1837) “Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability. ” The pamphlet shows a basic understanding of economic concepts including the elasticity of demand and opportunity costs as well as implementing practical accounting te.
Survivability of vancomycin resistant enterococci and fitness cost of vancomycin resistance acquisition

Aims: To investigate the survivability of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) under dry starvation conditions and the fitness cost of vancomycin resistance. Methods: VRE colonies on cotton swabs were incubated at room temperature in a sterile box and cultured weekly until cultures no longer showed growth. Negative swabs inoculated into brain heart infusion (BHI) broth were subcultured to blood agar after 24, 48, and 72 hours of incubation to resuscitate viable but non-culturable cells. Stability of the vancomycin resistance determinant and of the DNA fingerprint pattern was determined by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and repetitive PCR, respectively. Tests for fitness cost were carried out on the same VRE isolates and 28 hospital vancomycin sensitive enterococci (VSE) isolates by incubation and measurement of optical density using a microplate reader and comparing maximum growth rate and lag phase duration between VRE and VSE, using independent samples t tests. Results: Mean maximum time of recovery by primary culture was 8.5 weeks for Enterococcus faecalis VRE and 21.8 weeks for E faecium VRE. Two of two E faecalis isolates were resuscitated after 24 hours in BHI broth, and two of five E faecium isolates after 72 hours. No fitness cost of vancomycin resistance was demonstrated. Conclusions: VRE can survive for prolonged periods in a dry starvation state, retaining their genetic complement, including vancomycin resistance determinants, and show little or no fitness cost of vancomycin resistance. Thus, the rate of entry required for VRE to become, and remain, endemic in the community is relatively small.
Paget disease of the breast: Changing patterns of incidence, clinical presentation, and treatment in the U.S.

Paget disease is an uncommon presentation of breast cancer that increased in incidence in the U.S. between 1973 and 1987. Characterized by malignant crusting or ulceration of the nipple, Paget disease can present in 1 of 3 ways: 1) in conjunction with an underlying invasive cancer, 2) in conjunction with underlying ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), or 3) alone without any underlying invasive breast carcinoma or DCIS. Paget disease can be treated with breast conservation by undergoing central lumpectomy. The objective of this study was to determine how the incidence, presentation, biomarkers, operative approach, and outcome of Paget disease have evolved in the U.S. since 1988.
Managers of Financially Distressed Firms: Villains or Scapegoats?

In this paper, we provide evidence concerning the extent to which managers are to blame when their firms become bankrupt. We study a sample of firms that end up in severe financial distress to determine the actions taken by firms' managers as their financial positions worsen. We compare the sample of firms that eventually experience server financial distress (fling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection) with a control sample of firms that performed better. We suggest that the comparison provides evidence on the way managers act as their firms sink into financial trouble and the extent to which financial distress is the result of incompetence or excessively self-serving managerial decisions or due to factors outside of management's control. We find that managers of Chapter 11 firms and the control forms make very similar decisions and that, on average, neither set of managers are perceived to be taking value- reducing actions. We also find that when managers are replaced in the firms that eventually file for Chapter 11 protection, the market does not respond positively. These findings support the idea that financial distress is due to conditions outside of the control of managers or that the managers are serving as scapegoats.
The Effect of Regulation on Insurance Pricing: The Case of Germany

This article analyzes the impact of policy form regulation on the unit price of insurance and determinants of premium changes using the 1994 deregulation of the German property–liability market as a natural experiment. Our result show that policy form regulation did not increase prices above competitive levels. Factors influencing premium changes are significantly different for the two time periods, pre‐ and post‐deregulation, indicating that regulation affects insurance pricing. Focusing on highly competitive lines after deregulation, we find a significant price decrease, and this decrease is offset by higher prices in the remaining other lines.
The Bretton Woods International Monetary System: An Historical Overview

This paper presents an overview of the Bretton Woods experience. From an historical perspective. I analyze its performance relative to other international monetary regimes. its origins. its operation. its problems and its demise. In the survey I emphasize both issues deemed important at the time and raise questions which may be of interest for the concerns of the present. Part 2 compares the macro performance of Bretton Woods with preceding and subsequent monetary regimes. The descriptive statistics on nine key macro variables point to one startling conclusion -- the Bretton Woods system. in its full convertibility phase 1959-1971, was the most stable regime for both nominal and real variables in the past century. Part 3 surveys the origins of Bretton Woods: the perceived problems of the inter war period; the plans for a new international monetary order and the steps leading to the outcome -- the Articles of Agreement. Part 4 examines the preconvertibility period from 1946 to 1958: the problems in getting the system started including the dollar shortage and the weakness of the IMF; and how the system evolved to convertibility and the gold dollar standard. Part 5 analyzes the heyday of Bretton Woods 1959 to 1971 in the context of the gold dollar standard and the famous three problems: adjustment. liquidity, and confidence. Part 6 considers the emergence of a "de facto" dollar standard in 1968 and its collapse in the face of a massive U.S. induced inflation. Part 7 considers why Bretton Woods was so stable and yet so short-lived. It also considers the importance of adherence to credible rules in the design of an effective international monetary system.
A comparison of two podiatric protocols for metatarsalgia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVES In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) forefoot involvement causes disability and metatarsalgia. Our objective was to evaluate, in RA and OA patients, the efficacy of two protocols combining insoles in polypropylene terephtalate (PPT) and custom silicone orthoses for toes on disability and metatarsalgia. METHODS Twenty-four women (13 with OA, 11 with RA) with metatarsalgia were treated with two protocols: group A (protocol A) wore PPT insoles (T1) for 30 days and for another 30 days silicone orthosis for toes were added (T2). Group B (protocol B) wore PPT insoles and silicone orthosis (T1) for 30 days and in the following 30 days only insoles (T2). At T0, T1 and T2, pain, disability and function (Foot Function Index - FFI), pressure (KPA) and plantar contact areas (cm2) (baropodometer), and gait spatial-temporal parameters (GAITRite®) were assessed. RESULTS At T0 versus T2, both protocols reduced FFI-pain, -disability and -functional limitation (p<0.05), with better results of protocol A than protocol B (p<0.05) for FFI-pain and -disability. Both protocols reduced baropodometer foot plantar pressures (p<0.001), with better results for protocol A for right foot pressures (p<0.05) and increased foot contact areas (p<0.05), with no difference between them (p=NS). Gait parameters were not significantly changed by both protocols (p=NS). CONCLUSIONS In patients with RA and OA with metatarsalgia, the synergic action of silicone toe orthosis and PPT insoles improves FFI, reduces foot plantar pressures and increases foot plantar contact areas. Protocol A, using firstly insoles and then adding silicone toe orthoses, is the more efficacious.
Consumer user innovation in Korea: an international comparison and policy implications

This study examines the extent to which individual consumers develop and share user innovations in Korea, extending previous studies of consumer innovation activities undertaken in advanced countries. Using a research method similar to those used in prior studies, this study finds that about 1.5% of adult consumers have generated innovations for their own use during the past three years, and 21.9% of consumer innovators share their innovations with other consumers or firms. Consumers who are male, working, and highly educated are more likely to generate innovations. Moreover, consumer innovators tend to share their innovations, when they are young and participate in community activities and when their innovations have higher values to others. The total amount of innovation expenditure by consumers exceeds 0.34 billion US dollars, which accounts for 4.4% of the R&D investment of Korean firms in the consumer goods sector. Although the proportion of consumer user innovators in Korea is relatively lower than that found in advanced countries, the number of consumers who generate innovations and their innovation expenditures are far from being negligible. As a result, this study suggests a few government policies to encourage and facilitate development, diffusion, and commercialisation of consumer innovations in late industrialising contexts, including Korea.
Development theory and the economics of growth

Why are some countries richer than others? Why do some economies grow so much faster than others do? Do economies tend to converge at similar levels of per capita income? Or is catching up simply impossible? These questions have vast implications for human welfare. After a period of lack of interest in growth theory, they are back on the research agenda of mainstream economics. They have also been at the heart of development economics since its inception some decades ago. This book endeavors to answer such questions by blending classical contributions to development theory with recent developments in the economics of growth.The unifying theme is that early theoretical insights and accumulated empirical knowledge of development economics have much to offer to research in the theory and empirics of economic growth. With the help of a number of recent contributions, the ideas and insights of the classical literature in development economics can be given simple and rigorous formulations. Together, they amount to an approach to growth theory that can overcome the long-recognized empirical shortcomings of neoclassical growth economics, while being free from the objections that can be raised against the new brand of endogenous growth theory.In addition to an original thesis on the contribution that early development theory can make to the research program of modern growth economics, the book provides professional and research economists and graduate students with an evaluation of the strengths and limitations of the different strands of inquiry in the modern economics of growth. In addition it presents findings on comparative growth performance across countries.Jaime Ros is Professor of Economics and Faculty Fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute of International Studies, University of Notre Dame.
Foreign investment in Estonia: A statistical approach

STATISTICAL SURVEYS ON FOREIGN INVESTMENT in Estonia may present very different figures when compared to one another. The highest variation can be found in the total amount of foreign investment. Statistics published by the Estonian Ministry of Finance differ considerably from those published by the Estonian Central Statistical Office (see Appendix 1). Inconsistencies in statistics create a phenomenon in which mistakes snowball as figures pass from one clerk to another and finally end up in the hands of various interest groups who need statistics in their operations. This research aims first to locate the statistical pitfalls to which imperfect surveys often lead. Second, it studies the development of foreign investment in Estonia during the period from January 1987 to July 1994. The longitudinal analysis will help shed light on previously underexamined aspects of the statistics. This article is part of a research series investigating Finnish investment in the former Soviet Union. The first research on the business activities of Finnish companies in Soviet Estonia1 was carried out in 1991 (Liuhto, 1991). That study has since been followed by several others which have dealt with the development of entrepreneurship and foreign investment in Estonia and the northwest of Russia (Liuhto, 1992a; Liuhto, 1992b; Liuhto, 1994a; Liuhto, 1994b).
Explaining the NYSE Listing Choices of NASDAQ Firms

Traditionally, financial theory has offered little guidance to managers who must choose whether to list their stock on an exchange or allow it to continue trading over-the-counter. Recent developments in market microstructure theory allow a more careful analysis of the exchange listing decision. Market microstructure theory implies that firms list their stocks on exchanges to reduce transaction costs to their investors. A major component of the cost of trading common stocks is the bid-ask spread. Several differences exist between the trading arrangements, or microstructure, of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ that may contribute to differences in bid-ask spreads for a given stock depending on where it is traded.
Environmental Protection and the Private Provision of International Public Goods

International environmental protection like the combat of global warming exhibits properties of public goods. In the international arena, no coercive authority exists that can enforce measures to overcome free-rider incentives. Therefore decentralized negotiations between individual regions serve as an approach to pursue efficient international environmental protection. We propose a scheme which is based on the ideas of Coasean negotiations and Pigouvian taxes. The negotiating entities offer side-payments to counterparts in order to influence their taxation of polluting consumption. Side-payments, in turn, are self-financed by means of externality-correcting taxes. As we show, a Pareto-efficient outcome can be attained.