Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Contextual Prediction of South African Equity Returns Using Fundamental Analysis

Purpose: The premise underlying the practice of fundamental analysis is that accounting numbers are relevant to the prediction of security returns. The theoretical foundation for this proposition is well established. However, empirical evidence is less clear on whether a contextual partition of the securities universe, on the basis of value-growth or other characteristics, is a necessary precondition for the efficacy of fundamental analysis. This paper investigates the matter in the frame of reference of the South African equity market for the eleven-year period ended 30 June 2014.Design/methodology/approach: The paper applies the positive economics methodology of capital markets research in accounting. The relationship between a composite set of accounting ratios with subsequent equity returns is examined in various frames of reference. Findings: Statistically significant correlations are found between accounting ratios and subsequent equity returns. The observed relationships are most pronounced when the selected ratio set is applied to portfolios of shares that have neither value nor growth characteristics, and that are mid-sized in terms of market capitalisation. These findings are in support of the conjecture that a contextual partition of the equity market enhances an investment strategy based on fundamental analysis.Originality/value: There are significant differences in accounting standards, securities regulations and market microstructure between the US and other countries. This paper contributes to the capital markets literature by examining the efficacy of a US-developed fundamental analysis model in the South African equity market, in both context-specific and entire-market frames of reference.
NW Australian intraplate seismicity and stress regime

[1] The interrelations between stress orientation, regional deformation, and seismic activity in the context of intraplate seismicity continue to pose difficult questions. Stress models of the Australian continent are largely based on nonseismic information. Our study of 26 microearthquakes in NW Australia shows that they are good indicators of the seismogenic stress field. By inverting focal mechanisms calculated from the events we obtained deviatoric stress tensors in full agreement with the known in-situ stress field. The stress tensors corroborate the elastic modeling of the continent. The methods used here have widespread applicability in determining crustal stress field parameters in regions where in-situ stress data are sparse or absent.
MR‐guided laser thermoablation of inoperable renal tumors in an open‐configuration interventional MR scanner: Preliminary clinical experience in three cases

A minimally invasive technique for performing magnetic resonance (MR)‐guided laser interstitial thermoablation (LITT) for inoperable renal tumors is described. Three patients were treated using a percutaneous technique with real‐time MR guidance in an open access interventional MR scanner. Laser therapy was delivered using a neodymium‐YAG source via a water‐cooled applicator system. Thermal lesions were monitored in real time using a color thermometry sequence. All patients were discharged the following day with no complications. Follow‐up with gadolinium‐enhanced MRI in a conventional high‐field system confirmed necrosis in targeted tissue, and further treatment is planned for one patient. We concluded that LITT can be useful in treating inoperable renal malignancy and merits further evaluation. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:545–549. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
SERVICE INNOVATION PERFORMANCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS FROM THE DYNAMIC CAPABILITY PERSPECTIVE

Service firms need to continuously innovate their service offerings in order to remain competitive in constantly changing market conditions. Successful innovators utilise current information technology (IT) to access service innovation capacity and knowledge which can be located internal or external to their organisation. In this paper, we develop and test a theoretical framework that explains how IT can contribute to service innovation performance, and finally, to service provision performance. Drawing on dynamic capability theory, we differentiate between sensing (SN), seizing (SZ), and transformation (TF) as the key abilities in service innovation. With our theoretical model, we can explain almost 40% of the variance in service innovation performance (SIP) (R2 = 0.3955) and provide evidence for the multi-faceted and significant effects of IT. In particular, we are able to show a significant influence of inter-organisational IT support on SN and SZ abilities while organisational IT support has a significant impact on TF abilities.
The Effect of Honesty and Superior Authority on Budget Proposals

ABSTRACT: Research in budgeting suggests that subordinates may exhibit economically significant degrees of honesty, in spite of pecuniary incentives to do otherwise. This study continues the exploration of honesty in budgeting along two dimensions. First, unlike prior experiments, we measure the incremental effect of honesty by manipulating whether budget requests are made in the form of a factual assertion. Second, prior designs may have emphasized the ethical dimension of budgeting by granting the subordinate wide discretion over setting the budget, whereas we manipulate whether the subordinate or the superior has final authority over setting the budget. We find that less slack is created when budget communication requires a factual assertion in the subordinate authority treatment, but not when the superior has final authority. Hence, we find an incremental effect of honesty only when the subordinate has final authority. We conjecture, and provide some evidence, that this is due to subordinates framing .
The bell-shaped curve of international trade openness: a panel data test for OECD countries

By partially following Head and Mayer’s (2003) suggestions, in this paper we test Puga’s (1999) fundamental bell-shaped relationship between trade openness and agglomeration in the industrial sector. The main result is that concentration of both employment and production may arise if a pair of countries is involved in a process of trade liberalization.
Pension Adequacy and the Pension Review

It has long been accepted that the adequacy of payments is a key objective of any social security system, where adequacy is defined as the ability of a payment to support a basic acceptable standard of living that is consistent with prevailing community standards. The 2009 Harmer Pension Review directed attention to the adequacy of the pension, an issue that has not been systematically examined in Australia for several decades. This article reviews alternative definitions of adequacy and shows that its basic features have been consistently recognised in official reports conducted over a long period. The deprivation approach is then described and shown to produce estimates that have a direct bearing on this conception of income adequacy. Using the results from two recent surveys, conducted in 2006 and 2010, the article compares levels of deprivation among groups defined on the basis of their principal source of income, including those dependent on an Age Pension and several other forms of social security payment. The results indicate that the adequacy of the Age Pension in 2006 was above that of payments awarded on the basis of disability, unemployment or sole parenthood, and also that the pension increase awarded following the Pension Review reduced deprivation among those who received it. However, the increase was not well targeted to those groups who required further assistance, as indicated by the levels of deprivation they were facing. Further application of the deprivation approach would provide new insights into the nature and extent of existing income inadequacies.
Optimal location of biogas and biomass generation plants

Biomass refers to renewable energy coming from biological material such as trees, plants, manure, and sometimes wastes. The effectiveness of biomass power production requires the use of optimization algorithm to take into account biomass availability, transportation and power facilities as well as all the territory related constraints. The integration of optimization tools within Geographic Information Systems allows better performances. In the paper a specialized genetic algorithm allows finding the optimal biomass power plants distribution in Sardinia (Italy) by maximizing the economic benefit of private investors. The algorithm may be used in a very general way and integrated in the most commercial GIS softwares.
Environmental Contamination, Brownfields Policy, and Economic Redevelopment in an Industrial Area of Baltimore, Maryland

Recently, many states have passed brownfields legislation to limit the liability of innocent property redevelopers, based on the assumption that pollution systematically affects land use and development. The goal of this study was to examine this assumption. The study area was an industrial area of Baltimore, Maryland, characterized by brownfields and recent economic development. Data from 1963–1999 for brownfield and non-brownfield parcels were collected and compared to identify variations in assessed land value, vacancy, sales, and redevelopment. The absence of a systematic relationship between pollution and land use variables suggests that other factors may also be involved in vacancy and underuse. (R52)
Policing and the Intelligent Application of Knowledge

Effective knowledge management is as important to policing as to any other public (or private) sector organization in terms of improving performance. This article reviews the literature of knowledge management in policing, set in the context of the public criticism of intelligence systems in the aftermath of the Soham murders, but exemplified by the National Intelligence Model (NIM).
Estimating the Effect of Counseling and Monitoring the Unemployed Using a Job Search Model

This paper examines the impact of the Counseling and Monitoring program for the unemployed with particular reference to their job finding rate, application intensity, and matching probability. The effectiveness of Counseling and Monitoring is measured by using a job search model in which the job finding rate is equal to the product of the application intensity and the matching probability. Counseling and Monitoring is an intensive job search assistance program designed to help unemployed people receiving unemployment benefits to find a job as quickly as possible. The empirical analysis is based on data from a social experiment. A sample of the inflow into unemployment was randomly assigned to a treatment and a control group. The empirical results, based on formal reduced-form models, show that Counseling and Monitoring does reduce the time taken to find a job because people participating in the program make more applications than those who are not participating, although no differences are found in matching probabilities.
The Capital Structure Puzzle: The Evidence Revisited

Since the formulation of the M&M propositions almost 50 years ago, financial economists have been debating whether there is such a thing as an optimal capital structure-a proportion of debt to equity that maximizes shareholder value. Some finance scholars have followed M&M in arguing that both capital structure and dividend policy are largely "irrelevant" in the sense that they have no significant, predictable effects on corporate market values. Another school of thought holds that corporate financing choices reflect an attempt by corporate managers to balance the tax shields and disciplinary benefits of greater debt against the costs of financial distress. Yet another theory says that companies do not have capital structure targets, but simply follow a financial "pecking order" in which retained earnings are preferred to outside financing, and debt is preferred to equity when outside funding is required. 2005 Morgan Stanley.
Why “Going Negative?” Strategic and Situational Determinants of Personal Attacks in Swiss Direct Democratic Votes

While negative campaigning has received increased attention, scholars have mostly focused on its effects. Studies looking at the determinants of negative campaigning remain sparse. Our article contributes to literature by developing a two-level model that takes into account the strategic choices of political actors and their characteristics as well as the context in which the negative strategy takes place. We apply our model to a rich data set of newspaper ads regarding direct democratic votes held in Switzerland. Our results show that negative campaigning, as measured by personal attacks, is more likely if political actors defend the status quo or are lagging behind in the polls, if the ad stems from a populist right party or entails no explicit endorsement, or if the ballot day draws near. Popular initiatives and more intense campaigns also generate a higher share of negative campaigning. Overall, then, a number of causal factors identified in (U.S.) elections also matter in Swiss direct democracy, which suggests that the reasons that make political actors willing to “go negative” are of broad relevance.
EXPLORING LIFELONG LEARNING AS A STRATEGY FOR PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION and TRAINING CURRICULUM DEVELOPERS IN BOTSWANA

This research is a critical analysis of lifelong learning (LLL) as a strategy for continuous professional development (CPD) of curriculists in the Department of Technical Vocational Education & Training (DTVET) in Botswana. The assumption that formal education will provide the required competencies for the duration of the work cycle is obsolete. The researcher argues that the workplace provides a rich environment for informal, problem-centred learning and that LLL skills are essential tools that enable practitioners to be actively involved in their professional development. The main discussion is within a postmodern paradigm which views learning and development as both a cognitive process as well as a social construct. This view forms the basis for an analytical construct to examine the fundamental question; do practitioners see themselves as observers on the outside, or as active participants, within the experience, having the ability to adapt to changes in the
EFISIENSI MODAL KERJA, LIKUIDITAS DAN LEVERAGE TERHADAP PROFITABILITAS PADA PERUSAHAAN MANUFAKTUR DI BEI

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji sejauhmana pengaruh WCT, CR dan DTA terhadap ROI perusahaan manufaktur di Bursa Efek Indonesia baik secara simultan maupun parsial. Populasi penelitian ini adalah seluruh perusahaan manufaktur di Bursa Efek Indonesia tahun 2008-2009 sebanyak 149 perusahaan. Pengambilan sampel dilakukan dengan menggunakan non probabilistik sampling dan diperoleh sebanyak 62 perusahaan. Hasil analisis regresi menunjukkan, dimana secara simultan (WCT, CR, DTA) berpengaruh signifikan terhadap profitabilitas sebesar 21,9%, sedangkan sisanya sebesar 78,1% dipengaruhi oleh faktor lain. Secara parsial variabel efisiensi modal kerja berpengaruh signifikan terhadap profitabilitas yang artinya secera keseluruhan adalah bahwa besar kecilnya profitabilitas perusahaan dipengaruhi oleh efisiensi modal kerja, sedangkan likuiditas dan leverage tidak berpengaruh. Secara bersama-sama besar kecilnya profitabilitas dipengaruhi oleh efisiensi modal kerja, likuiditas dan leverage. This study aimed to assess simultaneously or partially the influence of WCT, CR and DTA toward ROI of manufacturing companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange. Sampling was carried out using non-probabilistic sampling and obtained 62 of 149 manufacturing companies which are listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2008-2009. The results of regression analysis show that WCT, CR, DTA simultaneously have a significant effect 21,9% toward profitability, while the rest of 78,1% is influenced by other factors. Meanwhile, the efficiency of working capital variable influence significantly toward the overall profitability. It means that all variables include the size of the company’s profitability is affected by the efficiency of working capital, but liquidity and leverage. The size of the profitability relatively is influenced by the efficiency of working capital, liquidity and leverage
Dealing with Complexity: Integrated vs. Chunky Search Processes

Organizations are frequently faced with high levels of complexity. While the importance of search for dealing with complex systems is widely acknowledged, how organizations should structure their search processes remains largely unexplored. This paper starts to address basic questions: How much of the entire system, and thus complexity, should be taken into consideration at any given time during a search process? Should a problem solver pursue an integrated search and be concerned with the whole system right from the start, or should a problem solver incrementally expand the “search domain,” i.e., the subset of system elements and interdependencies that are included in the search efforts? If the latter, how “chunky” should these steps be? Our analysis of a simulation model yields four insights: 1 expanding the search domain in smaller steps can yield a distinct advantage in final system performance, 2 following a completely incremental expansion pattern is not necessary as long as larger chunks are added early on in the process, 3 the value of chunky search is particularly high if highly influential system elements are considered first and highly dependent elements are added later, and 4 under time pressure, chunky search can lose its performance advantage over more integrated search processes. We discuss the implications of our findings for managing organizational search and complex systems more broadly.
The Effectiveness of Self-Management Mobile Phone and Tablet Apps in Long-term Condition Management: A Systematic Review

Background Long-term conditions and their concomitant management place considerable pressure on patients, communities, and health care systems worldwide. International clinical guidelines on the majority of long-term conditions recommend the inclusion of self-management programs in routine management. Self-management programs have been associated with improved health outcomes; however, the successful and sustainable transfer of research programs into clinical practice has been inconsistent. Recent developments in mobile technology, such as mobile phone and tablet computer apps, could help in developing a platform for the delivery of self-management interventions that are adaptable, of low cost, and easily accessible. Objective We conducted a systematic review to assess the effectiveness of mobile phone and tablet apps in self-management of key symptoms of long-term conditions. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, EBSCO databases, the Cochrane Library, and The Joanna Briggs Institute Library for randomized controlled trials that assessed the effectiveness of mobile phone and tablet apps in self-management of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung diseases from 2005–2016. We searched registers of current and ongoing trials, as well as the gray literature. We then checked the reference lists of all primary studies and review papers for additional references. The last search was run in February 2016. Results Of the 9 papers we reviewed, 6 of the interventions demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the primary measure of clinical outcome. Where the intervention comprised an app only, 3 studies demonstrated a statistically significant improvement. Interventions to address diabetes mellitus (5/9) were the most common, followed by chronic lung disease (3/9) and cardiovascular disease (1/9). A total of 3 studies included multiple intervention groups using permutations of an intervention involving an app. The duration of the intervention ranged from 6 weeks to 1 year, and final follow-up data ranged from 3 months to 1 year. Sample size ranged from 48 to 288 participants. Conclusions The evidence indicates the potential of apps in improving symptom management through self-management interventions. The use of apps in mHealth has the potential to improve health outcomes among those living with chronic diseases through enhanced symptom control. Further innovation, optimization, and rigorous research around the potential of apps in mHealth technology will move the field toward the reality of improved health care delivery and outcomes.
Expression and functional significance of VE-cadherin in aggressive human melanoma cells: Role in vasculogenic mimicry

We recently have introduced the term vasculogenic mimicry to describe the unique ability of aggressive melanoma tumor cells to form tubular structures and patterned networks in three-dimensional culture, which “mimics” embryonic vasculogenic networks formed by differentiating endothelial cells. In the current study, we address the biological significance of several endothelial-associated molecules (revealed by microarray analysis) with respect to expression and function in highly aggressive and poorly aggressive human cutaneous melanoma cell lines (established from the same patient). In a comparative analysis, CD31 was not expressed by any of the melanoma cell lines, whereas TIE-1 (tyrosine kinase with Ig and epidermal growth factor homology domains-1) was strongly expressed in the highly aggressive tumor cells with a low level of expression in one of the poorly aggressive cell lines. Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin was exclusively expressed by highly aggressive melanoma cells and was undetectable in the poorly aggressive tumor cells, suggesting the possibility of a vasculogenic switch. Down-regulation of VE-cadherin expression in the aggressive melanoma cells abrogated their ability to form vasculogenic networks and directly tested the hypothesis that VE-cadherin is critical in melanoma vasculogenic mimicry. These results highlight the plasticity of aggressive melanoma cells and call into question their possible genetic reversion to an embryonic phenotype. This finding could pose a significant clinical challenge in targeting tumor cells that may masquerade as circulating endothelial cells or other embryonic-like stem cells.
Money Talks?But to Whom? Financial Versus Nonmonetary Motivations in Land Use Decisions

Land use patterns have important environmental and social consequences. With a majority of U.S. land privately owned, understanding land use requires learning about land owners and how they make decisions. Land use research spans multiple social science disciplines, but past efforts have emphasized parcel owners who rely on their land for economic livelihood, focusing on financial motivations, or else policy tools relying on economic incentives thought to affect owner decision making. This article describes an in-depth study of 250 parcels in one Indiana county, providing a first step toward a parcel owner decision-making theory applicable across a broad range of activities. Interviews with parcel owners provide rich detail about factors affecting land use decisions, including differences in motivation between financial returns and nonmonetary benefits. While the latter are more often cited as motivating land use activities, their importance depends on several owner and parcel characteristics.