Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Un análisis empírico de la financiación de la pequeña y mediana empresa manufacturera española: 1983-1989

Este estudio analiza la evolucion de la estructura financiera de la empresa manufacturera espanola en el periodo 83-89 a partir de una muestra de 670 empresas de la Central de Balances del Banco de Espana. El analisis de las posibles diferencias por tamanos de empresas evidencia: (1) una relacion inversa entre el tamano de la empresa y la rentabilidad y el riesgo de sus inversiones; (2) la ausencia de relacion significativa entre el tamano y el nivel de endeudamiento y los costes financieros nominales; (3) sin embargo, los niveles de liquidez estan inversamente relacionados con el tamano, de forma que los costes financieros efectivos parecen ajustarse al nivel de riesgo de cada empresa. Por tanto, la comparacion de ratios financieras entre empresas apunta a la existencia de unos mercados financieros eficientes, si bien las empresas de menor tamano podrian enfrentarse a racionamiento del credito bancario que compensarian mediante la financiacion no bancaria como el leasing o la financiacion de proveedores.
Internet Hotel Reservations

A review of U.S. case law finds that the web-based approach used by most hotel companies to alert customers to the terms and conditions for making an internet reservation might not hold up in the event of a lawsuit. Most courts will enforce a so-called click wrap covenant when an individual makes a reservation or purchase on the company website. In the click wrap procedure, a reservation cannot be completed until the customer clicks the “agree” button to the terms and conditions of sale. However, most hotel websites use a slightly different approach, known as “browse wrap,” in which the terms and conditions are available on the site but the reservation can be completed without the customer's express assent. The terms and conditions usually dictate the controlling legal jurisdiction or mandate arbitration for disagreements, and thus it is in the hotel company's interest to demonstrate that would-be guests have read and definitively agreed to those terms and conditions.
FLEXIBLE FUNCTIONAL FORMS, CURVATURE CONDITIONS, AND THE DEMAND FOR ASSETS

This paper focuses on the demand for money in the United States in the context of five popular locally flexible functional forms—the generalized Leontief, the basic translog, the almost ideal demand system, the Minflex Laurent, and the normalized quadratic reciprocal indirect utility function. We pay explicit attention to the theoretical regularity conditions of positivity, monotonicity, and curvature and argue that much of the older empirical literature ignores economic regularity. We treat the curvature property as a maintained hypothesis and provide a comparison in terms of violations of the regularity conditions and in terms of output in the form of a full set of elasticities. We also provide a policy perspective, in that a strong case can be made for abandoning the simple sum approach to monetary aggregation, on the basis of the low elasticities of substitution among the components of the popular M2 aggregate of money.
THE MALL IS MY FACTORY: REFLECTIONS OF A SERVICE JUNKIE

This paper presents a personal perspective on the history, current research, and emerging topics in the field of Service Operations Management. I see research in the field evolving from a focus on classifications and operations research models in the 1970s and 1980s, to a current focus on laboratory studies, and survey‐ and case‐based research. Selected current research is presented under the following headings: Service encounter design, service quality, drivers of service competitiveness, yield management, and the information revolution and the globalization of services. Examples of creativity in service delivery and some whimsical characteristics of service junkies are also presented.
The Theory of the Firm Revisited

From the birth of modern economics in 1776 to 1970, a span of almost 200 years, only two works seem to have been written about the theory of the firm that have altered the perspectives of the profession-Knight's Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit (1921) and Coase's "The Nature of the Firm" (1937). This neglect is attributable fundamentally to the preoccupation of economists with the price system; the study of the price system, characterized as it is by Marshall's representative firm and Walras's auctioneer, undermines serious consideration of the firm as a problem solving institution. Coase's contribution is seminal for several reasons, but certainly for calling attention to the absence of a theory of the existence of the firm and to the importance (to this theory) of the fact that markets do not operate costlessly. Nonetheless, the theory of the firm is still incomplete and unclear in ways that are discussed in the middle part of this paper. A more complete theory of the firm must give greater weight to information cost than is given either in Coase's theory or in theories based on shirking and opportunism. This is discussed in the last part of this paper. Information cost figures importantly in transaction cost theory because information cost is an important component of transaction cost. It also figures importantly in Knight's risk sharing and in agency theories of the firm. Its importance, however, is more fundamental than even these theories contemplate. It is useful therefore to begin
Market Performance with Multiproduct Firms

We revisit the fundamental issue of market provision of variety associated with Chamberlin, Spence, and Dixit-Stiglitz when firms sell multiple products. Both products and firms are (horizontally) differentiated. We propose a general nested demand framework where consumers first decide upon a firm then which variant to buy and how much (the nested CES is a special case). We use it to determine the market's biases when firms compete in product ranges and prices. The market system attracts too many firms with too few products per firm: firms restrain product ranges to relax price competition, but this exacerbates over-entry.
Type-two polynomial-time and restricted lookahead

This paper provides an alternate characterization of second-order polynomial-time computability, with the goal of making second-order complexity theory more approachable. We rely on the usual oracle machines to model programs with subroutine calls. In contrast to previous results, the use of higher-order objects as running times is avoided, either explicitly or implicitly. Instead, regular polynomials are used. This is achieved by refining the notion of oracle-poly-time computability introduced by Cook. We impose a further restriction on oracle interactions to force feasibility. Both the restriction and its purpose are very simple: it is well-known that Cook's model allows polynomial depth iteration of functional inputs with no restrictions on size, and thus does not preserve poly-time computability. To mend this we restrict the number of lookahead revisions, that is the number of times a query whose size exceeds that of any previous query may be asked. We prove that this leads to a class of feasible functionals and that all feasible problems can be solved within this class if one is allowed to separate a task into efficiently solvable subtasks. Formally, the closure of our class under lambda-abstraction and application are the basic feasible functionals. We also revisit the very similar class of strongly poly-time computable operators previously introduced by Kawamura and Steinberg. We prove it to be strictly included in our class and, somewhat surprisingly, to have the same closure property. This is due to the nature of the limited recursion operator: it is not strongly poly-time but decomposes into two such operations and lies in our class.
Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Multi-Regional Economic Growth and Welfare: A Theoretical Research Agenda

We discuss a prospective, theoretical research agenda about the connections between entrepreneurship, innovation, and multi-regional economic growth and welfare. This agenda advocates the use of endogenous economic growth theory and advances in new economic geography to analyze models that will shed light on the effects of innovative entrepreneurship on economic growth and welfare in multiple regions. Four salient questions comprise the subject matter of this paper. First, what are the impacts of human capital use, innovative activities, and alternate patent policies on economic growth and welfare in any region i where i=1,. ,~N? Second, what are the effects of human capital use and negative externalities in innovation on economic growth and welfare in this ith region? Third, what are the impacts of alternate tax policies on innovation driven economic growth in the ith region? Finally, what role does the human capital in the ith region play in influencing innovation driven economic growth and welfare in this region?
Long-Horizon Equity Return Predictability: Some New Evidence for the United Kingdom

This paper revisits the issue of long-horizon equity return predictability for the United Kingdom in the context of the dynamic dividend discount model of Campbell and Shiller. This model attributes predictable variation in equity prices to predictable variation in expected returns. The model is supported by the theoretical asset pricing literature, which shows how the variation in expected returns can be related to investors' time-varying preferences for risk. The paper considers various empirical specifications that are consistent with the Campbell and Shiller model and finds that they are supported by UK equity data. In particular, there is weak evidence that the dividend yield has predictive ability for long-horizon excess returns. The paper also examines some of the econometric issues brought up by recent research, in particular the small-sample bias, and applies appropriate statistical corrections. It further shows that the model's predictive ability depends greatly on the sample period over which the model is estimated.
African Emerging Equity Markets Re-examined: Testing the Weak Form Efficiency Theory

This paper examines the weak form of market efficiency of five major stock markets; four African equity markets and one developed market. The weekly market index returns of the EGX 30, NSE 20, NSE All Share Index, FTSE-JSE All Share Index and the S&P 500 Index were analysed for the period 1998–2008. To determine if the stylized fact of stock returns in African markets violate the random walk hypothesis, numerous econometric and statistical techniques are employed. These methods include the autocorrelation test, the unit test, linear and non-linear models. The results indicate that the African markets do not behave in a manner consistent with the weak form of market efficiency. These results provide a contrast between the emerging African markets and the developed markets. It suggests that African emerging markets have higher average returns and volatility than developed markets. We argue that if the market could be made less volatile, it has the potential to attract more investment because of its attractive returns.
Expressed attitudes in pregnancy of unwed women and married primigravida and multigravida.

This study represents an attempt to investigate a variety of attitudes as a function of (a) the marital status of the pregnant woman and (b) previous experience with pregnancy. The major emphasis is upon the comparison between unwed pregnant women and married primigravida and multigravida. Much has been written and is still to be written about pregnancy. When unwed pregnant women are considered, the literature has varied from a psychoanalytic viewpoint which attempts to account for the pregnancy in terms of dynamics and individual case histories (i), through studies which relate illegitimacy rates to intellectual and socioeconomic status (2), to studies which have made use of more formal and structured personality assessments, e.g., the MMPI (3). No systematic review of this voluminous literature will be attempted in this report, but an excellent review of illegitimacy was recently compiled by Pollock (3). The effect of marital status on the course of pregnancy has received little emphasis, at least in so far as comparative studies are concerned. Questions regarding the presence of guilt, for example,
Isolation of a Novel Interleukin-1-inducible Nuclear Protein Bearing Ankyrin-repeat Motifs*

We isolated a novel gene termed interleukin (IL)-1-inducible nuclear ankyrin-repeat protein (INAP), of which expression was specifically induced by IL-1 in OP9 stromal cells. The INAP has ankyrin-repeat motifs and shares weak amino acid sequence homology with Bcl-3 and other IκB family members. The human genomic INAP gene found in the NCBI data base is located at chromosome 3q3.11. Northern blot analyses revealed that INAP was not expressed in any examined tissues without stimulation, but INAP expression was rapidly and transiently induced by IL-1 although not by tumor necrosis factor α nor by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate in OP9 cells. Immunoblots with anti-INAP-specific antibody demonstrated that INAP was rapidly and specifically produced by IL-1 stimulation and was predominantly localized in the nucleus. Immunofluorescence stainings showed that the INAP newly synthesized by IL-1 stimulation was promptly translocated into the nucleus, and FLAG-tagged INAP forcibly expressed in NIH/3T3 cells was also specifically localized in the nucleus. The possible interaction of INAP with RelA/p65, NF-κB1/p50, NF-κB2/p52, C/EBPβ, and retinoid X receptor was examined, but we could detect none of these interactions in the nuclear extracts of IL-1-stimulated cells. Unlike Bcl-3 and other IκB family members, INAP may play a unique role in IL-1-induced specific gene expression and/or signal transduction in the nucleus.
The Association between Audit Committees and Audit Fees in the Public Sector

This study examines the association between the existence of an audit committee and audit fees. We adapt the model in Griffin et al. and include an interaction term to capture possible joint countervailing effects between the audit committee and audit risk. The sample comprises New Zealand public sector entities for the period 1998–2000, when audit committee formation was voluntary. For profit‐oriented public sector entities there is a positive association between audit committees and audit fees but no significant interaction terms. For public‐benefit entities, audit committees are associated with lower audit fees and interact with audit risk. The results are consistent with audit committees being a more important mechanism for public‐benefit entities.
Gene Repression in Haloarchaea Using the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas I-B System*

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas system is used by bacteria and archaea to fend off foreign genetic elements. Since its discovery it has been developed into numerous applications like genome editing and regulation of transcription in eukaryotes and bacteria. For archaea currently no tools for transcriptional repression exist. Because molecular biology analyses in archaea become more and more widespread such a tool is vital for investigating the biological function of essential genes in archaea. Here we use the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii to demonstrate that its endogenous CRISPR-Cas system I-B can be harnessed to repress gene expression in archaea. Deletion of cas3 and cas6b genes results in efficient repression of transcription. crRNAs targeting the promoter region reduced transcript levels down to 8%. crRNAs targeting the reading frame have only slight impact on transcription. crRNAs that target the coding strand repress expression only down to 88%, whereas crRNAs targeting the template strand repress expression down to 8%. Repression of an essential gene results in reduction of transcription levels down to 22%. Targeting efficiencies can be enhanced by expressing a catalytically inactive Cas3 mutant. Genes can be targeted on plasmids or on the chromosome, they can be monocistronic or part of a polycistronic operon.
Motion Planning Among Dynamic, Decision-Making Agents with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Robots that navigate among pedestrians use collision avoidance algorithms to enable safe and efficient operation. Recent works present deep reinforcement learning as a framework to model the complex interactions and cooperation. However, they are implemented using key assumptions about other agents' behavior that deviate from reality as the number of agents in the environment increases. This work extends our previous approach to develop an algorithm that learns collision avoidance among a variety of types of dynamic agents without assuming they follow any particular behavior rules. This work also introduces a strategy using LSTM that enables the algorithm to use observations of an arbitrary number of other agents, instead of previous methods that have a fixed observation size. The proposed algorithm outperforms our previous approach in simulation as the number of agents increases, and the algorithm is demonstrated on a fully autonomous robotic vehicle traveling at human walking speed.
Moderate alcohol intake, increased levels of high-density lipoprotein and its subfractions, and decreased risk of myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested that moderate alcohol intake exerts a protective effect against coronary heart disease. Alterations in plasma lipoprotein levels represent one plausible mechanism of this apparent protective effect. METHODS We therefore examined the interrelation among alcohol consumption, plasma lipoprotein levels, and the risk of myocardial infarction in 340 patients who had had myocardial infarctions and an equal number of age- and sex-matched controls. The case patients were men or women less than 76 years of age with no history of coronary disease who were discharged from one of six hospitals in the Boston area with a diagnosis of a confirmed myocardial infarction. Alcohol consumption was estimated by means of a food-frequency questionnaire. RESULTS We observed a significant inverse association between alcohol consumption and the risk of myocardial infarction (P for trend, < 0.001 after control for known coronary risk factors). In multivariate analyses, the relative risk for the highest intake category (subjects who consumed three or more drinks per day) as compared with the lowest (those who had less than one drink a month) was 0.45 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.26 to 0.80). The levels of total high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) and its HDL2 and HDL3 subfractions were strongly associated with alcohol consumption (P for trend, < 0.001 for each). The addition of HDL or either of its subfractions to the multivariate model substantially reduced the inverse association between alcohol intake and myocardial infarction, whereas the addition of the other plasma lipid measurements did not materially alter the relation. CONCLUSIONS These data confirm the inverse association of moderate alcohol intake with the risk of myocardial infarction and support the view that the effect is mediated, in large part, by increases in both HDL2 and HDL3.
A Tool For Measurement of Innovation Newness and Adoption in Tourism Firms

The paper focuses on the newness characteristic of realized innovations and their adoption in tourism firms. For that purpose it investigates three research problems: (i) measurement of newness level and adoption of tourism innovations; (ii) definition of tourism innovations taxonomy (needed for the measurement); and (iii) statistical analysis of innovations’ adoption in tourism destinations (result of the measurement). The main aim of the research was to develop and validate the tool used for such measurements. The tool should help researchers and managers in tracking and benchmarking how innovative tourism firms are. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
NF‐κB and androgen receptor variant expression correlate with human BPH progression

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common, chronic progressive disease. Inflammation is associated with prostatic enlargement and resistance to 5α‐reductase inhibitor (5ARI) therapy. Activation of the nuclear factor‐kappa B (NF‐κB) pathway is linked to both inflammation and ligand‐independent prostate cancer progression.
Reperfused myocardial infarction as seen with use of necrosis-specific versus standard extracellular MR contrast media in rats.

PURPOSE To measure the difference in size of reperfused myocardial infarction with necrosis-specific (bis-gadolinium-mesoporphyrin [hereafter, mesoporphyrin]) and standard extracellular (gadopentetate dimeglumine) magnetic resonance (MR) contrast media. MATERIALS AND METHODS Echo-planar (for T1 measurement) and spin-echo (for infarction size) MR imaging were conducted in 32 rats subjected to reperfused reversible (n = 16) and irreversible (n = 16) myocardial injuries. All animals received gadopentetate dimeglumine 1 hour after reperfusion and underwent imaging. Sixteen rats received mesoporphyrin at 2 hours, the other 16 rats received gadopentetate dimeglumine at 24 hours, and all animals underwent imaging at 24 hours. RESULTS Mesoporphyrin produced prolonged (22 hours) reduction in T1 in irreversibly, but not in reversibly, injured myocardium. The size of the mesoporphyrin-enhanced region (37% +/- 4 [SEM] of left ventricular surface area) closely correlated with the true infarction size as measured by means of histomorphometry (36% +/- 3, r = 0.90). The size of the gadolinium-enhanced region overestimated (48% +/- 2 and 43% +/- 1 at 1 and 24 hours of reperfusion, respectively) the size of true infarction (36% +/- 3, P < .05, r = 0.02), but it was close to the size of the area at risk (r = 0.93). CONCLUSION The sizes of hyperenhanced regions displayed by using mesoporphyrin and gadopentetate dimeglumine differed from each other. The difference in size of the hyperenhanced region demarcated by mesoporphyrin and gadopentetate dimeglumine may provide an estimation of potentially salvageable myocardium.
Integrated Very-High-Frequency Switch Mode Power Supplies: Design Considerations

This paper presents a power supply using an increased switching frequency to minimize the size of energy storing components, thereby addressing the demands for increased power densities in power supplies, and 100-MHz and higher switching frequencies have been used in resonant power converters, which along with the possible integration of passive components on silicon wafer present a beneficial solution in applications such as mobile phones. This paper presents a design for a 9-W class E resonant power converter in a 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS process. The converter is driven by a self-oscillating gate drive, which is presented in an in-depth mathematical analysis. The gate resistance of the designed transistors is of critical importance in order to achieve the correct phase shift required for zero voltage switching. The Z-parameter method is used to characterize the transistors, which is verified through simulations. The required spiral inductors were modeled, and simulations show <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> values of as high as 14 at a switching frequency of 250 MHz. Simulations of the converter show an efficiency of 55% with a self-oscillating gate drive. However, the modeled inductor was not adequate for operating with the self-oscillating gate drive, presenting a future challenge for power supplies on chip.