Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investors’ Reactions to Management Earnings Guidance: The Joint Effect of Investment Position, News Valence, and Guidance Form

ABSTRACT We report the results of an experiment that shows that investors' earnings- and investment-related judgments are jointly influenced by their investment position (long versus short), the news valence of guidance issued by management, and the amount of ambiguity in the guidance. Prior research indicates that guidance form (point versus range) has no effect on investors' earnings estimates made in reaction to management guidance. We extend this research by showing that guidance form matters, conditional on investment position and news valence. Similarly, prior research indicates that investors who hold long (short) positions in a stock are more optimistic (pessimistic) about the company's prospects. We extend this research by showing that the effect of investment position documented in prior studies is conditional on news valence and guidance form. We contribute to prior literature on the effects of investment position and guidance form by delineating boundary conditions for each of these effects. Copyright (c), University of Chicago on behalf of the Accounting Research Center, 2009.
The Market Reaction to the Disclosure of Supervisory Actions: Implications for Bank Transparency

Abstract We examine the stock market reaction to announcements of formal supervisory actions. We find that the variation in the quality and timeliness of disclosure by U.S. banks explains much of the variation in the market's reactions. We also find that these announcements can cause spillover effects. However, rather than representing contagion, these spillover effects are consistent with enhanced transparency. Only banks in the same region as the announcing bank, with similar exposures, are affected. Thus, enhanced disclosure can improve the allocation of resources in the banking system. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G21, G28.
Policy making and planning for the port sector: paradigms in conflict

Policy making is a complex and diverse process—particularly in relation to the provision and location of port and port related infrastructure. The planning stage of port infrastructure, or indeed transport planning more generally, may be finalized only to experience policy failure as implementation of the planned facility cannot be successfully completed. When this occurs planning and implementation failure is invariably perceived to be driven by a political agenda and it is argued that ‘politics gets in the way’—that politics ‘distorts’ a scientifically rational planning process. Is it the case that politics ‘gets in the way’? Or that politics distorts a technical and scientific process? Or is it the case that planning constitutes only one part, but an integral one, of the policy process—a process that is inherently political? And if that is the case, can we legitimately separate the planning process from that of policy making? This paper discusses the fundamental differences between the planning and policy-making processes. It argues that transport planning is one element in a broader process of policy making which incorporates political and other social/economic/environmental elements. It will argue that planning is a fundamental part of the policy-making process and, if successful completion is to be achieved, it cannot be divorced from that process. The paper will provide a conceptual framework which will incorporate these apparently conflictual activities. This model, if adopted, is likely to enhance both the planning and policy-making processes.
Changes in lymphocyte subsets in workers exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD)

Objectives 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is known to have toxic effects on the haematopoietic system in animals but epidemiological studies in humans have shown inconsistent results. In this cross-sectional study we investigated changes in peripheral blood cell counts and lymphocyte subsets among workers from a Dutch historical cohort occupationally exposed to chlorophenoxy herbicides and contaminants including TCDD. Methods Forty-seven workers who had been exposed to high levels of TCDD in the past and 38 low-exposed workers were included in the current investigation. Complete blood counts and differential and major lymphocyte subsets were analysed. Current plasma levels of TCDD (TCDDcurrent) were determined by high-resolution gas chromatography/isotope-dilution high resolution mass spectrometry. TCDD blood levels at the time of last exposure (TCDDmax) were estimated using a one-compartment first order kinetic model. Results Cell counts and lymphocyte subsets were similar between high- and low-exposed workers, except for a non-dose dependent increase in CD4/CD8 ratio among high-exposed workers. Interestingly, most lymphocyte subsets, in particular the B cell compartment, showed a decrease with increasing levels of both TCDDcurrent and TCDDmax. Conclusions Overall, our study showed that plasma TCDD levels had no effect on white blood cell counts and major subsets. However, a non-significant decrease in most lymphocyte subsets was noted, with the strongest effect for B cells. The latter finding may suggest that dioxin exposure might have an adverse impact on the haematopoietic system and lends some support to B cell lymphoma induction by dioxin.
Integrative conservation genetics: Prioritizing populations using climate predictions, adaptive potential and habitat connectivity

Conservation decisions often involve allocation of scarce resources among many areas of need. Various approaches exist to help prioritize species and populations for conservation. Past efforts have often used relatively narrow, one‐dimensional criteria, such as genetic resource value or exposure to threats. What is lacking is a refined, comprehensive prioritization approach including ecological and evolutionary aspects, informed by rich and reliable data. In this issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, Razgour et al. ( ) present a new prioritization framework that coherently integrates three dimensions of population vulnerability: exposure to change, sensitivity to change and range shift potential. They measure these dimensions for 10 populations of a European bat using a suite of advanced analysis methods that leverage genomic, environmental and occurrence data. Explicitly recognizing and quantifying the multidimensional nature of conservation priorities is a key advance because it enables a nuanced assessment of each population and identification of populations of high concern along all three dimensions. With some caveats and modifications, this framework could be a major step for conservation prioritization and intervention that is proactive and informed by evolutionary principles.
The role of appreciation in higher education: The experience of online faculty members with institutional administration

THE ROLE OF APPRECIATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE EXPERIENCE OF ONLINE FACULTY MEMBERS WITH INSTITUTIONAL ADMINISTRATION Aubrey Coy, 2011: Qualitative Research Dissertation, Liberty University. This study explored the role of expressed appreciation in an online education working environment. The research method used was a transcendental phenomenological approach in order to provide a foundational base for giving a voice to the participants’ experiences in higher education, based on the participants’ preferences for experiencing appreciation. Through assessments and interviews, this research intended to evaluate the role of appreciation in the workplace, namely higher education, and the relationships between online faculty members and their administration. Utilizing a newly created assessment tool, the Motivating by Appreciation Inventory, the act of appreciation was evaluated in terms of the Languages of Appreciation: verbal praise, acts of service, giving gifts, and quality time. The research also evaluated each participant’s understanding and experience of appreciation in relation to the identified language of appreciation. The study was conducted with eight current online faculty members at a large Christian university in the Southeastern region of the United States. The following themes emerged throughout the data collection process: value of encouragement through words, significance of timely interactions, a desire to play an active role within the university, the need for administrator’s support in decision making, intrinsic motivation, stimulation through student interactions, and the importance of monetary incentives.
Labour Market Transitions and Social Exclusion

This article considers the dynamic effects that the labour market has on poverty and social exclusion.1 It shows how the analysis of labour markets can help our understanding of social exclusion and reviews some of the evi dence from Europe and the United States. The evidence is that there is consaderable move ment into and out of poverty. However, there is a significant group who stay in poverty for a number of years and a group that experience repeated poverty spells. The data also show that labour market transitions are an import ant cause of movements into and out of pov erty, although demographic factors are about equally important. There are tnterestang similarities between the pattern of movements into and out of un employment and those for poverty: many people leave unemployment quickly, but there are also important groups who are unem ployed for several years or who become unem ployed repeatedly. It is not only easily observable personal characteristics that are relevant to determining an individual's em ployment patterns: repeated periods of unem ployment appear to result from 'unobserved heterogeneity', rather than any damaging ef fect from earlier unemployment spells. This finding raises the interesting possibility that the observed repeated spells of poverty are also due to unmeasured personal character istics.
Mast Cell Differentiation and Activation Is Closely Linked to Expression of Genes Coding for the Serglycin Proteoglycan Core Protein and a Distinct Set of Chondroitin Sulfate and Heparin Sulfotransferases1

Serglycin (SG) proteoglycan consists of a small core protein to which glycosaminoglycans of chondroitin sulfate or heparin type are attached. SG is crucial for maintaining mast cell (MC) granule homeostasis through promoting the storage of various basic granule constituents, where the degree of chondroitin sulfate/heparin sulfation is essential for optimal SG functionality. However, the regulation of the SG core protein expression and of the various chondroitin sulfate/heparin sulfotransferases during MC differentiation and activation are poorly understood. Here we addressed these issues and show that expression of the SG core protein, chondroitin 4-sulfotransferase (C4ST)-1, and GalNAc(4S)-6-O-sulfotransferase (GalNAc4S6ST) are closely linked to MC maturation. In contrast, the expression of chondroitin 6-sulfotransferase correlated negatively with MC maturation. The expression of N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase (NDST)-2, a key enzyme in heparin synthesis, also correlated strongly with MC maturation, whereas the expression of the NDST-1 isoform was approximately equal at all stages of maturation. MC activation by either calcium ionophore or IgE ligation caused an up-regulated expression of the SG core protein, C4ST-1, and GalNAc4S6ST, accompanied by increased secretion of chondroitin sulfate as shown by biosynthetic labeling experiments. In contrast, NDST-2 was down-regulated after MC activation, suggesting that MC activation modulates the nature of the glycosaminoglycan chains attached to the SG core protein. Taken together, these data show that MC maturation is associated with the expression of a distinct signature of genes involved in SG proteoglycan synthesis, and that MC activation modulates their expression.
Factors that catalyse, facilitate and motivate the decision to implement activity‐based costing in Jordanian industrial companies

Purpose - In spite of facilitating and motivating factors in the external environment, the implementation of new management-accounting techniques as activity-based costing (ABC) in companies is disappointing. The aim of the study is to determine factors that catalyse, facilitate and motivate the decision to implement ABC in Jordanian industrial companies. Additional objectives include determining the problems associated with ABC implementation and assessing the degree of success of ABC implementation in Jordan. Design/methodology/approach - A sample of the Jordanian industrial companies was selected and a questionnaire survey was employed using a five-point Likert scale to collect data from the financial managers, descriptive and analytical statistics were used to analyze the collected data. Findings - The findings indicate that the most important factor that facilitates the decision to implement ABC was the provision of adequate training and the most influential factors which motivate the process of ABC implementation include an increasing proportion of overhead costs, and an increasing number of product variants. Consequently, this study found that the interaction of three types of factors (catalysts, facilitators and motivators) create the potential for change in these companies. Barriers to change could make the change process slower, hindering, and even preventing change; and barriers to change were identified that may explain the differing implementation rates of ABC in the Jordanian industrial sector. The greatest barrier to implementing ABC was found to be its high cost of implementation, followed by the high cost of ABC consultancy and computer staff time. Originality/value - The study adds new elements to the institutional approach, and integrates it with concepts from psychology and organizational culture, to create a better understanding of management accounting. The results of study contribute to existing knowledge in the area of understanding the factors which act as catalysts, facilitate, and motivate ABC innovation and of those factors that create barriers to ABC implementation in Jordan.
Emerging issues in strategic HRM in Singapore

To face the onslaught of hypercompetition, organizations need to be responsive and flexible. The human factor, if managed effectively, is perhaps the most important in imparting organizational flexibility. Managing the human factor as a competitive tool falls in the domain of strategic human resource management. This article discusses the state of HRM in Singapore. It identifies five important issues in strategic HRM field that, if fully understood, would help scholars and practitioners develop better theoretical frameworks. Specifically, it is proposed that the link between HR and strategy depends on the type of strategy pursued by the organization; organizational culture influences the status of HR and its integration with the rest of the organization; the competencies of HR managers affect the status of HR and its link with organizational strategy; HR strategy or lack of it affects the HR function’s vertical and horizontal fits; these factors all influence the outsourcing of HR activities.
Accuracy of 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging for the staging of prostate cancer in comparison to the partin tables

Background: An accurate prediction of final pathological stage is essential for proper patient selection to determine who will experience maximum benefit from radical prostatectomy. In this context, the Partin tables represent one of the most widely used statistical prediction tools. Purpose: To compare the accuracy in predicting pathological stage in patients intended for radical prostatectomy between 3-Tesla (T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the Partin tables in a prospective trial. Material and Methods: 27 men with staging results from 3T MRI using a phased-array coil were compared in terms of staging accuracy with whole-mount-section histopathologic analyses as the standard of reference. Probabilities for pathological stages were estimated according to the Partin tables. Spearman rank correlation and discriminant analysis were calculated to assess relationships. Results: Histopathological evaluation revealed organ-confined disease (OC) in 21 (77.8%) and extracapsular extension (ECE) in six (22.2%) men. Three-Tesla MRI staging was accurate in all patients with OC and in four out of the six men with ECE. Accuracy of local staging was 85.2% (23 of 27). Sensitivity was 66.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.223–0.957) and specificity 100% (95% CI 0.839–1) for the detection of ECE. Findings of MRI and the Partin tables showed a Spearman rho of 0.780 vs. 0.254 for OC and 0.780 vs. 0.363 for ECE, respectively. Compared to the Partin tables, MRI revealed standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients of 0.992 (P<0.001) vs. 0.205 (P=0.432) for OC and 0.965 (P<0.001) vs. 0.329 (P=0.197) for ECE, respectively. Conclusion: 3T MRI showed a high accuracy for the staging of clinically localized prostate cancer, and it was significantly more accurate in predicting the final pathological stage than the Partin tables.
A cross‐cultural comparison of organizational culture: evidence from universities in the Arab world and Japan

Aspects of the organizational culture of four universities, two in Japan and one each in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, are discussed and compared. The paper argues that organizations established in countries sharing similarities in national cultures are likely to be characterized by similar values, beliefs, and assumptions, in short, that similarities in national cultures are likely to nurture similarities in organizational cultures. Japan and Arab countries are similar with respect to several cultural dimensions; thus, the organizational cultures of the four universities are expected to reflect such similarities. While the findings provide some support to the “culture‐bound” position it is nevertheless premature to entirely dismiss the “culture‐free” argument, as aspects of organizational culture in the universities examined appear to be the product of organizational variables rather than socio‐cultural factors.
Pursuing Geopolitical Stability through Interregional Trade: the EU’s Motives for Negotiating with the Gulf Cooperation Council

Abstract The European Union’s drawn‐out trade negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) could result in the first region‐to‐region free trade agreement. The EU’s motives for advancing interregional negotiations with the GCC have not been focused primarily on creating trade, which is argued to be relatively limited for the EU. Instead, the EU’s motives for continuing negotiations with the GCC are explained by the EU’s geopolitical and ideational interests and to a lesser extent by interest group influences. We do not find, however, strong evidence of EU bureaucratic motives as a factor in GCC negotiations. Based on these findings, this paper suggests that the recent reawakening of EU–GCC negotiations can best be explained by the relative increase in the geopolitical importance of the Gulf.
Ethnic variation in toxicity and outcome of adjuvant chemoradiation for gastric cancer in Israel.

BACKGROUND Data on differences in toxicity and efficacy of chemotherapy and radiotherapy among different ethnic groups is limited. We evaluated differences in toxicity, tolerability and clinical outcome of Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jews receiving postoperative chemoradiation for locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC). PATIENTS AND METHODS Between 6/2000-12/2007, 84 Ashkenazi patients and 60 non-Ashkenazi patients underwent chemoradiation following resection of LAGC (INT-116 trial). RESULTS Patients' and tumor characteristics were comparable. Ashkenazi patients experienced significantly higher rates of fatigue, anorexia, and grade 3-4 dysphagia, as well as a trend for a higher rate of diarrhea. The incidence of other toxicities, dose adjustments of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and patient prognosis did not differ. CONCLUSION This study shows higher rates of various toxicities among Ashkenazi patients receiving postoperative chemoradiation for LAGC compared to non-Ashkenazi patients. To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing treatment toxicity, tolerability and outcome between these two groups.
A study on the influence of organizational climate on motivation of employees

The relation between organizational climate and organizational efficiency is frequently pointed out in recent management and labour psychology studies. Organizational climate has positive or negative impacts on performance, job satisfaction, and motivation of employees. In this study, which consists of two parts, the relation between organizational climate and work motivation is examined. The first part of the study contains theoretical framework with regard to the organizational climate and work motivation. In the second part, a field research is presented. 252 employees were interviewed in this study. The data that obtained from interviews were analyzed and subsequently evaluated in terms of statistical outcomes. The statistical results demonstrated that organizational climate has a positive influence on motivation of employees.
Asset Pricing in a Production Economy with Incomplete Information

This paper analyzes an economy in which investors operate under partial information about technology-relevant state variables. It is shown that for Gaussian information structures under incomplete observations, the consumer's problem can be transformed into an equivalent program with a completely observed state: the conditional expectation of the underlying unobservable state variables. A consequence of this transformation is that classic results in finance remain valid under an appropriate reinterpretation of the state variables. THE STATIC CAPITAL ASSET Pricing Model (CAPM) of Sharpe [24], Lintner [16], and Mossin [20] states that the expected premium on any risky asset is proportional to the premium on the market as a whole. This theoretical linear relationship, however, is subject to criticisms on two grounds. First, it does not seem to be supported by the empirical evidence. ' Second, it is based on the premises of a constant opportunity set. Merton [19] subsequently relaxes this assumption, and shows that when the opportunity set fluctuates over time due to changes in the state of the economy, individual securities are also priced with respect to selected portfolios (funds), providing a hedge against unanticipated fluctuations.2 More recently, Breeden [3] has extended Merton's results by emphasizing the role of aggregate consumption in pricing relationships. In this paper, we seek to further our understanding of asset pricing by relaxing the assumption that investors observe the state of the economy. In the MertonBreeden framework, observed state variables affect the means and variances of asset returns, implying deformations of the opportunity set over time. From a practical point of view, it seems that this complete information assumption is violated. Investors in financial markets operate under partial knowledge of the microvariables which influence production and the returns on assets. Their decisions rely mostly on information through noisy channels such as newspapers, technical reviews, or weather reports. In this paper, we attempt to model such