Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The readiness of open access policy implementation: A case study within a Kuwaiti higher education institue

Open access (OA) policy is becoming an increasingly important element of information management initiatives in academic institutions. The aim of this research is to explore the perception towards OA and identify the factors that influence the readiness of OA implementation in Kuwaiti higher education institutions. A single exploratory case study approach is adopted within one institution, the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET). This study analyses data collected through a questionnaire from 154 stakeholders and 16 semi-structured interviews undertaken in PAAET, using the Theory of Organisational Readiness for Change (TORC). This research makes contributions to knowledge in: a) understanding of organisational factors for potential IT adoption in Kuwaiti higher education institutions; b) potential for adoption of OA policies in developing countries; c) TORC use in OA policy applicability within the context of a developing country, a culture that has never been explored before; and d) generating rich insight into understanding OA policy readings of a Kuwaiti Academic Institution. Practical contributions suggest that awareness of OA is still low in one Kuwaiti higher education (HE) institution (PAAET); however, the study participants were found to be supportive of the OA concept. These practical contributions are relying on long-term strategic steps such as: a) need for promotion of OA awareness; b) ownership of OA by senior management; c) government support at national level; d) management processes and OA policy; e) technical infrastructure needs; f) organisational restructuring; and g) interdepartmental collaboration. Some short-term proposals for action by the authorities in Kuwaiti higher education institutes are suggested, such as linking their websites to “The Create Change Organisation” and engaging in more international collaboration partnerships such as “Tempus”, which could help PAAET coordinate with other academic institutions through Open Innovation projects. Keywords: Open access (OA), Open Access Policy (OA policy), Kuwait, Higher Education, technology adoption in developing countries, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), Theory of Organisational Readiness for Change (TORC)
Adipose Tissue Redistribution and Ectopic Lipid Deposition in Active Acromegaly and Effects of Surgical Treatment.

CONTEXT GH and IGF-I have important roles in the maintenance of substrate metabolism and body composition. However, when in excess in acromegaly, the lipolytic and insulin antagonistic effects of GH may alter adipose tissue (AT) deposition. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of surgery for acromegaly on AT distribution and ectopic lipid deposition in liver and muscle. DESIGN This was a prospective study before and up to 2 years after pituitary surgery. SETTING The setting was an academic pituitary center. PATIENTS Participants were 23 patients with newly diagnosed, untreated acromegaly. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES We determined visceral (VAT), subcutaneous (SAT), and intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT), and skeletal muscle compartments by total-body magnetic resonance imaging, intrahepatic and intramyocellular lipid by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and serum endocrine, metabolic, and cardiovascular risk markers. RESULTS VAT and SAT masses were lower than predicted in active acromegaly, but increased after surgery in male and female subjects along with lowering of GH, IGF-I, and insulin resistance. VAT and SAT increased to a greater extent in men than in women. Skeletal muscle mass decreased in men. IMAT was higher in active acromegaly and decreased in women after surgery. Intrahepatic lipid increased, but intramyocellular lipid did not change after surgery. CONCLUSIONS Acromegaly may present a unique type of lipodystrophy characterized by reduced storage of AT in central depots and a shift of excess lipid to IMAT. After surgery, this pattern partially reverses, but differentially in men and women. These findings have implications for understanding the role of GH in body composition and metabolic risk in acromegaly and other clinical settings of GH use.
Decompressive Hemicraniectomy for Malignant Middle Cerebral Artery Infarct.

AIM Decompressive hemicraniectomy for a malignant middle cerebral artery infarct can be a life-saving surgical treatment. We aimed to investigate the surgical treatment results in cases that underwent decompressive hemicraniectomy for a malignant middle cerebral artery infarct in this study. MATERIAL AND METHODS The clinical condition, radiological findings and surgical treatment results of 42 cases that underwent decompressive hemicraniectomy for a malignant middle cerebral artery infarct were retrospectively evaluated in this study. RESULTS There were 19 males and 23 females. The age range was 27 to 78 years with a mean age of 57.6 years. The infarct area was the non-dominant hemisphere in 20 cases and the dominant hemisphere in 22 cases. Preoperative Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores were 5 to 12. The 42 cases with a malignant middle cerebral artery infarct were divided into 2 groups according to the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) as the unfavorable outcome group (Group 1) with a score of 1 to 3 and the favorable outcome group with a score of 4 to 5 (Group 2). There were 27 cases in Group 1 and 15 in Group 2. There was a statistically significant association between a good result and age, Glasgow coma scale at the time of surgery, duration until surgery, and non-dominant hemisphere involvement. All cases with a Glasgow coma scale score of 7 or below had a poor outcome. CONCLUSION Decompressive hemicraniectomy in malignant middle cerebral artery infarct can be a life-saving procedure but is not useful in cases with a Glasgow coma scale score of 7 and below.
La revalorisation automatique du SMIC

Contrary to most European countries, indexation rules of the French minimum wage are very precise. However, three possible rules are consistent with the texts, which diverge in particular in periods of deflation or of negative growth of real wages. The alternative interpretations can have a large impact on the dynamics of the minimum wage, on the dynamics of real wages compared to productivity and on the bottom of the wage distribution. This note examines the three rules and recommends the optimal one, which appear to be most robust to alternative scenarios of inflation and deflation. JEL classification codes: J3, J5, J50.
Proximal minimization based distributed convex optimization

We provide a novel iterative algorithm for distributed convex optimization over time-varying multi-agent networks, in the presence of heterogeneous agent constraints. We adopt a proximal minimization perspective and show that this set-up allows us to bypass the difficulties of existing algorithms while simplifying the underlying mathematical analysis. At every iteration each agent makes a tentative decision by solving a local optimization program, and then communicates this decision with neighboring agents. We show that following this scheme agents reach consensus on a common decision vector, and in particular that this vector is an optimizer of the centralized problem.
Is Research and Development Mispriced or Properly Risk Adjusted?

Research has established that research and development (R&D)-intensive firms are characterized by substantial future risk-adjusted stock returns. The reasons for this phenomenon and its policy implications, however, are widely debated. Some attribute the excess returns to investors' systematic undervaluation of R&D firms and argue for improved disclosure to mitigate the mispricing. whereas others claim that the excess returns are just compensating for an R&D-speciftc risk factor We aim to provide insights into this controversy by examining R&D firms with substantial R&D outlays, that is, firms with R&D as an important ingredient in their strategy. Among such firms, we compare firms with high and low industry-adjusted R&D intensity. The high industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms are more likely to engage in basic research activities, whereas the low Indus try-adjusted R&D intensity firms are likely to mimic and extend existing technologies. As such, compared with the low industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms, the high industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms are likely to suffer from higher information asymmetry. We find that high industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms generate larger risk-adjusted returns compared with low industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms in the first five future years, after which the excess returns for the high group converge to those of the low group in the long run. This reversal in returns is consistent with undervaluation of high industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms. The long-term excess returns are positive for both the high and the low industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms, and these excess returns are partly attributable to information risk. We also show that the future excess returns of high industry-adjusted R&D intensity firms are lower for those firms who provide voluntary disclosure (earnings guidance) suggesting that the short-term undervaluation is likely due to mispricing.
The Determinants of Executive Salaries: An Econometric Survey

FOR over three decades, debate has raged over the economic assumption that the large corporation, through the decisions of its managers, attempts to maximize its profits. Empirical analysis of the behavior of the corporation has led to conflicting claims. The inquiry into the determinants of executive compensation has been no exception. Statistical investigation of executive compensation has been dominated by a search for one decisive explanation. Is the size, measured by either sales or assets, or profitability, measured by net corporate income or by the rate of return on assets, the key variable in establishing the level of the executive's reward? Proponents on both sides of this issue-the managerialists who support the corporate growth hypothesis and the neoclassical economists who favor the profit maximization assumption-seem to argue that the contest can be resolved by the presentation of unambiguous evidence that will award victory to one side and vanquish the other. This spirit of antagonism has distorted the essential element of the executive compensation question. The behavior of the corporation and the market forces that shape this behavior can be explained or illustrated only by the use of a series of intercorrelated variables. Not one of the available measures of corporate success, be it net income, sales or assets, is an exact measure of economic profits or firm size, nor is it independent of the other variables. This study focuses on the resolution of the serious econometric problems encountered in the process of estimating the determinants of executive compensation. Later we will show how the successful elimination of problems of simultaneous equations bias, multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity leads to the conclusion that the managerialist and neoclassical models of the firm are complementary, rather than substitute, explanations for the pattern of executive compensation.
Notes on Business Cycle Theory from a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Perspective

In these notes I go over some basic aspects of the analysis of business cycles and aggregate fluctuations from a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) perspective. I build a cannonical DSGE model with a small number of representative agents and a large set of distortionnary wedges standing for various frictions as an organising framework. I use this model to discuss fundamental properties of business cycle dynamics. I start with some of the basic assumptions common to most applied DSGE models, and the modeling of household and firm behaviour. Then I discuss general equilibrium and the response of the economy to various shocks with flexible prices and wages, as well as ways of applying DSGE models with actual data. Finally I add nominal price rigidities to get the standard New Keynesian model, and discuss some open economy issues, fiscal policy and unconventional monetary policy.
Static versus Dynamic Hedging of Exotic Options: An Evaluation of Hedge Performance via Simulation

The depth and breadth of the market for contingent claims, including exotic options, has expanded dramatically. Regulators have expressed concern regarding the risks of exotics to the financial system, due to the difficulty of hedging these instruments. Recent literature focuses on the difficulties in hedging exotic options, e.g., liquidity risk and other violations of the standard Black‐Scholes model. This article provides insight into hedging problems associated with exotic options: 1) hedging in discrete versus continuous time, 2) transaction costs, 3) stochastic volatility, and 4) non‐constant correlation. The author applies simulation analysis of these problems to a variety of exotics, including Asian options, barrier options, look‐back options, and quanto options.
Effects of marital conflict on children: recent advances and emerging themes in process-oriented research.

BACKGROUND The effects of marital conflict on children's adjustment are well documented. For the past decade research has increasingly focused on advancing a process-level understanding of these effects, that is, accounting for the particular responses and patterns embedded within specific contexts, histories, and developmental periods that account for children's outcomes over time. METHODS As a vehicle for presenting an update, this review follows the framework for process-oriented research initially proposed by Cummings and Cummings (1988), concentrating on recent research developments, and also considering new and emerging themes in this area of research. RESULTS In this regard, areas of advancement include (a) greater articulation of the effects of specific context/stimulus characteristics of marital conflict, (b) progress in identifying the psychological response processes in children (e.g., cognitive, emotional, social, physiological) that are affected and their possible role in accounting for relations between marital conflict and child outcomes, (c) greater understanding of the role of child characteristics, family history, and other contextual factors, including effects on children due to interrelations between marital conflict and parenting, and (d) advances in the conceptualization of children's outcomes, including that effects may be more productively viewed as dynamic processes of functioning rather than simply clinical diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS Understanding of the impact of marital conflict on children as a function of time-related processes remains a gap in a process-oriented conceptualization of effects. Based on this review, a revised model for a process-oriented approach on the effects of marital discord on children is proposed and suggestions are made for future research directions.
Occupational Segregation by Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Differences Across States

Gradín C. , Del Río C. and Alonso-Villar O. Occupational segregation by race and ethnicity in the United States: differences across states, Regional Studies. Using the 2005–07 American Community Survey, this paper analyses the extent of geographical disparities in occupational segregation by race/ethnicity across US states. The results show that there is a great geographical variation in segregation. A large part is driven by spatial disparities in workers' characteristics, mainly due to differences in the distribution of ethnic/racial minorities and their immigration/linguistic profiles. Taking these characteristics into account reduces this variation and reshapes the segregation map, with the highest segregation moving from states in the Southwest to those in the East Central region, where minorities face more segregating labour markets.
Relationship Between Morning Hypertension Identified by Home Blood Pressure Monitoring and Brain Natriuretic Peptide and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate: The Japan Morning Surge 1 (JMS‐1) Study

We evaluated whether morning minus evening systolic blood pressure (SBP) difference (MEdif) in home blood pressure measurements can be a marker for hypertensive target organ damage. The authors analyzed 611 hypertensive patients who had high morning SBP levels (≥135 mm Hg). The patients with morning hypertension (MEdif ≥15 mm Hg, average of morning and evening SBP [MEave] ≥135 mm Hg) were older (P<.001) and had a longer duration of hypertension and antihypertensive medication use, a higher prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) on electrocardiography, a lower glomerular filtration rate by the Cockcroft‐Gault equation (P=.002), and a higher brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level (P<.001) than those with well‐controlled blood pressure (MEdif <15 mm Hg, MEave <135 mm Hg). The patients with morning hypertension had a higher BNP level than those with well‐controlled blood pressure after adjustment for the confounding factors (28.7 pg/mL vs 20.0 pg/mL; P=.033). In conclusion, morning hypertension is more likely seen among patients with older age and longer duration of hypertension and antihypertensive medication use, and it may be associated with a higher prevalence of LVH and a higher BNP level.
N-cadherin-Catenin Complexes Form Prior to Cleavage of the Proregion and Transport to the Plasma Membrane*

Cadherins are calcium-dependent glycoproteins that function as cell-cell adhesion molecules and are linked to the actin cytoskeleton via catenins. Newly synthesized cadherins contain a prosequence that must be proteolytically removed to generate a functional adhesion molecule. The goal of this study was to examine the proteolytic processing of N-cadherin and the assembly of the cadherin-catenin complex in cells that express endogenous N-cadherin. A monoclonal antibody specific for the proregion of human N-cadherin was generated and used to examine N-cadherin processing. Our data show that newly synthesized proN-cadherin is phosphorylated and proteolytically processed prior to transport to the plasma membrane. In addition, we show that β-catenin and plakoglobin associate only with phosphorylated proN-cadherin, whereas p120ctn can associate with both phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated proN-cadherin. Immunoprecipitations using anti-proN-cadherin showed that cadherin-catenin complexes are assembled prior to localization at the plasma membrane. These data suggest that a core N-cadherin-catenin complex assembles in the endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi compartment and is transported to the plasma membrane where linkage to the actin cytoskeleton can be established.
Urban‐Rural Mortality Differentials: An Unresolved Debate

Historians and demographers have long debated the existence, causes, and consequences of historical differences between urban and rural mortality levels. In Europe it has been usual to observe excess mortality in cities compared to the countryside, but in East Asia, by contrast, it has been found that urban areas had relatively favorable mortality environments. The debate continues because a number of pertinent questions remain to be resolved. For example, the way in which mortality is measured may influence the apparent extent of the differential, as may the way in which"urban" and"rural" are defined. Cultural factors need to be taken into account, including the practices of childrearing and the conventions surrounding baptism. Examples drawn from Japan, China, England, and France illustrate the issues involved in comparative analysis, while the urban-rural mortality continuum is examined for nineteenth-century England and Wales using log-normal distributions. Copyright 2003 by The Population Council, Inc.
Interbasin Consistency of Hydraulic Geometry and Its Relationships with Basin Morphology and Hydrology

Abstract The width, mean depth, and mean velocity of a stream are typically power functions of discharge, whose exponents are unit-sum constrained. The appropriate methodology for testing statistical hypotheses involving such data is compositional data analysis (CDA). Prior to the advent of CDA, the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) undertook statewide and national studies of hydraulic geometry in which they developed an index called proportional stream order, which uses rational numbers to quantify the variation within a stream segment of a given order. The current investigation applies CDA to that data and to other hydrologic and morphologic parameters that are potential covariates of hydraulic geometry. Logratio linear modeling demonstrated that at-a-station hydraulic geometry was unrelated to proportional stream order in the Sangamon basin in central Illinois. The downstream hydraulic geometry of twelve basins in the humid region of the U.S. had atypicality indices consistent with a single, logistic normal population. There was no significant difference in the compositional mean or variability of the downstream exponents of the steep and shallow basins. Logratio linear models of the downstream hydraulic geometry of all twelve basins using runoff and drainage area as covariates resulted in random relationships. More localized channel factors probably control hydraulic geometry. These findings are consistent with the theory that channels adjust to a numerically consistent downstream hydraulic geometry and are pertinent to the derivation and application of models involving the impacts of point-source pollution on biological oxygen demand and of stream power on the evolution of drainage networks.
Measuring Customer Relationship Value: The Role of Switching Cost

Conceptually, customer relationship value depends on customer perceptions of the cost of switching to another supplier. Empirical tests of switching cost effects have been hampered because traditional performance measurement systems and customer satisfaction scores do not reflect switching cost perceptions within comparable market segments across firms. Using unique data systematically collected by market segment from online retail customers, we find that a) our switching cost proxy adds statistically significant explanatory power for both future buyer behaviors at the segment level and future financial performance at the firm level, and b) the positive relation between customer attitudes and future buyer behavior is increasing in switching cost. Our results show that externally generated non-financial data collected periodically across market segments can individually and jointly provide valuable information about segment and consolidated entity performance.
Spatial Cues are Relevant for Learned Preference/Aversion Shifts due to Amino-acid Deficiencies

Rats are able to choose appropriately between two versions of a novel diet, when one is amino-acid devoid and the other corrected. Recognition of the deficiency has been reported to occur within hours and to initiate a strong conditioned aversion. For that purpose the rat can use either oro-sensory cues or another alternative as the conditioned stimulus (CS) with which to associate the unconditioned stimuli (US) of either the adequate diet or the devoid diet. The present investigation was designed to determine whether rats have the ability to use place as a cue in amino-acid preference/aversion. In order to avoid interfering with any other than spatial sensory discrimination between the devoid diet and its corrected version, rats were offered two food cups containing an identical threonine-devoid diet. This was supplemented with an intra-gastric delivery of either threonine or its vehicle, that varied according to the position of the feeder from which the rats had chosen to eat. After three choice sessions, rats chose the food container on the side corresponding to the threonine load. Our results showed that rats use place as a cue for an amino-acid replete nutritional state by learning a conditioned place preference/aversion and that they achieve this type of learning in spite of the long delay elapsing between CS and US.