Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inflation Targeting and Exchange Rate Volatility: A Treatment Effect Regression Approach

This study empirically examines the issue of whether countries that target inflation systematically experience higher exchange rate volatility. A major challenge that immediately confronts such analysis is that countries do not choose their monetary regimes in a random fashion. In this paper, an attempt is made to take into account the problem of self-selection in the countries’ decision to target inflation via a treatment effect regression that estimates jointly the probability of being an inflation targeter and the outcome equation. The analysis indicates that nominal and real effective exchange rate volatility are both lower in inflation-targeting countries than countries that do not target inflation. More importantly, the analysis also suggest that developing countries that target inflation have lower nominal and real effective exchange rate volatility than non-inflation-targeting developing countries; in the case, however, of inflation-targeting industrial countries, it is found to be higher.
Calcitonin measurement in wash-out fluid from fine needle aspiration of neck masses in patients with primary and metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of calcitonin (CT) assay in fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) wash-out fluid alone or combined with cytology in the presurgical study of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) patients with thyroid nodules (TNs) and of suspicious neck MTC recurrences/metastases. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 36 ultrasound-guided FNABs were performed in neck masses from 23 patients with borderline or high basal and pentagastrin-stimulated serum CT. Cytology and CT-FNAB were performed on a total of 18 TNs and three neck lymph nodes (LNs) from 12 patients examined before thyroidectomy, and on six suspicious local recurrences (LRs) and nine LNs from nine totally thyroidectomized MTC patients. On the basis of CT-FNAB values found in 15 non-MTC lesions, CT-FNAB more than 36 pg/ml was considered as indicative of MTC. RESULTS All 21 positive CT-FNAB lesions (10 TNs, six LNs, and five LRs), 13 with positive cytology, were confirmed as MTC at histology. Of the 15 negative CT-FNAB suspicious masses (eight TNs, six LNs, and one LR), five displayed a benign lesion at histology. The remaining 10 cases, all with benign cytology, were not operated on, and no evidence of MTC was detected at follow-up. CT-FNAB reached 100% sensitivity and specificity for MTC, while cytology displayed 61.9% sensitivity and 80% specificity. CONCLUSIONS Ultrasound-guided CT-FNAB was the best tool to identify primary MTC and LRs/node metastases in MTC operated subjects. This may have important implications in the management of MTC.
Strength of ties involved in international new ventures

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the strength of ties that entrepreneurs use during three critical phases of the international new venture's (INV) development; pre-founding, start-up and early internationalization. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses in-depth interviews to track the development of five INVs to provide nuanced and detailed findings relating to tie strength during these three critical phases. By focusing on proces, the paper captures in detail the strength of these ties and the dynamics of how they evolve. Findings – While the existing literature considers strength of ties to be two separate entities, the paper develops a continuum with three different levels of strength by using entrepreneurs' actual relationships. The paper found that stronger relationships predominate and that they play an important broker role to link with other unconnected networks. Practical implications – Since relationships are crucial for recognizing and developing business opportunities, entrepreneurs .
Management Turnover and Product Market Competition: Empirical Evidence from the U.S. Newspaper Industry

We examine the relationship between management turnover and market structure for newspapers in 50 large cities from 1950 to 1993. We find that competitive markets display greater turnover rates than monopolistic markets and that turnover rates are increasing in the degree to which a newspaper trails its competition in market share. We find no evidence that the turnover-performance relationship varies with market structure. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories concerning competition and managerial employment contracting. The results appear most consistent with the hypothesis that the greater likelihood of liquidation in competitive markets leads to elevated turnover rates. Copyright 2000 by University of Chicago Press.
European Union Enlargement and the Foreign Direct Investment Channel of Industrial Relations Transfer

Inward investment by multinational companies represents a vital channel for entrenching the company-level industrial relations dimension of Europe's social model in the post-socialist New Member States. Surveying a wide range of existing analysis and evidence, this article concludes that the prospects for diffusion through inward investment are highly contingent. The motive for inward investment, factor composition, host country institutions and the existence of transnational industrial relations structures are all found to be influential contingencies, but not country-of-origin or mode of entry.
The Role of Discourse Coalitions in Planning for Renewable Energy: A Case Study of Wind-Energy Deployment

This paper explores the role of coalition building in the implementation of renewable-energy policy. Applying a discourse analysis framework to wind-energy development in the North West of England, two strong coalitions operating within the wind-energy development arena were identified. By combining this framework with a multicriteria assessment, it is revealed that each coalition had very different priorities during the evaluation of wind-energy schemes. Overall, only when offshore wind is evaluated are there elements of common ground. This technology therefore appears to offer a solution to sharp contrasts in discourse. Based on this assessment, it is concluded that the implementation of national energy-policy objectives is contingent upon the regional government developing coherent storylines to attract the support of as broad a coalition of stakeholders as possible.
The Volatility Effect in Emerging Markets

We examine the empirical relation between risk and return in emerging equity markets and find that this relation is flat, or even negative. This is inconsistent with theoretical models such as the CAPM, which predict a positive relation, but consistent with the results of studies for developed equity markets. The volatility effect appears to be growing stronger over time, which we argue might be related to the increased delegated portfolio management in emerging markets. Finally, we find that the volatility effect in emerging markets is only weakly related to that in developed equity markets, which argues against a common-factor explanation.
An exploratory analysis of factors affecting users' adoption of corporate intranet: A Tunisian study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test previously developed models to identify factors that are perceived to affect the decision to adopt corporate intranet (CI) in a developing country.Design/methodology/approach – The study used survey methodology. A set of questionnaires was returned from 436 intranet users at four major companies in Tunisia.Findings – Several factors identified as significantly affecting users' adoption of CI in Tunisian companies: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, information quality, compatibility, computer self‐efficacy, personal innovativeness, superior pressure, peer pressure, self‐image, tech support, and top management support. Practical implications –The findings of this study can benefit practitioners as it provides organizations and top managers with a short list of factors that can significantly affect the adoption and usage of CI.Originality/value – The study extends previously tested theories and models to a developing country environment.
Macrophages Suppress Direct B‐Cell Activation by Lipopolysaccharide

The influence of macrophages on polyclonal B‐cell responses to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and on a primary, specific immune response to a hapten‐LPS conjugate was studied in mouse spleen and lymph node cells in serum‐free and serum‐supplemented cultures. Macrophages were found not to be necessary, and B cells were directly activated by LPS. In serum‐free cultures of macrophage depleted spleen cells, (a) proliferation and antibody secretion occurred at normal levels or were enhanced when compared with normal spleen cells, (b) the responsiveness of limiting cell numbers to LPS was better than in normal spleen cell cultures, (c) LPS did not increase the number or activate residual macrophages, (d) the primary specific response to a hapten‐LPS conjugate developed normally, (e) peripheral lymph node cells, which are known to contain a very low concentration of macrophages, from normal or congenitally athymic (nude) mice mounted excellent proliferative responses to LPS Furthermore, in cultures supplemented with fetal bovine serum, depletion of adherent cells resulted in enhancement of LPS‐induced B‐cell responses. Addition of peritoneal macrophages to adherent cell‐depleted spleen cells produced suppression at all concentrations of both mitogen and adherent cells. Suppressive activity could also be demonstrated in supematants from adherent cell cultures stimulated by LPS
High Performance Work Systems and Organizational Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Information Quality

Using data on registered nurses and nursing assistants in 50 acute-care hospital units, the author explores the relationships among high performance work systems, information quality, and performance quality within a context shaped by equivocal information—information that can be interpreted in multiple and sometimes conflicting ways. He finds that the quality of information available for decision-making, which largely depends on the interpretative skills of the workers who are exposed to important equivocal information, partially mediates how employee knowledge, work design, and total quality management systems affect organizational performance (which is measured as the inverse of medication error incidence). Providing employees with extensive relevant knowledge and enabling them to use their skills during even seemingly routine tasks improves the effective quality of information they bring to decision-making, and thereby promotes high performance quality.
The Challenge of Public–Private Partnerships

All over the world governments are expanding the role of the private sector in the planning and delivery of public services and infrastructure. Many new types of government–business arrangements have been developed, some commercial in nature, some more policy orientated. Despite the fact that many of these arrangements are very different in nature, they have, over the past ten years, come to be placed under the heading ‘public–private partnerships’ (PPP). The Challenge of Public–Private Partnerships is the latest edited volume that seeks to make sense of both the empirical reality of these apparently new arrangements and the use of the term PPP to tie them together. The book, which contains 15 contributions by academics and practitioners from Europe, Australasia and North America, offers much for the reader to enjoy. A number of the contributions provide something new and worthy of note and all are well written and concise. However, on the negative side, the book suffers from both theoretical and empirical weaknesses. This limits the contribution it makes to the PPP literature. The book also reinforces the need for the term PPP to be handled with care. In particular, researchers should never lose sight of the fact that the creation of ‘partnerships’ is not an end in itself and that there are dangers in seeking to ‘benchmark’ apparent best practice. In the first chapter, the editors set out the book’s two main objectives. The first is to assess the utility of the term PPP. The editors state that in recent
Teleservices, Call Centres and Urban and Regional Development

This article exarnres the char-crcter c.f cull centres, which ut-euttractirzg considerable interest among economic cleveloprnen agencies seeking to attract inward irzvestment. The paper examines the type of eniployment provided in call centres, their locational requirenzents ancl their wider- impact orz loccrl economies. It is argued that irlformation and communications technologies (ICTs) are allowitlg these telesewice firrns to develop in new locations, but that call centres remain constrained in their locational choices especially because ofthe uneven distributiori of labour: It is concluded that call centres providing teleservices contribute to local economic developmerzt, but the employnzent created on the whole terzcls to be of low quality. Few mancrgeriul, professional or teclznical jobs errs created in rnost call centres, and there crre few local spin-offs. Inrvard irvestment by these sorts of services in less-fnvoured areas displays many of ! he drawbacks associated tvith trcrditionul inanfacturing inward investment.
Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on kidney function after myocardial infarction: the Alpha Omega Trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Kidney function gradually decreases with age, and myocardial infarction accelerates this deterioration. Omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids may slow down the decline of kidney function. The effect of marine and plant-derived n-3 fatty acids on kidney function in patients after myocardial infarction was examined. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS In the Alpha Omega Trial, 2344 patients with history of myocardial infarction ages 60-80 years old (81% men) were randomized to one of four trial margarines. The patients received an additional targeted amount of 400 mg/d eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, 2 g/d α-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid-docosahexaenoic acid plus α-linolenic acid, or placebo for 40 months. Serum cystatin C and serum creatinine were assessed at baseline and after 40 months. Creatinine-cystatin C-based GFR was estimated with the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation. RESULTS Patients consumed 19.9 g margarine/d, providing an additional 239 mg/d eicosapentaenoic acid with 159 mg/d docosahexaenoic acid, 1.99 g/d α-linolenic acid, or both in the active treatment groups. After 40 months, compared with baseline, mean (±SD) creatinine-cystatin C-based GFR was -6.9 (±12.6), -4.8 (±13.4), -6.2 (±12.8), and -6.0 (±13.0) ml/min per 1.73 m(2) in the placebo, eicosapentaenoic acid-docosahexaenoic acid, α-linolenic acid, and eicosapentaenoic acid-docosahexaenoic acid plus α-linolenic acid groups, respectively. After 40 months, in patients receiving eicosapentaenoic acid-docosahexaenoic acid compared with placebo, the decline in creatinine-cystatin C-based GFR was 2.1 less (95% confidence interval, 0.6 to 3.6; P<0.01) ml/min per 1.73 m(2); other comparisons were not statistical significant. Odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of incident CKD (<60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)) and rapid decline of kidney function (≥3 ml/min per year) for eicosapentaenoic acid-docosahexaenoic acid compared with placebo were 0.83 (0.58 to 1.18) and 0.85 (0.67 to 1.08), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Long-term supplementation with 400 mg/d eicosapentaenoic acid-docosahexaenoic acid provides a small beneficial effect on kidney function in patients with a history of myocardial infarction.
Cloning of the gene for the larvicidal toxin of Bacillus sphaericus 2362: evidence for a family of related sequences

During sporulation, Bacillus sphaericus 2362 produces a parasporal crystalline protein which is toxic for the larvae of a number of mosquito species. Using the Escherichia coli cloning vector lambda gt11, in which gene products of the inserts may be fused to beta-galactosidase, we isolated 29 bacteriophages which produced peptides-reacting with antiserum to crystal protein. On the basis of restriction enzyme analyses of the recombinants and Ouchterlony immunodiffusion experiments with induced lysogens as a source of antigens, the recombinants were assigned to three groups, designated A, B, and C. Group A consisted of three clones which appeared to express all or part of the B. sphaericus toxin gene from their own promoters and one clone producing a beta-galactosidase-toxin fusion protein. The host cells of two induced recombinant lysogens of this group were toxic to larvae of Culex pipiens. A cell suspension containing 174 ng (dry weight) of the more toxic recombinant per ml killed 50% of the larvae. Both recombinants formed peptides with molecular sizes of 27, 43, and 63 kilodaltons (kDa). The antigenically related 27- and 43-kDa peptides were distinct from the 63-kDa peptide, which resembled crystals from sporulating cells of B. sphaericus in which antigenically distinct 43- and 63-kDa proteins are derived from a 125-kDa precursor. A 3.5-kilobase HindIII fragment from recombinants having toxic activity against larvae was subcloned into pGEM-3-blue. E. coli cells harboring this fragment were toxic to mosquito larvae and produced peptides of 27, 43, and 63 kDa. The distribution of the A gene among strains of B. sphaericus of different toxicities suggested that it is the sole or principal gene encoding the larvicidal crystal protein. The two recombinants of group B and the 23 of group C were all beta-galactosidase fusion proteins, suggesting that in E. coli these genes were not readily expressed from their own promoters. The distribution of these two genes in different strains of B. sphaericus suggested that they do not have a role in the toxicity of this species to mosquito larvae.
Limited Liability, Asymmetric Taxation, and Risk Taking - Why Partial Tax Neutralities Can Be Harmful

We examine the combined effects of asymmetric taxation and limited liability on optimal risk taking of investors. Given an optimal risk level in the pre-tax case under full liability, loss-offset restrictions reduce, and limited liability enhances the incentives for taking risk. For every degree of limited liability we can find corresponding loss-offset limitations inducing the same optimal risk level as in the reference case. Thereby we get tax neutrality with respect to risk taking. We show that tax neutrality with respect to risk taking is incompatible with tax neutrality with respect to the choice of the legal form. In our model, full liability requires symmetric taxation and limited liability requires asymmetric taxation of profits and losses.
Politicization and the Replacement of Top Civil Servants in Denmark

This article of top civil servants in Danish central and local government sheds new light on politicization. A survival analysis shows that since 1970, the risk that a top civil servant will be replaced has increased. There is no evidence of politicization in central government while city managers' risk of replacement increases both when a new mayor, representing another party and holding an absolute majority, and when the shift of mayor takes place within the same party. We interpret these results as evidence of the adaptability of the merit civil service and political executives' stronger insistence on their authority to make discretionary replacements.
The Distribution of Income in the Presence of Appropriative Activities

The authors examine the distribution of income when agents allocate their initial endowments between production and appropriation (arms investments, influence or rent-seeking activities). Final output depends on the productive contributions of the agents but is divided between them according to their relative contributions in appropriation. Various possible improvements in an agent's useful productivity reduce the agent's equilibrium share of income, but increases in initial endowments increase an agent's share. The authors contrast their results to those that would obtain in the competitive counterpart to their model and discuss its relevance both for history and for the present. The results extend to a class of models where distribution is determined between two groups of agents, with agents within each group behaving non-cooperatively but without exhibiting the free-rider problem. Copyright 1997 by The London School of Economics and Political Science
Consumption, Income Changes and Heterogeneity: Evidence from Two Fiscal Stimulus Programmes

Almost half of American families did not adjust their consumption following receipt of the 2001 or 2008 tax rebates. Another 20 percent, with low income and more likely to rent, spent a small but significant amount. Households with large spending propensity held high levels of mortgage debt. The heterogeneity is concentrated in a few nondurable categories and a handful of "new vehicle" purchases. The cumulated predictions of the heterogeneous response model tend to be smaller and more accurate than their homogeneous response model counterparts, offering new insights on the evaluation of the two fiscal stimulus programs.
The Survival of Noise Traders in Financial Markets

We use the revised estimates of U.S. GNP constructed by Christina Romer (1989) to assess the time-series properties of U.S. output per capita over the past century. We reject at conventional significance levels the null that output is a random walk in favor of the alternative that output is a stationary autoregressive process about a linear deterministic trend. The difference between the lack of persistence of output shocks either before WWII or over the entire century, on the one hand, and the strong signs of persistence of output shocks found by Campbell and Mankiw (1987) and by Nelson and Plosser (1982) for more recent periods is striking. It suggests to us a Keynesian interpretation of the large unit root in post-WWII U.S. output: perhaps post-WWII output shocks appear persistent because automatic stabilizers and other demand-management policies have substantially damped the transitory fluctuations that made up the pre-WWH Bums-Mitchell business cycle.
Deep Asymmetric Transfer Network for Unbalanced Domain Adaptation

Recently, domain adaptation based on deep models has been a promising way to deal with the domains with scarce labeled data, which is a critical problem for deep learning models. Domain adaptation propagates the knowledge from a source domain with rich information to the target domain. In reality, the source and target domains are mostly unbalanced in that the source domain is more resource-rich and thus has more reliable knowledge than the target domain. However, existing deep domain adaptation approaches often pre-assume the source and target domains balanced and equally, leading to a medium solution between the source and target domains, which is not optimal for the unbalanced domain adaptation. In this paper, we propose a novel Deep Asymmetric Transfer Network (DATN) to address the problem of unbalanced domain adaptation. Specifically, our model will learn a transfer function from the target domain to the source domain and meanwhile adapting the source domain classifier with more discriminative power to the target domain. By doing this, the deep model is able to adaptively put more emphasis on the resource-rich source domain. To alleviate the scarcity problem of supervised data, we further propose an unsupervised transfer method to propagate the knowledge from a lot of unsupervised data by minimizing the distribution discrepancy over the unlabeled data of two domains. The experiments on two real-world datasets demonstrate that DATN attains a substantial gain over state-of-the-art methods.