Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Management, Corporate Governance, and Bank Performance in the Financial Crisis

The recent financial crisis has raised several questions with respect to the corporate governance of financial institutions. This paper investigates whether risk management-related corporate governance mechanisms, such as for example the presence of a chief risk officer (CRO) in a bank’s executive board and whether the CRO reports to the CEO or directly to the board of directors, are associated with a better bank performance during the financial crisis of 2007/2008. We measure bank performance by buy-and-hold returns and ROE and we control for standard corporate governance variables such as CEO ownership, board size, and board independence. Most importantly, our results indicate that banks, in which the CRO directly reports to the board of directors and not to the CEO (or other corporate entities), exhibit significantly higher (i.e., less negative) stock returns and ROE during the crisis. In contrast, standard corporate governance variables are mostly insignificantly or even negatively related to the banks’ performance during the crisis.
Therapeutic relationship and its association with outcome

This study investigated the association between general re l a t i o n s h i p factors and outcome in short . term counselling. Twenty five c l i e n t s who were seeking counselling at various settings in the lower mainland of B r i t i s h Columbia completed instruments that were designed to quantify aspects of their r e l a t i o n s h i p with the therapist. Three models of the therapeutic r e l a t i o n s h i p were examined: Strong's s o c i a l influence theory; Roger's core conditions; and Bordin's working a l l i a n c e . It was hypothesized that the three dimensions of Bordin's Working Alliance (bond, task, and goal) would correlate s i g n i f i c a n t l y with four outcome measures. Two of the outcome measures u t i l i z e d did not correlate with any of the relationship variables. Task and Bond correlated s i g n i f i c a n t l y (p<.0l and p<.05 respectively) with two indices of outcome and Goal had a s i g n i f i c a n t r e l a t i o n s h i p (p<.05) with one of the outcome measures. Of the other four relationship variables that were included in t h i s study, only the s o c i a l influence variable of c l i e n t perceived counsellor attractiveness correlated with outcome measures beyond chance l e v e l s .
Dead Fun: Uncomfortable Interactions in a Virtual Reality Game for Coffins

Uncomfortable interactions are a common aspect of daily life, and have been explored in Human-Computer Interaction; yet little is known about uncomfortable gaming experiences. In this paper, we report on the design and preliminary evaluation of a game in which one player is invited to lie down in a coffin. Results of an exploratory user study suggest that the restricted space of the coffin along with its unsettling cultural connotation led to an engaging, thought provoking experience. By combining the previously separately explored dimensions of physical and psychological discomfort, we hope to better understand the effects that such challenges can have on player experience.
On alternating analogues of Tornheim's double series

In this paper, we evaluate the alternating analogues of Tornheim’s double series. This is an answer to the problem posed by Subbarao-Sitaramachandrarao, and can be regarded as an alternating analogue of the evaluation formula for Tornheim’s double series, given by Huard, Williams and Z. Nan-Yue. We also evaluate partial Tornheim’s double series.
Induction of osteoblast aggregation, detachment, and altered integrin expression by bear serum

SummaryAnimal models have long been used to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for osteoporosis in humans. The American black bear, an animal that does not experience extensive bone loss normally associated with long-term immobilization (when hibernating), may provide an insight into the nature of the pathogenesis of the disease. Circulating growth and differentiation factors present in the serum may facilitate continued proliferation of bone-forming cells. The aim of our study was to determine the effects of bear serum on human osteoblasts when cultured for extended periods of time. Unexpectedly, exposure to the bear serum in vitro led to the detachment of osteoblasts from the surface of the culture plate after 3 d of incubation. The osteoblasts pulled off the polystyrene surface in sheets and aggregated into floating conglomerations of viable cells. In contrast, osteoblasts cultured in fetal calf serum maintained adherence to the surface of the culture plate. Detachment of osteoblasts propagated in bear serum was time dependent and was associated with an increased expression of integrins compared with osteoblasts propagated in fetal calf serum, as indicated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunostaining.
“And all of a sudden my life was gone…”: A biographical analysis of highly engaged adult gamers

Highly engaged gaming and its potentially adverse effects have been the subject of ongoing debate in media and science, most commonly in relation to problematic playing behaviours among adolescents. Although adult gamers are also known to be vulnerable to addictive playing behaviours, this aspect of highly engaged gaming among adults has rarely been investigated. To address this issue, biographical interviews were conducted with 35 adult gamers to explore their interaction with the game, integration of gaming into everyday life, and social interaction in real and virtual life. Participants were also asked about their reasons for becoming involved in highly engaged gaming, and for ending that involvement. The findings indicate that highly engaged adult gamers are a heterogeneous group. Three general types of gamer emerged from the interviews. One of these types showed no signs of problematic behaviour; however, the other two types tended to neglect aspects of everyday life and the real-life social environment in their playing behaviours.
Zur Definition und Messung von Berufserfolg Theoretische Überlegungen und metaanalytische Befunde zum Zusammenhang von externen und internen Laufbahnerfolgsmaßen

The conceptualisation and definition of vocational success is equivocal. The present paper attempts to clarify the construct. We suggest a model that distinguishes vocational success with respect to three parameters: 1) the criterion to be assessed with the extremes of specific work and task vs. global career, 2) the data content with the distinction of external records, comparative judgements and satisfaction ratings, and 3) the data source, i.e., documents and ratings by others (both external measures) and self-report data (internal measures). We then take a closer look at career success and give an overview of current operationalizations with respect to data source and data content. Subsequently, we report findings of a meta- analysis on the relationship between external measures and internal measures of career success. The analysis yields an estimated population correlation of ρest = . 28, which is homogeneous for the correlation of external measures and career satisfaction (ρest = .30), but not for external measures and self-rated career success. Suggestions for the measurement of career success are given.
Bladder tumors in two young males occupationally exposed to MBOCA.

MBOCA (4,4' methylenebis (2-chloroaniline) is a structural analogue of benzidine and is carcinogenic in mice, rats, and dogs. MBOCA has not yet been demonstrated to be carcinogenic in humans and is not regulated as an occupational carcinogen in the United States. We report two noninvasive papillary tumors of the bladder identified in a screening study of 540 workers exposed to MBOCA during its production at a Michigan chemical plant from 1968 to 1979. Both tumors occurred in men under 30 years old who had never smoked. Although the prevalence of grade 1-2 tumors among asymptomatic males in this age group is unknown, the incidence of clinically apparent tumors on U.S. males aged 25-29 is only 1 per 100,000 per year. The detection of the two tumors in young, nonsmoking males is consistent with the hypothesis that MBOCA induces bladder neoplasms in humans.
Behavioural/cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting interventions for children age 3-12 with early onset conduct problems.

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To examine the effectiveness of behavioural/cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting interventions for children with early onset conduct problems in improving a) child behaviour outcomes and b) parenting skills and parental mental health. To critically appraise and summarise current evidence on the incremental resource use, costs and cost-effectiveness of behavioural/ cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting interventions when compared to treatment as usual.
A Note on Importance Resampling for Multi-Dimensional Statistics

Johns (1988), Davison (1988), and Do and Hall (1991) used importance sampling for calculating bootstrap distributions of one-dimensional statistics. Realizing that their methods can not be extended easily to multi-dimensional statistics, Fuh and Hu (2004) proposed an exponential tilting formula for statistics of multi-dimension, which is optimal in the sense that the asymptotic variance is minimized for estimating tail probabilities of asymptotically normal statistics. For one-dimensional statistics, Hu and Su (2008) proposed a multi-step variance minimization approach that can be viewed as a generalization of the two-step variance minimization approach proposed by Do and Hall (1991). In this article, we generalize the approach of Hu and Su (2008) to multi-dimensional statistics, which applies to general statistics and does not resort to asymptotics. Empirical results on a real survival data set show that the proposed algorithm provides significant computational efficiency gains.
A Continuous Metabolic Syndrome Risk Score

This study was designed to validate a continuous metabolic syndrome risk score (cMSy) using the International Diabetes Federation risk factors (1). Increasing evidence supports using a cMSy instead of a binary definition for epidemiological analyses: 1 ) dichotomizing continuous outcome variables reduces statistical power (2); 2 ) cardiovascular risk is a progressive function of several metabolic syndrome (MSy) risk factors, eliminating the need to dichotomize these factors (3); and 3 ) cardiovascular and diabetes risk increase progressively with increasing numbers of MSy risk factors, eliminating the need to dichotomize …
Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence

Recently, the relative demand for skilled labor has increased dramatically. We investigate one of the causes, skill-biased technical change. Advances in information technology (IT) are among the most powerful forces bearing on the economy. Employers who use IT often make complementary innovations in their organizations and in the services they offer. Our hypothesis is that these co-inventions by IT users change the mix of skills that employers demand. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that it is a cluster of complementary changes involving IT, workplace organization and services that is the key skill-biased technical change. We examine new firm-level data linking several indicators of IT use, workplace organization, and the demand for skilled labor. In both a short-run factor demand framework and a production function framework, we find evidence for complementarity. IT use is complementary to a new workplace organization which includes broader job responsibilities for line workers, more decentralized decision-making, and more self-managing teams. In turn, both IT and that new organization are complements with worker skill, measured in a variety of ways. Further, the managers in our survey believe that IT increases skill requirements and autonomy among workers in their firms. Taken together, the results highlight the roles of both IT and IT-enabled organizational change as important components of the skill-biased technical change.
Techniques and data structures for efficient multimedia retrieval based on similarity

As more and more information is captured and stored in digital form, many techniques and systems have been developed for indexing and retrieval of text documents, audio, images, and video. The retrieval is normally based on similarities between extracted feature vectors of the query and stored items. Feature vectors are usually multidimensional. When the number of stored objects and/or the number of dimensions of the feature vectors are large, it will be too slow to linearly search all stored feature vectors to find those that satisfy the query criteria. Techniques and data structures are thus required to organize feature vectors and manage the search process so that objects relevant to the query can be located quickly. This paper provides a survey of these techniques and data structures.
Mouse Clicks Can Recognize Web Page Visitors!

Behavioral biometrics based on mouse usage can be used to recognize one's identity, with special applications in anonymous Web browsing. Out of many features that describe browsing behavior, mouse clicks (or touches) as the most basic of navigation actions, provide a stable stream of behavioral data. The paper describes a method to recognize Web user according to three click features. The distance-based classification comparing cumulative distribution functions achieves high recognition accuracy even with hundreds of users.
Canals beyond Mars: Beam depolarization in radio continuum maps of the warm ISM

Multi-frequency radio polarimetric observations of the diffuse Galactic synchrotron background enable us to study the structure of the diffuse ionized gas via rotation measure maps. However, depolarization will introduce artifacts in the resulting rotation measure (RM), most notably in the form of narrow, elongated “depolarization canals”. We use numerical models of a non-emitting Faraday rotating medium to study the RM distribution needed to create depolarization canals by depolarization due to a finite beam width, and to estimate the influence of this depolarization mechanism on the determination of RM . We argue that the depolarization canals indeed can be caused by beam depolarization, which in turn is a natural consequence when observing a turbulent medium with limited resolution. Furthermore, we estimate that beam depolarization can induce an additional error of about 20% in RM determinations, and considerably less in regions that are not affected by depolarization canals.
Ecology, Behaviour and Control of Apis cerana with a Focus on Relevance to the Australian Incursion

Apis cerana Fabricius is endemic to most of Asia, where it has been used for honey production and pollination services for thousands of years. Since the 1980s, A. cerana has been introduced to areas outside its natural range (namely New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Australia), which sparked fears that it may become a pest species that could compete with, and negatively affect, native Australian fauna and flora, as well as commercially kept A. mellifera and commercial crops. This literature review is a response to these concerns and reviews what is known about the ecology and behaviour of A. cerana. Differences between temperate and tropical strains of A. cerana are reviewed, as are A. cerana pollination, competition between A. cerana and A. mellifera, and the impact and control strategies of introduced A. cerana, with a particular focus on gaps of current knowledge.
Rab7b and receptors trafficking

Rab proteins are key-regulators of intracellular membrane trafficking. Rab7b is a recently identified Rab protein that may down regulate TLR4 and TLR9-mediated inflammatory responses. Rab7b, believed to have similar function as Rab7, controls however vesicular trafficking from endosomes to the TGN. It is localized to late endosomes/lysosomes as well as the TGN. Rab7b interferes with enzymes delivery to lysosomes and with the retrograde Shiga toxin transport to the Golgi. Furthermore, Rab7b depletion alters CI-MPR and TGN46 trafficking. In conclusion, Rab7b, by regulating the transport from late endosomes to the TGN, is fundamental for trafficking of several receptors, opening for a revised scenario for its influence on signaling of Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) and other receptors.
Function after anoabdominal rectal resection and colonic J pouch‐anal anastomosis

Twenty‐eight patients undergoing anoabdominal resection of the rectum with construction of a colonic J reservoir and eight patients without a reservoir were studied 2 years after surgery. Frequency of defaecation and daytime soiling were inversely correlated with the maximum tolerable volume of the colonic J pouch. The distensibility and threshold volume of those with a pouch were significantly greater than in those without a pouch 6 months or more after stoma closure. Anal resting pressure, squeeze pressure, anal canal length and a positive inhibitory reflex were similar in both groups. Anal resting pressure, squeeze pressure and pouch distensibility correlated with frequency of defaecation in the stable phase. Pouch construction may improve the patient's quality of life in the adaptation phase.
Hypoxia‐regulated protein expression, patient characteristics, and preoperative imaging as predictors of survival in adults with glioblastoma multiforme

Regions of hypoxia within glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are common and may influence a tumor's aggressiveness, response to treatment, and the patient's overall survival. In this study, the authors examined 4 markers of hypoxia (hypoxia‐inducible factor 1 [HIF‐1α], glucose transporter 1 [GLUT‐1], vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF], and carbonic anhydrase 9 [CA IX]), cellular proliferation and microvascular density (MVD) indices, extent of surgical resection, and preoperative imaging characteristics and compared them with the overall survival rates of adults with GBM.
Specific characteristics of suicide attempts in patients with schizophrenia in Turkey.

BACKGROUND Suicide attempt is a universally observed human behavior related to bio-psychological, social and cultural factors. While some studies have suggested that specific demographic/cultural and clinical variables are associated with suicide attempts in schizophrenia, these associations are often inconsistent. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the possible association between socio-demographic and clinical variables and suicidal behavior in a sample of patients diagnosed as having schizophrenia in Turkey. METHODS Three hundred patients with a SCID-I diagnosis of schizophrenia were studied. The sample was subdivided into two groups based on the presence or absence of lifetime suicide attempts. The main demographic and clinical variables retrospectively collected were analyzed and compared between the two groups. RESULTS The results of present study revealed that the subjects who had and had not attempted suicide did not differ with respect to demographic variables. The suicide attempters tend to have younger age at onset of disorder, longer duration of psychosis, more hospitalizations, are more likely to have lifetime major depressive episodes, and a significantly higher rate of alcohol abuse or dependence than patients without a lifetime history of suicide attempts. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with the results of previous studies, it has been found that demographic variables may be less valuable predictors of suicidal behavior than clinical variables. These results lead to the idea that socio-cultural variations may not be a critical determinant for suicide attempt among patients with schizophrenia.
Interactions between endogenous gamma interferon and tumor necrosis factor in host resistance against primary and secondary Listeria monocytogenes infections

Intravenous injection of rat anti-mouse gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) monoclonal antibody as well as rabbit anti-mouse tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antibody into mice which had received a sublethal infection with Listeria monocytogenes cells resulted in acceleration of listeriosis. Endogenous IFN-gamma seemed to be produced early in infection, because suppression of antilisterial resistance was significant when a single injection of anti-IFN-gamma monoclonal antibody was given on day 0 or day 1 of infection. Production of TNF but not of IFN-gamma in the bloodstream early in infection was inhibited by administration of anti-IFN-gamma monoclonal antibody. The suppressive effect of anti-IFN-gamma and anti-TNF antibodies on antilisterial resistance was not augmented by simultaneous administration of these antibodies. On the other hand, in the secondary infection, simultaneous administration of anti-IFN-gamma and anti-TNF antibodies, but not of either of these antibodies alone, into L. monocytogenes-immune mice resulted in high mortality and explosive multiplication of bacterial cells in the spleens and livers. These results suggest that endogenously produced IFN-gamma and TNF are both essential to the host defense against L. monocytogenes infection and that these cytokines might act by different modes between the primary infection and the secondary infection.
On Using the WMAP Distance Information in Constraining the Time-evolving Equation of State of Dark Energy

Recently, the WMAP group published their 5 year data and considered the constraints on the time-evolving equation of state of dark energy for the first time from the WMAP distance information. In this Letter, we study the effectiveness of the usage of this distance information and find that the compressed CMB information can give similar constraints on dark energy parameters compared with the full CMB power spectrum if dark energy perturbations are included; however, if the dark energy perturbations are incorrectly neglected, the difference of the results is sizable.
3 Limiting cases I : Cahn-Hilliard and Allen-Cahn

We study a class of models for precipitation from a dynamical systems point of view. The class of models incorporates Cahn-Hilliard-type models for spinodal decomposition and supersaturation theories as natural limiting cases. We analyze existence and stability of coherent structures, and relate our findings to simulations of Liesegang pattern formation.
Nonequilibrium dynamics and superfluid ring excitations in binary Bose-Einstein condensates.

We revisit a classic study [D. S. Hall, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1539 (1998)10.1103/PhysRevLett.81. 1539] of interpenetrating Bose-Einstein condensates in the hyperfine states |F=1,m{f}=-1 identical with |1 and |F=2,m{f}=+1 identical with |2 of 87Rb and observe striking new nonequilibrium component separation dynamics in the form of oscillating ringlike structures. The process of component separation is not significantly damped, a finding that also contrasts sharply with earlier experimental work, allowing a clean first look at a collective excitation of a binary superfluid. We further demonstrate extraordinary quantitative agreement between theoretical and experimental results using a multicomponent mean-field model with key additional features: the inclusion of atomic losses and the careful characterization of trap potentials (at the level of a fraction of a percent).