Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fiat lux – Shedding new light on derivatives markets

Not so long ago, we policymakers thought we knew just what challenges we were facing for Europe to better take advantage of globalisation through a more sustainable model: these were climate change and a rapidly ageing society. However, since 2007 we have also learnt that there was another area requiring a deep sustainability check: the financial system. What started in 2007 as a credit crisis in the US market for subprime mortgages turned into a full-blown global fi nancial crisis in 2008, following Lehman’s default and has taken us near to a sovereign debt crisis as countries face the fiscal consequences of financial instability, on top of large public indebtedness. This highlights the importance of the financial system for society as a whole and, therefore, the political imperative of mending it so that finance serves the real economy – not the other way around. We therefore need to put in place a new set of rules and principles ensuring a stable and sustainable financial system. Without this our whole economy will be impeded from prospering again and we will not be able to address the challenges outlined above.
Collective bargaining, incomes policy and relative wage flexibility in Greek manufacturing, 1966-1988

Based on the assumption that industrial relations influence labour market outcomes, the thesis examines first, the characteristics and the evolution of bargaining structures and procedures in the Greek system of industrial relations, second, the governmental policies aimed at wage and employment regulation, and third, the extent to which, in the context of developments in industrial relations as well as in the context of incomes policy, there was room for relative wage flexibility in the Greek manufacturing sector. The main conclusion of the thesis is that, despite the extensive and continuous regulation of wage determination procedures by successive governments, changes in industrial relations which occurred after 1975 and were marked by decentralised, fragmented and informal collective bargaining, were accompanied by flexibility in relative wages. The sources of this flexibility, which is largely noncompetitive, are related to industry-specific productivity gains as well as to industry-specific rates of strike activity. Moreover, the rise of decentralised, fragmented and informal collective bargaining influenced the effectiveness of the norm-based and the indexation incomes policies as far as variation in the inter-industry wage structure in the Greek manufacturing sector is concerned.
A New Examination of the Private Company Discount

Determining the appropriate discount for lack of marketability (DLM) is one of the most challenging questions in valuing private firms, and one that has only recently begun to be deeply explored. In this study, using several multiples with a methodology robust to the criticisms addressed to the acquisition approach, we find that privately-acquired firms are indeed discounted. The median DLM observed, however, varies with the multiple considered. For example, we find that the estimated median private company discount is 34% with the earnings multiple, whereas it is 20% for the cash-flow multiple. Furthermore, we find that the estimated DLM varies across firms and some industries, and tends to be smaller for large and growth private companies, but is more sensitive to growth than to size.
Glutamate transporter EAAC‐1‐deficient mice develop dicarboxylic aminoaciduria and behavioral abnormalities but no neurodegeneration

Four L‐glutamate neurotransmitter transporters, the three Na+‐dependent GLAST‐1, GLT‐1 and EAAC‐1, and the Cl−‐dependent EAAT‐4, form a new family of structurally related integral plasma membrane proteins with different distribution in the central nervous system. They may have pivotal functions in the regulation of synaptic L‐glutamate concentration during neurotransmission and are believed to prevent glutamate neurotoxicity. To investigate the specific physiological and pathophysiological role of the neuronal EAAC‐1, which is also expressed in kidney and small intestine, we have generated two independent mouse lines lacking EAAC‐1. eaac‐1−/− mice develop dicarboxylic aminoaciduria. No neurodegeneration has been observed during a period of >12 months, but homozygous mutants display a significantly reduced spontaneous locomotor activity.
Time Deformation in UK Consumers’ Expenditure

Cook, Holly, and Turner recently developed a hypothesis of a positive relationship between the durability of consumers' expenditure and the asymmetric behaviour it exhibits. Supportive evidence was found by applying Sichel's tests of business cycle asymmetry to the component series of UK consumers' expenditure, which represents goods of differing durability. In this paper the relationship is re-examined using the original data, by implementing Stock's diagnostic tests of time deformation. The results provide further support for the durability-asymmetry hypothesis. Copyright 1999 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the Board of Trustees of the Bulletin of Economic Research
Development of Sleep Spindles in the First Year of Life

Spindles develop in a man at 6 weeks conceptional age, at first at a low amplitude, gradually increasing in amplitude but especially in duration to a maximum at 13 weeks (mean, 6 sec; longest, 21 sec), rapidly decreasing in duration with age to 23 weeks (mean, 2.5 sec) and then slowly decreasing to the end of the first year (mean, 1.5 sec). The pause between the spindles is usually inversely related to the spindle duration and stabilizes after 23 weeks at 7 sec. The complex of spindle and pause is the longest at 10 weeks (12.5 sec), decreasing with age and stabilizing at 17 weeks at 8.1 sec. Thus, from 17 weeks until the end of the first year, spindles tend to recur every 8-9 sec, although variability is evident, especially in the duration of the pause. Synchronous spindles develop from a low value of 10% to around a 30% value until the end of the year, and asynchronous ones tend to have the same value (30%) for most of the year, except in the youngest patients. The reticular nucleus of the thalamus is known to be the generator of spindles and an increase in some size may be related to the great increase in duration, peaking at 13 weeks, and an increase in the development of the dendritic tree of this nucleus may be related to the many changes that stabilize at 23 weeks of age.
Improving the Market Model: The 4-State Model Alternative

The present paper conducts an empirical study by examining the Market Model and the three versions of the 4-State Model (translated, rotated and un-rotated) in a mean-beta framework. Using daily returns from the CAC 40 Index's assets, we find that the explanatory power of the 4-State Model is greater than the one of the Market Model and this effect is improved by rotation. A reduction in the non-systematic risk is also observed when switching from Market Model to 4-State Models. Surprisingly, the betas are more stable when using any version of the 4- State Model. This could have a strong impact on portfolio diversification and call widely held opinion into question.
Advancing the Discipline of Leadership Studies

The best way to describe the current status of Leadership Studies is that it is an “emerging discipline. ” Few universities have departments, or even programs, in Leadership, and those that do exist usually have a modifier (e.g., “Organizational Leadership,” “Educational Leadership”), so we are, at best, emerging as a discipline, but I am certain that we will one day be there. Of course, there are those both outside of the study of leadership (many! ) and scholars of leadership (some), who disagree that Leadership Studies is a discipline, and a portion of those would argue that it never should or could become one.
Medicinal halophytes: potent source of health promoting biomolecules with medical, nutraceutical and food applications

Salt-tolerant plants grow in a wide variety of saline habitats, from coastal regions, salt marshes and mudflats to inland deserts, salt flats and steppes. Halophytes living in these extreme environments have to deal with frequent changes in salinity level. This can be done by developing adaptive responses including the synthesis of several bioactive molecules. Consequently, several salt marsh plants have traditionally been used for medical, nutritional, and even artisanal purposes. Currently, an increasing interest is granted to these species because of their high content in bioactive compounds (primary and secondary metabolites) such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, vitamins, sterols, essential oils (terpenes), polysaccharides, glycosides, and phenolic compounds. These bioactive substances display potent antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumoral activities, and therefore represent key-compounds in preventing various diseases (e.g. cancer, chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disorder) and ageing processes. The ongoing research will lead to the utilisation of halophytes as a new source of healthy products as functional foods, nutraceuticals or active principles in several industries. This contribution focuses on the ethnopharmacological uses of halophytes in traditional medicine and reviews recent investigations on their biological activities and nutraceuticals. The work is distributed according to the different families of nutraceuticals (lipids, vitamins, proteins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, etc.) discussing the analytical techniques employed for their determination. Information about the claimed health promoting effects of the different families of nutraceuticals is also provided together with data on their application.
Geographical Price Variation, Housing Assistance and Poverty

Two important shortcomings of the official measure of poverty are its failure to account for noncash benefits (including the benefits of low-income housing programs) when calculating resources and differences in the cost-of-living across geographic areas when setting poverty thresholds. Alternative estimates of poverty rates that account for the variation in the cost-of-living across areas when setting thresholds and the value of rental housing subsidies when measuring household resources have been produced. One purpose of this chapter is to better account for these factors in poverty measurement using a much improved consumer price index for each metropolitan area and the nonmetropolitan part of each state and better estimates of the value of existing rental housing subsidies based on data from the American Housing Survey. A second purpose is to estimate the effect on poverty rates of people of various types of replacing the current system of low-income housing assistance with an equally costly entitlement housing voucher program that would offer assistance to all of the poorest people in the United States. The current system fails to offer assistance to many of the poorest people while serving many people with much higher incomes.
Do the Returns to Community Colleges Differ between Academic and Vocational Programs?

This paper provides new evidence about the payoffs to community colleges’ terminal training programs as distinct from their traditional transfer function. Using NLSY data, we offer three main findings. First, four-year college graduates who started at a community college are not at a substantial earnings disadvantage relative to those who started at a four-year college. Second, community college students in terminal training programs enjoy a positive payoff comparable to that received by four-year college starters who do not graduate. Finally, we find evidence of positive self-selection for community college students who choose the terminal training track.
ECONOMIC EVALUATIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC TESTING: AN ILLUSTRATIVE CASE STUDY APPROACH

Objective: The aim of this study was to present a clear process of synthesizing test accuracy data when conducting economic evaluations of diagnostic tests for health technology assessment (HTA) assessors and health economists. Methods: We appraised the methods advocated for using diagnostic test accuracy data in economic evaluations. We used a case study of fetal anemia in which data from a screening test are used in combination with a confirmatory test. Results: We developed a step-by-step guide and consider two scenarios: when data on test accuracy from several studies are based on (i) the same test threshold for positivity and (ii) different test thresholds. Conclusions: We conclude that each approach has its strengths and limitations. We show that the optimal operating point of the test should be identified to determine the true cost-effectiveness of the test. We advocate that these issues require a multidisciplinary team of health economists, decision modelers and statisticians.
Defragmenting Definitions of Entrepreneurial Opportunity*

We examined 19 years worth of definitions of entrepreneurial opportunity and opportunity‐related processes. We found 56 articles in six entrepreneurship‐focused publications, with a total of 49 conceptual definitions and 32 operational definitions. Among those definitions, we identified 25 distinct conceptual and 12 operational elements of opportunity plus 48 conceptual and 39 operational elements of opportunity‐related processes. We found considerable fragmentation across conceptual and operational elements. However, based on commonalities among conceptual definitions, we developed six composite conceptual definitions of opportunity and eight composite conceptual definitions of opportunity‐related processes, which we hope will help reduce the fragmentation of the entrepreneurial opportunity literature.
Influence of the Sonicare toothbrush on the structure and thickness of laboratory grown Streptococcus mutans biofilms.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effect of powered brushing with the Sonicare electronic toothbrush on the structure and thickness reduction of S. mutans biofilms using digital time-lapse microscopy (DTLM) and confocal microscopy (CM) techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS S. mutans biofilms grown on glass microscope slides on BHI and 2% sucrose were exposed to Sonicare for 15 seconds with the bristle tips just contacting the slide, and at distances of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mm above the slide. RESULTS With direct bristle contact, the reduction in biofilm thickness was greater than 99%. DTLM showed the break up and detachment of biofilm caused by the shear forces generated by the rapid bristle motion in real time. The Sonicare was shown to significantly reduce biofilm thickness even when the bristles were 1 mm above the biofilm. The percent biofilm thickness reduction was inversely proportional to the bristle distance. This study demonstrates the Sonicare toothbrush effectively removed biofilm from hard flat surfaces both by direct bristle contact and by fluid dynamic shear forces alone.
Probability of default models of Russian banks

This paper presents results from an econometric analysis of Russian bank defaults during the period 1997–2003, focusing on the extent to which publicly available information from quarterly bank balance sheets is useful in predicting future defaults. Binary choice models are estimated to construct the probability of default model. In the first part of the paper we analyse bank survival over the financial crisis of 1998. We find that preliminary expert clustering or automatic clustering improves the predictive power of the models and incorporation of macrovariables into the models is useful. Heuristic criteria are suggested to help compare model performance from the perspectives of investors or banks supervision authorities. In the second part of the paper we use the probability of default models developed in the first part in rolling windows to analyse the Russian banking system trends after the crisis 1998.
MR image segmentation and tissue metabolite contrast in 1H spectroscopic imaging of normal and aging brain

The impact of image segmentation on 0.84‐ml nominal voxel volume proton spectroscopic imaging in normal brain and in age‐related cortical atrophy was investigated. Segmentation improved the gray matter‐white matter (GM‐WM) contrast for N‐acetyl aspartate (NAA)/creatine (Cr) and choline (Cho)/Cr in normal brain, and for NAA/Cho and NAA/Cr in atrophic brain. NAAGM/WM (∼0.7), ChoGM/WM (∼0.8), and CrGM/WM (∼1.3) in normal brain obtained with segmentation agreed with values obtained with quantitative magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Age‐related cortical atrophy led to decreased cortical GM NAA/Cho and NAA/Cr; no changes were evident in WM or in NAAGM/WM, ChoGM/WM, or CrGM/WM. GM/WM metabolite analysis may be of limited use in conditions in which parallel metabolite changes occur in WM and GM. Magn Reson Med 41:841–845, 1999. Published 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Models of Municipal Budget Allocation: Empirical Data from Spanish Municipalities

The present work empirically analyzes diverse budgetary theories (incrementalism, garbage can, rational) in municipal cost programs, paying special attention to the utility of financial information in decision making. The sample analyzed corresponds to a set of Spanish city councils in the period 1996–2004, and the econometric methodology used is a dynamic panel data model. The main conclusion reached is that the budgetary allocation of municipal costs does not follow a random path; incrementalism is of particular importance, together with financial information variables. The utility of budgetary indicators is reflected in the fact that municipal managers adopt rational elements, although incrementalism remains the habitual behavior.
THE INVESTMENT METHOD OF VALUATION: A REAL VALUE APPROACH: 2

It is important to question the suggestion that there is no distinction between inflation and growth. An illustration of the applications will show that the hybrid between the real value and equated yield approaches enables valuers to place the right ‘type’ of yield on differing types of income or capital value, ie high yields when rents are unable to be reviewed, low yields when rents are able to be reviewed continually and moderate yields when the income in partially proofed.
The flexibility of P-glycoprotein for its poly-specific drug binding from molecular dynamics simulations

The multidrug efflux pump P-glycoprotein (P-gp) contributes to multidrug resistance in about half of human cancers. Recently, high resolution X-ray crystal structures of mouse P-gp (inward-facing) were reported, which significantly facilitates the understanding of the function of P-gp and the structure-based design of inhibitors for P-gp. Here we perform 20 ns molecular dynamics simulations of inward-facing P-gp with/without ligand in explicit lipid and water to investigate the flexibility of P-gp for its poly-specific drug binding. By analyzing the interactions between P-gp and QZ59-RRR or QZ59-SSS, we summarize the important residues and the flexibility of different parts of P-gp. Particularly, the flexibility of the side chains of aromatic residues (Phe and Tyr) allows them to form rotamers with different orientations in the binding pocket, which plays a critical role for the poly-specificity of the drug-binding cavity of P-gp. MD simulations reveal that trans-membrane (TM) TM12 and TM6 are flexible and contribute to the poly-specific drug binding, while TM4 and TM5 are rigid and stabilize the whole structure. We also construct outward-facing P-gp based on the MsbA structure and perform 20 ns MD simulations. The comparison between the MD results for outward-facing P-gp and those for inward-facing P-gp shows that the TM parts in outward-facing P-gp undergo significant conformational change to facilitate the export of small molecules.
Design Management Absorption Model: A Framework to Describe and Measure the Absorption Process of Design Knowledge by Smes with Little or No Prior Design Experience

The introduction of new design knowledge or design resources in companies with little or no design experience has been at the core of design support programmes in several countries. Scholars investigated the use of design and identified different design and design management capabilities to deploy design effectively in companies of all sizes. However, how design and design management capability is built in SMEs with little or no prior design experience is insufficiently investigated. Based on the absorptive capacity construct from the broader field of innovation studies, this paper proposes a comprehensive design management absorption model that includes design management capabilities enabling design absorption in SMEs with little or no prior design experience as well as indicators to measure the progress of absorption. The model allows for analysing and guiding the process companies go through when using design as a strategic resource for the first time.
Urban sprawl and municipal budgets in Spain: A dynamic panel data analysis

Urban sprawl has recently become a matter of concern throughout Europe, but it is in southern countries where its environmental and economic impact has been most severe. This low-density, spatially expansive urban development pattern can have a highly marked impact on municipal budgets. Thus, local governments may see sprawl as a potential source of finance, in terms of building-associated revenues and increased transfers from upper tiers of government. At the same time, sprawl leads to increased levels of expenditure, as it may raise the provision costs of certain local public goods and requires greater investment in extending basic infrastructure for new urban development. What, therefore, is the net fiscal impact of urban sprawl? Do local governments consider the long-run net fiscal impact of new urban growth or do they simply focus on its short-term benefits, ignoring future development costs? This paper addresses these questions by analysing the dynamic relationship between urban sprawl and local budget variables. To do so, we estimate a panel vector autoregressive model using data for 4,000 Spanish municipalities for the period 1994-2005. Computed Generalised Impulse Response Functions show: (i) that sprawl considerably increases demand for new infrastructure, (ii) that the capital deficit generated by this new infrastructure is covered in the main by intergovernmental transfers and, to a lesser extent, by revenues linked to the real estate cycle, and (iii) that sprawl leads to a short-term current surplus, as the increase in current revenues offsets the increase in current expenditures due to public service provision for new developments. Overall, these findings point to a moral hazard problem for local governments in which inordinate intergovernmental transfers and development revenues encourage excessive urban sprawl.