Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The antecedents of satisfaction with pay in teams: do performance-based compensation and autonomy keep team-members satisfied?

This paper aims to investigate the effects performance-based compensation and autonomy on satisfaction with pay in the context of team working. I develop a complex perspective that considers the influence of different monetary and non-monetary rewards on satisfaction with pay. Drawing from the agency theory, equity theory and theory of cooperation I predict that both piece rates and team-based rewards are associated with higher pay satisfaction. Moreover, I claim that both individual and team-based autonomy contribute to increased satisfaction with pay. Using a cross-sectional dataset of randomly selected European employees who are asked about specific working and living conditions, results confirm that both productivity-based rewards and autonomy are important for employee satisfaction. Managers should know when to introduce rewards based only on individual merits and when to give to use autonomy as a buffer to compensate for the potential lack of fairness in the payment system.
Consumer's Willingness to Pay for Organic Food in the Perspective of Meta-Analysis

With the concern for the market of food safety, abundant researches on consumer's WTP for organic food have been carried out. With meta-analysis, this paper aims to confirm whether diverge estimates from various researches are relaible and to explore the sources of heterogenicity in terms of four espects: sampling err, socio-economic characteristics of sample, research methods and research objects. It shows that there is a wide range of WTPs among researches on organic food where the maximum value shoots up to 509.2% and the minimum value touches down to 2.3%. The sample size of empirical survey should be at least above 200. Open-ended question format, household randomly sampling method and personal interview survey are much more appreciated.
Public Spheres on the Internet: Anarchic or Government‐Sponsored – A Comparison

This article discusses whether the internet can contribute to strengthening democracy by creating new public spheres online. The focus is whether government-sponsored initiatives are more successful than private ‘anarchic’ ones in shaping conditions for democratic dialogue. Two cases are examined and it is concluded that the government-sponsored case in general is most successful in achieving democratic ideals of openness, respect, argumentation, enlightenment and deliberation. Three factors are crucial for the success of the former case: rules and moderation, a geographical affiliation and the presence of politicians. On the other hand, it is clear that political debate online is still an exclusive activity reserved mainly for the well educated and politically active. The internet's often-claimed potential for mobilising new groups cannot be confirmed. Rather, the chosen few have got yet another opportunity to discuss and influence the political process.
The Comprehensive Income Issue in Europe

The recent financial crisis and the lobbying of European politicians and banks have led to a vigorous debate about ‘fair value’ gains and losses and highlights plans by current standard setters. The IASB Discussion Paper (2008), Preliminary Views on Financial Statement Presentation promises to extend the ‘fair value’ concept into an aggregated comprehensive income statement. We augment the debate by providing empirical findings on information, measurement, prediction and conservatism issues. Aggregated comprehensive income is found to be inferior to GAAP net income as a general valuation and prediction metric, and switches the conservative attributes of income towards a more timely recognition of good news over bad news. Results are robust to country specific regressions, controls for non-linearities, the impact of reporting incentives, and the underlying accounting framework (local GAAP, US GAAP, IFRS). Disaggregated components are incrementally more value relevant for analysts. For regulators the choice about income measurement boils down to a dilemma whether to ignore the volatile and complex price signals of unrealised gains and losses, to service the narrower demands from the analyst community, or to reduce the conservative role that accounting plays in agency contracting. Our research supports a disaggregated approach without mixing the function and nature attributes of income.
Accounting Scandals in IPO Firms: Do Underwriters and VCs Help?

This paper examines whether underwriter reputation, venture capitalist (VC) backing, and VC reputation are related to the probability that a newly public firm has serious accounting problems. We examine a sample of firms that went public during 1995-2005 and announced restatements within three years of their initial public offerings (IPOs), and a control sample of non-restating IPO firms matched by industry and IPO size. We use a variety of sources to assemble a novel dataset that includes hand-collected data on underwriters, VCs, corporate governance, executive compensation, and other IPO-firm characteristics. We use paired logistic regressions to examine how the probability of restatement by an IPO firm is related to the reputation of its lead underwriter, VC backing, and the reputation of its lead VC. We test several competing hypotheses and control for other factors that prior studies have found to be significant determinants of the probability of restatement. We find that the probability of restatement by a newly public firm is 1) consistently and positively related to the reputation of its lead underwriter, 2) negatively related to VC backing and the reputation of its lead VC in several sub-samples where misstatements are likely to be more harmful to VC reputations, and 3) negatively related to the maturity of its lead VC. The endogenous selection of a more reputable underwriter or VC backing does not appear to drive our results. Our findings suggest that VCs, especially those that are mature and reputable, have positive influence as monitors on the financial reporting quality of IPO firms, while underwriters’ concerns about generating revenue appear to override their reputational concerns.
Leveraging parasport events for community participation: development of a theoretical framework

Research question: Sporting events have become highly sought after tools for economic, tourism, and social development in cities around the world; however, little is understood about how to effectively leverage events. This purpose of this paper is to present a framework for leveraging small-medium scale sporting events for increasing community accessibility and opportunities for persons with a disability to participate in sport, recreation, and leisure. Research methods: Drawing upon interview and documentary data that are part of a broader research project that examines how small-medium scale sporting events have and can be leveraged to enhance accessible opportunities in local communities, the data were reanalysed focused postevent learning in regards to leveraging strategies for future event opportunities in order to build the framework. Results and findings: The Parasport-leveraging Framework is presented here as an emergent leveraging structure that shifts the focus of parasport event legacies away from the notion that merely hosting a disability sport event will impact upon communities' understanding and relationship with disability sport. Further, the framework emphasizes the need to strategically use the events in the context of policy frames and discourses of event-related processes. Implications: This research furthers the work of Chalip, Smith, and others who have argued that in order for benefits to accrue to a host region, host communities need to find points of leverage within the context of event resources to enhance positive social legacies. Additionally, it offers a strategic starting point for communities seeking to implement leveraging plans alongside event agendas.
A New Nine-Level Active NPC (ANPC) Converter for Grid Connection of Large Wind Turbines for Distributed Generation

Wind power is one of the most promising emerging renewable energy technologies for distributed generation (DG). In this paper, a new nine-level active neutral-point-clamped (9L ANPC) converter is proposed for the grid connection of large wind turbines (WTs) to improve the waveform quality of the converter output voltage and current. Therefore, the bulky passive grid filters can be reduced or even removed. The topology, operating principles, control schemes, and main features, as well as semiconductor device selection of the proposed converter are presented in detail. The floating capacitor voltage control based on redundant switching states and capacitor prioritization is detailed. A comparison between the new topology and other existing 9L topologies is presented to illustrate the characteristics and performance of the new converter. The proposed 9L ANPC converter is studied in the case of the grid connection of a 6-MW WT without using passive grid filters in DG systems. Simulation and experiment results are presented to validate the proposed converter topology and control schemes. The proper operation and the compliance to the harmonic limit standards of the filterless grid-connected WT system are verified by simulation results.
Measuring the degree of fulfillment of the law of one price. Applications to financial market integration

This paper gives two measures of the degree of fulfillment of the Law of One Price. These measures are characterized by means of saddle point conditions, and are therefore easy to compute in practical situations. Many empirical papers analyze well-Known arbitrage strategies. Our measures present an important advantage over this approach, since we globally focus on the market to find its arbitrage opportunities, without studying special strategies. The developed theory is also applied to markets with frictions, and to study the integration of different financial markets. Our measures are continuous with respect to previous measures in the literature, and seem to be better than them since they compute how much money the agents can win due to the arbitrage opportunities in a financial market, or among different ones.
A new technique for multiparameter imaging microscopy: Use of long decay time photoluminescent labels enables multiple color immunocytochemistry with low channel‐to‐channel crosstalk

In this report, we describe luminescence imaging microscopy using five different photoluminescent dyes in a single specimen. We combined the long decay time luminophores, europium(III) chelate, terbium(III) chelate, palladium(II) coproporphyrin, and platinum(II) coproporphyrin, with a green nuclear stain, Syto 25™, that emits conventional fast decaying fluorescence. The luminescence emissions from the five different luminophores were separated from each other by the differences in spectra and decay times using time‐resolved detection. Applicability of this dye‐combination for multiparameter analysis of a biological object was verified in a mixed population of peripheral blood leukocytes. Leukocyte cytocentrifugates were incubated in one step with a cocktail of luminophore‐conjugated antibodies recognizing neutrophil‐ and lymphocyte‐specific markers, followed by rapid staining with a mixture of nuclear stain and Pt‐porphyrin as an eosinophil stain. The results show that multiple luminescent dyes with long decay time can be used together, and in combination with a conventional fluorophore. The separation of the signals of the long decay time labels was distinctive and enabled reliable identification of different leukocyte types, as well as an automated cell count. The long decay time luminophores together with time‐resolved luminescence imaging microscopy (TR‐LIM) provide a unique tool for studies of simultaneous expression of multiple antigens at the level of a single cell. In comparison with other multiparameter imaging techniques, the described technique offers increased accuracy of results, simplification of preparation procedure, and dramatic shortening of the total processing time. To our knowledge, this is the first time that simultaneous fivefold labeling/staining and analysis in a single specimen has been performed in the field of immunocytochemistry. Microsc. Res. Tech. 62:396–407, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Conditional Heteroscedasticity in Time Series of Stock Returns: Evidence and Forecasts

This article presents new evidence about the time-series behavior of stock prices. Daily return series exhibit significant levels of second-order dependence, and they cannot be modeled as linear white-noise processes. A reasonable return-generating process is empirically shown to be a first-order autoregressive process with conditionally heteroskedastic innovations. In particular, generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic GARCH (1, 1) processes fit to data very satisfactorily. Various out-of-sample forecasts of monthly return variances are generated and compared statistically. Forecasts based on the GARCH model are found to be superior. Copyright 1989 by the University of Chicago.
Rapid reversal of innate immune dysregulation in blood of patients and livers of humanized mice with HCV following DAA therapy

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection results in sustained immune activation in both the periphery and hepatic tissue. HCV infection induces innate immune signaling that is responsible for recognition of dsRNA, leading to activation of transcription factors and production of Type I and III IFNs, as well as pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Continued activation of host-immune mediated inflammation is thought to contribute to pathologic changes that result in progressive hepatic fibrosis. The current standard treatment for chronic HCV infection is directly-acting antivirals (DAAs), which have provided the unique opportunity to determine whether successful, rapid treatment-induced eradication of viral RNA normalizes the dysregulated antiviral innate immune response in patients chronically infected with HCV. Results First, in patients receiving two different combinations of DAAs, we found that DAAs induced not only rapid viral clearance, but also a re-setting of antiviral immune responses in the peripheral blood. Specifically, we see a rapid decline in the expression of genes associated with chronic IFN stimulation (IFIT3, USP18, IFIT1) as well as a rapid decline in genes associated with inflammation (IL1β, CXCL10, CXCL11) in the peripheral blood that precedes the complete removal of virus from the blood. Interestingly, this rapid reversal of innate immune activation was not seen in patients who successfully clear chronic HCV infection using IFN-based therapy. Next, using a novel humanized mouse model (Fah-/-RAG2-/-IL2rgnull—FRG), we assessed the changes that occur in the hepatic tissue following DAA treatment. DAA-mediated rapid HCV clearance resulted in blunting of the expression of proinflammatory responses while functionally restoring the RIG-I/MAVS axis in the liver of humanized mice. Conclusions Collectively, our data demonstrate that the rapid viral clearance following treatment with DAAs results in the rebalancing of innate antiviral response in both the peripheral blood and the liver as well as enhanced antiviral signaling within previously infected hepatocytes.
A revision of the US business-cycles chronology 1790-1928

This article extends earlier efforts at redating the US business cycles for the 1790–1928 period using the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) constructed by Johnson and Williamson (2007). We compare the alternative chronology with those of the NBER and Davis (2006) as well as Romer (1994) for the postbellum period. The resulting chronology alters more than 50% percent of the peaks and troughs identified by the NBER and Davis's chronologies, especially during the antebellum period, and removes those cycles long considered the most question- able, as growth or industrial cycles. An important result of the new chronology is the lack of discernible differences in the frequency and duration of US busi- ness cycles among the antebellum and postbellum periods. We also find that the average frequency and duration of contractions are less important than those of expansions.
Understanding the Repurchase Abandonment Process of Consumers in the Online Environment: Integrating Dissatisfaction and Distrust

This study investigates the consumer repurchase abandonment mechanism in the online environment. The proposed repurchase abandonment model was built by integrating the distrust formation process into expectation-disconfirmation theory, which was based only on the dissatisfaction formation process. This study identifies that dissatisfaction and distrust are more affected by disconfirmation than pre-expectation. Therefore, it is confirmed that a recency effect is effective in the online repurchase abandonment context. This study also identifies that distrust is a trigger of dissatisfaction, which means that distrust should take precedence over dissatisfaction to prevent consumers’ repurchase abandonment behaviors. Therefore, e-vendors should regard instant trust means such as reputation and trust seals as matters of the highest priority. The proposed model could be a useful foundation for e-vendors to establish a strategy for preventing consumer exit after first purchase.
AetMYC 1 , the Candidate Gene Controlling the Red Coleoptile Trait in Aegilops tauschii Coss . Accession As 77

The red coleoptile trait can help monocotyledonous plants withstand stresses, and key genes responsible for the trait have been isolated from Triticum aestivum, Triticum urartu, and Triticum monococcum, but no corresponding research has been reported for Aegilops tauschii. In this research, transcriptome analysis was performed to isolate the candidate gene controlling the white coleoptile trait in Ae. tauschii. There were 5348 upregulated, differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) and 4761 downregulated DEGs in red coleoptile vs. white coleoptile plants. Among these DEGs, 12 structural genes and two transcription factors involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis were identified. The majority of structural genes showed lower transcript abundance in the white coleoptile of accession ‘As77’ than in the red coleoptile of accession ‘As60’, which implied that transcription factors related to anthocyanin biosynthesis could be the candidate genes. The MYB and MYC transcription factors AetMYB7D and AetMYC1 were both isolated from Ae. tauschii accessions ‘As60’ and ‘As77’, and their transcript levels analyzed. The coding sequence and transcript level of AetMYB7D showed no difference between ‘As60’ and ‘As77’. AetMYC1p encoded a 567-amino acid polypeptide in ‘As60’ containing the entire characteristic domains, bHLH-MYC_N, HLH, and ACT-like, belonging to the gene family involved in regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis. AetMYC1w encoded a 436-amino acid polypeptide in ‘As77’ without the ACT-like domain because a single nucleotide mutation at 1310 bp caused premature termination. Transient expression of AetMYC1p induced anthocyanin biosynthesis in ‘As77’ with the co-expression of AetMYB7D, while AetMYC1w could not cause induced anthocyanin biosynthesis under the same circumstances. Moreover, the transcript abundance of AetMYC1w was lower than that of AetMYC1p. AetMYC1 appears to be the candidate gene controlling the white coleoptile trait in Ae. tauschii, which can be used for potential biotech applications, such as producing new synthetic hexaploid wheat lines with different coleoptile colors.
Multinational companies’ real asset ownership and its impact on diversification

Purpose – This study examines whether or not holding a greater percentage of real assets significantly impacts the risk and risk‐adjusted return of U.S. based multinational companies. Design/methodology/approach – A series of rolling Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression models are used to analyse the relationships among corporate real assets, systematic risk (beta), and risk‐adjusted return. Findings – The results of this study show that U.S. based multinational companies do have lower betas. However, U.S. based multinational companies’ cross border real asset holdings do not affect diversification and do not provide significantly higher risk‐adjusted returns to stockholders. Originality/value – This study builds upon the prior work of Seiler, Chatrath and Webb to consider multinational firms. This had never been done previously.
Toll‐like receptors, endogenous ligands, and systemic autoimmune disease

Summary: The critical role of Toll‐like receptors (TLRs) as mediators of pathogen recognition by the innate immune system is now firmly established. Such recognition results in the initiation of an inflammatory immune response and subsequent instruction of the adaptive immune system, both of which are designed to rid the host of the invading pathogen. More controversial is the potential role of TLRs in the recognition of endogenous ligands and what effect this might have on the consequent development of autoimmune or other chronic sterile inflammatory disorders. An increasing number of studies implicate TLRs as being involved in the immune response to self‐molecules that have in some way been altered from their native state or accumulate in non‐physiologic sites or amounts, although questions have been raised about possible contaminants in certain of these studies. In this review, we discuss the evidence for endogenous ligand–TLR interactions with particular emphasis on mammalian chromatin, systemic lupus erythematosus, and atherosclerosis. Overall, the data support the general concept of a role for TLRs in the recognition of endogenous ligands. However, the precise details of the interactions and the extent to which they may contribute to the pathogenesis of human disease remain to be clarified.
Gesture imitation in autism: II. Symbolic gestures and pantomimed object use

We report an experimental study of imitation of two types of meaningful gestures: (a) social-communicative gestures, and (b) pantomimed actions with objects (including counterfunctional object use) by children and adolescents with autism. Controls were (a) children with nonautistic developmental delays, matched for chronological age and receptive language age, and (b) typically developing children matched for receptive language. Children in both comparison groups imitated actions more accurately than did children with autism, who nonetheless demonstrated understanding of the meaning of the gestures. However, the autistic group tended to have difficulty naming gestures and also was less able than controls to produce actions on verbal request. Children with lower levels of language ability, including those with autism, had difficulty imitating unconventional use of objects, instead using the object for their conventional functions. The discussion addresses the implications of these results and our own previous related findings for representational and executive accounts of praxic deficits in autistic spectrum disorders.
The Dependent Character of Development Planning in Tanzania

This paper examines development planning in one particular developing country, namely Tanzania, and the problem of dependency associated with it. It analyses Tanzania's shift from a comprehensive development planning to a decentralized planning in 1980 in terms of sector and area plans and indicative planning, in the form of Poverty Reduction Strategy. This shift, which had more to do with the surge of neoliberalism than domestic conditions, resulted in a simplified and more interactive planning, and lesser dependency on foreign experts than before. While Tanzania experienced rapid economic growth under the new planning regime, this was not without serious trade-offs, particularly in terms of reduced priority to industrialization and economic nationalism. The paper shows the various planning approaches as having been donor-driven, and also maintains that the way the Government has recently been trying to institutionalize O&OD planning is likely to lead to village dependency on the Districts.