Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What happens when firms break promises? The case of information credibility

In this study, we use the promise-breaking events of listed companies as a proxy for information credibility and adopt the event-study method to examine the market reactions to changes in firms' information credibility. We then investigate the channels through which the effects of information credibility are transmitted to the stock market and examine the moderating effects of institutional shareholders and ownership concentration. Our empirical findings indicate that changing the purpose of the funds raised through Initial Public Offerings reduces information credibility, which leads to negative market reactions. Moreover, the market reaction is more pronounced when dominant ownership or institutional shareholders are present. The implications of our findings with regard to the quality of the information environment are discussed.
Endothelin‐1 Releases Eicosanoids from Rabbit Isolated Perfused Kidney and Spleen

Summary This study analyzes the effects of porcine endothelin-1 (ET-1) on perfusion pressure and eicosanoid release from rabbit isolated spleen and kidney. Bolus injections (2.5–50 pmol) or infusions (1, 5, and 10 nM) of ET-1 into either organ caused dose-related increases of perfusion pressure. Pressor responses were potentiated following infusion of indomethacin (5.6 $mUM) for 30 min. ET-1 triggered the release of cyclo-oxygenase products as revealed by bioassay and radioimmunoassay (RIA) analysis of the effluent. In the spleen, ET-1 stimulated the release of PGE2 mainly and, to a lesser extent, of PGI2 and TXA2. In the kidney, ET-1 stimulated a greater release of PGI2 than PGE2, but not TXA2. These results demonstrate that in the isolated rabbit spleen and kidney, ET-1 is a potent vasoconstrictor and triggers the generation of vasodilator eicosanoids that limit the pressor effects of the peptide.
[Psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score normalization data for the Portuguese population].

INTRODUCTION The Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy (MHE) has been associated to changes in life quality and in the aptitude to drive vehicles, to the appearance of an explicit form of Hepatic Encephalopathy and to a worst prognosis, including a high mortality risk. In this context, the early detection of this condition will lead to the reduction of its consequences. The Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES) consists in five easily applicable and scored tasks including the Trail Making Test A and B, the Digit Symbol Test, the Serial Dotting Test and the Line Drawing Test. The use of the PHES is recommended by the International Society for Hepatic Encephalopathy and Nitrogen Metabolism, for the MHE diagnosis and monitorization, as long as local translations and normative data are available. The main objective of the present study is the PHES normalization for the Portuguese Population. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The tasks that compose the PHES were applied to 115 healthy subjects from four districts of the north of Portugal. Variables like age, gender, education years and the profession type were study in relation to the obtained results through the use of Student's t test and Pearson's correlation. In order to build the normality tables the linear regression was used. RESULTS Age and education years were the independent variables more related to the performance on the five tasks. CONCLUSION The availability of the normality tables will allow the MEH diagnosis in Portuguese patients with hepatic cirrhosis using an objective and internationally recommended method.
Main accessory sulcus of the liver

It has been proposed that the superficial part of the portal fissures weakens the surface hepatic parenchyma, allowing the development of accessory sulci caused by diaphragmatic pressure. To evaluate the relationship of the sulci in the antero‐superior surface of the right liver with the right portal fissure, macroscopic post mortem examination of 85 livers was carried out and radio‐opaque resins were injected into the portal and hepatic venous systems to obtain vascular casts. After formalin fixation, the 85 livers also underwent CT and MR scans and 3D image elaboration. Diaphragmatic sulci were found in 32 cases. We studied the sulci located in the right liver, i.e., those that lay to the right of the line of Cantlie. They were found in 28 instances and in 16 cases they were multiple. In the livers with a single sulcus, it extended between the anterior and right surfaces of the right liver and showed a curved course downward and forward, toward the inferior margin. In the cases with multiple sulci, one sulcus always showed a course similar to that of the single sulci. The 28 sulci, with similar position and course, showed variable characteristics (mean length = 7.6 ± 2.7 cm, mean width = 0.8 ± 0.7 cm, mean depth = 1.4 ± 0.8 cm). Both radiological images and corrosion casts showed a correspondence between these sulci and the right hepatic vein and the right portal fissure in 71% of cases. These sulci may represent the variable expression (cranial, intermediate, or caudal portions) of a potential sulcus, the main accessory sulcus (MAS), that develops along a theoretically predictable course corresponding to the superficial part of the right portal fissure. The high prevalence of location of the MAS at the level of the upper part of the right portal fissure can be ascribed to the presence at this level of the watershed between the roots of the tributaries of the hepatic veins coming from segments VIII and VII, draining respectively into the middle and right hepatic veins. Thus, the coexistence of the two portal and hepatic venous boundaries may represent a further predisposition to the effects of diaphragmatic pressure. The MAS may represent a marking for the right portal fissure, and hence a superficial reference for the deep course of the right hepatic vein. Clin. Anat. 18:39–45, 2005. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Joint venture investments and the market value of the firm

The impact of Joint Venture announcements on the market value of UK listed companies is examined. Based on a sample of 158 announcements of either joint venture formation or joint venture activities, significant positive market-adjusted abnormal returns of 0.5% on the announcement date are observed. Cross-sectional analysis reveals that abnormal returns are significantly lower when undertaken by large companies, or where the project is located in Asia. On the other hand, market-adjusted returns are found to be significantly higher when the project is large compared to the size of the company undertaking the investment, and where the project is either domestic or located within the European Union.
Globalization and Entrepreneurial Response in Post-Socialist Transformation: A Case Study from Transcarpathia, Ukraine

This paper sets out to examine the extent and characteristics of the globalization process in a region undergoing a process of socio-economic transformation. In doing so it draws upon the experience of an entrepreneurial, globally orientated, garment-making enterprise in Transcarpathia, the western most region of the Ukraine. The bulk of earlier scholarly research focused upon the consequences of the strategies implemented by multinational corporations. We argue, that this study points towards an alternative mode of integration in the global economy-one which received little attention in the Central and Eastern European context. This takes the form of a set of sub-contracting relationships between parent enterprises in Western Europe, intermediaries located in economies which achieved significant advances in the process of transformation (such as Hungary and Slovakia), and manufacturers in the locality.
Despite variation in volume, Veterans Affairs hospitals show consistent outcomes among patients with non-postoperative mechanical ventilation*

Objective:To assess the relationship between volume of nonoperative mechanically ventilated patients receiving care in a specific Veterans Health Administration hospital and their mortality. Design:Retrospective cohort study. Setting:One-hundred nineteen Veterans Health Administration medical centers. Patients:We identified 5,131 hospitalizations involving mechanically ventilated patients in an intensive care unit during 2009, who did not receive surgery. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:We extracted demographic and clinical data from the VA Inpatient Evaluation Center. For each hospital, we defined volume as the total number of nonsurgical admissions receiving mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit during 2009. We examined the hospital contribution to 30-day mortality using multilevel logistic regression models with a random intercept for each hospital. We quantified the extent of interhospital variation in 30-day mortality using the intraclass correlation coefficient and median odds ratio. We used generalized estimating equations to examine the relationship between volume and 30-day mortality and risk-adjusted all models using a patient-level prognostic score derived from clinical data representing the risk of death conditional on treatment at a high-volume hospital. Mean age for the sample was 65 (SD 11) yrs, 97% were men, and 60% were white. The median VA hospital cared for 40 (interquartile range 19–62) mechanically ventilated patients in 2009. Crude 30-day mortality for these patients was 36.9%. After reliability and risk adjustment to the median patient, adjusted hospital-level mortality varied from 33.5% to 40.6%. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the hospital-level variation was 0.6% (95% confidence interval 0.1, 3.4%), with a median odds ratio of 1.15 (95% confidence interval 1.06, 1.38). The relationship between hospital volume of mechanically ventilated and 30-day mortality was not statistically significant: each 50-patient increase in volume was associated with a nonsignificant 2% decrease in the odds of death within 30 days (odds ratio 0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.87–1.10). Conclusions:Veterans Health Administration hospitals caring for lower volumes of mechanically ventilated patients do not have worse mortality. Mechanisms underlying this finding are unclear, but, if elucidated, may offer other integrated health systems ways to overcome the disadvantages of small-volume centers in achieving good outcomes.
Reference architecture of intelligent appliances for the elderly

This paper describes reference architecture of consumer electronic and assistive appliances and services designed to improve the quality of life of the elderly. The architecture serves as a foundation for the identification, definition and standardization of internal and external interfaces of such appliances. It is a basis for component-based design and supports a framework for building different types of appliance, and different versions of each type, by integrating configurable and evolvable components in a systematic, verifiable way.
How Asymmetric is U.S. Stock Market Volatility?

This paper explores differences in the impact of equally large positive and negative surprise return shocks in the aggregate U.S. stock market on: (1) the volatility predictions of asymmetric time-series models, (2) implied volatility, and (3) realized volatility. Following large negative surprise return shocks, both asymmetric time-series models (such as the EGARCH and GJR models) and implied volatility predict an increase in volatility and, consistent with this, ex post realized volatility normally rises as predicted. Following large positive return shocks, asymmetric time-series models predict an increase in volatility (albeit a much smaller increase than following a negative shock of the same magnitude), but both implied and realized volatilities generally fall sharply. While asymmetric time-series models predict a decline in volatility following near-zero returns, both implied and realized volatility are normally little changed from levels observed prior to the stable market. The reasons for the differences are explored.
Snake constriction rapidly induces circulatory arrest in rats

ABSTRACT As legless predators, snakes are unique in their ability to immobilize and kill their prey through the process of constriction, and yet how this pressure incapacitates and ultimately kills the prey remains unknown. In this study, we examined the cardiovascular function of anesthetized rats before, during and after being constricted by boas (Boa constrictor) to examine the effect of constriction on the prey's circulatory function. The results demonstrate that within 6 s of being constricted, peripheral arterial blood pressure (PBP) at the femoral artery dropped to 1/2 of baseline values while central venous pressure (CVP) increased 6-fold from baseline during the same time. Electrocardiographic recordings from the anesthetized rat's heart revealed profound bradycardia as heart rate (fH) dropped to nearly half of baseline within 60 s of being constricted, and QRS duration nearly doubled over the same time period. By the end of constriction (mean 6.5±1 min), rat PBP dropped 2.9-fold, fH dropped 3.9-fold, systemic perfusion pressure (SPP=PBP−CVP) dropped 5.7-fold, and 91% of rats (10 of 11) had evidence of cardiac electrical dysfunction. Blood drawn immediately after constriction revealed that, relative to baseline, rats were hyperkalemic (serum potassium levels nearly doubled) and acidotic (blood pH dropped from 7.4 to 7.0). These results are the first to document the physiological response of prey to constriction and support the hypothesis that snake constriction induces rapid prey death due to circulatory arrest. Highlighted Article: Examination of the effect of snake constriction on rat cardiovascular function reveals support for circulatory arrest as the proximate cause of death in constricted prey, in contrast to previous ideas.
Bullying among siblings

Abstract Background: Parents are often concerned about repeated conflicts between their daughters and sons. However, there is little empirical research of sibling bullying. Objective: To conduct a review of existing studies of sibling bullying. Are there any associations between sibling bullying and peer bullying at school? What are the consequences of sibling bullying? Is there good justification why sibling bullying has been so neglected in research? Method: Studies of sibling relationships were reviewed. Four quantitative studies were identified that report on both sibling and peer bullying. Results: Sibling bullying is frequent with up to 50% involved in sibling bullying every month and between 16% and 20% involved in bullying several times a week. Experience of sibling bullying increases the risk of involvement in bullying in school. Both, bullying between siblings and school bullying make unique contributions to explaining behavioral and emotional problems. There is a clear dose-effect relationship of involvement of bullying at home and at school and behavioral or emotional problems. Those involved in both have up to 14 times increased odds of behavioral or emotional problems compared to those involved in only one context or not at all. Conclusions: The empirical evidence is limited and studies are mostly cross-sectional studies. Nevertheless, the review suggests that for those victimized at home and at school behavioral and emotional problems are highly increased. Sibling relationships appear to be a training ground with implications for individual well-being. Strengthening families and parenting skills and increasing sibling support is likely to reduce bullying and increase well-being.
Diminishing Marginal Returns and the Production of Education: An International Analysis

Abstract Diminishing marginal returns (DMR) to school inputs could explain a wide variety of findings in the research literature. One important example is the influential finding by Heyneman and Loxley that school inputs are the ‘predominant influence’ on achievement in developing nations, where input levels are low, even though the same school inputs have relatively little influence in developed nations, where input levels are higher. However, few studies of education production, including those related to the Heyneman–Loxley hypothesis, use functional forms that allow for DMR, and common tests for DMR appear to be invalid. Various tests are implemented using data from 32 countries. As is commonly found in the literature, the marginal effects of school inputs are frequently negative, precluding DMR. In those cases with positive marginal effects, there is more evidence for DMR than for increasing returns, but constant returns rarely can be rejected. DMR therefore does not appear to explain the differences in results between developing and developed nations.
Mycophenolic acid concentrations in long‐term heart transplant patients: relationship with calcineurin antagonists and acute rejection

Background: When used in conjunction with steroids and cyclosporin, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) has been shown to significantly reduce mortality and incidence of rejection in the first year after heart transplantation. It also appears that in this early post‐transplantation period, the monitoring of immunosuppressive therapies may be warranted. The current study was undertaken to determine if such monitoring is still useful more than 1 yr after heart transplantation.
Digital technology and creative arts career patterns in the UK creative economy

In this article, we ask what role both digital and artistic human capital play in the creative economy by examining employment patterns of digital technology (DT) and creative arts and design (CAD) graduates. Using student micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) in the United Kingdom, we investigate the characteristics and location determinants of these graduates. The article deals specifically with understanding how digital and creative skills in the UK are embedded across industries, or are concentrated in creative sub-sectors. Furthermore, it explores the role that these graduates play in each of the different sectors and their financial rewards. Findings suggest that digital technology graduates tend to concentrate in the software and gaming sub-sector of the creative industries, but also are likely to be in embedded creative jobs outside of the creative industries. DT and CAD graduates are more likely to be in a creative job than other graduates. Although they are more likely to be in full-time employment than part-time or self-employment, DT graduates suffer from a higher level of unemployment than CAD graduates.
An early secretory pathway mediated by GNOM-LIKE 1 and GNOM is essential for basal polarity establishment in Arabidopsis thaliana

Significance Within plants, controlled gradients of the hormone auxin are essential for development. These gradients are achieved through intracellular polar positioning of auxin transporter proteins, such as PIN-FORMED proteins (PINs), at the plasma membrane, thus guiding the direction of auxin transport. The establishment and maintenance of PIN polarity is controlled within each cell by complicated trafficking pathways of the endomembrane system. In the model plant Arabidopsis, it has long been known that endocytosis and recycling trafficking routes play roles in PIN polarity. In this study, we reveal the role of a secretory route in this process. Our evidence shows that this secretory trafficking route selectively controls basal (rootward) but not apical (shootward) PIN polarity. Spatial regulation of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, or auxin) is essential for plant development. Auxin gradient establishment is mediated by polarly localized auxin transporters, including PIN-FORMED (PIN) proteins. Their localization and abundance at the plasma membrane are tightly regulated by endomembrane machinery, especially the endocytic and recycling pathways mediated by the ADP ribosylation factor guanine nucleotide exchange factor (ARF-GEF) GNOM. We assessed the role of the early secretory pathway in establishing PIN1 polarity in Arabidopsis thaliana by pharmacological and genetic approaches. We identified the compound endosidin 8 (ES8), which selectively interferes with PIN1 basal polarity without altering the polarity of apical proteins. ES8 alters the auxin distribution pattern in the root and induces a strong developmental phenotype, including reduced root length. The ARF-GEF–defective mutants gnom-like 1 (gnl1-1) and gnom (van7) are significantly resistant to ES8. The compound does not affect recycling or vacuolar trafficking of PIN1 but leads to its intracellular accumulation, resulting in loss of PIN1 basal polarity at the plasma membrane. Our data confirm a role for GNOM in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)–Golgi trafficking and reveal that a GNL1/GNOM-mediated early secretory pathway selectively regulates PIN1 basal polarity establishment in a manner essential for normal plant development.
Effects of season and sample handling on measurement of plasma alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone concentrations in horses and ponies.

OBJECTIVE To investigate effects of sample handling, storage, and collection time and season on plasma alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) concentration in healthy equids. ANIMALS 11 healthy Standardbreds and 13 healthy semiferal ponies. PROCEDURE Plasma alpha-MSH concentration was measured by use of radioimmunoassay. Effects of delayed processing were accessed by comparing alpha-MSH concentrations in plasma immediately separated with that of plasma obtained from blood samples that were stored at 4 degrees C for 8 or 48 hours before plasma was separated. Effects of suboptimal handling were accessed by comparing alpha-MSH concentrations in plasma immediately stored at -80 degrees C with plasma that was stored at 25 degrees C for 24 hours, 4 degrees C for 48 hours or 7 days, and -20 degrees C for 30 days prior to freezing at -80 degrees C. Plasma alpha-MSH concentrations were compared among blood samples collected at 8:00 AM, 12 noon, and 4:00 PM. Plasma alpha-MSH concentrations were compared among blood samples collected in January, March, April, June, September, and November from horses and in September and May from ponies. RESULTS Storage of blood samples at 4 degrees C for 48 hours before plasma was separated and storage of plasma samples at 4 degrees C for 7 days prior to freezing at -80 degrees C resulted in significant decreases in plasma alpha-MSH concentrations. A significantly greater plasma alpha-MSH concentration was found in September in ponies (11-fold) and horses (2-fold), compared with plasma alpha-MSH concentrations in spring. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Handling and storage conditions minimally affected plasma alpha-MSH concentrations. Seasonal variation in plasma alpha-MSH concentrations must be considered when evaluating pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction in equids.
Bacterial Flagellin-Specific Chaperone FliS Interacts with Anti-Sigma Factor FlgM

ABSTRACT Flagella are extracellular organelles that propel bacteria. Each flagellum consists of a basal body, a hook, and a filament. The major protein of the filament is flagellin. Induction of flagellin gene expression coincides with secretion of FlgM. The role of FlgM is to inhibit FliA (σ28), a flagellum-specific RNA polymerase responsible for flagellin transcription. To prevent premature polymerization of newly synthesized flagellin molecules, FliS, the flagellin-specific chaperone, binds flagellin and facilitates its export. In this study, the interaction between FlgM and FliS from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium was characterized using gel shift, intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence, circular dichroism, limited proteolysis, and cross-linking. We have demonstrated that (i) FliS and FlgM interact specifically, forming a 1:1 complex, (ii) the FliS binding site on FlgM is proximal to or even overlaps the binding site for FliA, and (iii) FliA competes with FliS for FlgM binding.