Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Student Performance in Tertiary-Level Accounting: An International Student Focus

The present paper provides empirical evidence regarding the academic performance of university students studying accounting. In particular, the effect of student origin is investigated by comparing the accounting performance of resident and international students. The present study controls for a number of other key variables, including ability, anxiety, work experience in accounting, accounting study prior to university and enrolment status. The question of whether international student performance improves over time through an acculturation effect is also investigated. Bivariate analyses revealed higher anxiety and lower general ability for international "vis-a-vis" resident students yet no significant difference in accounting performance between the two groups. After controlling for key variables, an association was observed between student origin and accounting performance with superior performance reported for the international student cohort. Statistically significant relationships were also observed between accounting performance and ability, anxiety, employment experience in accounting, enrolment status and accounting study prior to university. An acculturation effect was not clearly evidenced. Copyright AFAANZ, 2004.
The influence of a cooked-meat meal on estimated glomerular filtration rate

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important but under-recognized condition. Recent national guidelines have recommended that biochemistry laboratories report estimated GFR (eGFR) to improve diagnosis of CKD and facilitate disease staging and management. Previous reports have suggested that intake of large amounts of cooked meat can lead to a significant increase in serum creatinine concentration. Methods: Participants (n = 32), consisting of 17 healthy volunteers and 15 outpatients, were recruited. Measurement of serum creatinine (kinetic Jaffe method, enzymatic, isotope-dilution mass spectrometry [IDMS]) and cystatin C, and calculation of eGFR were carried out before (i) and after a meal containing cooked meat (ii) and a meat-free meal (iii). Results: Following intake of cooked meat, median serum creatinine concentration (kinetic Jaffe) increased from 80.5 µmol/L preprandially to 101.0 µmol/L 1-2 h postprandially (P<0.0001), and 99.0 µmol/L 3-4 h postprandially (P<0.0001). Median eGFR decreased from 84.0 mL/min/1.73 m2 preprandially to 59.5 mL/min/1.73 m2 1-2 h postprandially (P<0.0001), and 64.0 mL/min/1.73m2 3-4 h postprandially (P<0.0001). Consumption of non-meat-containing meals had little impact on serum creatinine (kinetic Jaffe) and eGFR. Changes in serum creatinine were similar using all three methods, and cystatin C concentration was generally uninfluenced by food intake. Conclusions: Intake of cooked meat has a significant effect on serum creatinine concentration and eGFR. Misclassification of CKD is possible if measurements are made after meals containing cooked meat. Clinicians should ensure that CKD classification is based on samples taken in the appropriate conditions: either fasting or after avoidance of cooked meat on the day of sampling. National guidelines which overlook this factor should be revisited.
Public opinion and interest group influence: how citizen groups derailed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

ABSTRACT The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which envisages stricter standards for the transnational enforcement of intellectual property rights, received strong support from business groups. Nevertheless, a campaign against the agreement that was initiated by a small number of citizen groups was successful in stopping its ratification in the European Union (EU). This result is puzzling because the anti-ACTA side controlled few material resources and should have found it difficult to have its voice heard on an issue negotiated at the international level. We explain the success of the anti-ACTA campaign by showing how interest groups managed to increase the public salience of the issue; how the increasing public salience motivated a growing number of interest groups to mobilize; and how the resulting dynamic made decision-makers opt against ratification of the agreement. The article advances scholarly understanding of the interaction between lobbying and public opinion and sheds light on the defeat of ACTA.
A causative matrix approach to interpreting structural change

Regional economic structure is uniquely represented in the input–output matrix of interindustry transactions. Although changes in this matrix representation reflect certain changes in economic structure, there is no consensus on the measurement and interpretation of these changes. This paper assesses the utility of constant causative matrix methods for measuring, for interpreting, and potentially for forecasting structural economic change. The paper concludes with a discussion of special considerations and future research directions.
An empirical test for Eurozone contagion using an asset-pricing model with heavy-tailed stochastic volatility

This paper proposes an empirical test of financial contagion in European equity markets during the tumultuous period of 2008-2011. Our analysis shows that traditional GARCH and Gaussian stochastic-volatility models are unable to explain two key stylized features of global markets during presumptive contagion periods: shocks to aggregate market volatility can be sudden and explosive, and they are associated with specific directional biases in the cross-section of country-level returns. Our model repairs this deficit by assuming that the random shocks to volatility are heavy-tailed and correlated cross-sectionally, both with each other and with returns. The fundamental conclusion of our analysis is that great care is needed in modeling volatility if one wishes to characterize the relationship between volatility and contagion that is predicted by economic theory. In analyzing daily data, we find evidence for significant contagion effects during the major EU crisis periods of May 2010 and August 2011, where contagion is defined as excess correlation in the residuals from a factor model incorporating global and regional market risk factors. Some of this excess correlation can be explained by quantifying the impact of shocks to aggregate volatility in the cross-section of expected returns - but only, it turns out, if one is extremely careful in accounting for the explosive nature of these shocks. We show that global markets have time-varying cross-sectional sensitivities to these shocks, and that high sensitivities strongly predict periods of financial crisis. Moreover, the pattern of temporal changes in correlation structure between volatility and returns is readily interpretable in terms of the major events of the periods in question.
Nudge and the Law: A European Perspective

Behavioural sciences provide a better understanding of human decision-making. Increasingly, governments around the world are keen to rely on these insights for reshaping public interventions in a wide range of policy areas such as energy, health, financial services and data protection. When policy-making meets behavioural sciences, effective, low- cost and choice preserving regulations can emerge in the form of default rules, smart disclosure and simplification requirements. While behaviourally-informed regulation has a huge potential, it also attracts legitimacy and practicability concerns. Nudge and the Law explores the legal implications of the emergent phenomenon of behavioural regulation by focusing on the challenges and opportunities it may offer to EU policy-making and beyond
Heading‐vector navigation based on head‐direction cells and path integration

Insect navigation is guided by heading vectors that are computed by path integration. Mammalian navigation models, on the other hand, are typically based on map‐like place representations provided by hippocampal place cells. Such models compute optimal routes as a continuous series of locations that connect the current location to a goal. We propose a “heading‐vector” model in which head‐direction cells or their derivatives serve both as key elements in constructing the optimal route and as the straight‐line guidance during route execution. The model is based on a memory structure termed the “shortcut matrix,” which is constructed during the initial exploration of an environment when a set of shortcut vectors between sequential pairs of visited waypoint locations is stored. A mechanism is proposed for calculating and storing these vectors that relies on a hypothesized cell type termed an “accumulating head‐direction cell. ” Following exploration, shortcut vectors connecting all pairs of waypoint locations are computed by vector arithmetic and stored in the shortcut matrix. On re‐entry, when local view or place representations query the shortcut matrix with a current waypoint and goal, a shortcut trajectory is retrieved. Since the trajectory direction is in head‐direction compass coordinates, navigation is accomplished by tracking the firing of head‐direction cells that are tuned to the heading angle. Section 1 of the manuscript describes the properties of accumulating head‐direction cells. It then shows how accumulating head‐direction cells can store local vectors and perform vector arithmetic to perform path‐integration‐based homing. Section 2 describes the construction and use of the shortcut matrix for computing direct paths between any pair of locations that have been registered in the shortcut matrix. In the discussion, we analyze the advantages of heading‐based navigation over map‐based navigation. Finally, we survey behavioral evidence that nonhippocampal, heading‐based navigation is used in small mammals and humans. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Response of 443 patients to steroids as primary therapy for acute graft-versus-host disease: comparison of grading systems.

Acute GVHD remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In a retrospective analysis, the response of 443 HSCT patients who received prednisone, 60 mg/m2, for 14 days followed by an 8-week taper, as initial therapy for acute GVHD from 1990 through 1999 at a single institution was examined. Median patient age was 29.0 years (range, 0.3-60.3 years), with 40% of patients <20 years old. Patients received HSCT from 201 related (189 matched sibling/12 partially matched) and 242 unrelated (130 HLA-A, B, DRB1 matched/112 partially matched) donors. GVHD score was measured and outcomes compared using the Minnesota, Consensus, and International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry (IBMTR) grading systems. Prior to initiation of steroid therapy, severe (grades III-IV) acute GVHD was observed in 57 (13%) patients (Minnesota or Consensus grading) and in 192 (43%) patients (IBMTR grading). At day 28 of treatment, overall improvement was observed in 55% of patients, with durable (> or = 28 days) complete response observed in 35% and partial response observed in 20% of patients. Patients with acute lower gastrointestinal GVHD (+/- other organ involvement) had lower response rates. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, recipients of related donor grafts and recipients of GVHD prophylaxis other than methotrexate alone had the highest likelihood of overall response. Initial Minnesota GVHD grade or Consensus GVHD grade was not associated with significant differences in overall response, whereas patients with an initial IBMTR grade of B or C had a higher likelihood of response. Chronic GVHD developed in 42% of patients by 1 year after HSCT. The probability of survival at 1 year after initiation of steroid therapy was 53% (95% confidence interval, 48%-58%). In Cox regression analysis, factors associated with better survival included patients' youth, receipt of related or HLA-matched unrelated grafts, and administration of GVHD prophylaxis other than T-cell depletion in all 3 grading systems. Lower initial GVHD grade (I-II or A-B) led to better survival. These data suggest that steroids provide an active but inadequate therapy for acute GVHD, especially with higher grade GVHD. More effective prophylaxis and therapy for acute GVHD is needed for mismatched unrelated donor recipients and for those with severe GVHD.
Comparison of magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) reconstruction algorithms

Several algorithms have been proposed for image reconstruction in MREIT. These algorithms reconstruct conductivity distribution either directly from magnetic flux density measurements or from reconstructed current density distribution. In this study, performance of all major algorithms are evaluated and compared on a common platform, in terms of their reconstruction error, reconstruction time, perceptual image quality, immunity against measurement noise, required electrode size. J-Substitution (JS) and Hybrid J-Substitution algorithms have the best reconstruction accuracy but they are among the slowest. Another current density based algorithm, Equipotential Projection (EPP) algorithm along with magnetic flux density based Bz Sensitivity (BzS) algorithm has moderate reconstruction accuracy. BzS algorithm is the fastest.
Market Making, the Tick Size, and Payment-for-Order Flow: Theory and Evidence

The authors analyze the effects of a finite tick size and the practice of 'payment-for-order flow' on market competition. Even if the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) reservation price is superior to its non-NYSE counterpart, brokers may, because of payment-for-order flow, prefer to execute orders off the NYSE floor. In accordance with the implications of the model, empirical analysis suggests that non-NYSE marketmakers trade a larger fraction of the smaller order sizes and offer fewer price improvement opportunities and that large companies appear to have enhanced price improvement opportunities on the NYSE. Copyright 1995 by University of Chicago Press.
Opportunities and challenges for expatriates in emerging markets: an exploratory study of Korean expatriates in India

On the basis of a questionnaire survey of 67 Korean expatriate managers in India, this exploratory study investigates the factors that affect the Korean expatriates’ satisfaction with an international assignment in light of the opportunities and challenges associated with working and living in India. The study showed that the expatriates’ (1) elevated position/title abroad, (2) unrealistic expectations toward international relocation and (3) inability to manage work–life balance issues had a negative influence on their overall satisfaction with an international assignment to India. The results also revealed that the homogeneous Korean expatriates maintained their Confucian values in the diverse and challenging Indian environment – this has both a positive and negative impact on their overall satisfaction. The implications, both theoretical and practical, for international human resource management are provided.
A Study of the Relations between Soil Moisture, Soil Temperatures and Surface Temperatures Using ARM Observations and Offline CLM4 Simulations

Soil temperature, soil moisture, skin temperature and 2-m air temperature are examined from both ground observations and the offline community land model (CLM4). Two-layer soil moisture and three-layer soil temperature observations from six-year (2003–2008) ground measurements at the Lamont, Oklahoma site supported by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program of the Department of Energy (DOE) show clear vertical and temporal relations between soil temperature and soil moisture with surface skin temperature and 2-m air temperature. First, daily means reveal that all of these variables have clear seasonal variations, with temperatures peaking in summer and minimizing in winter as a result of surface insolation. Nevertheless, the 2-m air temperature and upper soil temperature (−0.05 m) peak at 2 h after that of surface skin temperature because of the lag of transport of heat from the skin level to the 2-m air and to underground respectively. As a result of such lag, at the monthly annual cycle scale, 2-m air temperature has higher correlation with upper soil temperature than skin temperature does. Second, there are little diurnal and annual variations at the lowest soil layer (−0.25 m). Third, a negative correlation (~−0.40) between skin temperature and soil moisture is observed, consistent with the expectation that heat flux and evaporation are competing physical processes for redistributing surface net radiation. Soil moisture, however, minimizes in March and maximizes in winter due to the local rainfall cycle. All of these key observed relations are qualitatively reproduced in the offline CLM4 using the atmosphere forcing derived from ARM observations. Nevertheless, CLM4 is too dry at the upper layer and has less variation at the lower layer than observed. In addition, CLM4 shows stronger correlation between Tsoil and Tskin (r = 0.96) than the observations (r = 0.64), while the predicted nighttime Tskin is 0.5–2 °C higher than the observations.
Empirical Evidence of Stakeholder Management in Sports Clubs: The Impact of the Board of Directors

Abstract A major challenge for non-profit sports organizations is how to raise resources from their stakeholders. The present article empirically assesses how the management of stakeholders can affect the resources raised by non-profit sports organizations. The moderating effect of particular characteristics of the Board of Directors is also considered. Evidence is obtained by surveying a large sample of sports clubs from Catalonia, Spain. Results indicate how the quality of relations between sports clubs and their external stakeholders relate positively to the financial and non-financial contributions of stakeholders. A club's financial resources are also positively linked to the amount of time its Board of Directors is willing to invest. Our results represent a major contribution to the management of sports clubs, demonstrating that sports organizations should prioritize the management of their external stakeholders.
The Expanded Implementation Shortfall

Transaction costs and transaction cost analysis (TCA) has captured renewed attention in the financial industry due to the recent increase in electronic orderflow and algorithmic trading. To assist investors in understanding these costs and how they affect trading performance we have unbundled transaction costs into nine components. We provide a categorization scheme to understand how these costs can be managed during the implementation and a classification system to understand where and when these costs arise during the investment cycle. This classification system, the expanded implementation shortfall, is based on the work of Perold (1988) and Wagner & Edwards (1993), and subsequently serves as foundation for understanding transaction costs and devising an execution strategy that is consistent with the overall investment objective.
Matchmaking the B‐Cell Signature of Tolerance to Regulatory B Cells

Confirmation of clinical tolerance requires the cessation of immunosuppressive drugs, which evoke immune reactivation and allograft rejection in all but the rare individuals who successfully transition into a state of operational transplantation tolerance. Therefore, the safe conduct of trials in transplantation tolerance requires two conditions: a sensitive and reliable means to identify individuals still being maintained on immunosuppression who are most likely to exhibit tolerance after immunosuppression is withdrawn and a noninvasive means that assesses the quality or robustness of the tolerant (TOL) state. Two recent studies attempting to identify a gene signature in peripheral blood of spontaneously TOL kidney transplant recipients made the unexpected observation that TOL, but not immune‐suppressed transplant recipients, exhibited enriched B cells and B‐cell transcripts in their blood. In concert with the emerging appreciation of a specialized subset of regulatory B cells (Bregs) that possess immune‐modulatory function, these observations raise the possibility that Bregs play a critical role in the maintenance of tolerance to renal allografts in transplant patients. This review summarizes these recent findings and speculates on the relationship of Bregs to the maintenance of transplantation tolerance.
Regional development partnerships in Sweden: Putting the government back in governance?

Abstract Regional development partnerships were introduced in Sweden in 1998 as part of a new regional policy. Here it is argued that these partnerships can provide support for the concept of governance in which the state continues to play an important role in steering the direction of policy. On the surface, as a decentralized organizational form, emphasizing inclusion of a broad range of regional stakeholders in the production of regional growth agreements/programmes, the partnerships would seem to fit a strategy of ‘letting other regimes rule’ on the part of the state. However, the central role played by the Swedish county administrative boards (the extended arm of the state in the region), suggests that the partnerships could also be a way for central government to retain control over the direction of regional development. In this way, they become an example of the state's ability to adjust to a changing environment rather than its ‘hollowing out’.
Causality Analysis of the Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on GDP in Nigeria

This study used a Cointegration VAR model to study the Contemporaneous Long – run dynamics of the impact of foreign direct Investment (FDI) on Growth Domestics Products (GDP) with other four macroeconomic variables in the Nigerian Economy for the period of January 1970 to December 2004. The Unit Root Test suggests that all the variables are integrated of order 1. The VAR (3) model were appropriately Identified using AIC information criteria and the VECM (2) model with cointegration relation of exactly one . The study further investigate the causal relationship using the Granger Causality analysis of VECM which indicates a uni–directional causal relationship between GDP and FPI at 5% as in inline with other studies of Basu et al.(2003). The results of Granger Causality Analysis also show that some of the variables are Granger Causal of one another, at 5% level of significance. Having established the fact that foreign direct investment has positive impact on growth domestic product, government should strategize policies that would enhance foreign direct investment in Nigeria.
Dynamic interaction between house prices and stock prices in Malaysia

This paper examines the dynamic linkages between house price indices, interest rates and stock prices in Malaysia using cointegration and Granger causality testing. For Malaysia as a whole, we find that house prices, stock prices and interest rates are not cointegrated. For Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Selangor we find that house prices, stock prices and interest rates are cointegrated for 40% of the house price indices. When there is evidence of cointegration in these regions, we find that stock prices lead house prices. While there are alternative potential reasons for this finding, such as slow adjustment of house prices in response to a shock in the fundamentals, it is consistent with a wealth effect. A likely explanation for this result is that in these states, compared with the Malaysian average, housing is expensive, income is high and real estate is used much more as an investment vehicle by both wealthy Malaysians and foreigners leveraging of the share market.
Envelope Wages in the European Union

This paper reveals how many formal employees in the European Union receive from their formal employer not only a declared wage but also an additional undeclared (‘envelope’) wage. Reporting a 2007 survey involving 26,659 face-to-face interviews, the finding is that 1 in 18 formal employees received envelope wages from their formal employer, which on average amounted to 25% of their gross salary, and that envelope wage payments prevail more in some countries, employee groups and businesses than others. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications.