Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Taiwanfs First Exchange Traded Fund Efficient

Taiwanfs first ETF, TTT, was launched in June 2003. In addition to the characteristics and performance of TTT, this research examined whether ETF is a better choice for Taiwanfs investors by applying the mean-variance analysis and portfolio evaluation techniques. In the mean-variance analysis, the empirical result shows that TTT has a smaller standard deviation as compared to its fifty underlying stocks, which makes TTT an attractive investment tool for Taiwanfs conservative investors. However, further examination shows that the performance of TTT is relatively unsatisfactory in comparison with the market benchmark portfolio and a hypothetical portfolio. Evidently, TTT, based on the market capitalization in determining the allocation weights, does not yield the most appealing portfolio while the hypothetical portfolio, which applies the Markowitzfs theoretical framework, is showing more attraction during the sample period. In an attempt to further validate the results, the examination was applied to an extended period. Statistical results prove that the hypothetical portfolio still outperforms TTT in two of three performance measures. After incorporating various costs of portfolio construction and rebalancing as well as transaction taxes, the hypothetical portfolio retains its dominance, suggesting another dimension for future ETF formation. Key words:exchange traded fund, portfolio theory, efficient portfolio, Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, Jensen Index.
An operations perspective on strategic alliance success factors

Purpose – To explore alliance managers' perceptions of the most significant determinants of strategic alliance success in the software sector.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on 30 key informant interviews and a survey of 143 alliance managers.Findings – While both structural and process factors are important, the most significant factors affecting alliance success are the adaptability and openness of the alliance partners, human resource practices and partners' learning capability during implementation. Alliance partners should pay more attention to operational implementation issues as an alliance evolves, in order to achieve successful cooperative relationships.Research limitations/implications – This research has responded to the call for more empirical study of the underlying causes of successful alliances. It contributes to the ongoing debate about which factors have most impact on strategic alliance outcomes, and complements prior research on several dimensions. First, using selected.
Impact of Elevated Atmospheric CO Concentration on 2 Growth and Yield of Potato Cultivars

21 century. Such an increase in the atmospheric CO may effect plant growth and productivity of crop plants. st 2 A field experiment was conducted with two potato cultivars namely Kufri Surya and Kufri Chipsona-3 grown inside Open Top Chambers (OTCs) at ambient (385±30 μmol mol ) and elevated CO (570±50 μmol mol ), 1 1 2 during rabi season of the year 2009-2010. The experiment was planned in a randomized complete block design under factorial arrangement with three replications. The photosynthetic rate significantly increased in both the cultivars under high CO and enhancement was greater in K. Chipsona-3 than K. Surya. There was increased 2 accumulation of reducing, non-reducing and total sugars in the leaves of both the cultivars due to CO2 enrichment. Crop growth rate (CGR) and tuber growth rate (TGR) in both cultivars was higher in plants grown under elevated CO compared with ambient. High CO increased more partitioning of dry matter towards the 2 2 tubers at all harvesting stages. Potato plants grown under elevated CO exhibited increased tuber yield due to 2 enhanced number of tubers per plant. At the final harvest, total tuber fresh weight was 36% greater under high CO treatments compared to ambient. Among the two cultivars the response of K. Chipsona-3 was better to 2 increased CO concentration compared with K. Surya. The study concludes that rising atmospheric CO in future 2 2 climate change scenario may be beneficial for tuber crops like potato to enhance growth as well as tuber yield.
14 nights of intermittent hypoxia elevate daytime blood pressure and sympathetic activity in healthy humans

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) causes nocturnal chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH) that contributes to excess cardiovascular morbidity. To explore the consequences of IH, we used our recently developed model of nocturnal IH in healthy humans to characterise the profile of this blood pressure increase, to determine if it is sustained and to explore potential physiological mechanisms. We performed 24-h ambulatory monitoring of blood pressure in 12 healthy subjects before and after 2 weeks of IH exposure. We also assessed systemic haemodynamics, muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), ischaemic calf blood flow responses and baroreflex gain. We obtained blood samples for inflammatory markers before, during and after exposure. IH significantly increased daytime ambulatory blood pressure after a single night of exposure (3 mmHg for mean and diastolic) and further increased daytime pressures after 2 weeks of exposure (8 mmHg systolic and 5 mmHg diastolic). Mean±sd MSNA increased across the exposure (17.2±5.1 versus 21.7±7.3 bursts·min−1; p<0.01) and baroreflex control of sympathetic outflow declined from -965.3±375.1 to -598.4±162.6 AIU·min−1·mmHg−1 (p<0.01). There were no evident changes in either vascular reactivity or systemic inflammatory markers. These data are the first to show that the arterial pressure rise is sustained throughout the waking hours beyond the acute phase immediately after exposure. Moreover, they may suggest that sympathoactivation induced by IH likely contributes to blood pressure elevation and may derive from reduced baroreflex inhibition. These mechanisms may reflect those underlying the blood pressure elevation associated with OSAS.
The Optimal Length of Contracts With Application to Outsourcing

This paper resolves three empirical puzzles in outsourcing by formalizing the adaptation cost of long-term performance contracts. Side-trading with a new partner alongside a long- term contract (to exploit an adaptation-requiring investment) is usually less effective than switching to the new partner when the contract expires. So long-term contracts that prevent holdup of specific investments may induce holdup of adaptation investments. Contract length therefore trades of specific and adaptation investments. Length should increase with the importance and specificity of self-investments, and decrease with the importance of adaptation investments for which side-trading is ineffective. My general model also shows how optimal length falls with cross-investments and wasteful investments.
A Note on Obtaining Welfare Bounds in Referendum Contingent Valuation Studies

In this note, the authors detail the mechanics of the nonparametric mean and variance calculations of finding willingness to pay (WTP) estimates. There are (at least) three nonparametric estimators of mean WTP that can be obtained from referendum CV survey data. The logic behind all three nonparametric estimators is the same.
New Teachers' Experiences of Hiring: Preliminary Findings from a Four-State Study

This paper was prepared for the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, April 2003. Research for this paper was conducted under the auspices of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and under the supervision of Professor Susan Moore Johnson. Funding was provided by the Spencer Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation, although the analysis and conclusions reported here are solely those of the author.
Executive Directors, Pay Disclosures, and Incentive Compensation in Large European Companies

Using a proprietary database for the largest 158 European companies during 1999-2004, I find that transparency of executive pay disclosures and sensitivity of executive pay to performance increase with the proportion of top executives serving as company directors and with dual chief executive officer (CEO) and board chairs. These relations strengthen in countries with more protection for outside shareholders. The positive marginal effects of executive directors (i.e., insiders) on transparency of pay disclosures and sensitivity of pay to performance are not significant when (1) insiders already have the numerical majority on boards, (2) CEOs are board chairs, and (3) pay levels and company ownership of executives are relatively high. Overall, the evidence supports the optimal-contracting argument over the rent-seeking argument. Specifically, companies mitigate agency costs associated with the existence of company executives on boards through transparent pay disclosures and incentive compensation. However, such actions are limited to companies with strong country-level investor protection and significant representation of independent directors on company boards.
Does the temperature of beverages affect the surface roughness, hardness, and color stability of a composite resin?

Objective: To investigate the effect of beverages′ temperature on the surface roughness, hardness, and color stability of a composite resin. Materials and Methods: Fifty specimens of the Filtek Z250 composite (3M ESPE, Dental Products, St.Paul, MN, USA) were prepared and initial roughness, microhardness, and color were measured. Then the specimens were randomly divided into five groups of 10 specimens each: Coffee at 70°C, coffee at 37°C, cola at 10°C, cola at 37°C, and artificial saliva (control). After the samples were subjected to 15 min × 3 cycles per day of exposure to the solutions for 30 days, the final measurements were recorded. Results: After immersion in beverages, the artificial saliva group showed hardness values higher than those of the other groups (P < 0.001) and the microhardness values were significantly different from the initial values in all groups except for the control group. Both cola groups showed roughness values higher than the baseline values (P < 0.05), while the other groups showed values similar to the baseline measurements. When ΔE measurements were examined, the 70°C coffee group showed the highest color change among all the groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion: High-temperature solutions caused alterations in certain properties of composites, such as increased color change, although they did not affect the hardness or roughness of the composite resin material tested.
Characterization of the FIDDLEHEAD Gene of Arabidopsis Reveals a Link between Adhesion Response and Cell Differentiation in the Epidermis

We report the isolation of the FIDDLEHEAD (FDH) gene of Arabidopsis by transposon tagging. Three mutant alleles of FDH carrying insertions of the Enhancer/Suppressor-mutator transposon and one stable allele with a transposon footprint were generated in the Arabidopsis ecotype Columbia genetic background. Closer examination of the adaxial epidermis of rosette leaves revealed that in addition to provoking the previously described fusion phenotype in leaves and floral organs, mutations in FDH have a deleterious effect on trichome differentiation. FDH transcripts were detected exclusively in the epidermis of young vegetative and floral organs. Plants overexpressing FDH under control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter segregated fdh phenocopies, wild-type individuals, and plants showing severe retardation of growth and development. The dwarf plants displayed the most FDH expression, the fdh phenocopies generally the least. The protein product of FDH shows similarity to condensing enzymes involved in lipid biosynthesis, particularly those of the FATTY ACID ELONGATION family.
Towards an auditory representation of complexity

In applications of sonification, the information inferred by the sonification strategy applied often supersedes the amount of information which can be retrieved by the ear about the object of sonification. This paper focuses on the representation of complex geometric formation through sound, drawing on the development of an interactive installation sonifying escape time fractals as an example. The terms “auditory emergence and formation” are introduced and an attempt is made to interpret them for music composition, data display and information theory. The example application,. “Audio Fraktal”, is a public installation in the permanent exhibition of the Museum for Media Art at ZKM, Karlsruhe. The design of the audiovisual display system that allows the shared experience of interactive spatial auditory formation is described. The work was produced by the author at the Institute for Music and Acoustics at ZKM, Karlsruhe.
Studies in Income, Investment, and Stock Returns: The Permanent Income Hypothesis and the Overinvestment Puzzle

Increased sales drive earnings; increased earnings drive investment; and increased investment drives higher stock returns. In this dissertation, I studied the relationship of sales income, firm investment increase and stock returns. The first paper, titled "Permanent Income and Investment", investigates the relationship between changes in sales income and levels of investment. When firms experience increases in sales that they consider to be permanent, the present value of expected profits also increase, leading to increases in the firms’ investments. Firm's investment behavior is primarily explained by permanent changes in sales incomes and not by transitory change. The second paper, titled "Firm Investment and Stock Return", investigates the relationship between investment and future returns of the firm. Recent dominant theory has considered the relationship between corporate investment and stock returns as negative due to overinvestment concerns, that is, the market initially under reacts to the possibility of overinvestment. This paper is the first full-scale empirical study that finds a positive relationship between corporate investment and stock returns if the investment increase/decrease is observed within a multiple-year framework rather than as a one year event. If firms continually increase investment, the investment/return relationship becomes positive. My explanation for this positive relationship is that investors prefer stocks with expected higher profit or growth potential, signaled by continued investment increase. STUDIES IN INCOME, INVESTMENT, AND STOCK RETURNS: THE PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS AND THE OVERINVESTMENT PUZZLE
Job opportunities for whom? Labour market dynamics and service sector employment growth in Germany and Britain

This report examines structural change in employment and the development of servicesector jobs in Germany and Britain between 1993 and 2002. During this period the British labour market was buoyant, while the employment situation in Germany can only be described as dismal. There is much political interest in the potential for creating new jobs in the service sector. But these developments raise a number of controversial issues when this involves the potential expansion of low-skill, low-wage service jobs, especially in a country such as Germany which has traditionally enjoyed a high-skill, high-wage equilibrium. The project was designed to compare the characteristics of service employment, using comparable longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel. The analysis covered the different patterns of growth in service occupations and industries in the two countries and the quality of these jobs in terms of wages and working hours. We were interested in finding out what kind of jobs had been growing and what kinds of people have been taking them up. In particular, we were interested in tracking transition patterns between non-employment and employment, as well as in examining how far, and for whom, service employment is precarious.
A Protein (ORF2) Encoded by the Latency-Related Gene of Bovine Herpesvirus 1 Interacts with DNA

ABSTRACT Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1), like other members of the Alphaherpesvirinae subfamily, establishes latency in sensory neurons. The virally encoded latency-related RNA (LR-RNA) is expressed abundantly in latently infected sensory neurons and encodes several proteins, including ORF2. An LR mutant virus with stop codons at the amino terminus of ORF2 does not reactivate from latency after treatment with the synthetic corticosteroid dexamethasone, in part because it induces higher levels of apoptosis during the establishment of latency. ORF2 inhibits apoptosis, interacts with three cellular transcription factors (Notch1, Notch3, and C/EBP-α), and interferes with Notch-mediated signaling. Consequently, we predict that ORF2 expression is crucial for the latency reactivation cycle in cattle. In this study, we tested whether ORF2 interacts with nucleic acids, because it contains 18% basic amino acids and localizes to the nucleus. A subset of ORF2 proteins was associated with chromatin and preferentially associated with single-stranded DNA in transfected neuroblastoma cells (Neuro-2A). Alanine substitution of serine, threonine, and tyrosine residues in ORF2 increased the steady-state protein levels in Neuro-2A cells, and this protein preferentially interacted with double-stranded DNA. Certain in-frame transposon insertion mutants did not interact with DNA as efficiently as wild-type (wt) ORF2 did. ORF2 purified from bacteria under denaturing conditions preferentially interacted with double-stranded DNA, suggesting that the interaction between ORF2 and DNA was direct. In contrast, ORF2 purified under native conditions preferentially interacted with single-stranded DNA. We suggest that interactions between ORF2 and DNA mediate certain aspects of the latency reactivation cycle.
In vivo effects of propofol on acetylcholine release from the frontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum studied by intracerebral microdialysis in freely moving rats.

Using in vivo microdialysis, we have investigated the effects of propofol on acetylcholine (ACh) release from various regions of the rat brain. Propofol 25 and 50 mg kg-1 i.p. decreased basal ACh release from the frontal cortex by 70% and 85%, respectively. Propofol 25 and 50 mg kg-1 i.p. decreased basal ACh release from the hippocampus by 47% and 72%, respectively. However, in rat striatum, propofol 25 mg kg-1 i.p. did not affect basal ACh release and 50 mg kg-1 i.p. produced slight inhibition of basal ACh release (by 19%) only in the second sample after i.p. injection. In addition, we also examined the pharmacological mechanisms mediating the interaction between propofol and a gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABAA) receptor complex. In the rat hippocampus, local application of bicuculline 1 mumol litre-1, a GABAA receptor antagonist, significantly antagonized the inhibitory effects of propofol 50 mg kg-1 i.p. on basal ACh release. In the rat frontal cortex, local application of bicuculline 1 mumol litre-1 did not antagonize the inhibitory effects of propofol 50 mg kg-1 i.p. on basal ACh release, while systemic application of bicuculline 1 mg kg-1 i.p. significantly antagonized the inhibitory effects of propofol 50 mg kg-1 i.p. These results suggest that propofol has powerful depressant effects on ACh release from the rat frontal cortex and hippocampus but not from the striatum, indicating that propofol has a "region-selective" anaesthetic action. Further, these results suggest that the inhibitory effects of propofol in the rat hippocampus may involve "intra" hippocampal GABAA receptors while the inhibitory effects in the rat frontal cortex may be mediated by GABAA receptors other than "intra" frontal cortex GABAA receptors.
CONCEPTUALIZING THE CONSTRUCT OF INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT

The lack of a clear conceptualization and operationalization of the construct of interpersonal conflict makes it difficult to compare the results of different studies and hinders the accumulation of knowledge in the conflict domain. Defining interpersonal conflict as a dynamic process that occurs between interdependent parties as they experience negative emotional reactions to perceived disagreements and interference with the attainment of their goals, the present paper presents a two‐dimensional framework and a typology of interpersonal conflict that incorporates previous conceptualizations of the construct. The first dimension of the framework identifies three properties generally associated with conflict situations: disagreement, negative emotion, and interference. The framework's second dimension identifies two targets of interpersonal conflict encountered in organizational settings: task and interpersonal relationship. Based on this framework, the paper highlights several shortcomings of current conceptualizations and operationalizations of interpersonal conflict in the organizational literature, and provides suggestions for their remedy.
Practical algorithms for Size estimation in Large and Dynamic groups.

: Large-scale distributed systems may be required to estimate the number of non-faulty processes present in the group at a given point of time. The problem is related to aggregation, and several solutions have been proposed. In this paper, we present two new sampling-based algorithms for estimation in dynamic groups (i.e., where processes are constantly joining and crashing), and thoroughly evaluate them using real-life traces. One scheme spreads a gossip into the overlay first, and then samples the receipt times of this gossip at different processes. The second scheme measures the density of processes when their identifiers are hashed into a real interval. The schemes have low latency, per-process overheads, while providing high levels of probabilistic accuracy. We present simulation studies that measure and compare the performance of these approaches in static groups, and groups with significant turnaround (arrival and departure) of processes. The latter are done by using traces from deployed peer to peer overlays. The schemes are generic enough to be used by any distributed application.
On the treatment of entropy mixing in numerical cosmology

For simulations of fluid dynamics in astrophysics, physical viscosity and diffusion are typically neglected. However, in this high Reynolds number regime, real fluids become highly turbulent and turbulent processes mediate substantial transport of momentum and heat that is diffusive in nature. In the absence of models for these processes, code-dependent numerical effects dominate how diffusion operates and may lead to physically incorrect simulation results. We highlight the qualitative difference in these numerical effects for smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and grid-based Eulerian codes using two test problems: a buoyant gas bubble and gas in a galaxy cluster. Grid codes suffer from numerical diffusion in the absence of explicit terms, and small-scale diffusion of heat is completely absent in the Lagrangian SPH method. We find that SPH with heat diffusion added at a level similar to that expected from turbulence diffusion generates more physically appealing results. These results suggest, but do not confirm, that a flat entropy core is to be expected for gas in an idealized galaxy cluster (i.e. one without physics beyond that of a non-radiating gas). A goal of this work is thus to draw attention to the as yet unfulfilled need for models of turbulent diffusive processes in compressible gases in astrophysics.