Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Asset Allocation With Regime Shifts

Correlations between international equity market returns tend to increase in highly volatile bear markets, which has led some to doubt the benefits of international diversification. This article solves the dynamic portfolio choice problem of a U.S. investor faced with a time-varying investment opportunity set modeled using a regime-switching process which may be characterized by correlations and volatilities that increase in bad times. International diversification is still valuable with regime changes and currency hedging imparts further benefit. The costs of ignoring the regimes are small for all-equity portfolios but increase when a conditionally risk-free asset can be held. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.
Vacuum Rabi splitting as a feature of linear-dispersion theory: Analysis and experimental observations.

The spectral and temporal response of an optical cavity resonantly coupled to an ensemble of barium atoms has been investigated experimentally. The empty-cavity transmission resonances are found to split in the presence of the atoms and, under these conditions, the cavity's temporal response is found to be oscillatory. These eA'ects may be viewed as a manifestation of a vacuum-field Rabi splitting, or as a simple consequence of the linear absorption and dispersion of the intracavity atoms.
The hierarchical cognitive structure of entrepreneur motivation toward private equity financing

Abstract This research investigates the motivation of 91 Italian entrepreneurs for engaging in private equity financing. The laddering methodology is used to uncover cognitive schemas of entrepreneurs consisting of a structure of interconnected motives organized in a hierarchy. Means – end chain theory, the laddering technique, and principles from network analysis are used to interpret the schemas. The individual motives and connections among motives provide insights into why entrepreneurs make the decisions that they do and suggest practical implications for strategic decisions, everyday management and policy. The overall approach and results of this study differ fundamentally from traditional financial and business strategy points of view on decision making by entrepreneurs in that actual thinking processes, values and goals of managers are investigated to explain their choices and actions.
Preparation and control-release kinetics of isosorbide dinitrate microspheres

Microcapsules for sustained release of poorly soluble isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) were prepared based on ethylcellulose (EC) and/or blended with appropriate amounts of relatively hydrophilic hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) as matrix materials using the oil-in-oil emulsion evaporation method. The microspheres studied had three-mode sizes (100–150, 250–300 and 400–450 µm) and four polymer compositions (1, 0.833, 0.67 and 0.5 weight fraction EC). The microspheres were observed to contain essentially no drug crystalline domain and were of a porous morphology. The cumulative amounts of ISDN releasing from the microspheres as functions of mode fractions size and polymer compositions were measured in vitro. It was observed that the microspheres’ size influenced the release behaviour of drug more obviously than the polymer composition. The smaller size and the higher hydrophilic HPC content show the faster release rate of drug and the smaller amount of drug residue. The kinetics of drug release depends on the size and polymer composition. The microspheres with 100–150 µm, of all polymer compositions, present one-stage diffusion kinetic with a lag period for drug release. On the other hand, the microspheres with the other two sizes exhibit two-stage diffusion kinetic with a lag period. According to the kinetic model, the microspheres obtained are surmised to have a core-shell like drug concentration distribution and/or a core-shell morphology.
Engaging with Variable Pay: A Comparative Study of the Metal Industry

This article discusses differences in the responses of company employee representatives to variable pay systems, drawing on a comparative study in the metalworking sector in Austria, Norway, Spain and the UK. We find that the approaches of organized labour are contingent, first, on the type of pay system and its influence on total remuneration; and second, on the role of local trade unions or works councils within the national system of pay determination.
Formation of Boundaries of Transcriptionally Silent Chromatin by Nucleosome-Excluding Structures

ABSTRACT The eukaryotic genome is divided into chromosomal domains of distinct gene activities. Transcriptionally silent chromatin tends to encroach upon active chromatin. Barrier elements that can block the spread of silent chromatin have been documented, but the mechanisms of their function are not resolved. We show that the prokaryotic LexA protein can function as a barrier to the propagation of transcriptionally silent chromatin in yeast. The barrier function of LexA correlates with its ability to disrupt local chromatin structure. In accord with this, (CCGNN) n and poly(dA-dT), both of which do not favor nucleosome formation, can also act as efficient boundaries of silent chromatin. Moreover, we show that a Rap1p-binding barrier element also disrupts chromatin structure. These results demonstrate that nucleosome exclusion is one of the mechanisms for the establishment of boundaries of silent chromatin domains.
Permanent and Temporary Migration Differentials in China

Urban development and migration policies in China have greatly limited permanent migration to cities especially to bigger ones. In recent years however largely as a result of economic reforms temporary migration has become a major mechanism of population exchange. Data from the 1986 Survey of Migration in 74 Cities and Towns of China sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Science provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the volume and direction of temporary movement the reasons for it and the sociodemographic differences between temporary and permanent migrants living in Chinas cities and towns.Overall the findings indicate that temporary migration has come to complement and in some cases to substitute for permanent migration in allowing the Chinese population to cope with its rural labor surplus and to satisfy its strong desire for urban amenities. (EXCERPT)
Effect of community population size on breast cancer screening, stage distribution, treatment use and outcomes.

OBJECTIVE Residents of rural communities have decreased access to cancer screening and treatments compared to urban residents, though use of resources and patient outcomes have not been assessed with a comprehensive population-based analysis. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether breast cancer screening and treatments were utilized less frequently in rural BC and whether this translated into differences in outcomes. METHODS All patients diagnosed with breast cancer in British Columbia (BC) during 2002 were identified from the Cancer Registry and linked to the Screening Mammography database. Patient demographics, pathology, stage, treatments, mammography use and death data were abstracted. Patients were categorized as residing in large, small and rural local health authorities (LHAs) using Canadian census information. Use of resources and outcomes were compared across these LHA size categories. We hypothesized that mastectomy rates (instead of breast-conserving surgery) would be higher in rural areas, since breast conservation is standardly accompanied by adjuvant radiotherapy, which has limited availability in rural BC. In contrast we hypothesized that cancer screening and systemic therapy use would be similar, as they are more widely dispersed across BC. Exploratory analyses were performed to assess whether disparities in screening and treatment utilization translated into differences in survival. RESULTS 2,869 breast cancer patients were included in our study. Patients from rural communities presented with more advanced disease (p=0.01). On multivariable analysis, patients from rural, compared to urban, LHAs were less likely to be screening mammography attendees (OR=0.62; p<0.001). Women from rural communities were less likely to undergo breast-conserving surgery (multivariable OR=0.47; p<0.001). There was no significant difference in use of chemotherapy (p=0.54) or hormonal therapy (p=0.36). The 5-year breast cancer-specific survival for large, small and rural LHAs was 90%, 88% and 86%, respectively (p=0.08), while overall survival was 84%, 81% and 77%, respectively (p=0.01). On multivariable analysis with 7.4 years of median follow-up, neither breast cancer-specific survival (HR=1.16; 0.76-1.76; p=0.49) nor overall survival (HR=1.25; 0.92-1.70; p=0.16) was significantly worse for patients from rural compared to large LHAs. CONCLUSION There was a significant difference in screening mammography use, stage distribution and loco-regional treatments use by population size of LHA. After controlling for differences in patient and tumour factors by LHA, survival was not significantly different.
What Determines Household Saving Behavior: An Examination of Saving Motives and Saving Decisions 06.01.2009

Saving decisions are complex, since there are many concurrent motives for saving a portion of one’s income. However, while the existing literature covers all of these motives, most contributions select only one of them as a focus and relegate the others to the background by making simplifying assumptions about them. While the focus on only one saving motive is vital for many insights on aggregate saving behavior, this paper argues that further insights relevant to policy can be gained by relaxing this assumption. Using data from a random sample of German households and from federal official statistics, I explain how much people save under the explicit assumption that various different saving motives co-exist. The findings show that heterogeneity in saving behavior is systematically related to the importance that households attach to different co-existing saving motives. This suggests that policy reforms that change the importance of certain saving motives in the eyes of private households might influence their saving decisions.
Election présidentielle: Une expérience pour un autre mode de scrutin

This paper is based on a field experiment took place during the 2002 french presidential election, about the approval voting rule. We describe the experiment, its main results, and some analysis that use a behavioral model to link the individual approval vote with his or her first round vote. The main findings are as follows: (i) Such an experiment is feasable, and is very well accepted by the voters. (ii) The principle of approval voting is easily understood and accepted. (iii) The candidates Le Pen and Chirac, more than the others, where able to convert the individuals' approbabations into a first round vote. (iv) Within the observed political context, and compared to the first round, approval voting modifies the overall ranking of candidates.
Teacher leadership in public schools in the Philippines

Concerns have been raised about the tendency to associate leadership with ascribed authority and position and confining school leadership to the leadership of the principal. Distributed leadership has been proposed and one approach to the distribution of leadership in schools is teacher leadership. Teacher leadership recognises the important contribution of teachers to school improvement and brings to the fore the emergence of excellent teachers who have demonstrated leadership capabilities at the same time. Using an adaptation of the framework of York-Barr and Duke (2004) which linked teacher leadership to student learning, this study explored teacher leadership in public schools in the Philippines. The important role of context in the development and practice of teacher leadership was considered by investigating the contextual conditions that either enabled or constrained teacher leadership practice. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with principals and focus-group interviews with teacher leaders and other teachers from seven public schools in the Philippines. The study found that teacher leadership was a meaningful concept in Philippine public schools even if the term ‘teacher leadership’ has not been introduced formally. Teacher leadership consists of actions undertaken by teachers who respond positively to opportunities to improve teaching and learning. These teachers possess a strong sense of moral purpose and requisite pedagogic and leadership competencies. They help create conditions that support teaching and learning, often in challenging circumstances, in collaboration with colleagues and the school’s leadership. Recommendations from this study include recognising teacher leadership in the country’s education reform agenda, encouraging teacher leaders to accept leadership work and giving attention to development programmes for teacher leaders and principals.
Staying Power: What Influences Micro-firm Survival in Tourism?

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to investigate how previous experience and location of entrepreneurs influence the survival of new tourism firms. The paper departs from recent evolutionary economic geography advancements, highlighting the importance of routines and skills as well as location-specific knowledge for firm success. While having been well-researched for manufacturing industries characterized by high entry barriers, little knowledge is currently available on the factors influencing survival rates in service sectors with low entry barriers. A quantitative approach applies hazard models to investigate the survival rates over a seven-year period of a total of 133 new micro-tourism firms started between 1999 and 2001 in the four northernmost counties of Sweden. The geo-referenced micro-database ASTRID links information on firm features (e.g. firm births and deaths, spatial coordinates and industry codes) to characteristics of entrepreneurs (e.g. age, education, previous experience). The main finding is that entrepreneurs with previous work experience in related sectors are more likely to survive and, in this case, entrepreneurs without local experience tend to be less successful. We find no evidence that new firms operating in regions specialized in tourism have a survival advantage. Our analysis also indicates that surviving firms improve performance over time. The paper thus contributes new knowledge on the determinants of micro-firm survival in tourism.
The Reductase Activity of the Arabidopsis Caleosin RESPONSIVE TO DESSICATION20 Mediates Gibberellin-Dependent Flowering Time, Abscisic Acid Sensitivity, and Tolerance to Oxidative Stress1[W]

A peroxygenase controls floral transition and tolerance to oxidative stress. Contrasting with the wealth of information available on the multiple roles of jasmonates in plant development and defense, knowledge about the functions and the biosynthesis of hydroxylated oxylipins remains scarce. By expressing the caleosin RESPONSIVE TO DESSICATION20 (RD20) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we show that the recombinant protein possesses an unusual peroxygenase activity with restricted specificity toward hydroperoxides of unsaturated fatty acid. Accordingly, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants overexpressing RD20 accumulate the product 13-hydroxy-9,11,15-octadecatrienoic acid, a linolenate-derived hydroxide. These plants exhibit elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) associated with early gibberellin-dependent flowering and abscisic acid hypersensitivity at seed germination. These phenotypes are dependent on the presence of active RD20, since they are abolished in the rd20 null mutant and in lines overexpressing RD20, in which peroxygenase was inactivated by a point mutation of a catalytic histidine residue. RD20 also confers tolerance against stress induced by Paraquat, Rose Bengal, heavy metal, and the synthetic auxins 1-naphthaleneacetic acid and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Under oxidative stress, 13-hydroxy-9,11,15-octadecatrienoic acid still accumulates in RD20-overexpressing lines, but this lipid oxidation is associated with reduced ROS levels, minor cell death, and delayed floral transition. A model is discussed where the interplay between fatty acid hydroxides generated by RD20 and ROS is counteracted by ethylene during development in unstressed environments.
Predicting business failure under the existence of fraudulent financial reporting

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to stress the importance of detecting financial frauds in predicting business failures disclosed by the unexpected financial crisis brought by Enron, Worldcom and other corporate distresses involving accounting irregularities. Design/methodology/approach - The most frequently used methodologies in predicting business failures, discriminant analysis and neural network (NN) (based on the Kolmogorov-Gabor polynomial Volterra series algorithm Findings - The one-stage NN model has a higher accuracy rate in identifying failed firms than the discriminant analysis, while the two-stage NN approach has an even higher accuracy rate than the one-stage NN model. Practical implications - Detecting the fraudulent reporting in advance can effectively improve the accuracy rate of business failure predictions. Originality/value - The paper draws attention to the importance of excluding fraudulent financial reporting to increase the accuracy rate in predicting business failures.
Endogeneity in Accounting and Finance Research: Natural Experiments as a State‐of‐the‐Art Solution

This paper provides a discussion of endogeneity as it relates to finance and accounting research. We discuss the textbook solutions: two-stage least squares, instrumental variables, differenced generalized method of moments (GMM) and system GMM and provide a unifying framework showing how they are related. We consider the limitations of these techniques and then detail a state-of-the-art solution, utilizing a natural experiment as a way of mitigating endogeneity and building stronger theory.
Role of Krüppel‐like factor 4 in phenotypic switching and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells

Phenotypic switching and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are critical components in the development of many vascular proliferation diseases such as atherosclerosis and restenosis after percutaneous coronary interventions. Krüppel‐like factor 4 (KLF4) has been shown to play a key role in VSMC proliferation and differentiation. The focus of this review is to provide an overview for understanding the physiological and pathobiological roles of KLF4 in phenotypic switching and proliferation of VSMCs. © 2010 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 62(2): 132–139, 2010
Targets of horizontal connections in macaque primary visual cortex

Pyramidal neurons within the cerebral cortex are known to make long‐range horizontal connections via an extensive axonal collateral system. The synaptic characteristics and specificities of these connections were studied at the ultrastructural level. Two superficial layer pyramidal cells in the primate striate cortex were labeled by intracellular injections with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and their axon terminals were subsequently examined with the technique of electron microscopic (EM) serial reconstruction. At the light microscopic level both cells showed the characteristic pattern of widespread, clustered axon collaterals. We examined collateral clusters located near the dendritic field (proximal) and approximately 0.5 mm away (distal). The synapses were of the asymmetric/round vesicle variety (type I), and were therefore presumably excitatory. Three‐quarters of the postsynaptic targets were the dendritic spines of other pyramidal cells. A few of the axodendritic synapses were with the shafts of pyramidal cells, bringing the proportion of pyramidal cell targets to 80%. The remaining labeled endings were made with the dendritic shafts of smooth stellate cells, which are presumed to be (GABA)ergic inhibitory cells. On the basis of serial reconstruction of a few of these cells and their dendrites, a likely candidate for one target inhibitory cell is the small‐medium basket cell. Taken together, this pattern of outputs suggests a mixture of postsynaptic effects mediated by monosynaptic excitation followed by combined disynaptic inhibition and excitation. As a consequence the horizontal connections may well be the substrate for the variety of influences observed between the receptive field center and its surround.
Happiness Economics from 35,000 Feet

The economics of happiness, or subjective well being, is an expanding field, with a growing number of applied papers reporting empirical associations between happiness and other variables. This paper takes a broad view of the topic, aiming to provide an outline of the literature in relation to happiness economics' origins, definitions, theory, methods, applications, critiques, relations with other areas of economic research, political and policy connections, and promising directions for future inquiry.
APPLICATION OF ALKALINE SULFITE PULPING ON CORN STALKS

Alkaline sulfite pulping of corn stalks was investigated to produce supplementary pulp for corrugating board manufacture. Three pulping temperatures (125, 145, and 165°C) and five active alkali charges (10, 12, 14, 16, and 18%) were used. Cooking time at 30 minutes, Na2SO3/ NaOH ratio at 50:50, and liquor to residue ratio of 8:1 were kept constant. The highest total yield (61.9%) was reached applying the treatment combination of 125°C and 10% active alkali, and the lowest total yield (42.5%) was related to 165°C and 16% chemical. The influence of sodium sulfite/sodium hydroxide ratios was studied applying different ratios (30:70, 40:60, 50:50, 60:40, and 70:30) at constant time and temperature of 30 minutes and 145°C respectively and 14 and 16% active alkali. Pulping condition; 16% active alkali, 30 minutes time, 145°C pulping temperature and varying ratios of sodium sulfite/sodium hydroxide were selected for pulp strength evaluation. The results of handsheet evaluation indicated that 16% active alkali, 30 minutes pulping at 145oC and sodium sulfite/sodium hydroxide ratio of 50:50 is the optimum pulping condition for corn stalks. Tear, tensile, and burst indices and breaking length of this pulp were measured as 10.53 mN.m2g-1, 62.4 N.mg-1, 3.80 kPa.m2g-1, and 6.07 km, respectively.
Fatty Acids from Very Low-Density Lipoprotein Lipolysis Products Induce Lipid Droplet Accumulation in Human Monocytes

One mechanism by which monocytes become activated postprandially is by exposure to triglyceride-rich lipoproteins such as very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL). VLDL are hydrolyzed by lipoprotein lipase at the blood-endothelial cell interface, releasing free fatty acids. In this study, we examined postprandial monocyte activation in more detail, and found that lipolysis products generated from postprandial VLDL induce the formation of lipid-filled droplets within cultured THP-1 monocytes, characterized by coherent antistokes Raman spectroscopy. Organelle-specific stains revealed an association of lipid droplets with the endoplasmic reticulum, confirmed by electron microscopy. Lipid droplet formation was reduced when lipoprotein lipase-released fatty acids were bound by BSA, which also reduced cellular inflammation. Furthermore, saturated fatty acids induced more lipid droplet formation in monocytes compared with mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Monocytes treated with postprandial VLDL lipolysis products contained lipid droplets with more intense saturated Raman spectroscopic signals than monocytes treated with fasting VLDL lipolysis products. In addition, we found that human monocytes isolated during the peak postprandial period contain more lipid droplets compared with those from the fasting state, signifying that their development is not limited to cultured cells but also occurs in vivo. In summary, circulating free fatty acids can mediate lipid droplet formation in monocytes and potentially be used as a biomarker to assess an individual’s risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.