Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An acceptance model for an Internet protocol television service in Korea with prior experience as a moderator

This study examines the effect of users' prior experience on the adoption behaviour in the Internet protocol television (IP TV) service domains. This article proposes a new acceptance model for an IP TV service considering the moderating effect of experience and verifies the model with an empirical study. Respondents are classified into either experienced or inexperienced groups according to their prior experience with the IP TV service. The results indicate that motivational factors used in our study affect behavioural intention. In addition, this study shows that the influence of extrinsic motivational factors on the behavioural intention are stronger for the experienced group than the inexperienced group and the influence of intrinsic motivational factors on the behavioural intention are stronger for the inexperienced group than the experienced group. This article concludes with study implications, as well as limitations and future research directions.
Hypoxia affects mesoderm and enhances hemangioblast specification during early development

Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF), consisting of HIF1α and ARNT (HIF1β) subunits, activates multiple genes in response to oxygen (O2) deprivation. Arnt–/– mice exhibit substantial defects in blood cell and vessel development. We demonstrate that hypoxia accelerates the expression of Brachyury (a mesoderm-specific transcription factor), BMP4 (a mesoderm-promoting growth factor) and FLK1 (a marker of hemangioblasts, the bipotential progenitor of endothelial and hematopoietic cells) in differentiating ES cell cultures. Significantly, proliferation of embryonic hemangioblasts (BL-CFCs) is regulated by hypoxia, as Arnt+/+ ES cells generate increased numbers of FLK1+ cells, and BL-CFCs with accelerated kinetics in response to low O2. This response is HIF-dependent as Arnt–/– ES cells produce fewer FLK1+ cells and BL-CFCs, under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Interestingly, this defect is rescued when Arnt–/– ES cells are co-cultured with Arnt+/+ ES cells. Vegf+/–or Vegf–/– ES cells generate proper numbers of FLK1+ cells but fewer BL-CFCs, suggesting that additional factors regulated by HIF (other than VEGF) are involved in these early events. Thus, hypoxic responses are important for the establishment of various progenitor cells, including early mesoderm and its differentiation into hemangioblasts. Together these data suggest that ineffective responses to hypoxia in Arnt–/– embryos abrogate proper cardiovascular development during early embryogenesis, including the pathways controlling hemangioblast differentiation.
Deterrence: Credibility and Proportionality

This paper extends the analysis of deterrence to examine terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and rogue nations. Such situations are characterized by differential pre-emptive and response capacity, in contrast to the traditional deterrence literature on nuclear superpowers, where such factors are absent. We focus on the credibility of deterrence responses to pre-emption and show that credible (subgame-perfect) responses are rarely proportional. The analysis is also extended to asymmetric deterrence scenarios whereby credibility and proportionality depend on the potential aggressor's access to conflict technology and the responder's preferences for indirect conflict vs. the status quo.
of Deep Learning Methods in Mammography, Cardiovascular, and Microscopy Image Analysis

Computerized algorithms and solutions in processing and diagnosis mammography X-ray, cardiovascular CT/MRI scans, and microscopy image play an important role in disease detection and computer-aided decision-making. Machine learning techniques have powered many aspects in medical investigations and clinical practice. Recently, deep learning is emerging a leading machine learning tool in computer vision and begins attracting considerable attentions in medical imaging. In this chapter, we provide a snapshot of this fast growing ﬁeld speciﬁcally for mammography, cardiovascular, and microscopy image analysis. We brieﬂy explain the popular deep neural networks and summarize current deep learning achievements in various tasks such as detection, segmentation, and classiﬁcation in these heterogeneous imaging modalities. In addition, we discuss the challenges and the potential future trends for ongoing work.
Leveraged and inverse ETF performance during the financial crisis

Purpose - Leveraged and inverse ETFs (hereafter leveraged ETFs) have received much press coverage of late due to issues with their performance. Managers and the media have focused investors' attention on the impact of compounding, when the funds are held for more than one day. The aim of this paper is to lay out a framework for assessing the performance of leveraged ETFs. Design/methodology/approach - The authors propose a simple way to disentangle the effect of compounding and that of the management of the fund and the trading premiums/discounts, all of which affect investors' bottom line. The former is influenced by the effectiveness and the costs of the manager's (synthetic) replication strategy and the use of leverage. The latter reflects liquidity and the efficiency of the market. Findings - The paper finds that tracking errors were not caused by the effects of compounding alone. Depending on the fund, the impact of management factors can outweigh the impact of compounding, and substantial premiums/discounts caused by reduced liquidity during the financial crisis further distorted performance. Originality/value - The authors propose a framework for practitioners to evaluate the performance of leveraged ETFs. This framework highlights a very topical issue, that of the impact of synthetic replication, which all leveraged ETFs use. Financial regulators such as the SEC and the Financial Stability Board have all taken issue with synthetically replicated ETFs. In leveraged ETFs, this issue is masked by the effects of compounding. The framework the authors propose allows investors to disentangle the two effects.
Gender as performance : girls narrating their gender identity negotiations

Gender as performance: Girls narrating their gender identity negotiations By Janis Wall Saint Mary’s University, 2014 Under the Supervision of Dr. Michele Byers Working from a post-structuralist framework, specifically drawing on the theories of Judith Butler, this thesis explores gender as a dynamic social construct that is affected by social discourses. In this work I engaged tween girls in discussion groups and writing activities about gender, and here I present a discussion of the girls’ descriptions of their gender performances. This thesis outlines how the girls negotiated the discourses surrounding girlhood and gender in order to be intelligible as girls to those inhabiting the public and private spaces they entered. Through presenting girls’ experiences, this thesis argues that gender is not determined at birth, but is, rather, a continual performance with no definite end. This performance is influenced by, and negotiated with, discourse, social space, perceived social expectations and understandings of gender, and by the desire to be intelligible as girls in a normative sense that aligns with the dominant social view.
Downsize, Undermaintain, or Leave it as it is: Housing Choices of Elder Germans

Using German panel data from 1991 to 2008, I investigate housing consumption and homeownership of the elderly. Descriptive statistics reveal low mobility rates of elder Germans. Also, homeownership rates remain relatively stable in old age. Regression results for movers show that neither aging renters nor homeowners downsize housing consumption more often than younger households. Furthermore, after controlling, e.g., for house characteristics, elder non-moving homeowners do not spend less on maintenance but they are significantly less likely to undertake renovations. Widowhood shows an association with home negligence which suggests some decline in home values and partial decumulation of housing wealth. Since the introduction of the mandatory long-term care insurance, renovation probabilities of elder homeowners have been significantly increasing. (JEL codes: D12, J14, R21) Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Ifo Institute, Munich. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.
MD&A Quality as Measured by the SEC and Analysts' Earnings Forecasts*

This study examines the predictive value of Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) information. More specifically, this study tests the association between properties of analysts' earnings forecasts and MD&A quality, where MD&A quality is measured by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). We find that high MD&A ratings are associated with less error and less dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts after controlling for many other expected influences on analysts' forecasts. We also find that estimated regression coefficients are consistent with MD&A information having a substantial effect on earnings forecasts. Finally, we find our results are driven by forwardâ€ looking disclosures about capital expenditures and operations, and also by historical disclosures about capital expenditures. These findings are consistent with the suggestion by many constituencies (including the SEC) that the type of information found in high quality MD&A is particularly relevant for predicting earnings.
Ethics Guidelines for Internet-mediated Research

Internet-mediated research (IMR) can raise particular, sometimes non-obvious, challenges in adhering to existing ethics principles. In this document we outline some of the key ethics issues which researchers and research ethics committees (RECs) are advised to keep in mind when considering implementing or evaluating an IMR study. Considering each of the four main ethics principles as outlined in the Society's Code of Human Research Ethics, we highlight issues which may need special consideration in an IMR context, using illustrative examples to explain why. These issues include: the public-private domain distinction online; confidentiality and security of online data; procedures for obtaining valid consent; procedures for ensuring withdrawal rights and debriefing; levels of researcher control; and implications for scientific value and potential harm. Emphasis throughout is on offering advice on how to think about and apply existing ethics principles in an IMR context, while recognising that issues need to be assessed and decisions made within the context of a particular piece of research.
Hierarchical Policy Search via Return-Weighted Density Estimation

Learning an optimal policy from a multi-modal reward function is a challenging problem in reinforcement learning (RL). Hierarchical RL (HRL) tackles this problem by learning a hierarchicalpolicy, where multiple option policies are in charge of different strategies corresponding to modes of a reward function and a gating policy selects the best option for a given context. Although HRL has been demonstrated to be promising, current state-of-the-art methods cannot still perform well in complex real-world problems due to the difficulty of identifying modes of the reward function. In this paper, we propose a novel method called hierarchical policy search via return-weighted density estimation (HPSDE), which can efficiently identify the modes through density estimation with return-weighted importance sampling. Our proposed method finds option policies corresponding to the modes of the return function and automatically determines the number and the location of option policies, which significantly reduces the burden of hyper-parameters tuning. Through experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed HPSDE successfully learns option policies corresponding to modes of the return function and that it can be successfully applied to a motion planning problem of a redundant robotic manipulator.
Dissociation in a General Population of Finnish Adolescents

Only a few studies have been published concerning dissociation in general population adolescents. We assessed dissociation using the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) in a sample of Finnish adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (n = 4019). The A-DES had good internal reliability and factor analysis suggested a 1-factor solution to be optimal. The younger participants had somewhat higher A-DES scores, but there were no differences between the genders. The mean A-DES score of 0.88 in the whole sample was lower than that in previous studies in other countries. A high level of dissociation was associated with an age of 15 or less, daily smoking, frequent use of alcohol, abuse of legal drugs, cannabis use, social isolation, and poor school performance in mathematics.
Fiscal Dominance and the Long-Term Interest Rate

Very high government debt/GDP ratios will increase uncertainty about inflation and the future path of real interest rates. This will reduce substitutability across the yield curve. In such circumstances, changes in the short-term/long-term mix of government debt held by the public will become more effective in achieving macroeconomic objectives. In circumstances of imperfect substitutability, central bank purchases or sales of government bonds have been seen historically as a key tool of monetary policy. Since the mid-1990s, however, responsibility for government debt management has been assigned to other bodies. The mandates of the government debt manager could have the unintended consequence of making their actions endogenous to macroeconomic policies. There is evidence that decisions on the maturity of debt have in the past been linked to both fiscal and monetary policy. Recent Quantitative Easing (QE) by the central bank must be analysed from the perspective of the consolidated balance sheet of government and central bank.
Microfinance and Poverty Alleviateion in the Caribbean : A Strategic Overview

The following paper highlights the main issues that emerged from the results of a recent study into microfinance in the Eastern Caribbean (Lashley & Lord, 2002), of which the primary aim was to make recommendations for the best practice for successful microfinance provision. It appears that despite a number of operational issues that need to be addressed, the first step in realizing a successful microfinance sector in the small states of the eastern Caribbean is to first define what is meant by "success. " In other words, donors, providers, and recipients need to be cognizant and explicit in defining the aims and uses of microfinance.
External Economies in the International Trade Theory: A Survey

The paper surveys the international trade literature on intraindustrial and interindustrial production externalities. It places particular emphasis upon the literature on variable returns to scale (VRS) developed along the Kemp line that the externalities are output-generated, and the economies of scale are external (internal) to individual firms (industry). The discussion touches upon the literature examining the implications of VRS for fundamental trade theorems, trade policies, economic growth, and welfare. The paper extends the survey to writings on the Meade-type interindustrial production externalities. Copyright 2002 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Neutrophil elastase inhibitor prevents endotoxin‐induced liver injury following experimental partial hepatectomy

During endotoxaemia, neutrophils activated by inflammatory cytokines release reactive oxygen species and neutrophil elastase, resulting in hepatic necrosis and dysfunction. This study investigated the possible mechanism underlying the protective effect of sivelestat, a neutrophil elastase inhibitor, on endotoxin‐induced liver injury following partial hepatectomy.
Green decisions: consumers' environmental beliefs and green purchasing behaviour in Sri Lankan context

This study elucidates how consumers' environmental knowledge and affect influence green purchasing behaviour in Sri Lanka. A survey research was undertaken with a random sample of 238 consumers. The data analysis revealed that environmental knowledge is not a significant predictor but environmental affect is a significant and weak predictor of green purchase intention. It also discovered that the relationship between environmental affect and actual green purchase behaviour is partially intervened by green product purchase intention. It further illustrates the impact of demographics on the relationship. Further investigation is required to find out what other important factors might influence the green purchase behaviour as shaped by socio-cultural environment. Green policy makers can get insights on how to formulate green messages to motivate consumers' green purchase behaviour. It highlights that so called green product knowledge and affect are not powerful predictors of green purchase behaviour in a developing context like Sri Lanka.
Research Note: The Importance of Online Tourism Demand

Over the last two decades the combination of tourism and information and communication technologies (ICT) has led to considerable changes in tourists' behaviour. As can be inferred from the increasing number of online reservations observed in recent years, the growing number of tourism companies online has positively contributed to tourism demand growth. In this paper, using panel data models, the authors investigate the importance of ICT as a potential determinant of tourism demand. Overall, the results show that the technological developments observed over the last two decades, in particular the Internet, have had a positive impact on tourism.
Strategic Management in Small Retail Businesses

Strategic management is part of every business and constitutes an important path to successful business operations. Managers perceive, understand, and implement strategic management in different ways. A study of Guatemala’s small retail businesses offers an opportunity to examine the decision-making process within a developing nation. This study investigates how managers in forty Guatemalan businesses practice strategic management. Whether the business managers are proactive or reactive in their decisions, they all recognize strategic management as an integral business activity. Two types of businesses, service retail and product retail businesses, are used as the unit of analysis in this research project.
Why are companies still struggling to reach higher continuous improvement maturity levels? Empirical evidence from high performance companies

Purpose – Continuous improvement (CI) is regarded as a powerful approach to achieve business excellence. However, the implementation is not simple as it involves managing a considerable amount of tangible and intangible factors throughout the whole organization. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by presenting first-hand information about how companies really implement and organize their CI processes. Design/methodology/approach – The study was based on semi-structured interviews in ten high performing companies in the Basque Country, a region in northern Spain well known for its business quality. The objective was to analyze the state of their CI processes, putting special focus on how the organizational structure integrates with the CI processes and what are the characteristics of the corresponding measurement system. Findings – The study shows a lack of company-wide focus on CI, little written evidence of previous improvement activities, unclear improvement process owner, and poor use of adeq.
The effects of national culture on the theory and practice of managing R&D professionals abroad

G. Hofstede's research on ‘Culture's Consequences’ (1980) greatly shaped the discussion of cross-cultural differences in management theory and practice during the 1980′s. And yet, his 4-D Model's applicability to the management of R&D laboratories and their professionals worldwide remained in doubt due to the fact that his four dimensions of Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, and Masculinity were derived from responses of mid-level IBM employees with lower levels of formal education than those of typical R&D professionals. This paper reports on results of the first comprehensive follow-up study that (1) show Hofstede's four dimensions to be equally valid for highly educated respondents from 17 Western European countries, Turkey, and the USA, (2) describe significant similarities between the respondents’ work goals and those of R&D professionals, and (3) suggest implications of cross-cultural differences along the dimensions for the theory and practice of managing R&D professionals abroad.
Nonsymmetrical contrasts for sources separation

In this paper, the problem of the blind separation of independent sources is considered. Our approach relies on high-order inverse criteria. After generalizing the definition of classical contrast functions, we exhibit a wide class of generally nonsymmetrical functions that will be called "generalized contrasts" and whose maximization is proved to be a sufficient condition for source separation. We also establish a connection with "cumulant matching," showing an equivalence between the two approaches. Then, in the case of two sources, a statistical study of the estimated parameter based on one of these new contrasts is presented. Finally, computer simulations illustrate the results and demonstrate all the interest we can find in considering a nonsymmetrical contrast.
How good are Popular Matchings?

In this paper, we consider the Hospital Residents problem (HR) and the Hospital Residents problem with Lower Quotas (HRLQ). In this model with two sided preferences, stability is a well accepted notion of optimality. However, in the presence of lower quotas, a stable and feasible matching need not exist. For the HRLQ problem, our goal therefore is to output a good feasible matching assuming that a feasible matching exists. Computing matchings with minimum number of blocking pairs (MinBP) and minimum number of blocking residents (MinBR) are known to be NP-Complete. The only approximation algorithms for these problems work under severe restrictions on the preference lists. We present an algorithm which circumvents this restriction and computes a popular matching in the HRLQ instance. We show that on data-sets generated using various generators, our algorithm performs very well in terms of blocking pairs and blocking residents. Yokoi (ISAAC 2017) recently studied envy-free matchings for the HRLQ problem. We propose a simple modification to Yokoi's algorithm to output a maximal envy-free matching. We observe that popular matchings outperform envy-free matchings on several parameters of practical importance, like size, number of blocking pairs, number of blocking residents. In the absence of lower quotas, that is, in the Hospital Residents (HR) problem, stable matchings are guaranteed to exist. Even in this case, we show that popularity is a practical alternative to stability. For instance, on synthetic data-sets generated using a particular model, as well as on real world data-sets, a popular matching is on an average 8-10% larger in size, matches more number of residents to their top-choice, and more residents prefer the popular matching as compared to a stable matching. Our comprehensive study reveals the practical appeal of popular matchings for the HR and HRLQ problems.