Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Value Added in Higher Education: A Proposed Methodology for Developing a Performance Indicator Based on the Economic Value Added to Graduates

Abstract The 2003 UK higher education White Paper suggested that the sector needed to re‐examine the potential of the value added concept. This paper describes a possible methodology for developing a performance indicator based on the economic value added to graduates. The paper examines how an entry‐quality‐adjusted measure of a graduate’s ‘expected’ degree class might be derived, and also how the wage differentials associated with different degree classes could be used to quantify the relative values of degrees. These two measures are then used to develop a proposed performance indicator based on Graduate Relative Economic Value Added.
Effects of mechanical loading on the tissues of the rabbit knee

We studied changes in subchondral bone and articular cartilage in an animal model of osteoarthrosis. In this model we applied repetitive impulsive loads to rabbits' knees. Their legs were held in short leg splints so the rabbits were unable to dampen the peak applied load with ankle flexion. After sacrifice, at 1 day to 6 weeks, we studied proximal tibial load‐bearing cartilage histologically, biochemically, and with radioactive sulfate uptake. We also studied the subchondral bone under that cartilage histologically, histomorphometrically, with bone scan (99mTc pyrophosphate), and by tetracycline labeling. An increase in 99mTc labeling of the subchondral bone was the first reliable change observed. This was followed by an increase in tetracycline labeling, bone formation, and a decrease in porosity, which has been associated with relative stiffening of bone. Horizontal splitting and deep fibrillation of the overlying articular cartilage followed the early bone changes. All of these changes preceded changes in content and characterization of cartilage proteoglycans or increased chondrocyte activity as manifested by incorporation of radioactive sulfate. In this model the early bone changes preceded changes in the articular cartilage. The deep splitting of articular cartilage occurred prior to metabolic alteration of that tissue.
Oral &Dgr;9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Improved Refractory Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome in an Adolescent by Increasing Intracortical Inhibition: A Case Report

Objective: To describe the clinical course of the &Dgr;9-tetrahydrocannabinol (&Dgr;9-THC) treatment of a boy with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (TS) and comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in relation to &Dgr;9-THC plasma levels and intracortical inhibition measured by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Methods: The clinical course and pharmacological and neurophysiological measures are reported in a 15-year-old boy with treatment refractory TS plus ADHD leading to severe physical and psychosocial impairment. Results: Administration of &Dgr;9-THC improved tics considerably without adverse effects, allowing parallel stimulant treatment of comorbid ADHD. Along with the &Dgr;9-THC treatment, intracortical inhibition was increased, reflected in the enhanced short-interval intracortical inhibition and the prolongation of the cortical silent period. Conclusions: Our observation suggests that &Dgr;9-THC might be a successful alternative in patients with severe TS refractory to classic treatment. Particularly in the case of stimulant-induced exacerbation of tics, &Dgr;9-THC might enable successful treatment of comorbid ADHD. The enhancement of intracortical inhibition might be mediated by modulating release of several neurotransmitters including dopamine and &ggr;-aminobutyric acid. Further studies are needed to substantiate our findings.
Green Recovery: How Are Environmental Stocks Doing?

With a focus on 310 “green” companies, in the industries of biomass, biofuels, clean tech indexes, efficiency, energy storage, fuel cells, geothermal, recycling, green chemicals, environmental building, renewable energy project developers, solar energy, environmentally conscious transportation, and water and wind energy, this article tests the hypothesis that green companies’ financial performance follows that of traditional companies. It also examines how different countries excel at developing environmental solutions in different areas and illuminates the reasons for their successes. Such reasons might include government investment or tax incentives. Finally, this article analyzes how different industries have been performing over time. Key variables investigated include differences in capital expenditures, such as research and development and the sources of firms’ financing. Findings suggest that Nasdaq firms outperform the green firms, although certain green industries dominate the Nasdaq. Other significant results relate to larger equity shares held by insiders in environmental firms. Finally, green firms have larger R&D and capital expenditures compared and better corporate governance than Nasdaq firms.
Management Decision Emerald Article : Knowledge boundary spanning process : synthesizing four spanning mechanisms

Purpose – This paper seeks to advance the study of knowledge boundary spanning by approaching spanning as a process that involves four spanning mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach – Building on the insights from practice-based view of knowledge and knowledge management literature more generally, the authors formalize and articulate two spanning mechanisms (boundary practice and boundary discourse), in addition to two other previously established spanning mechanisms (boundary object and boundary spanner). Findings – The paper formalizes two further spanning mechanisms and suggests an integrative framework for examining the mutual and compounding effect between the four spanning mechanisms. Building on the suggested framework, the process of spanning is analysed as a time-based combination of various mechanisms which evolve over time. The framework opens new windows to look at the projective and emergent mode of spanning mechanisms as a duality, rather than a dualism. Research limitations/implications – Researchers are freed to explore the deployment order of the spanning mechanisms and the conflicting or synergistic effects. Practitioners would benefit from tracing successful spanning processes for replicating in similar contexts to advance collaboration efforts. Originality/value – Boundary practice and boundary discourse are introduced as well as synthesizing the mechanisms into a coherent framework. Viewing boundary spanning as a process that includes dynamic combination of four spanning mechanisms is a particularly novel insight that can stimulate future research avenues.
Entry Mode Selection, Location Choice and the Sequence of Internationalization: A Case Study on Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.

Due to increase of a good numbers of multinationals firms from emerging economies, researchers’ attention have been paid toward understanding the internationalization sequence of these companies. For making the internationalization process successful, multinational enterprises (MNE) make some strategic decisions like entry modes selection, site selection very carefully and delicately. Since, pharmaceutical industry in India has been growing rapidly and achieved the recognition of the world as a high quality manufacturer at low cost, it is the interest of researchers to investigate how Indian emerging multinationals are taking decisions in case of entry mode selection and location choice. In this regard, Indian Multinational enterprise ‘Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited’ is an ideal case to study because it has developed its capabilities to compete against incumbent MNEs by using different motives, entry strategies and locations advantages. In this case study, relevant foreign direct investment (FDI) literature and other secondary sources have been used to analyze the strategies used in case of locations choice and entry modes selection for Ranbaxy’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI). It has been observed that in case of location choices and entry modes selection, decisions varied significantly for different regulated markets. Initially, Ranbaxy entered into Africa and Asian market and after gaining experiences and knowledge from there it moved to USA and Europe. The study reveals that Ranbaxy has chosen entry mode as ‘acquisition’ for USA and European market basically to overcome made-in-India image, credibility issues and quality concern. Furthermore, Ranbaxy offered their product and services more confidently as a guarantor of quality and safety standards due to acquisition strategy. Since, most of the European and North American markets were regulated and Ranbaxy entered these markets using unique entry modes. On the other hand, Asian and African markets were unregulated and entry modes were different from regulated markets. Ranbaxy entered first into the unregulated markets then moved to the regulated markets. For different segments Ranbaxy were driven by different motives. Thus, company developed experience and expertise from different markets. Apart from this, company found various types of capability handicaps in different markets and responded accordingly to overcome these handicaps. Consequently, these sequential developments have been transformed into ownership specific advantages for Ranbaxy’s case. Considering extant strength and capabilities of Ranbaxy, market seeking motive could be the stimulating factor for Ranbaxy’s next expansion for maintaining sustainable growth and position in the international market. European countries like Cyprus and Greece could be the location choice for next market expansion. In case of choosing European countries, Ranbaxy could minimize psychic distance, technological, economical, and institutional and location distance as it has strong local image in the European countries
Testing homogeneity of Japanese CPI forecasters

This paper investigates whether some forecasters consistently outperform others using Japanese CPI forecast data of 42 forecasters over the past 18 quarters. It finds that the accuracy rankings of 0, 1, 2, and 5-month forecasts are significantly different from those that might be expected when all forecasters had equal forecasting ability. Moreover, their rankings of the relative forecast levels are also significantly different from a random one. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reforming Infrastructure: Privatization, Regulation, and Competition

Infrastructure industries and services are crucial for generating economic growth, alleviating poverty, and increasing international competitiveness. Safe water is essential for life, and health. Reliable electricity saves businesses and consumers from having to invest in expensive backup systems, or more costly alternatives, and keeps rural women and children from having to spend long hours fetching firewood. Widely available and affordable telecommunications and transportation services can foster grassroots entrepreneurship, and thus are critical to generating employment, and advancing economic development. In most developing and transition economies, private participation in infrastructure, and restructuring have been driven by the high costs, and poor performance of state-owned network utilities. Under state ownership, services were usually under-priced, and making it difficult to expand services. The report indicates that although privatization, competitive restructuring, and regulatory reforms improve infrastructure performance, several issues must be considered and conditions met for these measures to achieve their public interest goals. First, reforms have significantly improved performance, leading to higher investment, productivity, and service coverage and quality. Second, effective regulation-including the setting of adequate tariff levels-is the most critical enabling condition for infrastructure reform. Regulation should clarify property rights, and assure private investors that their investments will not be subject to regulatory opportunism. Third, for privatization to generate widely shared social benefits, infrastructure industries must be thoroughly restructured and able to sustain competition. Thus restructuring, to introduce competition should be done before privatization, and regulation should be in place to assure potential buyers of both competitive, and monopoly elements.
Capital adequacy rules, catastrophic firm failure, and systemic risk

This paper studies capital adequacy rules based on Value-at-Risk (VaR), leverage ratios, and stress testing. VaR is the basis of Basel II, and all three approaches are proposed in Basel III. This paper makes three contributions to the literature. First, we prove that these three rules provide an incentive to increase the probability of catastrophic financial institution failure. Collectively, these rules provide an incentive to increase (not decrease) systemic risk. Second, we argue that an unintended consequence of the Basel II VaR capital adequacy rules was the 2007 credit crisis. Third, we argue that to reduce systemic risk, a new capital adequacy rule is needed. One that is based on a risk measure related to the conditional expected loss given insolvency.
Forecasting Professional Forecasters

Surveys of forecasters, containing respondents’ predictions of future values of key macroeconomic variables, receive a lot of attention in the financial press, from investors and from policy makers. They are apparently widely perceived to provide useful information about agents’ expectations. Nonetheless, these survey forecasts suffer from the crucial disadvantage that they are often quite stale, as they are released only infrequently. In this article, we propose MIDAS regression and Kalman filter methods for using asset price data to construct daily forecasts of upcoming survey releases. Our methods also allow us to predict actual outcomes, providing competing forecasts, and allow us to estimate what professional forecasters would predict if they were asked to make a forecast each day, making it possible to measure the effects of events and news announcements on expectations.
Paraganglioma of the Urinary Bladder: A Lesion That May Be Misdiagnosed as Urothelial Carcinoma in Transurethral Resection Specimens

Paraganglioma of the urinary bladder is a rare tumor with characteristic histologic and immunohistochemical features. However, in our experience, it may be misdiagnosed as urothelial cancer because of 1) its frequent involvement of the muscularis propria; 2) morphology that may suggest urothelial cancer in transurethral resection specimens, particularly if there are artifactual changes induced by that procedure; 3) failure of pathologists to include it in their differential diagnosis when evaluating a bladder tumor; and 4) only a minority of the cases are associated with symptoms that might prompt consideration of the diagnosis. Distinction between paraganglioma and urothelial cancer is important because of likely different therapeutic options. In this report, we describe our experience with the histopathology of paragangliomas of the urinary bladder with emphasis on the histologic features that have led to their being misdiagnosed as conventional urothelial cancer and, most importantly, those that will help pathologists recognize this rare tumor of the bladder. Fifteen cases of paraganglioma of the urinary bladder were studied, 11 of them consult cases. They affected patients (8 male, 7 female) with a mean age of 49.5 years; only two had symptoms suggestive of the diagnosis, including hypertension during cystoscopy and episodic headache. Three consult cases were submitted with a diagnosis of “transitional cell carcinoma” and 4 with a diagnosis only of “bladder tumor. ” Histologically, “zellballen” and diffuse patterns were present in 12 (80%) and 3 (20%) of the cases. A delicate fibrovascular stroma was obvious in 14 (93%) cases. Other patterns included irregular nests and pseudorosette formation. Tumor necrosis, significant cautery artifact, and muscularis propria invasion were present in 1 (7%), 3 (20%) cases, and 10 (67%) cases, respectively. All 15 tumors were composed of large polygonal cells with abundant granular cytoplasm. Focal clear cells were present in 3 (20%). The nuclei were mostly uniform, although occasional pleomorphic nuclei were seen in 6 (40%) cases, and 2 (13%) had frequent pleomorphic nuclei. Mitoses were rare overall, and no abnormal mitotic figures were found. The major histologic features that led to misdiagnosis included a diffuse growth pattern, focal clear cells, necrosis, and muscularis propria invasion, with significant cautery artifact compounding the diagnostic problems. Immunohistochemically, 2 of 2 tumors were positive for neuron-specific enolase, 9 of 10 tumors for chromogranin, and 2 of 3 tumors for synaptophysin; 3 of 3 tumors were negative for cytokeratin and 1of 1 tumor negative for HMB-45. Paraganglioma of the urinary bladder may be misdiagnosed as urothelial cancer, but a careful search for the characteristic histologic features and, if necessary, supportive immunohistochemical studies, should lead to a correct diagnosis.
Cloud droplet sedimentation, entrainment efficiency, and subtropical stratocumulus albedo

The effect of cloud droplet sedimentation on the entrainment rate and liquid water path of a nocturnal nondrizzling stratocumulus layer is examined using large‐eddy simulations (LES) with bulk microphysics. In agreement with a prior study by Ackerman et al. (2004), sedimentation is found to decrease entrainment rate and thereby increase liquid water path. They suggested this is due to reduction of boundary‐layer turbulence. Our simulations suggest otherwise. Instead, sedimentation reduces entrainment by removing liquid water from the entrainment zone. This inhibits two mechanisms that promote the sinking of entrained air into the cloud layer–entrainment‐induced evaporative cooling and longwave radiative cooling. A sensitivity study shows that the radiative effect is less important than the reduced evaporation. A possible parameterization of the effect of sedimentation on entrainment rate in a mixed layer model is proposed and tested. Since the droplet sedimentation rate is inversely related to cloud droplet (and presumably aerosol) concentration and nearly nondrizzling marine stratocumulus are widespread, sedimentation impacts on stratocumulus entrainment efficiency should be considered in climate model simulations of the aerosol indirect effect.
Do venture capitalists reduce underpricing and underperformance of IPOs?

The purpose of this article is to assess the effect of venture capitalists at Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). In so doing, a sample of Venture Capital (VC)-backed firms was compared with a sample of non-VC-backed firms. Consistent with the prevailing belief that venture capitalists reduce uncertainty at the offering, VC-backed IPOs are found to be less underpriced than non-VC-backed IPOs. Moreover, in multivariate analyses, venture capitalists affect negatively the degree of underpricing. Unlike previous studies, we control for the new listing and rebalancing biases in the analysis of the long term performance by comparing the IPO returns to carefully constructed size matched portfolios. Based on the calendar time and the event time approaches, the results show that both samples are underperforming the carefully constructed reference portfolios in the long term. The analysis also shows that the VC-backed IPOs do not outperform the non-VC-backed IPOs. The overall difference between both sets of IPOs is also not statistically significant.
Piece-rates and prosperity: evidence from the late nineteenth-century tobacco industry

This paper uses a new and detailed survey of cigar making employers and employees to investigate two related discrimination issues. First, were piece rate cigar makers – the skilled aristocracy of this industry – paid differently by gender? We find that they were, but that the differences can be more than explained by differences in characteristics such as age and experience. Second, we ask whether men were more likely than women to be promoted from the relatively lowly paid time rate section of the industry to become piece rate workers. Although, in line with work by Burnette and Goldin, we might expect firms to pay piece rate workers ”fairly” it is not at all obvious whether we would expect them to allocate workers to higher paid positions ”fairly”. In fact we find that they do: women were much less likely to be on piece rates, but given their characteristics they were as likely to make it as men. There was no glass ceiling in this industry. The reason that women are (much) less well paid is that age and experience mattered, and for some combination of societal expectations and personal preferences, women are more likely to spend time away from the labour market raising children, to the detriment of their earning potential.
Cost-effectiveness of 12- and 15-year-old girls’ human papillomavirus 16/18 population-based vaccination programmes in Lithuania

Background: There is a large difference in the prevalence of cervical cancer between European countries. Between European Union countries, cervical cancer is the most prevalent in Lithuania. Currently we have available vaccines for different types of human papillomavirus virus (HPV), but we lack evidence on how the vaccination would be cost-effective in low-resource Eastern European countries like Lithuania. Objectives: To create a simulation model for the Lithuanian population; to estimate epidemiological benefits and cost-effectiveness for a HPV16/18 vaccination programme in Lithuania. Study design: For the cost-effectiveness analysis, we used Lithuanian population mathematical simulation and epidemiological data modelling. We performed comparative analysis of annual vaccination programmes of 12-year-old or 15-year-old girls at different vaccine penetration levels. Population: Lithuanian female population at all age groups. Results: A vaccination programme in Lithuania would gain an average of 35.6 life years per death avoided. Vaccinated girls would experience up to 76.9% overall reduction in incidence of cervical cancers, 80.8% reduction in morbidity and 77.9% reduction in mortality over their lifetime. Cost per life year gained with different vaccine penetration levels would range from 2167.41 to 2999.74. Conclusions: HPV vaccination in Lithuania would have a very positive impact on the epidemiological situation and it would be cost-effective at all ranges of vaccine penetration. Vaccination in Lithuania in the long term potentially could be more cost-effective due to avoiding early disease onset and lower accumulation of period costs.
Sovereignty and Central Banking: Evidence from the East Asian Region in the Early 1900s

Abstract This paper examines the connection between sovereignty and central banking through a case study of the Bank of Chosŏn in colonial Korea during the 1910s and 1920s. Using historical and statistical analysis, this study shows the particular characteristics and limitations of the Bank of Chosŏn and its operations, both within the specific colonial context and under the political and economic conditions imposed by Japanese imperialism, such as a fixed exchange rate and the subordination of the Korean economy to Japan. While the Bank of Chosŏn was unable to ultimately exercise independent policy-making, this particular case offers avenues for exploring the historical and policy-making effects upon the relationship between sovereignty and central banking.