Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PORTFOLIO CONSIDERATIONS IN VALUING EXECUTIVE-COMPENSATION

This paper analyzes the valuation of a compensation contract from a manager's perspective. This perspective is appropriate, for example, in research on the incentive effects of a compensation plan, because such effects are determined by how the manager's actions affect his valuation of his compensation. In contrast, in a study of the cost-effectiveness of a compensation plan, the shareholders' perspective is appropriate. Measuring the value to a manager of his compensation is difficult because some of the diverse components of compensation packages (e.g., executive stock options and restricted stock) have payoffs that are uncertain when the compensation is granted. In most empirical studies, each component is valued independently (without consideration of the structure of the compensation package as a whole), and these values are summed. Moreover, the values are frequently determined using formulas for publicly traded securities with "similar" payoff structures (i.e., from the perspective of security market participants). Market imperfections create divergence between managers' and shareholders' valuations of a component of a compensation scheme. In particular, moral hazard and adverse selection issues cause shareholders to tie
Drop reliability performance assessment for PCB assemblies of chip scale packages (CSP)

Drop impact reliability assessment of solder joints on the chip scale packages is critical for use in miniature handheld products. Replacement of lead-based with lead-free solders requires the need of evaluating its compatibility with existing printed circuit board surface finishes. A 15 times 15mm fine-pitch BGA with solder ball compositions of 36Pb-62Sn-2Ag and Sn-4Ag-0.5Cu on surface finishes of organic solderability preservative, electroless nickel immersion gold and immersion tin were tested. The results revealed a strong influence of different intermetallic compound formation on soldered assemblies drop durability. The lead-based solder supersedes the lead-free composition regardless of the types of surface finish. Joints on organic solderability preservative were found to be strongest for each solder type. Other factors affecting drop reliability such as component location on the board and drop orientation are reported
Relationship of enhanced norepinephrine activity during memory consolidation to enhanced long-term memory in humans.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of enhanced noradrenergic activity on memory consolidation in humans. METHOD Thirty healthy subjects (21 men and nine women) viewed a series of 12 slides that depicted an emotionally arousing story. Five minutes after viewing the slides, subjects received either intravenous yohimbine or intravenous placebo in a double-blind randomized fashion. Multiple blood samples were drawn for determining plasma free 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG). One week later subjects took a surprise memory test for the slides. RESULTS There was no significant difference in memory score between yohimbine and placebo groups. Linear regression revealed a significant effect of MHPG on memory score for the group as a whole (subjects who had received yohimbine and those who had received placebo) and for the placebo group alone. CONCLUSIONS These findings strengthen support for the hypothesis that enhanced memory for emotionally arousing events in humans depends critically on postlearning adrenergic modulation.
Knowledge, agency and collective action as barriers to energy-saving behaviour

Energy saving is becoming a rising priority as a response to climate change and fossil fuel depletion in recent years. However, despite energy-related behaviour change being an important part of many environmental education initiatives, “energy literacy” among citizens remains patchy in both the USA and the UK, with evidence of strong positive attitudes but less consistent knowledge. Whilst it is clear that increasing knowledge does not automatically produce behaviour changes, potential questions must be asked about the logic of focusing solely on behaviour without simultaneously exploring and enhancing understanding of energy issues. This research, undertaken at a higher education institution with a strong focus on sustainability, illustrates the potential risks of targeting behaviour change and individual action at the expense of increasing knowledge, or encouraging collaborative and democratic endeavours. Results from an online survey indicate widespread misconceptions about energy which may reduce the effectiveness of energy-saving behaviours, alongside variable levels of motivation and engagement with energy issues. Respondents report a strong belief in the efficacy of personal changes, yet uncertainty about their capacity to influence business and government alongside a persistent faith in science to provide solutions to energy issues. The paper concludes by reflecting on the challenges arising from these findings for understanding agency and effectiveness in energy relationships.
Strategic Promotion and Compensation

Within a hierarchical firm structure, this paper details how the composition of a worker's skills and the non-observability of a worker's ability affect wage and promotion paths. Promotion-based compensation schemes derive naturally from the worker's asymmetrically observed ability. Promotion takes place over time and is inefficient since employers strategically exploit their knowledge of an able worker's ability. Conversely, employers may be unable to efficiently demote and retain bad managers without paying bonuses. Employers are led to promote educated employees before their equally or more able, but uneducated, counterparts. Explanations for fast-track promotions plans, and other empirical regularities are provided.
Cystinuria subtype and the risk of nephrolithiasis.

BACKGROUND Cystinuria patients may be classified into several subgroups based on the urinary phenotype of heterozygotes. However, the relative risk for nephrolithiasis and the prevalence of SLC3A1 mutations in these subgroups are unknown. METHODS Urinary cystine excretion, age at onset of nephrolithiasis and nature of SLC3A1 mutations were assessed prospectively in 23 cystinuria patients identified primarily through the Quebec Newborn Screening Program. Probands were classified as to cystinuria subtype on the basis of parental urinary cystine excretion. RESULTS For classical Type I/I cystinuria, both parents excrete cystine in the normal range and probands carry two mutations of the SLC3A1 gene in nearly every case. Between ages 1 to 7 years, mean cystine excretion was high (4566 +/- 480 microns cystine/g creatinine) and exceeded the theoretic threshold for solubility on 70% of visits. Four of eight Type I/I patients began forming stones in the first decade. Type I/III patients (N = 12) excreted less cystine (1544 +/- 163 mumol cystine/g creatinine), exceeded the threshold of urinary cystine solubility less frequently (22% of visits) and had no nephrolithiasis in the first decade; one formed a stone at age 16 years. Only one SLC3A1 mutation was identified in this group. Two Type II/N cystinuria children were identified. In these families, the same level of relatively high excretion (> 600 mumol cystine/g creatinine) was noted in two or three generations, but no SLC3A1 mutations were identified. CONCLUSIONS Classical recessive Type I/I cystinuria is genetically and phenotypically distinct from the other subtypes (Type I/III and Type II/N) identified in our population.
Adult Thymic Epithelium Contains Nonsenescent Label-Retaining Cells

Progress in our understanding of thymic epithelial cell (TEC) renewal and homeostasis is hindered by the lack of markers for TEC progenitors. Stem and progenitor cell populations display remarkable diversity in their proliferative behavior. In some but not all tissues, stemness is associated with quiescence. The primary goal of our study was to discover whether quiescent cells were present in neonatal and adult TECs. To this end, we used a transgenic label-retaining cell (LRC) assay in which a histone H2B-GFP fusion protein is expressed under the control of the reverse tetracycline-controlled transactivator and the tetracycline operator minimal promoter. In adult mice, we found that both cortical and medullary TECs (cTECs and mTECs) proliferated more actively in females than males. Moreover, we observed three main differences between neonatal and adult TECs: 1) neonatal TECs proliferated more actively than adult TECs; 2) whereas cTECs and mTECs had similar turnover rates in young mice, the turnover of mTECs was more rapid than that of cTECs in adults; and 3) although no LRCs could be detected in young mice, LRCs were detectable after a 16-wk chase in adults. In female mice, LRCs were found almost exclusively among cTECs and expressed relatively low levels of p16INK4a, p19ARF, and Serpine1, and high levels of Bmi1, Foxn1, Trp63, and Wnt4. We conclude that LRCs in adult TECs are not senescent postmitotic cells and may represent the elusive progenitors responsible for TEC maintenance in the adult thymus.
DTIC, CCNU, bleomycin and vincristine (BOLD) in metastatic melanoma

Treatment of 91 consecutive patients having metastatic, Stage IV melanoma who had not received any previous chemotherapy was begun between January 1977 and April 1978. The therapy included bleomycin (B) at 7.5 units subcutaneously in the first course and 15 units in subsequent courses on days 1 and 4; vincristine or Oncovin (O) at 1 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1 and 5; CCNU or lomustine (L) at 80 mg/m2 p.o. on day 1 and DTIC (D) 200 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1 through 5. Evaluable patients (72) were those who had measurable tumors in the viscera and on the skin. Seven patients (9%) responded with complete tumor regression (CR), 22 (31%) with partial regression (PR) (50% or more tumor regression), 12 (17%) with stabilization of disease, and 31 (43%) with progression of the disease. Patients who responded with CR, PR, and stable disease (41 patients) had a median survival of 67 weeks, while those who did not respond (31 patients) had a median survival of 20 weeks (P < .0001). Overall median survival was 31 weeks.
“Negotiating Fairness”: A Study on How Lesbian Family Members Evaluate, Construct, and Maintain “Fairness” with the Division of Household Labor

In this article, I examine how dual-earner lesbian families construct and evaluate an equal division of household labor through their perceptions of “fairness. ” Through 22 interviews of dual-earner lesbian families (a total of 44 subjects), I identify that lesbian partners use social comparisons with heterosexual families with whom they have contact, as well as their former heterosexual and homosexual families as an important link to justify what they believe to be a fair division of household labor. Childhood socialization and parental models, however, were not shown to adequately explain how members of a lesbian family construct a perception of equality concerning household division of labor.
Effects of variable training, signaled and unsignaled delays, and d-amphetamine on delay-discounting functions

One common procedure for obtaining delay-discounting functions consists of a choice between a larger reinforcer that is presented after an increasing delay and a smaller reinforcer that is always presented immediately within session. Repeating the same context of delay presentation (e.g. ascending delay order) in a discrete-choice paradigm, however, may lead to a perseverative response pattern when rats are used as subjects. The purpose of this study was to increase the variability in delay presentation (i.e. ascending and descending delays) in an attempt to reduce a perseverative response pattern and gain tighter control over choice by reinforcer amount and delay. For one group of rats (n = 8), delays to reinforcer presentation were differentially signaled by a flashing houselight and for one group of rats (n = 8) the delays were unsignaled. Effects of delay signal and d-amphetamine on choice were evaluated in both groups. Similar rates of delay discounting and area under the curve (AUC) were observed with both ascending and descending delay presentations and with signaled and unsignaled delays to reinforcement. Increasing the variability in delay order resulted in differences in the choice pattern during 0-s probe sessions. d-Amphetamine had little or no effect on AUC at low doses, but decreased AUC at the highest doses tested, that is, 1.0 and 1.7 mg/kg. Some of the changes in AUC after d-amphetamine administration may have been because of disruption in discrimination of the different food amounts.
BRAESS'S PARADOXES IN DYNAMIC TRAFFIC ASSIGNMENT WITH SIMULTANEOUS DEPARTURE TIME AND ROUTE CHOICES

In this paper, we investigate some new dynamic phenomena of Braess's paradox in transportation networks when both the departure time and route choices are considered simultaneously. The classical Wardropian user equilibrium principle is used to characterize route choice behavior, and the traditional bottleneck models with deterministic queues are employed to describe user's departure time choice behavior. New Braess's paradoxes with dynamic user response have been found in respect to the point queue and physical queue assumptions, and the mechanisms of such paradoxes are analyzed in details. Furthermore, it is shown in a numerical example that a paradox may occur in network when physical queue assumption is made, but the paradox may not be found in network if the point queue assumption is adopted in the proposed dynamic traffic assignment model. Due to the significant difference between point queue and physical queue assumptions, spatial dimension of queues has to be considered carefully in dynamic traffic assignment models. Finally, some traffic management measures are suggested and examined to resolve the potential paradoxes, such as link closing, ramp metering, dynamic road pricing, lane partitioning, and adaptive traffic control etc.
Do Phillips Curves Conditionally Help to Forecast Inflation?

This paper reexamines the forecasting ability of Phillips curves from both an unconditional and conditional perspective by applying the method developed by Giacomini and White (2006). We find that forecasts from our Phillips curve models tend to be unconditionally inferior to those from our univariate forecasting models. Significantly, we also find conditional inferiority, with some exceptions. When we do find improvement, it is asymmetric - Phillips curve forecasts tend to be more accurate when the economy is weak and less accurate when the economy is strong. Any improvement we find, however, vanished over the post-1984 period.
IMPACT OF WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON FERTILITY IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

In recent years, the dynamic development of women participation towards the modern economic growth leads to family issue falls below their main preference. Several researches had shown that the dramatic economic development is crucial to the demographic change. Essentially, this paper emphasizes on the progress of women participation as labor supply and its implication towards fertility change across age. The causal relationship of this demo-economic issue is illustrated based on distribution of age structure. Since current employed women plays main role as a decision maker in the family as well as in determining the limitation of childbearing and abstaining in marriage. Thus, dedicated empirical study is carried out to identify the age group of employed women which most contributed to these aspects. The economic consequences also being studied by taking into account the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and women unemployment rate as the main fiscal indicators. Nonparametric regression method which provides better data handling in the sense of nonlinear relationship is mainly applied in this study. Notable interaction is demonstrated between societal effect and fertility whereby employed women aged 20 to 40 years indicates a significant impact on the fertility decline.
Inflation Expectations in Latin America

This paper tests the rationality of inflation forecasts surveyed in Mexico, Brazil, and Chile and identifies their recent formation rule. There is strong evidence that forecasts are unbiased, but forecasters have not been fully efficient in the use of available information. The paper assesses the importance of inflation targets to anchor inflation expectations in these countries and finds that in most cases there is room for improvement in credibility.
When the brain expects pain: common neural responses to pain anticipation are related to clinical pain and distress in fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis

Supraspinal processes in humans can have a top‐down enhancing effect on nociceptive processing in the brain and spinal cord. Studies have begun to suggest that such influences occur in conditions such as fibromyalgia (FM), but it is not clear whether this is unique to FM pain or common to other forms of chronic pain, such as that associated with osteoarthritis (OA). We assessed top‐down processes by measuring anticipation‐evoked potentials and their estimated sources, just prior (< 500 ms) to laser heat pain stimulation, in 16 patients with FM, 16 patients with OA and 15 healthy participants, by using whole‐brain statistical parametric mapping. Clinical pain and psychological coping factors (pain catastrophizing, anxiety, and depression) were well matched between the patient groups, such that these did not confound our comparisons between FM and OA patients. For the same level of heat pain, insula activity was significantly higher in FM patients than in the other two groups during anticipation, and correlated with the intensity and extent of reported clinical pain. However, the same anticipatory insula activity also correlated with OA pain, and with the number of tender points across the two patient groups, suggesting common central mechanisms of tenderness. Activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was reduced during anticipation in both patient groups, and was related to less effective psychological coping. Our findings suggest common neural correlates of pain and tenderness in FM and OA that are enhanced in FM but not unique to this condition.
Extracurricular Involvement in Community Youth Centers: A Study of School-aged Adolescents, Parents and Center Staff in Mainland China

ABSTRACT This study examines adolescents' involvement in extracurricular activities provided by community youth centers in Mainland China and their perceptions of the benefits of this type of extracurricular involvement. Based on principal data obtained from a survey of 1,544 adolescents aged between 9 and 14, together with supplementary data collected from surveys of 1,116 parents of these adolescents and 632 staff members of community youth centers in five cities in Mainland China—Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Lanzhou and Wuhan—the present study finds a great disconnection between the service condition of community youth centers and what adolescents expect and perform in the centers. Moreover, our findings on extracurricular involvement among adolescents in various academic grades show a tendency for adolescents to become progressively more pessimistic. Specifically, extracurricular involvement and perceptions of most of the benefits of such involvement are less strong among adolescents in higher grades than they are among adolescents in lower grades. In addition, despite a similar pattern regarding perceived benefits of extracurricular involvement between adolescents and parents, the ratings of parents on all benefit items were much lower than those given by their children. The research and practical implications of the current findings for promoting extracurricular involvement in community youth centers among Chinese adolescents are discussed.
Clinical profile and treatment outcomes of drug-resistant tuberculosis before directly observed treatment strategy plus: Lessons for the program

Background: Characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR TB) before introduction of directly observed treatment strategy (DOTS) plus are infrequently reported. Aims: To study clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of drug-resistant TB patients. Setting: A TB unit in Mumbai. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of DR TB patients attending a TB unit and taking treatment at NGOs was performed. Of the 34 cases, 5 (14%) had mycobacterium other than tuberculosis, 24 were pulmonary TB, 4 extra-pulmonary TB, and one both. Three were HIV-infected, two had diabetes. Two cases were treatment naive. Of the 29 cases studied, 3 (11%) were mono-resistant, 20 (69%) were multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB with E/Z/EZ resistance; 4 were pure MDR TB. One case had XDR TB, 13 (44.8%) had resistance to at least one conventional second-line drug. Seven cases had adverse drug reaction, four requiring drug substitution. Two patients are on treatment; 14 of the remaining 27 (51%) were successfully treated, 5 (18%) died, 2 (7%) failed treatment, 5 (18%) were lost to follow-up, one migrated. Conclusion: DST profiles suggest high levels of drug resistance due to amplification which leads to poor outcomes. There is an urgent need for Indian Revised National TB Control Program to introduce daily DOTS for susceptible cases, DST for all new cases, and scaling up DST for second-line drugs. There is also a need to use individualized treatment for DR TB.
Countering the Rhetoric of Emerging Domestic Markets: Why More Information Alone Will Not Address the Capital Needs of Underserved Communities:

This article critiques the idea that the private sector can take the lead in addressing the capital needs of underserved communities, focusing specifically on the emerging domestic markets approach advocated by Milken Institute researchers. This approach has three limitations. First, it treats all underserved communities as interchangeable, ignoring that they differ in important ways in the nature and causes of their capital constraints. Second, it claims that underserved communities lack access to capital primarily as a result of information failure, overlooking numerous other obstacles that discourage investment in such communities. Third, its overarching assumption that the private sector can take the lead in meeting the capital needs of underserved communities is unrealistic because it fails to address these additional barriers to investment. The article recommends a more individualized approach to understanding the capital needs of underserved communities and recognition of the need for public sector leadership in solving this problem.
The Public Business Support Services: Does It Really Works?

The establishment of business entity, especially among Malays ethnic, experienced a rapid development since Malaysia has gained independence from British colonial in 1957. In 1970 the government has launched a New Economic Policy (1970-1990) which aimed to increase Malays ownership in economic activities without sidelining other races. However, at the end of the period, the targeted figure of 30% Bumiputera (indigenous) ownership is far from achieved. The government was alerted and has conducted a substantial program to overcome the problems. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the factors that hinder SMEs from using the services, hoping that the awareness is no more a key issue. This study is also to assess non-users perception of firms’ performance in the absence of the government support services. The study used cross sectional data from database of national SME supervisory body. The respondents are Malays SMEs all over Malaysia.