Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Economics of Managing Infectious Wildlife Disease

We use a two-state linear control model to examine the socially optimal management of disease in a valuable wildlife population when diseased animals cannot be harvested selectively. The two control variables are nonselective harvests and supplemental feeding of wildlife, where feeding increases both in situ productivity and disease prevalence. We derive a double singular solution which depends on the initial state and does not require bang-bang controls. The case of bovine tuberculosis among Michigan white-tailed deer is analyzed. In the base model, the disease is optimally maintained at low levels, with intermittent investments (via feeding) in deer productivity. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
Firm-Specific Factors as Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence From Indonesia

The cross-sectional technique of extreme bounds analysis (EBA) is used to identify the determinants of capital structure in a sample of Indonesian shareholding companies. Additional results are presented based on variable deletion and nonnested model selection tests. The results of traditional EBA show that the only robust variable is liquidity, but the results of restricted EBA add three more robust variables: profitability, tangibility, and income variability. However, variable deletion and nonnested model selection tests lend support only to size and liquidity. The conclusion is that most of the variables that appear important in studies of capital structure may not be important at all. From a policy perspective, the finding that some firm-specific factors are relevant to corporate capital structure confirms that financial reform has eliminated the distortions of corporate financial policies and financial markets caused by the previously dominant role of state banks.
Corporate Raiders, Performance and Governance in Europe

I analyse 136 block purchases made by corporate raiders in Europe between 1990 and 2001. Contrary to the hypothesis that these investors expropriate the target companies, there is a positive market reaction to the first public announcement of these purchases. In the long-run, raiders earn an abnormal profit when they sell their stakes. When they still held their positions at the end of the sample period, abnormal returns were insignificant. Raiders' activities do not improve operating performance. The findings are consistent with superior stock picking ability among these investors, but do not support the hypothesis that raiders are governance champions.
Corporate governance: measurement and determinant analysis

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the determinants of good governance in the US firms.Design/methodology/approach – The data are taken from a sample of 624 US listed and non‐financial firms for the period of 1994‐2003. Four indices were constructed that summarize the governance quality: one indice for the board of directors, another one for the board committees, a third one for the audit committee, and a fourth representing an overall or total index. Multiple regressions analyses are used in the study to find the determinants of strong governance.Findings – The empirical results show statistically significant and positive associations between each governance index (exception to board index) and firm size, investment opportunities, intangible assets and directors and officers ownership. Furthermore, institutional ownership and external financing needs are positively related to each governance index considered. However, growth opportunities and performance have no significant effect on governance qua.
Negative Bias Temperature Instability Dominated Degradation of Metal-Induced Laterally Crystallized p-Type Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

Device degradation of solution-based metal-induced laterally crystallized p-type polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs) is studied under dc bias stresses. While typical negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) or electron injection (EI) is observed under -Vg or -Vd only stress, respectively, no typical hot carrier (HC) degradation can be identified under high -Vd stress combined with either low or high -Vg stress. Instead, mixed NBTI and EI degradation is observed under combined low -Vg and -Vd stresses; and combined degradation of NBTI and HC occurs under high -Vd and moderate -Vg stresses. NBTI is the dominant mechanism in both cases. Grain boundary (GB) trap generation is found to correlate with the NBTI degradation with the same time exponent, suggesting the key role of GB trap generation in poly-Si TFTs' degradation.
Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii produces Lipo-chitin Oligosaccharides with nodE-dependent Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acyl Moieties

The lipo-chitin oligosaccharides (LCO) or nodulation factors synthesized by Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii were analyzed using positive mode fast atom bombardment and positive and negative mode electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. From their mass spectrometric behavior it is clearly possible to distinguish between the [M + Na]+ pseudomolecular ion of the nodE-independent molecule IV(C18:1,Ac) and the [M + H]+ pseudomolecular ion of the nodE-dependent molecule IV(C20:4,Ac), although they both have the same mass value. The results unequivocally show that the bacterial strain investigated produces nodE-dependent LCOs with highly unsaturated fatty acyl moieties. We further demonstrate that the interpretation of the mass spectrometric data by Philip-Hollingsworth et al. (Philip-Hollingsworth, S., Orgambide, G. G., Bradford, J. J., Smith, D. K., Hollingsworth, R. I., and Dazzo, F. B. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 20968) is incorrect and that their data do not contradict our hypothesis that the nodE gene determines the host specificity of R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii.
A Complexity Perspective on Researching Organizations : Taking Experience Seriously

Part of the Complexity as the Experience of Organizing series, this book applies complex responsiveness theory to real-life leadership experiences. It features contributions from and details the experience of organizational practitioners, leaders, consultants and managers from various organizations through narrative accounts. It addresses questions such as: * How do widespread or global patterns emerge and evolve in the local interactions between people? * What actually happens in global change programmes? * What does this imply about the relationship between the local and the global? Exploring the perspective of complex responsive processes, the book's contributors examine how this assists them in making sense of their experience, and how this awareness then leads to their development. This book is a valuable study for academics, business school students and practitioners, as rather than offering mere descriptions of organizational life, it provides reflective accounts of real-life experiences of researching in organizations.
Consumers' Appreciation of Regional Certification Labels: A Pan-European Study

Successful regional products, such as Florida oranges, Idaho potatoes and Parma ham, often have to compete against products passing themselves off as the authentic product using the exact same name. This unfair competition misleads consumers, discourages small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from marketing products based on their region of origin, and may end up hurting rural economies. To protect consumers, and support SMEs and rural economies, many countries around the world have introduced regulations enabling SMEs to legally protect the names of their regional products. The success of these regulations largely depends on consumers' appreciation of regional certification labels that inform consumers that the name of the regional product is protected and that it denotes the authentic product. To gain an understanding about consumers' appreciation of regional certification labels, this paper investigates consumers' image of these labels and proposes a model that relates this image to consumers' willingness to buy and pay for protected regional products. The model is tested based on Regulation No. 2081/92 that was introduced by the EEC allowing European SMEs to protect their regional products and market their products with a protected-designation-of-origin (PDO) label. Structural equation modelling results suggest that consumers' image of regional certification labels consists of a quality warranty dimension and an economic support dimension, which positively relate to consumers' willingness to buy and pay for the protected regional product. Protecting regional products and marketing them with regional certification labels may be beneficial for SMEs producing and marketing regional products. Policy and managerial implications are discussed.
SIZE, LEVERAGE, AND DIVIDEND RECORD AS DETERMINANTS OF EQUITY RISK

THE LAST DECADE has witnessed significant advancements in capital theory and its application to corporate finance, investment policy, and portfolio analysis. More recently a growing body of empirical work has undertaken the task of systematically testing the positive implications of the theory. The study of risk has occupied a central position in this endeavor as it provides the link between the various branches of finance theory. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the empirical determinants of equity risk through the analysis of the firm's underlying characteristics, specifically, the firm's size, its financial leverage, and its dividend record. Section I summarizes the literature, Section II provides the theoretical framework, Section III describes the empirical model and the data, Section IV presents the statistical results, Section V analyzes the effect of excluded variables, and Section VI provides a summary and conclusions.
Public versus Private Liquor Retailing: An Investigation into the Behavior of the State Governments

A traditional role of democratic governments has been to police or regulate the behavior of privately owned commercial enterprises. The dimensions of this regulatory role have markedly changed in the United States as government production or public ownership of enterprises has superceded private production in some markets. These publicly owned enterprises utilize resources which would otherwise be available for private production. Liquor retailing, which is privately owned and regulated by government in some states and publicly (or governmentally) owned in other states, is an ideal industry to use to investigate the relationship between the form of enterprise ownership and the intensity of regulation. Presently, fifteen state governments monopolize liquor retailing. ' In the remaining thirtyfive states, the industry is privately owned and state regulated. This paper takes the form of ownership as given2 and concentrates on the effects the
Empowerment as guidance for professional social work: an act of balancing on a slack rope

The goals of empowerment raise new challenges for the social work professions. From being in an authoritative position the professionals should behave more like partners and advocates on the users’ terms. The development creates further uncertainty and dilemmas since the ideological sources of empowerment are very different. One important source is the radical, activist movements among service users, but empowerment is also an important part of the liberalist vocabulary when it argues for a marketisation of the welfare services. At the same time the different positions agree on some of the same kind of solutions, as for instance direct payments and personal assistance. The first part of the article presents the concept of empowerment and shows how the different ideological positions try to create their own images of the concept. The second part discusses the challenges the growing popularity of empowerment raises for the professions and what dilemmas professionals who want to found their work on an empowerment model will face. It calls attention to the demands for competencies and qualifications raised by the empowerment debate and discusses potential dangers, which the empowerment philosophy creates because of its unclear ideological base. The examples used to illustrate the discussions are mainly from professional work among people with disabilities.
Demography and Finance - Finance and Growth

This paper provides an overview and survey of selected literature on two economic topics that have recently been subject to much academic debate. First, the effects of demographic change on financial markets and secondly, the role of financial intermediaries in promoting economic growth. This paper also provides a brief survey of the literature on pension reform and its implications on promoting "financial depth" and subsequent growth. Pension reform may constitute a direct link from demography to economic growth through the mechanism of financial intermediaries.
Antibiotic susceptibility among aerobic gram-negative bacilli in intensive care units in 5 European countries. French and Portuguese ICU Study Groups.

CONTEXT Surveillance of antibiotic resistance is especially important in intensive care units (ICUs) because the infection rates are much higher there than in other hospital wards and most epidemics with multiresistant bacteria originate in ICUs. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the incidence of decreased antibiotic susceptibility among aerobic gram-negative bacilli isolated from patients in ICUs. DESIGN Consecutive specimens collected on clinical indications from ICU patients were cultured and tested. Minimum inhibitory concentrations for amikacin, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, imipenem, piperacillin, and piperacillin-tazobactam were determined using E test. SETTING Eighteen hospitals in Belgium, 40 in France, 20 in Portugal, 30 in Spain, and 10 in Sweden. SUBJECTS A total of 9166 gram-negative strains were initially isolated from 7308 patients between June 1994 and June 1995. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The incidence of decreased susceptibility, defined as the sum of resistant and intermediate categories with use of the minimum inhibitory concentration break points recommended by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards. RESULTS The most frequently isolated organisms were Enterobacteriaceae (59%) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (24%). The main sources were respiratory tract (42%), urine (26%), blood (14%), abdomen (11%), and skin and soft tissue (7%). Decreased antibiotic susceptibility across all species and drugs was highest in Portuguese ICUs followed by French, Spanish, Belgian, and Swedish ICUs. The highest incidence of resistance was seen in all countries among P aeruginosa (up to 37% resistant to ciprofloxacin in Portuguese ICUs and 46% resistant to gentamicin in French ICUs), Enterobacter species, Acinetobacter species, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and in Portugal and France among Klebsiella species. CONCLUSION The high incidence of reduced antibiotic susceptibility among gram-negative bacteria in these ICUs suggests that more effective strategies are needed to control the selection and spread of resistant organisms.
Between Rural and Urban Slums: A Geography of Pathways Through Homelessness

In this paper we deal with the geography of pathways through homelessness, developed by households who live in holiday parks in the rural southern part of Belgium (Wallonia). The paper aims to provide insights into the motivations and objectives of the homeless themselves and to identify structural obstacles that risk reproducing homelessness. After a conceptual introduction, we present our research methodology, which combines quantitative and qualitative methods. The following section then briefly describes the socio-historical background of three permanently inhabited holiday parks, which serve as case studies for this paper. The empirical results focus on the geography of pathways, stressing housing situations before and beyond permanent habitation of holiday parks. We conclude by arguing that a collective and holistic policy is needed to fight homelessness.
Show Managers' Perceptions of Customer Equity in the Convention Industry

Using relevant marketing and convention literature as justification, this study explores and further defines customer equity factors in a business‐to‐business context (i.e., the show manager to a convention center) from the show manager's perspective. A factor analysis revealed that relationship equity explained more of the variance in the data, followed by value equity and then brand equity. Nine factors (five were classified as value, three as brand, and one as relationship) were revealed and then further used to identify any dominant drivers of customer equity considering intention to rebook by the show manager. The study results further supported location as the primary driver for intention to rebook with personal connection, ease in booking process, and easy move in and move out noted as important drivers to rebooking. From the convention center and show manager viewpoint, this output can be used to better define and hence enhance the value strategy, brand strategy, and relationship strategy offered to show managers by convention centers. For researchers, the study indicates some direct avenues for future research (e.g., further refinement the scales of brand, value, and relationship equity for the convention industry).
Plant functional traits and the multidimensional nature of species coexistence

Significance Biologists have long understood that differences between species in traits such as bill shape or rooting depth can maintain diversity in communities by promoting specialization and reducing competition. Here we test the assumption that phenotypic differences drive the stabilizing niche differences that promote coexistence. Using advances in ecological theory and detailed experiments we quantify average fitness and stabilizing niche differences between 102 plant species pairs and relate these differences to 11 functional traits. Individual traits were correlated with fitness differences that drive competitive exclusion but not stabilizing niche differences that promote coexistence. Stabilizing niche differences could only be described by combinations of traits, representing differentiation in multiple dimensions. This challenges the simplistic use of trait patterns to infer community assembly. Understanding the processes maintaining species diversity is a central problem in ecology, with implications for the conservation and management of ecosystems. Although biologists often assume that trait differences between competitors promote diversity, empirical evidence connecting functional traits to the niche differences that stabilize species coexistence is rare. Obtaining such evidence is critical because traits also underlie the average fitness differences driving competitive exclusion, and this complicates efforts to infer community dynamics from phenotypic patterns. We coupled field-parameterized mathematical models of competition between 102 pairs of annual plants with detailed sampling of leaf, seed, root, and whole-plant functional traits to relate phenotypic differences to stabilizing niche and average fitness differences. Single functional traits were often well correlated with average fitness differences between species, indicating that competitive dominance was associated with late phenology, deep rooting, and several other traits. In contrast, single functional traits were poorly correlated with the stabilizing niche differences that promote coexistence. Niche differences could only be described by combinations of traits, corresponding to differentiation between species in multiple ecological dimensions. In addition, several traits were associated with both fitness differences and stabilizing niche differences. These complex relationships between phenotypic differences and the dynamics of competing species argue against the simple use of single functional traits to infer community assembly processes but lay the groundwork for a theoretically justified trait-based community ecology.
Long-term safety study of iguratimod in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

We conducted a 52-week clinical study of iguratimod in 394 Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis to evaluate the long-term safety of the drug. Iguratimod was administered orally at a daily dose of 25 mg for the first 4 weeks and 50 mg for the subsequent 48 weeks. Some of the patients continued the treatment for 100 weeks for their benefit. The cumulative incidence of adverse events for 100 weeks was 97.6%. The cumulative incidence of adverse reactions was 65.3%; unfavorable symptoms and signs (excluding abnormal laboratory data changes) accounted for 33.2% of the reactions, and abnormal laboratory data changes accounted for 50.4%. The continued treatment rate was 66.8% at week 28 and 53.6% at week 52. For reference, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20 response rate was calculated for the patients who had assessable disease activity, who did not violate the study protocol, and who continued the study treatment at weeks 28 and 52. The rate was 46.9% at week 28 and 41.0% at week 52. To use iguratimod safely for a long time, patients should be observed closely for adverse reactions such as increased hepatic enzymes.
Money Market Funds and Shareholder Dilution

This paper analyzes the effects of a share valuation technique, amortized cost valuation, on institutional money market funds (MMFs) and their investors. The possibility of arbitrage between securities priced at market value and amortized MMFs is investigated. It is found that significant dilution has taken place as a result of this valuation technique. Losses per share have been about 10 basis points per year. Evidence that arbitrageurs will take advantage of a misvaluation of the MMF and cause losses to other shareholders may suggest that some investors should reconsider the desirability of amortized MMFs for their investments. IN 1977 THE SEC approved the use of a share valuation technique, amortized cost valuation, that allows certain money market funds (MMFs) to let the reported share value of the fund deviate from its true market value. The possible danger was apparent from the start: shareholders of these MMFs would risk having their capital gains diluted by efficient arbitrageurs, who could increase their holdings of the MMF when it was undervalued and sell their shares when the MMF was overvalued. The SEC finally consented to allowing amortized cost valuation only after intense lobbying by several MMFs, and assurances from them that dilution could not occur. Today, the use of amortized cost and a close variant, penny-rounding, are used by the majority of MMFs, including those open to the general public. Yet no study to date has attempted to look at the possible harm to investors that has resulted from this valuation technique. This paper, while limiting itself to studying institutional MMFs, finds arbitrage has taken place at significant levels. In Section I some background information on MMFs is given and their methods of valuing securities are explained. The opportunity for arbitrage with amortized cost MMFs is further explained. Sections II and III then present empirical evidence to support the hypothesis of arbitrage and show the magnitude of these effects. In Section II it is shown that arbitrage activity may explain much of the variation in weekly asset levels of the institutional MMFs. Section III shows that the resulting dilution lowered the return to an original investor in all institutional MMFs by 10 basis points per year. While the dilution caused by a single arbitrageur is negligible' the potential gain to an arbitrageur from a single transaction can be as large as one-half percent of the arbitrageur's investment. Given the large gains available to