Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Growth Determinants among Swedish SMEs, Evidence from firm-level data

This paper identifies the firm-level internal determinants that explain the economic growth of Swedish SMEs. The analysis is based on a sample consisting of 989 growth SMEs and 6,119 non-growth SMEs with 95,475 observations, and applies logistic regression models for the period 2004-2006. The results, which have a high rate of accuracy, indicate that a set of four factors – age, size, leverage rate and profitability – had a significant impact on the growth probability of sample firms over a period of three years. The results can be summarised as follows. First, younger SMEs have a better chance of seeing growth. Second, financial constraints significantly decrease the probability of growth in terms of employees. Third, profitability plays a significant role in the growth process. Lastly, access to external financial resources has a positive effect on the growth of firms. The results of this paper are useful for firm stakeholders, including managers, shareholders, debt holders and potential investors, as well as academic researchers and policy makers.
Procalcitonin and BISAP score versus C-reactive protein and APACHE II score in early assessment of severity and outcome of acute pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND/AIM Early assessment of severity and continuous monitoring of patients are the key factors for adequate treatment of acute pancreatitis (AP). The aim of this study was to determine the value of procalcitonin (PCT) and Bedside Index for Severity in Acute Pancreatitis (BISAP) scoring system as prognostic markers in early stages of AP with comparison to other established indicators such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score. METHODS This prospective study included 51 patients (29 with severe AP). In the first 24 h of admission in all patients the APACHE II score and BISAP score, CRP and PCT serum concentrations were determined. The values of PCT serum concentrations and BISAP score were compared with values of CRP serum concentrations and APACHE II score, in relation to the severity and outcome of the disease. RESULTS Values of PCT, CRP, BISAP score and APACHE II score, measured at 24 h of admission, were significantly elevated in patients with severe form of the disease. In predicting severity of AP at 24 h of admission, sensitivity and specificity of the BISAP score were 74% and 59%, respectively, APACHE II score 89% and 69%, respectively, CRP 75% and 86%, respectively, and PCT 86% and 63%, respectively. It was found that PCT is highly significant predictor of the disease outcome (p < 0,001). CONCLUSION In early assessment of AP severity, PCT has better predictive value than CRP, and similar to the APACHE II score. APACHE II score is a stronger predictor of the disease severity than BISAP score. PCT is a good predictor of AP outcome.
Bank mergers and acquisitions in emerging markets: evidence from Asia and Latin America

Following a global wave of consolidation in the banking industry, this study analyses 132 mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving banks in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America between 1998 and 2009. An event study measures the change in shareholder value for acquirers and targets; and a multivariate regression identifies the drivers of the change in shareholder value for acquirers. On average M&As create shareholder value for target firms, while acquirer firms do not lose shareholder value. Geographical diversification creates shareholder value for acquirers. Acquirer shareholders benefit from the acquisition of underperforming targets; from transactions settled by cash rather than exchange of equity; and from government-instigated M&A transactions.
A Factor Analysis of Bond Risk Premia

This paper uses the factor augmented regression framework to analyze the relation between bond excess returns and the macro economy. Using a panel of 131 monthly macroeconomic time series for the sample 1964:1-2007:12, we estimate 8 static factors by the method of asymptotic principal components. We also use Gibb sampling to estimate dynamic factors from the 131 series reorganized into 8 blocks. Regardless of how the factors are estimated, macroeconomic factors are found to have statistically significant predictive power for excess bond returns. We show how a bias correction to the parameter estimates of factor augmented regressions can be obtained. This bias is numerically trivial in our application. The predictive power of real activity for excess bond returns is robust even after accounting for finite sample inference problems. Forecasts of excess bond returns (or bond risk premia) are countercyclical. This implies that investors are compensated for risks associated with recessions.
Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in Indian eyes with optical coherence tomography.

INTRODUCTION Measuring the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer is a potential method of recognizing axon loss prior to the visual field abnormality. OBJECTIVE To study normal individuals to quantify peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in Asian Indian subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a prospective study of 150 normal subjects. Peripapillary RNFL was imaged with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT3) and the thickness of the RNFL around the disc was determined in four quadrants with a 3.4 mm circle OCT scan. The influence of age and gender was evaluated on various parameters using unpaired t test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and ANOVA. RESULTS The sample included 66 males and 84 females. The mean age of the study sample was 42.64 +/-13.63 years. The average RNFL thickness was 101.07 +/- 10. 13μm with the maximum thickness in the inferior quadrant (127.47±15.57) followed by the superior, nasal and temporal quadrants. The difference between the inferior and superior quadrants was statistically significant (p less than 0.001). There was no significant difference in RNFL thickness between males and females. Negative correlation was found between age and average RNFL thickness, superior and temporal average (Pearson's correlation value = -0.262, - 0.209, - 0.294 respectively and p = 0.02, 0.04, 0.001 respectively). CONCLUSION The present study provides additional data on the existing database of RNFL thickness in Asian Indians. It is also evident that RNFL thickness decreases with age but there is no relationship with gender.
The Economics of Education in Japan: A Survey of Empirical Studies and Unresolved Issues

The purpose of this article is to survey the empirical studies on education in Japan and to identify the issues yet to be addressed by the research. We divide the existing studies into six categories: (1) human capital theory and rates of return on education, (2) the labor market and education, (3) factor analysis of educational performance, (4) industrial analysis of education, (5) determinants of education demand, and (6) education and social stratification. We then compare the purposes, methodologies, conclusions, and policy implications of the studies discussed. There is an abundance of literature on each topic and we found many insights provided by noneconomic approaches, such as education sociology, that are also of interest from an economic viewpoint. A lack of data, however, limits empirical analysis and leaves many problems unresolved. The following four issues in particular remain to be resolved. First, there are relatively few empirical analyses on educational performance in Japan as compared with countries like the United States, and long-term panel data that include educational background information need to be developed. Second, a certain level of liberalism is being allowed in school education at the municipal level, expanding the opportunities for conducting analyses of educational performance based on cross-sectional data. Third, additional analyses of education from the perspectives of industrial organizational theory and business management need to be performed in light of the conversion of the national universities into independent administrative institutions. Fourth, some topics are conducive to joint research by scholars in the fields of economics and education sociology, such as the relationships between education and social stratification, and between education and income disparities.
Tanzania: AIDS care – learning from experience

Given heterosexual transmission and mother to child transmission, AIDS often strikes more than once within the same family. This is debilitating but can also be a learning experience for carers whose knowledge might then be a resource for the community. This article describes a pilot study into the experience of 21 main care providers in families with chronically ill people suffering mainly from AIDS, each one having cared for and supported more than one patient. During the study 46 out of 51 patients who were cared by these 21 care providers had already died. Respondents provided information on care and support given to the first patient and how much they were prepared and experienced at giving quality care to the next patient. This study provides data from in‐depth interviews conducted between April and June 1999 in a suburb of Mwanza, a city in northwestern Tanzania.
Culture and reproductive systems of 11 species of Mycetozoans

The culture and reproductive systems of 10 species (16 isolates) of myxomycetes and one species (one isolate) of protostelid were investigated. A single isolate of Ceratiomyxa fructiculosa was grown on agar and found to be nonheterothallic. This is the first report of spore-to-spore cultivation of this species and the first report of a reproductive system in the protostelids. Isolates of the myxomycetes Didymium dubium, Didymium iridis, Didymium vaccinum, Licea biforis, Perichaena vermicularis, Physarum gyrosum, Physarum pusillum (six isolates) and Semimorula liquescens all were nonheterothallic. This is the first report of culture and a reproductive system for D. vaccinum, the first report of nonheterothallism for S. liquescens and the second report of nonheterothallic isolates of D. dubium, Licea biforis, Perichaena vermicularis and P. gyrosum. The nonheterothallic isolate of D. iridis is one of many reported for this species, and the six nonheterothallic isolates of P. pusillum add to the seven nonheterothallic and two heterothallic isolates already known. In addition, five of the isolates of P. pusillum apparently represent a small form that is adapted to an ephemeral micohabitat, and the sixth is a yellow form of a species that is typically white. The Didymium ? ovoideum isolate and the two Physarum didermoides isolates have heterothallic reproductive systems. The D. ovoideum isolate is somewhat different from most isolates of this species in its morphology and reproductive system. It is not compatible with any of the heterothallic isolates of long-stalked Didymium, including the A0 biological species already determined for D. ovoideum; therefore, it is either a new biological species of D. ovoideum or a separate new species. The two heterothallic isolates of P. didermoides form a multiple allelic mating-type series with four alleles.
Too big to fail

– Die Stellung eines Kreditinstituts kann so bedeutsam sein, dass seine Schieflage eine ganze Volkswirtschaft bedroht, nicht nur deren Finanzwirtschaft, sondern auch die Realwirtschaft. Ein Staat wird ein solches Kreditinstitut im Krisenfall nicht untergehen lassen. – Ein Kreditinstitut kann aufgrund seiner Größe die Rettungskapazitäten eines Staates übersteigen: Too big to be saved. Ein – allerdings extremes – Beispiel sind die beiden Schweizer Großbanken UBS und CS: Ihre zusammengefasste Bilanzsumme übersteigt das Bruttoinlandsprodukt der Schweiz um das Fünffache.
Simultaneous occurrence of price jumps and changes in diffusive price volatility

This paper uses high frequency financial data to study the changes in diffusive stock price volatility when price jumps are likely to have occurred on two levels. Firstly, diffusive volatility is compared between jump and non-jump days. Secondly, the change in diffusive volatility is compared in local windows before and after 5-minute intervals on which price jumps are likely to have occurred. This paper finds evidence that market price jumps occur simultaneously with a change in diffusive volatility with negative dependence in the direction of the jump and the volatility change. However, a similar relationship is not detectable in individual stock price data. 1 JEL Classification: G1, G19, C22
Mediating ethnic conflict at the grassroots: the role of local associational life in shaping political values in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana

This article attempts to understand why ethnic-regional civil war has challenged the national unity of Côte d'Ivoire and not Ghana, two neighbouring countries with nearly identical ethnic, religious and regional divisions, by examining politics at the grassroots. Based on a carefully controlled comparison of two similar regions of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the study investigates how participation in local voluntary associations reinforces the local experience of the state to shape the ongoing development of political values and affect the prospects for ethnic peace and democracy. The article finds that participation in ethnically heterogeneous voluntary associations does not necessarily promote democratic values and practice. In fact, in Côte d'Ivoire, participation in ethnically heterogeneous cocoa producer and mutual assistance organisations reinforces vertical patronage networks based on narrower ethnic identities. In contrast, in Ghana, participation in more ethnically homogeneous local church groups encourages the development of democratic values and practices at the local level that mediate the potential for ethnic conflict and support the consolidation of a democratic regime.
Farm Restructuring and Land Consolidation in Uzbekistan: New Farms with Old Barriers

Abstract In this article we investigate the potential for and limitations of land consolidation as a tool for rural development in transitional environments, focusing on the Khorezm region in Uzbekistan, Central Asia. We frame our analysis in a broader evaluation of land consolidation as a tool for economic development based on European experiences. It is argued that both the European tradition and the Uzbek case indicate that land consolidation as an isolated measure may trigger many unfavourable side-effects, and that in a transitional environment it requires even more careful tailoring of measures and embedding in various institutional settings.
Government, Openness and Finance: Past and Present

We explore the role of government in the nexus of finance and trade starting from the earliest days of organised finance in England and then broadening the analysis to 84 countries from 1960 to 2004. For 18th century England, we find that the government expenditures and international trade did have a positive long-run effect on financial development when measured as the value of private loans issued at the Bank of England. For the wider panel of countries and more recent data, we find that government expenditures and trade have positive effects on financial development for countries that are in the mid-ranges of economic development as measured by their per capita incomes, but have little effect for poor countries and strongly negative effects for the wealthiest ones.
Impacts of the borrower's attributes, loan contract contents, and collateral characteristics on mortgage loan default

This paper explores the factors influencing mortgage loan default and default probability by using the data from the mortgage loans of a case financial institution. The results indicate that the borrower's gender, the borrower's job position, whether the regional codes of the borrower's present residence and registered permanent residence are the same, the degree of relationship between the borrower and the guarantor, the loan-to-value ratio, the use status of collateral, and the located region of collateral are significantly positively correlated with the default probability. However, the education degree and the loan amount are significantly negatively correlated with the default probability.
DCIS Margins and Breast Conservation: MD Anderson Cancer Center Multidisciplinary Practice Guidelines and Outcomes

Recent published guidelines suggest that adequate margins for DCIS should be ≥ 2 mm after breast conserving surgery followed by radiotherapy (RT). Many groups now use this guideline as an absolute indication for additional surgery. This article describes detailed multidisciplinary practices including extensive preoperative/intraoperative pathologic/histologic image-guided assessment of margins, offering some patients with small low/intermediate grade DCIS no RT, the use/magnitude of radiation boost tailoring to margin width, and endocrine therapy for ER-positive DCIS. Use of these protocols over the past 20-years has resulted in 10-year local recurrence rates below 5% for patients with negative margins < 2 mm who received RT. Patients with margins < 2 mm who do not receive RT experience significantly higher local failure rates. Thus, there is not an absolute need to achieve wider negative surgical margins when < 2 mm for patients treated with RT and this should be determined by the multidisciplinary team. Utilization of these multidisciplinary treatment protocols and techniques may not be exportable and extrapolated to all hospitals, breast programs and systems as they can be complex and resource intensive.
The Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on UK Exports to EU Countries

This paper investigates the impact of exchange rate volatility on UK exports to European Union (EU) countries by means of a newly developed ARDL bounds testing procedure to cointegration. Using monthly data disaggregated by market of destination and sectors for the period 1993ml to 2001m6, our results indicate that UK exports to the EU14, at both aggregate and sectoral level, are generally income elastic, relative price inelastic and largely unaffected by short-term exchange rate volatility. Re-estimation of the model using a long-term measure of volatility, however, provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that exchange rate uncertainty has a negative and significant influence on UK exports to EU countries.
Tourism Value Chain Governance

Over the past two decades, researchers and practitioners have given considerable attention to issues of tourism value chain governance. To establish a systematic understanding of the current research contributions and gaps, this study provides a review of published studies on the topic. Various dimensions of tourism value chain governance, namely, policy, destination management and marketing, integration of distribution channels, and sustainability of the tourism value chain, are examined. Content analysis is used to provide quantitative evidence and hence a more objective evaluation. The results show that research on tourism value chain governance remains limited, and the development of each dimension unbalanced. An agenda for future research is proposed, given the indications that both qualitative and quantitative investigations are needed to establish the most appropriate governance models for tourism value chains.
DcE2F, a Functional Plant E2F-like Transcriptional Activator from Daucus carota *

In animal cells the progression of the cell cycle through G1/S transition and S phase is under the control of the pRB/E2F regulatory pathway. The E2F transcription factors are key activators of genes coding for several regulatory proteins and for enzymes involved in nucleotide and DNA synthesis. In this report we have detected the presence of E2F-like DNA binding activities in carrot nuclear extracts, and we have isolated a carrot cDNA (DcE2F) encoding a plant E2F homologue. The DcE2F gene is expressed in proliferating cells and is induced during the G1/S transition of the cell cycle. Supershift experiments using anti-DcE2F antiserum have confirmed that the DcE2F protein is a component of the carrot E2F-like nuclear activities. DNA binding assays have demonstrated that the DcE2F protein can recognize a canonical E2Fcis-element in association with a mammalian DP protein. Furthermore, transactivation assays have revealed that DcE2F is a functional transcription factor that can transactivate, together with a DP partner, an E2F-responsive reporter gene in both plant and mammalian cells.
Genetic polymorphisms differently influencing the emergence of atrophy and fat accumulation in HIV-related lipodystrophy

Objective and design:The present study aims at evaluating the influence of genetic polymorphisms on antiretroviral therapy (ART)-associated lipodystrophy. We included in the study 255 ICoNA. patients and we assessed the distribution of Fas −670 AG polymorphism, ApoC3 −455 CT and −482 CT polymorphisms, C161T silent substitution in the PPAR γ gene, the Adrenergic β3 Receptor (ARβ3) codon 64 TC variant, and two polymorphisms in the Adrenergic β2 Receptor (ARβ2) codon 16 AG and codon 27 CG. Crude rates of lipoatrophy and fat accumulation and adjusted relative rates were calculated using Poisson regression. Results:In a multivariate model after adjusting for gender, HIV exposure, age, current viral load, hepatitis C virus (HCV) serology, nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) pair/‘third drugs’ currently used, months of pre-highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) exposures to NRTI, the following genotypes resulted protective against lipoatrophy: ApoC3 −455 CC genotype [adjusted relative risks (ARR) 0.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.046–0.91 vs CT/TT, P = 0.037], ARβ3 codon 64 TT genotype (ARR 0.39, 95% CI 0.14–1.06 vs TC/CC, P = 0.066), and Fas −670 GG genotype (ARR 0.51, 95% CI 0.26–1.01 vs AG/AA, P = 0.053). With regard to fat accumulation, in the multivariate model, the ARβ2 codon 27 CC genotype resulted protective (ARR 0.21, 95% CI 0.08–0.51 vs CG/GG, P = 0.0006), whereas the ARβ2 codon 16 AA genotype resulted associated with higher risk (ARR 3.72, 95% CI 1.58–8.76 vs AG/GG, P = 0.0026). Conclusion:Our study suggests that genetic polymorphisms of genes involved in apoptosis and adipocyte metabolism are significantly related to ART associated lipodystrophy. Particularly, we evidenced a role for ApoC3 −455 in lipoatrophy and for the two variants of ARβ2 in fat accumulation.
RELIANCE ON ACCOUNTING PERFORMANCE-MEASURES, TASK UNCERTAINTY, AND DYSFUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR - SOME EXTENSIONS

Available evidence indicates that the incidence of dysfunctional behavior' undertaken by subordinates is affected by their perceptions of the way in which their superiors use accounting performance measures (APM) to evaluate their performance. However, research to date has produced conflicting results. For example, Hopwood [1972] found that the incidence of dysfunctional behavior was minimal for subordinates who perceived that their superiors used a medium reliance on APM.2 But Otley [1978], in attempting to replicate and extend Hopwood's work, could not confirm some of these results. For example, he found that some