Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of institutional investors in market volatility during the subprime mortgage crisis

In this study, we obtain intraday data on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index and apply the range-based estimation method to measure intraday high–low prices, whilst also incorporating the variable of net trading volume of institutional investors into the heterogeneous autoregressive model of realized volatility (RV). Our findings demonstrate that the trading behaviour of institutional investors does have a significant impact on future RV whilst also suggesting that institutional investors play a stabilizing role in the Taiwan stock market. The empirical results also show that institutional investors’ net selling caused more volatility in the Taiwan stock market during the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States in 2007, indicating that institutional investors tend to sell more actively than individuals when the market drops sharply. We also demonstrate that the modified model enhances volatility forecasting performance, thereby indicating that the modified model has more accurate predictive ability than the benchmark model.
How to level the playing field

Bill Schlich: I think the question is how unlevel will the playing field be? I think it’s too early to tell. I mean, you have the Volker rule in the U.S., which obviously some say gives the Europeans an advantage. You have the comp differential that Don talked about, which the Europeans would say puts them at a disadvantage. There are some out there that believe the centers of banking are going to move to Asia for a whole host of reasons.
Information, Holdouts, and Land Assembly

Abstract This paper solves for the equilibria of a land assembly game. There are multiple perfect Bayesian equilibria, but only one involves no play of weakly dominated strategies. The equilibrium has three important characteristics. First, the develop′s bid is uninformative. The counteroffers of the landowners depend, therefore, only on their priors. Second, there is a holdout problem; smaller landowners ask larger per acre prices for their land. This means that when there are many landowners, the price will be larger if there is an agreement, and mutually beneficial agreements will more frequently be missed. Third, when the asking prices of the landowners are strategic complements, some landowners can be induced to accept a low bid because this leads other landowners to moderate their own asking prices.
Relationship between stage, site and morphological characteristics of pelvic endometriosis and pain.

BACKGROUND The relationship between frequency and severity of pain symptoms and site, stage and morphological characteristics of endometriotic lesions was analysed in a multicentre cross-sectional observational study. METHODS A total of 469 women (median age 31 years, range 18-45) who met the following criteria were consecutively observed in the participating centres during the study period: age 18-45 years, first laparoscopic or laparotomic diagnosis of endometriosis, pain symptoms lasting > or = 6 months, pain as the main or only complaint of the condition, absence of pelvic anomalies and no previous pelvic surgery. Dysmenorrhoea and non-menstrual pain were evaluated using a multidimensional verbal rating scale. The women were requested to grade the severity of dysmenorrhoea, non-menstrual pelvic pain and deep dyspareunia using a 10-point linear analogue scale. RESULTS Dysmenorrhoea was present in 77% of subjects with ovarian endometriosis, 88% of those with endometriosis of the peritoneum, 92% of subjects with endometriosis of both ovary and peritoneum and in all the subjects with endometriosis of rectovaginal septum. These differences were not statistically significant after Bonferroni's correction. No marked difference emerged between the severity of dysmenorrhoea and site of endometriosis, but women with ovarian endometriosis tended to have lower scores (not significant). No clear association emerged between frequency and severity of non-menstrual pain, dyspareunia and site of endometriosis and the presence and severity of dysmenorrhoea, non-menstrual pain and dyspareunia. Dyspareunia was more frequently reported in women with only atypical endometriosis (56.8%) versus 47.7% in women with typical endometriosis, but with borderline significance (P = 0.05). Dyspareunia occurred in 68.2% of patients with both typical and atypical lesions. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study find no clear-cut association between stage, site or morphological characteristics of pelvic endometriosis and pain.
Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the gene encoding the 136-kilodalton surface protein (muramidase-released protein) of Streptococcus suis type 2

We cloned and sequenced the gene encoding the muramidase-released protein (MRP) of a pathogenic Streptococcus suis type 2 strain to determine whether its amino acid sequence resembles that of proteins with known functions and to determine its function in virulence. The complete nucleotide sequence composing the gene and the regions flanking it was determined. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed the presence of a signal peptide at the N terminus and a cell envelope anchor at the C terminus, both of which resembled similar regions in several other surface proteins from gram-positive bacteria. The processed form of MRP has a length of 1,209 amino acids and a calculated molecular weight of 131,094. A highly repetitive region preceded the envelope anchor. The repeated units were preceded by a proline-rich stretch of amino acids (26 of 86). No overall homologies were observed between the amino acid sequence of MRP and protein sequences in the EMBL data bank. A particular region within the amino acid sequence, however, showed some similarity with the fibronectin-binding protein of Staphylococcus aureus. Binding of MRP to human fibronectin, however, could not be confirmed.
Estimation of intrinsic joint impedance using quasi-static passive and dynamic methods in individuals with and without Cerebral Palsy

Modeling the passive behavior of the knee in subjects with spasticity involves the applied external torques (e.g. gravitational torque), the intrinsic moments due to tissue properties, as well as active, neurally defined moments resulting from the hypersensitivity of reflexes introduced by disability. In order to provide estimates of the necessary intrinsic terms in the equation of motion, the push-pull and Wartenberg Pendulum Knee Drop (PKD) tests were administered. Four subjects without disability and two subjects with Cerebral Palsy (CP) were evaluated for their active and intrinsic knee stiffness parameters. Separation of these two terms requires an additional stiffness term be added to the traditional equation of motion. This holds true for subjects with and without neurological disability. Very interestingly, the optimized non-disabled PKD produced lumped stiffness (K) that is similar to the push-pull passive stiffness (KI) for both populations. On the other hand the optimized K value in the PKD test for subjects with disability was approximately 19 times larger than the KI value found graphically from the push-pull test. This leads us to the conclusion that we can partition our lumped K as the sum of a neurally generated stiffness (Ka) and KI to complete the trajectory model. Therefore, this study shows that spasticity is a velocity dependent, that would not appear in disabled individuals unless the examined limb has a non-zero velocity.
Asset pricing, size and North American stock market integration

In this article, the restrictions imposed on excess returns by a latent variable model and an observed variable model are tested on stock market data from Canada and the United States. These two economies are highly integrated at the trade and production levels and it is to be expected that this is reflected in returns determination. The proposed latent variable model implies that all excess returns should move proportionately if assets are perfectly integrated. In our empirical analysis, data is disaggregated into ten size portfolios for each country. The restriction that all portfolios are governed by one single latent variable is rejected over the 1962–2004 sample period. It is established that this rejection is due to the presence of the smaller size portfolios. However, it is observed that Canada–US stock market integration has increased for small firms in more recent years. Financial and economic contributing risk factors are also identified.
LOYALITAS PELANGGAN: SEBUAH KAJIAN KONSEPTUAL SEBAGAI PANDUAN BAGI PENELITI

Customer loyalty of a specific brand, also called brand loyalty, is expected to get more academic attention from scholars to investigate. This article describes and analyses the concept of brand loyalty to the extent to which attitudinal and behavioural approaches and structures become the loyalty domain. The structure of loyalty shows elements comprising cognition, affect, conation, and action. These elements reflect loyalty categories. Techniques of loyalty measurement such as brand choice sequence, proportion of purchase, brand preference, brand commitment, loyalty scale, and acceptance/rejection ratio are also elaborated. Customer satisfaction is not disregarded in the analysis since it closely relates to the concept of brand loyalty.
Preeclampsia Is Associated with Alterations in Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF)-1 and IGF-Binding Proteins in Wharton's Jelly of the Umbilical Cord

Abstract Wharton's jelly is abundant in extracellular matrix, which is known as a storage site to concentrate and stabilise growth factors in the vicinity of cells. It was previously found that Wharton's jelly contains significant amounts of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and IGF-binding proteins (BPs). IGF-1 is a stimulator of biosynthetics of collagen and sulphated glycosaminoglycans. Preeclampsia (edema, proteinuria, hypertension (EPH)-gestosis) is accompanied by an accumulation of sulphated glycosaminoglycans in Whart on's jelly. IGF-1 and BPs may play an important role in such a remodelling of this tissue. It was decided to evaluate the alterations in amounts of IGF-1 and BPs in Wharton's jelly of newborns delivered by mothers with preeclampsia. Studies were performed on Wharton's jelly of 10 controls and 10 newborns delivered by mothers with preeclampsia (edema, proteinuria > 500 mg/l, arterial pressure: systolic > 140 mm Hg, diastolic >90 mmHg). Radioimmunological techniques were employed to determine IGF-1 and IGF-BPs (BP-1 and BP-3). It was found that preeclampsia is associated with a decrease in IGF-1-and IGF-BP-1 in Wharton's jelly. A slight increase in IGF-BP-3 was found. Ligand blotting demonstrated that BP-3 (not BP-1) is a main component of Wharton's jelly, which binds IGF-1. Heparin drastically inhibited the binding of IGF-1 by BP-3. It is known from our previous studies that preeclampsia is associated with an increase in the amount of sulphated glycosaminoglycans (heparin, heparan sulphate, dermatan sulphate) in Wharton's jelly. This may be a factor, which prevents the binding of IGF-1 by BPs and facilitates the binding of IGF-1 to cells, stimulating them to produce sulphated glycosaminoglycans in Wharton's jelly.
Transforming Qualitative Survey Data: Performance Comparisons for the UK

This paper assesses different ways of converting qualitative data obtained in surveys into quantitative indices for a number of economic variables. The research reported here focuses on the main UK employers’ business survey for manufacturing – the CBI industrial trends survey. Six response variables are investigated – plant and machinery investment, output, employment, exports, price and cost. We find that the balance statistic is a satisfactory method of transforming three of the variables: investment, output and exports.
Forecasting Accuracy of Alternative Techniques: A Comparison of U.S. Macroeconomic Forecasts

Five years ago Litterman started issuing monthly macroeconomic forecasts based on a vector autoregression (VAR) modeling technique. This article compares the accuracy of these VAR forecasts with that of several prominent forecasters and provides an interpretation of this evidence. Proper interpretation of these data requires some understanding of how these forecasts were generated. The first part of the article presents a brief description of the VAR and more traditional conditional model (CM) approaches to modeling and forecasting. Two differences are stressed here-one inherent difference that stems from the way the models are constructed and a second one that stems from the way the models are typically used. The second part of the article presents the forecasting record of the two techniques, an interpretation of that evidence, and speculations on the potential of these two approaches to economic modeling and forecasting.
Price Prediction Errors and Real Activity: A Reassessment

Rational expectations, natural-rate macro-models in which aggregate demand disturbances affect the real sector through price prediction errors, while powerful and tractable analytical tools, are often perceived to be of questionable empirical relevance. This paper reexamines the empirical role of price prediction errors in determining the level of real aggregate activity. The approach is distinguished by accounting for aggregate supply-side disturbances and by more careful treatment of natural rates. Contrary to some previous studies, the authors find considerable empirical support for the hypothesis that demand-driven price level surprises are positively and significantly correlated with aggregate real economic activity. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.
Intersections of Social Cohesion, Education, and Identity in Teachers, Discourses, and Practices

Major immigrant-receiving nations, such as Canada, Australia, and Britain as well as a range of European countries, have focused considerable public debate and government policy on considerations of what is required to promote social cohesion. Discourses on social cohesion widely acknowledge that public education systems provide critical contexts for constructing social cohesion among their diverse communities. In Canada, provincial ministries of education, local school districts, and teachers' professional regulatory agencies issue policy directives related to building social cohesion in the framework of an officially bilingual and multicultural nation. Yet there is scant research on what Canadian teacher education programmes do to prepare both pre- and in-service teachers for work in classrooms characterised by diverse languages and cultures. In this article, we report on a teacher-researcher collaboration that investigated how teachers drew on their own and their students' diverse identities as resources to create inclusive and equitable classrooms. We examine teachers' discourses about the pedagogical practices they adopted and the powerful insights they provided on building social cohesion in classrooms. Our experiences in this project resonate with findings about innovative approaches to working with pre- and in-service teachers in other national settings. Their accounts can usefully inform policymakers, social theorists, and researchers about the intersections of identity, language, and education implicated in social cohesion projects.
Attributes Of News About Firms - An Analysis Of Firm-Specific News Reported In The Wall Street Journal Index

In this paper, we study the types of firm-specific news reported in the Wall Street Journal Index, their content and timing, and the institutional arrangements for their dissemination. Since virtually no documentation of the broad characteristics of firm-specific news presently exists, the approach adopted entails an exhaustive enumeration of data for a single year. The research analyzes a data base (developed by the authors) in which items in the "Corporate News" section of the 1983 Wall Street Journal Index are cataloged for all New York and American Stock Exchange firms. This data base represents a comprehensive listing of firm-specific news for the population of firms considered by most capital market studies. In addition, the analysis is replicated for 1982 and 1984
Relationships between economic growth, foreign direct investment and trade: evidence from China

This study investigates the causal links between trade, economic growth and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in China at the aggregate level. The integration and cointegration properties of quarterly data are analysed. Long-run relationships between growth, exports, imports and FDI are identified in a cointegration framework, in which this paper finds bi-directional causality between economic growth, FDI and exports. Economic development, exports and FDI appear to be mutually reinforcing under the open-door policy.
Essential Role of the Cytochrome P450 Enzyme CYP2A5 in Olfactory Mucosal Toxicity of Naphthalene

Naphthalene (NA), a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that can cause pulmonary and nasal toxicity in laboratory animals, requires cytochrome P450 (P450)–mediated metabolic activation to cause toxicity. Our recent study using a Cyp2f2-null mouse showed that CYP2F2 plays an essential role in NA-induced lung toxicity, but not in NA-induced nasal toxicity. The aim of this study was to determine whether mouse CYP2A5, abundantly expressed in nasal olfactory mucosa (OM) and the liver, but less in the lung, plays a major role in the bioactivation and toxicity of NA in the OM. We found, by comparing Cyp2a5-null and wild-type (WT) mice, that the loss of CYP2A5 expression led to substantial decreases in rates of NA metabolic activation by OM microsomes. The loss of CYP2A5 did not cause changes in systemic clearance of NA (at 200 mg/kg, i.p.). However, the Cyp2a5-null mice were much more resistant than were WT mice to NA-induced nasal toxicity (although not lung toxicity), when examined at 24 hours after NA dosing (at 200 mg/kg, i.p.), or to NA-induced depletion of total nonprotein sulfhydryl in the OM (although not in the lung), examined at 2 hours after dosing. Thus, mouse CYP2A5 plays an essential role in the bioactivation and toxicity of NA in the OM, but not in the lung. Our findings further illustrate the tissue-specific nature of the role of individual P450 enzymes in xenobiotic toxicity, and provide the basis for a more reliable assessment of the potential risks of NA nasal toxicity in humans.
Tourism stakeholders’ perceptions of national park management in Norway

Local tourism firms represent an important stakeholder interest in national parks. The present study examines these stakeholders’ perceptions of management processes and their assessments of the resulting management plans and operations. This research is based on qualitative interviews with representatives of tourism businesses in two different national park settings in Norway – Rondane National Park and Jotunheimen National Park. The findings illustrate that despite their general support for the national park status, the local tourism stakeholders interviewed had experienced only minor involvement in the management planning process, and had had very little influence in the final management decisions. They believed that opportunities for business operations were lacking due to excessive management restrictions, and that managers lacked competence with regard to business management and tourism development issues. In addition, they thought that management authorities should more explicitly include sustainable tourism development in their visions and goals. Based on the findings, it is assumed that there is potential for local tourism operators to take greater responsibility in planning processes and management operations. It is concluded that measures should be taken to foster durable social links and trustworthy planning partnerships between responsible managers and local tourism stakeholders in the two national parks.
Why hotels adopt ICTs: a study on the ICT adoption propensity of hotels in Thailand

Purpose – This study aims to explore the propensity of adoption of ICT‐based facilities by hotels in the hospitality sector.Design/methodology/approach – The factors that influence a hotel's propensity to adopt ICTs are broadly divided into location‐related and firm‐related. The relative impact of the factors on the ICT adoption propensity was analyzed through a survey amongst 95 hotels from seven locations in Thailand.Findings – The findings give valuable insights for the marketers of ICTs who wish to gain entry into the hotel sector, and help them in better focusing their sales and marketing efforts.Originality/value – The study provides researchers and suppliers of ICT‐based facilities with a framework for predicting the adoption propensity of potential customers.
A six sigma case study in a large-scale automotive supplier company in Turkey

Although six sigma is a really effective methodology with its strong data-based decision-making aspect, there are many obstacles and factors that weaken the effectiveness of the projects. This fact is even more obvious in the heavy industry, especially in developing countries such as Turkey, where statistical insight is not very common and systematic approaches are often neglected. Belief systems, culture, knowledge level of data-based decision-making or to put it simply, human factor and its management are the most crucial factor for success. Different cultures and different work environments impose the need for discovering new ways for altering the beliefs and improving the motivation of the project participants. The responsibility of changing the perception of team members lies on the shoulders of quality leaders. The purpose of this study is to highlight some important points that can contribute to the success and effectiveness of future six sigma programmes via data obtained from a number of projects that were carried out in a large automotive supplier in Izmir, Turkey. The authors participated in the programme as project consultants and authors’ observations from management meetings, training courses, and the project meetings are reflected and many key findings are mentioned in the paper.
WHEN DO STRATEGIC ALLIANCES CREATE SHAREHOLDER VALUE

This article reports the findings of the authors' study of the stock market reaction to 345 strategic alliances announced during the period 1983-1992. The study reports statistically significant gains that, when translated into dollars, are divided roughly evenly between the larger and smaller partners (though the smaller partners experience larger percentage gains). Moreover, the value gains are largest in those cases in which two high-tech firms ally to develop or apply new technology, while the market shows less enthusiasm for non-technical or marketing alliances. 1999 Morgan Stanley.
Immunotherapy in Urologic Cancer : Evolving Roles for Targeting of CTLA-4 , PD-1 / PD-L 1 , and HLA-G

a CEA, Institute of Emerging Diseases and Innovative Therapies (iMETI), Research Division in Hematology and Immunology (SRHI), Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, France; b University Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR E_5 Institut Universitaire d’Hematologie, Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, France; c Urology Department, Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, France E U R O P E A N U R O L O G Y 6 8 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 2 6 7 – 2 7 9