Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Speculative Investor Behavior and Learning

As traders learn about the true distribution of some asset's dividends, a speculative premium occurs as each trader anticipates the possibility of reselling the asset to another trader before complete learning has occurred. Small differences in prior beliefs lead to large speculative premiums during the learning process. This phenomenon helps explain a paradox concerning the pricing of initial public offerings. The result casts light on the significance of the common prior assumption in economic models.
Community participation in organising rural general practice: is it sustainable?

OBJECTIVE We analysed community participation in organising rural general medical practice in order to suggest ways to extend and sustain it. DESIGN A multisite, embedded case-study design collecting data through semistructured interviews, non-participation observation and a document analysis. SETTING One remote and two rural communities in Australia. PARTICIPANTS Community members, GPs, health professionals, government officers and rural medical workforce consultants. RESULTS High levels of community participation in recruiting and retaining GPs, organising the business model, and contributing to practice infrastructure were evident. Community participation in designing health care was uncommon. Participation was primarily to ensure viable general practice services necessary to strengthen the social and economic fabric of the community. There were factors about the decision-making and partnership processes in each of the communities that threatened the viability of community participation. CONCLUSIONS We recommend that a concept of community development and explicit facilitation of the processes involved is necessary to strengthen participation, create effective partnerships and ensure inclusive decision-making.
The Telework Divide

Telework is an increasingly common feature of government agencies. Long a practice in the private sector, telework is credited with a range of advantages from increased productivity to reduced environmental costs to society. These advantages may not accrue to all employees, however. Large-sample federal government surveys of employees reveal support for many of the claimed advantages of telework, but taken together they also raise significant questions about the seldom-discussed costs of telework: The impact on those barred from telework. In particular, the results reveal what may be disaffection among those whose jobs may be eligible for teleworking under new Office of Personnel Management guidelines, but whose managers have not allowed them to telework. The findings also raise questions about the consequences of expanding telework to larger populations of government workers and suggest the need for further research on the possibility of an emerging telework divide.
(Not) Taking Account of Precarious Employment: Workfare Policies and Lone Mothers in Ontario and the UK

Workfare is, at least in part, a policy response to changing labour markets and the expansion taking place in jobs that are low-paid, irregular and insecure. For lone mothers, increasingly the focus of workfare policies, precarious employment creates special challenges. However, the nature of the jobs that are available to women on social assistance has received relatively little attention in the workfare literature, which focuses more on individual characteristics, supports to employment, and programme impacts. Drawing upon both primary and secondary sources and using Ontario, the province with the most developed workfare programme in Canada, this article examines the ways in which policies support and enforce precarious employment. The article also considers the implications of precarious employment for UK policy, which has not (yet) adopted workfare for lone mothers, although incremental steps in that direction are taking place as employment is increasingly viewed as the appropriate objective of income support programmes for lone mothers.
Maternal chromatin remodeling during maturation and after fertilization in mouse oocytes

Immunofluorescence staining with antibodies against acetylated histone H4 and 5‐methylcytosine was carried out to investigate female chromatin remodeling throughout oocyte maturation and chromatin rearrangement involving both male and female genomes after fertilization. Oocyte cytoplasm remodels female chromatin in preparation of the fertilizing event and the subsequent chromatin rearrangement. Histone H4 are in fact progressively deacetylated whereas demethylating enzymes do not seem to be active over this period. The acetylase/deacetylase balance seems to be cell cycle dependent as female chromatin is deacetylated during maturation and reacetylated at telophase II stage both after fertilization and activation. On the contrary, DNA demethylation seems to be strictly selective. It is in fact confined to the remodeling of paternal genome after fertilization of mature oocytes as the ooplasm is not effective in demethylating either paternal chromatin in germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) fertilized oocytes or maternal genome of partenogenetically activated oocytes. Surprisingly, we induced maternal chromatin demethylation after fertilization by treating oocytes with a combination of a methyltransferase inhibitor, 5‐azacytidine (5‐AzaC), and a reversible and specific inhibitor of histone deacetylase, trichostatin A (TSA). This treatment likely induces a hyperacetylation of histones (thus favoring the access to demethylating enzymes by opening female chromatin structure) associated with a block of reparative methylation by inhibiting methytransferases. This manipulation of chromatin remodeling may have applications regarding the biological significance of aberrant DNA methylation. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 69: 215–221, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Grameen microcredit and poverty alleviation: a review of Grameen Bank’s performance on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh

This paper reviews empirical evidence on the common findings from the existing literature on Grameen Bank (GB) microcredit performance on the borrower's poverty alleviation in Bangladesh. We first examine the GB microcredit impact on poverty alleviation with respect to its member's income, consumption, health, children's education and women empowerment. In general, most of the findings from the literature have shown that Bank members are doing well to reduce their vulnerability and to increase income and consumption, health improvement literacy of children and empowerment compared to non-members and controlled groups. However, this paper also examines some criticisms about the effective uses of microcredit rather than commercial mentality for profit making of microfinance institutions (MFIs).
Factors influencing perceived productivity of Egyptian teleworkers: an empirical study

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the impact of demographic, technology, individual and organizational factors on perceived productivity of Egyptian teleworkers.Design/methodology/approach – Data from 199 usable questionnaires are collected and analyzed by means of factor analysis and stepwise linear regression analysis.Findings – The results highlight the crucial role of individual and organizational factors in influencing the perceived productivity of Egyptian teleworkers. In addition to the emergence of job security as a key determinant of perceived teleworking productivity, the role of satisfaction, commitment, work flexibility and management support is also emphasized. Surprisingly, the impact of demographic, attitudes and technological factors are barely observable.Practical implications – The paper has important implications for managers and practitioners to boost teleworking productivity. Managers must ensure teleworkers' job security, work flexibility, and satisfaction. Also, addressing the ef.
Property rights, political connections and land-related investment in rural Vietnam

This paper uses household panel data from rural Vietnam to explore the effects of having a relative in a position of political or bureaucratic power. Our main result is that households significantly increase their investment in land improvement due to such ties. A main explanation appears to be that connections to office holders strengthen de-facto land property rights. Our analysis also suggests that discrimination in favor of relatives leads to substantial efficiency losses. JEL: D73, H7, O12, Q15
Intermittent subglottic secretion drainage and ventilator-associated pneumonia: a multicenter trial.

RATIONALE Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) causes substantial morbidity and mortality. The influence of subglottic secretion drainage (SSD) in preventing VAP remains controversial. OBJECTIVES To determine whether SSD reduces the overall incidence of microbiologically confirmed VAP. METHODS Randomized controlled clinical trial conducted at four French centers. A total of 333 adult patients intubated with a tracheal tube allowing drainage of subglottic secretions and expected to require mechanical ventilation for ≥48 hours was included. Patients were randomly assigned to undergo intermittent SSD (n = 169) or not (n = 164). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Primary outcome was the overall incidence of VAP based on quantitative culture of distal pulmonary samplings performed after each clinical suspicion. Other outcomes included incidence of early- and late-onset VAP, duration of mechanical ventilation, and hospital mortality. Microbiologically confirmed VAP occurred in 67 patients, 25 of 169 (14.8%) in the SSD group and 42 of 164 (25.6%) in the control group (P = 0.02), yielding a relative risk reduction of 42.2% (95% confidential interval, 10.4-63.1%). Using the Day 5 threshold, the beneficial effect of SSD in reducing VAP was observed in both early-onset VAP (2 of 169 [1.2%] patients undergoing SSD vs. 10 of 164 [6.1%] control patients; P = 0.02) and late-onset VAP (23 of 126 [18.6%] patients undergoing SSD vs. 32 of 97 [33.0%] control patients; P = 0.01). VAP was clinically suspected at least once in 51 of 169 (30.2%) patients undergoing SSD and 60 of 164 (36.6%) control patients (P = 0.25). No significant between-group differences were observed in duration of mechanical ventilation and hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS Subglottic secretion drainage during mechanical ventilation results in a significant reduction in VAP, including late-onset VAP. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials. gov (NCT00219661).
The Determinants of Capital Structure of the Chemical Industry in Pakistan

This study is an attempt to determine the capital structure of listed firms in the chemical industry of Pakistan. The study finds that by studying a specific industry's capital structure, one can ascertain unique attributes, which are usually not apparent in the combined analysis of many sectors as done by Shah and Hijazi (2004). This study analyzed 26 of 39 firms in the chemical sector, listed at the Karachi Stack Exchange for the period 1993-2004 using pooled regression in a panel data analysis. Six regressors i.e. firm size, tangibility of assets, profitability, income variation, non-debt tax shield (NDTS) and growth were employed to examine their effects on leverage. The results show that these six independent variables explain 90% of variation in the dependent variable and, except for firm tangibility, results were found to be highly significant. The study has policy implications of importance for researchers, investors, analysts and managers.
Women Stay on the Farm No More: Changing Patterns of Rural–Urban Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa

Women could be said to be ‘the second sex in town’ in colonial Africa in that men predominated in the urban centres spawned by the political economy of colonialism. An explanation has to consider both employment and family separation. Although colonial governments, missions, commercial firms, and mines recruited men, it is not clear to what extent this was a matter of preference on the part of the major employers rather than the response of peasant households. Not at issue are the reasons for the latter's integration into the cash economy and the rôle of coercion, whether in the form of forced labour or indirectly through the imposition of tax. But what considerations were borne in mind when households deliberated about which of their members to dispatch? Whatever the part played by both employers and suppliers in determining the composition of the labour supply – and this so far totally neglected topic demands research – the result was that in many, if not all, African colonies, almost as a rule, domestic servants, secretaries, and nurses were male.
Performance measurement: a remedy for increasing the efficiency of public services?

Purpose – Promoters of performance measurement are convinced that performance measurement can greatly contribute to an efficiency boost in the field of public services. The purpose of this article is to treat this as a hypothesis and examine this hypothesis from various theoretical perspectives.Design/methodology/approach – After some introductory remarks dealing with terminology, the article examines the potential offered by performance measurement and performance‐based contracting for increasing the efficiency of public service delivery. As a framework for this investigation, several theories are used in order to obtain a theory‐driven answer.Findings – The majority of the theories applied are sceptical about the assumption that performance measurement will act as an efficiency driver. All in all an ambivalent picture prevails.Research limitations/implications – Further research is required into the factors which ensure that performance measurement will function as an efficiency driver for public servic.
Molecular Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis of Newcastle Disease Virus Isolates from Healthy Wild Birds

Abstract Wild waterfowl is considered a natural reservoir of potentially infectious agents and a source of pathogenic viruses like avian paramyxoviruses type 1 (APMV 1). In 1997, commercial poultry in Argentina had reached the status of being free from virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infections. Vaccination and biosecurity measures are actively performed to maintain this preferential sanitary condition. However, the risk of reintroduction of pathogenic viruses is always present. In this context, we conducted a study to describe the status of wild healthy birds in a geographic region relevant for the poultry industry. The presence of anti-NDV antibodies was determined in different species in all areas sampled suggesting previous contact with NDV. Seven ND viruses were isolated and characterized as apathogenic strains by biological and molecular methods. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the majority of the Argentinian isolates form a subgroup related to viruses of genotype II. The results presented here highlight the importance of maintaining strict biosecurity measures and vaccination programs in poultry industries in order to preserve the virulent NDV-free status for commercial flocks in the country.
The Effect of Small Business Managers’ Growth Motivation on Firm Growth: A Longitudinal Study

This study addresses the role of small business managers’ growth motivation for business growth, taking into account the important effects of previous motives and feedback from earlier performance. We hypothesize that small business managers’ growth motivation has a unique influence on firm outcome measured as growth in sales and in number of employees. Data were gathered from two different Swedish samples of small firms using telephone interviews. Using cross–lagged regression analysis, we find support for our hypotheses when examining employment growth, but only partial support when examining sales.
Prestige without Purpose? Reputation, Differentiation, and Pricing in U.S. Equity Underwriting

Clustering of IPO underwriting spreads at 7% poses two important puzzles: Is the market for U.S. equity underwriting services anti-competitive and why do equity underwriters invest in reputation-building? This study helps resolve both puzzles. Modeling endogeneity of firm-underwriter choice using a two-sided matching approach, we provide strong evidence of price and service differentiation based on underwriter reputation. High-reputation banks receive average reputational premia equaling 0.65% (0.47%) of average IPO (SEO) underwritten proceeds, which constitutes 10% (13%) of their underwriting spreads. Equity issuers working with high-reputation underwriters receive significant benefits, including higher offer values and lower percentage spreads net of reputational premia.
Mobile marketing: an analysis of key success factors and the European value chain

Among the different wireless services, the mobile marketing segment is not well explored yet, especially in its relationship with the other traditional marketing channels and players. New business models that go over the traditional marketing supply chain need to be explored and defined, together with a wide technology analysis for monitoring the emerging handsets and mobile technologies in general. This paper is an attempt at analysing the landscape of the European mobile marketing activities, identifying the extended structure of the value chain and defining the critical success factors in order to lead the value chain.
Ethical Consumerism: The Case Of “Fairly–Traded” Coffee

Consumer concern for “ethical products”, or ethical aspects of the goods which they purchase, is a subject of increasing interest and research,which is here illustrated by an examination of the Fair Trade movement, with special reference to coffee as an indicative commodity. Kate Bird, is currently Lecturer in the Development Administration Group, School of Public Policy, Birmingham University, Birmingham B15 2TT, England, having previously worked abroad and written her MSc dissertation at Wye College on fair trade in coffee products. Dr Hughest holds the Sainsbury Chair in Agribusiness and Food Marketing at Wye College, University of London, Wye, Ashford, Kent TN25 5AH, England (email: D.Hughes@wye.ac.uk), where he is also Director of the Food Industry Management Group. He has wide international experience of food management issues.
Correlates of Sex Frequency and Sexual Satisfaction Among Partnered Older Adults

This study examines behaviors associated with sex frequency and sexual satisfaction in a national sample of partnered older adults, age 50 to 85 (N = 9,164), together for over one year. The results indicate that older adults with active and satisfying sex lives engage more frequently in open sexual communication and setting the mood for sexual activity. Additionally, synchronicity in sexual desire and activities is related to a high-frequency and highly satisfying sex life in older adulthood. An expansive sexual repertoire, as measured by the number of sexual activities used during the last sexual encounter and the incorporation of sexual variety, is also associated with greater sex frequency and sexual satisfaction.
STEREO quadrature observations of coronal dimming at the onset of mini-CMEs

Context. Using unique quadrature observations with the two STEREO spacecraft, we investigate coronal dimmings at the onset of small-scale eruptions. In CMEs they are believed to indicate the opening up of the coronal magnetic fields at the start of the eruption. Aims. It is to determine whether coronal dimming seen in small-scale eruptions starts before or after chromospheric plasma ejection. Methods. One STEREO spacecraft obtained high cadence, 75 s, images in the He ii 304 A channel, and the other simultaneous images in the Fe ix/Fe x 171 A channel. We concentrate on two well-positioned chromospheric eruptions that occurred at disk center in the 171 A images, and on the limb in 304 A. One was in the quiet Sun and the other was in an equatorial coronal hole. We compare the timing of chromospheric eruption seen in the 304 A limb images with the brightenings and dimmings seen on disk in the 171 A images. Further we use off-limb images of the low frequency 171 A power to infer the coronal structure near the eruptions. Results. In both the quiet Sun and the coronal hole eruption, on disk 171 A dimming was seen before the chromospheric eruption, and in both cases it extends beyond the site of the chromospheric eruption. The quiet Sun eruption occurred on the outer edge of the enclosing magnetic field of a prominence and may be related to a small disruption of the prominence just before the 171 A dimming. Conclusions. These small-scale chromospheric eruptions started with a dimming in coronal emission just like their larger counterparts. We therefore suggest that a fundamental step in triggering them was the removal of overlying coronal field.
Routine assessment of hormonal receptor and her-2/neu status underscores the need for more therapeutic targets in Kenyan women with breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE To report the expression of estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor (Her-2/neu) in 158 Kenyan women with breast cancer and correlation with other prognostic indicators in this high-risk group. This study stressed the importance of routine assessment of the steroid receptors and Her-2/neu as a mode of therapeutic selection of patients for antihormonal or targeting monoclonal antibody (Herceptin) therapy, directed at the juxtamembrane domain of Her-2/neu protein in the developing countries such as Kenya. STUDY DESIGN The study population consisted of 158 female patients with histologically confirmed breast carcinoma seen at the pathology department of The Nairobi Hospital. An immunohistochemical (IHC) study of ER, PR and Her-2/neu was conducted, followed by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) validation for Her-2/neu gene amplification in cases initially scored as positive 2+ with IHC. Mastectomy samples registered at the pathology department of The Nairobi Hospital were used for this study. The study was approved by the institution's ethical review committee and informed consent obtainedfrom the concerned patients. RESULTS In the studied cohort, positivity for both hormonal receptors and Her-2/neu was noted in 10 (6.33%) cases and negativity in 44 (27.85%) cases. Conversely, Her-2/neu negativity was noted in 32 (20.25%) cases with both steroid receptors positive and Her-2/neu positivity with both steroid receptors negative in 20 (12.66%) cases. Overall, no predictive factor was found in the Her-2/neu amplified 31/153 (20.26%) cases completely assessed with IHC and FISH. Grade III invasive ductal carcinomas, however, had a high prevalence of Her-2/neu overexpression. Association of both menopausal status (p = 0.044) and progesterone receptor status (p = 0.004) with high grade tumors were found to be statistically significant at 95% CI (p < 0.5). Consistent with other studies, Her-2/neu overexpression in this cohort was 20.26%. CONCLUSION Her-2/neu positivity may activate ER expression through signaling kinases, and the combined target of mitogenic estrogen plus the monoclonal antibody therapy against Her-2/neu-overexpressing tumors expand chances of survival for patients in developing countries such as Kenya. The cost factor for these tests, selection for appropriate combined therapies and lack of awareness were noted as limiting factors for access to basic health care service and resulted in advanced tumor grade at time of patient presentation.