Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investment decision making using a combined factor analysis and entropy-based topsis model

Traditionally, the return on assets and the return on equity are used as the criteria in the evaluation of financial performance, while risk considerations are ignored. Therefore, this study combined financial ratio variables and the RAROC (risk-adjusted rate of return on capital) as the evaluation criteria and developed a financial performance evaluation model. The proposed evaluation model combines factor analysis with entropy weight and the TOPSIS (technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution) to evaluate the financial performance of Taiwan's 50 listed opto-electronic companies. Finally, Spearman's and Kendall's rank correlations are used to verify that there is no significant difference between the 2007 and 2008 rankings of the companies. The empirical results show the financial performance rankings of the companies before and after the global financial turmoil. These findings not only help investors making investment decisions, but also can help managers make decisions to improve their company's financial performance.
Human capital reporting: evidences from the banking sector of Bangladesh

This study aims at examining the nature and extent of voluntary human capital reporting in the annual reports of 27 banks out of 30 listed banks on Dhaka Stock Exchange, Bangladesh. By using the content analysis framework of theme, form, amount and location; the study finds that all the banks report HC in their annual reports, where 'employee training and development' has been found to be the highest reported theme. This study, perhaps for the first time, has uncovered that five Bangladeshi banks offers dedicated sections for reporting HC in their annual reports. Moreover, this study unfolds that approximately 93% of the sample banks report HC quantitatively. The HC reporting themes highlighted in this study can be used as a model by the banks of Bangladesh and other emerging economies in augmenting their HC reporting in the annual reports.
Probiotic† Fermentation: Effect on Antinutrients and Digestibility of Starch and Protein of Indigenously Developed Food Mixture

An indigenously developed food mixture which contained huskless barley flour, green gram dhal flour, skimmed milk powder and tomato pulp (“BGMT” mixture) was autoclaved, cooled and fermented with L. acidophilus at 37°C for 24 h at a dosage of 100,000 cells/ml. This process markedly reduced the phytic acid and polyphenol content and significantly improved the in vitro digestibility of starch and protein. Starch digestibility almost doubled in the fermented mixture. A significant negative relationship was obtained between the contents of antinutrients and digestibility.
A note on exchange-rate expectations and nominal interest differentials

THIS NOTE TESTS THE hypothesis that nominal interest differentials between similar assets denominated in different currencies can be explained entirely by the expected change in the exchange rate over the holding period. This proposition, often called the "Fisher open" hypothesis or the hypothesis of perfect asset substitutability, has been a major component of recent theories of exchange-rate determination, and has important implications for monetary policy.1 The Fisher hypothesis differs from the covered interest parity theorem enunciated by Keynes [11]. While covered interest parity equates the nominal interest differential between financial centers to a known premium or discount on forward foreign exchange, and is thus in principle riskless, Fisher parity involves risk in an essential way. The two conditions are equivalent only when forward exchange rates equal expected future spot rates. Recent theoretical work, for example that of Grauer, Litzenberger, and Stehle [8], Kouri [12], and Frankel [6], shows that this need not be the case when market participants are risk averse. Thus, while covered interest parity must always hold exactly in an informationally efficient asset market with no transactions costs, Fisher parity need not. Nominal interest differentials may reflect risk premia in addition to expected exchange-rate movements.2 It should be emphasized at the outset that the tests conducted in this paper are really joint tests of the Fisher hypothesis and a weak form of foreign exchange market informational efficiency. Levich [14] has argued that tests of market efficiency are always joint tests involving some hypothesized structure of "normal" equilibrium returns. Below, we assume informational efficiency and instead test Fisher's hypothesized arbitrage condition that nominal interest differentials equal expected percentage changes in exchange rates.
Panel discussion on glottic tumors. VIII. The treatment of glottic carcinoma: An analysis of 800 cases

All patients with cancer of the glottis seen at the Ontario Cancer Institute from 1955 to 1971 are reviewed. Changes in referral patterns and treatment policy are noted. Particular attention is given to those patients who received radiation for cure, and the place of laryngectomy in their subsequent management is examined. Of the estimated incidence of the disease in the geographic region served, 95 percent are now being seen and of these 97 percent receive treatment with curative intent. Two‐thirds or 67 percent are cured at five years with their larynges intact, while a further 18 percent are cured by subsequent laryngectomy.
Self-setting properties and in vitro bioactivity of Ca3SiO5/CaSO4.1/2H2O composite cement.

In this study, a biphasic injectable bone substitute, based on tricalcium silicate (Ca(3)SiO(5)) and plaster (CaSO(4). 1/2H(2)O), is presented. The addition of CaSO(4). 1/2H(2)O could accelerate the hydration of Ca(3)SiO(5), decrease the setting time, and improve the strength of the cement. The workable Ca(3)SiO(5)/CaSO(4). 1/2H(2)O pastes with a liquid to powder (L/P) ratio of 0.8-1.0 mL g(-1) could be injected for 2-20 min (nozzle diameter 2.0 mm) and enabled initial setting times of 9-60 min. The setting process yielded cellular structures with compressive strength of 12.4-31.5 MPa after 2-28 days. The in vitro bioactivity of the paste was investigated by soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 7 days. The result showed that although large amount of CaSO(4). 1/2H(2)O (30%) was added, the paste showed good ability to induce the formation of hydroxyapatite (HA). Furthermore, the Ca(3)SiO(5)/CaSO(4). 1/2H(2)O paste could degrade in Ringer's solution, and the dissolution extracts of the paste also had a stimulatory effect on L929 cell growth in certain concentration range. Our results indicated that Ca(3)SiO(5)/CaSO(4). 1/2H(2)O paste was bioactive and degradable, and showed excellent mechanical properties after self-setting. Therefore, it may be a potential candidate for further investigation as injectable tissue repairing substitute.
THE USEFULNESS OF EARNINGS, THE MAGNITUDE OF PRICE CHANGE, AND THE RETURN-EARNINGS COVARIANCE: BEYOND THE ERC AND R²

Title of Dissertation: THE USEFULNESS OF EARNINGS, THE MAGNITUDE OF PRICE CHANGE, AND THE RETURN-EARNINGS COVARIANCE: BEYOND THE ERC AND R2 Myojung Cho, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Oliver Kim Accounting and Information Assurance Department This study proposes the return-earnings covariance as a proxy for the usefulness of earnings inferred from the absolute magnitude of price changes associated with earnings information. It is argued that such measurement of the absolute usefulness of earnings information has been neglected in existing long-window studies. For example, the ERC and R2 measure the marginal impact and the relative impact of earnings information on the stock price, respectively. It is demonstrated that the return-earnings covariance is a close proxy for the absolute magnitude of price change which is free from noise in both return and earnings. Thus, the return-earnings covariance can be used in long-window studies as well as short-window studies. Two covariance measures, the total covariance and the time distribution of weekly covariance are introduced and applied to empirical data to show new insights that can be obtained by the measures. The result indicates that the previously documented decrease on the value relevance of earnings over the past decades is mainly driven by the increasing influence of factors not directly related to earnings on the regression measures, not by a decrease in the absolute usefulness or timeliness of earnings. It is also found that the previously documented weak return-earnings relation over the short-window announcement period or contemporaneous return-earnings association for larger or more closely followed firms is due not only to more vigorous predisclosure information production activities of those firms, but also, and more importantly, to the weaker overall magnitude of price changes associated with earnings information of those firms. THE USEFULNESS OF EARNINGS, THE MAGNITUDE OF PRICE CHANGE, AND THE RETURN-EARNINGS COVARIANCE: BEYOND THE ERC AND R2
Litigation Risk, Audit Quality, and Audit Fees: Evidence from Initial Public Offerings

ABSTRACT: We use the IPO setting to examine the relation between auditor exposure to legal liability and audit quality and audit fees. With regard to audit quality, we report robust evidence that pre-IPO audited accruals are negative and less than post-IPO audited accruals. In contrast to extant literature, our findings provide scant support for the inference that auditors acquiesce to opportunistic earnings management by issuers in an attempt to increase the offering price. With regard to audit fees, we find auditors earn higher fees for IPO engagements than post-IPO engagements. While inherent differences in auditor responsibilities between IPO audits and post-IPO audits should lead to higher fees for IPOs, a substantial portion of IPO audit fees (in levels and changes) is associated with our proxy for the auditor’s 1933 Act exposure. Overall, our results suggest that both audit quality and audit fees are higher in a higher-litigation regime, consistent with the effects an increase in litigation exposur.
31P NMR spectroscopy and electromyography during exercise and recovery in patients with fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether patients with fibromyalgia (FM) have normal motor unit recruitment in relation to muscle metabolism during exhausting exercise and recovery, and whether the reduced voluntary muscle force normally seen is related to a smaller muscle size. METHODS Female patients with FM and sedentary controls were examined using simultaneous 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and surface electromyography (SEMG) during exhaustive static exercise of the anterior tibial muscle and during recovery. The maximum voluntary contraction force was estimated, and the maximum cross sectional muscle area was evaluated using 1H NMR imaging. The sedentary controls were matched to patients for sex, age and, as far as possible, daily physical activity levels. RESULTS Patients with FM had reduced maximum voluntary contraction force in relation to the sedentary controls, despite having similar muscle size. In general the myoelectrical-metabolic relation during exercise and recovery was normal in patients with FM. CONCLUSION The less extreme changes in motor unit recruitment and metabolism during exhaustive exercise indicated a lower exercise tolerance that could be connected with the lower physical activity levels.
Information, Health Risk Beliefs, and the Demand for Fats and Oils

Mean and variance measures of health information about cholesterol and saturated fat are included in a demand system for fats and oils. A Bayesian model of health risk belief and consumer awareness surveys are the basis for computing these measures. The empirical demand model shows that health information has resulted in significant increases in consumption for corn, cottonseed, and soybean oils and decreased consumption for butter and lard. The predicted demand effects based on the Bayesian information model are more reasonable than predictions from using either a time trend or a simple cumulative cholesterol information index. Copyright 1995 by MIT Press.
Science and football : proceedings of the First World Congress of Science and Football, Liverpool, 13-17th April 1987

1. Common Threads: Opening Keynote Address 2. Nutrition 3. Physiology of Match-Play 4. Physiology of Football Training 5. Fitness Test Profiles of Footballers 6. Medical and Environmental Aspects of Football 7. Match Analysis: Strategic Aspects 8. Match Analysis: World Cup Soccer 1986 9. Biomechanics and Football Equipment 10. Biomechanics of Football Skills 11. Psychological Aspects of Football Skills 12. Stress and Psychological Attributes 13. Sociological Aspects of Football Violence 14. Management and Coaching
A test of the Samuelson Hypothesis using realized range

This study examines the Samuelson Hypothesis, which postulates that futures price volatility increases as the futures contract approaches its expiration. Investigating intraday data and drawing on the recently developed concept of realized range, this study provides empirical evidence regarding the Samuelson Hypothesis for 14 agricultural, metal, energy, and financial futures markets in six futures exchanges. While utilizing a nonparametric test, a simple linear regression model and a system of seemingly unrelated regressions, the study finds strong support for the Samuelson Hypothesis in agricultural futures. In contrast, no support for the Samuelson Hypothesis is observed in any of the metal and financial futures. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:680–696, 2008
On the relation between corporate governance compliance and operating performance

Abstract Better corporate performance has been cited as one of the main benefits of adopting good corporate governance structures within organisations. However, in contrast to theory, a prior European study (Bauer et al., 2004) reports evidence of a negative relationship between corporate governance and corporate performance. This study re‐examines this relationship, and reports evidence of a positive relationship between the extent of compliance with international best practices concerning board structure and functioning and operating performance when operating performance is measured by the return on assets (ROA). This result is robust to controlling for the firms’ compliance with best practices in other governance areas, and holds for some other governance dimensions, namely disclosure of corporate governance and the range of takeover defences. Further tests indicate that greater compliance with international best practices concerning board structure and functioning is significantly associated with reporting less income from asset disposals and that studying a performance measure that includes this item obscures the inherently positive relationship between operating performance and the extent of compliance with international best practices regarding board structure and functioning. The results provide some support for an oftencited motivation for the adoption of good governance practices, and provide explicit evidence that the measure of operating performance is crucial in examining firm‐level operating performance.
Targeted Physician Education Positively Affects Delivery of Nutrition Therapy and Patient Outcomes: Results of a Prospective Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND Malnutrition is a continuing epidemic among hospitalized patients. We hypothesize that targeted physician education should help reduce caloric deficits and improve patient outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed a prospective trial of patients (n = 121) assigned to 1 of 2 trauma groups. The experimental group (EG) received targeted education consisting of strategies to increase delivery of early enteral nutrition. Strategies included early enteral access, avoidance of nil per os (NPO) and clear liquid diets (CLD), volume-based feeding, early resumption of feeds postprocedure, and charting caloric deficits. The control group (CG) did not receive targeted education but was allowed to practice in a standard ad hoc fashion. Both groups were provided with dietitian recommendations on a multidisciplinary nutrition team per standard practice. RESULTS The EG received a higher percentage of measured goal calories (30.1 ± 18.5%, 22.1 ± 23.7%, P = .024) compared with the CG. Mean caloric deficit was not significantly different between groups (-6796 ± 4164 kcal vs -8817 ± 7087 kcal, P = .305). CLD days per patient (0.1 ± 0.5 vs 0.6 ± 0.9), length of stay in the intensive care unit (3.5 ± 5.5 vs 5.2 ± 6.8 days), and duration of mechanical ventilation (1.6 ± 3.7 vs 2.8 ± 5.0 days) were all reduced in the EG compared with the CG (P < .05). EG patients had fewer nosocomial infections (10.6% vs 23.6%) and less organ failure (10.6% vs 18.2%) than did the CG, but these differences did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSION Implementation of specific educational strategies succeeded in greater delivery of nutrition therapy, which favorably affected patient care and outcomes.
Valuation of Underwriting Agreements for UK Rights Issues

UK COMPANIES RAISE VIRTUALLY all of their new equity capital via the rights issue method. Companies can guarantee the subscription of their issues by having them underwritten (the equivalent of standby arrangements in the USA), and in recent years, this procedure has been adopted for over 90% of UK rights issues. Underwriting is usually carried out on a fixed fee basis representing at least 1'/4% of the money raised, and hence it is clear that quite substantial sums of money are involved. Since underwriting is simply a put option giving the company the right to put a failed issue onto the underwriter, we can use option valuation models to determine whether this money is well spent. In this paper, we describe an application of the Black and Scholes model to the valuation of rights issue underwriting agreements over the period 1962-1975. Model prices are compared with the fees charged in order to assess whether the latter represent competitive prices. In fact, over this period, companies appear to have overpaid for underwriting. We cannot conclude from this alone, however, that the underwriting market is inefficient, since there may well be hidden 'side payments' between participants in the market. This issue is addressed, at least in a qualitative sense, in the final section of this paper.
TRANSPLANTATION AND CELLULAR ENGINEERING: Increasing the economic efficacy of peripheral blood progenitor cell collections by monitoring peripheral blood CD34+ concentrations

BACKGROUND: After mobilization, the collection of peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) can either be started a fixed number of days after having passed the white blood cell nadir (fixed‐day scheme) or be based on monitoring of CD34+ cells. This study was conducted to compare both approaches and to assess possible financial consequences.
Teachers' perceptions of a sixth grade academy: Implications for the transition to middle school

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to examine and evaluate teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of a sixth grade academy program, at a rural middle school in North Georgia, in helping students transition into sixth grade. The transition from fifth grade to sixth grade is a critical year in a student’s educational career. Over the past two decades, transitioning programs have grown as an effort to meet students’ distinct needs. There is very little research documenting teachers’ voices on this matter. The research conducted in this study sought to add the teacher’s perception in identifying the significant features of an effective sixth grade academy program that provide an easier transition into middle school. Sources of data included ten teachers who were interviewed about their work at a sixth grade academy. These teachers also responded to an open-ended questionnaire, as well as participated in a focus group interview, describing their experiences with the program. Transcriptions of the interviews and responses to the survey questions were analyzed using coding. A snapshot of the participant’s voices and lived experiences are included as a contribution to the findings of the study. Themes derived from the data uncovered during the study were organized to provide insight on the research questions. The themes identified during data analysis included structural design (academy versus conglomerate), isolation (teachers and students), intentional transitioning programming, elements related to middle school transition (parental involvement, lockers, other), and teacher’s perceptions of the student’s experience. Each theme is discussed in detail in the results section of chapter four.
Berkson's bias and the mood dimensions of bipolar disorder

In this paper we examined whether manic and depressive dimensions independently contribute to mental health service use and determined the degree of comorbidity between manic and depressive dimensions in individuals with and without mental health service use. If both depressive and manic episodes independently influence help‐seeking behaviour, a higher level of comorbidity between these dimensions would be found in clinical as compared to non‐clinical samples (i.e. Berkson's Bias). Data were derived from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS), a prospective epidemiological survey in a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 7076). Dimensions of depression and mania and mental health service use (MHSU) were assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) at baseline, and prospectively one and three years later. Logistic regression was used to test whether depressive and manic dimensions both had independent effects on mental health service use. The degree of mania‐comorbidity given the presence of depressive dimension was assessed as a function of MHSU, both retrospectively and prospectively. Manic and depressive dimensions contributed independently to mental health service use. Mania‐comorbidity given the presence of depressive dimension was significantly higher in individuals with mental health service use than in those without, both retrospectively (16.7% versus 7.1%, p = 0.000) and prospectively (10.8% versus 6.6%, p = 0.017). We conclude that the bipolar phenotype consists of manic and depressive dimensions that may be much more loosely associated than (Berkson) biased clinical observations suggest. A dimension‐specific approach may be more productive in clarifying the aetiology of mood dysregulation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The convergence of American elites’ domestic beliefs with their foreign policy beliefs

Contemporary scholarship on elites’ foreign policy beliefs is based upon the implicit assumption that the dimensions underpinning these attitudes are separate and distinct from those which undergird attitudes about domestic politics. Indeed, the dominant conception of Americans’ foreign policy beliefs uses labels to describe dimensions—militant internationalism and cooperative internationalism—which are relevant to international affairs but meaningless to domestic policy attitudes and disputes. Such accounts imply that people do not possess common principles, or ideology, that structure beliefs across both issue domains. We argue that the analytical barrier between foreign and domestic policy beliefs is artificial, at least for elite beliefs. Data from the 1988 Foreign Policy Leadership Project survey and the 1988–1992 Leadership Opinion Project panel study demonstrate that foreign and domestic policy beliefs share a common structure. Since this structure is strongly associated with simple self‐placement .