Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF CLASS CONFLICT IN 21 NATIONS

In light of Marxian, Durkheimian, Modernization and reference group theories, this paper assesses the intensity of class conflict in twenty one nations across Eastern and Western Europe and the New World using ISSP data which provide large, representative, national samples. Despite some theorists’ claims of the vanishing of the class cleavage, few respondents throughout the industrial world, even in the notoriously harmonious Scandinavian world deny the existence of class conflict. Regression analysis reveals that substantial differences among culturalinstitutional groups of countries remain after controlling for individuallevel differences in education, age, and sex. Americans perceive substantially the highest levels of conflict and Scandinavians perceive their societies as the least conflictual. The other Anglo-Celtic countries and the Communist and post-Communist societies are intermediate between these two. This ordering is particularly interesting because it does not follow the GNP gradient that has recently been discovered in feelings of fairness of pay and in subjective class self-placement. “Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains! " was Marx's ringing war-cry, urging workers to revolt against the middle classes, the poor to rise against the rich, employees to revolt against their bosses. Marx raised his war-cry in the last century and ever since then, the middle classes, the rich, employers, and governments have lived in some apprehension, if not outright fear, of revolution from below. Durkheim, by contrast, saw the possibility of mutual respect and harmony
The Strategic Signaling of Capabilities by Service Firms in Different Information Asymmetry Environments

This study investigates how firms in high or low information asymmetry environments obtain performance benefits from their capabilities. Using data obtained from a sample of 234 service firms, the results indicate that service firms in low information asymmetry environments obtain direct performance benefits from the mere possession of capabilities. In high information asymmetry environments, such as professional services, the performance benefits of capabilities only occur when firms use strategic positioning to signal the presence of their resources. Firms in high information asymmetry environments use the focus of their service offering as well as the degree of service customization to indicate the presence of underlying capabilities.
Event-Triggered Asynchronous Guaranteed Cost Control for Markov Jump Discrete-Time Neural Networks With Distributed Delay and Channel Fading

This paper is concerned with the guaranteed cost control problem for a class of Markov jump discrete-time neural networks (NNs) with event-triggered mechanism, asynchronous jumping, and fading channels. The Markov jump NNs are introduced to be close to reality, where the modes of the NNs and guaranteed cost controller are determined by two mutually independent Markov chains. The asynchronous phenomenon is considered, which increases the difficulty of designing required mode-dependent controller. The event-triggered mechanism is designed by comparing the relative measurement error with the last triggered state at the process of data transmission, which is used to eliminate dispensable transmission and reduce the networked energy consumption. In addition, the signal fading is considered for the effect of signal reflection and shadow in wireless networks, which is modeled by the novel Rice fading models. Some novel sufficient conditions are obtained to guarantee that the closed-loop system reaches a specified cost value under the designed jumping state feedback control law in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, some simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
FURTHER EVIDENCE OF THE TIME SERIES PROPERTIES OF ACCOUNTING INCOME

THE BEHAVIOR OF ACCOUNTING INCOME TIME-SERIES is of considerable interest to researchers in accounting, finance, and related disciplines. For example, the properties of accounting income time-series are directly related to accounting questions of management manipulation of accounting income and interim reporting. However, increased knowledge of income time-series behavior will be of most benefit to the extent that it contributes to the improvement of models in finance and improvement of the quality of accounting income numbers that are variables in predictive models [4], [5], [6]. Beaver compiled an impressive list of studies that required assumptions concerning the time-series behavior of accounting income or used accounting income as a predictive variable. The studies included in the Beaver list related to: valuation models of the firm, valuation of firm securities, dividend policies, earnings growth rate forecasts, evaluation of the informational content of accounting numbers, forecasting the failure of firms, and industrial concentration and accounting rates of return [6, p. 64]. Most previous research provided convincing evidence that income changes are independent [1], [2], [8], [18], [19]. Without exception, these studies have examined the total sample of time series selected for study. However, earlier work by Brooks and Buckmaster [9], [12] and Beaver [6] suggests that some subsets of series that are homogeneous with respect to configuration behave in a different manner than other income time-series. Specifically, the results of these studies suggested that series containing what appear to be non-systematic disturbances or shocks have special characteristics. These characteristics are obscured by the averaging process when the sample is not stratified. Strong evidence has been provided by Ball and Watts [2] that income time-series follow a submartingale or some similar process. This present study identifies systematic conditions where income time-series do not follow a submartingale process. This has substantial impact on conclusions stated in previous studies concerning firm survival, effectiveness of income manipulation, and efficient market pricing. The tests and results presented in this study are exploratory and descriptive. Thus, they are intended only as an incremental step towards the development of a general theory of income time-series behavior. The approach used in this study was to stratify the sample according to distance of a given observation from an operationally defined normal income for each company. Iterative procedures were then used to determine the best exponential smoothing model and smoothing constant (a) for each stratum. This procedure was performed for each of three separate stratification rules. The outcome of our tests
Crowdfunding social ventures: a model and research agenda

Crowdfunding (CF) in a social entrepreneurship (SE) context is praised in media narrations for its multifaceted potential. From an academic point of view, little has been written about CF as a whole, and enquiries from the SE sphere are mostly concerned with donation-based CF. This paper first reviews extant literature on financing social ventures and CF. Based upon the findings, the author draws up a schema of CF's inner workings and subsequently discusses it in an SE context. From this model, a research agenda consisting of eight themes is derived: types and utility functions; corporate governance; investor relations, reporting and risk; opportunity recognition; networking; legitimacy; financial metrics and legal and regulatory hurdles.
German and Japanese Education in the Shadow - Do Out-of-School Lessons really contribute to Class Reproduction?

s Considering the great impact the first PISA-results caused in Germany and Japan, this study seeks to provide an explanation for the continuous higher achievement rates of students in the PISA-winner country Japan compared to their German peers. Another great difference between the two participants that was detected in PISA is the correlation between students’ social origin and educational achievement, which is still very strong in Germany but not in Japan. The author assumes the reason for these differences lay outside the formal school system, in the sector of shadow education. The so called Juku-industry in Japan provides out-of-school lessons that seem to enable all Japanese students to achieve top results regardless of their social origin. In Germany the increased use of Nachhilfe is seen as an indicator for the downfall of the compulsory school system and a problem that seem to widen the gap in education levels all the more. If in Japan almost every household regardless of its social status sends its children to out-of-school classes, the assumption that people do invest in further education in terms of extra classes at Juku believing this will have a neutralizing effect on disadvantaged family background suggests itself. Consequently the author intends to refute the prevailing assumption of researchers in Germany and Japan stating that out-of-school lessons just contribute to the reproduction of class structure. Using secondary data as well as PISA-data the author wants to show that shadow education helps to counteract educational disadvantages through the provision of various educational opportunities. iafor The International Academic Forum www.iafor. org The Asian Conference on Education 2012 Official Conference Proceedings Osaka, Japan
Urbanization, Land Development, and Land Financing: Evidence from Chinese Cities

ABSTRACT: China’s urbanization is significant worldwide. This process is characterized by underurbanization of population and fast urban land expansion. The driving forces behind this expansion and their rationale are not fully understood and empirically tested. This study fills this gap by analyzing panel data from 1999–2009 for all 286 prefecture-level cities in China. The findings reveal that land financing, using different measures, significantly contributed to land urbanization in China. Economically stronger cities with higher real estate investment more aggressively pushed for land urbanization. The true purpose of urbanization should be improving the living standard, not to generate revenue. It is suggested that urbanization can serve its justified goals only if fiscal and political relations between central and local governments can be adjusted. As more data become available, future studies are encouraged to further explore the subject by investigating additional factors and the latest trend of urbanization in China. Struggling land under the pressure of urbanization, Guangzhou, China (2011).
Plasmapheresis and immunosuppressive drug therapy in myasthenia gravis.

Plasmapheresis combined with prednisone and azathioprine therapy produced striking clinical improvement in five patients with myasthenia gravis who still had moderate to severe disability despite thymectomy, high-dose prednisone therapy and optimal doses of cholinesterase inhibitors. Serial determinations of titers of serum antibody toward the acetylcholine receptor demonstrated a fall to 21 +/- 5 per cent (mean +/- S.D.) of the original levels concurrently with the patients' increasing strength. Clinically improved patients maintained lowered titers, whereas clinical relapses were associated with a rebound in titer. Our results suggest that plasmapheresis will find a place in the management of patients with myasthenia gravis, and they implicate antibodies to acetylcholine receptor as a pathogenic factor in this disease.
The Global Financial Crisis, Economic Integration and China's Exports: A Causal and Predictive Analysis

Recent strong growth of China’s exports has elevated the country to a rising global economic power and caused geo-political concern to policy-makers in the country and its trading partners world-wide. What are the determinants of this growth, how has it affected major economies in ASEAN (World Bank, 2009) in particular, and what kind of evidence-based responses are required and appropriate? The paper focuses on the first issue and introduces an endogenous trade model (ETM) and, using historical data, empirically investigates the causes of China’s exports in recent years for regional trade policy analysis. The ETM (see Tran Van Hoa, 2004, 2008a for earlier applications) is a system approach and contains improved structural and modelling features, in comparison to conventional gravity theory, panel regression and CGE/GTAP, to provide more credible outcomes and policy options in the sense of Friedman (1953) and Kydland (2006). Significantly, the ETM also incorporates multiple structural changes in the form of crises and policy reforms to accommodate and manage recent economic and financial developments in regional and global economies. Policy options and choice recommendations are, finally, suggested for debate and analysis.
One-generation divergent selection on large and small yolk proportions in a White Leghorn line

1. A striking change in egg consumption from shell eggs toward egg products is taking place. Consequently, internal egg quality traits must be seen in a different light, as they may affect the profitability of the egg processing industry. In order to study the possibility of using breeding as a means to alter yolk production, a one-generation divergent selection experiment was set up. The trait was yolk proportion. The effect of hen's age on egg composition was also studied. Genetic parameters for yolk proportion, yolk weight, egg weight and albumen weight were estimated, using a multiple trait animal model, and restricted maximum likelihood. 2. Selection response was obtained for yolk proportion and correlated selection responses for yolk weight and albumen weight. In the 'high line' a decrease in egg weight and an increase in yolk weight was established, whereas in the 'low line', egg weight remained more or less the same and yolk weight decreased slightly 3. Yolk proportion, yolk weight, egg weight and albumen weight all increased with increasing age of the hen in both selection lines. The difference between selection lines in yolk proportion, yolk weight and albumen weight persisted throughout the laying period. 4. Estimated heritabilities for yolk proportion, yolk weight, egg weight and albumen weight were 0.38, 0.22, 0.34 and 0.41 respectively. The genetic correlation between yolk proportion and yolk weight was 0.52, whereas the genetic correlations with egg weight and albumen weight were -0.51 and -0.74 respectively. 5. We conclude that selection can be used to alter yolk production. Selection can be at an early age with a sustained effect throughout the laying period.
Don't Let Your Robots Grow Up to Be Traders: Artificial Intelligence, Human Intelligence, and Asset-Market Bubbles

Researchers who have examined markets populated by robot traders have claimed that the high level of allocative efficiency observed in experimental markets is driven largely by the intelligence implicit in the rules of the market. Furthermore, they view the ability of agents (artificial or human) to process information and make rational decisions as unnecessary for the efficient operation of markets. This paper presents a new series of market experiments that show that markets populated with standard robot traders are no longer efficient if time is a meaningful element, as it is in all asset markets. While simple two-season markets with human subjects reliably converge to an efficient equilibrium, markets with minimally intelligent robot traders fail to attain this equilibrium. Instead, these markets overshoot the equilibrium and then crash below it. In addition to firmly establishing the role of trader intelligence in asset-market equilibrium, these experiments also provide insights into why bubbles and crashes are consistently observed in many asset-market laboratory experiments using human subjects.
Democratization and Ideational Diffusion: Europe, Mercosur and Social Citizenship

Policies in support of democratic transition aim to reconfigure the dominant norm set in previously authoritarian states and societies. The EU's commitment to such policies is well-established. This article discusses what the EU does when it offers democratic support, using the example of Mercosur. The evidence presented here suggests that EU policy in Mercosur is premised on assumptions of a positive identity relationship with local governing elites. In fact, however, it is not clear that democracy is understood in the same way in Mercosur as in the EU. As a result, policies resonate less than expected.
Social Protection Around the World

This article develops and tests a political model specifying the conditions under which external risk leads to the introduction of redistributive social policies and argues that external risk sharpens a domestic political cleavage over the design of institutions of social insurance. Workers in sectors facing high volatility of income will support the introduction of social policies characterized by broad levels of insurance coverage and high redistribution of costs across occupations, whereas workers in low-risk sectors will oppose redistributive social policies. The strength of preexisting state institutions also affects policy preferences of various sectors. In the presence of weak, ineffective states that are unable to collect social insurance contributions from sectors that are net contributors to the system, high-risk sectors will find redistributive social policies unattractive. The article tests predictions of the model using new measures of the level of social insurance coverage in more than 100 countries.
Contracting and the voluntary sector

The introduction of internal or ’quasi’ markets in welfare as enacted through the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 has been interpreted as the work of a government committed to market ideology, which in the late 1980s launched ’a major offensive against the bureaucratic structures of welfare provision’ (Le Grand and Bartlett, 1993: 2). While state finance of services has continued, the reforms have resulted
Americans Reject Tailored Advertising and Three Activities that Enable It

This nationally representative telephone (wire-line and cell phone) survey explores Americans' opinions about behavioral targeting by marketers, a controversial issue currently before government policymakers. Behavioral targeting involves two types of activities: following users' actions and then tailoring advertisements for the users based on those actions. While privacy advocates have lambasted behavioral targeting for tracking and labeling people in ways they do not know or understand, marketers have defended the practice by insisting it gives Americans what they want: advertisements and other forms of content that are as relevant to their lives as possible.Contrary to what many marketers claim, most adult Americans (66%) do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests. Moreover, when Americans are informed of three common ways that marketers gather data about people in order to tailor ads, even higher percentages - between 73% and 86% - say they would not want such advertising. Even among young adults, whom advertisers often portray as caring little about information privacy, more than half (55%) of 18-24 years-old do not want tailored advertising. And contrary to consistent assertions of marketers, young adults have as strong an aversion to being followed across websites and offline (for example, in stores) as do older adults.This survey finds that Americans want openness with marketers. If marketers want to continue to use various forms of behavioral targeting in their interactions with Americans, they must work with policymakers to open up the process so that individuals can learn exactly how their information is being collected and used, and then exercise control over their data. We offer specific proposals in this direction. An overarching one is for marketers to implement a regime of information respect toward the public rather than to treat them as objects from which they can take information in order to optimally persuade them.
The governance of justice and internal security in Scotland: between the Scottish independence referendum and British decisions on the EU

This article examines how the governance of justice and internal security in Scotland could be affected by the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014. The article argues that it is currently impossible to equate a specific result in the referendum with a given outcome for the governance of justice and internal security in Scotland. This is because of the complexities of the current arrangements in that policy area and the existence of several changes that presently affect them and are outside the control of the government and of the people of Scotland. This article also identifies an important paradox. In the policy domain of justice and internal security, a ‘no’ vote could, in a specific set of circumstances, actually lead to more changes than a victory of the ‘yes’ camp.
Do Artists Benefit from Online Music Sharing?

Music is an information good, and more specifically, an experience good, whose true value is realized only after its consumption. At its fundamental form, artists create (or produce) the music that consumers pay to listen. Digital technologies and network based sharing/distribution mechanisms have created tremendous opportunities and challenges for producers and consumers of such goods. This paper models the economics of online music sharing and addresses the fundamental question: who benefits? The model incorporates economic and technological incentives to sample, and analyzes the effect of consumers' potential purchasing and pirating decisions. The analysis reveals several key insights. The revenue impact will be more closely related to the intrinsic value of the music to consumers, as these technologies enable users to discover the true value of music more easily. Contrary to conventional wisdom, lowering the cost to sample music will propel more consumers to purchase music online, as the total cost of evaluation and acquisition decreases. Attempts to prevent sampling will be counter productive in the long run. Reducing the cost to sample may encourage some consumers to pirate music; but it also enhances the legitimate customer base by decreasing the total cost of music acquisition. This, along with increasing enforcement aimed at individual consumers and effective pricing schemes, will enable artists to effectively leverage the emerging technologies. The model also sheds light on the conflicting opinions by the artist community on the impact of sharing technologies. We find that sharing technologies erode the superstar phenomenon widely prevalent in the music business. Extensive empirical investigations, based on surveys and Billboard Ranking Charts, lend support to the economic model and validate the key results. Implications from this study are generally applicable to buyers and sellers of other similar digital experience goods.
Dictating the News: Understanding Newsworthiness from the Journalistic Perspective

This study looks at previous research done in journalism and public relations to identify eight factors that determine newsworthiness. A survey was conducted first to confirm the importance of the eight factors among journalists and public relations practitioners. Then a content analysis of news releases from public and private corporations was used to determine if they contained the eight factors identified by the research. The study found that both journalists and public relations practitioners generally agree on the factors that contribute to the newsworthiness of public relations information subsidies; however, the analysis indicated that only two of the eight factors were being used regularly in the releases, and that the majority of the releases would not be considered newsworthy by either journalists or public relations practitioners. Zoch & Supa – Public Relations Journal – Vol. 8, No. 1 (2014)