Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conceptualising Citizen's Trust in e-Government: Application of Q Methodology

In e-government context, trust plays a vital role in helping citizens overcome perceived risks. Trust makes citizens comfortable sharing personal information, make online government transaction, and acting on e- Government advices. Thus, trust is a significant notion that should be critically investigated to help both researchers and practitioners to understand citizens' acceptance to e-Government. Prior research in trust has focused mainly on consumer's trust in e-Commerce. Most of existing literatures on trust in e-government focus on technical perspective such as PKI. This paper contributes by proposing a conceptual model of citizens' trust in e- Government. The proposed conceptual model of citizens' trust in e-government is integrated constructs from multiple disciplines: psychology, sociology, e-commerce, and HCI. The research is aimed also to develop items in order to measure the theoretical constructs in the proposed model. The pool of items is generated based on literature review. Q-Methodology has been utilised to validate the generated measurement items. The outcome of two Q-sorting rounds resulted in developing a survey instrument for proposed model with an excellent validity and reliability statistical results.
Electromagnetic Radiation and Epilepsy

People report adverse health symptoms which they attribute to the radiation of microwave signals from mobile phone and TETRA masts. The validity of such reports cannot be safely rejected, either on the grounds of current safety compliance, nor on the grounds that such symptoms cannot be replicated in laboratory experiments in search of a simplified mechanism. Biological effects caused by such electromagnetic fields (EMF) are widely attested by research, but there is lack of clarity about how this occurs and why certain individuals should be more susceptible than others. In the case of electrical hypersensitivity, and in the particular, though more rare, case of exacerbated or instigated epilepsy, there are two candidate mediating factors: (i) the direct effects of coherent frequencies, and (ii) disruption of the nitric oxide synthesis process. This paper takes the second, and examines how the potential causal link is borne out by both likely and observed subject outcomes, and by observed EMF/nitric oxide synthase interactions. There is sufficient suspicion that a mechanism lies here to help validate the personal reports, and therefore action should be taken to verify that operation of such EMF sources is not the cause, rather than requiring the affected person to prove that it is. There have been many reports from people living in proximity to mobile phone and TETRA masts, of adverse health effects. One of these effects is increased incidence of epileptic seizures, and indeed onset of epilepsy. Many of these effects relate to what has come to be referred to as electrical hypersensitivity or EHS. These medical reports largely go uninvestigated, for two reasons: 1. the symptoms are wide ranging, from headaches and nausea to sleep disturbances and nosebleeds, but are categorised as common and minor complaints 2. there is no laboratory confirmed conclusion as to precisely why or how such effects should be induced at such low signal energies. On the first count, the complaints may appear to be minor, since many of us have one or another of them from time to time. This ignores that they may be unusual to the people concerned, or correlate to the onset of a transmitter’s operation, or relate to particular signal levels (Oberfeld et al., 1998; Santini et al.,2002; Navarro et al., 2003) or cease when operation is suspended. It also ignores the manner in which they suddenly become chronic and persistent for the people concerned, and the resultant effect on well-being.
Examining Bank SEOs: Are Offers Made by Undercapitalized Banks Different?

Despite extensive monitoring, banking operations are often considered opaque, and despite explicit capital adequacy regulation, banks may have substantial discretion in their financing. Both monitoring and capital regulation have changed substantially over time, with the adoption of FDICIA being one important breakpoint. This article empirically studies seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) by banks to understand how opacity and capital regulation interact to determine the timing of bank SEOs and their market valuation. SEOs both by banks that are undercapitalized relative to regulatory standards and also well-capitalized banks are fully discretionary when it comes to SEOs, even before FDICIA. Both undercapitalized and well-capitalized banks experience similar and significantly negative stock price reactions to SEO announcements, and also have similar prior patterns of insider trading and similar economic drivers of the issuance decision. Moreover, post-SEO abnormal stock returns are similar to benchmark returns for both types of issuers in the long run, suggesting that, contrary to the well-documented evidence for industrial SEOs, investors understand the value implications of bank SEOs upon announcement. The evidence implies that undercapitalized banks' SEOs are more discretionary and that all bank SEOs are less opaque than implied by earlier studies.
Informational Efficiency of Markets for Stumpage: Comment

In a study of the information efficiency of markets for stumpage in the southern United States, Washburn and Binkley found that time series data on stumpage price, if given on annual or quarterly bases, reveal weak-form information efficiency for stumpage markets. From this, they conclude that "there can be no gain from using past price movements to play the market in timing timber harvests" (p. 403). Specifically, they infer that the reservation price rules derived for optimal forest harvesting by Norstrom, Lohmander, and Brazee and Mendelsohn are not applicable to the management of southern pine timberlands.
Ethnic Diversity and Firms' Export Behavior

Selling internationally requires products that resonate with an international customer base and therefore an approach to markets that is in keeping with diverse cultures (i.e., relational capital). As emphasized by international business studies, this relational capital is in turn related to the successful teaming of a diverse workforce, as this process teaches employees to operate in multicultural environments. This knowledge becomes like an intangible asset to which firms can resort, also when engaging in international transactions. We explore this channel empirically, investigating the impact of workforce diversity on firms' exporting performances and find that ethnic diversity further justifies firms' different presence in international markets. Since hiring is not a random practice, and firms ultimately select into ethnically different labor forces, we exploit the EU enlargement of 2004 to instrument for the diversity of the pool of workers locally recruitable. Because migrants tend to settle where the attitude toward them is most favorable, we use the median voter's political ideology at firm's location to measure the hostility at time of settlement. This gives our instrument spatial variation besides time variation.
Influence of volatile compounds produced by yeasts predominant during processing of Coffea arabica in East Africa on growth and ochratoxin A (OTA) production by Aspergillus ochraceus

The effects of volatile compounds produced during coffee processing by Pichia anomala, P. kluyveri and Hanseniaspora uvarum on growth of Aspergillus ochraceus and production of ochratoxin A (OTA) were studied. On malt extract agar (MEA) and on coffee agar (CA), exposure of A. ochraceus to the gaseous phase of malt yeast glucose peptone (MYGP) plates inoculated with P. anomala, P. kluyveri and H. uvarum inhibited fungal growth, with the two Pichia spp. showing the strongest effect. The main esters and alcohols produced by the three yeasts were ethyl acetate, isobutyl acetate, 2‐phenyl ethyl acetate, ethyl propionate and isoamyl alcohol. The individual esters and alcohols were found to affect fungal growth. The most effective compound in inhibiting fungal growth was 2‐phenyl ethyl acetate; which at 48 µg/l headspace completely inhibited growth of A. ochraceus. Exposure of A. ochraceus to the gaseous phase of MYGP plates inoculated with P. anomala, P. kluyveri and H. uvarum prevented production of OTA. On CA medium, only the headspace of P. anomala and P. kluyveri prevented OTA production. Furthermore, when A. ochraceus was exposed to the headspace of the individual volatile compounds, 2‐phenyl ethyl acetate was the most effective in preventing OTA production. Prevention of OTA seems to be due to reduction of fungal biomass. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Real options and the impact of intellectual capital on corporate value

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to discuss intellectual capital (IC) from a valuation perspective and examine the nature of such capital and why traditional valuation methods fail to reflect the unique characteristics of IC and propose an alternative approach that captures them.Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds on the existing literature in the fields of financial valuation and IC. The analysis of these fields allows us to combine them and discuss the possible usage and limitations of real option models for the assessment of intellectual capital in firms.Findings – A valuation perspective is developed based on the real option models that have been extended from their origin in financial asset valuation to the valuation of firms' growth opportunities. Intellectual resources embody these opportunities contributing to both their evolution over time and their realisation in future. A typology of IC is developed based on the influence upon the various valuation parameters of real options. This .
Citizens’ attitudes toward Open Government and Government 2.0

This empirical study sees Open Government and Government 2.0 as a new ends and means of e-government in the United States. The analysis of the data from the Pew Research Center’s national survey (2009 Government Online) highlights what influences American citizens’ attitudes toward Open Government and Government 2.0. This article presents four main findings. First, while the use of existing e-government services does not significantly influence attitudes toward Open Government, recent use of Government 2.0 does contribute to positive attitudes toward Government 2.0. Second, those who value transactions with e-government have a positive attitude regarding Open Government and Government 2.0. Third, general trust in government leads to a positive attitude toward the new ends and means of e-government. Finally, frequent Web use and broadband adoption do not affect citizens’ attitudes concerning the new modes of e-government. The study reveals that citizens’ attitudes toward government workings do not change much with the introduction of new goals and tools of e-government. Points for practitioners A government may gain considerable popular support from the public by introducing to citizens new objectives and channels for the existing e-government. However, government practitioners should know that offering new directives and technological tools does not necessarily guarantee a positive response from citizens. When new goals and vehicles of e-government reach citizens, a set of conventional determinants, such as perceived value of government services and general trust in government, shapes the collective attitude toward new modes of e-government. Practitioners need to assess leverage by those fundamental factors.
Review: Pathways to Morbidity in Carers of Dementia Sufferers

The recent literature on informal carers of dementia patients is reviewed. Families bear the major responsibility for such care. The production of “burden” in carers is a complex process, involving developmental and cultural factors, in addition to the stressors of dementia itself. Also influential are the carer's gender, coping style, social network, and the carer's level of inimacy with the elder. The interpretation of actual morbidity is complicated by methodologic problems. However, carers appear to suffer from at least moderate levels of psychological symptomatology. Carers tend to judge their own health to be poorer than that of controls. Some studies have also found aspects of caregiving to be associated with elder abuse, but this is controversial. Caregiving in dementia appears to be at least as stressful as that in chronic physical illness and depression. Finally, the implications for service provision and future research are considered.
PENGARUH INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL TERHADAP NILAI PERUSAHAAN DENGAN KINERJA KEUANGAN SEBAGAI VARIABEL INTERVENING

The purpose of this studywas todetermine the effect ofintellectual capitaltoward firm valuewiththe financialperformanceas the intervening variable . The independent variable applied in this studywas theintellectual capital which wasmeasured by value added intellectual coefficient ( VAIC TM ) . The dependentvariablein this studywas the firm value is measuredbyusing price-to-book value (PBV), whilefinancial performanceas an intervening variable is measured by using return on asset (ROA). The samples of this study were the banking companies listed by the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) within the period of 2007-2011. Data were collected by using purposive sampling method. Based on the mentioned criteria, 22 companies were selected as the population of this study. The data analysis tool used in this study was path analysis with AMOS software 16.0 version.The finding shows that (1) intellectual capital has positive and significant effect to the financial performance. (2) intellectual capital has no effect on firm value. (3) the financial performance has positive and significant effect to mediate the relationship between intellectual capital and firm value.
Capital structure inconclusiveness: evidence from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper of this study is to examine the possible factors contributing to the issue of inconclusiveness in capital structure studies. This study also attempts to provide logical explanations to the unresolved issue of inconsistencies in the relationship between factors identified and leverage in capital structure studies. Comparisons are also made between the emerging market and the developed market to see whether the findings are consistent with both market landscapes. Design/methodology/approach - – This study employs two models in its methodology which are static and dynamic models to examine the effects of using different models in the study. The fixed effect model and partial adjustment model represent the static and dynamic models, respectively. The dynamic model is estimated using generalized method of moments. This study also uses six definitions of leverage to examine the impact of using different leverage definition in capital structure studies. To test the robustness of the findings comparison were made with past studies done by other researchers on developed markets. Findings - – This study found that the use of different models (with the same leverage definition) and different leverage definitions (using the same model) give different results including signs. Inconsistencies were more obvious in the different leverage definitions (using the same model) compared to the use of different models (with the same leverage definition). There was also evidence that the findings were consistent with both the emerging and the developed markets as other studies on developed markets also report inconsistent results when using different models and different leverage definitions. Research limitations/implications - – The sample chosen focussed only on firms in three emerging markets (Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore) thus it may not be sufficient for generalization. Originality/value - – The issue of inconclusive results and findings in capital structure studies keeps recurring but no study has been done to further understand the issue. Using data from the selected countries, this paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature.
Mutation screening of the DTNBP1 exonic sequence in 669 schizophrenics and 710 controls using high‐resolution melting analysis

A large number of independent studies have reported evidence for association between the dysbindin gene (DTNBP1) and schizophrenia; however, specific risk alleles have been not been implicated as causal. In this study we set out to perform a comprehensive assessment of DNA variation within the exonic sequence of DTNBP1. To achieve this we optimized a high‐resolution melting analysis (HRMA) protocol and applied it to screen all 11 DTNBP1 exons for DNA variants in a sample of 669 cases and 710 controls from the UK. Despite identifying seven exonic variants with a minor allele frequency (MAF) >0.01, none was significantly associated with schizophrenia (minimum P = 0.054), showing that the strong association we previously reported in this sample is not the result of association to a common functional variant located within the exonic sequence of any of the three major DTNBP1 transcripts. We also sought additional support for DTNBP1 as a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia by testing the hypothesis that rare exonic highly penetrant variants exist at the DTNBP1 locus. Our analysis failed to identify an enrichment of rare functional variants in the patients compared to the controls. Taken as a whole, this data demonstrate that if DTNBP1 is a risk gene for schizophrenia then risk is not conferred by mutations that affect the structure of the dysbindin protein. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Addressee and Response Selection in Multi-Party Conversations with Speaker Interaction RNNs

In this paper, we study the problem of addressee and response selection in multi-party conversations. Understanding multi-party conversations is challenging because of complex speaker interactions: multiple speakers exchange messages with each other, playing different roles (sender, addressee, observer), and these roles vary across turns. To tackle this challenge, we propose the Speaker Interaction Recurrent Neural Network (SI-RNN). Whereas the previous state-of-the-art system updated speaker embeddings only for the sender, SI-RNN uses a novel dialog encoder to update speaker embeddings in a role-sensitive way. Additionally, unlike the previous work that selected the addressee and response separately, SI-RNN selects them jointly by viewing the task as a sequence prediction problem. Experimental results show that SI-RNN significantly improves the accuracy of addressee and response selection, particularly in complex conversations with many speakers and responses to distant messages many turns in the past.
Intracellular accumulation of factor VIII induced by missense mutations Arg593→Cys and Asn618→Ser explains cross‐reacting material‐reduced haemophilia A

Patients with cross‐reacting material (CRM)‐reduced haemophilia A exhibit reduced levels of factor VIII antigen. In this study, we determined the molecular basis of the genetic defect in the factor VIII gene induced by either the Arg593→Cys or the Asn618→Ser missense mutation, identified in two CRM‐reduced haemophilia A patients. We introduced either the Arg593→Cys or the Asn618→Ser mutation into a B‐domain‐deleted factor VIII cDNA and expressed the modified cDNAs in C127 cells. Reduced levels of factor VIII activity and factor VIII antigen in conditioned medium of transfected cells indicated that the secretion of both factor VIII variants was impaired. The ratio of factor VIII antigen present in cell extract to that in conditioned medium was 1.9 and 2.4 times higher for rFVIII‐R593C and rFVIII‐N618S, respectively, than for rFVIII. Metabolic labelling and immunoprecipitation of transfected cells revealed that rFVIII‐R593C and rFVIII‐N618S persisted somewhat longer inside the cell than factor rFVIII. Intracellular accumulation and subsequent degradation of factor VIII‐R593C and factor VIII‐N618S may explain the reduced levels of both factor VIII activity and antigen in plasma of mild haemophilia A patients with corresponding genetic defects.
Should Managers Estimate Cost of Equity Using a Two-Factor International CAPM?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess how much difference it makes for US firms to use the two-factor ICAPM to estimate their cost of equity instead of a single-factor CAPM. Design/methodology/approach - For a large sample of US companies, the authors compare the empirical cost of equity estimates of a two-factor international CAPM with those of the single-factor domestic CAPM and the single-factor global CAPM. Findings - The authors find that the cost of equity estimates of the two-factor ICAPM are reasonably close to those of either single-factor model for US firms with low-to-moderate foreign exchange exposure; and second, perhaps surprisingly, for US firms with extreme foreign exchange exposure, that the cost of equity estimates of the two-factor ICAPM tend to be very close to those of the domestic CAPM, and even closer than to those of the single-factor global CAPM. Research limitations/implications - The paper's findings might prove useful to academic researchers wanting to resolve the seemingly contradictory empirical results on the pricing of FX risk. Practical implications - The findings will hopefully help managers decide whether they should go to the trouble of estimating a US firm's cost of equity with the two-factor international CAPM instead of a traditional single-factor CAPM. Originality/value - The paper extends the existing literature by focusing on the two-factor ICAPM, and finds some new and surprising empirical results.
Not a ‘Straitjacket Affair’: Anthropometrically Derived Obesity Index Correlates of Elevated Blood Pressure among University Undergraduates

Obesity is known to correlate with measures of blood pressure (BP). The nature of the correlations has, however, remained a subject of scientific enquiry, especially when BP phenotypes are disaggregated and obesity is determined by a variety of methods. This study examined the relationship between obesity and BP in young-adult Nigerians. A total of 1610 subjects (53.9% females) were recruited from five universities in the Igbo-speaking part of Nigeria. Relevant BP and anthropometric data were obtained following standard protocols. Appropriate statistical tools were used for data analyses. The results show that 42.2% (49.5% males, 36.1% females) and 13.3% (15.2% males, 11.6% females) of the population had point prehypertension and hypertension, respectively. By body mass index (BMI) standards, 20.6% (12.4% males, 27.5% females) of the population were overweight/obese. Despite the weak positive and significant correlations between BP and the measures of obesity in both males and females in the general population (r = +0.110 to +0.261; p < 0.05), the correlations were found to exist essentially in normotensives, taper in the prehypertensives, and disappear (or became negative) among hypertensives. When analysed along weight status lines, a discordant relationship was found between the sexes. Overall, the relationship between blood pressure and measures of obesity is not linear throughout the BP spectrum. Clearly the said relationship is not a ‘straitjacket affair’.