Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formation Mechanism and Dispersion of Pseudo-Tetragonal BaTiO3-PVP Nanoparticles from Different Titanium Precursors: TiCl4 and TiO2

Nano-sized tetragonal BaTiO3 (BT) particles that are well dispersed in solution are essential for the dielectric layer in multilayer ceramic capacitor technology. A hydrothermal process using TiCl4 and BaCl2, as source of Ti and Ba, respectively, or the precursor TiO2 as seed for the formation of BT, and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as a surfactant, was employed in this study to enhance both the dispersibility and tetragonality (c/a) simultaneously in a single reaction process. The process parameters, i.e., the ratio of TiO2 substitution of TiCl4, the reaction time, and PVP content were systematically studied, and the growth mechanism and relation between the tetragonality and the particle size are discussed. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis was used to show that truncated pseudo-tetragonal BT-PVP particles with an average size of 100 nm, having a narrow size distribution and a coefficient of variation (CV) as low as 20% and being mono-dispersed in water, were produced. The narrow particle size distribution is attributed to the ability of PVP to inhibit the growth of BT particles, and the high c/a of BT-PVP to heterogeneous particle growth using TiO2 seeds.
The compensation structure of REIT managers: impact on stock valuation and performance

This paper examines the impact of managers' compensation structure on initial public offering (IPO) pricing and the subsequent corporate performance of 20 externally‐managed real estate investment trusts (REITs) listed on the Singapore Exchange. The results indicate that the IPO market is somewhat efficient in pricing potential moral hazard problems arising from the way REIT managers are paid. In particular, we find that the market generally rewards REITs that pay their managers a low base fee coupled with a high incentive fee that is benchmarked against a pre‐determined performance level. When tracking the post‐IPO performance of the individual REITs, we find that it is related negatively to the size of the base fee, but positively to the performance‐based fee. We also find weak evidence that the incentive‐based fee that is benchmarked against a pre‐determined hurdle leads to superior performance by the managers.
A Revised Tobin Effect from Inflation: Relative Input Price and Capital Ratio Realignments, USA and UK, 1959-1999

The paper studies the realignments induced by inflation within an endogenous growth monetary economy. Accelerating inflation raises the ratio of the real wage to the real interest rate, and so raises the use of physical capital relative to human capital across all sectors. We find cointegration evidence for the US and UK economies consistent with a general equilibrium, Tobin-type, effect of inflation on input prices and capital intensity, even while the growth rate of output is reduced by inflation.
Social movements in Hungary and Russia : The case of environmental movements

This paper presents an analysis of environmental movements in two Eastern European societies : Hungary and Russia, based on a recently completed research project. The analysis of the movements will also give us an opportunity to examine the extent of the development of democratic institutions in two post-socialist societies. The comparison of these two cases will also reveal the extent of diversity within the so called former Soviet bloc and demonstrate that generalizing about them is misleading. After a brief review of nine different movements they are compared in terms of their structure and goals, the characteristics of their participants and leaders, the extent of internal and external conflicts, and the role of the media. The different degrees of public resonance and success of the movements in both countries are a focus of the paper. The paper has several aims : apart from analysing and comparing Russian and Hungarian environmental movements and examining the extent of development of democratic institutions in these two recently democratized societies, it will also consider the relevance of existing western literature in the Eastern European context
Analysing the relationship between intellectual capital and performance in local governments

This study investigates the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and organisational performance within the context of local governments (LGs). We examine this relationship in the light of both directions of the IC research stream recognised by Mouritsen (2006) as the IC1-ostensive view and the IC2-performative view. For this reason, a dual research approach is adopted which combines published and survey data. Empirical evidence advocates that components of IC are related to improved performance measured through both financial ratios and perceptions of performance. Thus, the empirical findings hold regardless of the IC view and offer corroborating evidence that LGs with higher IC perform better than LGs with lower IC. The study contributes to the analysis of the organisational mechanisms that enable LGs to realise economic benefits from IC and proposes a methodology for (inferred) IC measurement for LGs through the analysis of accrual accounting financial statements.
Income Distribution and Growth: The Kuznets Hypothesis Revisited

This study develops a general equilibrium model in which the evolution of income inequality and output conforms with the Kuznets hypothesis. The paper presents a novel endogenous mechanism that generates the inverted-U relation between income inequality and per capita output, and captures the reciprocal influence between the two. Unlike previous attempts for a comprehensive theoretical modeling of this phenomenon, the evolution of the economy is consistent with another important empirical observation: namely, that output growth is accompanied in the early stages of development by a widening wage differential between skilled and unskilled labor, whereas in a later stage this wage differential declines. Copyright 1996 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Contrarian Investment and Macroeconomic Risk

It is now widely accepted that contrarian, or value investment strategies deliver superior returns. Gregory, Harris and Michou (2001) examine the performance of contrarian investment strategies in the UK and find that value strategies formed on the basis of a wide range of measures of value have delivered excess returns that are both statistically and economically significant. However, while value strategies appear to be profitable, the reason for their superior perform- ance is far from clear. Under the contrarian model, value strategies are profitable because they are contrarian to naive strategies such as those that erroneously extrapolate past performance, while under the rational pricing model, value strategies are profitable because they are fundamentally riskier in some sense. In this paper, we discriminate between these two possibilities by undertaking a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between the returns to value investment strategies and various macroeconomic state variables that in a multi-factor asset pricing model could reasonably be taken as proxies for risk. Moreover, we examine whether the returns to value strategies predict future GDP, consumption and investment growth over and above the contribution of the Fama and French (1993 and 1996) SMB, HML and market factors. While the SMB and HML factors behave in a manner consistent with the rational pricing model, we show that some value strategies in the UK are able to generate excess returns that do not seem to be related to known risk factors. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002.
An investigation of the effects of media characteristics on read channel performance for patterned media storage

Many view data storage on patterned magnetic media as one way of attaining storage densities in excess of 1 Tb/in/sup 2/ and thus overcoming the problems associated with recording at ultrahigh densities on conventional continuous media. In this paper we investigate, through the use of a replay simulation developed to take into account the three-dimensional nature of the patterned media, the effects that the shape-constrained media have on the bit-error-rate performance of the read channel in 1-Tb/in/sup 2/ perpendicular recording. In particular, we analyze how media configurations with varying island shape, size, and distribution affect the channel performance.
Mesenchymal stem cells and ligand incorporation in biomimetic poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels significantly improve insulin secretion from pancreatic islets

The main goal of this study was to investigate pancreatic islet function with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a ligand‐functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Rat bone marrow‐derived MSCs (rBM‐MSCs) were encapsulated within synthetic PEG hydrogel, and cell viability and apoptosis within this 3D environment was examined in detail. ATP content and caspase‐3 activity of encapsulated MSCs showed that fibronectin‐derived RGDS, laminin‐derived IKVAV and/or insulinotropic glucagon‐like peptide (GLP‐1) were required to maintain MSC survival. Incorporation of these peptides into the hydrogel environment also improved pancreatic islet viability, where combinations of peptides had altered effects on islet survival. GLP‐1 alone was the leading stimulator for insulin secretion. Cell adhesion peptides RGDS and IKVAV improved insulin secretion only when they were used in combination, but could not surpass the effect of GLP‐1. Further, when pancreatic islets were co‐encapsulated with MSCs within synthetic PEG hydrogel, a two‐fold increase in the stimulation index was measured. Synergistic effects of MSCs and peptides were observed, with a seven‐fold increase in the stimulation index. The results are promising and suggest that simultaneous incorporation of MSCs and ECM‐derived peptides and/or GLP‐1 can improve pancreatic islet function in response to altered glucose levels in the physiological environment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The 1990s rise in Swedish earnings inequality -- persistent or transitory?

This article decomposes the rise in the cross-sectional variance of male annual earnings in Sweden between 1991 and 1999 into its persistent and transitory components. The results show that the persistent component accounts for basically all of the increase in earnings dispersion. This implies that the answer to the 1990s trend reversal in Swedish earnings inequality is to be found in explanations that focus on persistent changes in the labour market, such as changes in the price of skills.
Corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance: Evidence from Korea

This paper studies the empirical relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance in Korea using a sample of 1222 firm-years during 2002—2008. We measure corporate social responsibility by both an equal-weighted CSR index and a stakeholder-weighted CSR index suggested by Akpinar et al. (2008). Corporate financial performance is measured by return on equity, return on assets, and Tobin’s Q. We find a positive and significant relationship between corporate financial performance and the stakeholder-weighted CSR index, but not the equal-weighted CSR index. This finding is robust to alternative model specifications and several additional tests, providing evidence in support of instrumental stakeholder theory.
Memory-induced misperceptions of going concern risk by experienced auditors in a multi-client environment

This study examines whether an audit evaluation of contextually similar evidence pertaining to a second client affects memory-induced perceptions of the initially evaluated client. Prior research suggests that the experienced auditors' use of task-specific knowledge to process contextually similar evidence sets for two clients makes them susceptible to fragile memory associations between the evidence set and its source client. Fragile associations increase the auditors' susceptibility to misattributing evidence to a client potentially resulting in improper audit assessments of the client. Auditors evaluated evidence for two similarly positioned companies with dissimilar operational weaknesses and then provided going concern risk perceptions of the client evaluated first. Risk perceptions related to the threat posed by negative trends that were either strongly or weakly connected with the first client's condition. Strongly connected trends were perceived as less threatening after the evaluation of the second company, while weakly connected trends were perceived as more threatening.
The selection of popular trading strategies

Purpose - – The relative performance of five popular nonzero-investment strategies, including Size, book-to-market ratios, earnings-to-price (E/P) ratios, cash flow-to-price (CF/P) ratios and dividend-to-price ratios, and their corresponding zero-investment strategies (also known as premiums) are first examined altogether for equally weighted (EW) and value-weighted (VW) methods to check whether a certain strategy (or some strategies) could be recommended to portfolio managers as the best (better) strategy (strategies). The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach - – This paper uses the stochastic dominance (SD) approach, a non-parametric test, to investigate the relative performance among various strategies and help investors search for the best or better strategy (strategies). Findings - – The main results show that both the highest E/P and CF/P strategies (and their corresponding premiums) generally produce higher returns than the other three strategies (and their corresponding premiums) through allocating investors’ capital between the risky and risk-free assets for the EW and VW methods, respectively. Research limitations/implications - – This study only examines US stock markets by SD approach, whether the results are consistent with non-US markets still needs further investigation. The findings imply that investors can benefit by investing in the highest E/P or CF/P stocks (or their corresponding premiums) to make more profit or less loss for US stock markets. Practical implications - – First, the SD findings suggest that investors or portfolio managers can allocate their funds between risky and risk-free assets to maximize their profits. Next, the simulation results again prove that the profits of each nonzero-investment or zero-investment strategy for EW portfolios are higher than those of each corresponding strategy for VW portfolios. Finally, the findings imply that portfolio managers or investors can invest in the highest E/P or CF/P stocks (or their corresponding premiums) to make more profit or less loss. Originality/value - – This study first uses an extensive data set (1952-2009) to examine the relative performance of nonzero-investment strategies and their corresponding zero-investment strategies for the five popular indicators altogether for the EW and VW methods with the SD approach for US stock markets. Moreover, the results reveal that the investors or portfolio managers can invest in the highest E/P and/or CF/P portfolios (or their corresponding premiums) to make more profit or less loss.
A SURVEY OF TIME BUDGET PRESSURE AND IRREGULAR AUDITING PRACTICES AMONG NEWLY QUALIFIED UK CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS

The paper reports a postal survey of successful finalists of the exams of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The auditing profession has faced increasing cost pressures arising from competition and economic recession. Firms have striven to increase auditefficiency and reduce chargeable time. It was hypothesized that time budget pressure and other factors might produce irregular short cuts in audit procedures: i.e., that similar behaviour to that reported by Raghunathan (1991) and other studies would be found in the UK. Respondents were asked about the impact of time budget pressures on their work, about irregular auditing practices similar to premature sign off and certain contextual variables. An appreciable incidence of irregular auditing was discovered which was associated, inter alia, with perceptions of time budget pressure, perception of a firm culture of acceptance of irregular short cuts and areas of work which were felt to be unimportant. The implications of the findings for the auditing profession and individual firms are considered together with recommendations for future research.
Business Cycle Synchronization between Euro Area and Central and Eastern European Countries

We analyze the degree of co-movements in real macroeconomic aggregates across selected euro area and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries applying a multi-factor model. Our results suggest that the evolution of the global European factor matches well the narrative of main economic events between 1995 and 2011, capturing among others the recession during the recent global financial and economic crisis. This factor plays a central role in explaining real output growth variability in euro area and is negligible in CEE countries. Furthermore, using Markov switching models and concordance indices, we shed light on an increase in business cycle synchronization, with the degree of concordance between country-specific and European business cycles being high.
The Joint Effect of Macroeconomic Uncertainty, Sociopolitical Instability, and Public Provision on Private Investment

Most studies on private investment focus either on macroeconomic conditions or sociopolitical climate to explain private investment patterns. We go a step further and examine empirically the joint effect of macroeconomic uncertainty, sociopolitical instability and public provision on private investment using data from 37 developing countries between 1970 and 2000. Our results show that macroeconomic instability, macroeconomic uncertainty and socio-political instability jointly have a negative impact on private investment. Our empirical findings enable identification of particular social and political imbalance attributes that deter private investment. Furthermore we establish a detrimental effect of public provision, when measured by public investment, on private investment and a beneficial effect when measured by infrastructure availability. Influential policy implications are then developed, especially in the face of the unprecedented Eurozone crisis in the post war period.
Ranking efficiency for twenty-six emerging stock markets and financial crisis: Evidence from the shannon entropy approach

Abstract In this paper the evolution of a weak-form efficiency for twenty six emerging stock markets is tested. To do this, a modified Shannon entropy and a Symbolic Time Series Analysis are employed over the period September 1997 to November 2007. A regression is performed for time windows with 100 observations and a rolling sample approach. The empirical results show that stock market efficiency changes over time and differs from one market to another and across geographic areas. For example, the Argentinian market is a more efficient market whereas the Tunisian stock market is less efficient. The inefficiency in stock markets is dynamic. Furthermore, a negative relationship was found between the financial crisis and stock market efficiency. The findings of this evolving market efficiency may be attributed to microstructure variables. These results have several implications for stock portfolio hedgers and policy makers.
Financing Affordable Housing Through Compulsory Saving: The Two-Decade Experience of Housing Provident Fund in China

Housing Provident Fund (HPF), a compulsory saving scheme providing self-funded housing credit, is a significant provider of housing finance in several emerging economies. The Chinese HPF program constitutes the largest social housing finance program in the world. Yet, very few studies have examined it. This paper documents the history of China's HPF program, in particular, how it has evolved from a local experiment to a prominent national housing program. It then examines the program's management structure and the role of HPF lending in meeting China's housing finance needs. The paper also compares China's HPF experience with the HPF practices in other countries. Finally, the paper examines the challenges China's HPF program faces today and the efforts to address them. The paper concludes by discussing some of the broader lessons that can be learned from China's HPF experience.
Irreplaceable Legislators? Rethinking Minority Representatives in the New Century

We use state legislator ideology estimates (standardized W-nominate values) to examine whether Latino and African American legislator ideological differences can be explained away by traditional constituency characteristics like partisanship and demographics. We find instead that both Black and Latino legislators are unique “types. ” Our evidence supports the theoretical presumption that there is a minority dimension to legislative voting and that it is uniquely personified by minority officeholders. White, Black, Latino, Democrat, and Republican representatives are all examined for responsiveness to different partisan and racial/ethnic populations. The dataset includes all 50 state legislatures from the 1999–2000 legislative sessions, including information from the U.S. Census, NALEO, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Gerald Wright's Representation in the American Legislature Project, and CQ Press's Almanac of State Legislative Elections.
Effect of total body irradiation on late lung effects: Hidden dangers

Purpose: In our ongoing investigation into the consequences of a radiological terrorism or nuclear dispersion event, we assessed whether a dose range that is believed to be sub-threshold for the development of lung endpoints results in late pathological changes and, secondarily, whether those late changes affect the lung's ability to respond to subsequent challenge. Materials and methods: C57BL/6J mice received total body irradiation (0.5–10 Gy) and were followed for 6–18 months after irradiation. At 12 and 15 months, a subset of mice was exposed to a second challenge (aerosolised lipopolysaccharide [LPS]). Results: Cytokines shown to be upregulated early (hours) following irradiation (interleukin [IL]6, keratinocyte chemoattractant [KC], IL1B, and IL1R2) demonstrated increases in messenger ribose nucleic acid (mRNA) expression at late time points, beginning at nine months. Although persistent, dose-dependent increases in T cell counts were seen, no other overt changes in pathophysiology were observed. Nonetheless, animals that were exposed to a secondary challenge at late time points demonstrated an increased inflammatory cell recruitment and persistence in response relative to controls. Conclusions: We propose that, following doses that elicit little change in pathophysiology, sub-clinical radiation-induced injury increases the lungs' susceptibility to a secondary challenge, possibly through a radiation-induced alteration in the immune defense system.
On primes in arithmetic progression having a prescribed primitive root

Let g∈Z\{−1, 0, 1} and let h be the largest integer such that g is an hth power. Let p be a prime. Put wg(p)=2ϕ(p−1)/(p−1) if (g/p)=−1 (Legendre symbol) and (p−1, h)=1 and wg(p)=0 otherwise, with ϕ Euler's totient. Let a (mod f) be a primitive residue class. Let πg(x; f, a) denote the number of odd primes p⩽x such that p≡a (mod f) and g is a primitive root mod p. It is shown, under the GRH, that -- FORMULA OMITTED -- Thus the function wg(p) behaves as if it were some kind of “probability” that g is a primitive root mod p.