Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heparan Sulfate Analysis from Diabetic Rat Glomeruli*

One of the major complicating factors in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is nephropathy. Several investigators have linked heparan sulfate (HS) alterations in the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) with albuminuria as a marker of abnormal blood filtration and the subsequent progression to renal failure. In this study, we examined the fine structure of HS in the glomerulus and the GBM isolated from the kidneys of rats injected with streptozotocin. Using fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis, we obtained disaccharide composition analyses for HS. In a time course study, we observed that normal rat HS isolated from the GBM becomes more N-sulfated as the glomeruli mature over a period of 8 weeks. Diabetic rats injected with streptozotocin at the beginning of this period showed a reversal of this trend. Using a graded sieve technique, we found that two different sizes of glomeruli could be isolated from the rat kidneys and that there was a significant difference in the HS disaccharide content between these two pools of glomeruli. Only the larger sized glomeruli had less N-sulfation of HS as a result of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. This change in the fine structure of HS was localized to the GBM and was not associated with cell surface HS. We also generated oligosaccharides of HS that portray fine structural alterations in the diabetic rats indicative of a loss of the sulfation of N-acetylglucosamine.
What Determines REIT Returns in Turkey? An Application of Time-Varying Arbitrage Pricing Model in an Emerging REIT Market

This paper investigates the macroeconomic sources of time-varying risk premia in Turkish REIT industry within the arbitrage pricing theory framework. Turkish REIT industry differs substantially from the global REIT market as Turkish REITs do not have to pay out dividends, yet enjoy the exemption from paying corporate taxes, and have highly concentrated ownership structure. These fundamental differences have significant impacts on the performance of REITs compared to other stocks listed on Borsa Istanbul (BIST), especially in terms of the inflationhedging characteristics and time-varying systematic risk behaviour. This article evaluates the Turkish REIT industry by using a time-varying multifactor model, which compares the REIT industry excess returns with various macroeconomic factors, including GDP growth, industrial production growth, inflation risk premium, and stock market risk premium. Our results provide the evidence of time-varying linkages among macroeconomic risks and the conditional first and second moments of excess returns on REITs. We find that among the macroeconomic factors, inflation risk appears to be the major concern in REIT investment. Additionally, Turkish REITs behave more like stocks than real estate. The documented perverse inflation hedges of REITs, the positive correlation between REIT returns and volatility of real economic activity, and the significant influence of ISE equity risk premium on REIT returns can be quoted as the indications of deviation of REITs’ performance from real estate performance. If REITs behave more like stocks than real estate, the diversification benefits of having REITs in a multi-asset portfolio is seriously reduced.
Intellectual capital disclosure: the Greek case

Intellectual capital (IC) shapes the patterns of a new business reality. IC disclosure is a signal of corporate responsiveness to this innovative management direction. This study examined IC reporting behaviour by Greek firms over the period 2008-2010. The extent, focus and explanatory factors of IC reporting policy were tested. The impact of the financial crisis on IC disclosure was also highlighted. A wide range of corporate reports was analysed based on content analysis methodology. According to our evidence, IC reporting significantly decreased during the period of crisis. Voluntary disclosure was shown to be extremely restricted, with relational capital being the most reported IC category. Size, industry and type of report were proved to be IC disclosure determinant variables. Greece constitutes an interesting case of research rendering implications of this study significant for a variety of parties: regulators, managers, investors, analysts, academics and professionals.
Cell contact‐dependent mechanisms specify taste bud pattern during a critical period early in embryonic development

After gastrulation, the pharyngeal endoderm is specified to give rise to taste receptor organs without further signaling from other embryonic tissues. We hypothesized that intercellular signaling might be responsible for the specification of taste buds. To test if and when this signaling was occurring, intercellular contacts were transiently disrupted in cultures of pharyngeal endoderm from axolotl embryos, and the number, size, and distribution of taste buds analyzed. Disruption of cell contacts at progressive time points, from neurula to late tail bud stages, revealed a critical period, during mid–tail bud stages, when disruption of cell contacts resulted in a significant increase in taste bud number and size. The spatial distribution of taste buds was also altered; taste buds were more clustered in explants disrupted during the critical period. These effects were not due to general alterations in mitosis and apoptosis. Rather, at least three aspects of taste bud patterning, i.e., number, size, and distribution, are governed by mechanisms dependent on normal cell contacts during a concise time window. Furthermore, our findings are consistent with specification of taste buds by means of lateral inhibitory signaling, which we hypothesize results from cell contact‐dependent or short‐range diffusible signals. Developmental Dynamics 230:630–642, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Skill mismatches and wages among European university graduates

This article uses comparable international data to examine the extent and wage effects of skill mismatches among European university graduates. The results show that the mismatched earn on average 11.7% less than their well-matched counterparts. This effect, however, cannot be regarded as constant across the conditional earnings distribution: workers with lower unobserved earnings capacity tend to be exposed to greater wage losses when they end up in mismatched jobs.
Gaining skills or just paying the bills? Workplace learning in low-level retail employment

This paper analyses the workplace learning experiences of young male retail employees. Deeming formal education highly unattractive, the pursuit of lifelong learning and continuous development for such people relies on workplace learning. Their experiences, however, over several years and across various retailers painted a grim reality. Sector-level accreditation (at National Vocational Qualification level 2) was characterised as stigmatising and indicative of deficiency to prospective employers. These qualifications, indeed all formal in-house training, were positioned as lacking in quality, inauthentic and an unnecessary cost for employers and government. Effective learning was, instead, experiential and situated, with (limited) expertise cumulatively developed through doing the job. The paper moves beyond valuable, yet well rehearsed, arguments regarding which groups get access to training opportunities and a focus on upskilling those who are least qualified. Instead, this investigation asks whether current workplace learning provision in retail can provide genuine opportunities for advancement and development for ‘moderately qualified’ young people employed in the lower levels of the labour market – a section of society whose learning experiences and needs are often overshadowed by a polarised focus between Not in education, employment or trainings, and those undertaking apprenticeships or HE.
Identifying Organizational Drivers of Internal Audit Effectiveness

This study attempts to understand the organizational drivers of internal audit effectiveness in the light of recent changes in the "mission" of internal auditing and its central role in corporate governance. On the basis of data from 153 Italian companies, our survey shows that the effectiveness of internal auditing is influenced by: (1) the characteristics of the internal audit team, (2) the audit processes and activities, and (3) the organizational links. Internal audit effectiveness increases in particular when the ratio between the number of internal auditors and employees grows, the Chief Audit Executive is affiliated to the Institute of Internal Auditors, the company adopts control risk self-assessment techniques, and the audit committee is involved in the activities of the internal auditors.
A Statistical Comparison of the CAPM to the Fama-French Three Factor Model and the Carhart's Model

The goal of this study is to compare the CAPM to the Fama-French (FF) Three Factor Model and to Carhart‟s extension of the FF Model with regard to (1) statistical goodness of fit, and (2) the quality of prediction. My sample consists of actively managed domestic equity mutual funds and the sample period is April 1986 to March 2006. My results indicate that each of the three regression lines explains about 71% of equity fund returns. Thus, with respect to the statistical goodness of fit, the difference between the three models is not significant. However, with respect to the quality of prediction, the FF Three Factor Model is a remarkable improvement over the CAPM, and the Carhart Model is a significant improvement over the FF Model. I do not find any evidence of harmful collinearity in my analyses.
Information Production by Investment Banks: Evidence from Fairness Opinions

We analyze a direct product of the investment banking process: target firm valuations disclosed in the fairness opinions of negotiated mergers. On average, acquirer advisers exhibit positive valuation errors that are significantly greater than those of target advisers. Top-tier advisers produce more accurate valuations than lower tier advisers, but we find no relation between valuation accuracy and the contingency structure of advisory fees. The stock price reactions to merger announcements and to the public disclosure of target-sought fairness opinions are positively related to the difference between target firm valuations contained in the fairness opinion and the merger offer price. We conclude that investment banks produce information not previously available to market participants through the rendering of target-side fairness opinions.
Constructing health news: possibilities for a civic-oriented journalism

Health is a very prominent news category. However, we know little about the production processes of journalists leading to the health stories we encounter on a daily basis. Such knowledge is crucial for ensuring a vibrant public sphere for health. This article draws on interviews with eight health journalists in New Zealand to document what they consider to constitute a health story, their professional norms and practices, their perceptions of audiences, and the need for increased civic deliberations regarding health. Journalists privilege biomedical stories involving lifestyle and individual responsibility, and have limited frames for presenting stories that involve socio-political concerns. Stories are strongly shaped by journalists' considerations of their target audience, the sources they draw on, their professional norms, and institutional practices. This results in the omission of stories that have relevance for minority and disadvantaged groups and limits the nature of the stories told to ones that reflect the views of the majority. However, journalists are also reflective about these issues and receptive to ways to overcome them. This raises possibilities for health researchers to engage with journalists in order to repoliticise health and promote a more civic-oriented form of health journalism.
Return to work for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and transformed indolent lymphoma undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation

Background Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is the standard treatment for patients with relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) or transformed indolent lymphoma (TIL). The treatment is mainly considered for younger patients still available for the work market. In this study, social outcomes after ASCT in terms of return to work (RTW) are described. Patients and methods Information from national administrative registers was combined with clinical information on patients, who received ASCT for relapse of DLBCL or TIL between 2000 and 2012. A total of 164 patients were followed until RTW, disability or old-age pension, death, or December 31, 2015, whichever came first. A total of 205 patients were followed with disability pension as the event of interest. Cox models were used to determine cause-specific hazards. Results During follow-up, 82 (50%) patients returned to work. The rate of returning to work in the first year following ASCT was decreased for patients being on sick leave at the time of relapse (hazard ratio [HR] 0.3 [0.2;0.5]) and increased for patients aged ≥55 years (HR 1.9 [1.1;3.3]). In all, 56 (27%) patients were granted disability pension. Being on sick leave at the time of relapse was positively associated with receiving a disability pension in the first 2 years after ASCT (HR 3.7 [1.8;7.7]). Conclusion Patients on sick leave at the time of relapse have a poorer prognosis regarding RTW and have a higher rate of disability pension. Furthermore, patients >55 are more likely to RTW compared to younger patients. These results indicate an unmet need for focused social rehabilitation.
Institutional reforms and age-graded labour market inequalities in Europe

This article examines how institutional change affects age-based labour market inequalities in Europe. We focus on the impact of labour regulation and of wage-setting institutions on the male population aged 25–54. Age-graded labour market inequalities within this group of prime-age individuals are hitherto under-researched. We estimate country panel regressions using data from the European Union Labour Force Survey and time-series data on institutional change for the years 1992–2007. The results present evidence that employment protection and the regulation of temporary work affect age-based inequality dynamics, while union strength has positive employment effects on all age-groups.
Sustainable Forest Management Worldwide: A Comparative Assessment of Standards

SUMMARY The number of initiatives aimed at the evaluation of Sustainable Forest Management has risen considerably since the UNCED Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In a large number of countries and regions standards with Principles, Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) have been developed. In many cases, this development took place within the framework of an intergovernmental or international initiative. Sometimes the initiative was taken by national or local organisations. Standards were often developed for the purpose of forest certification. In this research, 164 standards for SFM were collected worldwide and compared using multivariate statistics. The comparison was carried out using a reference standard specially designed for this purpose. It is a generic tool that can be used for any comparative study between the contents of standards. Although a number of typical sustainability elements are present in most standards, differences between standards are substantial. The main cause of variation between standards is the difference between levels of application. Standards developed for the National level are less detailed and contain many elements concerning monitoring aspects to be evaluated at sub-national scale. The more detailed standards for assessment at the Forest Management Unit (FMU) level combine monitoring aspects with a large number of management aspects. These different conditions between FMU and National/Sub-National Level and, therefore, the need for level-specific Criteria and Indicators are well known and accepted by the forestry profession. A second and less known cause of variation between standards is the difference in geographical origin. The observed geographical differences between standards can be explained by biophysical and socio-economic differences between countries and regions. Standards from developing countries in the South most often emphasise the social and economic aspects of sustainability, while they give little attention to the need for research-based information. Standards from industrialised countries in the North on the other hand, strongly emphasise the ecological forest functions and the need for research-based information. Harmonisation among standards is only recommended as far as differences are caused by a lack of capacity or by socio-economic inequity. These deficiencies should be eliminated through international cooperation in order to obtain a more harmonised standard of SFM throughout the world.
An Empirical Comparison of Option Pricing Models in Hedging Exotic Options

"This paper examines the empirical performance of various option-pricing models in hedging exotic options, such as barrier options and compound options. A practical and relevant testing approach is adopted to capture the essence of model risk in option pricing and hedging. Our results indicate that the exotic feature of the option under consideration has a great impact on the relative performance of different option-pricing models. In addition, for any given model, the more "exotic" the option, the poorer the hedging effectiveness. " Copyright (c) 2009 Financial Management Association International.
Aggregate Price Stickiness

We accomplish two tasks to characterize aggregate price stickiness in this paper. First, we endogenize beta , the fraction of the firms keeping their price unchanged following a money supply shock in the near-rationality model (Akerlof and Yellen, 1985) by introducing a distribution of price-adjustment barriers among the firms into the near-rationality model. Second, as ? can be considered an indicator of aggregate price stickiness by its definition, the endogenized ? enables us to characterize aggregate price stickiness by studying its properties. We show that: (1) . ; (2). ; and (3) the possibility of multiple equilibrium values of ? , where . is the fraction change in money supply.
Corporate social responsibility: finding the middle ground

Purpose - This study seeks to examine CSR theorists' criteria from the corporate executive's perspective. It aims to find out how corporate executives perceive CSR and how they would like to be perceived as CSR implementers. Design/methodology/approach - The study uses Delphi research and data analysis to build up three sets of questionnaires. It was only the first set where the author introduced his questions but the other two sets were created from the executives' answers in previous stage. It is then all about executives' perception; no one has put words in their mouths. The study compares KLD (the famous research and analytics company) criteria which are used to celebrate annually the 100 best corporate citizens list with the participating executives' criteria. Findings - The study found that executives lean more towards self-regulation and self-determination. Panelists disregarded any suggestion of regulating executives' salary/compensation as CSR criteria. They reject CSR criteria as a measure of good, bad, or ugly performance. They focus more on non-profit organizations and their charitable contributions. However, the study was able to identify great agreement in the area of transparency, ethical practices, consumer rights, and diversity. Research limitations/implications - The study picked up its sample of executives from the high tech industry, mainly in Silicon Valley, California. The panelists did not represent a random and mixed sample of executives from different industries. Originality/value - The study might be the first Delphi research conducted online to suit time-constrained, busy panelists who know how to use the internet effectively.
A High Fat Diet during Adolescence in Male Rats Negatively Programs Reproductive and Metabolic Function Which Is Partially Ameliorated by Exercise

An interaction between obesity, impaired glucose metabolism and sperm function in adults has been observed but it is not known whether exposure to a diet high in fat during the peri-pubertal period can have longstanding programmed effects on reproductive function and gonadal structure. This study examined metabolic and reproductive function in obese rats programmed by exposure to a high fat (HF) diet during adolescence. The effect of physical training (Ex) in ameliorating this phenotype was also assessed. Thirty-day-old male Wistar rats were fed a HF diet (35% lard w/w) for 30 days then subsequently fed a normal fat diet (NF) for a 40-day recovery period. Control animals were fed a NF diet throughout life. At 70 days of life, animals started a low frequency moderate exercise training that lasted 30 days. Control animals remained sedentary (Se). At 100 days of life, biometric, metabolic and reproductive parameters were evaluated. Animals exposed to HF diet showed greater body weight, glucose intolerance, increased fat tissue deposition, reduced VO2max and reduced energy expenditure. Consumption of the HF diet led to an increase in the number of abnormal seminiferous tubule and a reduction in seminiferous epithelium height and seminiferous tubular diameter, which was reversed by moderate exercise. Compared with the NF-Se group, a high fat diet decreased the number of seminiferous tubules in stages VII-VIII and the NF-Ex group showed an increase in stages XI-XIII. HF-Se and NF-Ex animals showed a decreased number of spermatozoa in the cauda epididymis compared with animals from the NF-Se group. Animals exposed to both treatments (HF and Ex) were similar to all the other groups, thus these alterations induced by HF or Ex alone were partially prevented. Physical training reduced fat pad deposition and restored altered reproductive parameters. HF diet consumption during the peri-pubertal period induces long-term changes on metabolism and the reproductive system, but moderate and low frequency physical training is able to recover adipose tissue deposition and reproductive system alterations induced by high fat diet. This study highlights the importance of a balanced diet and continued physical activity during adolescence, with regard to metabolic and reproductive health.
The Preparation of Teacher Candidates for K-12 Online Learning Environments: A Case Study

T he purpose of this study was to determine how teacher education programs may better prepare teacher candidates to teach in K-12 online learning environments. The primary research question addressed was: What specific knowledge, skills, and dispositions should teacher education programs include in their curriculum to better prepare teacher candidates to teach in K-12 online learning environments? To answer this question, the researcher employed a qualitative case study methodological approach in which the study’s participant was observed for three months as he taught multiple sixth grade mathematics classes in a fully online learning environment. Findings from this study indicate that teacher education programs should offer field experiences in K-12 online learning environments and that teacher educators must learn, develop, and model the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions relevant to K-12 online learning environments.