Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence of the duration-dependence from the stock markets in the Pacific Rim economies

This article investigates the duration-dependent feature of five Pacific Rim economies. The duration-dependent Markov Switching model is employed to achieve this objective. The Savage–Dickey density ratio is also computed in support of the duration-dependent Markov switching model. The possible bull and bear market dates for each stock market are also identified by the posterior probability from the empirical model. It is unambiguous that Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong are all characterized by duration-dependence in a bear market but no duration-dependence in a bull market. In the case of Taiwan and Singapore, the duration-dependence feature holds for both the bear and bull markets.
Schistosoma mansoni: the structure and elemental composition of pre-acetabular penetration gland cell secretion in pre-emergent cercariae

SUMMARY The structure and elemental composition of the secretory products of the pre-acetabular penetration gland cells of pre-emergent cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni have been investigated at an ultrastructural level using X-ray probe microanalysis. The secretion contains 2 types of bodies, one homogeneous and one heterogeneous with electron-lucent areas. Using a variety of fixation and sectioning techniques it has been shown that the apparent electron density of the homogeneous bodies (Type B) is the result of interaction with osmium tetroxide and stain. The small electron-lucent areas of the other type of secretory body (Type A) represent regions where granules have been leached out by processing media. X-ray analysis of cercariae still within sporocysts has indicated that these granules are very rich in calcium, and it is suggested that the calcium is absorbed by the developing cercariae through the sporocyst wall from the molluscan haemolymph.
Penetration of Cefazolin, Cephaloridine, and Cefamandole into Interstitial Fluid in Rabbits

We compared the penetration of three cephalosporins into interstitial fluid. Interstitial fluid was obtained in rabbits from Silastic tissue cages. Cefazolin, cephaloridine, and cefamandole were administered by the intramuscular route (30 mg/kg per injection). Peak blood levels and interstitial concentrations were studied after a single injection. Interstitial levels were also compared in a three-injection study (one injection every 12 h) and in a cumulative effect study (six injections), in which the interval between injections was established for each drug on the basis of its common therapeutic use. After a single injection, cephaloridine activity was detected more rapidly and attained higher levels than the other two drugs within the first 4 h. However, 2 h after the third injection, cefazolin levels in tissue fluid were higher than with cephaloridine. Cefamandole consistently gave the lowest interstitial levels. With all three drugs, detectable concentrations were present in interstitial fluid at a time when no detectable antibiotic was found in serum. In the six-injection study, the interstitial levels obtained with cefazolin were significantly higher than those observed with the other drugs. Our data suggest that cefazolin is a drug of choice due to its high extravascular levels.
The Relevance of Family Characteristics to Individual Fund Flows

This paper examines the relevance of fund specific and family variables in the determination of money flows to Australian investment funds. The existing literature establishes the relevance of past period returns to individual fund flows. Our results show that family characteristics are also relevant to flows. Investors in individual funds are sensitive to family size, family age and product proliferation. We also find some evidence that the top performing funds within a family receive greater flows. The reported relations show that investors recognise that a fund is an embedded member of the family, where fund-level and family-strategies are important to the investment decision.
Parchment and Politics: The Positive Puzzle of Constitutional Commitment

Constitutionalism is often analogized to Ulysses binding himself to the mast in order to resist the fatal call of the Sirens. But what is the equivalent of Ulysses’s ropes that might enable a political community to bind itself to constitutional rules? The positive puzzle of constitutionalism lies in explaining the willingness and ability of powerful political actors to make sustainable commitments to abiding by and upholding constitutional rules even when these rules stand in the way of their immediate interests. Why, for example, would a popular President choose to abide by constitutional limitations on conducting what he and the majority of the country that supports him believe to be a vitally necessary war to preserve the Union or to fight terrorism; to save the country from the Great Depression or the collapse of the financial system? The puzzle generalizes to how intertemporal political commitments of any sort are possible. We might wonder, along similar lines, how a political community can credibly and durably commit itself to repaying its debts, refusing to bail out financially reckless banks, or refraining from war. A standard approach to answering such questions in both legal and political contexts is to invoke stable “institutions” of various kinds as reliable commitment mechanisms. Courts can enforce constitutional norms. Structural arrangements like federalism, separation of powers, democracy, and delegation can raise the cost of political change or stack the deck in favor of particular outcomes. And of course constitutions are commonly cast as somehow self-enforcing guarantors of political commitments. But this explanatory approach just pushes the puzzle back to how these institutions become impervious to socio-political revision or override. Why should we expect institutional commitment devices to be any more stable than the first-order commitments they are supposed to facilitate? Understanding how constitutions and other institutions can effectively constrain politics remains a fundamentally important theoretical challenge in law and the social sciences. This article demonstrates the generality of that challenge and explores its implications for constitutional law and theory. The article also attempts to make progress in explaining how, and in what contexts, successful legal and political commitment may be possible by consolidating a set of mechanisms through which legal and political arrangements - prominently including systems of constitutional law, the constitutional structure of government, and judicial review - can become entrenched against opposition and change.
Transient Poverty in Postreform Rural China

In a new, relatively high-quality, panel-data set on household consumptions for postreform rural China we find that consumption variability accounts for a large share of observed poverty and is likely to be a severe constraint on efforts to reach the long-term poor. Half of the mean squared poverty gap and over a third of the mean poverty gap is transient, in that it is directly attributable to year-to-year fluctuations in consumption. There is enough transient poverty to treble the cost of eliminating chronic poverty when targeting transfers according to current consumptions and to tilt the balance in favor of untargeted transfers. Anti-poverty policies in China may have to give greater emphasis to the problem of transient poverty.J. Comp. Econom. , June 1998,26(2), pp. 338–357. World Bank Washington, DC.
How Do Institutions Matter to Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions by Emerging Economy Multinationals in Developed Countries

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs) from emerging economies (EEs) to developed economies (DEs) have recently experienced a phenomenal growth. CBMA is a fast and direct way to acquire advanced strategic assets from DEs by multinational enterprises from EEs (EMNEs) in order to improve their competitive advantages. What factors explain this strategic decision and what is the performance consequence? Using the institution-based view (IBV) as a theoretical lens, this thesis consists of three empirical research studies. The first one analyses the institutional distance (ID) between the home and the host countries influencing EMNEs’ CBMAs in the OECD countries. Based on the comprehensive eight dimensions of ID framework developed by Berry et al. (2010), this study develops various hypotheses of positive and negative relationships between institutional distance and EMNEs’ CBMAs in the OECD countries. Empirical results confirm the impact of political, economic, knowledge, global-connectedness, administrative and cultural distance. Financial, demographic and geographic distances are insignificant. The second study examines the role of political institutions in the host and home countries of EMNEs’ CBMAs, the two groups of variables that are often treated separately in the existing literature. Hypotheses are developed based on the concepts of six political institutions by Kaufmann et al. (1999). Empirical results show that in general host country political institutions positively affect EMNEs’ CBMAs in the OECD countries while home country political institutions play a negative role. Not all political institutional factors are of equal importance. Firms are concerned about government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and corruption of host countries, and political stability and lack of violence, regulatory quality, rule of law and corruption of home countries. The third project looks into the acquired firm performance. Using accounting measures for firm performance, this empirical study analyses the impact of ID on acquired firm performance. Results suggest that formal institutional distance (political, economic and administrative) positively affect acquired firm performance, while informal institutional distance (cultural and knowledge) negatively affect acquired firm performance.
Can Neuroimaging Markers of Vascular Pathology Explain Cognitive Performance in Adults With Sickle Cell Anemia? A review of the Literature

Abstract Adults with homozygous sickle cell anemia have, on average, lower cognitive function than unaffected controls. The mechanisms underlying cognitive deterioration in this population are poorly understood, but cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is likely to be implicated. We conducted a systematic review using the Prisma Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines of articles that included both measures of cognitive function and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) neuroimaging markers of small vessel disease. While all five studies we identified reported small vessel disease by MRI, only two of them found a significant relationship between structural changes and cognitive performance. Differences in methodologies and small sample sizes likely accounted for the discrepancies between the studies. We conclude that while MRI is a valuable tool to identify markers of CSVD in this population, larger studies are needed to definitely establish a link between MRI-detectable abnormalities and cognitive function in sickle cell anemia.
DOCUMENTOS DE ECONOMÍA Y FINANZAS INTERNACIONALES Working Papers on International Economics and Finance

International trade can foster economic development. This paper examines the link between immigration from developing countries to OECD countries and their bilateral trade; it also explores some possible mechanism behind this link. It uses a gravity equation for trade augmented by an immigrant stock variable and a set of control variables. The immigrants’ variable enters the estimated equation in different ways depending on immigrants’ relevant characteristics both individual and non individual-specific. Results show that in developing countries there is a positive link between immigration and both exports and imports. We find evidence for the trade transaction cost channel but not for the preference one. We identify the social or ethnic network effect as the mechanism behind this link since immigrants related to business activities are the ones who have a positive effect on bilateral trade.
Does Inflation in China Affect the United States and Japan?

With China's share in global trade increasing rapidly, some argued in 2002-2003 that China was exporting deflation to other countries as it was dumping cheap goods in mature markets. Later, others argued that China was sucking in commodities and thus causing sharp increases in global prices. The theoretical literature so far has provided mixed conclusions regarding the strength of international transmission of inflation. This paper uses a number of econometric techniques to assess the extent of the link between inflation rates between China and the United States and Japan. It finds only limited empirical evidence at the aggregate level for consumer price inflation in China leading to price changes in the United States and Japan. However, it finds some evidence that inflation in the United States has an impact on Chinese inflation, consistent with the literature that argues that inflation is propagated from the reserve currency economy to other economies. In either case, the impact is short lived. At a more disaggregate level, there appears to be stronger sector-specific linkages between prices in China and in the United States and Japan, both for food and at the household level for manufactured goods.
From reason-giving to collective action: Argument-based learning and European integration

The aim of this article is to contribute to the further development of deliberative theory—to make it more applicable to research on EU integration—by establishing alternative and more concise micro-mechanisms to those of the rationalist bargaining perspectives. It is suggested that the micro-mechanism through which deliberation has an effect on outcomes is what is termed argument-based learning, which means that an actor accepts the validity of a presented argument so that (s)he acts upon it. Moreover, the article differentiates between three types of argument-based learning considered relevant in the EU context. On this basis, it suggests a two-step analytical approach for studies of EU decision-making processes. In trying out the empirical relevance of the framework, it is applied to a case where one would not expect agreements on common EU policies to have been reached due to argument-based learning, namely EU coordination towards the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC). The framework proved helpful in accounting for agreements that are puzzling from a rationalist perspective.
The historical and social context of the introduction of double entry bookkeeping to Japan

This paper examines the historical and social circumstances surrounding the introduction of Western-style double entry bookkeeping to Japan and the related introduction of corporate reporting regulation. Both these events occurred during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and were a direct result of the enormous changes that took place in Japan's economic, political and legal systems at that time. The paper also reviews literature which demonstrates that there existed a sophisticated and logically principled system of double-classification bookkeeping in Japan well prior to the introduction of Western-style bookkeeping, and draws conclusions about the perceived importance of financial reporting for internal management and external user purposes in the development of accounting in Japan.
Notice of RetractionThe Protein Network About Oscillatory Protein Expression of p53-Mdm2-p14/19ARF Feedback Loop

We propose a dynamical model to study the dynamical mechanism of the negative feedback loop composed of p53 and Mdm2 proteins regulated by p14/19ARF. The different oscillatory behaviors for the activities of p53 and Mdm2 proteins regulated by p14/19ARF in individual of cells are described in our dynamical model. The results help us build a basal network about oscillatory behaviors between p53, Mdm2 and P14/19ARF. The dynamical model on p53-Mdm2 feedback loop regulated by p14/19ARF and its numerical results will help us understand the oscillatory behavior of p53, Mdm2 and P14/19ARF more deeply and rationally. It is also give a good model to study the relations among the network of different protein within cell.
Testing purchasing power parity hypothesis for transition economies

This study tests the PPP hypothesis for transition economies by using a panel approach. The results show that PPP holds for transition economies suggesting a half-life convergence of about one year. This study also compares the convergence rates for ‘less open’ and ‘more open’ transition countries. It is found that ‘more open’ transition economies converge faster than ‘less open’ transition economies.
Do Public Colleges in Developing Countries Provide Better Education than Private ones? Evidence from General Education Sector in India

Public college graduates in many developing countries outperform graduates of private ones on the college exit exams. This has often been attributed to the cutting edge education provided in public colleges. However, public colleges are highly subsidized, suggesting that the private-public education outcome gap might reflect the pre-determined quality of the students who sort into public colleges rather than the causal impact of the public tertiary education on students' outcomes. We evaluate the impact of public colleges using a newly assembled unique data set that links admission data with the educational outcomes on a set of common exit exams in India. Admission to general education public colleges is strictly based on the results of the Senior Secondary School examinations. We exploit this feature in a Regression Discontinuity Design, and find that the public colleges have no added value in the neighborhood of the admission cut off scores.
COMPETITIVE GRANTS PROGRAM Final Report An Investigation into the Relationship between Household Welfare and Social Capital in Eastern Uganda

This paper studies the relationship between social capital and household welfare. Social capital is taken to mean, very simply, 'durable social networks'. The relationship is investigated using survey work conducted in two villages in eastern Uganda. The surveys gathered information on the quality and extent of people’s participation in local organizations, as well as household welfare. To organize the analysis of the data the paper utilizes econometric tools designed for investigating the relationship between dimensions of organizational social capital and household welfare. At the same time, the paper recognizes some of the limitations inherent in relying on econometric work to analyze this relationship. As such, the econometric analysis is limited in examining only social capital as expressed through household participation in village level organizations. Our results show that "organizational social capital", as we have termed it, has only a small effect on household welfare. That said, we also draw on anthropological work conducted in the two survey villages, and from ethnographic material we argue that social capital, as expressed in less institutionalized social networks, has a significant affect on household welfare. In others words, it is the social capital that resides in such networks as personalized relationships, peer groups, or brokerage positions between development projects and the village that has a strongly determinate effect on household. Organizational social capital, which is the type of social capital 'captured' in village level survey work, does not help us explain the most significant part of the relationship social capital and household welfare.
Teachers implementing entrepreneurship education: classroom practices

Purpose – This study aims to highlight the entrepreneurship education practices teachers use in their work. Another target is to analyze how these practices differ based on a number of background factors.Design/methodology/approach – This article presents a quantitative analysis of 521 teachers and other entrepreneurship education actors. The paper first examines the overall picture of entrepreneurship education practices. Then, after a factor analysis, the paper builds new sum measures of entrepreneurship education practices. Finally, the paper studies the teachers’ background information to further analyze the entrepreneurship education practices.Findings – The findings provide information on which methods appear to be used the most frequently in basic and upper secondary education, and how these practices vary between different school levels. The results also indicate that the perception teachers have of their own entrepreneurship education skills is closely connected to the implementation of entrepren.
The Reward for Risk in the Labor Market: Evidence from the United Kingdom and a Reconciliation with Other Studies

This is the famous quotation from the Wealth of Nations according to which workers employed in undesirable jobs in competitive labor markets should be paid extra to compensate them for taking such jobs. One obvious nonpecuniary disadvantage of some jobs is that they carry an above-average risk of death or serious injury, and the theory predicts that earnings should be higher than in otherwise comparable jobs with lower risks.1 The main counterargument to this theory is that nowadays, noncompetitive forces dominate labor markets, so that one would be
Rating Through-the-Cycle: What Does the Concept Imply for Rating Stability and Accuracy?

Credit rating agencies face a difficult trade-off between delivering both accurate and stable ratings. In particular, its users have consistently expressed a preference for rating stability, driven by the transactions costs induced by trading when ratings change frequently. Rating agencies generally assign ratings on a through-the-cycle basis whereas banks' internal valuations are often based on a point-in-time performance, that is they are related to the current value of the rated entity's or instrument's underlying assets. This paper compares the two approaches and assesses their impact on rating stability and accuracy. We find that while through-the-cycle ratings are initially more stable, they are prone to rating cliff effects and also suffer from inferior performance in predicting future defaults. This is because they are typically smooth and delay rating changes. Using a through-the-crisis methodology that uses a more stringent stress test goes halfway toward mitigating cliff effects, but is still prone to discretionary rating change delays.
Exploring the Use of Innovation Performance Measurement to Build Innovation Capability in a Medical Device Company

In order to increase their innovation capability, many organizations make the effort to actively change their R&D working practices. In parallel, measurement is an important issue with regard to managing innovation. In this paper, innovation management and measurement theory are combined with empirical investigations of experiences of using measurement as a support to the development of innovation capability in practice. The paper reports results from analysis of measurement data and a semi-structured interview study, encompassing 19 interviews with managers and engineers involved in the current change activities of the case company. The study reveals that various innovation measurement mechanisms are used in different departments in the R&D organization, reflecting the diverse views of what constitutes innovation that dominate in each group, as well as the group's level of involvement in the on-going building of innovation capability – from heavily involved (innovation leaders) to attentiveness from a distance (innovation laggards and progress evaluators). This, together with challenges related to identifying relevant metrics to support both incremental and radical innovation and managing existing reward and goal-setting systems, is seen to have implications on the capability development in the organization requiring attention to how innovation measurement is designed, implemented and used in practice.