Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial stability, new macro prudential arrangements and shadow banking: regulatory arbitrage and stringent Basel III regulations

Despite Basel III’s efforts to address capital and liquidity requirements, will the risks linked to regulatory arbitrage increase as a result of Basel III’s more stringent capital and liquidity rules? As well as Basel III reforms which are geared towards greater facilitation of financial stability on a macro prudential basis, further efforts and initiatives aimed at mitigating systemic risks – hence fostering financial stability, have been promulgated through the establishment of the De Larosiere Group, the European Systemic Risk Board, and a working group comprising of “international standard setters and authorities responsible for the translation of G20 commitments into standards. ” This paper aims to investigate the impact of Basel III on shadow banking and its facilitation of regulatory arbitrage as well as consider the response of various jurisdictions and standard setting bodies to aims and initiatives aimed at improving their macro prudential frameworks. Furthermore, it will also aim to illustrate why immense work is still required at European level – as regards efforts to address systemic risks on a macro prudential basis. This being the case even though significant efforts and steps have been taken to address the macro prudential framework. In so doing, the paper will also attempt to address how coordination within the macro prudential framework – as well as between micro and macro prudential supervision could be enhanced.
Strategic Decision-Making in High Velocity Environments: A Theory Revisited and a Test

Excerpt] A decade ago, Eisenhardt (1989) proposed a model of strategic decision-making speed for firms facing high-velocity environments. This theory, while important at the time, has become even more relevant to the strategy-making bodies of firms in the entrepreneurial millennium. The model differed in important ways from much of the existing literature on decision-making speed (Frederickson and Mitchell, 1984; Janis, 1982; Mintzberg, et al., 1976; Nutt, 1976). Eisenhardt's ideas were based on a series of inductive case studies of eight firms competing in the fast-paced micro-chip industry. As such, it was an important theory-building effort in a central area of strategy process, strategic decision-making. To date, however, there have been no attempts to comprehensively test the model with a larger sample of firms. The changes the economy is experiencing in this new millennium are astounding. In short, the hypercompetitive forces faced a decade ago by micro-chip makers have become pervasive throughout many of our top industries (D'Aveni, 1994; Grimm and Smith, 1997). Thus, the prescriptions of Eisenhardt's model would appear to be critical for today's firms as they seek entrepreneurial approaches to gaining competitive advantage. Top management teams (TMTs) capable of making rapid decisions can enable their firms to be the entrepreneurial first movers in their respective segments. To our knowledge, however, there has been only one attempt to replicate Eisenhardt's preliminary findings. Judge and Miller (1991) tested a portion of the model on a small sample (n = 32) of firms in three industries. The research tested two of the five "tactics" mentioned by Eisenhardt, did not incorporate the intervening processes, and produced mixed results. Thus, there have been no successful attempts to test the entire model on a large cross-section of firms. This is due in part to the difficulty researchers face in gaining access to a large sample of top executives, especially those facing fastpaced environments. This research tests Eisenhardt's model on a sample of 66 high technology firms competing in the IT, telecommunications, and engineering services industries.
A Mutation on Influenza C Virus M1 Protein Affects Virion Morphology by Altering the Membrane Affinity of the Protein

ABSTRACT Reverse genetics has been documented for influenza A, B, and Thogoto viruses belonging to the family Orthomyxoviridae. We report here the reverse genetics of influenza C virus, another member of this family. The seven viral RNA (vRNA) segments of C/Ann Arbor/1/50 were expressed in 293T cells from cloned cDNAs, together with nine influenza C virus proteins. At 48 h posttransfection, the infectious titer of the culture supernatant was determined to be 2.51 × 103 50% egg infectious doses/ml, which is lower than the number of influenza C virus-like particles (VLPs) (106/ml) generated using the same system. By generating influenza C VLPs containing a given vRNA segment, we showed that each of the vRNA segments was similarly synthesized in the plasmid-transfected cells but that some segments were less efficiently incorporated into the VLPs. This finding leads us to speculate that the differences in incorporation efficiency into VLPs between segments might be a reason for the inefficient production of infectious viruses. Second, we generated a mutant recombinant virus, rMG96A, which possesses an Ala→Thr mutation at residue 24 of the M1 protein, a substitution demonstrated to be involved in the morphology (filamentous or spherical) of the influenza C VLPs. As expected, rMG96A exhibited a spherical morphology, whereas recombinant wild-type of C/Ann Arbor/1/50, rWT, exhibited a mainly filamentous morphology. Membrane flotation analysis of the cells infected with rWT or rMG96A revealed a difference in the ratio of membrane-associated M1 proteins, suggesting that the affinity of M1 protein to the cell membrane is a determinant for virion morphology.
Value-added Timber Processing in 21st Century Russia: An Economic Analysis of Forest Sector Policies

Value-added Timber Processing in 21 Century Russia: An Economic Analysis of Forest Sector Policies John C. Simeone Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Judith Thornton Department of Economics Beginning in 2007, the Russian government implemented a series of policies, including export tariffs on roundwood, in order to develop a more competitive timber-processing sector and increase the production and export of value-added forest products. This thesis is a policy analysis of Russia’s 2007 initiatives for its forest sector—principally export taxes on raw, unprocessed logs (roundwood) and subsidies for investment in value-added processing infrastructure—which shows that Russia, at least in the short-run between 2007 and 2011, is achieving its stated goal of transitioning its forest sector away from a raw-materials export model of development. Russia’s continued progress in this regard depends on the efficiency of policies and the ability of federal and regional regulators to foresee changes to incentives that these policies directly or indirectly create.
Detection of human disease conditions by single-cell morpho-rheological phenotyping of whole blood

Blood is arguably the most important bodily fluid and its analysis provides crucial health status information. A first routine measure to narrow down diagnosis in clinical practice is the differential blood count, determining the frequency of all major blood cells. What is lacking to advance initial blood diagnostics is an unbiased and quick functional assessment of blood that can narrow down the diagnosis and generate specific hypotheses. To address this need, we introduce the continuous, cell-by-cell morpho-rheological (MORE) analysis of whole blood, without labeling, enrichment or separation, at rates of 1,000 cells/sec. In a drop of blood we can identify all major blood cells and characterize their pathological changes in several disease conditions in vitro and in patient samples. This approach takes previous results of mechanical studies on specifically isolated blood cells to the level of application directly in whole blood and adds a functional dimension to conventional blood analysis.
Group IV Cytosolic Phospholipase A2 Binds with High Affinity and Specificity to Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-Bisphosphate Resulting in Dramatic Increases in Activity*

The group IV cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) exhibits a potent and specific increase in affinity for lipid surfaces containing phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2) at physiologically relevant concentrations. Specifically, the presence of 1 mol % PtdIns(4,5)P2 in phosphatidylcholine vesicles results in a 20-fold increase in the binding affinity of cPLA2. This increased affinity is accompanied by an increase in substrate hydrolysis of a similar magnitude. The binding studies and kinetic analysis indicate that PtdIns(4,5)P2 binds to cPLA2 in a 1:1 stoichiometry. The magnitude of the effect of PtdIns(4,5)P2 is unique among anionic phospholipids and larger than that for other polyphosphate phosphatidylinositols. The effect of PtdIns(4,5)P2 on the activity of cPLA2 is at least an order of magnitude larger than the concomitant changes in the fraction of the enzyme associated with lipid membranes. Striking parallels between the interaction of cPLA2 with PtdIns(4,5)P2 and the interaction of the pleckstrin homology domain of phospholipase Cδ1 with PtdIns(4,5)2 combined with sequence analysis of cPLA2 lead us to propose the existence and location of a pleckstrin homology domain in cPLA2. We further show that the very nature of the interaction of proteins such as cPLA2 with multiple ligands incorporated into membranes follows a specific model which necessitates the use of an experimental methodology suitable for a membrane interface to allow for a meaningful analysis of the data.
Predicting County Level Cost Differences for Treating Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

This paper aims to predict county-level costs for treating Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and understand which features have the most impact in this prediction. Using datasets derived from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we ran a Chi-squared test to find the optimal feature set. Employing various binary and multiclass classification algorithms, including logistic regression, SVMs, and Naïve Bayes, we try to predict COPD cost percentage differences over a single year and a multiple year time span. We find that logistic regression, support vector machines (SVC), AdaBoost, and Naïve Bayes perform the best, with accuracies of 60% (singleyear) and 57% (multi-year) for binary classification, and 65% (single-year) and 57% (multi-year) for multiclass classification.
NK cells gain higher IFN‐γ competence during terminal differentiation

NK cells are the main cells of the innate immune system that produce IFN‐γ, and they express this cytokine at early stages of maturation in response to cytokine stimulation. Conversely, acquisition of IFN‐γ‐competence in CD4+ T helper cells requires a differentiation process from naïve toward type 1 (Th1) cells, which is associated with epigenetic remodeling at the IFNG locus. In the present study, we show that the ability of NK cells to produce IFN‐γ in response to activating receptor (actR) engagement is gradually acquired during terminal differentiation and is accompanied by progressively higher NF‐κB activation in response to actR triggering. Moreover, during the differentiation process NK cells gradually display increasing expression of IFNG and TBX21 (encoding T‐bet) transcripts and demethylation at the IFNG promoter. This study provides new insights in the molecular mechanisms underlying NK‐cell ability to express IFN‐γ upon actR engagement. Thus, we propose that in order to efficiently produce IFN‐γ in response to infected or transformed cells, NK cells gain Th1‐like features, such as higher IFN‐γ competence and epigenetic remodeling of the IFNG promoter, during their terminal differentiation.
Tamoxifen and its active metabolites inhibit dopamine transporter function independently of the estrogen receptors

As one of the primary mechanisms by which dopamine signaling is regulated, the dopamine transporter (DAT) is an attractive pharmacological target for the treatment of diseases based in dopaminergic dysfunction. In this work we demonstrate for the first time that the commonly prescribed breast cancer therapeutic tamoxifen and its major metabolites, 4‐hydroxytamoxifen and endoxifen, inhibit DAT function. Tamoxifen inhibits [3H]dopamine uptake into human DAT (hDAT)‐N2A cells via an uncompetitive or mixed mechanism. Endoxifen, an active metabolite of tamoxifen, asymmetrically inhibits DAT function in hDAT‐N2A cells, showing a preference for the inhibition of amphetamine‐stimulated dopamine efflux as compared to dopamine uptake. Importantly, we demonstrate that the effects of tamoxifen and its metabolites on the DAT occur independently of its activity as selective estrogen receptor modulators. This work suggests that tamoxifen is inhibiting DAT function through a previously unidentified mechanism.
Perception of Customers towards Responsiveness of Bancassurance Channel: An Empirical Study in Assam

Bancassurance has evolved as a strong distribution channel in India. Bancassurance means that the insurance company and the bank come together to offer insurance products from the counter of the banks to the bank’s customer. The present study attempts to analyze customers’ perception regarding responsiveness of bancassurance channel in providing insurance related services. The study also tries to find out impact of various demographic variables on customers’ perception regarding responsiveness of bancassurance channel. The study is based on the primary data collected from the customers buying life insurance policies of SBI Life Insurance Company Limited through State Bank of India in Guwahati city of Assam. The data is collected using structured questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha is used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Other statistical tools like Mean, Standard Deviation, and Crammer V test are used to arrive at suitable conclusion. The study finds that customers consider bancassurance channel having high responsiveness in providing insurance service. It is also found in the study that among the demographic variables considered age, marital status, family size and education of customers have significant impact on their perception regarding responsiveness of bancassurance channel.
Value premium in international REITs

We find evidence of a value premium of 12.7 per cent per annum for international developed REITs over the period Q2-1993-Q2-2013. REITs with a high book value compared to their market value (in the case of REITs book value is approximately equal to Net Asset Value (NAV)) perform significantly better than REITs with a low book to market multiple. Even after controlling for risk factors in the single factor CAPM model or the Fama French three factor model, the value strategy provides significant alpha. This suggests value premium is the result of naive extrapolation of past performance by real estate investors rather than a commensurate reward for risk. For real estate practitioners, the results provide the basis for the formulation and implementation of a viable indirect global investment strategy.
Perceptions of Singaporean Internal Audit Customers Regarding the Role and Effectiveness of Internal Audit

In recent times, the “dominant paradigm” of internal auditing as attest function has been largely supplanted by the “business partner” model. We interview a purposeful sample of Singaporean senior, middle and junior managers to assess their perceptions about both the role and effectiveness of internal audit. We utilized structured interviews with 83 Singaporean senior, middle and junior managers who are internal audit customers from 25 organizations. Unlike in Saudi Arabia (Al-Twaijry et al., 2003), the traditional attest function of classical internal auditing seems to have been largely supplanted as the dominant paradigm for internal auditing in Singapore. In addition, our results suggest that both Singaporean senior and junior managers appreciate internal auditors that serve in the business partner role. By contrast, mid-level managers often regard internal auditing activities negatively and in terms of “watchdog” activities. This paper further expands and develops the literature on the role and effectiveness of internal auditing from the perspective of internal audit customers. Senior, middle and junior managers are important groups of customers. Our theoretical framework utilizing Marxist
AIFRS - A Practitioner's Viewpoint

This paper addresses a range of contemporary financial reporting issues from a practitioner's viewpoint. Rules relating to the accounting and reporting for goodwill and its impairment are subjected to a forensic review, and found wanting. In particular, the concern is expressed that the implementation of AIFRS rules for accounting for goodwill and identifiable intangibles will yield potentially misleading results, at odds with any discernable thread of logic or principle. Alternative treatments to those embedded in the accounting standards reviewed are contemplated as part of an argument for an alternative future reporting regime.
Topological structure of solution sets of differential inclusions: the constrained case

We survey and announce some current results on the existence, the viability, and the topological structure of the viable solutions of differential equations and inclusion in Banach spaces under set constraints. Some new results concerning semilinear differential inclusions with state variables constrained to the so-called regular and strictly regular sets, together with their applications, are presented and discussed.
Tax Policy Uncertainty and the Perceived Riskiness of Tax Savings

We investigate whether uncertainty surrounding tax policy is associated with investors’ perceptions about the riskiness of firms’ tax avoidance strategies, controlling for other sources of general macroeconomic uncertainty. To test our prediction, we rely on long-run cash effective tax rates (ETRs) to identify firms that have maintained relatively low cash ETRs over the prior five years. We then examine how tax policy uncertainty (TPU) and tax avoidance interact in a model of firm risk. Consistent with our prediction, our results indicate that macro-level TPU is positively associated with investors’ perceptions about the riskiness of cash flows stemming from tax planning activities. We perform analyses to evaluate our measure of TPU based on how it correlates with actual tax-related legislative activity, individually and relative to other policy uncertainty indices (debt, spending, entitlements, etc.). The results of these tests provide assurance that our primary measure of interest captures tax-related policy uncertainty. Second, consistent with economic theory which suggests that macro-level policy uncertainty is a source of systematic risk to investors, we predict and find that the interaction between TPU and tax avoidance activity is concentrated primarily in systematic volatility. We further condition our interaction of interest on a proxy for low tax-related information quality (i.e., highly volatile ETRs). Consistent with Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2011) who argue that idiosyncratic firm risk is, at some level, a function of the firm’s information environment, we find that our interaction of interest is associated with idiosyncratic volatility for firms with lower tax-related information quality.
Employee layoff announcements and shareholder wealth: empirical evidence from Finland 2008-2013

Author: Lauri Peltola Title: Employee Layoff Announcements and Shareholder Wealth: Empirical Evidence from Finland 2008-2013 Faculty: LUT School of Business Year: 2014 Master’s program: Strategic Finance and Business analytics Master’s Thesis. Lappeenranta University of Technology. 72 pages, 2 appendices, 16 figures, 16 tables Supervisors: Professor Eero Patari Associate Professor Sheraz Ahmed
Data‐derived forecasting model for relativistic electron intensity at geosynchronous orbit

In this paper we present a data‐derived model of relativistic electron flux at geosynchronous orbit. The model is driven by multiple solar wind and magnetospheric inputs and combines the deterministic approach of nonlinear dynamics with conditional probability consideration. The model is used for one‐day predictions of daily flux maxima for the years 1995–2000. The deterministic part of the model yields average prediction efficiency of 0.77 and linear correlation coefficient of 0.89. It identifies solar wind velocity and SymH index as most relevant input parameters. The probabilistic part of the model quantifies the risks of deviations from deterministic predictions as a function of average solar wind and magnetosphere conditions.
Food risk management practices: the views of consumers and experts

Numerous studies have analysed consumer perceptions of the risks associated with different food hazards. However, little research has considered how consumers perceive food risk management. If consumers’ perceptions of what constitutes effective food risk management practices differ from those of experts, then consumer confidence in the risk analysis framework that underlies management practice may be compromised. This paper reports a research programme exploring attitudes to food risk management in five European countries (Denmark, Germany, Greece, Slovenia and the UK). Initial research used focus groups and follow-up interviews to identify key factors in the evaluation of food risk management practices according to consumers and experts (e.g. risk assessors and managers). The results from the qualitative phase of the study were then used to inform the development of a quantitative survey instrument to model the key determinants of consumer confidence in food risk management practice. Preliminary results suggest some agreement between consumers and experts regarding minimal requirements for positive evaluations of management practices. consumer and expert participants believed it ensure that good management involved the development and maintenance of systems of control over hazards and that risk managers needed to be proactive in preventing the development of “food crises” . They also emphasised the importance of timely and appropriate risk communication . Some differences in perceptions between consumer and expert participants regarding what constitutes good practice in food risk management were also identified. Expert participants were generally more positive about existing food risk management practices, although they did identify a number of shortcomings or constraints. Analysis of our survey results will increase our understanding of the
Experimental analysis of groundwater flow through a landslide slip surface using natural and artificial water chemical tracers

Artificial and natural tracer tests combined with high accurate electronic distancemeter measurements are conducted on a small landslide with a well known slip surface geometry. Outflow yields and chemical contents are monitored for all the experiment duration and they analyzed to estimate the slip surface hydraulic parameters. The main result is that the slip surface acts as a drain for groundwater flows that evacuates interstitial pressures in the slope and brings the sliding mass to be more stable one. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
THE EFFECTS OF MACROECONOMIC NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS ON MEAN STOCK RETURNS

This study is aimed at carrying out a preliminary investigation of the impact of macroeconomic news on mean stock returns. We regress daily returns of Standard & Poor 500 (S&P 500) index on news announcements of twenty-seven types of macroeconomic indicators from 2001 to 2004 and find a negative relationship between the index return and news announcements.