Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Major government customers and loan contract terms

We examine the relation between the presence of U.S. government as a major customer and a supplier firm’s loan contract terms, using major corporate customers as a benchmark. We find that firms with major government customers are associated with fewer covenants and a lower likelihood of having performance pricing provisions in their loan contracts. In contrast, we do not find such associations for firms with major corporate customers. Further, we find no evidence that the existence of major government customers is related to the supplier firm’s loan spread, security, or maturity. We conjecture that lenders benefit from the stricter monitoring of the government as a major customer and thus use fewer covenants and performance pricing provisions when lending to firms with major government customers than when lending to those with major corporate customers. We provide evidence consistent with this conjecture.
Effects of international success on the popularity of professional soccer in the United States

SOCCER IN THE UNITED STATES by CARL WILLIAM HERTZBERG (Under the Direction of Billy Hawkins) ABSTRACT Major League Soccer (MLS) plays its regular season during the warmer months from April to October. Their regular season covers the months when the World Cup is played. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of World Cup appearances on the popularity of the MLS in the U.S., with a specific focus on college student participation with the MLS. A twenty-six question online survey was given to college students from eight universities, all over the U.S. Additionally, attendance records for the 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010 MLS regular seasons were analyzed for possible variations during non-World Cup years and World Cup years. The results showed inconsistencies between the survey data and the MLS regular season attendance data. Analysis of survey results showed an increase in attendance and television viewing of MLS games during or right after World Cups, where as the attendance data showed no such increases.
Guidelines on fibrinogen assays

Haematology departments in the UK have traditionally performed fibrinogen assays to detect decreased levels and abnormalities of fibrinogen, and to assess haemorrhagic risk. It has also been shown that elevated fibrinogen levels are a predictor of a variety of arterial cardiovascular events, and fibrinogen assays are sometimes recommended with this in mind. The Clauss fibrinogen assay (based on the thrombin clotting time) is the most popular technique in UK hospital laboratories, although many other methods are also in use. There appears to be great variability in both the source of reagents and the exact method used for the Clauss assay. Most laboratories are now equipped with automated coagulation analysers, and many of these perform a fibrinogen estimation derived from the degree of change of light scatter or optical density during the prothrombin time (PT-Fg). A number of problems have been described in the use of the PT-Fg method: it generally gives higher values than the Clauss technique, but the exact degree of discrepancy seems to depend on a number of different variables. International and National standards are available for fibrinogen, but do not appear to be universally used. These guidelines have been prepared against this background and recommend which methods should be used in various clinical settings, as well as highlighting a variety of problems with fibrinogen assays.
The origin of chirality in protein amino acids

We discuss the origin of the chirality of protein amino acids from the point of view of a phase transition from a racemic mixture into an optically pure state. We assume that Bose–Einstein condensation may act as an amplification mechanism. The original theory is due to Salam. We suggest a new role for the phase transition. Following Quack we distinguish parity violation of two kinds (de facto and de lege symmetry breaking). While the Salam phase transition corresponds to parity violation of the second kind (de lege), the phase transition we discuss in this work corresponds to parity violation of what we may call a third kind. This is suggested by recent experimental phenomena which correlate chiral symmetry breaking and pattern formation (spontaneous symmetry breaking that separates an initial racemic mixture into right- and left-handed space domains by means of a substrate). Tentative comments are given on the eventual design of possible experiments that may test this new hypothesis. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Market Response to FIN 48 Adoption: A Debt Covenant Theory

Abstract We investigate the interaction of debt covenants and tax accounting on the adoption of Financial Interpretation No. 48 (FIN 48). We examine how firms respond to the potential tightening of covenant slack upon FIN 48 adoption and whether these actions are penalized by creditors and anticipated by equity markets. We find that upon FIN 48 adoption, the majority of sample corporate borrowers increase their tax reserves and reduce equity. Firms close to debt covenant violation were even more likely to increase tax reserves upon FIN 48 adoption; however, the size of the adjustment was relatively smaller, suggesting that the FIN 48 standards limited, but did not eliminate, firms use of discretion in reporting uncertain tax positions to avoid costly covenant violations. For firms near net worth debt covenant violation, the act of decreasing equity upon FIN 48 adoption imposes real economic costs, as the average cost of debt increased by 43 basis points. Finally, we extend prior research on the market response to FIN 48 by showing how the market response to FIN 48 adoption is a function of debt covenant slack and tax aggressiveness. Specifically, the cumulative abnormal return at the FIN 48 exposure draft release date is negative only for tax aggressive firms that are close to debt covenant violation.
Finite Element method for a realistic head model of electrical brain activities

Three-dimensional finite element models provide a method to study the relationship between human scalp potentials and neural current sources inside the brain. This approach has the advantage over the boundary element method of being able to take into account anisotropies of the different conducting sub-volumes. The method has been evaluated in the particular case of a four-layer concentric sphere anisotropic head model for which an analytical formula is known. The effects of existence of an occipital hole on dipole localization through the inverse problem have been studied.
Human papillomavirus vaccines.

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are the viral sexually transmitted diseases most frequently diagnosed that include anogenital condylomas and squamous intra-$bepithelial lesions, among which the precursors of invasive carcinomas of the uterine cervix. In animal PV models, vaccination against L1 and/or L2 viral capsid proteins provides an efficient protection against infection, involving virus type-specific neutralizing antibodies. Vaccination against non-structural E1, E2, E6 or E7 viral proteins does not prevent infection, unless administered altogether, but tends to stimulate regression, warranting the design of therapeutic vaccines. Prophylactic vaccines based on the use of virus-like particles (VLPs) obtained by auto-assembly of L1 or L1 and L2 proteins produced by recombinant DNA technology are under phase I/II clinical trials for HPV6/11 associated with condylomas and for HPV16, the most frequent oncogenic genotype. Second generation vaccines are chimeric proteins or VLPs incorporating one of the structural proteins (L1 or L2) fused to a non-structural protein (E6, E7 or E2), which should induce both humoral and cellular immunity. Vaccine valency (number of genotypes), route of administration (humoral versus local immunity), vaccinees (children, young adults, gender) and forms of vaccines (recombinant $LSalmonella typhimurium*I$L, edible plants expressing L1 and L2 proteins, DNA vaccines, synthetic antigenic peptides) are under study. End points to evaluate vaccine efficacy in phase III trials should include viral DNA detection and typing, and screening for low or high grade intraepithelial lesions. Therapeutic vaccines based on recombinant HPV E6 and/or E7 vaccinia virus, L2-E7 fusion proteins or E7 peptides corresponding to cytotoxic T cell epitopes are currently tested (phase I/II trials) in patients with cervical carcinomas of advanced clinical stages or high grade intraepithelial lesions. Animal studies, phase I/II clinical trials and implementation of the community support that HPV vaccines will constitute an efficient means to prevent carcinoma of the uterine cervix.
PERFORMANCE OF EUROPEAN BANKS: CRISIS, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND CONVERGENCE

How to cite this paper: Lazarides, Th. (2017). Performance of European banks: Crisis, corporate governance and convergence. Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review, 1(2), 43-49. http://doi.org/10.22495/cgsrv1i2p6 Copyright © 2017 by Virtus Interpress
Antecedents and Consequences of Organizational Commitment: A Gender Study in the IT-BPM Sector of India

Information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) sector of India employs 3.7 million people including 1.25 million female employees. The flip side of this high absorption rate is an equally fast attrition of employees and more so in females. This alarming number makes it imperative to study the antecedents of high organizational commitment as a consequence of which voluntary turnover diminishes. This research article aims at identifying variables impacting the organizational commitment of female employees. Leader-member exchange (LMX), work-life balance and gender bias have been studied for effect on organizational commitment in IT-BPM sector. Data were collected from female employees of BPM sector through questionnaire survey, and stepwise regression was applied to test the hypotheses. This article gives insight into the management of IT-BPM sector helping them enhance the organizational commitment of its female employees. This research is first of its kind conducted on the female employees of IT-BPM sector of India giving insights on leader-manager exchange, work-life balance and gender bias and its role in improving their organizational commitment.
Estimating the Value-at-Risk for some stocks at the capital market in Indonesia based on ARMA-FIGARCH models

Value-at-Risk has already become a standard measurement that must be carried out by the financial institution for both internal interest and regulatory. In this paper, the estimation of Value-at-Risk of some stocks with econometric models approach is analyzed. In this research, we assume that the stock return follows the time series model. To do the estimation of mean value we are using ARMA models, while to estimate the variance value we are using FIGARCH models. Furthermore, the mean value estimator and the variance are used to estimate the Value-at-Risk. The result of the analysis shows that from five stock PRUF, BBRI, MPPA, BMRI, and INDF, the Value-at-Risk obtained are 0.01791, 0.06037, 0.02550, 0.06030, and 0.02585 respectively. Since Value-at-Risk represents the maximum risk size of each stock at a 95% level of significance, then it can be taken into consideration in determining the investment policy on stocks.
Finite sets and frege structures

Call a family of subsets of a set E inductive if and is closed under unions with disjoint singletons, that is, if A Frege structure is a pair (E, ν) with ν a map to E whose domain dom(ν) is an inductive family of subsets of E such that In [2] it is shown in a constructive setting that each Frege structure determines a subset which is the domain of a model of Peano's axioms. In this note we establish, within the same constructive setting, three facts. First, we show that the least inductive family of subsets of a set E is precisely the family of decidable Kuratowski finite subsets of E. Secondly, we establish that the procedure presented in [2] can be reversed, that is, any set containing the domain of a model of Peano's axioms determines a map which turns the set into a minimal Frege structure: here by a minimal Frege structure is meant one in which dom(ν) is the least inductive family of subsets of E. And finally, we show that the procedures leading from minimal Frege structures to models of Peano's axioms and vice-versa are mutually inverse. It follows that the postulation of a (minimal) Frege structure is constructively equivalent to the postulation of a model of Peano's axioms. All arguments will be formulated within constructive (intuitionistic) set theory.
Will analysts learn from other analysts who possess superior private information

Will Analysts Learn From Other Analysts Who Possess Superior Private Information? by SHI Hangyuan Master of Philosophy Based on a valuable testing venue in China where listed companies are required to disclose corporate site visit records of financial analyst to the public, this study examines whether analysts will learn from visiting analysts' forecasts that contain superior private information. I find that visiting forecasts tend to attract more analysts to issue forecasts in their aftermath than the prior forecasts issued by the same analysts but without conducting corporate site visit (non-visiting forecasts). The following effect is weaker when the visiting forecasts are more informative. In addition, other analysts’ forecasts following the visiting forecasts tend to move closer to the visiting forecasts than the forecasts following the non-visiting forecasts, with the effects being stronger for more informative visiting forecasts. Furthermore, followers experience a greater improvement in their forecast accuracy than the non-followers. This effect is also stronger when the visiting forecasts are more informative. Last but not the least, I find a decline in analyst forecast dispersion, an increase in common information, and an improvement in forecast accuracy in the period subsequent to the issuance of visiting analysts’ forecasts but no such effect for non-visiting forecasts. Collectively, the results suggest that analysts have incentive to learn from the forecasts that contain superior information and such learning activities tend to improve the information environment of the visiting firms.
Channel Characterization of Indoor Wireless Personal Area Networks

The wireless channel for nomadic diversity-based wireless networks operating at 1.9 GHz is characterized. Using a 1 times 2 wideband measurement chain, four typical indoor office and industrial environments have been investigated: a corridor, an office room, a laboratory room and a large industrial hall. The measurement equipment is constituted by an 80-MHz transmitter. At the receiver, two omnidirectional antennas are connected to a wideband channel sounder through a switch, in order to measure an estimate of the instantaneous vector channel. Special attention is given to the experimental procedure itself, so as to take into account the specificity of nomadic systems (as opposed to usual mobile systems). The measurement analysis reveals that the shadowing, Rician K-factor and delay-spread are lognormally distributed. A path-loss model is derived, and cross-correlations between K-factor, delay-spread and shadowing are analyzed. The channel correlations at the user terminal or at the access point are also derived, and related to the individual channel characteristics
Tren Penghindaran Pajak Perusahaan Manufaktur Di Indonesia Yang Terdaftar Di Bei Tahun 2001-2014

This study aims to determine the trend of tax avoidance manufacturing company in the long term. From the analysis of the trend of tax avoidance within relatively long period can be known how fluctuations in the increase or decrease in tax avoidance that occurs and what factors are influencing the increase or decrease in tax avoidance company so that tax authorities may evaluate policies issued in order to increase the level of taxpayer compliance. This research is a descriptive study using secondary data manufacturing company's financial statements from 2001 to 2014. The size of tax avoidance using ETR and CETR. The result is that the trend of corporate tax avoidance manufacturing high seen from the ETR and CETR small.
Macroeconomic Implications of Financial Imperfections: A Survey

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the macroeconomic implications of financial imperfections. It focuses on two major channels through which financial imperfections can affect macroeconomic outcomes. The first channel, which operates through the demand side of finance and is captured by financial accelerator-type mechanisms, describes how changes in borrowers' balance sheets can affect their access to finance and thereby amplify and propagate economic and financial shocks. The second channel, which is associated with the supply side of finance, emphasises the implications of changes in financial intermediaries' balance sheets for the supply of credit, liquidity and asset prices, and, consequently, for macroeconomic outcomes. These channels have been shown to be important in explaining the linkages between the real economy and the financial sector. That said, many questions remain.
On Tuberculosis of the Bones and Joints of BCG Vaccinated Children

No harmful effect of BCG vaccination has been found in the present group of 17 cases of bone and joint tuberculosis occurring in adequately vaccinated subjects. In these cases the disease has taken a mild course; however, the number is too small to permit of any definite conclusions. In only 2 of the cases a strong exposure had occurred, in the others only a slight one, or exposure was not detected.
Injuries in youth ice hockey: a pilot surveillance strategy.

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence and type of injuries in youth hockey players during practice and games as well as to test the applicability of the current methods to a national surveillance study of youth hockey injuries. DESIGN During the 1993 to 1994 season, we undertook a prospective observational analysis of youth hockey players on four competitive teams at three levels of participation: Squirt, Peewee, and Bantam. MATERIAL AND METHODS In a study group of 66 youth hockey players, types and anatomic sites of injury, mechanisms of injury, player position affected, and occurrence of injuries during practice or games were determined and analyzed statistically. An injury was strictly defined, standardized reporting strategies were used, and a single physician examined all injured athletes and made the diagnoses. RESULTS A total of 14 injuries occurred during the season. The on-ice injury rate (per 1,000 player-hours) was 1.0 at the Squirt level (ages 9 and 10 years), 1.8 at the Peewee level (ages 11 and 12 years), and 4.3 at the Bantam level (ages 13 and 14 years). No game injuries and only one mild practice injury occurred in Squirt players (N = 16), and only two mild injuries occurred during practice sessions for Peewees (N = 17). No differences were noted between practice injury rates at the various levels; all recorded game injuries occurred only in Bantam players (N = 33). The most common types of injuries were contusions, fractures, strains, and sprains. The arm and shoulder were most frequently injured. CONCLUSION Further research is necessary to determine whether injuries in youth ice hockey can be reduced by changes in playing rules, enforcement of existing rules, improvements in protective equipment, alteration in coaching techniques, and institution of educational programs.
Religion and fertility ideals, intentions and behaviour: a comparative study of European countries

European demographers rarely study religion as a determinant of contemporary demographic behaviour. One reason could be the secularisation observed in European countries, implying that the effect of religiosity has been diminishing. This paper aims to show that religion can have an important impact on ideals, intentions and behaviour related to fertility. First we discuss recent trends in religiosity. We base our ensuing hypotheses on three deliberations why religion may have a bearing on fertility: importance of religious teaching, effect of social capital and function of religion to decrease uncertainty. Using FFS data we examine the influence of several measures of religiosity on the ideal number of children and intentions to have a second and third child, as well as on the expected and actual number of children. We find that all measures of religiosity are in general related to a higher ideal number of children, higher odds to intend another child and higher expected and actual number of children. Participation in religious services turns out to be slightly more salient than affiliation and self-assessed religiosity. We also discover that the effect of religion on ideals is more pronounced than its effect on intentions. Ideals stay further away from behaviour than intentions do and hence the influence of religion is intermediated by other social systems.
Is This Review Believable? A Study of Factors Affecting the Credibility of Online Consumer Reviews from an ELM Perspective

With the ever-increasing popularity of online consumer reviews, understanding what makes an online review believable has attracted increased attention from both academics and practitioners. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study examines four information cues used to evaluate the credibility of online reviews: Argument quality, source credibility, review consistency, and review sidedness, under different levels of involvement and expertise. We conducted an online survey that involved users of Epinions.com, a popular online consumer review website, to test the research model empirically. Consistent with previous research, the results reveal that argument quality, a central cue, was the primary factor affecting review credibility. Participants also relied on peripheral cues such as source credibility, review consistency, and review sidedness when evaluating online consumer reviews. Review sidedness had a stronger impact on review credibility when the recipient had a low involvement level and a high expertise level. However, the other interaction effects were not significant. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.
The Scale and Scope of the Client Portfolio and Audit Pricing at the Individual Auditor Level: Evidence from China

This study examines the relation between the scale and scope of an individual auditor’s client portfolio and audit pricing to better understand how auditors of heterogeneous characteristics are differentiated in the audit market. Using a sample from the Chinese market for the period 2001-2010, where the personal identities of signing auditors are publicly disclosed, we find that audit price charged by an individual auditor is positively related to the scale of his/her client portfolio, measured in terms of either total audit fees or the number of clients. However, the industry scope (diversity) of the client portfolio attenuates this positive relation between portfolio scale and pricing. Further analyses indicate that auditors of higher ability and reputation tend to have larger client scales and wider client scopes, and that scale is not related to audit delays whereas industry scope is positively related to delays. Taken together, our results suggest that at the individual auditor level, the scale of the client portfolio conveys the auditor’s ability (type), and given the scale, the industry scope of clients signals the auditor’s workload. Finally, our findings are mostly confined to auditors from non-Big N audit firms.