Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fiscal Shocks and Real Rigidities

In this paper we show that results on the effects of fiscal shocks in Galí, López-Salido and Vallés (2007) rely on a high degree of price stickiness and a large percentage of financially constrained agents. Real rigidities in the form of habit persistence, fixed firm-specific capital and Kimball demand curves interact in interesting ways with nominal and financial rigidities and allow us to reproduce the same consumption multiplier as Galí et al. (2007) under only two and a half quarters of price stickiness, instead of four, and only 30 per cent of constrained agents instead of 50 per cent. Therefore, real rigidities are useful in the study of fiscal shocks in addition to monetary and productivity shocks as has been shown in the previous literature, though rule-of-thumb consumption remains too crude a mechanism for accounting for the hump-shaped response of consumption found in the data.
The Inside and Outside Revenue Impact of Regional Gambling Taxes in Spain

Using panel data methods, for all the Spanish Autonomous Communities and for the period 1999–2009, the present study estimates the revenue of the casinos in each Autonomous Community on the basis of four variables of interest related to the taxation of gambling in each Community, the taxation in the neighboring Autonomous Communities and the expansion of online gambling, and certain economic and sociodemographic control variables. The estimation performed permits the verification of the hypotheses that the taxation of gaming in a region and the expansion of online gambling negatively affect the revenue accrued by the casinos located in that region, but does not offer evidence that the effect produced by the differences in taxation among neighboring regions is significant. The results obtained also confirm the expected impact on the casinos' revenue of the existence of “type” gamblers (young males, and tourists) and of the economic situation (income and unemployment).
Effect of air polishing with glycine powder on titanium abutment surfaces.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to evaluate morphological changes induced by glycine powder air polishing on titanium surfaces and its effect on bacteria recolonization in comparison with sodium bicarbonate powder. MATERIALS AND METHODS 5 mm wide and 1 mm thick titanium grade II disks were divided into three groups of treatments: (i) no treatment; (ii) air polishing with glycine powder; (iii) air polishing with sodium bicarbonate powder. Specimens were characterized by laser profilometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and then installed onto removable appliances worn for 24 h by healthy volunteers. Surface contamination was evaluated using SEM and counting the number of colony forming units (CFU). RESULTS SEM observation revealed an increased roughness with the formation of craters on samples treated with sodium bicarbonate powder, while not in glycine ones. Statistical analysis failed to show significant differences of both Ra and Rmax parameters in treated groups. SEM observation of specimens surfaces, after 24 h of permanence in the oral cavity, showed a higher contamination of the disks treated with sodium bicarbonate compared with those not treated (P < 0.05). Conversely, the group treated with glycine showed the lower contamination if compared with bicarbonate-treated group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Air polishing with glycine powder may be considered as a better method to remove plaque from dental implant because glycine is less aggressive than sodium bicarbonate powder. Moreover, the use of glycine powder seems to have an active role on the inhibition of bacterial recolonization of implants in a short test period (24 h). Further studies are needed to demonstrate the bacteriostatic properties of glycine, envisaged on the basis of reduced contamination of the disks polished with glycine compared with those not treated.
Do Firms Knowingly Sell Overvalued Equity

This article examines the relation between top executives' trading and the long-run stock returns of seasoned equity issuing firms. Primary issuers, who sell mostly newly-issued primary shares, significantly underperform their benchmarks, regardless of the top executives' prior trading pattern. However, top executives' trading is reliably associated with the stock returns of secondary issuers, who sell mostly secondary shares previously held by existing shareholders. On average, secondary issuers do not underperform their benchmarks. The results suggest that increased free cash flow problems after issue play an important role in explaining the underperformance of issuing firms.
All In: An Empirical Analysis of Legislative Voting on Internet Gambling Restrictions in the United States

type="main" xml:lang="en"> In 2006, the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which prohibited financial institutions from processing transactions arising from online gaming activities, thereby severely hindering U.S. residents from participating in online casino games, primarily poker. Enactment of this legislation followed lobbying and political pressure from a variety of interest groups. By examining House roll call votes, we identify empirically the sources of political influence that resulted in passage of the internet gambling legislation. We find that party affiliation was of primary importance, with Republicans more likely to vote in favor of the bill. The percentage of constituents who are Evangelical Christians and also the number of gambling establishments in the district were positively associated with votes for the bill. However, contributions from the gaming industry decreased the probability a congressman would vote for the bill . ( JEL D72, L83)
The risk premiums of the four-factor asset pricing model in the Hong Kong stock market

The objective of this article is to investigate the risk premiums of the four-factor model in the Hong Kong stock market. We find that the magnitudes of the market, size and momentum premiums are similar, and that the pattern of the book-to-market premium is similar to the pattern of the size factor. We also find that the premiums and SDs of the four factors are all higher in the Hong Kong market than in the US market. All four-factor premiums are subject to the influence of seasonality, and all except for the market premium are subject to up- and down-market conditions.
Exit, Voice, and Electoral Turnover

Much of the contemporary literature on metropolitan politics revolves around the mobility of local residents and the implications this has both for policies of local governments and for the racial composition of local populations. In this article, the authors hypothesize that resort to exit is a function of the extent to which local residents lack effective access to institutionalized forms of voice, in particular availability of opportunities for replacing elected officials viewed as unresponsive to local needs and concerns. The authors test this argument with information from a 2002 survey of residents of four of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, along with census data about their neighborhoods and data on electoral turnover in their municipal governments. The authors find evidence that intentions to leave a city are indeed conditional both on dissatisfaction with key collective goods and services (in particular local public schools and neighborhoods) and lack of effective opportunities for the replacement of locally elected public officials. The authors find evidence of racially driven motivations for exit, but the direction is inconsistent and the magnitude of the racial effect is smaller than that deriving from dissatisfaction with services where electoral turnover is low.
Cross-Country Evidence on the Importance of Auditor Choice to Corporate Debt Maturity

We examine the importance of Big Four audits in reducing agency costs evident in corporate debt maturity worldwide. Analyzing a large sample of public firms from 42 countries reveals that the fraction of long-term debt in firms' capital structures rises with the presence of a Big Four auditor, suggesting that higher-quality audits substitute for short-term debt for monitoring purposes. In additional analyses, we find that the role that auditor choice plays in debt maturity is concentrated in firms from countries with strong legal institutions governing property rights and creditor rights. Collectively, our research implies that Big Four audits matter to corporate debt maturity, although the impact is isolated in firms operating in countries with more protective legal regimes.
A total change management model for successful growth of housing associations

Purpose – In the trend of mergers and growth of housing associations in the UK for providing more efficient and diversified services, the purpose of this paper is to develop an effective management model for planning and implementation of drastic, transformational changes to their organisational structures and operations, through two international organisational contexts in the social housing sector.Design/methodology/approach – Multiple‐case study methodology was used to examine the change policies and approaches in five major housing organisations experiencing rapid growth, including four housing associations in the UK and the Hong Kong Housing Authority, in order to verify the theoretical total change management framework, which are developed from organisational change management and project management theories.Findings – Organisational change management measures alone cannot fully explain all the successful cases. They should be applied along with project management approaches to plan and implement go.
Rural and Regional Australian Public Accounting Firm Services: Service Provision, Concerns and Tensions

Public accounting firms provide a necessary and important service for rural and regional areas. However, the provision of high-quality services is hindered by a number of factors. This paper reports the findings from a large-scale survey of professional accounting firm practitioners located in rural and regional Australia, identifying factors causing concerns and tensions and quantifying their scope and importance. Prominent concerns and tensions identified include adverse effects arising from the employment market, communications technology developments and legislation such as the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004 and the Financial Services Reform Act 2001.
Revising Our Thinking About the Relationship Between Maternal Labor Supply and Preschool

Many argue that childcare costs limit the labor supply of mothers, though existing evidence has been mixed. Using a child’s eligibility for public kindergarten in a regression discontinuity instrumental variables framework, I estimate how use of a particular subsidy, public school, affects maternal labor supply. I find public school enrollment increases only the employment of single mothers without additional young children. I compare this result to previous work, focusing on striking increases in a similar setting but earlier period (Gelabch 2002). Differences in the population of mothers, labor supply, and patterns of lifecycle events likely drive the discrepancy in results.
Age- and body mass index-related differences in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Abstract Aim: To compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) between women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and controls across different age (≤20, 21–30 and 31–39 years old) and body mass index (BMI) (normal weight, overweight and obese) groups. Methods: We studied 1223 women with PCOS and 277 BMI-matched controls. The prevalence of MetS in women with PCOS and controls was estimated according to four different MetS definitions. Results: In subjects ≤20 and 21–30 years old, the prevalence of MetS did not differ between women with PCOS and controls regardless of the MetS definition, even though women with PCOS were more obese than controls in the ≤20 years old group. In subjects 31–39 years old, the prevalence of MetS was higher in women with PCOS than in controls but the former were more obese than controls. The prevalence of MetS did not differ significantly between women with PCOS and controls in any of the BMI groups (normal weight, overweight or obese) regardless of the MetS definition. Conclusion: The prevalence of Mets appears to be primarily determined by obesity and age whereas PCOS per se appears to be a less important contributing factor.
Essays on Equilibrium Unemployment Dynamics

In this chapter, we quantitatively examine the consequences of structural tax reform in a real business cycle model with frictional unemployment and distortionary tax rates which are increasing in individual taxable labour income. The cyclical aspects of tax reform that are addressed in this chapter are distinct from the stationary state distributional issues that have garnered most of the attention in the existing literature on structural tax reform. Calibrating the model to U.S. data, we nd that a reduction in the progressivity of the tax system is associated with a signi cant increase in the volatility of hours per worker whereas the impact on unemployment volatility is quantitatively small. The welfare cost of the business cycle increases after tax reform, but remains quantitatively negligible. We also assess the implications that the structure of the tax system has for the ability of expansionary government spending to stimulate economic activity. It is demonstrated that a less progressive tax policy increases the ability of expansionary scal policy to stimulate output due to a larger response in hours, but this comes at the cost of a smaller unemployment multiplier. In particular, tax reform causes a compositional shift in labour market adjustment in response to aggregate demand shocks, with relatively more adjustment occurring in the intensive margin and less adjustment in the extensive margin the atter the tax schedule is.
Comparison of Performance of Conventional and Minimally Invasive Surgery Acetabular Reamers

Acetabular reaming in minimally invasive surgery can be done using a newly designed minimally invasive reamer. The new minimally invasive reamer is narrower and chamfered, which results in two sharp edges. This design may result in acetabular cavities with less ideal spheres than those achieved with conventional reaming. We compared the acetabular shapes in nine pairs of cadaver acetabula. Minimally invasive reaming was performed in one acetabulum of each pair, and conventional reaming was performed on the contralateral side. A new digitizing technique, optical three-dimensional scanning, was applied to the reamed acetabula to determine the reamers' performance. Best-fit spheres were calculated for the reamed cavities, and all reamers were measured for exact dimensions. There were small deviations between the diameters of the reamer and the reamed cavity for the minimally invasive (mean, 0.1 mm; standard deviation, 0.5 mm) and conventional (mean, 0.3 mm; standard deviation, 0.4 mm) reamers. There were no significant differences between minimally invasive and conventional reaming. The mean differences between the reamer domes and the measured values showed a discrepancy of 2.2 mm (standard deviation, 0.08 mm) in the minimally invasive surgery group and 2.8 mm (standard deviation, 0.09 mm) in the conventional group. Although the acetabular reamer design has been modified, there were no significant differences in the acetabular shapes after minimally invasive or conventional reaming. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Study, Level II (prospective comparative study with no statistically significant difference). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Alzheimer’s Disease: Genetic Polymorphisms and Rate of Decline

Background/Aim: To investigate the influence of established genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease on the speed of disease progression. Methods: Polymorphisms (in ACE, ApoE, BIN1, CLU, CR1, CST3, EXOC3L2, GWA14q32.13, IL8, LDLR, PICALM, TNK1) of 40 Alzheimer’s disease patients from a longitudinal study were analyzed. A standardized loss of Mini-Mental State Examination points was used as the progression parameter. Results: Polymorphisms in CST3 and EXOC3L2 as well as the absence of APOE4 were associated with more aggressive disease courses. A trend was observed for BIN1. Conclusion: In addition to being a risk factor for disease development, some of the polymorphisms investigated here are associated with higher rates of decline and disease progression and thus might act as prognostic disease markers. This effect needs to be considered in future treatment strategies.
Detection of a PSK signal transmitted through a hard-limited channel

This paper considers the problem of the detection of a binary phase-modulated carrier which has been transmitted along with noise through a hard-limiting repeater, corrupted by additional noise, and demodulated by cross correlation and sampling at the receiver. Three equivalent expressions are obtained for the error probability of the receiver output. Two of these expressions take the form of an infinite series involving either confluent hypergeometric functions or modified Bessel functions. A third form allows representation of the error probability in terms of Rice's Ie function. In the special case where the signal-to-noise ratios \rho_1^2 and \rho_2^2 at the limiter and receiver inputs are equal, the error probability is simply \begin{equation} P_e = \frac{1}{2} \exp (-p_1^2). \end{equation} Asymptotic expressions for the error probability for large and small signal-to-noise ratios are also derived. The error probability is found to be smaller than that of a linear system for all practical values of limiter and receiver input signal-to-noise ratios. The optimum repeater non-linearity is investigated and is shown to be a limiter at such signal-to-noise ratios.
Learning How to Cooperate: Optimal Play in Repeated Coordination Games

This paper proposes a characterization of optimal strategies for playing certain repeated coordination games whose players have identical preferences. Players' optimal coordination strategies reflect their uncertainty about how their partners will respond to multiple-equilibrium problems; this uncertainty constrains the statistical relationships between their strategy choices players can bring about. The authors show that optimality is nevertheless consistent with subgame-perfect equilibrium. Examples are analyzed in which players use precedents as focal points to achieve and maintain coordination, and in which they play dominated strategies with positive probability in early stages in the hope of generating a useful precedent. Copyright 1990 by The Econometric Society.
Kinetic theory of fibrillogenesis of amyloid beta-protein.

Prior quasielastic light scattering (QLS) studies of fibrillogenesis of synthetic amyloid beta-protein (Abeta)-(1-40) at low pH have suggested a kinetic model in which: (i) fibrillogenesis requires a nucleation step; (ii) nuclei are produced by Abeta micelles in addition to seeds initially present; and (iii) fibril elongation occurs by irreversible binding of Abeta monomers to the fibril ends. Here we present the full mathematical formulation of this model. We describe the temporal evolution of the concentrations of Abeta monomers and micelles as well as the concentration and size distribution of fibrils. This formulation enables deduction of the fundamental parameters of the model-e.g., the nucleation and elongation rate constants kn and ke-from the time dependency of the apparent diffusion coefficient measured by QLS. The theory accurately represents the experimental observations for Abeta concentrations both below and above c*, the critical concentration for Abeta micelle formation. We suggest that the method of QLS in combination with this theory can serve as a powerful tool for understanding the molecular factors that control Abeta plaque formation.
Dietary Carbohydrate Source Alters Gene Expression Profile of Intestinal Epithelium in Mice

High-sucrose consumption is associated with increased risk of human colon cancer. Our previous research indicated that high-sucrose diets (vs. cornstarch) promote intestinal epithelial cell proliferation and tumorigenesis as well as increase serum glucose and hepatic IGF-I mRNA levels in APC Min mice. To examine the role of functional pathways, in particular of IGF-I signaling, in sucrose-induced intestinal epithelial cell proliferation and tumorigenesis, we examined the effects of dietary carbohydrate source (sucrose vs. cornstarch) on gene expression in the intestinal epithelium using cDNA microarray and quantitative RT-PCR analysis. Dietary carbohydrate source significantly ( P < 0.05) altered mRNA expression of 109 known genes in the small intestinal epithelium, including many involved in metabolic pathways. Consumption of high-sucrose diets altered expression levels of genes involved in cell adhesion, cell cycle control, and transduction signaling, consistent with increased risk of intestinal tumorigenesis. High-sucrose intake also affected expression of genes involved in IGF-I signaling, including upregulating IGF-II and downregulating IGFBP3, which supports our hypothesis that IGF-I signaling could play a role in intestinal epithelial cell proliferation and tumorigenesis promoted by high-sucrose consumption.
Employment of Women and Demand-Side Forces

Using the 1964–95 March Current Population Surveys and the 1940–90 Census, this paper examines the relationship between female employment growth and changes in labor demand. Specifically, the authors examine whether industrial change and changes in labor demand can account for both the acceleration and deceleration of female employment growth across the decades as well as the pattern of biased growth in favor of more skilled women. They find that labor demand proxies are successful in accounting for the pattern of biased growth but are less successful in accounting for the overall acceleration of female employment, particularly in the 1970s.
Preliminary evaluation of cyto‐rich: An improved automated cytology preparation

A new cervical cytology monolayer preparation system called Cyto‐Rich was evaluated. Using samples from 557 patients, Cyto‐Rich monolayers were compared to matched conventional smears. After conventional smears were prepared and spray fixed, residual exfoliated cells were transferred to preservative fluid. The cell suspensions were gently disaggregated and the epithelial component enriched with gradient centrifugal sedimentation. The batched samples were then placed on the Cyto‐Rich work station where slides are automatically prepared and stained. The results demonstrate that Cyto‐Rich prepared monolayers are vastly superior to the conventional smears for cell presentation. While the study showed 99% overall concordance, Cyto‐Rich improved the detection of low‐grade cervical intraepithelial lesions.