Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investment Bank Governance

Employing a new method of industry tests we examine investment bank governance. Most of the findings reject the view that banks are governed suboptimally over a sample period from 1990 through 2003. CEO pay is large and significantly sensitive to stock price performance, and stock price performance often outperforms the market. Results are consistent with bank directors being reputable, independent, and in control of their committees. Bank management is disciplined by pressure from a number of competitive product markets and from a vigorous market for bank control. No evidence exists that unusual governance qualities that could be unique to investment banking are indications of poor governance performance. The evidence agrees with the view that investment banks choose optimal governance.
Chlamydia trachomatis and oral contraceptive use: a quantitative review.

OBJECTIVES--Chlamydia trachomatis is now recognised as a major sexually transmitted disease; oral contraceptive use is rapidly increasing particularly in developing countries. There are thus important public health implications of the many reports that isolation of C trachomatis is more frequent among users of oral contraceptives. The aim of this analysis was to assess the strength and consistency of this association by summarising published studies between 1972 and 1990. DESIGN--Studies identified were grouped according to whether they were prospective or case-control studies. Data were extracted and pooled estimates of the unadjusted odds ratios were made for all studies, as well as for sub-groups defined by an index of study quality, background prevalence of C trachomatis, and the contraceptive comparison being made. LOCATION--Studies in the analysis were mainly conducted in Europe and North America; the meta-analysis was done at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. RESULTS--The pooled estimated unadjusted odds ratio for 29 case-control studies examined was 1.93 (95% CI, 1.77-2.11), indicating an almost twofold increased risk of chlamydial infection for oral contraceptive users. Neither study quality nor prevalence of C trachomatis modified this risk. When compared to the use of barrier contraceptives, however, the risk of infection for women using oral contraceptives increased to 2.91 (95% CI, 1.86-4.55). The pooled estimated protective effect of barrier methods in these studies was 0.34 (95% CI, 0.22-0.54). CONCLUSIONS--Cross-study comparisons of the relationship between oral contraceptive use and chlamydial infection are limited by the design and analysis of many component studies which did not control for confounding factors such as sexual behaviour and age. The almost twofold risk of increased chlamydial infection for oral contraceptive users, supported by the findings of two prospective studies, however, points to the importance of considering the risks and benefits of oral contraceptive use in women who are likely to be exposed to C trachomatis and other STDs. The protective effect of barrier methods emphasizes the continued need for promoting barrier methods of contraception.
Trends and Correlates of Contraceptive Use among Married Women in Malawi: Evidence from 2000-2010 Malawi Demographic and Health Surveys

This study investigates levels and trends in modern contraceptive use among married women in Malawi and explores differences by socio-demographic characteristics. The study uses panel data from the 2000, 2004, and 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Surveys (MDHS), employing multinomial logistic regression. Background variables include the characteristics of women, such as education, urban-rural residence, age, marital status, household wealth, and access to media. In addition, the study explores differences by fertility indicators, including number of children born, desire for more children, and ideal family size. Modern contraceptive use among married women in Malawi changed little between 2000 and 2004 but increased considerably between 2004 and 2010, from 26% to 42%. Modern contraceptive use remains higher among married women with more education, women in wealthier households, and women with more access to media, although women in most categories have shown increases in contraceptive use. For example, modern contraceptive use among women in rural areas increased from 27% in 2004 to 39% in 2009, compared with an increase among urban women from 35% to 46% over the same period. The study found that number of living children was significantly associated with modern contraceptive use in all three surveys. Also, women who reported that they wanted to have another child and those who were uncertain about childbearing were significantly more likely to use modern contraception in 2004 and 2010 compared with 2000. Among women who wanted no more children, contraceptive use increased significantly in 2010 compared with 2000. Increased contraceptive use among women who want no more children and women with high parity indicate that a growing percentage of women want to limit and space childbearing. Thus making effective and long-acting contraceptive methods more available would help many women attain their desired fertility goals. At the same time, the strong association between women’s education and modern contraceptive use identified in the study suggests that considerable progress has been achieved in women’s education in Malawi, which may have contributed to increases in contraceptive use.
Fuzzy load flow based on α-cuts arithmetics

In order to solve the load flow problem under uncertainty, a novel algorithm is presented. This proposal uses the fuzzy number arithmetic and the network linear model to solve the problem. Once the fuzzy sets theory is reviewed, it is demonstrated that the main difficulty to solve the problem is the calculation of the subtraction between two fuzzy numbers. With the aim to overcome this difficulty, it is proposed a methodology based on the use of a more general formula based on α-cuts, for the fuzzy numbers subtraction. It is also proposed reordering the DC load flow equations in such way that the subtraction operations are performed at the end of the calculation process. The obtained results show that, It is possible to solve, from the physical point of view, the load flow for networks with radial topology. This result can improve current planning and operation approaches incorporating uncertainties explicitly. For meshed networks, the results significantly reduce the supports of the resulting fuzzy numbers. Nevertheless In this case the Kirchhoff First Law is not fully satisfied; establishing a problem to be treated on future research.
The Commercial Real Estate Bubble

Two parallel real estate bubbles emerged in the United States between 2004 and 2008, one in residential real estate, the other in commercial real estate. The residential real estate bubble has received a great deal of popular, scholarly, and policy attention. The commercial real estate bubble, in contrast, has largely been ignored.This Article shows that the commercial real estate price bubble was accompanied by a change in the source of commercial real estate financing. Starting around 1998, securitization became an increasingly significant part of commercial real estate financing. The commercial mortgage securitization market underwent a major shift in 2004, however, as the traditional buyers of subordinated commercial real estate debt were outbid by collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Savvy, sophisticated, experienced commercial mortgage securitization investors were replaced by investors who merely wanted “product” to securitize. The result was a decline in underwriting standards in commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS). The commercial real estate bubble holds important lessons for understanding the residential real estate bubble. Unlike the residential market, there is almost no government involvement in commercial real estate. The existence of the parallel commercial real estate bubble presents a strong challenge to explanations of the residential bubble that focus on government affordable housing policy, the Community Reinvestment Act, and the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
BENCHMARKING OF PORTS: POSSIBILITIES FOR INCREASED EFFICIENCY OF PORTS

The purpose of this project was to analyze factors that seem to determine the usage of ports and their efficiency. In context, efficiency is regarded in terms of time and price, or more explicitly, external efficiency in relation to the port's users. In some cases, the port's internal efficiency or "internal performance" was assessed. Internal efficiency covers aspects such as financial standing, capacity utilization, etc.
Plasma levels of lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase and risk of future coronary artery disease in apparently healthy men and women: a prospective case-control analysis nested in the EPIC-Norfolk population study

LCAT plays a key role in the maturation of HDL, as evidenced by low HDL-cholesterol levels in carriers of deleterious mutations in LCAT. However, the role of LCAT in atherosclerosis is unclear. We set out to study this in a prospective study. Plasma LCAT levels, which strongly correlate with LCAT activity, were measured in baseline nonfasting samples of 933 apparently healthy men and women who developed coronary artery disease (CAD) and 1,852 matched controls who remained free of CAD during 6 year follow-up. LCAT levels did not differ between cases and controls but were higher in women than men. Stratification into LCAT quartiles revealed a positive association with plasma LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the unexpected absence of an association with HDL-cholesterol. In mixed-gender analyses, the odds ratio (OR) for future CAD in the highest LCAT quartile versus the lowest was 1.00 [confidence interval (CI): 0.76–1.29, P for linearity = 0.902], although opposite trends were observed in men and women. In fact, high LCAT levels were associated with an increased CAD risk in women (unadjusted OR 1.45, CI: 0.94–2.22, P for linearity = 0.036). In contrast to our studies in carriers of LCAT mutations, the current data show that low LCAT plasma levels are not associated with increased atherosclerosis in the general population.
Family firms’ resources and the timing of the export development process

The goal of this work is to analyze whether certain resources related to human, social and financial capital influence the speed of the export development process of family firms. We use event history analysis applied to a sample of Spanish manufacturing family firms. The results show that only the variables related to social capital have a significant effect on the timing of this process. Concretely, the relationships with foreign suppliers, the agreements with retailers and wholesalers and the development of technological collaborations are related to and early entry of family firms into the initial phase of the export development process. Moreover, the alliances with retailers and wholesalers have also a significant accelerating effect in the entry into the advanced phase of the process.
Local models for Weil-restricted groups

We extend the group-theoretic construction of local models of Pappas and Zhu [Local models of Shimura varieties and a conjecture of Kottwitz, Invent. Math. 194 (2013), 147–254] to the case of groups obtained by Weil restriction along a possibly wildly ramified extension. This completes the construction of local models for all reductive groups when $p\geqslant 5$ . We show that the local models are normal with special fiber reduced and study the monodromy action on the sheaves of nearby cycles. As a consequence, we prove a conjecture of Kottwitz that the semi-simple trace of Frobenius gives a central function in the parahoric Hecke algebra. We also introduce a notion of splitting model and use this to study the inertial action in the case of an unramified group.
Does it Take Two to Tango? Founders' Human Capital, Venture Capital and the Growth of High-Tech Start-Ups

In this paper, we jointly analyze the effect of the human capital of founders and access to venture capital (VC) financing on the growth of 439 Italian new technology-based firms (NTBFs). We rely on econometric models that control for survivorship bias and the endogeneity of VC financing. As to non-VC-backed firms, the competence-based argument the the capabilities of NTBFs coincide with founders' skills is confirmed. Nonetheless one a NTBF obtains VC, this coincidence vanishes, pointing to the "coach" function performed by VC investors. Conversely, the view that sees the "scout" function as the main task performed by VC investors is not supported.
Competition between word order and case-marking in interpreting grammatical relations: a case study in multilingual acquisition*

ABSTRACT The study examines strategies multilingual children use to interpret grammatical relations, focusing on their two primary languages, Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri. Both languages use mixed systems for indicating grammatical relations. In both languages ergative–absolutive case-marking indicates core arguments, but to different extents in each language. In Lajamanu Warlpiri, pronominal clitics in a nominative–accusative pattern also indicate core arguments, and in Light Warlpiri word order in a nominative–accusative pattern partially does so. The study asks which sentence interpretation strategies children rely on most, when they learn to rely on them and whether cross-linguistic influences are seen. Children aged 5 ; 0, 7 ; 0 and 9 ; 0 and adults saw paired, animated events simultaneously on video and heard a transitive sentence spoken. The participants pointed to the event depicted by the sentence heard. Adults used a case-marking strategy consistently in both languages. Children initially used both case-marking and word order strategies, but used case-marking more often as age increased.
A phase II, multicenter, open-label randomized study of motesanib or bevacizumab in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin for advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND This phase II study estimated the difference in objective response rate (ORR) among patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving paclitaxel-carboplatin (CP) plus motesanib or bevacizumab. PATIENTS AND METHODS Chemotherapy-naive patients (N = 186) were randomized 1:1:1 to receive CP plus motesanib 125 mg once daily (qd) (arm A), motesanib 75 mg twice daily (b.i.d.) 5 days on/2 days off (arm B), or bevacizumab 15 mg/kg every 3 weeks (q3w) (arm C). The primary end point was ORR (per RECIST). Other end points included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), motesanib pharmacokinetics, and adverse events (AEs). RESULTS ORRs in the three arms were as follows: arm A, 30% (95% confidence interval 18% to 43%); arm B, 23% (13% to 36%); and arm C, 37% (25% to 50%). Median PFS in arm A was 7.7 months, arm B 5.8 months, and arm C 8.3 months; median OS for arm A was 14.0 months, arm B 12.8 months, and arm C 14.0 months. Incidence of AEs was greater in arms A and B than in arm C. More grade 5 AEs not attributable to disease progression occurred in arm B (n = 10) than in arms A (n = 4) and C (n = 4). Motesanib plasma C(max) and C(min) values were consistent with its pharmacokinetic properties observed in previous studies. CONCLUSIONS The efficacy of 125 mg qd motesanib or bevacizumab plus CP was estimated to be comparable. Toxicity was higher but manageable in both motesanib arms. Efficacy and tolerability of motesanib 125 mg qd plus CP in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC are being further investigated in a phase III study.
Logistical Principles in Construction Supply Chains.

Supply chain management and logistics management have proven successful in the manufacturing industry, with improved productivity as a consequence. However, in the construction industry these issues have not been high on the agenda. This may be one reason why the construction industry lags behind the manufacturing industry in terms of productivity. The good thing is that there is a growing interest for managing the construction supply chains. The basic idea in this thesis is not to come up with new logistical principles, but to learn from the existing performance in the manufacturing industry. A theoretical framework concerning general supply chain management and logistics issues is presented. This includes nine logistical principles, which have been acknowledged by the manufacturing industry. Previous academic reports concerning supply chain management and logistics in the construction industry are analysed with the general theoretical framework as a basis. In addition to this literature review two case studies have been conducted. Both case studies involve a supply chain starting at the manufacturer and ending at the client. The first case regards radiators and the second case regards installation cable. Common for both cases is that they represent groups of material which have shown a historic high cost increase. The results confirm that supply chain management has still not been widely spread, and was not implemented in either of the two supply chains studied. However, there were signs among the client and the building contractor in the first supply chain of an emerging focus on the supply chain performance, which very well may lead to the adoption of supply chain management. Both case studies show similar results that the wholesalers offer excessive service when delivering stocked material within a day from receiving the order. This is a consequence of the contractors’ lack of establishing detailed delivery dates early in the projects. This thesis has come up with several suggestions for improvements in the supply chains, which all together shows that there is much to gain in starting to manage the supply chains and avoiding sub-optimisation. (Less)
Relationship of threat appraisal with coping appraisal to fear of cancer recurrence in breast cancer survivors

Objectives: Prior research suggests that fear of cancer recurrence (FOR) is very common among cancer survivors. This study examined the extent to which the interaction of threat appraisal and coping appraisal accounted for differences in FOR in cancer patients who recently completed treatment. It was hypothesized that greater FOR would be related to a combination of high threat appraisal and low coping appraisal.
《The influence of institutional investors on myopic R＆D investment behavior》述评

机构投资者作为证券市场中的重要力量,越来越受到理论界和实务界的关注。 论文对宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院会计学教授布赖恩-布希（Brian Bushee）的论文＂The influence of institutional investors on myopic R＆D investment behavior＂（机构投资者对企业短视研发投资行为的影响,以下简称Bushee（1998））进行评价并提出相关的建议和研究方向。
Adaptation and validation in Spanish of the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) with professional football players.

BACKGROUND This investigation presents two studies with the goal of adapting and validating a short version of the Group Environment Questionnaire in the Spanish sport context with professional players. METHOD Study 1 used a sample of 377 male soccer players aged between 18 and 39 years ( M = 24.51, SD = 3.73), in a preliminary study using exploratory factor analysis. Study 2 used a sample of 604 professional male and female athletes, ages between 15 and 38 years ( M = 24.34, SD = 4.03). The data analyzed were collected at three moments of the season. For each measurement, we developed seven first- and second-order structures that were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS Study 1 indicated appropriate factorial validity (> .60) and internal consistency (> .70), with only Item 3 presenting a low factor loading (.11), so its drafting was modified in the next study. Study 2 revealed that the Spanish version of the GEQ has high levels of internal consistency (> .70) and acceptable fit index values in its original four first-order factor structure in all three measurements ( χ²/df = 4.39, CFI = .95, IFI = .95, RMSEA = .07, SRMR = .04, AIC = 271.09). Discriminant validity (from r = .45 to r = .72) and concurrent validity (from r = .21 to r = .60) also presented appropriate values. Lastly, we conducted analysis of invariance, confirming that the models established in the different measurements were invariant. CONCLUSIONS The short 12-item adaptation of the GEQ to Spanish is a valid and reliable instrument to measure team cohesion in professional male and female soccer players.
Effect of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields on bacterial membrane

Abstract Purpose: The effect of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) on bacteria has attracted attention due to its potential for beneficial uses. This research aimed to determine the effect of ELF-EMF on bacterial membrane namely the membrane potential, surface potential, hydrophobicity, respiratory activity and growth. Materials and methods: Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli were subjected to ELF-EMF, 50 Hz, 1 mT for 2 h. Membrane potential was determined by fluorescence spectroscopy with or without EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) with DisC3(5) (3,3-dipropylthiacarbocyanine iodide), zeta potential measurements were performed by electrophoretic mobility, hydrophobicity of the membrane was measured with MATH (Microbial Adhesion to Hydrocarbons) test, respiratory activity was determined with CTC (5-Cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride), colony forming unit (CFU) and DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, dihydrochloride) was used for growth determinations. Results: ELF-EMF caused changes in physicochemical properties of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Hyperpolarization was seen in S. aureus and EDTA-treated E. coli. Surface potential showed a positive shift in S. aureus contrariwise to the negative shift seen in EDTA-untreated E. coli. Respiratory activity increased in both bacteria. A slight decrease in growth was observed. Conclusion: These results show that ELF-EMF affects the crucial physicochemical processes in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria which need further research.
Developing Reliable Online Polls

Winner: Nick Sparrow Developing reliable online polls IJMR vol 48, issue 6 What the judges said: This paper raises important issues about the way in which online surveys are administered and the motivations of online respondents. It demonstrates some major differences between results of online and conventional surveys, and suggests that the mode of interview is a significant explanatory factor. The judges selected this paper as the Silver Medal winner, because of the importance of the issues it raises for the online research industry and the valuable insights it provides.
Establishment and characterization of an ovarian cell line from half-smooth tongue sole Cynoglossus semilaevis.

A new ovarian cell line, CSO, was established from half-smooth tongue sole Cynoglossus semilaevis. Primary culture of CSO cells was initiated from digestion of ovarian tissues pieces by trypsin solution and cultured at 24° C in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium-F12 medium (DMEM-F12, 1:1) (pH 7·0), supplemented with 20% foetal bovine serum, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The cultured CSO cells, fibroblastic in morphology, proliferated to 100% confluency 3 days later and had been subcultured to passage 80. Chromosome analyses indicated that the CSO cells exhibited chromosomal aneuploidy with a modal chromosome number of 42 that displayed the normal diploid karyotype of C. semilaevis [2n = 42 t, fundamental number (NF ) = 42]. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed that CSO cells could express ovarian somatic cell functional genes p450armo, foxl2 and sox9a but not ovary germ cell marker gene vasa and male-specific gene dmrt1. Transfection experiment demonstrated that CSO cells transfected with pEGFP-N3 plasmid could express green fluorescence protein (GFP) with higher transfection efficiency. The CSO cell line might serve as a valuable tool for studies on the mechanism of sex determination and oogenesis of ovary in flatfish.