Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The ECB as Lender of Last Resort for Sovereigns in the Euro Area

The paper establishes that sovereigns, like banks, need a lender of last resort (LoLR). In the euro area the ECB, with its estimated €3.4 trillion non-inflationary loss absorption capacity, is the only credible sovereign LoLR. The ECB/Eurosystem has been acting as sovereign LoLR through its SMP purchases of periphery sovereign debt in the secondary markets. It has also contributed, through the deeply subsidised bank funding it provided through the 3-year LTROs, half of a mechanism to purchase periphery sovereign debt in the primary issue markets. The other half has been financial repression requiring banks in Italy and Spain to purchase more of their own government’s debt than they would voluntarily and at below-market yields. We expect that, once Spain and Italy are under troika programmes, the Eurosystem will also lend to these sovereigns indirectly, through loans by the national central banks to the IMF which on-lends them to these sovereigns. We recommend that, to increase its effectiveness as LoLR, the ESM be given a banking license. To reduce the illegitimate and unaccountable abuse of the ECB/Eurosystem as a quasi-fiscal actor, we propose that all its credit risk-related losses be jointly and severally guaranteed/indemnified by the 17 euro area member states.
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF SMES' EARLY INTERNATIONALI- SATION PROCESSES

Purpose- This study focuses on the main driving factors influencing the path (i.e. the decision-making process) of SMEs to internationalise and explains reasons for choosing different entry modes as strategy. The paper aims to gain a closer understanding of characteristics and challenges that SMEs experience in the early phase of internationalisation, and how its internationalisation practices – strat-egies – contribute to their competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach- A theoretical framework based on a literature review is developed. Empirical results were gained from a qualitative approach based on case studies and cross-case analy-sis of three Tyrolean SMEs. Findings- Aspects that have been investigated by this study are key motivating drivers to internation-alise and strategies applied. The paper highlights different approaches why and how SMEs undertake the process of internationalisation. Practical implications - An understanding of drivers and strategies to internationalisation offers en-trepreneurs and small business managers the opportunity to shape and reflect on the development of their company. Outcome of this study reveals the importance of managers in understanding the changes in the business environment and in identifying key internal factors. Results provide practical mentoring to SMEs in similar situations in understanding the nature of the processes of an interna-tional expansion strategy. Originality/value- Internationalisation strategies are usually viewed in relation to large enterprises. This study considers SMEs in their approach to develop international strategies and market presence. Research Paper Keywords: SMEs, early internationalisation strategies, strategy development, business development Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Knapp, J.L, and Kronenberg, C. (2013). “Strate-gic Analysis of SMEs' Early Internationalisation Process”, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, Vol. 1 No. 1/2, pp. 35–71.
Estimating the Lock-in Effects of Switching Costs from Firm-Level Data

This paper proposes a simple method for estimating the lock-in effects of switching costs from firm-level data. We compare the behavior of already contracted consumers to the behavior of new consumers as the latter can serve as contrafactual to the former. In panel regressions on firms' incoming and quitting consumers, we look at the differential response to price changes and identify the lock-in effect of switching costs from the difference between the two. We illustrate our method by analyzing the Hungarian personal loan market and find strong lock-in effects.
International Transfer Pricing in India: The New Era of Advance Pricing Arrangements to Benefit Both MNCs and Taxation Authority

The Government of India for the first time in 2001 introduced the transfer price regulations in the country with the transfer pricing audits effectively beginning from 2003 onwards. The onerous documentation requirements and stringent penalties prescribed by the regulations were a cause of concern for taxpayers for their international business transactions and this area of dispute between the taxation authority and companies has emerged as a single biggest source of courtroom battle. There has been stringent demand from the tax specialists and industry that the government to announce a clear-cut advance pricing mechanism to decide about the values of international transactions between the related parties. The Union Budget 2009 and New Code on direct taxation have introduced a few proactive and well thought out measures that can resolve the transfer pricing disputes. In this new scenario, an attempt has been made in this paper to put together and describe the concept of Transfer Pricing, Abuse of transfer pricing, Arm’s length Pricing, Safe Harbour, Advance Pricing Arrangements (APAs), Type of APAs, Benefits and Shortcomings of APAs and Amendments brought out/proposed to be brought out in TP rules. Further, the paper underscores – the implications of the proposed changes in the transfer price regulations vis-a-vis suggestions for the same and concludes that the APA mechanism will benefit both the MNCs and tax administration and will attract more foreign investment in the country.
Product Withdrawal Pandemonium: Marketing Communication Implications from the Pan Pharmaceuticals Product Withdrawals

Medicines, in their various forms, are an important part of daily life and health for many consumers across diverse cultures. However, beliefs and trust inherent in treatment are - at best - poorly understood. Major dislocation of trust occurs when the media report medical scandals, or when there are major health scares such as product contamination and mandatory product recalls. Notably, this area has not been extensively researched, with the exception being the 1982 Tylenol poisoning crisis in America (see, for example, Pearson and Clair, 1998). The mid-2003 government-ordered withdrawal of almost 2,000 complementary and alternative medicines, across multiple brand names in the Australian and New Zealand markets provides an opportunity to examine the impact on both the wide complementary and alternative medicines category and on brand sales and brand equity issues for both affected and unaffected brands. We focus on the impact of these events within the New Zealand market, and link the events surrounding the recall with the somewhat scant crisis management literature, and report on consumer perceptions of the sector six months after the recall event. We then offer conclusions and recommendations for the management of such events across national boundaries in the future.
Molecular Adaptations to Exercise , Heat Acclimation , and Thermotolerance Sexual dimorphism in skeletal muscle protein turnover

Smith GI, Mittendorfer B. Sexual dimorphism in skeletal muscle protein turnover. J Appl Physiol 120: 674–682, 2016. First published December 24, 2015; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00625. 2015. —Skeletal muscle is the major constituent of lean body mass and essential for the body’s locomotor function. Women have less muscle mass (and more body fat) than men and are therefore not able to exert the same absolute maximal force as men. The difference in body composition between the sexes is evident from infancy but becomes most marked after puberty (when boys experience an accelerated growth spurt) and persists into old age. During early adulthood until approximately the fourth decade of life, muscle mass is relatively stable, both in men and women, but then begins to decline, and the rate of loss is slower in women than in men. In this review we discuss the underlying mechanisms responsible for the age-associated sexual dimorphism in muscle mass (as far as they have been elucidated to date) and highlight areas that require more research to advance our understanding of the control of muscle mass throughout life.
A comprehensive study of the contribution of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium SPI2 effectors to bacterial colonization, survival, and replication in typhoid fever, macrophage, and epithelial cell infection models

Salmonella enterica serovars are Gram-negative bacterial pathogens responsible for human diseases including gastroenteritis and typhoid fever. After ingestion, Salmonella cross the intestinal epithelial barrier, where they are phagocytosed by macrophages and dendritic cells, which then enables their spread to systemic sites during cases of typhoid fever. Salmonella use two type 3 secretion systems encoded by Salmonella pathogenicity islands (SPI) 1 and 2 to inject virulence proteins into host cells to modify cellular functions. SPI1 is involved in host cell invasion and inflammation, whereas SPI2 is required for intracellular survival and replication within phagocytes, and systemic spread. In this study the contribution of nearly all known SPI2 effectors was examined in an in vivo model of murine typhoid fever and cell culture models of macrophage and epithelial cell infection. Unmarked, in-frame deletions of SPI2 effectors were engineered in S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and the ability of the 16 different mutants to colonize and replicate was examined. In the typhoid model, we found that ΔspvB and ΔspiC mutants were attenuated for colonization of intestinal and systemic sites, while the ΔsseF mutant was attenuated in systemic organs. In epithelial cells, all mutants replicated to the same extent as the wild-type. In macrophages, ΔspiC, ΔsteC, ΔspvB, ΔssseK1/K2/K3, ΔsifA, and ΔsifB strains replicated poorly in comparison to wild-type Salmonella. This study provides a thorough screen of the majority of the known SPI2 effectors evaluated under the same conditions in various models of infection, providing a foundation for comparative examination of the roles and interactions of these effectors.
The relationship between intellectual capital and innovation : a review

There are many factors that influence firm performance. In order to sustain competitive advantage and increase performance, firm needs to offer high-quality products at low cost. Many firms have responded to these competitive demands by being innovative in their practices and have shown enough flexibility to meet the expectations of their stakeholders. Economists assert that intellectual capital (IC) is a vital asset that helps organizations to create value in present economic syndrome and enables the organizations to be innovative. IC can boost the organizational performance through knowledge, experiences, skills of employees and also by defining new methods of task performance and being innovative in their processes. Thus, IC of a company indicates the value of ideas and capability of being innovative for a longer period. Many authors have examined the relationship between IC and firm performance. Their finding indicates the existence of positive and significant relationship and this inspires the idea to review the literature on the relationship between innovation and intellectual capital, the topic of this paper.
Network Type, Industry and Knowledge Transfer in Networks

Organizations in networks learn from each other. However, the level of their learning may not necessarily be equal among networks, since, for example, tacit or cumulative knowledge is, in general, difficult to learn or transfer. Organizations may, therefore, learn more in industry networks that are characterized with explicit or less-cumulative knowledge than in other networks. This study analyzes knowledge transfer in inter-organizational networks to examine the relationship between the characteristics of knowledge and the level of knowledge transfer. It compares two industry networks that differ in sectoral characteristics and two alliance networks with different origins. Two mutually-contradictory findings emerged from the analysis. It was found from the analysis of alliance networks that organizations learn more in networks that are less technology-oriented, and therefore, new knowledge is created that tends to be more explicit and easier to learn. It was found, on the other hand, from the analysis of industry networks, that organizations learn more in networks that are characterized by tacit and cumulative knowledge. These findings highlight the tension between public policy and the interests of private firms and thus provide several implications for both R&D managers and policymakers.
Do Financially Constrained Firms Suffer from More Intense Competition by the Informal Sector? Firm-Level Evidence from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys

This paper investigates which firms suffer from informal competition and highlights the role of access to finance in this context. We use cross-sectional data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys covering 42,000 firms in 114 developing and transition countries for the period 2006 to 2011 and take discrete responses on the perceived severity of financial constraints and informal competition for our empirical analysis. We find that financially constrained firms face significantly more intense competition by the informal sector and that this effect is economically large. In fact, financial constraints are the most important reason why firms suffer from informal competition. Other influential variables are ill-designed labor market regulations, corruption, and firm size. A wide range of robustness checks substantiates this finding.
Inhibition of Maximal Voluntary Isometric Torque Production by Acute Stretching is Joint-Angle Specific

lthough stretching exercises that enhance flexibility A are regularly included in the training programs and pre-event warm-up activities of most athletes, research suggests that preexercise stretching could negatively impact the performance of skills for which success is related to maximal force output. Wilson, Murphy, and Pryor (1994) suggested that a stifFmusculotendinous system allows for an improved force production by the contractile component and provided evidence to support this suggestion by demonstrating that concentric performance in the bench press was significantly related to musculotendinous stiffness. The findings of Wilson et al. (1994), coupled with the results of several studies (Magnusson, Simonsen, Aagaard, & Kjaer, 1996; Rosenbaum & Hennig, 1995; Taylor, Dalton, Seaber, & Garrett, 1990), indicating that the musculotendinous unit becomes less stiff as a result of acute stretching, lead Kokkonen, Nelson, & Cornwell (1998) to investigate the effect of acute stretching on knee extension and knee flexion onerepetition maximum (IRM) lifts. Kokkonen et al. (1998) reported that a regimen of acute stretching inhibited the one-repetition maximum lift (IRM) of both knee extension and knee flexion. Kokkonen et al. (1998), however, could only speculate about the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon. One speculated mechanism was derived from a Wilson et al. (1994) supposition that the lesser force pro-
Effect of Using Different Labels for the Scales in a Web Survey

Surveys mainly use questions in which it is allowed to answer only through a closed series of alternatives. The choice of labels for these closed alternatives is an important decision. Depending on this choice, different results can be found. This paper focuses on the impact of using low versus high frequencies or durations scales. The novelty is that it studies panellists of an online panel oriented towards marketing surveys. Also, it uses data from countries little studied before: Spain, Mexico and Colombia. Using a split-ballot experimental design, it shows that significant differences in answers are obtained depending on the scale used. In order to determine which scale gives results closer to the reality, the correlation with an external variable is used; the higher this correlation, the better the scale. In practice, this information can and should be used to select the best scale for a survey.
The reasons for the divergence of IPO lockup agreements

Most initial public offerings (IPOs) feature share lockup agreements, which prohibit insiders from selling their shares for a specified period of time following the IPO. However, some IPO firms agree to have a much longer lockup period than other IPO firms, and some are willing to lockup a much larger proportion of shares. Thus, the primary research question for this study is: "What are the reasons for the divergence of the lockup agreements? " The two main hypotheses that this dissertation investigates are the signaling hypothesis based on information asymmetry, and the commitment hypothesis based on agency theory. This study uses methods that have not been applied by previous studies in the literature relating to IPO lockups. First, I directly use IPO firms operating performance as a proxy for firm quality. The results show neither a negative nor a strong positive relationship between lockup length and firm operating performance. Thus, based on operating performance, the evidence does not support the agency hypothesis while showing weak support for the signaling hypothesis. I then examine the long-run returns for IPO firms with different lockup lengths. I find that firms with short lockup lengths have much better long-run returns than firms with long lockup lengths. Therefore, the results reject the signaling hypothesis while supporting the agency hypothesis. This dissertation further contributes to the IPO long-run underperformance literature by showing that firms with a high agency problem have much worse long-run returns than those with a low agency problem. Finally, I investigate the short-term stock returns around lockup expiry. Generally, I find that firms with short lockup periods experience better stock returns around lockup expiry than firms with long lockup periods, though the returns are not significantly different from one another. Overall, I conclude that the results reject the signaling hypothesis while partially supporting the agency hypothesis. In addition, I show that firms with high agency problems have much worse stock returns than those with low agency problems around lockup expiry, even though the agency variable is not significant in the regression analysis.
Integration of High-$\kappa$ Dielectrics and Metal Gate on Gate-All-Around Si-Nanowire-Based Architecture for High-Speed Nonvolatile Charge-Trapping Memory

This letter, for the first time, presents a metal high-kappa -high-kappa-oxide silicon-type charge-trapping nonvolatile memory fabricated on an advanced gate-all-around nanowire architecture with a top-down process. The high-kappa materials are integrated with a high work-function TaN gate electrode. The fabricated Si nanowire TaN/ Al2O3/HfO2/SiO2/Si (TAHOS) memory can achieve a higher speed at a lower voltage compared with a similar wire-based SONOS device. For instance, at a 13-V programming pulse, the TAHOS memory device resulted in a V th shift of 3.8 V in 10 mus, while the SONOS took a period of 1 ms to produce a similar shift. Faster program-and-erase speed, particularly the much improved erasing speed in the TAHOS device, could be ascribed to the enhanced electric-field drop in the tunnel oxide in addition to the suppressed gate-electron injection. In addition, good memory-reliability properties could also be observed in the nanowire TAHOS charge-trapping memory.
Perspectives on Racial Phenotypicality Bias

This article reviews research examining racial phenotypicality bias—within-category stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination based on race-related phenotypic characteristics of the face. A literature review of research examining skin tone bias, drawing largely from work examining perceptions of Blacks in the United States, reveals that individuals with features typical of members of their racial category are perceived and treated more negatively by social perceivers. Furthermore, this treatment has broad implications for social status and health. Despite this evidence, the tendency to attend to and use within-race variation in phenotypic appearance has been over-looked in social psychological models of impression formation. However, several theoretical frameworks have recently been proposed to explain the role of phenotype-based expectancies in social representation and judgment. Drawing on the strengths of each perspective, a rudimentary model of racial phenotypicality bias is proposed. This analysis suggests that future examinations guided by the current framework (or similar others) can complement existing evidence toward a greater understanding of the role of phenotypic variation in social perception.
Increased Serum Calcium and Phosphorus with the ‘Switch’ into Manic or Excited Psychotic States

Summary Small but statistically significant increases in serum total calcium and serum inorganic phosphorus coincided with repeated onsets of psychotic agitation or mania in nine psychotic in-patients experiencing rapid cycles of illness. These increases were not accompanied by changes in magnesium or other constituents, which might suggest non-specific haemoconcentration. Similar increases in calcium or phosphorus were not present in patients without the same cycles of psychotic illness. The observed increases could neither be simulated nor altered by stress or activity, and it remains unclear whether they might be accounted for by dietary changes, sleep disruption, circadian phase shifts or by endocrine alterations.
Endothelial erosion of plaques as a substrate for coronary thrombosis

Summary Myocardial infarction is a prevalent, life-threatening consequence of athero-thrombosis. Post-mortem histology and intravascular imaging in live patients have shown that approximately one third of myocardial infarctions are caused by a thrombus overlying an intact, non-ruptured atherosclerotic plaque. Histology identifies erosion of luminal endothelial cells from smooth muscle and proteoglycan-rich, thick fibrous cap atheromas as the underlying pathology. Unlike plaque ruptures, endothelial erosions tend to occur on thick-capped atherosclerotic plaques and may or may not be associated with inflammation. Smoking and female gender are strong risk factors for erosion. Multiple mechanisms may contribute to endothelial erosion, including endothelial dysfunction, TLR signalling, leukocyte activation and modification of sub-endothelial matrix by endothelial or smooth muscle cells, which may trigger loss of adhesion to the extracellular matrix or endothelial apoptosis. Diagnosis of endothelial erosion by intravascular imaging, especially high resolution optical coherence tomography, may influence treatment strategies, offering prognostic value and utility as an endpoint in trials of agents designed to preserve an intact coronary endothelium.