Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of multiple directorships on a board of directors' corporate governance effectiveness

Prior research has documented conflicting evidence on whether having corporate directors sitting on multiple boards is harmful or beneficial to a firm. According to the Busyness Hypothesis, sitting on multiple boards is detrimental due to the distractions and time constraints that result for the directors. Alternatively, the Experience Hypothesis suggests that directors gain valuable experience in varied industries and/or regulatory environments by serving on multiple boards, which results in increased governance effectiveness. We extend prior research by proposing that both a busyness effect and an experience effect may be present and act simultaneously, but that one of the effects will dominate for certain types of firms. We hypothesise that the busyness effect will prevail in smaller firms, while the experience effect will be dominant for larger firms. Using the number of reported material internal control weaknesses as a proxy for governance effectiveness, we provide empirical support for these hypothesised relationships.
Early Field Experience in Agricultural Education: A National Descriptive Study.

The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of early field experience (EFE) in agricultural teacher education programs nationally. A descriptive census survey of all active agricultural teacher education programs in the country was used for this study. The fact that nearly all agricultural teacher education programs require EFE indicates that EFE is valued as an important component of teacher education programs. It was discovered that multiple early field experiences are required at multiple classification levels. The primary responsibility for EFE and the associated administrative tasks are placed on faculty within the agricultural teacher education program. Similarities regarding EFE requirements seem to end at broad, categorical levels. Most programs report having requirements; however, the means by which each program fulfills the requirements are considerably different. Teacher licensure, as well as state and national teacher education accreditation, influences procedural and minimum EFE requirements. This study provides the foundation for further research. Additional research is needed to identify the purposes and outcomes of EFE and determine the extent to which student learning occurs.
Communicating Private Information to the Equity Market before a Dividend Cut: An Empirical Analysis

This paper presents the first empirical analysis of the choice of firms regarding whether or not to release private information (“prepare the market”) in advance of a possible dividend cut, and the consequences of such market preparation. We use a hand-collected data set of dividend cutting firms that allows us to distinguish between prepared and non-prepared dividend cutters and test the implications of two alternative theories: the “signaling through market preparation” theory and the “stock return volatility reduction” theory. We document several important differences between prepared and non-prepared dividend cutters. Overall, our empirical results are consistent with the signaling theory.
Interorganizational Governance and Global Strategy

A wide range of interorganizational relationships falls on the global market to multinational hierarchy spectrum, ranging from supplier relationships (Dyer and Chu, 2000) to multinational business groups (Colpan, Hikino, and Lincoln, 2010; Granovetter, 1994). Concurrently, as firms increasingly deepen and widen their cross-border value chains, the structure and content of their foreign location portfolios become more critical to their global competitive positions (Dunning, 1998). In pursuing foreign direct investment (FDI) and establishing managerial control across borders, multinational enterprise (MNE) managers have become progressively more able to slice global value chain activities into finer pieces and allocate them across multiple locations. Global strategy studies these competitive cross-national dynamics and how ‘a firm’s competitive position in one national market is significantly affected by its competitive position in other national markets’ (Ghoshal, 1987: 425). Thus, decisions on the location (where) and degree/form of control (how) (Buckley and Ghauri, 2004) are critical sources of competitive advantage in managing MNEs. When firms decide to go international for various strategic objectives, they might choose to have full managerial control and acquire a firm or develop a new wholly owned subsidiary, but alternatively they might engage in different degrees of cooperation with other firms (Kogut and Singh, 1988). Generally, firms get involved in interorganizational relationships abroad to minimize firm costs, create discriminating alignment between host country uncertainties and firm control, and learn from its partners.
The stellar metallicity distribution of disc galaxies and bulges in cosmological simulations

By means of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way (MW) like disc galaxies, we conduct an analysis of the associated stellar metallicity distribution functions (MDFs). After undertaking a kinematic decomposition of each simulation into spheroid and disc subcomponents, we compare the predicted MDFs to those observed in the solar neighbourhood and the Galactic bulge. The effects of the star formation density threshold are visible in the star formation histories, which show a modulation in their behaviour driven by the threshold. The derived MDFs show median metallicities lower by 0.2–0.3 dex than the MDF observed locally in the disc and in the Galactic bulge. Possible reasons for this apparent discrepancy include the use of low stellar yields and/or centrally concentrated star formation. The dispersions are larger than the one of the observed MDF; this could be due to simulated discs being kinematically hotter relative to the MW. The fraction of low-metallicity stars is largely overestimated, visible from the more negatively skewed MDF with respect to the observational sample. For our fiducial MW analogue, we study the metallicity distribution of the stars born in situ relative to those formed via accretion (from disrupted satellites), and demonstrate that this low-metallicity tail to the MDF is populated primarily by accreted stars. Enhanced supernova and stellar radiation energy feedback to the surrounding interstellar media of these pre-disrupted satellites is suggested as an important regulator of the MDF skewness.
Police at work : policy issues and analysis

Three major issues often dominate current discussions among researchers and professionals concerned with the police: What are the effects of the police working environment on individual officers? How can police performance be measured? How do police practices affect the delivery of service - and how are these services viewed by community members? These issues - and such specific topics as police stress, personnel attrition, and the role of dispatchers in service delivery - are explored here in eight original essays.
Education Hubs: A Fad, a Brand, an Innovation?

The last decade has seen significant changes in all aspects of internationalization but most dramatically in the area of education and research moving across national borders. The most recent developments are education hubs. The term education hub is being used by countries who are trying to build a critical mass of local and foreign actors—including students, education institutions, companies, knowledge industries, science and technology centers—who, thorough interaction and in some cases colocation, engage in education, training, knowledge production, and innovation initiatives. It is understood that countries have different objectives, priorities, and take different approaches to developing themselves as a reputed center for higher education excellence, expertise, and economy. However, given higher education’s current preoccupation with competitiveness, global branding, and rankings, one is not sure whether a country’s plan to develop itself as an education hub is a fad, the latest branding strategy, or in fact, an innovation worthy of investment and serious attention. This article reviews and compares the developments in six countries which claim to be an education hub. It explores the meaning of education hub, introduces a working definition, and proposes a typology of three kinds of education hubs as follows: student hub, skilled work force hub, and knowledge/innovation hub. Furthermore, it identifies issues requiring further research and reflection on whether hubs are a fad, a brand or an innovation worthy of serious attention and investment.
Characterizing the temporal dynamics of object recognition by deep neural networks : role of depth

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have recently emerged as promising models of human vision based on their ability to predict hemodynamic brain responses to visual stimuli measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, the degree to which CNNs can predict temporal dynamics of visual object recognition reflected in neural measures with millisecond precision is less understood. Additionally, while deeper CNNs with higher numbers of layers perform better on automated object recognition, it is unclear if this also results into better correlation to brain responses. Here, we examined 1) to what extent CNN layers predict visual evoked responses in the human brain over time and 2) whether deeper CNNs better model brain responses. Specifically, we tested how well CNN architectures with 7 (CNN-7) and 15 (CNN-15) layers predicted electro-encephalography (EEG) responses to several thousands of natural images. Our results show that both CNN architectures correspond to EEG responses in a hierarchical spatio-temporal manner, with lower layers explaining responses early in time at electrodes overlying early visual cortex, and higher layers explaining responses later in time at electrodes overlying lateral-occipital cortex. While the explained variance of neural responses by individual layers did not differ between CNN-7 and CNN-15, combining the representations across layers resulted in improved performance of CNN-15 compared to CNN-7, but only after 150 ms after stimulus-onset. This suggests that CNN representations reflect both early (feed-forward) and late (feedback) stages of visual processing. Overall, our results show that depth of CNNs indeed plays a role in explaining time-resolved EEG responses.
Follicular Variant of Papillary Carcinoma: Reproducibility of Histologic Diagnosis and Utility of HBME-1 Immunohistochemistry and BRAF Mutational Analysis as Diagnostic Adjuncts

ContextDespite the recognition of the follicular variant of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid (FVPTC) for over 50 years, reproducibility of this diagnostic category has remained poor. Architectural features have been of variable utility as some FVPTC seem encapsulated, whereas others are multifocal and may be confused with nodular hyperplasia. Nuclear features are important for diagnosis of FVPTC, but some authors have discounted the utility of nuclear grooves and inclusions. More recently, BRAF and HBME-1 (Human Bone Marrow Endothelial Cell-1) have been suggested as markers for FVPTC. ObjectiveTo investigate the frequency of BRAF mutations and HBME-1 immunopositivity, in a series of FVPTCs in which the diagnosis was established by 100% consensus among a panel of 6 surgical pathologists. DesignTwenty-eight specimens with an original diagnosis of FVPTC and 10 cases with other diagnoses were obtained from the surgical pathology files of the University of Utah School of Medicine. All specimens were independently reviewed by 6 surgical pathologists. Tissue blocks were analyzed for BRAF exon 15 mutations and HMBE-1 expression. ResultsComplete agreement among pathologists for the diagnosis of FVPTC was obtained in 28.6% (8/28) of cases originally diagnosed as FVPTC. Mutations in BRAF exon 15 were found in 25% (2/8) of cases with a 100% consensus diagnosis of FVPTC and 32% (6/19) of cases unanimously diagnosed as a type of papillary carcinoma (classic or follicular variant). HBME-1 was expressed in 87.5% (7/8) of lesions with a 100% consensus diagnosis of FVPTC and 84.2% (16/19) of lesions with a unanimous diagnosis of a type of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid (classic or follicular variant). ConclusionsInterobserver agreement for the diagnosis of FVPTC is poor and testing for the BRAF mutation is only marginally helpful because a minority of FVPTCs possess the mutation. HBME-1 expression when coupled with a BRAF mutation, results in 100% specificity but low sensitivity for the presence of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid including the follicular variant.
Affirmative Obligations and Market Making with Inventory

Existing empirical studies provide little support for the theoretical prediction that market makers rebalance their inventory through revisions of quoted prices. In contrast, this study provides evidence that the specialist does engage in significant inventory rebalancing, but only when not constrained by the affirmative obligation to provide liquidity imposed by the NYSE's Price Continuity rule. The evidence also suggests that specialist affirmative obligations are associated with better market quality, but impose significant costs on the specialist. The specialist mitigates these costs through own-account trading when the rules are not binding. These findings bear on the current debate regarding market makers' behavior on the NYSE.
A framework for new solution development: an adaptive search perspective

Suppliers or solution providers are persistently under pressure to find a way toward competitive advantage. The literature indicates that for revenue growth and business opportunities, suppliers (e.g. IBM) must initiate a transition from goods or product-oriented business to solution-based business. Despite the need for solution development, there is a lack of practical and readily adoptable methodologies for suppliers. This is particularly acute in the professional service industry or knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). This study offers a theory-driven, yet practical, framework for understanding and executing solution development. The proposed framework uses a complexity theory view of strategy and presents new solution development as adaptive search toward higher peaks in the rugged business landscape. This study suggests that the search must be ambidextrous (the combination of local and distant searches). The search toward better solutions has three distinct but inter-related dimensions: supply-side, demand-side, and spatial. The extant literature on service innovation is utilized to shed light on the importance of each of these dimensions. This study proposes a solution development typology based on eight solution strategies, and illustrates it with two examples of KIBS. Finally, this study develops several propositions, which have theoretical and/or practical implications for solution development.
Taxation and Economic Growth

This paper investigates the design of tax structures to promote economic growth. It suggests a “tax and growth” ranking of taxes, confirming results from earlier literature but providing a more detailed disaggregation of taxes. Corporate taxes are found to be most harmful for growth, followed by personal income taxes, and then consumption taxes. Recurrent taxes on immovable property appear to have the least impact. A revenue neutral growth-oriented tax reform would, therefore, be to shift part of the revenue base from income taxes to less distortive taxes such as recurrent taxes on immovable property or consumption. The paper breaks new ground by using data on industrial sectors and individual firms to show how re-designing taxation within each of the broad tax categories could in some cases ensure sizeable efficiency gains. For example, reduced rates of corporate tax for small firms do not seem to enhance growth, and high top marginal rates of personal income tax can reduce productivity growth by reducing entrepreneurial activity. While the paper focuses on how taxes affect growth, it recognises that practical tax reform requires a balance between the aims of efficiency, equity, simplicity and revenue raising. Fiscalite et croissance economique Ce document examine la meilleure elaboration du systeme fiscal afin de promouvoir la croissance economique. Il suggere une classification des impots selon le modele « fiscalite et croissance », venant etayer des resultats deja connus dans des publications anterieures, mais proposant une ventilation plus detaillee des differents impots. Il s’avere que les impots sur les societes grevent le plus la croissance, suivis par les impots sur le revenu des personnes physiques, et ensuite les impots sur la consommation. Les impots sur l’immobilier semblent les moins nocifs. Une reforme fiscale sans incidence sur les impots et orientee sur la croissance consisterait a transferer une partie de la base imposable des impots sur le revenu sur des impots moins generateurs de distorsion, comme les impots recurrents sur l’immobilier ou ceux sur la consommation. Ce document est innovant dans la mesure ou il utilise des donnees sur les secteurs industriels et les societes individuelles afin de demontrer que le fait d’elaborer une nouvelle fiscalite au sein d’une large categorie d’impots pourrait, dans certains cas, permettre un gain d’efficacite non negligeable. Par exemple, des taux reduits d’impots sur les societes pour les petites entreprises ne semble pas augmenter favoriser la croissance; de meme, des taux marginaux eleves d’impots sur les revenus des personnes physiques peut reduire la courbe de la productivite en reduisant l’activite entrepreneuriale. Alors que ce document est centre sur la maniere dont les impots affectent la croissance, il reconnait qu’une reforme fiscale pragmatique necessite un equilibre entre efficience, equite, simplicite et levee d’impots.
Effect of home visiting by nurses on maternal and child mortality: results of a 2-decade follow-up of a randomized clinical trial.

IMPORTANCE Mothers and children living in adverse contexts are at risk of premature death. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of prenatal and infant/toddler nurse home visiting on maternal and child mortality during a 2-decade period (1990-2011). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A randomized clinical trial was designed originally to assess the home visiting program's effect on pregnancy outcomes and maternal and child health through child age 2 years. The study was conducted in a public system of obstetric and pediatric care in Memphis, Tennessee. Participants included primarily African American women and their first live-born children living in highly disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, who were assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups: treatment 1 (transportation for prenatal care [n = 166]), treatment 2 (transportation plus developmental screening for infants and toddlers [n = 514]), treatment 3 (transportation plus prenatal/postpartum home visiting [n = 230]), and treatment 4 (transportation, screening, and prenatal, postpartum, and infant/toddler home visiting [n = 228]). Treatments 1 and 3 were included originally to increase statistical power for testing pregnancy outcomes. For determining mortality, background information was available for all 1138 mothers assigned to all 4 treatments and all but 2 live-born children in treatments 2 and 4 (n = 704). Inclusion of children in treatments 1 and 3 was not possible because background information was missing on too many children. INTERVENTIONS Nurses sought to improve the outcomes of pregnancy, children's health and development, and mothers' health and life-course with home visits beginning during pregnancy and continuing through child age 2 years. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES All-cause mortality in mothers and preventable-cause mortality in children (sudden infant death syndrome, unintentional injury, and homicide) derived from the National Death Index. RESULTS The mean (SE) 21-year maternal all-cause mortality rate was 3.7% (0.74%) in the combined control group (treatments 1 and 2), 0.4% (0.43%) in treatment 3, and 2.2% (0.97%) in treatment 4. The survival contrast of treatments 1 and 2 combined with treatment 3 was significant (P = .007); the contrast of treatments 1 and 2 combined with treatment 4 was not significant (P = .19), and the contrast of treatments 1 and 2 combined with treatments 3 and 4 combined was significant (post hoc P = .008). At child age 20 years, the preventable-cause child mortality rate was 1.6% (0.57%) in treatment 2 and 0.0% (SE not calculable) in treatment 4; the survival contrast was significant (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Prenatal and infant/toddler home visitation by nurses is a promising means of reducing all-cause mortality among mothers and preventable-cause mortality in their first-born children living in highly disadvantaged settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00708695.
Institutional Environment, Firm Ownership and IPO First-Day Returns: Evidence from China

We examine two inconclusive issues in the IPO (initial public offering) underpricing literature. It is unclear whether private firms or state-owned enterprises (SOEs) underprice their IPOs more and how the institutional environment affects IPO underpricing. Using a much larger China IPO sample of SOEs, we conclude that SOEs underprice their IPOs more than private firms. Specifically, SOEs controlled by the central government (CSOEs) underprice their IPOs 27 percentage points more than private firms, whereas SOEs controlled by local governments (LSOEs) underprice theirs 7 percentage points more than those of private firms. Using the National Economic Research Institute Index of Marketization (NERIIM) to measure the institutional environment, we find that one index score improvement in institutional environment is associated with a two percentage-point reduction in IPO underpricing. Importantly, a better institutional environment reduces IPO underpricing most effectively for private firms, followed by LSOEs, and the least for CSOEs.
Hematology, cytochemistry and ultrastructure of blood cells in common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus)

Hematology and blood cells from 4 adult common palm civets (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) in Khaokeaw Open Zoo were prepared for morphology, cytochemistry and ultrastructure observations. There was no blood parasite in all civets. The red blood cells showed relatively uniform in size, with 4.3 µm mean diameter. Neutrophils had tight constricted, multilobed nuclei and contained many specific granules which clearly detected by transmission electron microscope (TEM). Neutrophils stained strongly positive with Sudan black B (SBB) and peroxidase (PO) but negative with alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) and β-glucuronidase (βG). By scanning electron microscope (SEM), they showed many microvilli and some micropores. Eosinophils contained numerous large round red refractive granules and stained strongly positive with SBB and PO, but negative with ANAE and βG. By SEM, the granule contour of eosinophil was most easily delineated from the other granulocytes. Ultrastructurally, they contained large round granules with homogenous content without crystalloid-core. Basophils had variable numbers of dull grey, pleomorphic granules and were negative for SBB and PO, but strongly positive for ANAE and moderately positive for βG. By SEM, the surface of basophil was smooth with small granule contour. Ultrastructurally, they contained smaller, homogenous and less electron-dense granules than those in the eosinophils. Lymphocytes were negative for SBB and PO but had 2 patterns of reactivity for ANAE and βG, including focal dot and fine granular staining. Monocytes were negative for SBB, PO and βG but moderately positive for ANAE. The large round eosinophil granules were the characteristic of leukocytes in common palm civet.