Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intellectual Capital Disclosures in India

This study examines the annual reports of the top 20 information technology companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange with a view to evaluate the prevailing practices of recording and reporting of intellectual capital. The content analysis of the annual reports makes it amply clear that intellectual capital recording by the Indian IT companies is very low and that intellectual capital reporting has not got any preference or priority for the mentors of Indian corporations. The average number of items reported by the companies is deplorably low and only a small percentage of the total firms studied have actually reported intellectual capital in their annual reports. The reporting of intellectual capital is not consistent and the study also finds that a range of different types of reporting formats have been used for communicating intellectual capital information in the annual reports. There is no established financial reporting framework for the disclosures of intellectual capital and there are no guidelines on the reporting of intellectual capital from the worldwide accounting bodies and the accounting profession.
Social closure and the incorporation of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854

The incorporation of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854 has been researched from different perspectives without attention to the overall occupational grouping to which the founders belonged. The existence of this larger community of accountants raises the question of whether the foundation involved social closure. The purpose of the paper is to pose and respond to this question by explaining social closure, examining the Society's foundational process for signs of possible exclusion, and observing founders and non-founders to identify differences in characteristics that provide possible explanations for exclusion. Archival evidence of the foundational process and differences in characteristics is consistent with the possibility of social closure without precluding other explanations for the founder and non-founder groupings. The evidence also raises the question of whether the foundation of the Society is completely explained by the external pressures associated with a potential loss of court-related appointments. The findings in the paper are sufficient to encourage further research of social closure in other associational foundations in the early history of modern public accountancy.
Internet Purchases by Rural Residents: Implications for Community Development

This article examines Internet purchasing patterns of rural residents by age, income, and sex to determine the characteristics of Internet purchasers and the types of stores in rural areas likely to face the most competition. The multivariate Logit analysis of 840 rural residents in the 2000 Illinois Rural Life Panel indicates that access to the Internet at home rather than work, recent changes in financial status, size of community in which people reside, age, and past experience in purchasing from mail order catalogs are important determinants of Internet purchases. The paper concludes with several implications for rural economic development including the notion that future Internet purchases may be those that already were purchasing outside the community through catalogs. Local stores can develop web pages but probably will still be disadvantaged unless they can focus on services, unique merchandise, or join cooperatives that carry a large inventory at lower prices. Main street stores may focus on customer services while accessing inventories maintained by the cooperative venture.
Introduction of International Accounting Standards, Disclosure Quality and Accuracy of Analysts' Earnings Forecasts

We examine whether the introduction of international accounting standards by German companies has improved the accuracy of analysts' forecasts, and what role changes in the quality of disclosures have played in this process. We develop a structural equation model that allows us to separate the effects of changes in disclosure quality from other effects of the introduction of international accounting standards on forecast errors. Our sample comprises 1,908 firm-years covering the period from 1997 to 2005. We measure disclosure quality with data from a yearly annual-report competition. We find that the introduction of international accounting standards has been associated with a significant improvement in forecast accuracy. Increases in the quality of companies' disclosures appear to have contributed to this improvement. However, the disclosure effect, while significant, explains only a small portion of the overall improvement in forecast accuracy. Further analyses show that differences in disclosure quality are more relevant for German GAAP companies than for IFRS/US GAAP companies. Moreover, only the quality of notes to companies' financial statements appears to matter to analysts; the quality of management reports appears to make no difference. Our results are robust to a variety of tests concerning the sample composition, the operationalisation of variables and the estimation procedure.
International Trade and the Changing Demand for Skilled Workers in High-Tech Manufacturing

This paper examines the effects of changing trade pressures on the demand for skilled workers in high-tech and traditional manufacturing industry groupings and in individual high-tech sectors. For industry groupings, changing import and export prices have mixed effects, with coefficients switching signs between wage share and employment share models. These findings suggest that changes in earnings and employment of skilled workers are not moving in the same direction in response to shifting trade pressures. For individual high-tech sectors, both price and orientation measures had significant effects, but the direction of these effects varied substantially by sector.
Simian‐virus‐40 footprints in human lymphoproliferative disorders of HIV− and HIV+ patients

SV40 sequences were investigated by PCR DNA amplification followed by filter hybridization in a series of human lymphoproliferative disorders obtained from human‐immunodeficiency‐virus (HIV)‐seronegative and HIV‐infected patients. Our PCR and filter‐hybridization conditions enabled us to detect SV40 sequences in the range of 10−4 to 10−2 genome equivalents per cell. In non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) from HIV− patients, SV40 footprints were found in 11 out of 79 (13.9%) samples, while in NHL from HIV+ patients SV40 DNA sequences were detected in 2/16 (12.5%). In Hodgkin's disease (HD), SV40 sequences were found in 7/43 (16.3%) and 1/12 (8.3%) in HIV− and HIV+ patients respectively. A slightly higher prevalence of SV40 footprints was observed in reactive lympho‐adenopathies both in HIV− (3/9, 33.3%) and in HIV+ (6/17, 35.3%) patients. Sequence analysis of 2 NHL and 2 HD DNA samples established that the amplified PCR products belong to the SV40 sequences. SV40 prevalence and load were similar in samples from HIV‐seronegative and HIV‐infected individuals, suggesting that SV40 probably does not undergo strong reactivation phenomena in the context of HIV‐related immunosuppression. Moreover, the large T‐antigen(Tag) expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in 5/18 SV40‐DNA‐positive samples analyzed; however, few tumor cells (<1%) in 3/5 samples displayed positivity for SV40 Tag, while this viral oncoprotein was revealed in several reactive histiocytes present in all 5 SV40‐positive tissues. These results suggest that the lymphoid tissue could represent a reservoir for SV40 and may constitute the first step in understanding whether this DNA tumor polyomavirus has a role in the pathogenesis of human lymphoproliferative disorders. Int. J. Cancer 78:669–674, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR RECEPTOR REGULATION OF BONE MARROW CELL APOPTOSIS DURING ENDOTOXIN-INDUCED SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION

ABSTRACT Although inflammation-induced release of cells from the bone marrow (BM) is well established, less is known regarding inflammation-induced modulation of bone marrow cell numbers by apoptosis. The purpose of this study is to assess apoptosis of BM immature and mature myeloid cells and peripheral granulocytes, and to elucidate the role(s) of TNFR-p55 and TNFR-p75 as modulators of apoptosis in these cellular compartments in a mouse model of endotoxin-induced systemic inflammation. Gene knockout (p55−/−, p75−/−, and p55−/−/p75−/−), or wild-type (WT) mice were injected i.p. with saline (Sal) or LPS (4 &mgr;g/g) followed by collection of BM cells and peripheral blood after 24 h. Apoptosis was assessed by propidium iodide staining using two-color flow cytometry with differentiated granulocyte-specific Gr1-fluorescein isothiocyanate. Repeated-measures analysis of variance and Neuman-Keuls post hoc test were used for statistical analyses. After i.p. LPS, apoptosis was induced to the higher level in BM Gr1(−) cells than in BM Gr1(+) cells and was not induced in peripheral Gr1(+) cells. Depletion of cell numbers in both BM Gr1(−) and Gr1(+) subpopulations after LPS treatment was consistent with increase of the apoptotic cell percentages in the groups. LPS-induced apoptosis was significantly lower in Gr1(−) cells from the -p55−/−/LPS and p55−/−/p75−/−/LPS mice but not from p75−/−/LPS mice as compared with WT/LPS mice, whereas there was no difference in apoptosis of BM Gr1(+) and peripheral Gr1(+) cells among WT groups and knockout groups. Thus, apoptosis of myeloid cells during endotoxemia is minimized because these cells undergo differentiation, which in turn may be because of the attenuation of the proapoptotic effect of TNFR-p55 shown herein to occur with myeloid differentiation. In contrast, TNFR-p75 seems to play a minimal role in apoptosis induction in Gr1(−) myeloid cells during endotoxemia. One explanation for a decrease in BM cell numbers during endotoxemia may be via induction of apoptosis in immature myeloid cells.
Safe Reinforcement Learning for Continuous Spaces through Lyapunov-Constrained Behavior

This paper presents a safe learning strategy for continuous state and action spaces by utilizing Lyapunov stability properties of the studied systems. The reinforcement learning algorithm Continous Actor-Critic Learning Automation (CACLA) is combined with the notion of control Lyapunov functions (CLF) to limit the learning and exploration behavior to operate inside the stability region of the system to ensure safe operation at all times. The paper extends previous results for discrete action sets to take advantage of the more general continuous actions sets, and show that the continuous method is able to find a comparable solution to the best discrete action choices while avoiding the need for good heuristic choices in the design process.
Elevated Systemic Levels of Endocannabinoids and Related Mediators Across the Menstrual Cycle in Women With Endometriosis

Cannabinoids and modulators of the endocannabinoid system affect specific mechanisms that are critical to the establishment and development of endometriosis. The aim of this study was to measure the systemic levels of endocannabinoids and related mediators in women with and without endometriosis and to investigate whether such levels correlated with endometriosis-associated pain. Plasma and endometrial biopsies were obtained from women with a laparoscopic diagnosis of endometriosis (n = 27) and no endometrial pathology (n = 29). Plasma levels of endocannabinoids (N-arachidonoylethanolamine [AEA] and 2-arachidonoylglycerol [2-AG]) and related mediators (N-oleoylethanolamine [OEA] and N-palmitoylethanolamine [PEA]), messenger RNA expression of some of their receptors (cannabinoid receptor type 1 [CB1], CB2, transient receptor potential vanilloid type [TRPV1]), and the enzymes involved in the synthesis (N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine-hydrolyzing phospholipase D [NAPE-PLD]) and degradation (fatty acid amide hydrolase 1 [FAAH]) of AEA, OEA, and PEA were evaluated in endometrial stromal cells. The systemic levels of AEA, 2-AG, and OEA were elevated in endometriosis in the secretory phase compared to controls. The expression of CB1 was higher in secretory phase endometrial stromal cells of controls versus endometriosis. Similar expression levels of CB2, TRPV1, NAPE-PLD, and FAAH were detected in controls and endometriosis. Patients with moderate-to-severe dysmenorrhea and dyspareunia showed higher AEA and PEA levels than those with low-to-moderate pain symptoms, respectively. The association of increased circulating AEA and 2-AG with decreased local CB1 expression in endometriosis suggests a negative feedback loop regulation, which may impair the capability of these mediators to control pain. These preliminary data suggest that the pharmacological manipulation of the action or levels of these mediators may offer an alternative option for the management of endometriosis-associated pain.
Chinese Handwritten Legal Amount Recognition with HMM-Based Approach

A hidden Markov model (HMM) based method for Chinese legal amount recognition is presented in this paper. In the training phase, gradient feature is extracted from sliding windows and character HMMs are trained with single character images. In the recognition phase, the text line image is segmented using sentence HMM, which is constructed by character HMMs according to a strict language model. The main difference between our proposed method and traditional methods is that our segmentation is guided by language model, which can solve many tough segmentation problems. Moreover, we combine the HMM-based method with traditional OCR method to improve the recognition accuracy. Experiments have been performed on 4,709 legal amount text line images extracted from real-life bank checks. The recognition rate is 97.13%.
Earnings distribution, corporate governance and CEO pay

We investigate the relationship between earnings differentials and the pay of CEOs of 190 British companies between 1970 and 1990. We find that (i) changes in the differential between the 90th and 50th weekly earnings percentiles for non‐manual adult male workers [90:50] explain changes in the level of real CEO salary and bonus in our sample of companies; (ii) changes in this differential also account for changes in the elasticity of CEO pay to firm size; (iii) a broader measure of earnings inequality does far worse than 90:50 at explaining changes in both the level and the firm size elasticity of CEO pay; (iv) fitting the model on data for 1970–1983 and predicting pay levels for the period starting with the widespread adoption of executive share option schemes in 1984, we find a structural break in the relationship between lower management pay differentials and the pay of the CEO. We conclude first that top executive pay prior to 1984 was a stable function of both firm size and earnings differentials lower on the administrative ladder, consistent with a hypothesis advanced by Herbert Simon in 1957; and second that the use of share options from 1984 onward represents not simply a change in the mode of top executive compensation, but a de‐linking of the pay of top executives and that of their subordinates.
Reputation Acquisition in Debt Markets

This paper studies reputation formation and the evolution over time of the incentive effects of reputation to mitigate conflicts of interest between borrowers and lenders. Borrowers use the proceeds of their loans to fund projects. In the absence of reputation effects, borrowers have incentives to select excessively risky projects. If there is sufficient adverse selection, reputation will not initially provide improved incentives to borrowers with short credit histories. Over time, if a good reputation is acquired, reputation will provide improved incentives. General characteristics of markets in which reputation takes time to work are identified.
Infant feeding and risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in São Paulo State, Brazil. São Paulo Collaborative Study for Vertical Transmission of HIV-1.

Although vertical transmission of HIV-1 can occur through breast-feeding, little is known about the effect of colostrum, duration of breast-feeding, mixing feeding, and nipple pathology. We used retrospective cohort data to examine the association between breast-feeding-related factors and transmission of HIV-1 from mother to child in São Paulo State, Brazil. Information on maternal and postnatal factors was collected by medical record review and interview. Infection status was determined for 434 children by anti-HIV-1 tests performed beyond 18 months of age or diagnosis of AIDS at any age. Among 168 breast-fed children, the risk of transmission of HIV-1 was 21%, compared with 13% (p = .01) among 264 children artificially fed. Breast-feeding was independently and significantly associated with mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 after controlling for stage of maternal HIV-1 disease (odds ratio [OR] = 2.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-3.8). A trend was shown toward an increased risk of transmission with longer duration of breast-feeding, a history of bleeding nipples, and introduction of other liquid food before weaning, but these associations were not statistically significant. History of colostrum intake or cracked nipples without bleeding were not associated with transmission. Most of the women who breast-fed were unaware of their HIV-1 infection status at the time of delivery. Avoidance of mixed feeding and withholding of breast-feeding in the presence of bleeding nipples should be considered in further research as strategies to reduce postnatal transmission of HIV-1 in settings in which safe and sustainable alternatives for breast-feeding are not yet available.
An analysis of stability of the north–south growth model of trade: Saddle-path stability of the generalized grossman–helpman model with skilled and unskilled labours

Abstract This paper analyses the local stability of the steady state of the generalized Lai (1995) model, i.e. the Shimizu and Okamoto (2004) model. Lai is a modified version of Grossman and Helpman (1991a 1991b: Ch. 11) by assuming that there are two types of labour: skilled and unskilled labours. Shimizu and Okamoto (2004) generalize the Lai model by assuming that Southern knowledge stock depends not only on Southern cumulative experience but also on the number of products the North manufactures. This paper shows that the stability of steady state in the generalized Lai model has the saddle point property. Thus, this paper also establishes the stability of the Grossman and Helpman (1991a 1991b: Ch. 11) model.
Estimation of gene flow in the tropical‐rainforest tree Neobalanocarpus heimii (Dipterocarpaceae), inferred from paternity analysis

Pollen flow and population genetic structure among 30 potentially flowering individuals of Neobalanocarpus heimii, a tropical emergent tree, were investigated in a lowland tropical rainforest of Malaysia using microsatellite polymorphism. The 248 offspring in the vicinity of five reproductive trees of the 30 potentially flowering trees were used in paternity analysis for pollen‐flow study. Four primer pairs, developed in different species of dipterocarps, were adopted to detect microsatellite polymorphism. Based upon microsatellite polymorphism, pollen flow and seed migration were detected. Pollen‐flow events of more than 400 m were observed directly, based on paternity analysis in the study plot. The estimated average mating distance of the five reproductive trees was 524 m. This result suggests that reproduction of this species is mediated by a long‐distance pollinator. The haplotypes of some offspring were not compatible with the nearest reproductive tree. Thus, the results suggest that some seeds are dispersed by a seed dispersal vector. Investigation of genetic structure showed significant and negative correlation of genetic relatedness and spatial distances between the 30 potentially flowering trees, but this correlation was weak. We suggest that long‐distance gene flow and seed migration are responsible for the poorly developed genetic structure of this species.
Corporate Insurance Purchases and Taxes

An examination of the economics of Corporate purchases of insurance indicates that one strong motivation for insurance purchase lies in the tax laws as they affect insured losses. After a theoretical examination of this point, the analogy is made between the decision to insure or not insure and the decision to lease or not lease. A numerical example is provided by way of illustration. In this way corporate purchases of insurance can be viewed as a tax minimization method of financing losses that arise from insurable risks.
The Relationship between Capital and Earnings in Banking.

Conventional wisdom in banking suggests a higher capital-asset ratio (CAR) is associated with a lower after-tax return on equity (ROE). Despite the arguments in favor of this hypothesis, data on U.S. banks in the mid- to late-1980s tell a very different story. Bank values of CAR and ROE are positively related, and this relationship is both statistically and economically significant. The positive relationship between CAR and ROE holds both cross-sectionally and over time, holds when lags are included, and becomes even stronger when an extensive set of control variables is added to the regres-ions. The author regresses CAR and ROE on three years of lagged CAR and ROE and a number of control variables. The model suggests positive causation in the Granger sense to run in both directions between capital and earnings, consistent with the hypothesis that banks retain some of their marginal earnings in the form of equity increases. The evidence suggests that higher capital is followed by higher earnings over the next few years primarily through reduced interest rates on uninsured purchased funds. These findings are strongest for banks with low capital and high portfolio risk who decreased their portfolio risks as well as increased their capital positions relative to what they otherwise would have been. These results are consistent with the hypotheses that, because of factors making banks riskier in the 1980s, some banks may have had greater than optimal risk of bankruptcy and the associated deadweight liquidation costs, and as a result paid very high risk premiums on uninsured funds and suffered lower earnings. Those banks with increased expected bankruptcy costs that reacted by increasing capital quickly appear to have paid lower uninsured debt rates and had higher earnings than those that did not react this way. The tests generally do not support the signalling hypothesis - bank management signals private information that future prospects are "good" by increasing capital. The tests also show that the positive Granger-causality from capital to earnings of the 1980 does not apply to the 1990-1992 time period. The data suggest that banks may have "overshot" their optimal capital in the early 1990s because of regulatory changes, decline in bank risk, or unexpected high earnings that raised capital above optimal levels.
The Secondary Market for Hedge Funds and the Closed Hedge Fund Premium

Employing data from a new secondary market for hedge funds, this paper documents the existence of a closed-hedge fund premium, analogous to the closed-end mutual fund premium which has been extensively studied in the literature. Over the past decade, the two premia comove with one another at high and low frequencies, which is surprising given the numerous differences between the two markets. Rational theories put forward to explain the closed-end mutual fund premium are strongly supported as explanations for the variation in closed-hedge fund premia. These results are robust to correction for potential selection bias.