Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Board Evaluations: Making a Fit between the Purpose and the System

Board evaluations can contribute to effective boards and improved corporate financial performance. The increasing interest in the practice of board evaluations, however, calls for a more systematic and careful approach than has been employed in the past. While most attention has primarily been focused on the content of board evaluations, this article outlines the features of various possible board evaluation systems. Based on state-of-the-art research on boards and governance, we contend that a comprehensive board evaluation system needs to include decisions about: (a) the agent who evaluates the board; (b) the content, or what the evaluation should deal with; (c) the addressee and other stakeholders for whom the board is evaluated; and (d) how the board is evaluated. These key decisions should not be seen as independent of each other as they have consequences for the kind of system that will be adopted. Following this argument, we present four different board evaluation systems: (i) board-to-board, (ii) board-to-market, (iii) market-to-board and (iv) market-to-market. The key message we communicate in this article is that there must be a fit between the purpose and the system of board evaluations. There is no universal or "one best way" to evaluate boards of directors. Board evaluations will not meet their purpose unless there is a fit between the agents, the addressees, the content and the modalities of the evaluation. It is important to know who is doing what for whom and how.
Activation of the renin–angiotensin system in α-calcitonin gene-related peptide/calcitonin gene knockout mice

Objective To test the hypotheses that circulating or tissue renin–angiotensin system (RAS) activity is increased in α-calcitonin gene-related peptide (αCGRP) knockout mice, and that this contributes to the increased blood pressure in these mice. Design and methods Three- to six-month-old male αCGRP/calcitonin knockout mice and wild-type controls were studied. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and its response to an angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor blocker, losartan (3 mg/kg intravenously), were determined in conscious, unrestrained knockout mice and wild-type mice. Radioimmunoassay and western blot were used, respectively, to determine plasma renin activity (PRA) and AT1 receptor protein content in tissues. Results Basal MAP and PRA were significantly greater in the knockout mice than in the wild-type mice. In contrast, AT1 receptor content in the renal medulla was significantly decreased in the knockout mice compared with that in wild-type mice. AT1 receptor content in the renal cortex and mesenteric resistance arteries was not different in the knockout and wild-type mice. Losartan produced a significant decrease in MAP in the knockout mice compared with that in wild-type mice. Conclusion Activity of the circulating RAS, but not tissue AT1 receptor expression, is increased in αCGRP/calcitonin knockout mice, which may contribute to the increase in blood pressure in this mouse model. The mechanism(s) responsible for the increased activity of the circulating RAS in the absence of αCGRP throughout the developmental stages of these animals remains to be determined.
Hepatitis E virus and the safety of plasma products: investigations into the reduction capacity of manufacturing processes

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) has been transmitted by transfusion of labile blood products and the occasional detection of HEV RNA in plasma pools indicates that HEV viremic donations might enter the manufacturing process of plasma products. To verify the safety margins of plasma products with respect to HEV, virus reduction steps commonly used in their manufacturing processes were investigated for their effectiveness to reduce HEV.
Developing a three-way collaborative model to promote first year student engagement and skill support

Recent discourse about engaging first year students calls for more collaboration in terms of adopting a holistic approach to course delivery. This paper discusses a model visualised at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) that seeks opportunities and ways to provide skill support in a more collaborative way than has been historically practiced. Therefore, a threeway collaborative model, involving the Faculty Teacher, the Skills Advisor and the Librarian, has been developed to improve students’ skill levels and promote student interaction with staff. By illuminating the link between the writing and research process and the course content, the model promotes student and faculty accessibility to the Library and Academic Skills services and fosters better collegial relationships. Literature around first year engagement indicates that this three-way collaborative model provides the framework for facilitating first year awareness about individual skill development.
A Non-Cournot Model of Voluntary Collective Action

The interaction of selfish, rational actors in the provision of a public good is analyzed, in an attempt to explain recent experimental findings as well as real-world cases of voluntary collective action. The model, which allows for more sophisticated behavior than that assumed by the conventional Cournot theory, predicts a higher level of collective action that that theory. The impacts of income effects and of the price elasticity of demand for the public good are given special emphasis.
Crystallization kinetics in the system CaMgSi 2 Oe-CaAlzSizOs : the delay in nucleation of diopside

Dynamic crystallization experiments on three different compositions in the system CaMgSi2O6-CaAl2Si2Or have been made in detail using the Pt-wire loop method. The nucleation ofdiopside and anorthite is always delayed under supercooled conditions. The delay in nucleation decreases with increasing degree of supercooling or increasing cooling rate. With further increase in the degree of supercooling or the cooling rate, the delay in anorthite nucleation increases. The incubation time for nucleation cannot be determined accurately because the nucleation takes place at random in some region of temperaturetime space. For a given degree of supercooling, the region of random nucleation of diopside is wider than that of anorthite. Interpretations using nucleation theory indicate that steadystate nucleation occurs for diopside and transient nucleation for anorthite. The steady-state nucleation of diopside is verified by additional experiments to examine the nucleation probability of diopside. The delay in diopside nucleation and the region of the random nucleation decrease in experiments using Pt-Au capsules, in which heterogeneous nucleation takes place extensively. The effect ofheterogeneous nucleation is also consistent with nucleation theory. The delay in anorthite nucleation was also investigated as a function of initial superheat and its duration for a given degree of supercooling. The delay increases with increasing initial superheat and its duration but becomes constant for an initial superheat greater than about 40'C and for a duration longer than about 45 min. These results can be explained by taking into account the equilibrium size distribution ofcrystal embryos in the liquid. Some implications of the experimental results for igneous petrology, such as estimation of cooling rate of magmas, effect of superheating or supercooling on the textures of igneous rocks and relative ease of mineral nucleation in magmas are also discussed.
Improving Access to Community-Based Food Systems in Adelaide, South Australia: Strategies to Encourage Low-Socioeconomic Status Groups to Participate

The benefits of community-based food systems (CFSs) are well documented; however, evidence suggests limited access for socioeconomically disadvantaged people. Focus groups with low-socioeconomic status (SES) individuals explored enablers and barriers to using CFSs and potential modifications to enhance their participation. Participants believed that CFSs must improve their affordability and convenience and provide more information to enhance access by low-SES groups. Participant-generated strategies addressed each of these issues. CFSs will likely require a suite of strategies to attract low-SES patrons; however, these must be compatible with other goals integral to CFSs to ensure their sustainability.
Measuring interest group framing strategies in public policy debates

Framing plays an important role in lobbying, as interest groups strategically highlight some aspects of policy proposals while ignoring others to shape policy debates in their favour. However, due to methodological difficulties, we have remarkably little systematic data about the framing strategies of interest groups. This article therefore proposes a new technique for measuring interest group framing that is based on a quantitative text analysis of interest group position papers and official policy documents. We test this novel methodological approach on the basis of two case studies in the areas of environmental and transport policy in the European Union. We are able to identify the frames employed by all interest groups mobilised in a debate and assess their effectiveness by studying to what extent decision-makers move closer to their policy positions over the course of the policy debate.
Portfolio Selection and Asset Pricing Models

Finance theory can be used to form informative prior beliefs in financial decision-making. This paper approaches portfolio selection in a Bayesian framework that incorporates a prior degree of belief in an asset pricing model. Sample evidence on home bias and value and size effects is evaluated from an asset-allocation perspective. U.S. investors' belief in the domestic CAPM must be very strong to justify the home bias observed in their equity holdings. The same strong prior belief results in large and stable optimal positions in the Fama-French book-to-market portfolio in combination with the market since the 1940s.
Portal glucose influences the sensory, cortical and reward systems in rats

The detection of glucose in the hepatoportal area is a simple but crucial peripheral cue initiating a nervous signal that ultimately leads to a wide array of metabolic and behavioural responses, such as decreased food intake, tighter control of glucose homeostasis, or appearance of food preference. This signal has been suggested to mediate the effects of high‐protein diets, as opposed to high‐fat/high‐sucrose diets. Nevertheless, the central targets of the signal originating from the hepatoportal area remain largely undocumented. Using immunohistochemistry on the brain of male rats, we show here that portal glucose increases c‐Fos expression in the brainstem, in the hypothalamus (in particular in neurons expressing pro‐opiomelanocortin) and also in olfactory and other limbic and cortical areas, including those functionally implicated in reward (Experiment 1). In similar postabsorptive conditions, a high‐protein diet induced similar effects in the hypothalamus and the granular cells of the main olfactory bulb, whereas the high‐fat/high‐sucrose diet actually reduced the basal expression of c‐Fos in cortical layers. Both diets also decreased the number of neurons expressing c‐Fos in the amygdala and gustatory areas (Experiment 2). Altogether, these findings suggest that the peripheral signal primed by portal glucose sensing may influence behavioural adaptation such as food preference via a network including the olfactory pathway, central amygdala, nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex, in addition to satiety and metabolic effects primarily implicating the hypothalamic response.
Financing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana

Abstract Issues of finance and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries have dominated the research agenda at various policy levels. However, very little empirical analysis, that is, hypothesis testing has been carried out to ascertain the relationship between finance and enterprise performance. Although a few studies have attempted to examine this relationship, yet there remain large gaps in our knowledge concerning the relationship between finance and SME development. This paper attempts to fill this gap by providing information on the relationship between finance and enterprise growth in Ghana.
The impact of income tax rates (ITR) on the economic development of Botswana

Traditional schools of thought advocated the theory of low income tax rates’ influencing economic development, whereas modern schools of thought propagated the theory of higher income tax rates producing greater economic growth, especially for developed nations. In order to justify these thoughts an attempt was made taking Botswana as a case study to pin point the effect of low and high income tax rates on economic growth. In this study various parameters were taken into account including income tax rates, income tax revenue, total revenue and GDP of the country in the nominal and real value of the money. It was located that low income tax rates boosted the economic growth of Botswana. Key words: Income tax rates, economic development, nominal, real value of money.
A note on bank default risk under government capital injection coinciding with high future loss expectation

This article proposes a framework for bank default risk measure under government capital injection explicitly coinciding with an adverse signal that a rescued bank is expected to have significant future losses. A bank facing a serious problem of early closure may have a strong incentive to participate in a government assistance programme. Recipients of government capital injections are encouraged to make additional loans at a reduced margin, and then increase the default risk in the bank's equity returns. These results may be due to the conflicting goals of the government's capital injection programme for bank recapitalization and bank lending.
Job loss and its aftermath among managers and professionals: wounded, fragmented and flexible

Based on longitudinal fieldwork with unemployed managers and professionals in their 50s, the article examines the meaning of job loss to these people and charts their subsequent efforts to restore their lives. The article identifies core similarities in their experiences and discerns different narrative strategies through which they have tried to make sense of their dismissal and sustain their selfhood. For all, job loss was a considerable trauma leading to a fragmentation of identity; this was compounded by subsequent rejection and perceived discrimination. Few were able to resume their earlier careers; the majority had to adjust their expectations downwards and opt for either virtual deskilling in less well paid and less demanding jobs or for an assortment of part-time, casual and voluntary work. Best ‘adapted’ (and least fragmented) were those who were prepared to forsake hopes of a return to high-powered jobs and display flexibility, resourcefulness and opportunism in adapting to their reduced circumstances.
Thirty Years of Currency Crises in Argentina: External Shocks or Domestic Fragility?

This paper examines Argentina´s currency crises from 1970 to 2001, with particular attention to the role of domestic and external factors. Using VAR estimations, we find that deteriorating domestic fundamentals matter. For example, at the core of the late 1980s crises was excessively loose monetary policy, while a sharp output contraction triggered the collapse of the currency board in January 2002. In contrast, adverse external shocks were at the heart of the 1995 crisis, with spillovers from the Mexican crisis and high world interest rates being key sources of financial distress.
Studies on the brackish water cercariae in Japan. III. Three new echinostome cercariae in Tokyo Bay, with a list of Japanese echinostome cercariae (Trematoda).

The present paper reports three new echinostome cercariae with a review of known 18 spp. of Japanese echinostome cercariae. They were found from the brackish water snails collected from a muddy seashore at Urayasu during the past years from 1944 to 1952. One of these, Cercaria pseudo grani f era n. sp. , bearing a strong resemblance to Cercaria grani f era Ogata, 1943, differed from it in detailed morphological features. Another species, Cercaria ophthalmoechinata n. sp. was a peculiar echinostome type in possession of one pair of eye spot. It was found on two occasions from the snail, T ympanotonus microptera. A third species, Cercaria yamagutii n. sp. , characterized by possessing one pair of side branched excretory tube, was found in many occasions in 1944 but rapidly decreased the infection rate in subsequent years of investigation. Materials and methods were omitted here since they were given in details in the former papers of this series (Ito, 1956a; 1956b) .
Selection of balanced portfolios to track the main properties of a large market

Index-based investment products are becoming increasingly popular among passive managers. So far, empirical studies have focused on complex heuristic-related optimization techniques. In this article, we adopt a different perspective and apply a survey sampling framework in the context of stock market tracking. We describe a novel and automatic method that enables us to construct a small portfolio to track the Total Market Capitalization (TMC). The constructed portfolio is randomly selected using a new method of balanced sampling. Empirical studies are performed on constituents of the S&P500. Our findings suggest that balanced sampling portfolios can efficiently track a market.
Medial Canal Fibrosis: Surgical Technique, Results, and a Proposed Grading System

Objective: To report the hearing and surgical results in patients with medial canal fibrosis. To describe the surgical technique for removal of medial canal fibrosis and to propose a classification for grading postoperative surgical outcome and to correlate this with hearing results. Setting: Tertiary university referral center. Study Design: Retrospective case review. Methods: Twenty-one patients with mature medial canal fibrosis underwent a total of 26 operations at our institution from February 1994 to June 2003. Four patients underwent surgery for bilateral disease and another had a second operation for recurrence. Results: According to the proposed grading system, 10 (38.5%) of the 29 ears operated on achieved a Grade I result (normal self-cleaning ears) and three (11.5%) had recurrence (Grade III). One patient was found to have external ear canal cholesteatoma. Postoperatively, 15 ears demonstrated closure of the air-bone gap to within 10 dB or improvement on four-frequency average pure-tone audiogram to better than 25 dB. The mean preoperative air-bone gap was 28.7 dB compared with 12.5 dB postoperatively (p < 0.001). When hearing results were correlated with postoperative grade, 90.0% of the ears with a Grade I result had significant hearing improvement, 46.2% in patients with Grade II and 33.3% in patients with Grade III results. Four patients complained of temporomandibular joint pain postoperatively. Conclusion: Surgery remains the treatment of choice for mature medial canal fibrosis. With proper surgical technique and meticulous postoperative care, a patent and functioning external ear canal can be achieved in a majority of patients. Absence of recurrence does not equate with improved hearing thresholds.
Effect of N‐acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG) on non‐quantal and spontaneous quantal release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular synapse of rat

N‐Acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG), known to be present in rat motor neurons, may participate in neuronal modulation of non‐quantal secretion of acetylcholine (ACh) from motor nerve terminals. Non‐quantal release of ACh was estimated by the amplitude of the endplate membrane hyperpolarization (H‐effect) caused by inhibition of nicotinic receptors by (+)‐tubocurarine and acetylcholinesterase by armin (diethoxy‐p‐nitrophenyl phosphate). Application of exogenous NAAG decreased the H‐effect in a dose‐dependent manner. The reduction of the H‐effect by NAAG was completely removed when N‐acetyl‐β‐aspartylglutamate (βNAAG) or 2‐(phosphonomethyl)‐pentanedioic acid (2‐PMPA) was used to inhibit glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCP II), a presynaptic Schwann cell membrane‐associated ectoenzyme that hydrolyzes NAAG to glutamate and N‐acetylaspartate. Bath application of glutamate decreased the H‐effect similarly to the action of NAAG but N‐acetylaspartate was without effect. Inhibition of NMDA receptors by dl‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphopentanoic acid, (+)‐5‐methyl‐10,11‐dihydro‐5H‐dibenzocyclohepten‐5,10‐imine (MK801), and 7‐chlorokynurenic acid or inhibition of muscle nitric oxide synthase (NO synthase) by NG‐nitro‐l‐arginine methyl ester and 3‐bromo‐7‐nitroindazole completely prevented the decrease of the H‐effect by NAAG. These results suggest that glutamate, produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of bath‐applied NAAG, can modulate non‐quantal secretion of ACh from the presynaptic terminal of the neuromuscular synapse via activation of postsynaptic NMDA receptors and synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) in muscle fibers. NAAG also increased the frequency of miniature endplate potentials (mEPPs) generated by spontaneous quantal secretion of ACh, whereas the mean amplitude and time constants for rise time and for decay of mEPPs did not change.
Numerical Modeling of Dynamic Behavior of Annular Tuned Liquid Dampers for Applications in Wind Towers

Abstract: In this study, the performance of annular liquid tanks as a tuned liquid damper (TLD) in mitigating the vibration of wind turbines was investigated using a numerical model. A proposed hybrid wind tower model composed of a concrete shaft and a steel mast with a height of 150 m was simulated using a single‐degree‐of‐freedom system. The structural domain including the tank wall and a rigid mass was modeled using finite element method, while the fluid domain was simulated by finite volume method using CFX software. A parametric study was carried out to investigate the behavior of annular TLD under harmonic loads for different mass and frequency ratios as well as displacement amplitudes. The damping characteristics of the annular TLD model were derived by comparing the numerical results with an equivalent linear model. In addition, the effectiveness of annular TLD was estimated by comparing the numerically calculated damping ratios with those corresponding to the optimum damping ratio values derived for a particular mass ratio based on the concept of tuned mass damper. It was found that that the annular TLD is effective when the amplitude of excitation is small. Moreover, the response of TLD in terms of nonlinear free surface sloshing and the energy dissipated by the system was discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of annular TLD in reducing the structural response of wind turbine towers under random vibrations was evaluated and discussed.