Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
S&P 500 Index Replacements

Standard & Poor's has become increasingly aggressive in deleting stocks from the S&P 500 index. Where once it made replacements in the index only when a particular stock had to be removed due to merger or acquisition, corporate restructuring, and bankruptcy filing, S&P now voluntarily removes a company for a variety of reasons, which may include low market capitalization, low share price, dwindling market share, or simply the need to find a spot for an up-and-comer. There are a variety of impacts on share price and trading volume for stocks added to and deleted from the S&P 500 during the period January 1996 through December 2001. For additions, abnormal returns and trading volumes are higher than ever. For deletions, share prices are dealt a crippling blow.
Chemical element transport in stellar evolution models

Stellar evolution computations provide the foundation of several methods applied to study the evolutionary properties of stars and stellar populations, both Galactic and extragalactic. The accuracy of the results obtained with these techniques is linked to the accuracy of the stellar models, and in this context the correct treatment of the transport of chemical elements is crucial. Unfortunately, in many respects calculations of the evolution of the chemical abundance profiles in stars are still affected by sometimes sizable uncertainties. Here, we review the various mechanisms of element transport included in the current generation of stellar evolution calculations, how they are implemented, the free parameters and uncertainties involved, the impact on the models and the observational constraints.
Crime and Unemployment in Scotland: Some Further Results

This article reexamines the link between crime and unemployment in Scotland; an issue that was originally addressed by R. Reilly and R. Witt (1992). Extending Reilly and Witt's data set by three observations is shown to lead to a significant reduction in the impact of unemployment upon crime. Furthermore, time-series analysis for each region and for Scotland as a whole provides no support for the view that unemployment has a significant impact on crime. Copyright 1994 by Scottish Economic Society.
The Edible Mushroom Pleurotus djamor Produces Metabolites with Lethal Activity Against the Parasitic Nematode Haemonchus contortus.

Pleurotus djamor is an edible mushroom that has medicinal properties. This study aimed to assess the in vitro activity of P. djamor extracts and fractions against Haemonchus contortus eggs and exsheathed infective larvae (L3). Crude hydroalcoholic extracts were obtained by maceration and fractions were obtained through chromatography. Metabolite identity was determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The results showed that P. djamor extracts had no significant activity against eggs at the concentrations used. However, the extract showed 98.7% and 77% larval mortality 72 h postconfrontation at 320 and at 160 mg/mL, respectively. The chromatography analysis resulted in 23 fractions that were eventually grouped into three fractions (E1, E2, and E3). These fractions showed the following egg hatching inhibition percentages: E1 = 100, E2 = 38.7, and E3 = 5.5 at 10 mg/mL concentration 72 h postexposure. Likewise, larval mortality percentages after this period were 90.6, 100, and 0.44 at 40 mg/mL (P < .05), respectively. The GC-MS showed five major compounds in E1 fraction, including four fatty acids: (i) pentadecanoic, (ii) hexadecanoic, (iii) octadecadienoic, (iv) octadecanoic acid, and one terpene identified as β-sitosterol. We concluded that the edible mushroom P. djamor possesses nematicidal metabolites, which could be used as an alternative anthelmintic treatment.
Information Asymmetry, the Cost of Debt, and Credit Events: Evidence from Quasi-Random Analyst Disappearances

We hypothesize that greater information asymmetry causes greater losses to debtholders. To test this, we identify exogenous increases in information asymmetry using the loss of an analyst that results from broker closures and broker mergers. We find that the loss of an analyst causes the cost of debt to increase by 25 basis points for treatment firms compared to control firms, and the rate of credit events (e.g., defaults) is roughly 100–150% higher. These results are driven by firms that are more sensitive to changes in information (e.g., less analyst coverage). The evidence is broadly consistent with both financing and monitoring channels, although only a financing channel explains the impact of the loss of an analyst on firms' cost of debt.
Interdependence and EU-demanded policy change in a shared neighbourhood

ABSTRACT The Ukraine crisis seems to support the claim that strong socio-economic ties with Russia eventually reduce the effectiveness of the European Union's (EU) Neighbourhood Policy in the post-Soviet space. However, research on EU-demanded policy change in the region finds that EU policies at times still travel to Russia-dependent countries and policy sectors. Taking this puzzle as a starting point, the article draws on the original work on interdependence in the discipline of International Relations and identifies specific conditions under which Russia exerts either supportive or constraining effects on EU policy transfer. Presenting evidence from a comparative case study on energy policy change in Georgia and Armenia, the article argues that the distinction of different forms of interdependence and their interplay with Russia's quid pro quo bargaining, as well as with political preferences of domestic incumbents, are crucial to make sense of Russia's seemingly Janus-faced role in the neighbourhood.
Capacity, Leadership, and Organizational Performance: Testing the Black Box Model of Public Management

According to recent “black box” models of public management, managerial capacity is a critical component for achieving service delivery improvement. In particular, black box models assume that the impact of management systems is maximized through integration with effective leadership. This assumption is tested by analyzing the effects of managerial capacity and organizational leadership on the performance of English local governments, while controlling for a range of other variables, including organizational size, resources, external constraints, and past performance. Empirical results show that capacity possesses a positive statistical association with local government performance and that leadership can enhance the impact of effective management systems.
Reduction by coffee consumption of prostate cancer risk: Evidence from the Moli‐sani cohort and cellular models

Meta‐analytic data on the effect of coffee in prostate cancer risk are controversial. Caffeine as a bioactive compound of coffee has not yet been studied in deep in vitro. Our study aimed at evaluating in a population cohort the effect of Italian‐style coffee consumption on prostate cancer risk and at investigating in vitro the potential antiproliferative and antimetastatic activity of caffeine on prostate cancer cell lines. 6,989 men of the Moli‐sani cohort aged ≥50 years were followed for a mean of 4.24 ± 1.35 years and 100 new prostate cancer cases were identified. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition‐Food Frequency Questionnaire was used for the dietary assessment and the evaluation of Italian‐style coffee consumption. Two human prostate cancer cell lines, PC‐3 and DU145, were tested with increasing concentrations of caffeine, and their proliferative/metastatic features were evaluated. The newly diagnosed prostate cancer participants presented lower coffee consumption (60.1 ± 51.3 g/day) compared to the disease‐free population (74.0 ± 51.7 g/day) (p < 0.05). Multiadjusted analysis showed that the subjects at highest consumption (>3 cups/day) had 53% lower prostate cancer risk as compared to participants at the lowest consumption (0–2 cups/day) (p = 0.02). Both human prostate cancer cell lines treated with caffeine showed a significant reduction in their proliferative and metastatic behaviors (p < 0.05). In conclusion, reduction by Italian‐style coffee consumption of prostate cancer risk (>3 cups/day) was observed in epidemiological level. Caffeine appeared to exert both antiproliferative and antimetastatic activity on two prostate cancer cell lines, thus providing a cellular confirmation for the cohort study results.
An Examination of the Relations among Tax Preferences, Implicit Taxes, and Market Power in a Noncompetitive Market

We examine whether market power within a noncompetitive industry is related to a firm's ability to retain the benefits received from statutory tax preferences. Using both a market‐based measure and an accounting‐based measure proposed by Dunbar and Sansing (2002), we estimate tax preferences for a sample of 60 defense contractors for the three years preceding (1984–1986) and immediately following (1988–1990) the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86). We confirm that defense contractors enjoyed positive tax preferences in 1984–1986, which decreased significantly with the passage of TRA86. We find a negative and significant relation between changes in tax preferences and changes in pre‐tax returns, which is consistent with implicit tax theory and supported by prior empirical work. We also find that this relation is significantly less negative for firms ranked among the Top 100 defense contractors than for unranked contractors. We conclude that market power is positively related to a firm's ability t.
Issue Voting in Portugal: The 2002 Legislative Elections

This article analyses the relative impact of position versus performance issues in Portuguese voting behaviour at the 2002 legislative elections and examines the relative importance of issues compared to other determinants of voting behaviour. The article first defines issues and then presents a model of voting choice, before examining the salience of different issues. The impact of issues, as opposed to other major voting determinants, is evaluated as vote predicting factor.
The role of major depression in neurocognitive functioning in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder

Background Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) frequently co-occur after traumatic experiences and share neurocognitive disturbances in verbal memory and executive functioning. However, few attempts have been made to systematically assess the role of a comorbid MDD diagnosis in neuropsychological studies in PTSD. Objective The purpose of the current study is to investigate neurocognitive deficits in PTSD patients with and without MDD. We hypothesized that PTSD patients with comorbid MDD (PTSD+MDD) would have significantly lower performance on measures of verbal memory and executive functioning than PTSD patients without MDD (PTSD–MDD). Method Participants included in this study were 140 treatment-seeking outpatients who had a diagnosis of PTSD after various single traumatic events and participated in a randomized controlled trial comparing different treatment types. Baseline neuropsychological data were compared between patients with PTSD+MDD (n=84) and patients with PTSD–MDD (n=56). Results The PTSD+MDD patients had more severe verbal memory deficits in learning and retrieving words than patients with PTSD alone. There were no differences between the groups in recall of a coherent paragraph, recognition, shifting of attention, and cognitive interference. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that a more impaired neurocognitive profile may be associated with the presence of comorbid MDD, with medium-sized group differences for verbal memory but not for executive functioning. From a clinical standpoint, being aware that certain verbal memory functions are more restricted in patients with comorbid PTSD and MDD may be relevant for treatment outcome of trauma-focused psychotherapy.
Employee empowerment: extent of adoption and influential factors

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to examine the extent of employee empowerment within Australian manufacturing business units using an adapted version of the Pardo del Val and Lloyd instrument. The paper also examines the influence of organizational (business unit size, training, and link to rewards) and cultural (innovation, team work, and outcome orientation) factors on the extent of adoption of employee empowerment.Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected by survey questionnaire distributed to one business unit within 250 manufacturing organizations.Findings – The results reveal a moderate level of employee empowerment in Australian organizations, with the cultural factor, teamwork, and the organizational factors, training and link to rewards, found to have a significant impact on the overall level of adoption of employee empowerment. In addition, specific cultural and organizational factors were found to be associated with four different dimensions of employee empowerment (collaboration, .
Migration Decisions of Skilled Migrants:

Abstract This paper discusses the position of international students in the research on skilled migration based on interview data from Helsinki, Finland. The literature tends to depict students as gainers of human capital, and their role as skilled workers has received less attention. However, the findings of this study challenge the conceptual separation of student and labour migration. Moreover, much of the literature on international student migration focuses on popular, English-speaking destination countries such as the United States. This paper enhances the understanding of student mobility in exploring the migration motives of international students in the case of a less common destination.
Measurement Error in Imputation Procedures

We study how estimators that are used to impute consumption in survey data are inconsistent due to measurement error in consumption. Previous research suggests instrumenting consumption to overcome this problem. We show that, if additional regressors are present, then instrumenting consumption may still produce inconsistent estimators due to the likely correlation between additional regressors and measurement error. On the other hand, low correlations between additional regressors and instruments may reduce bias due to measurement error. We apply our findings by revisiting recent research that imputes consumption data from the CEX to the PSID.
Discretionary Tax Changes and the Macroeconomy: New Narrative Evidence from the United Kingdom †

This paper provides new estimates of the macroeconomic effects of tax changes using a new narrative dataset for the United Kingdom. Identification is achieved by isolating ? exogenous? tax policy changes using the Romer and Romer narrative strategy. I find that a 1 percent cut in taxes increases GDP by 0.6 percent on impact and 2.5 percent over three years. The findings are remarkably similar to Romer and Romer narrative estimates for the United States, reinforcing the view that tax changes have powerful and persistent effects. Exogenous? tax changes are also shown to have contributed to important episodes in the UK business cycle.
Optimal spherical focus in the peripheral retina

It is well known that, in most eyes, astigmatism increases with the field angle. A simple reduced‐eye model is used to demonstrate that, for point imagery in the peripheral retina, the combination of oblique astigmatism with elliptical entrance and exit pupils means that the retinal image with the optimal rotational symmetry is not necessarily at a focus corresponding to a ‘best‐sphere’ correction. Equations are derived for the position of focus at which a circularly symmetric blur patch is obtained and for the dimensions of the patch in this and other image planes. Ray tracing through a wide‐angle schematic eye is used to explore the validity of the simple model. It is shown that although the latter gives good predictions of retinal imagery for very small entrance pupils, it becomes less valid for larger, more realistic pupil diameters, due to the increasing importance of the effects of higher‐order aberrations. Nevertheless, the simple model can still yield useful insights into through‐focus, peripheral optical imagery.
Economic freedom and bank efficiency nexus

The paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of economic freedom on bank efficiency. By employing the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, we compute the efficiency of the Indonesian banking sector during the post-Asian financial crisis period of 1999-2008. The empirical findings from the DEA method indicate an increase in the efficiency of the Indonesian banking sector. We find a positive relationship between capitalisation and liquidity and bank efficiency. On the other hand, the results suggest a negative relationship between credit risk and overhead expenses and bank efficiency. The results indicate a positive relationship between business and monetary freedoms and bank efficiency, while the relationship between technical efficiency and financial freedom seems to be negative.
Why 99 Cents

I suggest a strategic explanation for why so many products and services are priced to end in ninety nine! I demonstrate that when the transportation cost (value of time, or differentiation-distaste) parameter exceeds $1, and if firms must commit to the dollar component of their price prior to setting the cent component, then all brand-producing firms set profit-maximizing prices that end in 99/
Mobility Among Employers and Assortative Matching

Job mobility is an outstanding characteristic of most labor markets. However, most of the economic literature focuses on occupational choice and not whether this mobility implies movements to ``better or worse'' firms. One reason for this research gap is the difficulty in establishing if the new employer is ``better or worse'' than the previous one. In sports markets, there is a natural way to rank firms (clubs) based on performance statistics. Using this simple idea, we study the determinants of promotions and demotions of workers among employers and test empirically the existence of assortative matching. We find that player performance is positively correlated with a player's career. Players with better performance have higher probabilities of being promoted and players with worse performance have higher probabilities of being demoted. Older players and players who have been transferred in the past have higher mobility but not a clear up or down tendency.
Horizontal inequalities in Kenya and the political disturbances of 2008: some implications for aid policy

Studies of the root causes of violent conflict within countries indicate that severe horizontal inequalities are an important factor, especially where both political and socio-economic inequalities are high and in the same direction. This paper reviews recent disturbances in Kenya from this perspective and presents evidence that suggests that they broadly follow the predicted pattern. Long-standing socio-economic inequalities were tolerated so long as the relatively deprived groups were included in government. The events of 2007–08 threatened political exclusion of the same groups that suffered economic deprivation. Arguing that this was an underlying cause of the disturbances, the paper concludes that aid policies need to consider the issue of horizontal inequality so as to help sustain political stability. Yet aid practices generally neglect this issue and the paper proposes ways in which aid could be reformed so that it contributes to the reduction of horizontal inequalities. The conclusions on aid are not only relevant to Kenya—as a long-term aid recipient—but also to other societies where there are sharp inequalities among groups.
Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Reconstruction Combined With Distal Realignment for Recurrent Dislocations of the Patella: 5-Year Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Tibial tubercle transfer (TTT) and medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) reconstruction have both shown, either in isolation or in combination, to provide improved patellofemoral joint (PFJ) stability. There are few studies that provide evidence that this remains true in the long term. Purpose: To compare the long-term results of patellar instability after TTT with and without MPFL reconstruction in 2 randomized groups. Study Design: Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1. Methods: A total of 34 patients (36 knees) were randomized to 2 groups. The first group underwent lateral release (LR) and TTT for confirmed maltracking of the patella (control group). The second group underwent MPFL reconstruction in addition to TTT and LR (reconstruction group). Patients were followed up with validated questionnaires (Kujala score, Tegner activity score), a visual analog scale (VAS) assessing their insecurity, and a clinical assessment at a minimum of 5 years postoperatively. Participants also underwent quantitative computed tomography (CT) at 1 year for comparison. Two patients in the control group and 1 patient in the reconstruction group were lost to follow-up at 5 years. Results: There were no significant differences in the Kujala (P = .75), Tegner (P = .36), or VAS (P = .75) scores at any time period. One patient in the control group sustained a patellar redislocation at 3 years. Five patients in the control group and 2 in the reconstruction group had functional failures and required reoperations; however, this was not statistically significant (P = .30). There were no significant differences between groups in the time to return to school or work (P = .65) or sports (P = .38) after surgery. Overall patient satisfaction was higher in the reconstruction group compared with the control group (P = .04), and quantitative CT scans showed that the reconstruction group had a statistically significant improvement in the mean patellar tilt (6° vs −8°, respectively; P = .03) and mean congruence angle (13° vs −11°, respectively; P = .03) in the quadriceps-contracted state compared with the control group. Conclusion: Reconstruction of the MPFL in addition to TTT and LR resulted in improved alignment parameters (congruence angle, patellar tilt angle) as well as patient satisfaction. The Kujala and Tegner scores were no different between the 2 groups at any time period. There was insufficient evidence to conclude that the addition of MPFL reconstruction to TTT results in fewer redislocations or reoperations. This study concludes that MPFL reconstruction improves PFJ alignment and patient satisfaction; however, further studies with larger patient numbers are required to satisfy its significance with respect to redislocation rates and functional scores in the long term.
The economic impact of BSE: a regional perspective

A regional input-output model, detailing agriculture and its ancillary sectors, is used to quantify the effects of a BSE-induced reduction in final demand for beef on the economy of Northern Ireland, a region with heavy dependence on beef exports. The long-run regional output, income and employment effects are estimated assuming no market stabilization measures and taking account of substitution effects in final demand. Predicted net losses in regional income are 0.5% of regional GDP with job losses of up to 0.6% of regional employment. About 77% of the income losses and 87% of the job losses are in the beef sector, primarily beef production. Compensating gains due to demand substitution effects occur mainly in meat processing sectors, other than beef, and are relatively small. Adverse intra-regional distributional effects are likely due to the concentration of beef production in the more disadvantaged areas. The importance of appropriate policy responses is highlighted.