Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Business Strategy, Executive Compensation and Firm Performance

type="main" xml:lang="en"> We investigate the impact of business strategy on the use of performance-linked compensation (PLC) and long-term incentive plans. We also examine the relation between strategy and compensation structure fit and performance. Using cluster and content analyses to classify a firm’s business strategy, we predict and find that product differentiation firms use a higher proportion of PLCs than cost-leadership firms. Furthermore, we find that the misfit between business strategy and compensation structure has a negative impact on performance. This study contributes to the executive compensation literature by recognizing that business strategy influences the compensation structure and that a strategy and compensation structure misfit negatively affects performance.
Epithelial Membrane Protein-2 (EMP2) and Experimental Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy (PVR)

Purpose: Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is believed to result in part from de-differentiation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) with cellular migration in the vitreous cavity, membrane formation, and contraction in an aberrant wound-healing strategy. In an in vitro collagen-gel contraction assay, epithelial membrane protein 2 (EMP2) controls contraction through activation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in a RPE cell line (ARPE-19). The purpose of this study was to investigate how blocking or altering the level of EMP2 expression changed clinical PVR in an in vivo model. Methods: Using the ARPE-19 cell line, the levels of EMP2 modulated through stable transfections of an EMP2 overexpressing construct, EMP2 ribozyme, or vector alone. These transfected cell lines were used in a rabbit model of PVR. The severity of PVR was classified by two masked observers. An EMP2 blocking antibody was also used to decrease functional EMP2 in the PVR model. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate EMP2 expression in vivo. Results: The transfectants with lower levels of EMP2 had significantly less PVR severity than the degree of PVR induced by wild-type cells (p = 0.05). Also, the transfectants with a low-level of EMP2 expression showed a strong trend of less PVR severity than the high-levels EMP2 transfectants (p = 0.06). Blocking EMP2 with a specific polyclonal antibody significantly decreased the level of PVR severity (p = 0.02). PVR membranes were found to be positive for EMP2 expression. Conclusions: These in vivo studies support a direct correlation between EMP2 expression and severity of PVR. These results validate the potential for controlling RPE biology through a change in EMP2 expression, and provide a potential therapeutic target for this disease.
Board Composition and Control of Shareholder Voting Rights in the Banking Industry

This study examines the board of directors in 190 publicly traded bank holding companies and finds that board composition reflects the ownership structure of the firm. Outside director board membership is greater when insititutional investors and independent outside directors own a substantial share of a firm's equity. Outside director board membership is lower when the CEO owns more of a firm's equity. This suggests that outside investors gain control over internal control mechanisms as their share of equity increases but have less control when the CEO owns more of a firm's equity.
Accountants as Sources of Business Advice for Small Firms

In many countries small business accountants play an important role as business advisers for small firms in addition to providing basic accounting services. However, while some small firms make extensive use of external accountants as business advisers, a substantial proportion uses them only to a minor degree. On the basis of small firms in Norway the aim of this article is to contribute to our understanding of the determinants of such variations. Our study reveals that the quality, rather than the longevity, of the relationship between firm and authorized accountant is an important antecedent of the degree to which small firms use accountants as business advisers. In addition, the study indicates that the competency orientation of firms also functions as an important determinant.
Agency conflicts and the demand for non‐audit services

Purpose - The aim of the present paper is to examine the impact of agency costs on the demand for non-audit services (NAS) in Germany. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses data from German listed companies to test whether audit clients vary their purchases of NAS according to agency costs over time. The paper used multiple regressions and included ownership composition, performance-based management compensation, and leverage as proxies for agency conflicts. Findings - Overall, the hypothesis that agency costs influence the demand for NAS was not confirmed. None of our proxies for agency conflicts were significantly associated with the purchase of NAS. These findings remain stable when alternative NAS fee measures were applied. Research limitations/implications - Findings cannot be generalised for smaller, private companies. Particularities of the German setting might have caused the insignificance of agency costs, but this cannot be tested statistically. The contrast between these insignificant results and the significant impact of agency costs on the demand for non-audit services revealed by many previous studies, in particular from the US and the UK, raises important questions for future research. Practical implications - This paper concerns management's perceptions on how stakeholders perceive the effect of NAS provision on auditor independence. Thus, its findings should be of interest to German, European and international regulators when evaluating the impact of the provision of NAS on independence in appearance. Originality/value - This study is the first to provide evidence on the relationship between agency conflicts and the demand for non-audit services from Germany and thus from a continental European country. Moreover, it provides evidence for periods after the introduction of stricter standards on the provision of non-audit services. In addition, it applies a new proxy for agency costs (i.e. performance-based management compensation).
Using appreciative inquiry to help students identify strategies to overcome handicaps of their learning styles.

INTRODUCTION In India, as in some other neighboring Asian countries, students and teachers are generally unaware of the differences in the learning styles among learners, which can handicap students with learning styles alien to the common teaching/learning modality within the institution. This study aims to find out whether making students aware of their learning styles and then using the Appreciative Inquiry approach to help them discover learning strategies that worked for them and others with similar learning styles within the institution made them perceive that this experience improved their learning and performance in exams. METHODS The visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic (VARK) inventory of learning styles questionnaire was administered to all 100 first-year medical students of the Father Muller's Medical College in Mangalore India to make them aware of their individual learning styles. An Appreciate Inquiry intervention was administered to 62 student volunteers who were counseled about the different learning styles and their adaptive strategies. Pre and post intervention change in student's perception about usefulness of knowing learning styles on their learning, learning behavior, and performance in examinations was collected from the students using a prevalidated questionnaire. RESULTS Post intervention mean scores showed a significant change (P < 0.0001) in student's self-perceptions about usefulness of knowing one's learning style and discovering strategies that worked within the institutional environment. There was agreement among students that the intervention helped them become more confident in learning (84%), facilitating learning in general (100%), and in understanding concepts (100%). However, only 29% of the students agreed that the intervention has brought about their capability improvement in application of learning and 31% felt it improved their performance in exams. DISCUSSION Appreciate Inquiry was perceived as useful in helping students discover learning strategies that work for different individual learning styles and sharing them within the group helped students choose strategies to help overcome the handicap presented by the school's teaching methods.
Measurement of complex transfer function of analog transmit-receive frontends for terahertz wireless communications

This paper proposes a reliable method of characterizing the scattering parameters of radio links operating at terahertz frequencies. The complex transfer characteristics and the non-idealities of analog transmit-receive frontends with quadrature baseband channels can be evaluated. Two coherent channels of an arbitrary waveform generator, combined with filters and a frequency multiplier chain are employed to generate the phase-adjustable local oscillator tones for the quadrature up- and down-converter. Impairments like quadrature gain and phase imbalance, port matching and group delay variation give valuable information about the performance of the terahertz wireless link. A proof-of-concept experiment is realized using a 300 GHz MMIC-based wireless link with an overall system bandwidth of 38 GHz. Accurate gain-frequency and phase-frequency measurements are demonstrated.
Understanding Collaborations in Virtual World

Virtual worlds (VW) have paved a new and important channel for workplace collaborations. However, analysts have noted that several organizations that made a strong entrance into using VW as a nouveau channel for communication and collaboration are stepping back due to limited user response. Motivated by this fact, we propose a trust-theoretic ‘virtual world collaboration model’ for collaborations in virtual worlds. The model, grounded in literature on ‘technology adoption’ and ‘trust’, theoretically examines the role of trust in motivating users for using this rich virtual communication medium for collaborations. Results establish the important roles of perceived social presence and perceived structural assurance for fostering user trust in VW. Further, results also indicate that user trust is significantly related to both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, which in turn influence the behavioural intention to use the VW. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Demographics, Redistribution, and Optimal Inflation

We study the interaction between population demographics, the desire for redistribution in the economy, and the optimal inflation rate in a deterministic economy with capital. The intergenerational redistribution tension is intrinsic in the general equilibrium life-cycle models we use. Young cohorts do not initially have any assets and wages are the main source of income; they prefer relatively low real interest rates, relatively high wages, and relatively high rates of inflation. Older generations work less and prefer higher rates of return from their savings, relatively low wages, and relatively low inflation. In the absence of intergenerational redistribution via lump-sum taxes and transfers, the constrained efficient competitive equilibrium entails optimal distortions on relative prices. We allow the planner to use inflation to try to achieve the optimal distortions. In the economy changes in the population structure are interpreted as the ability of a particular cohort to influence the redistributive policy. When the old have more influence on the redistributive policy, the economy has a relatively low steady state level of capital and a relatively low steady state rate of inflation. The opposite happens as young cohorts have more control of policy. These results suggest that aging population structures like those in Japan may contribute to observed low rates of inflation or even deflation.
Failure of rituximab treatment in a case of severe thyroid ophthalmopathy unresponsive to steroids

metric fluorescent assay with a functional sensitivity of 0Æ1 ng/ml. Algeciras-Schimnich et al. recently reported in a cohort of 197 healthy subjects (98 males and 99 females) a reference upper limit for CT of 16Æ0 ng/ml for males and 8Æ0 ng/ml for females and for proCT of 0Æ15 ng/ml. The v was employed to compare the positive rate of each marker and a P-value < 0Æ05 was considered to be statistically significant. Elevations in CT and ProCT were observed in five (2Æ9%) and one (0Æ5%) of 168 patients, respectively (P < 0Æ01). None of the patients with DTC and healthy controls had a false-positive CT or proCT result. Four of five patients with increased CT (included the only one with positive proCT) had nodular lymphocytic thyroiditis (Table 1). In our series, a falsepositive serum CT was found in four patients with nodular lymphocytic thyroiditis and one with hyperplastic goitre whereas none of the patients with DTC had an increased serum CT (overall false positive rate: 2Æ9%). Reactive C-cell hyperplasia (CCH) in neonates, elderly age, hyperparathyroidism, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and follicular thyroid adenomas have been reported to increase serum CT concentrations. Accordingly, three and one of our five CT-positive patients, all with lymphocytic thyroiditis, displayed reactive CCH and borderline increased C-cell counts, respectively. Inflammatory mediators and cytokines secreted by infiltrating lymphocytes in the thyroid parenchyma may be involved in reactive CCH with CT secretion in these patients. Interestingly, only one patient had a slight increase in serum proCT in our series (0Æ5% false-positive rate). Particularly, a negative proCT measurement could have been excluded 80% of CT-positive patients from stimulation tests and/or invasive diagnostic procedures in our series. In conclusion our data suggest that proCT is more specific than CT in patients presenting with nonmedullary thyroid nodules.
Influence of Hypovolemia on the Electroencephalographic Effect of Isoflurane in a Swine Model

Background: Hypovolemia alters the effect of several intravenous anesthetics by influencing pharmacokinetics and end-organ sensitivity. The authors investigated the influence of hypovolemia on the effect of an inhalation anesthetic, isoflurane, in a swine hemorrhage model. Methods: Eleven swine were studied. After animal preparation with inhalation of 2% isoflurane anesthesia, the inhalation concentration was decreased to 0.5% and maintained at this level for 25 min before being returned to 2% (control). After 25 min, hypovolemia was induced by removing 14 ml/kg of the initial blood volume via an arterial catheter. After a 25-min stabilization period, the inhalation concentration was decreased to 0.5%, maintained at this level for 25 min, and then returned to 2% (20% bleeding). After another 25 min, a further 7 ml/kg blood was collected, and the inhalation concentration was altered as before (30% bleeding). End-tidal isoflurane concentrations and an electroencephalogram were recorded throughout the study. Spectral edge frequency was used as a measure of the isoflurane effect, and pharmacodynamics were characterized using a sigmoidal inhibitory maximal effect model for the spectral edge frequency versus end-tidal concentration. Results: There was no significant difference in the effect of isoflurane among the conditions used. Hypovolemia did not shift the concentration–effect relation (the effect site concentration that produced 50% of the maximal effect was 1.2 ± 0.2% under control conditions, 1.2 ± 0.2% with 20% bleeding, and 1.1 ± 0.2% with 30% bleeding). Conclusions: Hypovolemia does not alter the electroencephalographic effect of isoflurane, in contrast to several intravenous anesthetics.
Trauma team radiation exposure: The potential need for dosimetry monitoring

Objectives: Australian radiation regulations require routine monitoring of health‐care workers who might receive a whole‐body effective radiation dose in excess of 1 mSv/year. In Australian hospitals, routine monitoring with a dosimeter is recommended for levels beyond 300 μSv/year. We aimed to determine the potential radiation exposure to trauma team members and whether routine personal radiation dosimetry should be recommended.
Attenuated PGI 2 synthesis in obese Zucker rats

Hodnett BL, Dearman JA, Carter CB, Hester RL. Attenuated PGI2 synthesis in obese Zucker rats. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 296: R715–R721, 2009. First published December 31, 2008; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.90330. 2008. —In obesity, skeletal muscle blood flow during exercise (functional hyperemia) is impaired. We have indirectly demonstrated that an altered arachidonic acid metabolism is responsible for the impaired functional vasodilation in the obese Zucker rat (OZR), a model of obesity. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that there is an impaired release of PGI2 due to a nitration of PGI2 synthase (PGIS), which is associated with a decreased prostanoid receptor expression. PGI2, PGE2, and thromboxane A2 (TXA2) release were determined in vitro using ELISA under basal conditions and in response to arachidonic acid (AA) administration (50 M). Immunofluorescence of PGI2 and TXA2 receptors (IP and TP, respectively) was determined in dispersed vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Nitration of tyrosine residues of the PGIS enzyme was determined using immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis. Following AA administration, PGI2 and PGE2 release were attenuated in OZR compared with lean Zucker rats (LZR; controls). Basal and AA-induced TXA2 release were not significantly different between groups. IP and TP immunofluorescence were not significantly different between OZR and LZR groups. OZR exhibited elevated nitration of tyrosine residues of PGIS compared with LZR. These results suggest that alterations in the PGI2 pathway (attenuated PGI2 synthesis), and not the TXA2 pathway (normal TXA2 synthesis/no change in TP receptor expression), underlie the attenuated functional hyperemia in the OZR.
The implication of phenylketonuria on oral health.

PURPOSE This study was performed to evaluate the oral health of children with PKU and to assess, in vitro, the erosive potential of 5 amino acid supplements commonly prescribed in the management of these children. METHODS Forty children with phenylketonuria underwent a full dental examination and were compared with an age and sex matched control group. The erosive potential of the supplements was assessed by comparing their pH and titratable acidity to those of Coca Cola and orange juice. RESULTS There was no significant difference between the affected and control groups in the level of dental caries, with over 75% of the children examined being caries free. However significantly more (33%) children with phenylketonuria exhibited signs of tooth wear compared with 24% of the controls (P < 0.05). While Coca Cola had the lowest pH (2.46), the titratable acidity of the flavoured supplements (92.86-126.8 mEq/l) was significantly higher than both their unflavored counterparts (4.18-14.0 mEq/l) and Coca Cola (38.56 mEq/l). CONCLUSIONS Despite the potentially damaging nature of their diet, significantly less children with PKU had ever seen a dentist. Health professionals involved in the care of these patients should be aware of the implications of management and provide appropriate dental advice and referral.
Is Unbiased Financial Advice to Retail Investors Sufficient? Answers from a Large Field Study

Working with one of the largest brokerages in Germany, we record what happens when unbiased investment advice is offered to a random set of approximately 8,000 active retail customers out of the brokerage's several hundred thousand retail customers. We find that investors who most need the financial advice are least likely to obtain it. The investors who do obtain the advice (about 5%), however, hardly follow the advice and do not improve their portfolio efficiency by much. Overall, our results imply that the mere availability of unbiased financial advice is a necessary but not sufficient condition for benefiting retail investors. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. , Oxford University Press.
Control Policies for a Single Server System

The paper deals with two parametric control policies for a single service facility when the arrivals are distributed as Poisson and the service durations have a general distribution. The N-policy is to turn on the server (i. e., open the service channel for service) when the queue size reaches the number N and turn him off when the system is empty. The D-policy is to turn on the server when the total work to be done reaches the value D instead. The optimum policies are compared for both the policies when the costs assumed are linear. It is shown that for constant service the optimal policies are equivalent and for exponential service the D-policy is not superior to the N-policy.
Automated algorithm for ovarian cysts detection in ultrasonogram

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a female endocrine disorder which severely affects women's health and its diagnostic requires medical treatment or even surgery. Manual analysis of PCOS diagnosis often produces errors. Recently, many automated algorithms have been studied for polycysts detection in Ultrasound images. This paper presents cysts detection and classification in the ovary ultrasound images with an accuracy that reaches 90%.
A General Equilibrium Model of Portfolio Insurance

This article examines the effects of portfolio insurance on market and asset price dynamics in a general equilibrium continuous-time model. Portfolio insurers are modeled as expected utility maximizing agents. Martingale methods are employed in solving the individual agents' dynamic consumption-portfolio problems. Comparisons are made between the optimal consumption processes, optimally invested wealth and portfolio strategies of the portfolio insurers and "normal agents. " At a general equilibrium level, comparisons across economies reveal that the market volatility and risk premium are decreased, and the asset and market price levels increased, by the presence of portfolio insurance. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Transportation implications of the metropolitan spatial planning in megacity Beijing

In the mega-cities of developing countries, access to workplaces has become increasingly difficult due to dramatic rises in commuting times, reflecting both limited transport infrastructure and particular forms of metropolitan spatial planning. In the light of this, this article examines the impact of spatial planning on workers' commuting time, using the case of Beijing. The analysis, using travel data collected from 613 households in 2006, shows that workers' commuting time has a statistically significant relationship with location variables related to spatial planning, when socio-economic factors and transport provision are controlled for. Self-contained and high-density development as well as compact land use in the peripheral constellations could play a positive role in shortening workers' commuting times. At the same time, longer commuting times will result from illegal and dispersed development in green belts and outer suburban areas. The results suggest that better metropolitan spatial planning wo.