Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information and Consumer Behavior

Consumers are continually making choices among products, the consequences of which they are but dimly aware. Not only do consumers lack full information about the prices of goods, but their information is probably even poorer about the quality variation of products simply because the latter information is more difficult to obtain. One can, for example, readily determine the price of a television set; it is more difficult to determine its performance characteristics under various conditions or its expected need for repairs. This article contends that limitations of consumer information about quality have profound effects upon the market structure of consumer goods. In particular, monopoly power for a consumer good will be greater if consumers know about the quality of only a few brands of that good. This is a significant departure from the literature. Economists have long been interested in the determinants of monopoly power, but studies have always concentrated on the production function or market-size variables. I try to show that consumer behavior is also relevant to the determination of monopoly power in consumer industries. Location theory has also ignored the consumer's lack of information. Since many trips to a store are, in part, quests for information, the location of retail stores can be profoundly affected by consumer efforts to acquire information. I shall also try to show that advertising and inventory policy are affected by consumer ignorance about quality differences among brands. All of these impacts of consumer ignorance have remained unexplored because economists have not developed a systematic analysis of consumer quests for information about quality differences. Information about quality differs from information about price because the former is usually more expensive to buy than the latter. Indeed this is one reason we expect the variance in the utility of quality facing a consumer to be greater than the variance in the utility of price. This difference in the price of information can lead to fundamentally
Factors Affecting Nodal Status in Invasive Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Analysis of 623 Patients

Abstract: With increasing numbers of early, screen‐detected breast cancers and the emergence of sentinel‐node biopsy, surgical management of the axilla is evolving. In recent years many authors have searched for favorable subcategories of tumors in which it may be possible to avoid axillary lymph node clearance. The aim of this study is to determine preoperative factors that might predict lymph node negative axillae. A retrospective analysis of 623 patients with invasive breast cancer was performed. A number of clinical and pathological variables were analyzed. Uni‐ and multivariate analysis was carried out to determine factors predictive for lymph node metastases. Age, tumor size, grade, histology and lymphovascular invasion were found to be independent predictors of nodal positivity but, contrary to other recent studies, we found no effect of ER/PR (estrogen‐receptor/progesterone‐receptor) or HER‐2 status. The strongest predictor of lymph node metastases was tumor size >50 mm (OR 2.33), followed by the presence of lymphovascular invasion (OR 1.33). Our results could be used for preoperative counseling and planning axillary surgery in patients with invasive breast cancer. We propose that the predictive factors identified in this study could be used in combination with axillary ultrasound to selectively target patients for sentinel‐node biopsy or to target the use of ultrasonographic assessment of the axilla. However, no consistent and reliable markers have been identified to predict patients that can safely avoid axillary surgery.
One Man Two Hats: What's All the Commotion!

We examine performance in publicly listed U.K. companies over a period that encompasses the issuance of the Cadbury Committee's Code of Best Practice, which calls for the abolition of the combined CEO/COB position. We find that companies splitting the combined CEO/COB position to conform to the Code's requirement did not exhibit any absolute or relative improvement in performance when compared to various peer-group benchmarks. We do not necessarily scoff at mandated board structures, but the evidence suggests that this particular legislature coerced the abandonment of the combined CEO/COB position and appears to be wide of the mark.
Crop sequences for increasing cropping intensity and productivity

Field experiments were conducted at the Central Research Station of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) for three consecutive years (2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14) to study the comparative agronomic performance and economic return of different cropping sequences for increasing cropping intensity and productivity. Three cropping patterns (CP 1 - Transplanted Aman rice (var:Binadhan-7)– Mustard (var:BARISarisha-14)– Boro rice (var:BRRIdhan-28)– Transplanted Aus rice (var:Parija), CP 2 - T. aman rice – Potato (var:Diamont) – Boro rice – T. aus rice and CP 3 - T. aman rice – Mustard (var:BARISarisha-15) – Mungbean (var:BARIMung-6) –T. aus rice) are based on four crops; and one cropping pattern (CP 4 = T. aman rice – Fallow – Boro rice – Fallow) with two rice crops as control were tested. Four crops can be grown successfully one after another in sequence in all the three cropping patterns tested. On an average organic matter 3.56, 4.70, 3.58 and 2 t ha -1 were added to soil in CP 1 , CP 2 , CP 3 and CP 4 by incorporation of biomass of respective crops. The highest rice equivalent yield (REY) 34.10, 34.02 and 33.36 t ha -1 was obtained from the cropping pattern CP 2 in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14, respectively and it was followed by CP 1 and CP 3 . The highest average gross return (Tk.5,00,469 ha -1 ) and net return (Tk. 2,63,773 ha -1 ) were obtained from CP 2 and it was followed by CP 3 but the highest average B:C ratio (2.89) was obtained from the cropping pattern CP 3 followed by CP 2 (2.11) due to lower cost of production than in the former one. Four crops based patterns can be recommended for higher productivity, soil enrichment & economic benefit besides creating more employment opportunity. SAARC J. Agri. , 13(1): 135-147 (2015)
Project Selection, Production, Uncertainty, and Incentives

We model how a firm motivates a risk-averse CEO not only to exert productive effort but also to evaluate and to adopt new projects. Evaluation effort produces better information on risky projects, but the agent may reject a good project in order to avoid risk. Productive effort increases the mean of firm value but the agent faces uncertainty in his productivity due to the externality created by the new project. We examine the effect of uncertainty about the success of the new project on contract slope and convexity. The convexity in the contract protects the agent from uncertainty about the success of the new project, and the contract is more convex when uncertainty is greater. The contract slope encourages the agent to work on both tasks and to make the right project choice. We show conditions under which increases in uncertainty about the success of the new project cause increases in the contract slope. This positive relation between contract slope and uncertainty contrasts with the standard agency model's prediction of a decreasing relation. The features of the optimal contract are broadly consistent with prior empirical evidence on cross-sectional variation in CEO incentives. In addition our model suggests that there can be two groups of firms. The first group of firms has high uncertainty, and there is an increasing relation between risk and CEO incentives. The second group of firms has lower uncertainty, and there is the traditional decreasing relation between risk and CEO incentives.
Nonnatural Deaths Among Users of Illicit Drugs: Pathological Findings and Illicit Drug Abuse Stigmata

AbstractThe aim of the study was to provide information on illicit drug abuse stigmata and general pathological findings among an adult narcotic drug-using population aged 20 to 59 years whose death was nonnatural. A total of 1603 medicolegal autopsy reports from 2000 to 2009 concerning cases positive for morphine, heroin, amphetamines, ecstasy, cannabis, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), PCP (phencyclidine), and high levels of GHB (&ggr;-hydroxybutyric acid) in addition to methadone and buprenorphine were investigated. Reported findings of hepatitis, portal lymphadenopathy, recent injection marks, drug user’s equipment, and numbers of significant pathological conditions were registered and analyzed according to cases positive for opiates, opioids (OPs), and central nervous system (CNS)–stimulating illicit drugs, respectively.Of the selected cases, 1305 were positive for one or more opiate or OP. Cases positive for OPs had significantly more findings of noninfectious pathological conditions.Hepatitis, portal lymphadenopathy, recent injections marks findings of drug user’s equipment were all findings found more frequently among the opiate OP-positive individuals. Portal lymphadenopathy was significantly more often found in cases with hepatitis than in cases with other or no infection. In the population positive for CNS stimulants, hepatitis recent injection marks were more frequent findings than in the CNS stimulant-negative group, irrespective of whether they were opiate OP positive or negative.
B-1a Cell Diversity: Nontemplated Addition in B-1a Cell Ig Is Determined by Progenitor Population and Developmental Location

Natural Abs produced by B-1a cells are required for immediate protection against infection. The protective capacity of natural Abs is attributed to germline-like structure, which includes the relative absence of N-region addition. Previous studies have shown B-1a cell Ig from aged mice contains abundant nontemplated (N)-additions. B-1a cells have been shown to derive from a specific lineage-negative (Lin−)CD45Rlow/−CD19+ progenitor found both in fetal liver and adult bone marrow. In this study, we report identification of a fetal liver population characterized phenotypically as Lin−CD45R−CD19−, which gives rise to IgM+IgDlowCD45RlowCD5+Mac-1+CD19highCD43+CD23low B-1a cells upon adoptive transfer to SCID recipients. These B-1a cells derived from the Lin−CD45R−CD19− fetal liver population produce natural Ab that binds pneumococcal Ags, but this Ig contains substantial N-addition despite initial absence of TdT. Furthermore, we show extensive N-addition is also present in B-1a cells derived from the Lin−CD45Rlow/−CD19+ B-1 progenitor found in the bone marrow. Together these results demonstrate B-1a cell N-addition depends on the type of progenitor and the location of the progenitor during its development. These findings have implications for how regulation of different progenitors from fetal liver and bone marrow may play a role in the age-related increase in N-region addition by B-1a cells in normal animals.
Hours reductions as work-sharing

OVER THE PAST century, annual hours per worker have been falling in industrialized countries. This fall could be influenced by labor supply, through an income effect, as workers have become richer, but it could also be influenced by labor demand, as the increasingly skill-intensive nature of jobs has reduced the number of hours for which workers can maintain high productivity. For most of the period, the motivation expressed by those campaigning for shorter hours has been to improve health and safety, or simply to improve the quality of life. When concern about the level of unemployment has been high, however, the declared motivation has sometimes been "work-sharing," which is the hope (or conviction) that a reduction in hours per worker will spread the available work around and hence increase employment. This motivation was important during the Great Depression in the United States and other countries, and it has resurfaced in Europe since unemployment began to rise around 1975. Supporters of work-sharing have usually focused on reductions in the standard weekly hours of full-time workers, that is, the number of hours beyond which an overtime premium must be paid. However, hours reductions sometimes take the form of fewer shifts per month or increased vacation time. In the United States, the overtime premium has been seen as the most relevant tool for achieving reductions. The Netherlands is unusual, in that increasing part-time work has been seen as a means of reducing hours. The debate is currently most topical in
Estrogenic and antiestrogenic effects of raloxifene on collagen metabolism in breast cancer MCF-7 cells

We compared the effects of different concentrations of raloxifene (1 ,4 and 10 μM) on collagen biosynthesis ,gelatinolytic and prolidase activities and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression (MMP-2 and MMP-9) in estradiol-stimulated (2 nM) breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Raloxifene inhibited in a dose-dependent manner the proliferation of MCF-7 cells ,independently of the presence or absence of estradiol in the growth medium. Raloxifene at concentrations of 1 μM and 4 μM inhibited collagen biosynthesis by about 10-fold and prolidase activity by about 50% ,while at a concentration of 10 μM it inhibited these processes by only about 25%. This phenomenon was accompanied by differences in gelatinolytic activity and MMP (MMP-2 and MMP-9) expression as demonstrated by zymography and Western immunoblot analysis, respectively. In estrogenstimulated MCF-7 cells ,cultured in the presence of 1 μM raloxifene ,a dramatic increase in the activity of both collagenases was found. In contrast ,addition of raloxifene at a concentration of 10 μM to the medium of the cells resulted in restoration of gelatinolytic activity to that found in control cells. Similarly ,but at both doses (1 and 10 μM) ,raloxifene was able to reduce MMP-2 expression in the cells. However ,when used alone (without estradiol) a concentration of 1 μM raloxifene strongly stimulated MMP-2 expression ,while at a concentration of 10 μM the effect was not observed. In the case of MMP-9 ,only trace amounts of this gelatinase were detected ,although in contrast to MMP-2 ,an increase in its expression was noticed at a concentration of 10 μM raloxifene. The data raise the possibility that in estrogen-stimulated MCF-7 cells ,raloxifene at low concentrations (1 and 4 μM) evokes antiestrogenic effect on collagen biosynthesis and prolidase activity on the one hand ,and an estrogenic effect on gelatinolytic activity on the other ,while at higher concentrations (about 10 μM) it evokes an estrogenic effect on collagen biosynthesis and prolidase activity, and an antiestrogenic effect on gelatinolytic activity. Our data suggest that the effects of raloxifene on collagen synthesis ,prolidase and metalloproteinase activities in breast cancer may explain its role in the prevention of breast cancer development.
The Development of Validated Bulbar Redness Grading Scales

Purpose. To develop a perceptually and physically based bulbar redness grading scale. Methods. Digital conjunctival hyperemia photographs were taken using a photo-slit lamp at controlled exposures. Nine participants arranged 25 images on a tabletop over a range of 1.5 m, using separation to represent changes in redness. The position of each image was recorded and normalized for a 0 to 100 scale, and compared to chromaticity of each image obtained using a spectrophotometer. The performance of two versions of the scale (5 and 10 images) and a continuous grading scale was evaluated based on repeatability data collected from nineteen observers who used each scale twice to grade 30 randomly presented images of bulbar redness. Results. Psychophysical scaling was highly correlated between single observers (Pearson’s r ≥ 0.92, p < 0.05). The averaged subjective grades significantly correlated with chromaticity (r = 0.95 and r = 0.99, p < 0.001 for CIE u* and log u*, respectively). Across all observers, test and retest ratings were highly correlated with either scale (r ≥ 0.98), and showed high levels of repeatability expressed by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC ≥ 0.98), correlation coefficients of concordance (CCC ≥ 0.96), and coefficients of repeatability (COR ≤ 5.64). Despite single unit increment options, the majority of grade values assigned using the discrete scales were distributed in multiples of 5. Conclusions. Combining psychophysical and physical attributes is a promising method for the development of novel anterior segment scales; the newly developed scales performed well in a clinical setting.
Optimization and parallelization of the boundary element method for the wave equation in time domain. (Optimisation et parallèlisation de la méthode des élements frontières pour l'équation des ondes dans le domaine temporel)

The time-domain BEM for the wave equation in acoustics and electromagnetism is used to simulatethe propagation of a wave with a discretization in time. It allows to obtain several frequencydomainresults with one solve. In this thesis, we investigate the implementation of an efficientTD-BEM solver using different approaches. We describe the context of our study and the TD-BEMformulation expressed as a sparse linear system composed of multiple interaction/convolutionmatrices. This system is naturally computed using the sparse matrix-vector product (SpMV). Wework on the limits of the SpMV kernel by looking at the matrix reordering and the behavior of ourSpMV kernels using vectorization (SIMD) on CPUs and an advanced blocking-layout on NvidiaGPUs. We show that this operator is not appropriate for our problem, and we then propose toreorder the original computation to get a special matrix structure. This new structure is called aslice matrix and is computed with a custom matrix/vector product operator. We present an optimizedimplementation of this operator on CPUs and Nvidia GPUs for which we describe advancedblocking schemes. The resulting solver is parallelized with a hybrid strategy above heterogeneousnodes and relies on a new heuristic to balance the work among the processing units. Due tothe quadratic complexity of this matrix approach, we study the use of the fast multipole method(FMM) for our time-domain BEM solver. We investigate the parallelization of the general FMMalgorithm using several paradigms in both shared and distributed memory, and we explain howmodern runtime systems are well-suited to express the FMM computation. Finally, we investigatethe implementation and the parametrization of an FMM kernel specific to our TD-BEM, and weprovide preliminary results.
How Informed are Actively Trading Institutional Investors? Evidence from Their Trading Behavior Before a Break in a String of Consecutive Earnings Increases

We examine whether transient institutional investors (i.e., institutions that trade actively to maximize short-term profits) have information that allows them to predict a break in a string of consecutive quarterly earnings increases and thereby avoid the economically significant negative stock price response associated with the break announcement. We show that transient institutions predict the break at least one quarter in advance of the break quarter. We also provide evidence that is consistent with transient institutions obtaining information regarding the impending break from private communications with management. Copyright University of Chicago on behalf of the Institute of Professional Accounting, 2004.
The Risk and Return of Commercial Real Estate: A Property Level Analysis

This paper develops a novel empirical method that uses property level cash flow information to estimate the risk and return characteristics of private commercial real estate. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that this method is more accurate than the conventional index-based approach. Applying this method to 3,125 commercial properties (with estimated total value of $147 billion in 2009) invested by institutional investors between 1978 and 2009, this paper finds that the commercial real estate risk premium is positively related to the GDP growth rate and the change in the credit spread, and negatively related to the inflation rate, the stock market risk premium, and the change in the term spread. The sensitivities vary across property types and time. This paper also finds that the risk characteristics of commercial real estate vary across property types. While apartments have small positive loadings on all three Fama French factors, offices, industrial, and retail properties have insignificant loadings on the stock market risk premium, large positive loadings on SMB, and negative loadings on HML. The factor loadings also vary across time.
Employee experience of aesthetic labour in retail and hospitality

Interactive service job growth in the UK is significant.Analysis of labour within these services has tended to focus on employee attitudes, framed through emotional labour. Such analysis is not incorrect, just partial. Some employers also demand aesthetic labour, or employees with particular embodied capacities and attributes that appeal to the senses of customers. Reporting survey and focus group data, this article explores aesthetic labour as it is experienced by interactive service employees in the retail and hospitality industries. Issues examined are recruitment and selection; image and appearance; uniforms and dress codes; skills and training. By extending awareness of aesthetic labour so that both employee attitude and appearance are empirically and conceptually revealed, the article extends understanding of the job demands made of employees in interactive services.
A Theoretical Perspective on Human Trafficking and Migration-Debt Contracts

This article develops an economic model of human trafficking and migration-debt contracts. A key feature of the theoretical model is the payment of additional sums beyond the initial contracted price to alter the trafficker's queue order. These bribes are shown to be related to the level of effort applied by the trafficker. The types of data needed to rigorously test the model are discussed, together with policy implications.
Wave Prediction and Robust Control of Heaving Wave Energy Devices for Irregular Waves

This paper presents a comparison of different existing and proposed wave prediction models applicable to control wave energy converters (WECs) in irregular waves. The objective of the control is to increase the energy conversion. The power absorbed by a WEC is depending on the implemented control strategy. Uncertainties in the physical description of the system as well as in the input from irregular waves provide challenges to the control algorithm. We present a hybrid robust fuzzy logic (FL) controller that addresses the uncertainty in the model and the short-term tuning of the converter. The proposed robust controller uses the energy from the power take off as input, while the FL controller portion is used for short-term tuning. The FL controller action is based on a prediction of the incoming wave. Simulation results indicate that the proposed hybrid control yields improved energy production, while being robust to modeling errors.
Corporate Governance, Accounting and Finance: A Review

We review accounting and finance research on corporate governance (CG). In the course of our review, we focus on a particularly vexing issue, namely endogeneity in the relationships between CG and other matters of concern to accounting and finance scholars, and suggest ways to deal with it. Given the advent of large commercial CG databases, we also stress the importance of how CG is measured and in particular, the construction of CG indices, which should be sensitive to local institutional arrangements, and the need to capture both internal and external aspects of governance. The ‘stickiness’ of CG characteristics provides an additional challenge to CG scholars. Better theory is required, for example, to explain whether various CG practices substitute for each other or are complements. While a multidisciplinary approach to developing better theory is never without its difficulties, it could enrich the current body of knowledge in CG. Despite the vastness of the existing CG literature, these issues do suggest a number of avenues for future research.