Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Voluntary disclosure practices by Founding-family firms

Disclosure of accounting information is crucial in facilitating efficient contracts in the publicly listed firm and in reducing information asymmetries in capital markets. A well-known perception in disclosure literature is that, as the separation between managers and owners increases, so does the demand for publicly available disclosure. Many publicly listed firms around the world are controlled by a few large owners that obtain information through their insider positions in the firm. Thus, variations in ownership structures have a considerable effect on how firms’ disclosure practices are resolved. Despite the increased attention paid to the identity of controlling owners and their influence on financial reporting practices, little is known about how owner types and governance mechanisms influence corporate disclosures and capital-market effects. This thesis contributes to the disclosure literature by studying a context in which controlling owners have a large influence on the governance and disclosure practices of firms. This contrasts with the much-studied setting in which management influences the governance and reporting decisions of firms. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to examine the determinants and capital-market effects of Swedish listed firms’ annual report disclosure.This thesis uses a self-constructed disclosure index from manually gathered data from the annual reports of Swedish publicly listed firms during the years 2001 to 2013. This includes information on the notes to the financial statements, corporate governance and strategy. The findings of the four empirical studies show that the ownership structure of firms and the various contractual relationships that firms are engaged in, drive the disclosure practices. Additionally, the results indicate that higher levels of disclosure decrease information asymmetries between capital-market participants and increase trading activity. However, the findings also show that firms with controlling owners are less forthcoming with disclosure, even after a new disclosure reform. Considering the large influence of controlling owners in the studied context, these are important findings in the research field and in regulators’ processes of deriving disclosure regulation. The thesis concludes that the variety in firms’ disclosure incentives and local governance structures are important disclosure determinants to understand in framing international accounting standards.
Cost and returns analysis of catfish marketing in Aba South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria

The study analyzed the cost and returns of catfish marketing in Aba South Local Government Area of Abia State. Specifically, the study ascertained the socioeconomic profile of respondents, ascertained costs, returns and net returns of the marketers, determined the marketing margin, marketing efficiency and market share of participants in the market and estimated the determinants of income from catfish marketing. The constraints militating against catfish marketing were also identified. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in sampling 60 catfish marketers for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using net returns and regression models. Results showed that majority of the respondents were male within active working age of 37 years. About 72% of the marketers were married, and 93.3% of them had formal education. The marketing of catfish was found to be viable as indicated by positive net returns of ₦109,539.67 per month. The coefficient of marketing efficiency was 83.8%, while the market share for wholesalers and retailers was 41.17 and 58.2%, respectively. Result of regression analysis indicated that marketing experience, age, education and quantity of catfish handled were significant at various probability levels. Inadequate capital and high cost of transportation were the major constraints to catfish marketing. It was recommended that catfish marketers should form cooperative society to enhance their access to finance, and the relevant variables that significantly influenced net income should be considered in policy issues.Keywords: net income, efficiency, marketers, market share
Reinforcing supply chain security through organizational and cultural tools within the intermodal rail and road industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline the role of organizational and cultural tools to increase supply chain security within the intermodal rail and road industry. Three main research questions are set, regarding: what organizational and cultural tools are used by companies within the intermodal rail and road industry; how these tools impact on security performance; and what environmental factors trigger the use of each tool. Design/methodology/approach In total, 13 companies within the intermodal rail and road industry have been studied in detail through in-depth case studies. Findings Results suggest that organizational and cultural tools impact positively on supply chain security, by reducing collusion and both operative and planning mistakes. In particular, such tools mitigate the effect of lack of cooperation and communication between partners and of inadequate partners. Practical implications Results point out that the ability of organizational and cultural tools to increase supply chain security has not been fully exploited yet. Tools to mitigate the negative effects on security of inadequacy of partners are not popular or they are not considered as powerful enough, despite it has been highlighted as the most relevant causal factor of lack of security. Originality/value This paper introduces a thorough overview of the effects of cultural and organizational tools on supply chain security and a detailed study of these tools in the area of intermodal rail-and-road transport.
Customer Value, Satisfaction and Intentions: Some Insights from Adventure Tourism

The present study examined the relationships between customer value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in the relatively under-researched area of adventure tourism. The study used a multidimensional “customer value” framework to assess the impact of value on a number of value dimension on post-consumption constructs. Four hundred and two respondents provided their perceptions of the value of a soft-adventure tourism experience in Western Australia and it was found customer value had a strong, positive influence on satisfaction and intentions in such a tourism setting. In addition, customer value had an indirect influence on customer intentions, with customer satisfaction mediating the relationship between the two constructs.
Clinical correlations and prognostic relevance of HGF, VEGF AND FGF expression in Brazilian patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma

The aims of this study were to correlate HGF, VEGF and FGF serum levels and microvessel density (MVD) with cell origin, biological behavior, tumor load and prognosis in NHL. Eighty-seven consecutive previously untreated NHL patients had serum samples collected; 37 (42%) of them also had serum follow-up samples; the control group was composed of 10 healthy blood donors. Cytokine serum levels were determined by ELISA, and MVD was measured by CD34 staining in paraffin blocks. HGF mean serum level was significantly higher in both early and advanced NHL stages when compared with the control group. HGF was also significantly higher in aggressive and indolent NHL when compared with the control group. Also, mean serum level of HGF in aggressive NHL was significantly higher than in indolent NHL. Regarding International Prognostic Index (IPI), HGF mean serum level at diagnosis was significantly higher for patients with IPI >2 when compared to IPI ≤2. Sequential analyses of HGF, VEGF and FGF serum levels in NHL showed that serum HGF and VEGF levels decreased significantly after 6 months of treatment completion. Our findings suggest that HGF serum level is associated with tumor load and aggressiveness, and response to treatment results in a decrease in HGF serum levels in NHL patients.
RELEVANSI LULUSAN PERGURUAN TINGGI DI INDONESIA DENGAN KEBUTUHAN TENAGA KERJA DI ERA GLOBAL

Global labor market which marked by the integration of labor between countries is also accompanied by the emergence of variety kind of new job along with the science-technology innovation and also creativity improvement to answer the increasingly fierce competition. Therefore, the higher education are demanded more to be able to respond the workforce needs that more dynamic and complex. Based on those issues, this paper will examine the relevance of university graduates in Indonesia and labor requirement in the global era. The used approach is a quantitative approach using secondary data from various sources such as the Directorate General of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, the Central Bureau of Statistics, ILO and the World Bank and several studies are relevant. Based on the macro data, it shows that Indonesia currently has a tendency in opened the new Higher Education (PT) massively and more profit oriented without being followed by the provision of adequate infrastructure and quality, and then resulting the increasing number of graduates. On the other hand, productive employment in Indonesia is also limited, so that the educated unemployed are relatively high. Another problem, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) predicts that in the global labor market, in 2030 Indonesia is expected to experience a labor shortage of educated and skilled, but has excess in non-skilled labor. The gap between supply and demand in educated and skilled labor also supported by the ILO data (2015) about the labor who does not fulfill the education and skills qualification, which the proportion is more than half. Those issues are getting urgent to be solved, along with the implementation of ASEAN Economic Community and other regional agreement globally. This is because the lack of workforce will be immediately filled by foreign workers. Therefore, the cooperation and synergy between Higher Education (PT) and the world of business and industry, both national and international, need to be improved.
Exploring the Factor Structure of Implicit and Explicit Cognitions Associated With Depression

Dual-process models of cognitive vulnerability to depression propose that implicit (automatic) and explicit (effortful) processes are involved in depression. The current study investigated the underlying structure of four implicit and four explicit cognitive biases associated with depression in an undergraduate sample (N = 355). An exploratory principal-axis factor analysis of implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem, dysfunctional beliefs, and memory for positive and negative stimuli produced a three-factor solution that was inconsistent with the dual process (two factor) account. Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses of biases exhibited by a hold-out sample also failed to support the hypothesized dual-process model and supported a three-factor solution. Overall, the results indicate that the latent structure of measures investigated in this study is not characterized by a clear differentiation between implicit and explicit cognition and that alternative models and measurement strategies should be investigated.
Optimal universal quantum cloning: asymmetries and fidelity measures

We study the problem of universal quantum cloning -- taking several identical copies of a pure but unknown quantum state and producing further copies. While it is well known that it is impossible to perfectly reproduce the state, how well the copies can be cloned can be quantified using the fidelity. We examine how individual fidelities can be traded against each other, and how different fidelity measures can be incorporated. The broadly applicable formalism into which we transform the cloning problem is described as a series of quadratic constraints which are amenable to mathematical and computational scrutiny. As such, we reproduce all known results on optimal universal cloning, and push the recent results on asymmetric cloning much further, giving new trade-off relations between fidelities for broad classes of optimal cloning machines. We also provide substantial evidence that motivates why other parameter ranges (number of input copies) have not, and will not, yield to similar analysis.
Hyperinsulinemia predicts coronary heart disease risk in healthy middle-aged men.

To the Editor: In a recent article, Pyorala et al1 have stated that hyperinsulinemia/area under the plasma insulin response curve (AUC insulin) during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was a statistically significant predictor of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk over the 22-year follow-up in the Helsinki Policemen Study. In addition, the authors had another interesting observation that AUC glucose also predicted CHD risk in the first 5 years of follow-up. However, subjects with diabetes mellitus were excluded, and it would seem that subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) might have been involved in the study. Besides plasma cholesterol level, AUC glucose was the only significant independent predictor of CHD risk during this period. To assess major risk factors and to provide secondary prevention for patients with recent myocardial infarction, we performed OGTTs in 28 patients free of diabetes who had a fasting plasma glucose level <6.1 mmol/L (23 males, 5 females). Thirteen patients had IGT based on the 2-hour postload glucose level (≥7.8 mmol/L). Fifteen patients had normal glucose tolerance (NGT) according to World Health Organization and American Diabetes …
Network Market Orientation, Knowledge Management and Born Globals’ Competitiveness

This chapter studies the influence of network market orientation (NMO) on Spanish Born Globals’ (BGs) competitiveness. The study analyses the contribution of a specific knowledge-based dynamic capability, namely absorptive capability, as a key mediator variable between NMO and competitiveness, finally influencing the international performance achieved by this particular type of firm. Results from testing the structural equation model proposed confirm that NMO facilitates the development of an absorptive capability in BGs and that this capability, in turn, influences the firms’ capacity to exploit the new relational knowledge, thus improving their competitiveness and international performance.
Influenza virus population dynamics in the respiratory tract of experimentally infected mice

Virus population dynamics in the lungs, trachea, and nasopharynx of Swiss-ICR mice were studied after respiratory challenge with mouse-adapted preparations of strain A2/Aichi/2/68 influenza virus. Markedly higher doses of virus were required to produce infection with nasopharyngeal challenge than with bronchoalveolar challenge. In all of the infections, the highest virus concentrations were observed in the lungs. Peak concentrations in the trachea were lower than in the lungs but higher than in the nasopharynx. Decreasing virus levels were observed by 120 h after challenge and were generally below detectable levels by the end of 10 days. A compartmental model of a single mathematical form was developed which provided close fits of the virus concentration measurements regardless of the challenge dose, site of initial deposition, or respiratory tissue considered. The model includes seven compartments with five associated rate parameters. The application of compartmental modeling techniques and expression of the virus population dynamics in mathematical terms is regarded as a new approach to the study of the pathogenesis of infections.
Making International Financial Integration Work for Low-Saving Countries

Deeper financial integration is expected to enable low-saving countries to increase domestic investment but also to increase crisis risks by facilitating the accumulation of risky foreign liabilities. This paper explores the connections between financial integration, investment and crisis risk to assess this tradeoff. It confirms expectations but also finds that the accumulation of safe foreign assets that financial integration brings is an important risk offset that in many cases even eliminates the risk factor from the tradeoff altogether. Furthermore, it shows that the risk features of assets and liabilities depend on their type. Ultimately, whether international financial integration is in fact a reliable remedy for individual countries critically depends on the portfolio composition of their foreign assets and liabilities.
Sustainability and Water Supply Governance - A Literature Review on Regional Water Governance, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Sustainability Assessments

This literature review is part of a PhD project funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas with support from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, the Gothenburg Region and the City of Gothenburg, performed within the centre for drinking water research (DRICKS). The research project aims to develop a decision support model for sustainability assessments of regional water supply interventions and cooperations. The decision support model is planned to be performed through a combination of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA). In the process of developing the model, national and international studies on regional water governance, as well as on applications of MCDA, CBA, sustainability assessments, sustainability criteria and economic valuation techniques within water supply management were reviewed. The MCDA approach is often used for complex decision problems with large amount of information and when several, possibly contradicting, views needs to be considered in a coherent way. It can, for example, be used to rank alternative interventions, find the unacceptable alternatives, and identify alternatives that need more detailed assessments. MCDA provides a means for integrating quantitative, semi-quantitative and qualitative information concerning alternative interventions. It allows for comparison between objectives and can be used for integrating social, economic and environmental analyses into comprehensive sustainability assessments. CBA can be used to measure the economic profitability of alternative interventions. The method relies on the anthropocentric foundation of welfare economics in which benefits are defined as increases in human wellbeing and costs are defined as reductions in human wellbeing. Welfare economics is based on the assumptions that each individual is the best judge of his or her wellbeing at a given situation. Individuals’ wellbeing depends on market goods and services as well as non-market goods and services, such as health and environmental quality. An intervention is considered economically profitable when its total benefits are larger than its total costs. Both MCDA and CBA have been used in several applications in the water sector and numerous evaluation criteria have been proposed to assess the sustainability of alternative interventions. This review: (1) gives an overview on literature on regional cooperation in the water sector; (2) provides a general description of the decision-support techniques MCDA and CBA; and (3) presents an overview of applications of sustainability assessments and the use of MCDA and CBA as decision- support in the water sector.
Anterior esthetic gingival depigmentation and crown lengthening: report of a case.

Excessive gingival display space and gingival hyperpigmentation are major concerns for a large number of patients visiting the dentist. Melanin hyperpigmentation usually does not present a medical problem, but patients usually complain of dark gums as unaesthetic. This problem is aggravated in patients with a "gummy smile" or excessive gingival display while smiling. Esthetic periodontal plastic surgery is especially rewarding in such individuals with compromised esthetics. A case is reported here on the cosmetic correction of "black gums" and "gummy smile. " Periodontal plastic surgery combining gingival depigmentation and esthetic crown lengthening was performed in a single appointment using scalpel surgical technique. The outline of steps involved in the surgical procedure is demonstrated and a brief review of the various gingival depigmentation techniques is depicted here.
Relationship between information systems sophistication and performance measurement

Purpose – Studies in performance measurement systems (PMS) seem to receive little attention in the information system (IS) literature. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to contribute to the stream of research in the fields of performance measurement and ISs.Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines how IS sophistication is linked to PMSs by investigating the use of performance measures in the Malaysian financial services industry. Data were collected from 140 financial institutions through self‐administered questionnaire survey of top‐level executives. A component‐based structural equation modelling, partial least squares, was used to test the research model.Findings – The results indicate that IS sophistication is a determinant of performance measures. The results also indicate that different dimensions of IS sophistication affect different dimensions of performance measures usage.Originality/value – The paper significantly extends prior research on performance measures by establishing IS s.
Quercetin Up‐regulates LDL Receptor Expression in HepG2 Cells

Quercetin, an abundant flavonol found in fruits and vegetable, has been implicated in lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease that is often associated with high plasma levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Here we investigated whether quercetin could modulate the expression of LDL receptors (LDLR) in HepG2 cells and the possible underlying mechanisms to exert quercetin's effects. We found that quercetin was able to induce LDLR expression with at least a 75 µ m concentration, which was accompanied by an increase in nuclear sterol regulatory element binding protein 2 (SREBP2). This effect was mediated by activation of c‐jun‐N‐terminal kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) signalling pathways as implicated by experiments using chemical inhibitors of each pathway. When cells were challenged with protein synthesis inhibitors in quercetin‐activated LDLR transcription, LDL mRNA levels were not significantly affected by cycloheximide but puromycin abolished quercetin‐induced LDLR transcription. Taken together, we conclude that quercetin can initiate LDLR transcription by enhancing SREBP2 processing, but new protein synthesis might be necessary to exert a maximum effect of quercetin in the up‐regulation of the LDLR gene. Our findings demonstrate that quercetin strongly up‐regulated LDLR gene expression, which might elicit hypolipidemic effects by increasing the clearance of circulating LDL cholesterol levels from the blood. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Risk Premia on Credit and Equity Markets

This thesis analyzes risk premia on credit and equity markets. While current research usually looks at risk premia on credit and equity markets separately, we develop a model which allows for an integrated view. After the theoretical analysis an empirical study based on credit default swaps (CDS) from 2003-2007 for the U.S., Europe and Asia is conducted. This results in equity premia of 6.50% (U.S.), 5.44% (Europe) and 6.21% (Asia). An expansion to 2008 shows, that the risk premium term structure was flat before the 2007/2008 financials crisis and became inverse during the crisis. This indicates that investors have become more risk averse during the crisis but were well aware, that risk premia will revert back to normal levels in the long run.