Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Black-White Achievement Gap through the Lens of Central Office Administrators

THE BLACK-WHITE ACHIEVEMENT GAP THROUGH THE LENS OF CENTRAL OFFICE ADMINISTRATORS Roger S. Baskin, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2013 Dissertation Director: Dr. Robert G. Smith This study investigated the perceptions of Black and White central office administrators regarding the Black-White achievement gap. Four research questions (RQ) were explored: RQ1: How docentral office administrators understand the causes of the BlackWhite achievement gap? RQ2: How do central office administrators perceive their role in impacting the Black-White achievement gap? RQ3: How docentral office administrators address Black-White achievement gaps in their districts? RQ4: How do perceptions about achievement gaps and agency vary between Black and White central office administrators? Data for this qualitative study were gathered in 15 interviews with current and former central office administrators from seven districts in the Middle Atlantic region. Eight of those interviewed were White and seven were Black. Relationships between teachers and students were viewed as a major factor in the creation of achievement gaps. Raising the issue of gaps and providing professional development to educators are two major ways central office administrators viewed their role. Teachers and their inability to develop positive relationships with students were identified by participants in the study as a major obstacle in closing achievement gaps. Administrators used a multifaceted approach to addressing achievement gaps including working directly with students, parents, educators (through professional development), and changing the structure of the school day to provide intervention. A major distinction between Black and White administrators in the study had to do with the perceived obstacle of alienation. Five of the seven Black administrators expressed some sense of alienation due either to job title (typically those who work in offices of diversity or equity) or race.
LBOs, debt and R&D intensity

This paper details the impact of debt on R&D intensity for firms undergoing a leveraged buyout (LBO). We develop seven hypotheses based on capital market imperfection theories and agency theory. To test these hypotheses, we compare 72 R&D performing LBOs with 3329 non-LBO control observations and 126 LBOs with little or no R&D expenditures. The regressions yield four statistically significant major findings. First, pre-LBO R&D intensity is roughly one-half of the overall manufacturing mean and two-thirds of the firm's industry mean. Second, LBOs cause R&D intensity to drop by 40 percent. Third, large firms tend to have smaller LBO- related declines in R&D intensity. Fourth, R&D intensive LBOs outperform both their non-LBO industry peers and other LBOs without R&D expenditures.
Do real exchange rates contain a unit root? Evidence from Turkish data

This study explores whether the long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis holds for selected real exchange rates from Turkish economy during the period 1982M1–2003M12. In addition to conventional unit root tests, five different unit root test procedures have been applied including efficient point-optimal tests, extended M tests and GLS-detrended variants of DF tests, to four monthly real exchange rate series defined in terms of both producer and consumer price indices. The countries analysed are the USA, the UK, Germany and Italy which are major trade partners of Turkey. Mixed evidence is found for the long-run PPP hypothesis when real exchange rate is defined in terms of German DM and Italian Lira. However, the empirical analysis reveals that the PPP hypothesis holds strongly in the long-run for the UK£ and US$ based real exchange rates series using either PPI or CPI. In corroboration with other studies in the literature, the bias correlated half-life estimates suggest relatively faster speeds of adjustment supporting the view that the deviations from the PPP rate dissipate rather quickly for relatively high inflation countries.
Wages and jobs in the Portuguese air transport industry

Using a large matched employer-employee data set with information at both the worker and the company level we characterise the Portuguese airlines' employment structure and, by comparing it with the general structure of the Portuguese labour force, we stress the particularities of the sector. Based on the Heckman selection model, we develop an analysis of the variables that influence wages in this sector and which contribute to its differentiation from the general labour market. Particular attention is paid to the disparity among different types of jobs in the air transportation sector, namely amongst flight crews and land personnel. We also analyse the differences between regular and non-regular sub-sectors. Our main findings indicate that the aviation sector labour force is clearly specific regarding gender distribution and human capital accumulated by its workers. Moreover, some professions, pilots in particular, have important specificities compared to other jobs even within the sector. We also find that wages are strongly influenced by levels of education, tenure and experience as well as professional categories, which appears as an important specificity of this sector.
The jaw functional limitation scale: development, reliability, and validity of 8-item and 20-item versions.

AIMS To develop the Jaw Functional Limitation Scale (JFLS), comprising 3 constructs and a global scale, based on a preliminary instrument, and to investigate content validity of the overall functional limitation construct, reliability, and generalizability. A temporomandibular disorders (TMD) patient group, compared to other diagnostic groups, was hypothesized to report further limitation in each of the 3 new proposed constructs. METHODS One hundred thirty-two consecutive patients from 5 diagnostic groups (TMD, primary Sjogren syndrome, burning mouth syndrome, skeletal malocclusion, and healthy controls) participated in a known-groups validity design. Fifty-two jaw functional limitation items were identified by an expert panel for content validity. Rasch methodology was used for item reduction and assessment of model fit. The instrument was retested 1 to 2 weeks later. RESULTS Three constructs (mastication, vertical jaw mobility, and emotional and verbal expression) comprising a total of 20 items were identified along with a global scale (the JFLS-20), and each exhibited excellent psychometric properties with respect to modeled variance, item fit, reliability, and internal consistency. The psychometric properties of each construct remained satisfactory when analyzed separately among the 5 diagnostic groups. Temporal stability was satisfactory. A shorter 8-item form (JFLS-8) also proved useful for assessing global functional jaw limitation. CONCLUSION The JFLS-20 is an organ-specific instrument comprising 3 constructs for assessing functional status of the masticatory system; the 3 scales exhibit properties that are ideal for both research and patient evaluation in patient groups with a range of functional limitations of the jaw. The JFLS-8 emerged as a short form for measuring global functional limitation of the jaw.
Learn More About the Equal Sector Strategyof Select Sector SPDRs

Sturm [2010] find that an equally weighted portfolio of sector ETFs outperformed the S&P 500 on both an absolute and risk-adjusted basis over the 2000–2007 period. State Street Global Advisors find similar results during the 2001–2010 period. The authors reconsider these fi ndings for the longer 1989–2011 period. They fi nd that an equally weighted portfolio of sector ETFs did not outperform the S&P 500 over this longer period. They also find that an equally weighted portfolio of sector ETFs tends to be less volatile than the S&P 500 and may outperform it on a risk-adjusted basis during periods of heightened market volatility.
Suspicious Blood and Performance in Professional Cycling

In this note, the authors analyze whether the International Cycling Union’s “index of suspicion,” which reflects the extent to which a rider is suspected of using doping, correlates with performance during the 2010 Tour de France and the 1-year period before and after the 2010 Tour de France. Though our point estimates suggest a medium-sized performance improving effect of being suspected of doping, the index of suspicion can only explain a very small part of the variation in performance. This could be because the current doping practice in cycling has little effect on diverse rankings in these races.
Do Fishermen Have Different Attitudes Toward Risk? An Application of Prospect Theory to the Study of Vietnamese Fishermen

Field experiment and household survey data are combined to investigate whether working in a risky occupation such as fishing makes fishermen have different risk preferences than individuals in other occupations. Prospect theory is utilized as the main analytical framework and a structural model approach is developed to simultaneously correlate the parameters of the utility function under prospect theory with other socioeconomic variables. The key finding is that working in fishing makes economic agents less risk averse than others. Fishermen also tend to be less sensitive to probability weighting changes in the experiment. It is possible that fishermen have adapted to their unique environment by using specific heuristics for decision making under conditions of uncertainty.
Enriching the space of learning through weaving: how a teacher builds her students' understanding of (a) genre over time

This article draws its data from a collaborative intervention project Expanding Textual Repertoires, which sought to help English teachers develop their students' higher-order work with language and texts in Singapore secondary schools. The focus is on the strategy of weaving, a form of connection-making which involves the deliberate shifting between levels and kinds of knowledge across instructional episodes, lessons and units and which facilitates students' progressively deeper exploration of concepts and skills over time. Drawing on relevant theoretical and conceptual discussions in educational linguistics and the learning sciences, the article first unpacks what makes explicit attention to relationships between different dimensions of knowledge an important factor in promoting intellectually challenging, engaging and coherent learning experiences. It then shows through the detailed analysis of the overall architecture of a curriculum unit on the news story genre and two episodes from its lessons what weaving looks like in an enacted curriculum which is intended to support students in their understanding of both the particular genre in focus and, more broadly, socially valued ways of exploring genre in the context of their school subject.
Constant serum levels of secreted asialoglycoprotein receptor sH2a and decrease with cirrhosis.

AIM To investigate the existence and levels of sH2a, a soluble secreted form of the asialoglycoprotein receptor in human serum. METHODS Production of recombinant sH2a and development of a monoclonal antibody and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This assay was used to determine the presence and concentration of sH2a in human sera of individuals of both sexes and a wide range of ages. RESULTS The recombinant protein was produced successfully and a specific ELISA assay was developed. The levels of sH2a in sera from 62 healthy individuals varied minimally (147 ± 19 ng/mL). In contrast, 5 hepatitis C patients with cirrhosis showed much decreased sH2a levels (50 ± 9 ng/mL). CONCLUSION Constant sH2a levels suggest constitutive secretion from hepatocytes in healthy individuals. This constant level and the decrease with cirrhosis suggest a diagnostic potential.
Firm Performance, Governance Structure, and Top Management Turnover in a Transitional Economy

Recent research has argued that political and regulatory environments have a significant impact on corporate governance systems. In particular, countries with poor investor protection laws and weak law enforcement have low levels of corporate governance that manifests itself in substandard financial performance, management entrenchment, and the expropriation of minority shareholders. One implication of this research is that China will have poor corporate governance and entrenched managers as its legal system is relatively underdeveloped and inefficient. However, using data on top management turnover in China's listed firms, our results refute the prediction of entrenched management. We find evidence of very high turnover of company chairmen and there are many cases that we interpret to be forced departures. Our results show that chairman turnover is related to a firm's profitability but not to its stock returns. Turnover-performance sensitivity is higher if legal entities are major shareholders but the proportion of non-executive directors perversely affects it. We find no evidence that profitability improves after a change in chairman and this suggests that a firm's governance structure is ineffective as it is unable to recruit suitable replacements that can turn around its financial performance.
Regional mobility in the European Union

Regional mobility in the spatial distribution of per capita income in the European Union is examined over the period 1977 to 1999. The methodology used to investigate this issue combines a series of measures taken from the literature devoted to the dynamic study of personal income distribution with a non-parametric analysis. The results show limited mobility in the distribution considered, and a decline in mobility over time. The empirical evidence presented indicates, moreover, that mobility patterns vary as a function of regional development levels. Additionally, the analysis carried out investigates the role played in explaining intra-distribution mobility by variables such as per capita income, population density, per capita expenditure in investment, market potential, and the share in total employment of agriculture, advanced services and non-market services.
Innovation and Growth: Theoretical Models and Analytical Simulations of Spatial, Clustering and Competition Effects

This thesis expands upon endogenous growth theory to incorporate a more detailed understanding of innovation. The similarities in modelling techniques between endogenous growth theory and the New Economic Geography (NEG) in the existing literature creates an opportunity to incorporate features of innovation within a model of both geography and growth. The thesis explores three key areas. Firstly, innovation is based on knowledge spillovers. But knowledge spillovers are also subject to spatial characteristics in its transfer between firms, locations, regions and nations. Similarly, knowledge is used by innovators in many sectors, not just the sector where the knowledge was originally developed. As a result, innovating firms have an incentive to agglomerate alongside other innovators to benefit from each other’s knowledge. The geographic constraints of knowledge spillovers are incorporated into a regional model of growth with creative destruction. However, spillovers between industries are not equal. Industries or firms producing products which are closely related have a strong incentive to locate in close proximity to benefit from related-technology spillovers. Some of these related innovation clusters could potentially be isolated, but sustainable due to knowledge transfer between related firms within the cluster. It is this innovation clustering which could provide the opportunity for distant or isolated economies to sustain high levels of productivity. Lastly, the thesis considers a way in which firms enter a market such that entry is not necessarily available to all potential entrants. This limit on the market supplied by innovating firms is characterised by discrete instead of free entry. Entry by discrete firms allows entering firms to invest in innovation in response to actual (instead of potential) competitors. They are able to escape competition by sustaining incremental innovations. Greater competition in larger markets has greater investment in innovation by all participants. This thesis provides new insights for endogenous growth theory, emphasising the need for policies regarding innovation and economic growth that are industry and location specific.
Valuation Ratios and the Long-Run Stock Market Outlook: An Update

The use of price earnings ratios and dividend-price ratios as forecasting variables for the stock market is examined using aggregate annual US data 1871 to 2000 and aggregate quarterly data for twelve countries since 1970. Various simple efficient-markets models of financial markets imply that these ratios should be useful in forecasting future dividend growth, future earnings growth, or future productivity growth. We conclude that, overall, the ratios do poorly in forecasting any of these. Rather, the ratios appear to be useful primarily in forecasting future stock price changes, contrary to the simple efficient-markets models. This paper is an update of our earlier paper (1998), to take account of the remarkable behavior of the stock market in the closing years of the twentieth century.
Fatal flaws: The acquisition of imperfect mental models and their use in hazardous situations

This paper is concerned with the relationship between poor learning processes and the acquisition of imperfect mental models, and their consequences in workplace situations which are hazardous. Seven different factors which may influence mental models to become flawed are proposed. The links between these flaws and three recent Australian industrial disasters are then explored. The paper concludes by discussing the benefits of a greater understanding of poor learning processes as a basis for more focused and contextualised approaches to organisational development.
Workers' Valuation of the Remaining Employment Contract Duration

We introduce and apply a method for estimating workers' marginal willingness to pay for job attributes employing data on job search activity. Worker's willingness to pay for the remaining duration of the employment contract is derived. We provide evidence that workers attach substantial value to the remaining contract duration. A temporary worker with a remaining contract of six months is willing to pay about 10% of the monthly wage to increase the contract by one month.
Assessing Customer Expectations of Information Provided On Restaurant Menus: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach

Improper presentation of information on restaurant menus can lead to customer dissatisfaction, a loss of profitability, and could influence the ultimate failure of a restaurant operation. Although restaurateurs and customers do agree that information on restaurant menus is important, debate exists on what specific information should be provided. Currently, supporters argue for the provision of nutritional information, while critics question the ability of customers to interpret nutritional information on restaurant menus correctly. This present study, therefore, analyzes responses from 276 restaurant customers to examine information expectations of restaurant menus. A model called Customer Information Expectation of Restaurant Menus (CIERM) was developed using the guidelines set forth in the Truth-in-Menu Law and tested using a confirmatory factor analysis approach. The study found that CIERM is influenced by the factors nutrition information, product information, and food preparation. The study concludes with results, discussion, and recommendations based on the findings.
Does Research and Development Activity Increase Accrual-Based Earnings Management?

Prior literature suggests that research and development (R&D) activity is associated with volatile earnings and that, in general, managers perceive earnings volatility as unfavorable and seek to avoid it. Accordingly, I hypothesize and find that the extent to which firms engage in R&D (R&D intensity) is positively associated with the extent to which they engage in accrual-based earnings management, as measured by discretionary accruals. I also find that greater R&D intensity is associated with a smaller positive effect of discretionary accruals on earnings volatility, suggesting that R&D intensity and discretionary accruals constitute non-additive sources of information uncertainty. This study provides empirical evidence of the prevalence of earnings management practices in R&D-intensive industries, supporting conjectures of regulators, practitioners, and academics.
A single bout of whole‐leg, peristaltic pulse external pneumatic compression upregulates PGC‐1α mRNA and endothelial nitric oxide sythase protein in human skeletal muscle tissue

What is the central question of this study? Does 60 min of peristaltic pulse external pneumatic compression (EPC) alter gene and protein expression patterns related to metabolism, vascular biology, redox balance and inflammation in vastus lateralis biopsy samples? What is the main finding and its importance? A single bout of EPC transiently upregulates PGC‐1α mRNA, while also upregulating endothelial nitric oxide synthase protein and nitric oxide metabolite concentrations in vastus lateralis biopsy samples.
Estimation of a Taiwan monetary reaction function with time varying parameters

This paper employs a nonlinear Kalman filter to examine the time-varying responses of Taiwan's monetary policy in the presence of a limited dependent variable. The Kalman filtered parameters reveal that the responses are not constant but change over time. Furthermore, a counter-cyclical reaction function is identified and a stronger than usual discretionary policy during the recessions is found.
Money Supply Announcements and Interest Rates: Another View

In this paper I use a new approach to analyze the impact of money supply announcements on the bond market. Before 1980, the only available work on this subject consisted of a few unpublished papers by Conrad (1978), Sivesind (1978), and Urich (1979). 1 More recently, published papers by Grossman (1981) and Urich and Wachtel (1981) have appeared. Roley (1982) extends the Grossman study to incorporate data after the Federal Reserve policy statement of October 6, 1979. Both Grossman and Urich and Wachtel are primarily concerned with the question of money market efficiency. Using survey data made available by Money Market Services of San Francisco and data on Treasury bill yields each finds that the market responds quickly to unanticipated changes in the money supply but that anticipated changes have no effect on interest rates. In addition, Grossman finds that when he adds other variables, such as past changes in the money
Perceived versus Actual Cash Flow Implications of Deferred Taxes - An Analysis of Value Relevance and Reversal under IFRS

ABSTRACT: This paper provides the first value relevance analysis of deferred tax disclosures under IFRS/IAS. The comprehensive analysis, taking into account the different deferred tax components, shows that investors generally do not consider deferred taxes to convey relevant information for assessing firm value, with the exception being large net deferred tax assets. In order to examine whether the general value irrelevance of deferred tax information may be due to lacking cash flow implications, the value relevance analysis is complemented by an analysis of deferred tax balance reversal. This supplemental analysis reveals that about 70 percent of the deferred tax balance persists over time, with increasing accounts dominating decreasing accounts over a four-year horizon, and that deferred tax assets are more reversing than deferred tax liabilities. Further, quantifications reveal that the majority of balance reversals have rather negligible cash flow implications.