Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Institutional ownership and dividend policy: A framework based on tax clientele, information signaling and agency costs.

This study is an empirical examination of a new theory that links dividends to institutional ownership in a framework of both information signaling and agency costs. Under this theory put forth by Allen, Bernardo and Welch in 2000, dividends are paid out to attract tax-favored institutional investors, thereby signaling good firm quality and/or more efficient monitoring. This is based on the premise that institutions are considered sophisticated investors with superior ability and stronger incentive to be informed about the firm quality compared to retail investors. On the agency level, institutional investors display monitoring capabilities, and can detect and correct managerial pitfalls, thus their presence serves as an assurance that the firm will remain well run. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the implications of the theory by testing various aspects of the relationship between dividends and institutional holdings. Unlike the prevalent literature on this topic, I give specific attention to the different types of institutional investors and their incentives to invest in dividend paying stocks. Moreover, I analyze the signaling and the agency effects on the market reaction to dividend initiations within the framework proposed by the theory. Finally, I test the smoothing effect institutions have on dividends by examining the firm's propensity to increase dividends given the level of institutional ownership. I find institutional holders to respond positively to dividend initiation announcements as they adjust their portfolios by buying or increasing their holdings of the dividend paying stock following the announcement. I also find that this response is displayed more strongly among tax-favored institutions. My test results also reveal that positive abnormal returns to dividend initiation announcements are a decreasing function of institutional holdings in the dividend initiating firm, and that this mitigating effect of institutional ownership on the market reaction to dividend initiations is stronger for firms with higher information asymmetry and more potential for agency problems. This evidence lends some degree of support to the tested theory. Additional support to lies in the test results of its smoothing hypothesis which reveal that as institutional ownership increases, the propensity of firms to increase dividends decreases.
The effect of acute urinary retention on serum prostate-specific antigen level.

INTRODUCTION Our aim was to evaluate the effect of acute urinary retention on serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level. MATERIALS AND METHODS Men aged 50 years and older who presented with acute urinary retention were studied. Patients with urethral stricture, neurogenic bladder, prostate cancer, and those with a history of recent instrumentation or prostate biopsy were excluded. Blood samples for serum PSA measurement were obtained (PSA1), and an indwelling urethral catheter was inserted for 2 weeks. Before catheter removal, a second blood sample for measurement of serum PSA level (PSA2) was obtained. In patients who were able to void, a third sample was obtained 3 weeks later (PSA3). In the first and second visits, digital rectal examinations (DRE1, DRE2) were performed to assess prostate volume. Mean PSA levels (PSA1, PSA2, and PSA3) and prostate volumes (DRE1, DRE2) were compared. RESULTS Forty-five patients with a mean age of 70.18 years (range 56 to 85 years) participated in this study. Mean PSA1 and PSA2 levels were 9.8 ng/mL and 5.05 ng/mL, respectively (P < 0.001; medians, 6.2 and 4.2 ng/mL). Mean prostate volumes at the time of retention and 2 weeks later were 43.4 mL and 37.8 mL, respectively (P < 0.001; medians, 45 and 40 mL). PSA3 was measured in 31 patients 2 weeks after catheter removal. In this group of patients, mean PSA2 and PSA3 levels were 5.03 ng/mL and 4.97 ng/mL, respectively (P = 0.49; medians, 4.3 and 4.1 ng/mL). CONCLUSION Acute urinary retention can increase serum PSA levels by approximately 2 fold. In this series, we found that this effect may continue up to 2 weeks.
Review: Cardiogenic potential of endothelial progenitor cells

Transplantation of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are one of the promising strategies to recover the capillary flow in ischaemic diseases such as ischaemic heart disease and peripheral artery disease (PAD) in the leg. However, our previous and another group's works suggested the scarcity of the number of EPCs in peripheral blood might cause insufficient effect for the ischaemic diseases. There are several strategies to overcome this issue, such as (1) in vivo EPC expansion; (2) ex vivo EPC expansion; (3) local (not systemic) EPC injection; and (4) modification of EPC by gene transfer. Recent publications from our own and other groups have reported the possibility of cardiogenic potential of EPCs. We would like to focus on the strategies of EPC transplantation and cardiomyogenesis of EPCs in this review.
N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor‐like immunoreactivity in the brain of Sepia and Octopus

Ionotropic glutamate receptors have been subdivided into N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) and AMPA/kainate classes. NMDA receptor subunit 2A and 2B immunoreactivity is shown to be present in specific regions of the central nervous system (CNS) of the cephalopod molluscs Sepia officinalis and Octopus vulgaris. An antibody that recognizes both mammalian NMDAR2A and NMDAR2B subunits equally was used. SDS‐PAGE/Western blot analysis performed on membrane proteins revealed an immunoreactive band at 170 kDa for both species. Immunoreactive bands from both Octopus and Sepia brains disappeared when the antibody was preabsorbed with membrane proteins from rat hippocampus or from their own brains. The same antibody was then used for immunohistochemical staining of serial sections of the CNS to reveal localized specific staining of cell bodies and fibers in several lobes of the brain. Staining was found in lower motor centers, in some higher motor centers, in learning centers, and in the optic lobes. Immunopositivity was also found in the areas of brain that control the activity of the optic gland, a gonadotropic endocrine gland. These findings suggest that glutamate, via NMDA receptors, may be involved as a signaling molecule in motor, learning, visual, and olfactory systems in the cephalopod brain. J. Comp. Neurol. 477:202–219, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Informed Depositors and Bank Dividends

This study investigates whether the composition of bank debt affects payout policy. We identify that information-sensitive depositors (institutional investors) are targets of dividend signaling by banks. We use a unique database of Brazilian banks, for which we are able to identify several types of debtholders, namely institutional investors, nonfinancial firms and individuals, which are potential targets of dividend signaling. We also exploit the features of the Brazilian banking system, such as the existence of several closely held banks, owned and managed by a small group of people, for which shareholder-targeted signaling is implausible, and find that banks that rely more on institutional depositors for funding pay larger dividends, controlling for other features. During the financial crisis, this behavior was even more pronounced. This relationship reinforces the role of dividends as a costly and credible signal on the quality of bank assets. We also find that payout is negatively related to the banks’ cost of funding (interest rates paid on certificates of deposits), that dividends have a positive relationship with size and past profitability and that closely held banks pay more dividends than publicly traded banks, which is also in line with the signaling purpose of dividends. Finally, we find a negative relationship between dividends and the capital adequacy ratio, which indicates that regulatory pressure may induce banks to pay less dividends, and that that payout is negatively related to the growth of the loan portfolio, consistent with the idea of banks retaining earnings to increase equity and consequently their lending capacity.
A mobile visual search application for content based image retrieval in the fashion domain

In this study we propose a mobile application which interfaces with a Content-Based Image Retrieval engine for online shopping in the fashion domain. Using this application it is possible to take a picture of a garment to retrieve its most similar products. The proposed method is firstly presented as an application in which the user manually select the name of the subject framed by the camera, before sending the request to the server. In the second part we propose an advanced approach which automatically classifies the object of interest, in this way it is possible to minimize the effort required by the user during the query process. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, we have collected three datasets: the first contains clothing images of products taken from different online shops, whereas for the other datasets we have used images and video frames of clothes taken by Internet users. The results show the feasibility in the use of the proposed mobile application in a real scenario.
Design of an online adaptive auto-reclose algorithm for HV transmission lines

This paper proposes an adaptive auto-reclose scheme for high voltage transmission lines. It presents application of wavelet transform in identification of transient and permanent faults by processing the fault generated high frequency voltage transients. It can also be utilised to determine adaptive reclosure time with capturing arc extinction time. A nonlinear time dependent dynamic resistance representation of the primary and secondary arcs is developed as well. Performance of the proposed method is validated by some simulation studies. Some simulations are carried out on a typical 400 kV circuit for various system and fault conditions and obtained results are presented in the paper
Are Private Equity Investors Corporate Raiders or Corporate Doctors? The Influence of Geography on the Success of Private Equity Investments in Listed Equity

This paper analyses short-term wealth effects and long-term wealth effects of private equity investments in target companies already listed on a stock exchange and examines the importance of geography on stock returns and accounting returns. In general, risk-adjusted short-term and long-term stock returns of target companies are positive. Moreover, target companies realize higher announcement returns and larger improvements in accounting returns when the private equity investor and the target are from the same country. These observations support the hypothesis that private equity investors are corporate doctors (and are also perceived as doctors by the market).
Variation Between Couples of Human Coital Rates

Summary Distributions of reported coital rates are positively skewed. The means of such distributions seem to be roughly proportional, not to their variances, but to their standard deviations. The coefficient of variation of distributions of reported coital rates—at least for relatively homogeneous samples—is of the order of 2/3. It is estimated that the coefficient of variation of the distribution of true (as opposed to reported) values would be about ½ at the time of first conception.
A DC–DC Multiport-Converter-Based Solid-State Transformer Integrating Distributed Generation and Storage

The Solid-state transformer (SST) has been proposed by researchers to replace the regular distribution transformer in the future smart grid. The SST provides ports for the integration of storage and distributed generation (DG), e.g., photovoltaic (PV), and enables the implementation of power quality features. This paper proposes a SST topology based on a quad-active-bridge (QAB) converter which not only provides isolation for the load, but also for DG and storage. A gyrator-based average model is developed for a general multiactive-bridge (MAB) converter, and expressions to determine the power rating of the MAB ports are derived. These results are then applied to analyze the QAB converter. For the control of the dc-dc stage of the proposed QAB-based SST integrating PV and battery, a technique that accounts for the cross-coupling characteristics of the QAB converter in order to improve the regulation of the high-voltage-dc link is introduced. This is done by transferring the disturbances onto the battery. The control loops are designed using single-input single-output techniques with different bandwidths. The dynamic performance of the control strategy is verified through extensive simulation and experimental results.
Board Attributes and the Impact of Organizational Characteristics: Findings from the Greek Listed Manufacturing Companies

Corporate governance has emerged in the last decade mainly due to a number of corporate failures and scandals that have drawn the global attention. Furthermore, the current financial crisis has highlighted issues of CG in a widest sense and the corporate governance codes and recommendations are being revisited, in order to facilitate transparency and accountability of the management processes within organisations. A range of studies has investigated the essential features of CG; most of the discussion on CG has been driven by concerns with the effectiveness of board of directors that is expected to represent the interests of the shareholders by controlling the opportunistic behaviour of managers and by providing resources to the firm. In Greece, CG is a topic of increasing interest, as a result of dysfunctional boards, executive misconduct and international pressures for a more shareholder-oriented model of governance. However, due to the fact that Greece is a small economy with the majority of companies being small to medium, the interest of corporate governance is highly concentrated to the listed companies of the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX). In this study, the focus is on the manufacturing companies of the ATHEX, with about half of the total listed companies being characterized as such.
Reliability and survivability models of integrated drone-based systems for post emergency monitoring of NPPs

This paper presents the approach to research integrated drone-based systems for post emergency monitoring of NPPs as systems with a multi-level degradation. Reliability block diagrams of the systems are built. Degradation levels, conditions which determine them and formulae for calculating the reliability functions of the systems on these levels are proposed. The possibility of using developed models for research systems with a multi-level degradation and using drones are shown.
Relationships Among Team Trust, Team Cohesion, Team Satisfaction and Project Team Effectiveness as Perceived by Project Managers in Malaysia

Today, more and more project teams are formed to achieve organizational objectives as organizations generally recognized the importance and benefits of project teams. There is a compelling reason to study what are the team outcome factors that can predict project team effectiveness as it is unclear whether these team outcome factors can yield the same result in project setting whereby there is resource and time constraint compare to normal work teams which are ongoing and operational in nature. This study has developed a research model underpinned on Cohen and Bailey (1997) Team Effectiveness Framework to empirically analyze some team outcome factors in which result showed that team trust is directly predicting team cohesion, team satisfaction and project team effectiveness. However, team cohesion is not directly predicting project team effectiveness but it is directly predicting team satisfaction. In turn, team satisfaction is directly and positively predicting project team effectiveness. In other words, team cohesion indirectly predicting project team effectiveness via team satisfaction. Discussion, limitation and conclusion are also included in this article.
Efficient FPGA prototyping of fixed sphere decoder for MIMO systems

In this paper, we present a FPGA prototyping of a fixed sphere MIMO decoder as well as a QR implementation of the channel matrix. The FPGA implementation is incorporated with a Matlab simulation model of the MIMO system to validate the hardware design. The proposed design compares favorably to published FPGA implementations of the fixed sphere MIMO decoders, with respect to both the hardware area and throughput metrics. The presented FPGA prototype of the FSD achieves a fixed throughput of 800 Mbps for 4times4 MIMO systems using 16-QAM modulation scheme.
Mitochondrial and Oxidative Stress Response in HepG2 Cells Following Acute and Prolonged Exposure to Antiretroviral Drugs

Chronic HIV treatment with antiretroviral drugs has been associated with adverse health outcomes. Mitochondrial toxicity exhibited by nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) is pinpointed as a molecular mechanism of toxicity. This study evaluated the effect of NRTIs: Zidovudine (AZT, 7.1 μM), Stavudine (d4T, 4 μM) and Tenofovir (TFV, 1.2 μM), on mitochondrial (mt) stress response, mtDNA integrity and oxidative stress response in human hepatoma cells at 24 and 120 h. Markers for mt function, mt biogenesis, oxidative stress parameters, and antioxidant response were evaluated by spectrophotometry, luminometry, flow cytometry, qPCR and western blots. We found that AZT and d4T reduced mtDNA integrity (120 h, AZT: 76.1%; d4T:36.1%, P < 0.05) and remained unchanged with TFV. All three NRTIs, however, reduced ATP levels (AZT: 38%; d4T: 56.4%; TFV: 27.4%, P = 0.01) and mt membrane potential at 120 h (P < 0.005). Oxidative damage and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were increased by TFV and AZT at 24 h, and by d4T at 120 h (P < 0.05). Antioxidant response molecules and mt biogenesis markers were elevated by all NRTIs, with TFV causing the most significant increase (P < 0.05). Data from this study suggest that AZT, d4T and TFV alter mt function. TFV, however, achieves this independently of mtDNA depletion. Furthermore, AZT exerts toxicity soon after exposure as noted from changes at 24 h and d4T exerts greater toxicity over prolonged exposure (120 h). J. Cell. Biochem. 116: 1939–1946, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Arousal modulates valence effects on both early and late stages of affective picture processing in a passive viewing task

Valence and arousal are primary dimensions of affective stimuli. An interaction of these two factors on affective processing is largely unknown. In this study, the processing of affective pictures was investigated in an orthogonal valence (positive vs. negative) by arousal (high vs. low) task design. Participants were instructed to passively view each presented picture and did not need to make any responses. The valence by arousal interaction was observed on three event-related potential (ERP) components, including the P2 (160–190 ms), N2 (220–320 ms) and late positive potential (LPP) (400–700 ms). This interaction revealed that negative pictures evoked larger neural responses compared with positive pictures (i.e., negative bias) at the high-arousal level, whereas negative pictures evoked smaller neural responses than positive pictures (i.e., positive offset) at the low-arousal level. The current results suggest that the effect of emotional valence on affective picture perception is modulated by levels of arousal at both early and late stages of processing. Finally, the main effect of valence was evident in the P1 component (90–110 ms) and arousal effect in the N1 component (120–150 ms).
A Survey on the Eigenvalues Local Behavior of Large Complex Correlated Wishart Matrices

The aim of this note is to provide a pedagogical survey of the recent works by the authors ( arXiv:1409.7548 and arXiv:1507.06013) concerning the local behavior of the eigenvalues of large complex correlated Wishart matrices at the edges and cusp points of the spectrum: Under quite general conditions, the eigenvalues fluctuations at a soft edge of the limiting spectrum, at the hard edge when it is present, or at a cusp point, are respectively described by mean of the Airy kernel, the Bessel kernel, or the Pearcey kernel. Moreover, the eigenvalues fluctuations at several soft edges are asymptotically independent. In particular, the asymptotic fluctuations of the matrix condition number can be described. Finally, the next order term of the hard edge asymptotics is provided.
A Study of Changing Pattern and Demand for Mobile Banking Services in India

Recent innovations in the telecommunication have proven to be a boon for the banking sector and its customers: One of these is Mobile Banking, where customers interact with the bank via mobile phones and banks provide them the services like short message services, fund transfers, account details, issue of cheque book etc. Presently almost all the banks in the world have started providing their customers "Mobile Banking" services. The main issue of this study is to understand the factors which contribute to user's intention to use the mobile banking services. The purpose of this review paper is to explore the factors that influence the adoption behaviour of mobile banking services by Indian consumers. The data was collected from 150 respondents from Delhi city in the month of November and December 2013. Around 61.33% respondents opined that this system is less costly and time saving and 58.67% respondents would like to try this service. In this paper, we will share what is mobile banking (m-banking), RBI guidelines for mobile banking in India, advantages of adopting this new technology both for the banking sector as well as the consumer and issues which needs to be addressed relating to this new form of banking. This paper also discusses the various steps that mobile banking providers should take to increase their mobile banking services user's database. Recent innovations in the telecommunication have proven to be a boon for the banking sector and its customers: This paper also discusses the various steps that mobile banking providers should take to increase their mobile banking services user's database.
Suppression of pendular nystagmus by smoking cannabis in a patient with multiple sclerosis

To the Editor: I read with interest the article by Schon et al.1 In the early 1960s, I observed an individual with congenital nystagmus whose nystagmus damped after smoking cannabis; the damping was obvious and it was evident to others. Unfortunately, the setting precluded ocular motor recording and the date preceded the development of accurate techniques to accomplish such recording. However, the subject was able to read small print on a poster across the room on the wall opposite to where he was seated, which was not possible before smoking the cannabis. Over the ensuing years, that observation has been supported by unsolicited, first-hand reports of similar effects by several patients with congenital nystagmus referred to our …
Evaluating interventions for Ebola: The need for randomized trials

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 increased recognition of the need for effective and safe interventions for the prevention and treatment of the severe and often fatal illness caused by infection with Ebola virus. Randomized clinical trials, preferably conducted in a blinded manner, provide the most reliable insights about the benefits and risks of strategies to reduce the clinical burden of Ebola-related illness.
Managing For The Long Run: Lessons In Competitive Advantage From Great Family Businesses

Conventional thinking holds that family-controlled businesses are beset by inherent weaknesses from "clan" cultures to stable ownership that hobble success and erode competitive advantage. This book argues that those very traits are part of what has ensured the sustained success of some of the world's leading and long-lived family controlled businesses. This is not a book for "mom and pop" family businesses. Rather, it is for firms of all kinds and sizes who want to emulate the strategies of the best family-controlled businesses for long term success.