Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Membership in a Nominal Online Group Affect Long-Term Customer Behaviors? Results from a Naturalistic Field Experiment on Kiva.org

In this exploratory investigation, we examine changes associated with joining a nominal online group on longer-term behavior of lenders on the leading peer-to-peer microcredit site Kiva.org. Using a random sample of 5,000 Kiva lenders and exploiting a naturalistic field experimental manipulation (the introduction of the “lending teams” feature on Kiva), we analyzed the relationship of group membership with lending behaviors over a two year period. Our results reveal that lending team membership is positively associated with both the number of loans granted and the amount of money loaned whereas non-membership is associated with drop-offs in both behavioral measures. These results suggest that providing customers with the opportunity to join nominal online groups based on their existing affiliations (such as their alma mater, favorite sports team, nationality, etc.) may offer marketers with a relatively inexpensive, low-maintenance, and effective method of strengthening relationships with customers.
Timing Stock Trades for Personal Gain: Private Information and Sales of Shares by CEOs

We investigate the determinants of gains to CEOs from large stock sales. Consistent with the literature, we find that some CEOs benefit from inside information by strategically timing sales. We also find that internal accounting information can be used to predict such timing. Furthermore, sales executed under plans that conform to SEC Rule 10b5-1 tend to follow positive abnormal stock returns, but do not, on average, precede abnormal declines. In contrast, sales that do not conform to the requirements of Rule 10b5-1 tend to follow smaller positive abnormal stock returns, but, on average, precede large abnormal declines. Board and CEO characteristics are related to the magnitude of the post-transaction abnormal returns. Overall, the evidence suggests that Rule 10b5-1 plans do not prevent CEOs from timing large sales or the release of discretionary information around them.
Fractal Branching Pattern in the Pial Vasculature in the Cat

Arborization pattern was studied in pial vascular networks by treating them as fractals. Rather than applying elaborate taxonomy assembled from measures from individual vessel segments and bifurcations arranged in their branching order, the authors' approach captured the structural details at once in high-resolution digital images processed for the skeleton of the networks. The pial networks appear random and at the same time having structural elements similar to each other when viewed at different scales—a property known as self-similarity revealed by the geometry of fractals. Fractal (capacity) dimension, Dcap, was calculated to evaluate the network's spatial complexity by the box counting method (BCM) and its variant, the extended counting method (XCM). Box counting method and XCM were subject to numerical testing on ideal fractals of known D. The authors found that precision of these fractal methods depends on the fractal character (branching, nonbranching) of the structure they evaluate. Dcap s (group mean ± SD) for the arterial and venous pial networks in the cat (n = 6) are 1.37 ± 0.04, 1.37 ± 0.02 by XCM, and 1.30 ± 0.04, 1.31 ± 0.03 by BCM, respectively. The arterial and venous systems thus appear to be developed according to the same fractal generation rule in the cat.
Symmetric extrapolation solvers for ordinary differential equations

A comparison of several symmetric extrapolation methods is undertaken: Gragg-Bulirsch-Stoer (GBS) explicit midpoint rule, implicit midpoint rule, and a new semi-implicit D-method. An extrapolation ordinary differential equation solver with stepsize and order control was used for computational experiments. Several test problems were considered, including Van der Pol oscillator, chaotic Sprott C system and Brusselator. A performance of methods was compared by plotting computational costs via obtained accuracy for each method. The study showed the superior properties of semi-implicit D-methods on serial and parallel computer architecture.
Corporate Social Responsibility, Earnings Management, and Firm Performance: Evidence from Panel VAR Estimation

Previous literature investigates links between corporate social responsibility (CSR), earnings management (EM), and firm performance (FP) but has looked at pair-wise relations (CSR-EM, CSR-FP, and EM-FP) for one-way effects without considering endogeneity among the variables. We examine these relations recognizing endogeneity and possible two-way effects and also consider two additional factors, corporate governance (CG) and management compensation (MC) that may influence the interrelations between firms’ FP, EM and CSR. To examine the complex relationships among these endogenous variables (CSR, EM, PF, CG, and MC) under different eras in management oversight, we divide our complete sample period from 1992 to 2009 into a pre-SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) period (from 1992 to 2001) and a post-SOX period (from 2002 to 2009), and innovatively employ a rigorous panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) approach. We find three main results: (1) CSR had a positive influence on EM in the pre-SOX period but CSR had no impact on EM post-Sox. (2) There is no relation between CSR and FP pre-SOX, but there are bi-directional relations between them during the post-SOX period: a positive influence of CSR on FP and a negative influence of FP on CSR. (3) FP positively affects EM in both pre- and post-SOX periods.
Accounting Restatements : Malfeasance and / or Optimal Incompetence ?

While accounting research often uses restatements as a measure of earnings quality (EQ), often overlooked is the explicit recognition that EQ arises endogenously as a by-product of the firm’s value-maximizing investment in accounting resources. This paper develops a model of restatements that incorporates both the optimal investment in accounting systems (i.e., “optimal incompetence”) and incentives to intentionally misrepresent the firm’s financial performance (i.e., “malfeasance”). Our framework predicts that smaller, financially weaker firms will optimally invest less in accounting resources than their larger, more profitable counterparts. To identify our reduced-form empirical model, we propose two novel measures of the firm’s investment in accounting systems: filing timeliness of the firm’s 10-K and spelling errors in the 10-K. Our empirical results validate the predictions of the model. First, larger and more profitable firms are associated with greater accounting resources. Second, accounting resources are negatively associated with the likelihood of a restatement in the subsequent year. Third, including accounting resources in the restatement prediction model diminishes the explanatory power of covariates identified in prior studies as capturing misreporting incentives, especially in the case of restatements flagged as irregularities (i.e., fraud). In cross-sectional tests, we find that the association between accounting resources and future restatements is stronger during booms as compared to downturns – which questions prior inferences on the role of the business cycle on accounting fraud. Our results are robust to controlling for the endogeneity of accounting resources using an instrumental design that exploits regulatory changes in firms’ filing deadlines. ______________________________________________________________________________ We thank Jeff Burks (discussant) and workshop participants at the Duke/UNC Fall Camp, MIT Sloan School of Management, SMU, and the UIUC Young Scholars Conference for helpful comments.
A pilot study of telephone cognitive-behavioural therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in young people.

BACKGROUND Cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) is the recommended psychological treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in young people. Access to CBT may be limited by a number of factors, including lack of trained therapists, and geographic or financial factors preventing access to a specialized service. Telephone delivery of CBT represents one way of overcoming some of these accessibility issues. This pilot study describes outcomes for a telephone-based cognitive-behavioural treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in young people. METHOD Ten participants, aged 13 to 17 years, and their parents received up to 16 sessions of telephone CBT (TCBT). Measures of OCD symptoms were obtained using multiple informants and a repeated measures design. Assessments were conducted at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and at 6- and 12-month follow-up. RESULTS Improvements were found for OCD symptoms across all informants. Family satisfaction with treatment over the telephone was high. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that TCBT is a clinically effective, feasible and acceptable means of service delivery that offers the potential to make CBT a more accessible treatment for young people. TCBT requires further evaluation in randomized, controlled trials to compare effectiveness with face-to-face CBT, which currently represents the usual care model.
Intron 22 Inversions in Factor VIII Gene in Indian Hemophiliacs

In developing countries like India, where factor concentrates are hardly affordable for replacement therapy in hemophiliacs, carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis remains the key step for the prevention of the birth of hemophiliac babies. The direct detection of mutations in the factor VIII gene in potential carriers or in the unborn fetus, is always desirable. However, the large size and complexity of the factor VIII gene containing 26 exons makes the proposition extremely difficult, except the intron 22 inversions. The inversion results due to recombination of an intronless gene called F8 A in intron 22 and one of the two copies of the homologous regions in the telomeric end of X chromosome situated approximately 500 kb away from the factor VIII gene. The screening for intron 22 inversion has now become a routine investigation in carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis in the care of hemophiliacs. The reported rate of inversion in different countries varies from 28 to 53% (1). Paucity of the report on the detection of intron 22 inversions in factor VIII gene, in India, prompted us to undertake this present work. Twenty-five severe hemophilia A cases (Factor VIII : C <1 IU/dl) were screened for the presence of intron 22 inversions by the method described earlier (2). Ten microgram of DNA was digested overnight at 50° C with restriction enzyme Bcl I (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany) and electrophoresed on 0.5% agarose gel for 48 h and Southern blotted overnight using 20 3 SSC on a nylon membrane (Hybond N+, Amersham). The filters were prehybridized for 2 h and then put for hybridization with Eco R 1/ Sac I fragment of p 542.6 (kindly donated by J. Gitschier, California, USA), labelled by random priming with PdCTP (BARC India). Next day, after a stringent wash, the bands were visualised by autoradiography. Total nine out of 25 cases (36 %) showed the presence of inversions, six of which were distal (type I) and three were proximal (type II). Eight mothers were also screened out of which 2 were found to be carriers of distal inversion and one of proximal inversion (Fig. 1). None of the cases having inversion showed the presence of F VIII : C inhibitor. This report from India suggests that, the gene rearrangement of intron 22 of the factor VIII gene prevails in this part of the Asian subcontinent with more or less the same frequency as that reported in other populations, although a little higher prevalence of the inversions has been documented in Brazilian population (3). Thus it is suggested that screening for intron 22 inversions can be applied as the first line of investigation in carrier detection and antenatal diagnosis of severe hemophilia A families. It cuts down the cost involved and the number of the family members to be screened.
The “buffering” role of high-к in post breakdown degradation immunity of advanced dual layer dielectric gate stacks

Post breakdown (BD) reliability is an important area of study in ultra-thin gate dielectrics as it has significant implications on the performance degradation, lifetime, reliability margin and power dissipation of advanced sub-22 nm transistors and circuits. A prolonged phase of post-BD can ensure we can live with the circuit with moderate performance and error-free operation, even if the soft breakdown (SBD) events occur early. While analysis of post-BD is simple and straightforward for single layer SiO2/SiON stacks, the number of possible scenarios of post-BD increases when analyzing high-κ-interfacial layer (HK-IL) based technology. This is because the sequence of BD (whether HK or IL fails first followed by the other one) and the competition between multiple SBD in one of these layers, dilative wear-out of a single SBD spot and the possibility of a successive localized BD above/below the HK/IL BD percolation spot (with or without metal filamentation) are all possible phenomena that can be classified as post-BD. The likelihood of occurrence of these various possibilities will determine the immunity of the stack to post-BD degradation. We will investigate each of these scenarios in detail in this work in order to provide a comprehensive assessment of post-BD reliability of state-of-the-art technology. Our analysis on a HK:IL = 25:12Å stack supported by electrical, physical and modeling results provides clear evidence that circuit failure at operating conditions can only be due to multiple SBD events within the IL layer and that the HK is very robust and resilient to breakdown.
Identification of a Novel 14-3-3&zgr; Binding Site Within the Cytoplasmic Domain of Platelet Glycoprotein Ib&agr; That Plays a Key Role in Regulating the von Willebrand Factor Binding Function of Glycoprotein Ib-IX

Rationale: The interaction between platelet glycoprotein (GP) Ib-IX and von Willebrand factor (VWF) is initiated by conformational changes in immobilized VWF and is also regulated by the intraplatelet proteins 14-3-3&zgr; and filamin A. Both 14-3-3&zgr; and filamin A associate with the cytoplasmic domain of GPIb&agr;, whereas little is known about their relationship in regulating the VWF binding function of GPIb-IX. Objective: To explore the mechanism underlying the roles of 14-3-3&zgr; and filamin A in regulating the VWF binding function of GPIb-IX. Methods and Results: A truncation mutant of GPIb&agr; (&Dgr;565) deleting the C-terminal 14-3-3&zgr; binding sites retained 14-3-3&zgr; binding function, in contrast, deletion of the C-terminal residues 551 to 610 of GPIb&agr; totally abolished 14-3-3&zgr; binding, indicating that the residues 551 to 564 of GPIb&agr; are important in the interaction between 14-3-3&zgr; and GPIb-IX. An antibody recognizing phosphorylated R557GpSLP561 sequence reacted with GPIb&agr; suggesting phosphorylation of a population of GPIb&agr; molecules at Ser559, and a membrane permeable phosphopeptide (MP-P), R557GpSLP561 corresponding to residues 557 to 561 of GPIb&agr; eliminated the association of 14-3-3&zgr; with &Dgr;565. MP-P also promoted GPIb-IX association with the membrane skeleton, and inhibited ristocetin-induced platelet agglutination, VWF binding to platelets and platelet adhesion to immobilized VWF. Furthermore, a GPIb-IX mutant replacing Ser559 of GPIb&agr; with alanine showed an enhanced association with the membrane skeleton, reduced ristocetin-induced VWF binding, and diminished ability to mediate cell adhesion to VWF under flow conditions. Conclusions: These data suggest a phosphorylation-dependent binding of 14-3-3&zgr; to central filamin A binding site of GPIb&agr;, and the dimeric 14-3-3&zgr; binding to both the C-terminal site and central RGpSLP site inhibits GPIb-IX association with the membrane skeleton and promotes the VWF binding function of GPIb-IX.
Meta-Learning and the Full Model Selection Problem

When working as a data analyst, one of my daily tasks is to select appropriate tools from a set of existing data analysis techniques in my toolbox, including data preprocessing, outlier detection, feature selection, learning algorithm and evaluation techniques, for a given data project. This indeed was an enjoyable job at the beginning, because to me finding patterns and valuable information from data is always fun. Things become tricky when several projects needed to be done in a relatively short time. Naturally, as a computer science graduate, I started to ask myself, “What can be automated here? ”; because, intuitively, part of my work is more or less a loop that can be programmed. Literally, the loop is “choose, run, test and choose again. until some criterion/goals are met”. In other words, I use my experience or knowledge about machine learning and data mining to guide and speed up the process of selecting and applying techniques in order to build a relatively good predictive model for a given dataset for some purpose. So the following questions arise: “Is it possible to design and implement a system that helps a data analyst to choose from a set of data mining tools? Or at least that provides a useful recommendation about tools that potentially save some time for a human analyst. ” To answer these questions, I decided to undertake a long-term study on this topic, to think, define, research, and simulate this problem before coding my dream system. This thesis presents research results, including new methods, algorithms, and theoretical and empirical analysis from two directions, both of which try to propose systematic and efficient solutions to the questions above, using different resource requirements, namely, the meta-learning-based algorithm/parameter ranking approach and the meta-heuristic search-based full-model selection approach. Some of the results have been published in research papers; thus, this thesis also serves as a coherent collection of results in a single volume.
Rerouting of Plant Late Endocytic Trafficking Toward a Pathogen Interface

A number of plant pathogenic and symbiotic microbes produce specialized cellular structures that invade host cells where they remain enveloped by host‐derived membranes. The mechanisms underlying the biogenesis and functions of host–microbe interfaces are poorly understood. Here, we show that plant late endocytic trafficking is diverted toward the extrahaustorial membrane (EHM); a host–pathogen interface that develops in plant cells invaded by Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans. A late endosome and tonoplast marker protein Rab7 GTPase RabG3c, but not a tonoplast‐localized sucrose transporter, is recruited to the EHM, suggesting specific rerouting of vacuole‐targeted late endosomes to a host–pathogen interface. We revealed the dynamic nature of this process by showing that, upon activation, a cell surface immune receptor traffics toward the haustorial interface. Our work provides insight into the biogenesis of the EHM and reveals dynamic processes that recruit membrane compartments and immune receptors to this host–pathogen interface.
The Influence of Low and High Pressure Levels during Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy on Wound Contraction and Fluid Evacuation

Background: Negative-pressure wound therapy promotes healing by drainage of excessive fluid and debris and by mechanical deformation of the wound. The most commonly used negative pressure, −125 mmHg, may cause pain and ischemia, and the pressure often needs to be reduced. The aim of the present study was to examine wound contraction and fluid removal at different levels of negative pressure. Methods: Peripheral wounds were created in 70-kg pigs. The immediate effects of negative-pressure wound therapy (−10 to −175 mmHg) on wound contraction and fluid removal were studied in eight pigs. The long-term effects on wound contraction were studied in eight additional pigs during 72 hours of negative-pressure wound therapy at −75 mmHg. Results: Wound contraction and fluid removal increased gradually with increasing levels of negative pressure until reaching a steady state. Maximum wound contraction was observed at −75 mmHg. When negative-pressure wound therapy was discontinued, after 72 hours of therapy, the wound surface area was smaller than before therapy. Maximum wound fluid removal was observed at −125 mmHg. Conclusions: Negative-pressure wound therapy facilitates drainage of wound fluid and exudates and results in mechanical deformation of the wound edge tissue, which is known to stimulate granulation tissue formation. Maximum wound contraction is achieved already at −75 mmHg, and this may be a suitable pressure for most wounds. In wounds with large volumes of exudate, higher pressure levels may be needed for the initial treatment period.
Prediction of Texture of Cooked White Rice by Near-Infrared Reflectance Analysis of Whole-Grain Milled Samples

ABSTRACT Although much work has been done using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with rice, little is currently known about the effectiveness of NIR to predict functional attributes of rice such as cooked rice texture, especially as they are influenced by postharvest parameters. In this study, NIR spectroscopy was used for predicting cooked rice texture as affected by postharvest history. Cooked rice texture attributes were evaluated by a nine-member trained descriptive panel, and milled white rice was scanned using a near-infrared (NIR) spectrophotometer. Sensory attribute models were developed using partial least squares regression in combination with jack-knife, a model optimization method, using NIR reflectance spectra (400–2,500 nm) and 1st and 2nd derivatives. Cooked rice adhesion to lips (R2 = 0.88), hardness (R2 = 0.79), cohesiveness of mass (three chews) (R2 = 0.79), and toothpack (R2 = 0.85) were satisfactorily fitted (n = 201–202) using the 2nd derivative spectra. Other attributes evaluated, su.
Estimating Modifying Effect of Age on Genetic and Environmental Variance Components in Twin Models

Twin studies have been adopted for decades to disentangle the relative genetic and environmental contributions for a wide range of traits. However, heritability estimation based on the classical twin models does not take into account dynamic behavior of the variance components over age. Varying variance of the genetic component over age can imply the existence of gene–environment (G × E) interactions that general genome-wide association studies (GWAS) fail to capture, which may lead to the inconsistency of heritability estimates between twin design and GWAS. Existing parametric G × E interaction models for twin studies are limited by assuming a linear or quadratic form of the variance curves with respect to a moderator that can, however, be overly restricted in reality. Here we propose spline-based approaches to explore the variance curves of the genetic and environmental components. We choose the additive genetic, common, and unique environmental variance components (ACE) model as the starting point. We treat the component variances as variance functions with respect to age modeled by B-splines or P-splines. We develop an empirical Bayes method to estimate the variance curves together with their confidence bands and provide an R package for public use. Our simulations demonstrate that the proposed methods accurately capture dynamic behavior of the component variances in terms of mean square errors with a data set of >10,000 twin pairs. Using the proposed methods as an alternative and major extension to the classical twin models, our analyses with a large-scale Finnish twin data set (19,510 MZ twins and 27,312 DZ same-sex twins) discover that the variances of the A, C, and E components for body mass index (BMI) change substantially across life span in different patterns and the heritability of BMI drops to ∼50% after middle age. The results further indicate that the decline of heritability is due to increasing unique environmental variance, which provides more insights into age-specific heritability of BMI and evidence of G × E interactions. These findings highlight the fundamental importance and implication of the proposed models in facilitating twin studies to investigate the heritability specific to age and other modifying factors.