Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Euro and the Dollar

How will the arrival of the euro affect the dollar? This paper uses portfolio theory to analyse the likelihood and impact of shifts between the dollar and the euro by private asset managers, official reserve managers and global liability managers. It examines the effects on both the level of the dollar and its volatility in three periods: the period before the euro's introduction; the interval until the European Central Bank consolidates its credibility; and the approach to the steady state. While the heavy weight of the Deutsche mark in international holdings of European assets today may suggest a risk intolerance that could lead to shifts into the dollar in the near future, that weight may evidence nothing more than the mark's transactions role. After its introduction, the euro may benefit from shifts by central banks into Treasury bills issued by European governments. In the approach to the steady state, the greater depth, breadth and liquidity of the euro financial markets will attract international investment. But these features should be expected to attract increased international borrowing as well, so there is little reason to expect the dollar to fall against the euro as a result of a net portfolio shifts. There is some reason to expect that in the long run the euro will impart greater volatility to the dollar's exchange rate against all US trading partners.
The Association between Audit Quality, Accounting Disclosures and Firm-Specific Risk: Evidence from the Australian IPO Market

In an environment where expected litigation costs are relatively low (Australia), we provide evidence strongly consistent with signaling considerations influencing the choice of auditor by initial public offering (IPO) firms. When our analysis is confined to smaller IPOs and/or IPOs using less prestigous underwriters (i.e., those IPOs where the use of a high quality auditor is less "routine"), we find that the probability of selecting a high quality auditor is positively related to IPO firms' riskiness, negatively related to the level of retained ownership by the initial owners and positively related to the decision to voluntarily provide information about expected earnings. these results jointly provide support for the signaling models of Datar, Feltham and Hughes (1991) and Hughes (1986), whereby the choice of a high quality auditor represents a trade-off with the level of retained ownership, but is complimentary to the extent of direct disclosure.
Stress at work and burnout syndrome in hospital doctors.

INTRODUCTION Reforming the health care system in Bosnia and Herzegovina began in 1998 through various forms of amendments to existing health plans and programs. There has been the introduction of new technologies, flow of new information from the profession, excessive demands on employers, financial constraints, etc. The hospital doctors in the workplace suffer from too many stressors. Burnout syndrome at work is a form of chronic stress reactions to stressors, and develops as a result of inefficient coping with and solving every day, demanding stressful situations related to professional duties. GOAL The goals of this study were: to identify the specific stressors of high intensity in the hospital physicians work environment, to discover whether and how certain stressors can affect the appearance of burnout syndrome at work in a hospital physician, to determine whether certain individual factors influence the occurrence of burnout syndrome at work. METHODS AND SUBJECTS We made the intersection study involving the use of questionnaires, in order to assess the stressors and burnout syndrome in hospital among doctors of the University Clinical Center in Tuzla. RESULTS The study comprised 34.7% hospital doctors (specialists and doctors on specialization) of a total 423 employees in various departments of the University Hospital Clinical Center in Tuzla. High level of emotional exhaustion was recorded in 37.4%, a high level of depersonalization in 45.6%, and a low level in perceptions of personal accomplishments in 50.3% of respondents. CONCLUSIONS Continuous exposure to stressors at the workplace, such as work at shifts, excessive workload, poor communication with superiors, and lack of continuous education of hospital physicians can lead to mental and physical exhaustion, professional burnout. Management of the University Clinical Center Tuzla should in the future address the structural reorganization of workplaces, as well as ongoing prevention interventions in other domains of risk factors or stressors, that this study identified.
Intrinsic High-Sensitivity Sensors Based on Etched Single-Mode Polymer Optical Fibers

The significance of etched single-mode polymer optical fibers and their potential for the development of high-sensitivity sensors are presented. A polymethyl methacrylate-based single-mode polymer optical fiber is etched to various diameters and it is observed that etching can lead to change in the material properties of the fiber, such as Young's modulus and thermal expansion coefficient. This can play a vital role in improving the intrinsic sensing capabilities of sensors based on etched polymer optical fiber. To demonstrate that the modified material properties of the etched polymer fiber can enhance its intrinsic sensing capabilities, sensing characteristics of etched polymer fiber Bragg gratings for strain, temperature, and pressure are obtained. From the results, it is confirmed that the sensors based on etched polymer fibers exhibit high intrinsic sensitivity compared with un-etched ones. The potential of developing a sensing system for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature is also demonstrated.
Ultrafast analog-to-digital converter using resonant-tunneling ternary quantizers

We study an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that uses ternary quantizers consisting of resonant-tunneling diodes and HEMTs. This paper explains the ADC design and presents experimental results. A resonant-tunneling ternary quantizer operates at 10 GHz and a 2-bit ADC operates at 5 GHz.
Forecasting Financial Problems in Emerging Capital Markets

The advent of the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) in the Southeast Asia in 1997 is an appealing case for research work in assessing corporate financial distress. From international perspective, AFC is a product of contagion effect that spread from Thailand and consequently to the other Asian countries. Domestically, the AFC has resulted a sudden economic slump and corporate failures in these economies. This paper examines the corporate failure before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis in three emerging capital markets namely Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and develops, tests, and analyses a model for classifying and predicting financial distress. A failure classification model based on multiple discriminant analysis was utilised to classify listed corporations from these countries for the 1980 to 1996 period. The model is tested on a sample of 33 Malaysian, 17 Singaporean and 52 Thailand failed firms and similar number of non-failed firms in the respective countries as a control sample. The failure prediction model developed successfully discriminates between failed and non-failed listed firms at the rate of 86%, 82% and 71% of Malaysian, Singaporean and Thailand firms respectively. Further validation of findings show that the predictive accuracy was significantly better than chance.
Incentives and Innovation: Evidence from CEO Compensation Contracts

We investigate the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) compensation and innovation. In an empirical examination of compensation contracts of S&P 400, 500, and 600 firms we find that long-term incentives in the form of options are positively related to patents and citations to patents. In addition, convexity of options has a positive effect on innovation. We also find no relationship between pay for performance sensitivity (PPS) with patents and citations to patents while we did discover a positive relationship between these and golden parachutes. Finally, we show that subsequent to project failure managers compensation contracts are reset favourably. We provide support for the theory that compensation contracts that offer long-term commitment and protection from failure are more suitable for innovation
Healthy Eating Index ( HEI ) and Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Myocardial Infarction : A Case Control Study

Background & Aim: Myocardial Infarction (MI) is one of the major global causes of death and disability. Thus, prevention and control of the disease may vastly help public maintain their health and lower imposed costs. The aim of the present study was to assess HEI and some of the influential factors among individuals with recently diagnosed MI and compare these with healthy individuals in Mazandaran province, Iran. Methods:A case-control study was implemented between 2013 and 2014, on 100 patients (male and female) diagnosed with first-time MI who were hospitalized in heart specialty hospitals of Amol, Babol and Sari (three cities of Mazandaran province) and 100 adjusted (for age, gender and place of birth) healthy controls. HEI and anthropometric data were measured using food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and standard methods, respectively. Data were then analyzed using Chi-square and independent t-test. Results: Mean score of HEI was higher for healthy controls than cases (p<0.001). A positive, significant correlation were observed between the number of servings consumed from vegetables, fruits, dairy, meats as well as dietary diversity score (DDS) with HEI score for both groups. Further, a significant association were observed between smoking, hypertension, family history of MI, education level and low economic status with MI incidence. Conclusion: Unhealthy eating pattern may increase risk of MI. On the other hand, education and low economic status are among risk factors of MI in Mazandaran province.
Association of the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010) with depression, stress and anxiety among Iranian military personnel

Introduction Psychological disorders have a major role in the incidence of chronic diseases and may result in reductions in the cost-effectiveness of the Armed Forces. Previous civilian studies have shown a protective association between healthy eating guidelines and mental disorders, but evidence to support this for a military population is limited. The aim of this study was to examine the association of Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010) with depression, stress and anxiety among Iranian military personnel. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted on 246 male Army soldiers. Stress, anxiety, depression and dietary intakes were assessed. The association between variables was determined using multivariate logistic regression. Results The prevalence of depression, stress and anxiety in study participants was 15.9%, 10.6% and 27.2% respectively. Participants with the highest adherence to the AHEI-2010 had an 80% lower odds of depression than those with the lowest adherence (OR: 0.20; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.78). Such an association was also found between adherences to the AHEI-2010 and anxiety (OR: 0.28; 95% CI 0.05 to 0.95). No significant association between adherence to the AHEI-2010 and stress was found. Conclusion An inverse association between adherence to the AHEI-2010 and odds of depression and anxiety was found. Further studies are required to clarify this relationship.
Why is Labour External to Anglo-American Corporate Governance?

This paper reconsiders the orthodox Anglo-American understanding of labour as a constituency situated outside of the core corporate governance domain. It challenges the dominant neo-classical theory of the firm, which asserts that shareholders are in general the only group of ‘incomplete’ contractors deserving of compensatory governance rights, by demonstrating that the entitlements of employees are likewise contingent to a significant extent on management’s extra-contractual discretionary prerogative. It further explains why, notwithstanding their common status in the above regard, labour is not formally answerable to by management in the way that shareholders are. Finally, it asserts that labour’s general exclusion from consideration or representation within Anglo-American corporate governance is economically defensible only to the extent that traditional collective-adversarial responses to employer power are vigorously protected within industrial relations law.
Effects of store attributes on retail patronage behaviors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify selected store attributes of activewear specialty retailers that impact consumers’ satisfaction, which in turn influence word-of-mouth (WOM) and retail patronage behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Using an on-site store intercept, 150 responses were collected to answer hypothesized relationships. An exploratory factor analysis was first performed followed by a confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation analysis. Findings – Results revealed that sales employees and store atmosphere attributes of activewear specialty stores had a positive influence on consumer satisfaction, which in turn had a direct impact on WOM and repatronage intentions for activewear specialty stores. Therefore, in order to satisfy consumers, activewear specialty retailers need to ensure that they provide an attractive and pleasant shopping atmosphere. Furthermore, satisfied consumers are likely to spread positive WOM about the retailer and display their intention to r.
Effective communication with bereaved child survivors of suicide.

TOPIC While bereavement is considered by many to be among the most stressful life events, it becomes even more distressing when it is related to the suicide of a loved one. Further, the death of a parent is traumatic for anyone, but it may be especially intensified for young children. This points to a strong need for the recognition and treatment of psychiatric and social problems associated with childhood bereavement. PURPOSE AND SOURCES The purpose of this paper is to review the literature and present a synopsis of the psychosocial outcomes of childhood suicide survivor bereavement and outline communication issues that emerge when talking with young suicide survivors. CONCLUSIONS A case is made to develop and test interventions designed to meet the mental health needs of this important group of individuals.
Does Internal Marketing Influence Employee Loyalty? Evidence From the Ghanaian Banking Industry

Even though internal marketing has been a buzzword for over 25 years now, most of the literature has largely remained theoretical and few empirical studies, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, exist. Moreover, the relationship between internal marketing and employee loyalty has been underresearched. The current study explores the relationship between internal communication, reward systems, empowerment, organizational culture, training, and organizational commitment and their relationship with employee loyalty using 248 retail bank staff members. The results indicate that the internal marketing dimensions, with the exception of organizational culture, are significantly associated with employee loyalty. Managerial implications are also discussed.
METHYLENE BLUE INCREASES CONTRALATERAL TESTICULAR ISCHAEMIA–REPERFUSION INJURY AFTER UNILATERAL TESTICULAR TORSION

1 Testicular ischaemia–reperfusion injury is commonly seen in childhood. Infertility occurs in 25% of patients after unilateral testicular ischaemia. It is has been reported that methylene blue has a positive effect in the reparation of ischaemia–reperfusion injury in different tissues. Therefore, we hypothesized that methylene blue may prevent the hazardous effects of ischaemia–reperfusion injury in testicular tissue after unilateral testicular torsion. 2 Thirty‐two prepubertal Wistar‐albino rats were divided into four groups. Testicular torsion was created by rotating the right testis 720° in a clockwise direction for 5 h in all groups except for Group C, which was the sham control group. In Group T, bilateral orchiectomy was performed following the torsion period. In Group TD, both testes were removed 5 days after the torsion period. In Group MB, methylene blue (1 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered 40 min before detorsion and once daily over 5 days; then, both testes were harvested. Tissue levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), serum levels of creatine kinase (CK), mean testicular biopsy score (MTBS) and mean seminifer tubule diameter (MSTD) were determined. 3 There was a significant difference in MTBS between Groups T and TD (P < 0.05) in both ipsilateral and contralateral testes. In the contralateral testis, treatment with methylene blue decreased MTBS and MSTD (P < 0.05) and increased MDA levels (P < 0.05). In Group T, mean serum CK concentrations were higher than in any of the other groups (P < 0.05). 4 After 5 h of unilateral testicular torsion and a 5 day reperfusion period, serious tissue damage occurred on both the ipsilateral and contralateral sides. Serum CK concentrations may be an indicator for ischaemia, but not for ischaemia–reperfusion injury. Contrary to our hypothesis, methylene blue increased contralateral testicular damage after unilateral testicular torsion and exacerbated oxidative events.
The relationship between transformational leadership and employees' satisfaction at Jordanian private hospitals

The present study has aimed at identifying the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction of registered nurses at Jordanian private hospitals, the population of the study consisted of registered nurses at private hospitals located in Amman (capital of Jordan). There have been 200 surveys mailed out to registered nurses. One hundred and sixty eight usable surveys have been returned with an 83% response rate. Regarding transformational leadership, the survey was adapted from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) developed by Weiss (1967) was adapted to measure the two factors of job satisfaction. The present study has shown a statistically significant positive relationship existing between the five dimensions of transformational leadership and the two dimensions of job satisfaction, the strongest relationship between internal job satisfaction and transformational leadership has been visible among the intellectual stimulation dimension.
CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells partially mediate the beneficial effects of FTY720, a sphingosine-1-phosphate analogue, during ischaemia/reperfusion-induced acute kidney injury.

BACKGROUND The synthetic sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) analogue, FTY720, attenuates ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury by inducing peripheral lymphopaenia. Recent studies suggest that FTY720 may also exert protective effects by modulating dendritic cell (DC) function or directly affecting regulatory T cells (Tregs). The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the beneficial effect of FTY720 in I/R-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) involves modulation of DCs or Tregs. METHODS Mice underwent bilateral ischaemia, and FTY720 or vehicle was then administered. Biochemical values, histological kidney damage and tissue inflammation were assessed. Phenotype and function of DCs in blood/spleen or kidney were also examined by flow cytometry or mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) assay. Percent Tregs or FoxP3 mRNA expression was examined in kidney and spleen, and depletion and adoptive transfer of Tregs were also performed. RESULTS Treatment with FTY720 attenuated I/R kidney injury and reduced inflammation. The beneficial effect of FTY720 was associated with expansion of peripheral CD11b( +) CD11c( +) DC and with maturation of spleen CD11c( +) DC, which showed impaired allostimulatory capacity. FTY720-treated animals also showed a higher frequency of CD4( +) CD25( +) Tregs and an upregulation of FoxP3 mRNA expression in spleen and kidney. In vitro experiments showed that FTY720 induced expansion of Tregs, possibly via conversion from non-Tregs to Tregs. Depletion and adoptive transfer of Tregs were associated with loss and recovery of the beneficial effects of FTY720. CONCLUSION These results suggest that the beneficial effects of FTY720 in I/R injury may be partially mediated by DC modulation or by increasing Treg activity. Further studies that identify tolerance induction mechanisms will be useful for developing strategies for the prevention or treatment of AKI.
Safety and preliminary findings with the intravascular contrast agent NC100150 injection for MR coronary angiography

In this Phase I clinical study, a novel ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide contrast agent, NC100150 Injection (Nycomed Imaging, Oslo, Norway, a part of Nycomed Amersham), was used in two‐dimensional magnetic resonance coronary angiography (MRCA). Safety and imaging data were acquired from 18 healthy male volunteers at both 0.5 and 1.5 T, before and after the administration of NC100150 Injection. Through‐plane and in‐plane images of the right coronary artery were analyzed. The postcontrast imaging sequences used prepulses and a high flip angle, to introduce T1 weighting. At 1.5 T (TE 2.6 msec), the through‐plane coronary artery signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) (P = 0.04), coronary artery‐to‐fat signal difference‐to‐noise ratio (SDNR) (P = 0.001), coronary artery‐to‐myocardium SDNR (P < 0.001), and coronary artery delineation (P < 0.001) were improved by the administration of NC100150 Injection. For in‐plane imaging, coronary artery delineation improved, but there were no significant changes in the SNR and SDNR. At 0.5 T, with the longer TE (6.7 msec) imaging sequence used, there was a reduction in the SNR (P = 0.01), the fat SDNR (through‐plane P = 0.02; in‐plane P = 0.25), and the coronary artery diameter (P < 0.01 in both imaging planes). There was a trend toward improvement in the myocardial SDNR and coronary artery delineation. In conclusion, NC100150 Injection was given safely to 18 healthy subjects, with no major adverse reactions. Coronary artery delineation was improved in both imaging planes at 1.5 T, with a trend toward improvement at 0.5 T. At 1.5 T, with a short TE imaging sequence, the marked T1 shortening effects of NC100150 Injection were dominant, leading to an improvement in the quantitative parameters for the through‐plane images. At 0.5 T, with a longer TE imaging sequence, the T2* effects of the contrast agent played a role in reducing the quantitative image parameters. With further optimization of imaging sequences, to take advantage of the long‐lived intravascular T1 shortening effect of NC100150 Injection, further improvements in MRCA will be possible. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999; 9:220–227. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.