Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ESSAYS ON STOCK OPTIONS, INCENTIVES, AND MANAGERIAL ACTION

In this paper I investigate the exercise policy, and the market reaction to that, of the executive stock option holders in Finland. The empirical tests are conducted with aggregated firm level data from 34 firms and 41 stock option programs. No continuous relationship can be documented between relative time-value lost, exercised fraction and the subsequent market reaction. However, a closer examination of subsequent abnormal return and the fraction exercised reveals that there is some evidence of that subsequent abnormal returns are on average smaller in the sample with the largest exercise fraction as compared to the smallest exercises. This finding is supported by the hypothesis that positive price-relevant private information is the only attribute that could delay the exercise of the options. Furthermore, I find some evidence of an inverse relation between exercise intensity and future abnormal return. JEL classification: G30, G39, G14
Assessment of Scoliosis Correction in Relation to Flexibility Using the Fulcrum Bending Correction Index

Study Design. A prospective study on adolescent idiopathic scoliosis to assess a new method of describing frontal plane correction. Objective. To assess the difference between using the correction rate and using the new fulcrum bending correction index when describing scoliosis correction. Summary of Background Data. A description of the outcome of scoliosis surgery based on the correction rate does not take into account the curve's flexibility. Methods. The fulcrum bending correction index is calculated by dividing the correction rate by the fulcrum flexibility (based on the fulcrum bending radiograph) and is expressed as a percentage. The fulcrum bending correction index was compared with the correction rate in 35 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis undergoing surgical correction. These patients were divided into a stiff and a flexible group based on a fulcrum flexibility of 50% to show the advantage of the fulcrum bending correction index over the correction rate. Results. The difference in correction rate between the flexible (66%) and the stiff group (45%) was significant (P < 0.05). The difference in the fulcrum bending correction index between the flexible (96%) and the stiff group (107%) was not significant (P = 0.2). Conclusions. The fulcrum bending correction index takes into account the curve flexibility and is therefore better than the correction rate for comparing curve correction and use of instrumentation systems between different series of patients. A fulcrum bending correction index of close to 100% suggests that the instrumentation has taken up all the flexibility revealed by the fulcrum bending radiograph. It is recommended that the fulcrum bending correction index be used in the future as part of the postoperative assessment of frontal plane correction in cases of thoracic scoliosis.
Activation of a D2 receptor increases electrical coupling between retinal horizontal cells by inhibiting dopamine release.

In the fish retina, interplexiform cells release dopamine onto cone-driven horizontal cells. Dopamine decreases the electrical coupling between horizontal cells by activating adenylate cyclase through dopamine D1 receptors. Using intracellular recording, we have studied the effect of dopamine D2 receptor activation on horizontal cell electrical coupling in the intact goldfish retina. Superfusion of the D2 agonist LY171555 (quinpirole; 0.2-10 microM) increased horizontal cell coupling, as indicated by a decrease in responses to centered spots or slits of light. The length constant of the horizontal cell network increased an average of 31%. Although dopamine (0.5-20 microM) uncoupled horizontal cells, lower concentrations (e.g., 0.2 microM) initially uncoupled and then subsequently increased coupling beyond initial control levels. The coupling effect of LY171555 (10 microM) was blocked completely by prior application of the D1 agonist SKF 38393 at saturating (20 microM) or nonsaturating (2.5-5.0 microM) doses. Prior treatment of the retinas with 6-hydroxydopamine, which destroyed dopaminergic neurons, eliminated the coupling effect of LY171555 but not the uncoupling effect of SKF 38393. These results suggest that goldfish horizontal cells contain D1, but not D2, receptors and that dopamine activation of D2 autoreceptors on interplexiform cells inhibits dopamine release onto horizontal cells so that the electrical coupling between horizontal cells increases.
Regional downscaling for stable water isotopes: A case study of an atmospheric river event

[1] In this paper an isotope-incorporated regional model is developed and utilized for simulations of an atmospheric river event that occurred in March 2005. A set of sensitivity experiments and comparisons with observations confirm that the kinetic isotopic exchange between falling droplets and ambient water vapor below the cloud base was mostly responsible for the initial enrichment and subsequent rapid drop of the deuterium abundance in precipitation observed during the event even under humid conditions. According to the budget analysis the increase in isotopic composition during the latter half of the event was primarily due to horizontal advection. The contribution of condensation from different atmospheric heights to the ground precipitation was not reflected in the precipitation isotopes.
The effects of caffeine, impulsivity and time of day on performance, mood and cardiovascular function

Two experiments were carried out to examine the effects of caffeine on performance, mood and cardiovascular function. The results showed that the effects of caffeine depended on the dose, time of administration, the function being examined and the impulsivity of the subject. Changes in blood pressure were only observed when a high dose (3 mg/kg) was used. The effects of this dose on performance depended on the impulsivity of the subject, with high impulsives performing worse in the de-caffeinated condition but getting a greater benefit from the caffeine. The high dose of caffeine also removed the post-lunch dip in sustained attention. The second experiment, which used a lower dose of caffeine (~60 mg), failed to demonstrate any caffeine x impulsivity or caffeine x time of day effects on performance. However, caffeine improved performance on a logical reasoning task and caffeine x time of day x impulsivity effects were found in analyses of visual search tasks. The mood data also support the view that the effects of caffeine depend on a combination of factors similar to those outlined for performance.
A Concordance between Ten-Digit U.S. Harmonized System Codes and Sic/Naics Product Classes and Industries

While the relationship between international trade and domestic economic activity is an important topic in economics, research in this area has been slowed due to data limitations. In this paper we provide tools that improve the existing data in two ways. First, we develop an algorithm that yields concordances between the ten-digit Harmonized System (HS) codes used to classify products in U.S. international trade and the SIC and NAICS industry codes used to classify domestic economic activity. These concordances then yield novel time series of industry-level international trade data for the years 1989 to 2009. Second, we provide concordances between HS codes and the SIC and NAICS product classes used to classify U.S. manufacturing production, allowing for matching at a more disaggregated level than was previously available.
Capital Structure and Corporate Strategy

In this article we review and discuss empirical studies that examine how a firm's financing choice affects its strategic decisions and relationships with its non-financial stakeholders, such as its customers or workforce. Generally, high leverage appears to inhibit a firm's ability or willingness to compete aggressively, especially against well-financed competitors. Debt also disciplines the manager-worker relationship, preventing managers from hoarding labor during economic downturns. Many of the studies also indicate that a firm's relationships with its customers can be disrupted by concerns over the firm's long-term viability. A second purpose of this study is to highlight and discuss approaches researchers have taken to address endogeneity. Because leverage is chosen in advance by the firm, most of the studies we consider focus on exogenous shocks - either to the firm's competitive environment or to the firm's leverage ratio. For each study, we describe the particular endogeneity problem and then discuss each author's approach to it, emphasizing differences between approaches when they arise.
Culture and Characterization of Oral Mucosal Epithelial Cells on a Fibrin Gel for Ocular Surface Reconstruction

Abstract Aim of the study: To develop a clinical grade fibrin gel for the culture of oral mucosal epithelial cells (OMEC) intended for ocular surface reconstruction in the treatment of limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD). Materials and methods: Transparent fibrin gels composed of fibrinogen and thrombin were developed for the culture of epithelial cells. Oral mucosa was harvested from the buccal region of healthy volunteers and cultured as explants on fibrin gels. Tranexamic acid (TA), a clinically approved anti-fibrinolytic agent was added to prevent the fibrin gel from digesting due to cellular activity. The gels were stained for p63α (as a marker of poorly differentiated epithelial cells), CK19, CK13 and CK3 (expressed by OMEC). Epithelial cell stratification was observed using hematoxylin–eosin staining. Results: Addition of TA prevented gels from dissolving during the culture period. OMEC proliferated on the fibrin gel and attained confluence over a 2-week period (±2 d) and exhibited a typical epithelial, cobblestone morphology. Basal OMEC exhibited positive staining for p63α while the superficial cells exhibited positive staining for CK3. The cells expressed a strong immunoreactivity for CK19 and CK13 suggesting that they retained a normal oral epithelial phenotype. Conclusion: Fibrin gels, maintained in the presence of TA, to control the rate of substrate degradation, provide a more robust yet transparent substrate for the culture and transplantation of cultured OMEC. The fibrin gels are easily standardized, the components commercially available, and produced from clinically approved materials. The resulting stratified OMEC-derived epithelium displays characteristics similar to that of a human cornea, e.g. CK3 expression. The conventional dependence on a murine feeder layer for support of epithelial cells is unnecessary with this technique and hence, provides for an attractive alternative for treatment of LSCD.
Exploring the link between IT culture and perceptions of individual benefits realized: An empirical analysis

Individual IT culture (IITC) represents the measure of an individual’s exposure to, and experiences with IT at a given point in time. The resulting IT culture archetype from this measure can be classified as representing either the proactive, passive or refusal attitudinal group. Within the IS literature, previous studies have demonstrated how the knowledge of IT culture archetypes enhances our understanding of IT usage, and poses broader implications for strategic IT management within organizational settings. In this paper we argue that despite these studies, the role IT culture plays in facilitating actual benefit outcomes from IS/IT usage has remained largely unexplored. Thus, in the present study we test the extent to which the presence of particular IT culture archetypes influence the likelihood that benefits are realized among individuals within an organizational context. The implications for research and practice are also discussed.
Integrating Mobile Phones into Medical Abortion Provision: Intervention Development, Use, and Lessons Learned From a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Medical abortion is legal in South Africa but access and acceptability are hampered by the current protocol requiring a follow-up visit to assess abortion completion. Objective To assess the feasibility and efficacy of information and follow-up provided via mobile phone after medical abortion in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Methods Mobile phones were used in three ways in the study: (1) coaching women through medical abortion using short message service (SMS; text messages); (2) a questionnaire to assess abortion completion via unstructured supplementary service data (USSD, a protocol used by GSM mobile telephones that allows the user to interact with a server via text-based menus) and the South African mobile instant message and social networking application Mxit; and (3) family planning information via SMS, mobisite and Mxit. A needs and context assessment was done to learn about women’s experiences undergoing medical abortion and their use of mobile phones. After development, the mobile interventions were piloted. Recruitment was done by field workers at the clinics. In the RCT, women were interviewed at baseline and exit. Computer logs were also analyzed. All study participants received standard of care at the clinics. Results In the RCT, 234 women were randomized to the intervention group. Eight did not receive the intervention due to invalid numbers, mis-registration, system failure, or opt-out, leaving 226 participants receiving the full intervention. Of the 226, 190 returned and were interviewed at their clinic follow-up visit. The SMSs were highly acceptable, with 97.9% (186/190) saying that the SMSs helped them through the medical abortion. In terms of mobile phone privacy, 86.3% (202/234) said that it was not likely or possible that someone would see SMSs on their phone, although at exit, 20% (38/190) indicated that they had worried about phone privacy. Having been given training at baseline and subsequently asked via SMS to complete the self-assessment questionnaire, 90.3% (204/226) attempted it, and of those, 86.3% (176/204) reached an endpoint of the questionnaire. For the family planning information, a preference for SMS was indicated by study clients, although the publicly available Mxit/mobisite was heavily used (813,375 pages were viewed) over the study duration. Conclusions SMS provided a good medium for timed, "push" information that guided and supported women through medical abortion. Women were able to perform a self-assessment questionnaire via mobile phones if provided training and prompted by SMS. Phone privacy needs to be protected in similar settings. This study may contribute to the successful expansion of medical abortion provision aided by mobile phones. Trial Registration Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR): PACTR201302000427144; http://www.pactr. org/ATMWeb/appmanager/atm/atmregistry? dar=true&tNo=PACTR201302000427144 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6N0fnZfzm).
E-banking practices and customer satisfaction

E-banking is a major innovation that has changed the way bank conducting its business worldwide. Banks are reorienting their strategies towards new opportunities offered through e-banking. The recent trend shows that most ‘brick and mortar’ banks are shifting from a ‘productcentric’ model to ‘customer centric’ model as they develop their new e-banking capabilities. Some online banking platforms support account aggregation to allow the customers to monitor all of their transactions from any corner of the world. Thus, e-banking is a strategy to sustain competition in both domestic and foreign banks. The main focus of the paper is to analyze overall satisfaction of the customer with e-banking practices in public sector banks in Tiruvarur district of Tamilnadu. The primary data were collected with the help of structured questionnaires from a sample of 150 customers from the selected branches of public sector banks on the basis of convenience sampling method. The study reveals that the e-banking service users have low satisfaction with e-banking services of public sector banks. Finally the researcher has made several recommendations to increase customer satisfaction with e-banking practices.
Effect of protein, carbohydrate, lipid, and selenium levels on the performance, carcass yield, and blood changes in broilers

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance, carcass and parts yield, and blood changes in broilers fed different protein, carbohydrate, and lipid levels. Birds were fed a commercial diet until seven days of age. On day 8, birds were distributed according to a completely randomized experimental design in a 4 x 2 factorial arrangement (control diet, low protein diet, low carbohydrate diet or low lipid diet vs. supplementation of 0 or 0.3ppm organic selenium) with four replicates of 15 birds each. Broilers fed low protein presented lower body weight, feed intake, and worse feed conversion ratio on day 42, as well as lower carcass and breast yields, higher leg and abdominal fat yields, higher triglyceride and lower uric acid blood levels. Broilers fed the low carbohydrate diets presented low glucose levels on days 14 and 42.Creatine-kinase (CK) levels increased as birds aged. The livability of broilers fed the low protein diets improved and of those fed low carbohydrate diets worsened with dietary selenium addition on days 35 and 42. Selenium supplementation increased glucose levels in 42-d-old broilers. Changes in dietary protein caused more impact on broiler performance compared with carbohydrates and lipids. Changes in macronutrients caused metabolic changes in broilers. Selenium affected broiler livability as measured on days 35 and 42, and glucose blood levels.
Prognostic factors of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma after hepatic resection: univariate and multivariate analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma is clinicopathologically distinct from hepatocellular carcinoma and hilar cholangiocarcinoma, and the prognostic factors after hepatic resection of these rare tumors are not well documented. The aim of this study was to evaluate prognostic factors of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma after hepatic resection. METHODOLOGY We retrospectively studied 20 consecutive patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma who underwent hepatectomy over a 15-year period from 1984 to 1998. Fifteen prognostic factors were evaluated for their association with overall and disease-free survivals in univariate and multivariate analysis (Cox's proportional hazards model). RESULTS Eighty percent of the resected patients had major hepatectomy. Operative morbidity and mortality rates were 30% and 0%, respectively. Four patients (20%) survived more than 5 years without recurrence after hepatic resection. The 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year overall or disease-free survival rate after hepatic resection were 56.0% or 49.5%, 43.8% or 43.3%, and 43.8% or 37.3%, respectively. Univariate analysis showed young age and periductal invasion tumor or the presence of vascular invasion, lymphatic invasion, and lymph node metastasis as significant poor prognostic predictors contributing overall and disease-free survivals. Multivariate analysis revealed only lymph node metastasis as an independent prognostic factor affecting disease-free survival. During the same time, 17 unresectable patients were treated by intrahepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (12), systemic chemotherapy (4), or radiation (1). Median overall survival time in resected patients (16 months) was significantly better than in unresectable patients (5 months) (P = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS Hepatic resection remains to be the best current therapeutic option. The prognosis after hepatic resection for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma was determined by lymph node metastasis. New adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery is imperative for such patients.
Comparison of caudal bupivacaine alone with bupivacaine plus two doses of dexmedetomidine for postoperative analgesia in pediatric patients undergoing infra‐umbilical surgery: a randomized controlled double‐blinded study

Data are still insufficient about the effects of different concentrations of caudal dexmedetomidine when used to prolong postoperative analgesia in children. The aim of this study was to assess the analgesic efficacy and side effects of two doses of caudal dexmedetomidine (1 and 2 μg·kg−1) co‐administered with bupivacaine in terms of postoperative pain scores and requirement of postoperative analgesia over 24 h in children undergoing infra‐umbilical surgery.
Corporate adaptation behaviour to deal with climate change: The influence of firm-specific interpretations of physical climate impacts

While business tends to be seen as a substantial factor in causing climate change, climate-induced physical changes can also pose major challenges to firms in return. Firms can reduce their vulnerability to these changes by defining and implementing an adaptation strategy. Based on an empirical analysis of the oil and gas industry, this paper examines how the way firms interpret climate events in terms of awareness and vulnerability informs their measures to adapt to climate-induced physical change. In the empirical analysis, the paper derives four types of adaptation behaviour ? pre-emptive, reactive, continuous, and deferred adaptation ? that correspond with different degrees of awareness and vulnerability. The paper concludes with implications for management practice and policymakers.
Reflectance confocal microscopy features of mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome: correlation with histopathologic and T‐cell receptor rearrangement studies

Mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome (MF/SS) often requires multiple skin biopsies for definitive diagnosis. In vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) visualizes high‐resolution cellular detail of the skin. The objective of this study is to evaluate the morphologic features of MF/SS using RCM and to correlate RCM features with histopathology and T‐cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangement studies.
Which Hedge Fund Styles Hedge Against Bad Times?

We investigate an important question for institutional investors — namely, which hedge fund investing styles help to hedge against bad times? We define good versus bad times as (1) up and down equity market regimes derived from the 200-day moving average of the SP in contrast, other styles remain substantially exposed to — or become more exposed to — particular risk factors and correspondingly suffer large losses during bad times. In the context of “balanced” 40-30-30 ortfolios that allocate across U.S. stocks, bonds, and individual hedge fund styles, we find that the Global Macro, Managed Futures, and Multi-Strategy styles provide large investors with especially valuable hedges against bad times.
A hyperbolic geometric flow for evolving films and foams

Simulating the behavior of soap films and foams is a challenging task. A direct numerical simulation of films and foams via the Navier-Stokes equations is still computationally too expensive. We propose an alternative formulation inspired by geometric flow. Our model exploits the fact, according to Plateau's laws, that the steady state of a film is a union of constant mean curvature surfaces and minimal surfaces. Such surfaces are also well known as the steady state solutions of certain curvature flows. We show a link between the Navier-Stokes equations and a recent variant of mean curvature flow, called hyperbolic mean curvature flow, under the assumption of constant air pressure per enclosed region. Instead of using hyperbolic mean curvature flow as is, we propose to replace curvature by the gradient of the surface area functional. This formulation enables us to robustly handle non-manifold configurations; such junctions connecting multiple films are intractable with the traditional formulation using curvature. We also add explicit volume preservation to hyperbolic mean curvature flow, which in fact corresponds to the pressure term of the Navier-Stokes equations. Our method is simple, fast, robust, and consistent with Plateau's laws, which are all due to our reformulation of film dynamics as a geometric flow.