Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Downtowns in transition: Emerging business improvement area strategies

Purpose – To detail the changing nature of retail and service activity in Canada's downtowns and examine the role of business improvement areas (BIAs) in promoting downtown vitality.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a combination of retail structural analysis and case study research. The structural analysis provides data on transitioning urban demographics and tracks retail and service activity sales change in Canada's major metropolitan downtowns. The case study reports an overview of findings from in‐depth research with the Downtown Yonge BIA. A small number of retail metrics are presented.Findings – The paper highlights the significant suburb shift in retail activity across Canada's metropolitan areas and the associated challenges that this has resulted in for the downtown. The role of BIAs are outlined, and examined with reference to operation of the BIA concept within the downtown core of Canada's largest metropolitan market, Toronto.Research limitations/implications – The resear.
Influence of grape maturity on the foaming properties of base wines and sparkling wines (Cava).

BACKGROUND The aim of this paper is to determine the main factors that influence the foaming properties of base wines and sparkling wines and, in particular, the role played by the maturity of the grapes in the controlled designation of origin (CDO) Cava. Macabeo, Xarel.lo, Parellada and Chardonnay grapes were harvested at two different maturity levels in two vintages. The first harvest was selected because of its desirable titratable acidity and the second because of its optimal sugar concentration. The mono-varietal base wines and standard blends were transformed into sparkling wines and aged for 14 months. RESULTS The results indicate that the main factors affecting foam properties are ethanol content, high molecular weight polysaccharides and gluconic acid (which have a negative effect), and proteins (which have a positive effect). CONCLUSION The main conclusion of this study is that the foaming properties of wines can be improved if harvest dates are advanced.
Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action

If you are searching for the ebook by Wai Fung Lam Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action in pdf form, then you have come on to loyal site. We present full variation of this ebook in ePub, DjVu, PDF, doc, txt forms. You can read Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action online either downloading. Moreover, on our website you can read guides and other art eBooks online, or load them as well. We want invite note what our website not store the book itself, but we give ref to the website wherever you can load either reading online. So that if want to load pdf by Wai Fung Lam Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action, then you have come on to the faithful site. We own Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action PDF, txt, DjVu, doc, ePub formats. We will be pleased if you will be back to us anew.
Firms' Strategic Disclosure of Bad News Around Debt Offerings

This study examines management disclosure behavior around debt offerings and its effect on the cost of debt offered. For the equity market, studies show that management disclosure of good news decreases the cost of equity. Studies also show that debt holders are more concerned with negative earnings and firm credibility. We examine this disclosure tendency of debt holders for debt offerings. We argue that firms use management forecasts of greater than zero earnings before debt offerings, and given this, they strategically tend to use bad news more than good news to increase firm credibility and reduce the cost of the debt issued. We find the results support our argument. We also find that the higher the default risk, the greater the increase in bad news forecasts (with profit) and its reduction effect in the cost of debt.
Top Management Team Nationality Diversity and Firm Performance: A Multilevel Study

This research reexamines the equivocal relationship between top management team (TMT) diversity and firm performance. Combining upper echelons theory with insights from institutional theory, we establish a new, timely dimension of TMT diversity—nationality diversity—and develop an integrated multilevel framework explaining how its performance implications vary across contextual settings. We find that nationality diversity is positively related to performance; and this effect is stronger in (a) longer tenured teams, (b) highly internationalized firms, and (c) munificent environments. More generally, our research demonstrates that the consequences of TMT diversity depend on the (1) specific attributes of diversity being considered and (2) firm and industry conditions under which strategic decisions take place. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Brazilian Institutional Environment: The Impact on Companies' Strategies in the Oil and Gas Sector

Institutional theory explains how interactions between organizations and institutions shape economic activity and consequently managerial performance and strategies. The institutional setting of most emerging countries is in transition, whereby a relationship-based transaction mode is gradually yielding to rule-based transactions. This study investigates how the institutional environment in Brazil influences the strategy of oil and gas companies, based upon a case study approach to exploration and production in the oil and gas sector. The results obtained from secondary data and interviews with executives of the main Brazilian oil and gas companies and members of public organizations demonstrate that institutions have a limited influence on the decisions of these companies, since the regulatory dimension plays the biggest role in decision making.
Affective state and event-based prospective memory

Event-based prospective memory tasks require the realisation of a delayed intention at the occurrence of a specific target event. The present research investigates how performance in this kind of prospective memory task is influenced by the current affective state. By manipulating participants’ mood during intention realisation we tested two competing models of mood effects on memory (i.e., a capacity consuming account and a processing style account). Furthermore, we manipulated the valence of the target event to investigate mood-congruency effects in prospective memory. No evidence was found for a mood-congruency effect, but the results showed that prospective memory performance increased with a sad mood. This effect is consistent with recent theories on mood-dependent processing-style regulation, postulating that a sad mood produces a more analytic and detailed processing style whereas a happy mood produces a more global and less detailed processing style.
Effect of Different Enamel Preparation Methods on Microleakage of Fissure Sealant: An In Vitro Study

Objective: Lack of a dental material with optimal adhesion and sealability is an important challenge in modern dentistry leading to marginal leakage. There are controversies on the necessity of enamel preparation in pit and fissure sealant therapy and its effect on decreasing the microleakage; therefore, the present in vitro study aimed to assess the amount of microleakage with and without enamel preparation. Methods: In this experimental study, 30 sound premolars assigned suitable for sealant application, were chosen and randomly divided into two groups. Sealant was applied to all teeth with the same conventional technique. In group A, fissure sealant was applied without enamel preparation while in group B, sealant was applied after fissurotomy with bur. The teeth were thermocycled and microleakage was measured using silver nitrate as leakage tracer. The teeth were then cut into three bucco-lingual sections and examined under a stereomicroscope with 32× magnification. The amount of dye penetration into the sealant was recorded in microns and the degree of microleakage was classified into four degrees of 0, 1, 2 and 3. T-test was applied for the comparison of data between the two groups. Results: In total,20% of specimens in group B (fissurotomy) had degree 1 and 80% had degree 0microleakage and no specimen had degrees 2 and 3 microleakage, while in group A (no preparation), 20% had degree 1, 33.3% had degree 2 and 46.7% had degree 3microleakage. No specimen had degree 0 microleakage. Therefore, placement of sealant with enamel preparation significantly decreased microleakage (p<0.001). Conclusion: In view of the findings of this investigation, it seems that enamel preparation reduces marginal leakage in pit and fissure sealant therapy.
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank financial reporting practice 1865-1876

Accounting practices of Hongkong and Shanghai Bank from 1865 to 1876 fostered its repertoire of precocial identities. Hongkong and Shanghai bank used these identities to act opportunistically in commercial dealings with the British colonial administration of Hong Kong, the public of the United Kingdom, and the Emperor of China and his Chinese administration. This paper argues HSBC varied its financial reporting practices to manage its identities in public spaces in different cultural constituencies in order to ensure its longer term survival. The approach taken is to use the example of HSBC’s Foochow loan to demonstrate its use of financial reporting to sustain its various identities. Documents pertaining to the published financial statements of Hongkong and Shanghai Bank between 1865 and 1876 are examined for the accounting practices and policies used. Secondary sources were also analysed. Hongkong and Shanghai Bank uniquely positioned itself to be simultaneously viewed as a conservative bank based on Scottish banking principles and a trusted local bank of the people of Hong Kong. It was the only bank acting in these three capacities. It achieved this by varying financial reporting practices to manage stakeholders’ confidence. Only sources written in English were utilised in this study, as English texts dominate the historical records. However Chinese language representations are not present in this analysis. This study challenges meta-narrative explanations of the banking sector in colonization.
Evaluation of static hedging strategies for hydropower producers in the Nordic market

In this paper we develop an optimization model to derive static hedge positions for hydropower producers with different risk characteristics. Previous research has primarily considered dynamic hedging; however, static hedging is the common choice among hydropower producers because of its simplicity. Our contribution is to evaluate such hedging out of sample. The hedging strategies we analyze include a natural hedge, which means no hedging, and output from an optimization model that we develop ourselves. The results show that, although optimized positions vary over time, hedging with use of forward contracts significantly reduces the risk in terms of value-at-risk, conditional value-at-risk and standard deviation of the revenue. Furthermore, this improvement results in only a minor reduction in mean revenue.
Genomic Effect of Glucocorticoids on Enzymes of Intermediary Metabolism in Oreochromis mossambicus

The present study examined the effect of long‐term treatment with cortisol and corticosterone on enzymes of intermediary metabolism, namely malic enzyme (ME), glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH), glucose 6 phosphatase (G‐6‐Pase), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in Oreochromis mossambicus. Cortisol and corticosterone regulate intermediary metabolism in the liver of O. mossambicus as evidenced by changes in the activity pattern of gluconeogenic and lipogenic enzymes and aminotransferases. The long‐term in vivo ip administration of glucocorticoids (GCs) suggests hyperglycemic, gluconeogenic, and antilipogenic roles of the hormones in O. mossambicus. The genomic mode of action of GCs is well established in the present study since the long‐term treatment is sensitive to the action of transcription and translation inhibitors.
Cross-Sectional Mutual Fund Performance

We contribute to the mutual fund performance literature by letting investors learn how skill is distributed over the entire universe of mutual funds. Instead of assuming a known normal distribution whose average and standard deviation is unknown for the population, in this paper, a investor learns how skill is distributed over funds by observing the performance history of all past and present mutual funds. As the panel of returns is observed, the investor reduces his level of ignorance about the population by grouping together similarly skilled funds into sub-populations where the funds belonging to a particular sub-population all have the same average level of ability and variation in this ability. Applying this to the gross returns of a panel of 5,136 domestic equity funds, our investor finds the skill level among mutual funds to be distributed across three different sub-populations. The sub-population with the lowest probability of membership is a group of highly skilled funds whose average performance exceeds a passive four-factor portfolio by approximately six percent per annum. The next sub-population whose proability of membership is in between the other two groups is a group of unskilled funds who on average underperform the passive portfolio by 0.4 percent a year. Lastly, the sub-population with the highest likelihood of membership is a group of break-even fund that beat the passive portfolio by roughly the average fee charge by funds. On average the returns from this break-even group exceeds the passive portofolio by 1.8 percent a year. Knowledge about how skill is distributed across mutual funds leads to our investor predicting that any fund lacking a track record of performance is likely to possess just enough skill to on average cover the fees it charges. He knows there is a very small chance the fund will be highly skilled and capable of beating the market on average by six percent a year. However, he also knows there is a greater chance that the fund will underperform the market and not cover the fees it charges.
A randomised control study comparing the Infant Flow Driver with nasal continuous positive airway pressure in preterm infants

OBJECTIVE To compare the effectiveness of the Infant Flow Driver (IFD) with single prong nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) in preterm neonates affected by respiratory distress syndrome. DESIGN Randomised controlled study. PATIENTS Between September 1997 and March 1999, 36 preterm infants who were eligible for CPAP treatment were randomly selected for either nCPAP or IFD and studied prospectively for changes in oxygen requirement and/or respiratory rate. The requirement for mechanical ventilation, complications of treatment, and effects on mid-term outcome were also evaluated. RESULTS Use of the IFD had a significantly beneficial effect on both oxygen requirement and respiratory rate (p < 0.0001) when compared with nCPAP. Moreover, O2 requirement and respiratory rate were significantly decreased by four hours (p < 0.001 and p < 0.03 respectively). The probability of remaining supplementary oxygen free over the first 48 hours of treatment was significantly higher in patients treated with the IFD than with nCPAP (p < 0.02). IFD treated patients had a higher success (weaning) rate (94% v 72 %) and shorter duration of treatment (49.3 (31)v 56 (29.7) hours respectively; mean (SD)), although the difference was not significant. CONCLUSIONS IFD appears to be a feasible device for managing respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants, and benefits may be had with regard to oxygen requirement and respiratory rate when compared with nCPAP. The trend towards reduced requirement for mechanical ventilation, shorter clinical recovery time, and shorter duration of treatment requires further evaluation in a multicentre randomised clinical trial.
Pool2: a generic system for cognitive map development and decision analysis

The authors present Pool2, a generic system for cognitive map development and decision analysis that is based on negative-positive-neutral (NPN) logics and NPN relations. NPN logics and relations are extensions of two-valued crisp logic, crisp (binary) relations, and fuzzy relations, NPN logics and relations assume logic values in the NPN interval (-1, 1) instead of values in (0, 1). A theorem is presented that provides conditions for the existence and uniqueness of heuristic transitive closures of an NPN relation. It is shown that NPN logic and NPN relations can be used directly to model a target world with a combination of NPN relationships of attributes and/or concepts for the purposes of cognitive map understanding, and decision analysis. Two algorithms are presented for heuristic transitive closure computation and for heuristic path searching, respectively. Basic ideas are illustrated by example. A comparison is made between this approach and others. >
Strategic Leadership: Theory and Research on Executives, Top Management Teams, and Boards

TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE DEDICATION 1. The Study of Top Executives 2. Do Top Executives Matter? 3. How Individual Differences Affect Executive Action 4. Executive Experiences and Organizational Outcomes 5. Top Management Teams 6. Changes at the Top: The Antecedents of Executive Turnover and Succession 7. Changes at the Top: The Consequences of Executive Turnover and Succession 8. Understanding Board Structure, Composition, and Vigilance 9. The Consequences of Board Involvement and Vigilance 10. The Determinants of Executive Compensation 11. Executive Compensation: Consequences and Distributions REFERENCES LIST OF TABLES ENDNOTES
Employer Attitudes towards Older Workers: Survey Results

Today men on average retire at 63 and women at 62, and they can expect to spend 20 years in retirement. But if Americans continue to retire as early as they do today, many will not have adequate income once they stop working. Social Security will provide less relative to pre-retirement earnings as the normal retirement age rises from 65 to 67 and those lucky enough to have a 401(k) plan are likely to find their balances inadequate. One solution to the retirement security challenge is for people to work longer. Working longer directly increases a person’s current income; it avoids the actuarial reduction in Social Security benefits; it allows people to contribute more to their 401(k) plans; it allows their assets more time to accumulate investment earnings; and it shortens the period over which people have to support themselves with their retirement assets. So it stands to reason that workers would choose to extend their careers. But will they find employment? Some evidence suggests that employers have not been especially fond of older workers. For example, older workers who lose a job have had a much harder time finding another. And many employers actually use sweetened early retirement incentives to get older workers to leave. On the other hand, today’s older workers are far better educated than older workers just a decade ago; they are more physically fit; and the shift from goods-producing to services-producing jobs has reduced the physical demands of work, which should enhance the employment prospects of older workers. To get a better understanding of the employment prospects of older workers, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR) conducted a survey of 400 private sector employers. These employers were asked to evaluate the relative productivity and cost of white-collar and rank-and-file workers age 55 and older and whether, on balance, older employees or job candidates were more or less attractive than their younger counterparts.
Pairing strength in neutron-rich isotopes of Zr.

Rotational bands based on two-quasi-neutron excitations have been observed for the first time in neutron-rich isotopes. The bandhead excitation energies have been used within the BCS model to determine the strength {ital G} of the neutron pairing interaction. Values of {ital G}=0.21 and 0.19 MeV have been obtained for {sup 100}Zr and {sup 102}Zr, respectively. For these neutron-rich nuclei the strength {ital G} is thus close to 20/{ital A} MeV, smaller than the value 23/{ital A} MeV used to describe even-even nuclei near stability in this region.
Differential effect of the state children's health insurance program expansions by children's age.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE This paper tests for differences in the effect of State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) on children's insurance coverage and physician visits across three age groups: pre-elementary school-aged children (pre-ESA), ESA children, and post-ESA children. DATA SOURCE The study uses two cross sections of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) from the 1996 and 2001 panels. STUDY DESIGN A difference-in-differences approach is used to estimate the effect of SCHIP on coverage and physician visits of newly eligible children of different age groups. DATA COLLECTION Demographic, insurance, and physician visit information for children in families with income below 300 percent of federal poverty line were extracted from the SIPP. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Uninsurance rates for post-ESA children declined due to SCHIP while public coverage and the likelihood of visiting a physician increased. Estimates of cross-age differences show that post-ESA children experienced a larger decline in uninsurance rates compared with pre-ESA and ESA children and a larger increase in physician visits compared with ESA children. CONCLUSIONS The higher rate of physician visits for post-ESA children due to SCHIP demonstrates the importance of extending insurance coverage to teens as well as young children.
Banks and Insurance Companies Efficiency Indicators in the Period of Financial Crisis: The Case of the Republic of Croatia*

Abstract The main goal of the paper is to identify and to compare the efficiency measurement results of banks and insurance companies using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and accounting indicators in the period before and after the onset of recent financial and economic crises in the Republic of Croatia. This research is important because it observes and compares the results of those two efficiency measurement methods which former researches did not encompass. The research includes the banking industry and the insurance sector in the Republic of Croatia due to their relatively high asset share of about 83% in total financial sector asset. The main difference in results between DEA approach and accounting approach was remarked in sense of accounting approach efficiency measurement scores lag in the crisis period. DEA efficiency scores had the lowest values in the year 2007 for insurance industry and for banks in 2008 but with visible lower values already in 2007. The lowest ROA and ROE accounting ratios in the year 2009 could be explained by the fact that although financial institutions operate more efficiently in the crisis period in sense of expense and income results, accounting ratios cannot achieve as good scores as in period of a boom, due to the deteriorated market conditions, and more reserved business policy.
The manifestation of optical centers in UV–Vis absorption and luminescence spectra of white blood human cells

A white blood human cells spectral investigation is presented. The aim of this series of experiments was to obtain and analyze the absorption and luminescence (fluorescence and phosphorescence) spectra at room temperature and at 78 K of newly isolated white blood human cells and their organelles. As a result the optical centers and possible biochemical components that form the studied spectra where identified. Also the differences between the spectra of abnormal cells (B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia BCLL) and normal ones were studied for the whole cells and individual organelles.