Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Earnings–Announcement Timing on Earnings Management

This paper examines whether firms which delay earnings announcements engage in earnings management. The cross-sectional version of the modified Jones 1995 model is used to estimate 'normal' accruals. Prior research has documented that, on average, delayed earnings announcements are associated with negative earnings surprises. Our evidence suggests that the market anticipates unfavorable earnings news when it observes reporting delays. As a consequence, late reporters appear to make the most of a bad situation by employing income-decreasing accruals in big-bath-type earnings management and in contractual renegotiations. We find that the magnitude of income-reducing abnormal accruals is related to the reporting lag. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002.
Impact of pectin esterification on the antimicrobial activity of nisin‐loaded pectin particles

The relationship between pectin structure and the antimicrobial activity of nisin‐loaded pectin particles was examined. The antimicrobial activity of five different nisin‐loaded pectin particles, i.e., nisin‐loaded high methoxyl pectin, low methoxyl pectin, pectic acid, dodecyl pectin with 5.4 and 25% degree of substitution were tested in the pH range of 4.0–7.0 by agar‐diffusion assay and agar plate count methods. It was found that the degree of esterification of carboxyl group of galacturonic acid in pectin molecule is important for the antimicrobial activity of nisin‐loaded pectin particles. Nisin‐loaded particles prepared using pectic acid or the pectin with low degree of esterification exhibit higher antimicrobial activity than nisin‐loaded high methoxyl pectin particles. Pectins with free carboxyl groups or of low degree of esterification are the most suitable for particles preparation. Moreover, nisin‐loaded pectin particles were active at close to neutral or neutral pH values. Therefore, they could be effectively applied for food preservation. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 33:245–251, 2017
The neoclassical theory of growth and distribution

The paper surveys the neoclassical theory of growth. As a preliminary, the meaning of the adjective "neoclassical" is discussed. The basic model is then sketched, and the conditions ensuring a stationary state are illustrated. The issue of the convergence to a stationary state (and that of the speed of convergence) is further considered. A discussion of "primary factors" opens the way to the "new" theory of growth, with endogenous technical progress. A number of extensions of the basic model are then recalled: two-sector and multi-sectoral models, overlapping generations models, the role of money in growth models.
Measuring the Contributions of Brand to Shareholder Value (and How to Maintain or Increase Them)

Since 1993 Young & Rubicam has invested over $130 million in collecting and interpreting data on consumers' perceptions of some 44,000 product and service brands in over 50 countries. At the core of Y&R's research effort is the Brand‐Asset® Valuator (or “BAV”), a model that converts the firm's hoard of data on global consumer perceptions and behavior patterns into assessments of brand strength and value. When combined with the findings of independent research by academics in marketing and finance (using Compustat data on corporate operating and stock‐price performance), the BAV's assessments of brand values can be used to quantify the contributions of brands to both corporate earnings and market values. One of the main findings of this research is that brands contribute to the market value of companies by increasing not only current earnings, but the price‐to‐earnings (P/E) multiples that investors assign to current earnings. Such increases in P/E multiples in turn reflect investors' expectations for lower risk, higher growth or both. At the same time, more recent consumer surveys (conducted in 2005‐2007) provided indications of brand “erosion” even as the markets were pushing up share prices, presumably with the expectation that intangibles like brand would continue to drive operating earnings in the future. For the leaders of consumer‐related corporations, the resulting “disconnect” between stock prices and brand values points to a continuing challenge for brand management. Building brand value is important for both finance professionals trying to increase shareholder value and marketers trying to build brand strength and increase sales and margin. The aim of the authors' research is to bring these two groups—finance and marketing— closer together by demonstrating the role of marketing strategy and brand equity in driving shareholder value.
The insulin-like growth factor system modulates retinal pigment epithelial cell tractional force generation.

PURPOSE The goal of this study was to determine the influence, if any, of the insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) on retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell tractional force generation and the contributions of vitreous insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins (IGFBPs) toward control of growth factor activity. METHODS IGF effects on RPE were evaluated in tissue culture assays that involved incubation on three-dimensional collagen matrices with responses measured as progressive reduction in matrix thickness. IGFBP effects were evaluated by using the same system, exposing cells to a non-IGFBP-binding growth factor analogue (R(3)IGF-I) or IGFBPs alone or in combination with native growth factors. RESULTS RPE cells generated tractional forces in response to IGF-I and -II with IGF-I being the more potent stimulus. Differential RPE responses to R(3)IGF-I reflected minor amounts of endogenous IGFBP production. IGFBP-2, -3, and -5 were effective inhibitors of both ligands, whereas IGFBP-6 reduced cell responses to IGF-II only. IGFBP-direct effects on the cells were binding-protein-specific, in that IGFBP-1 had detectable stimulatory effects, and IGFBP-3, -4, -5, and -6 inhibited RPE responses. CONCLUSIONS IGF-I and -II are potent promoters of RPE cell tractional force generation in vitro. The effects of the six high-affinity IGFBPs on RPE responses are generally inhibitory and protein-specific. IGF ligands and binding proteins are known to be present in the vitreous, the environment that drives RPE responses in proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), suggesting that the IGF system plays a potentially important role in the pathophysiology of this fibrocontractive disease.
Technology Entrepreneurs’ Human Capital and Its Effects on Innovation Radicalness

Radical innovations transform existing markets, create new markets, and stimulate economic growth. This study investigates how the experience, education, and prior knowledge of technology entrepreneurs relate to innovation radicalness. Findings from a sample of 145 technology entrepreneurs operating within university–affiliated incubators suggest that general and specific human capital are both vital to innovation outcomes. Innovation radicalness was positively associated with formal education and prior knowledge of technology, but negatively associated with prior knowledge of ways to serve markets. This suggests a counterintuitive conclusion—the less technology entrepreneurs know about ways to serve a market, the greater their chances of using technology knowledge to create breakthrough innovations within it. Finally, we discuss configurations of human capital that are likely to bestow unique advantages in the construction of radical innovations.
Economic independence or bargaining power? The relationship between women's earnings and housework time

Studies of gender differences in the domestic division of labour have typically included measures of the relative earnings of husbands and wives to explain how much time each spends on household tasks. The theoretical underpinning for this approach is based on a range of perspectives including role specialization, relative resources and household bargaining. Recently, Gupta (2006, 2007) has argued that wives absolute earnings are more important than relative earnings in determining how much time wives spend on housework. Using US data, he shows that women’s housework time depends on the magnitude of their earnings rather than their share of earnings relative to their husbands and that income differences amongst women are as important in explaining women’s housework time as the difference between husbands and wives earnings. The current paper builds on Gupta’s earlier work in two main ways. First we use data on 1,306 employed married or cohabiting women from Wave 5 of the Households, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to examine whether women’s housework time in Australia is associated with relative or absolute earnings. Second we examine whether the use of paid domestic help and expenditure on meals outside the home reduces women’s time on domestic labour. Unlike Gupta, we find more evidence for the relationship between relative earnings and women’s housework time than absolute earnings and housework time. Outsourcing domestic work does not significantly reduce women’s time on housework once other factors are controlled. Overall our findings, like those of Bittman et al (2003), support an exchange bargaining perspective in Australia. This further suggests that there are real national differences between Australia and the US that are related to the presence of a strong male breadwinner institutional framework in Australia and different labour market and wage structures.
How to — and How Not to — Evaluate Innovation

Many traditional evaluation methods, including most performance measurement approaches, inhibit rather than support actual innovation. This article discusses the nature of innovation, identifies limitations of traditional evaluation approaches for assessing innovation and proposes an alternative model of evaluation consistent with the nature of innovation. Most attempts at innovation, by definition, are risky and should `fail' — otherwise they are using safe, rather than unknown or truly innovative approaches. A few key impacts by a minority of projects or participants may be much more meaningful than changes in mean (or average) scores. Yet the most common measure of programme impact is the mean. In contrast, this article suggests that evaluation of innovation should identify the minority of situations where real impact has occurred and the reasons for this. This is in keeping with the approach venture capitalists typically take where they expect most of their investments to `fail', but to be compensated by major gains on just a few.
Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance: Economic performance

Examines the role that institutions, defined as the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction, play in economic performance and how those institutions change and how a model of dynamic institutions explains the differential performance of economies through time. Institutions are separate from organizations, which are assemblages of people directed to strategically operating within institutional constraints. Institutions affect the economy by influencing, together with technology, transaction and production costs. They do this by reducing uncertainty in human interaction, albeit not always efficiently. Entrepreneurs accomplish incremental changes in institutions by perceiving opportunities to do better through altering the institutional framework of political and economic organizations. Importantly, the ability to perceive these opportunities depends on both the completeness of information and the mental constructs used to process that information. Thus, institutions and entrepreneurs stand in a symbiotic relationship where each gives feedback to the other. Neoclassical economics suggests that inefficient institutions ought to be rapidly replaced. This symbiotic relationship helps explain why this theoretical consequence is often not observed: while this relationship allows growth, it also allows inefficient institutions to persist. The author identifies changes in relative prices and prevailing ideas as the source of institutional alterations. Transaction costs, however, may keep relative price changes from being fully exploited. Transaction costs are influenced by institutions and institutional development is accordingly path-dependent. (CAR)
The Stock Market Reaction to the Introduction of Best Practices Codes by Spanish Firms

This paper analyses the market reaction to announcements made by Spanish firms of compliance with the code of best practice. It also attempts to determine how the characteristics of different firms may account for the excess returns observed. The results suggest that the market reacts positively to announcements of compliance with the code of best practice that imply a major restructuring of the board of directors, whereas no wealth effects are observed for announcements that relate to isolated recommendations in the code. These wealth effects are greater for lower levered firms, and also greater the higher the percentage of executive directors.
A conceptual framework for an interactive personal information management system

The growth of digital cameras has resulted in the creation of huge collections of personal photographs and video. Thus, in the last few years personal information management (PIM) has become an important topic in the information retrieval area, in which it is playing an interest role in managing and retrieving personal collections. Therefore, many previous studies have tried to visualize these collections in different ways. This paper aims to discuss the importance of visualization techniques that have been proposed in the PIM field in general, and it shows the main factors that have influence on visualizing an interactive PIM system interface for large collections of photographs and video in particular. The factors were identified through reviews of related work. The collated factors form a conceptual framework of interactive PIM system interfaces for photograph and video collections. The aim of the framework is to ensure full understanding about the personal information lifecycle and thus leads to the production of a PIM system that satisfies its intended users.
The Bacterial signal transduction protein GlnB regulates the committed step in fatty acid biosynthesis by acting as a dissociable regulatory subunit of acetyl‐CoA carboxylase

Biosynthesis of fatty acids is one of the most fundamental biochemical pathways in nature. In bacteria and plant chloroplasts, the committed and rate‐limiting step in fatty acid biosynthesis is catalyzed by a multi‐subunit form of the acetyl‐CoA carboxylase enzyme (ACC). This enzyme carboxylates acetyl‐CoA to produce malonyl‐CoA, which in turn acts as the building block for fatty acid elongation. In Escherichia coli, ACC is comprised of three functional modules: the biotin carboxylase (BC), the biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP) and the carboxyl transferase (CT). Previous data showed that both bacterial and plant BCCP interact with signal transduction proteins belonging to the PII family. Here we show that the GlnB paralogues of the PII proteins from E. coli and Azospirillum brasiliense, but not the GlnK paralogues, can specifically form a ternary complex with the BC‐BCCP components of ACC. This interaction results in ACC inhibition by decreasing the enzyme turnover number. Both the BC‐BCCP‐GlnB interaction and ACC inhibition were relieved by 2‐oxoglutarate and by GlnB uridylylation. We propose that the GlnB protein acts as a 2‐oxoglutarate‐sensitive dissociable regulatory subunit of ACC in Bacteria.
Pesticide Poisoning Events in Wild Birds in Korea from 1998 to 2002

We describe cases of pesticide poisoning of wild birds diagnosed at the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (Kyunggi, Korea) from 1998 to 2002. Forty-one mortality events (759 birds) of 87 incidents (2,464 birds) investigated were associated with pesticide poisoning, and six organophosphates or carbamates were identified as being responsible for the poisoning. Phosphamidon was most frequently identified as the cause of poisoning, accounting for 23 mortality events. Other pesticides identified as poisons for birds were organophosphates monocrotophus, fenthion, parathion, EPN, and diazinon, and the carbamate carbofuran. Pesticide poisoning is a problem in wild birds in Korea.
Prevalence of congenital heart defects in patients with Down syndrome in the municipality of Pelotas, Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of congenital heart defects in patients with Down syndrome in the municipality of Pelotas, Brazil, describing the most frequent types and assessing the associated factors. METHODS Cross-sectional study including children with Down syndrome who were born and lived in Pelotas from January 2000 to December 2005. Data were collected by means of home interviews with mothers or guardians. Univariate and bivariate analyses were carried out to analyze the factors related to congenital heart defect. RESULTS Forty-seven mothers of patients with Down syndrome were interviewed. Twenty-two (46.8%) of the patients had a diagnosis of congenital heart defect. Of them, 28% had early cardiac evaluation before 3 months of life. The most frequent heart defect was interatrial communication (17%); atrioventricular septal defect affected five patients. Bivariate analysis between the outcome congenital heart defect and the predicting factors maternal age, paternal age, parents' and child's skin color, presence of other malformations and child's sex showed that the associations were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of Down syndrome and congenital heart defects in our region is similar to the rates found by other authors; therefore, we highlight the importance of diagnostic suspicion and early referral by pediatricians to cardiac evaluation. Another relevant aspect is the small number of patients who underwent karyotype testing. In addition, the number of associated malformations was lower than that found by other authors.
Financial Analysts' Forecast Revisions and Managers' Reporting Behavior

This paper studies an analyst's forecasting strategy and a manager's earnings management policy. When reporting earnings, the manager trades off the disutility he obtains from falling short of the analyst's forecast against the costs of manipulating earnings. The model predicts that: (i) the analyst's forecast exceeds median reported earnings; (ii) the analyst is more likely to revise his forecast downward than upward; (iii) mean and median forecast errors are larger in magnitude when the analyst has less precise information; and (iv) the stock market is, on average, more sensitive to reported earnings than to the analyst's forecasts.
The Unmet Educational Needs of Patients with Interstitial Lung Disease. Setting the Stage for Tailored Pulmonary Rehabilitation.

RATIONALE There is no standardized education program for patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD). Pulmonary rehabilitation is a resource for structured disease education that is still geared primarily toward patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. OBJECTIVES The goals of this qualitative study were to identify the educational needs of patients with ILD and explore how pulmonary rehabilitation can become an appropriate setting for ILD education. METHODS Four focus groups including 24 patients with ILD and 10 semistructured interviews with healthcare professionals with expertise in ILD and/or pulmonary rehabilitation were conducted in two academic centers (University of California San Francisco and Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal). We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of the transcripts using an iteratively developed codebook. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The transcript analysis highlighted four major themes: patient dissatisfaction with the current educational model, lack of attention to emotional well-being, specific recommendations for educational content, and operationalizing education in the context of pulmonary rehabilitation. Seven key topics to be included an ILD-specific, pulmonary rehabilitation-based education program were identified: disease education, symptom management, clinical tests, autonomy, oxygen use, medications, and end-of-life counseling. CONCLUSIONS This study provides a better understanding of the needs of patients and healthcare providers regarding education of patients with ILD. It lays the foundation for the development of a structured education intervention that could be delivered in the context of pulmonary rehabilitation.
Pulmonary disease progress in sarcoid patients with and without bronchoalveolar lavage collagenase.

To assess the usefulness of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) collagenase measurement in gauging disease severity and outcome in sarcoidosis, we analyzed BAL fluids from 84 patients with sarcoidosis for collagenase and monitored disease progress in these patients for a minimum of 12 months. Twenty patients (24%) were found to have BAL collagenase activity on initial evaluation (collagenase-positive group). Compared with patients without BAL collagenase (collagenase-negative group), the collagenase-positive group had (1) a higher proportion of BAL suppressor T cells (p less than 0.03); (2) a lower helper-suppressor T-cell ratio (p less than 0.002); (3) lower mean percent predicted FEV1, FVC, and DLCO levels (p less than 0.05); and (4) a higher proportion of patients with advanced (Stage 4) disease on chest roentgenogram (p less than 0.001). Significant differences were also observed between the collagenase-positive and collagenase-negative groups during follow-up. A higher proportion (55%, n = 11) of collagenase-positive patients required corticosteroid therapy than did collagenase-negative patients (26%; n = 17; p less than 0.025). Of those who remained untreated, pulmonary function tended to decrease in the collagenase-positive group, whereas mean pulmonary function levels actually improved in the collagenase negative group (p less than 0.05). Of those who required therapy, mean percent predicted FVC and DLCO levels improved significantly after treatment in the collagenase-negative group (p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.05, respectively), whereas an improvement in percent predicted FVC levels only (p less than 0.01) was observed in the collagenase-positive group. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Sexual Dysfunction in Diabetic Men

Sexual function was studied in 175 diabetic male outpatients randomly selected. Data collected included medical and sexual histories, physical examination, complete blood count, urinalysis, T4, 12 channel chemistry screening profile and plasma testosterone determination. Eighty-five of the 175 men were impotent (49 per cent), four reported premature ejaculation (2 per cent) and two subjects had retrograde ejaculation (1 per cent). In the group with impotence, the mean age of the subjects and duration of diabetes were respectively fifty-three and six years. In patients without impotence, the comparable values were fortyfive and five years. Typically, the onset of impotence was gradual, usually progressing over a period of six months to a year with an interval during which firmness of erection was decreased. Levels of sexual interest were sustained in almost all subjects. Over 90 per cent of the males studied gave a pattern of impotence compatible with an organic rather than a psychologic etiology. Occurrence of impotence'was not definitely correlated with duration of diabetes or with insulin or oral agents. Incidence of peripheral neuropathy was increased in the group with sexual dysfunction. Plasma testosterone levels were within normal limits in impotent diabetics or in the group without impotence, respectively (mean ± S.E.M.) 627 ±15 and 637 ± 14 ng per cent. It is apparent from these findings that androgen deficiency was not an etiologic factor in this group of diabetic men with impotence.