Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interpreting the Stock Returns to New Product Announcements: How the past Shapes Investors’ Expectations of the Future

Investors routinely follow firms’ communications and actions to form expectations about the firms’ future performance. The authors propose a set of firm and industry characteristics that influence the formation of investor expectations in the context of new product announcements. Specifically, they argue that positive expectations of future innovation output should cause an ex-ante increase in stock prices and a smaller ex-post market reaction when an actual new product is announced. Using a sample of 4,865 new product announcements made by 826 publicly traded U.S. firms, the authors show that the stock market reaction to a new product announcement measured in a five-day window around the announcement is negatively related to (1) the number of new products previously announced by the firm, (2) the average number of new products previously announced by the firm's competitors, and (3) the average sentiment of past public news about the firm. These three factors are also positively related to the market value of the firm measured immediately before each new announcement, controlling for increases in firm value directly attributable to past new product announcements. In contrast to many articles in the marketing literature that imply that the added value of a marketing event can be fully assessed from the stock market reaction to the announcement of the event, the authors clarify that for recurrent events or events that are part of a firm's broader strategy, this reaction reflects only an update of investors’ expectations of future firm performance.
Comparison of the effect of three autogenous bone harvesting methods on cell viability in rabbits

Background. This study was designed to compare the viability of autogenous bone grafts, harvested using different methods, in order to determine the best harvesting technique with respect to more viable cells. Methods. In this animal experimental study, three harvesting methods, including manual instrument (chisel), rotary device and piezosurgery, were used for harvesting bone grafts from the lateral body of the mandible on the left and right sides of 10 rabbits. In each group, 20 bone samples were collected and their viability was assessed using MTS kit. Statistical analyses, including ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests, were used for evaluating significant differences between the groups. Results. One-way ANOVA showed significant differences between all the groups (P=0.000). Data analysis using post hoc Tukey tests indicated that manual instrument and piezosurgery had no significant differences with regard to cell viability (P=0.749) and the cell viability in both groups was higher than that with the use of a rotary instrument (P=0.000). Conclusion. Autogenous bone grafts harvested with a manual instrument and piezosurgery had more viable cells in comparison to the bone chips harvested with a rotary device.
Visibility Restoration from Single Image based Optical Model

In this paper, we propose a segmentation based method to estimate the haze-free image by the optical model. In this work, we estimate the atmospheric light by color barycenter hexagon (CBH) model and use the watershed to segment the image to calculate transmission map by dark pixels with single image. Firstly, non-color region is segmented by CBH model and calculate the atmospheric light. Then, use the watershed with rang component of CBH model to segment the color image into several sub-regions, and estimate the transmission map. Finally, use the optical model with the parameters to restore the haze-free image. The experimental results show that our method is more effective and able to get better results than other compared single image
Studies on the nutritive value of cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata)

Samples of I50 different cowpea cultivars, used in the breeding trials of the Summer Grain Institute at Potehefstroom, were analysed and found to have an average crude protein content of 28.4 ± 1.8% (range 24.5 to 33.9%). From these samples, five high- and five low-protein cowpea samples as well as a composite sample of the remaining 140 cowpea cultivars, were selected. Part of the composite sample was autoclaved for 15 min at 121°C. Only small differences were observed in the chemical composition of the experimental cowpea meals. No significant ( P > 0.05) differences were found between raw and autoclaved cowpea meal either in relative nutritional value (RNV) and true protein digestibility (PTD) determined with rats, or in amino acid availability (AAA) determined with roosters. Autoclaving resulted in significant ( P 0.05) verskille is gevind tussen rou en stoombehandelde akkerbone in relatiewe voedingswaarde en ware proteienverteerbaarheid, soos met rotte bepaal, en aminosuurbeskikbaarheid, soos met pluimvee bepaal nie. Stoombehandeling het 'n betekenisvolle ( P < 0.05) verbetering in verteerbare energie by varke en ware metaboliseerbare energie by pluimvee tot gevolg gehad. Keywords : Amino acid availability, cowpea meal, digestible energy, pigs, poultry, rats, relative nutritive value, true metabolizable energy, true protein digestibility.
De-Leverage and Illiquidity Contagion

This paper investigates how variations in stock-level leverage lead to dynamic intraday trading behavior and illiquidity transmission across different stocks by utilizing a unique, precise, stock-level margin trading dataset. We document that leveraged investors’ need to meet margin call requirements and liquidity demands due to prior market drop results in subsequent selloffs in otherwise stable stocks, particularly in afternoon sessions. This effect exists both within and across different industries and is stronger for stocks with less information asymmetry, better liquidity, higher past stock performance, less return co-movement, and even during trading suspension. Taken together, such findings suggest that our results are driven by illiquidity spillover instead of information asymmetry. Our study contributes to the research on funding liquidity, commonality in liquidity, and flight for quality effect during the deleveraging process in financial market turmoil.
Pupal Development of Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) and Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) at Different Moisture Values in Four Soil Types

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate adult emergence and duration of the pupal stage of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), and emergence of the fruit fly parasitoid, Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead), under different moisture conditions in four soil types, using soil water matric potential. Pupal stage duration in C. capitata was influenced differently for males and females. In females, only soil type affected pupal stage duration, which was longer in a clay soil. In males, pupal stage duration was individually influenced by moisture and soil type, with a reduction in pupal stage duration in a heavy clay soil and in a sandy clay, with longer duration in the clay soil. As matric potential decreased, duration of the pupal stage of C. capitata males increased, regardless of soil type. C. capitata emergence was affected by moisture, regardless of soil type, and was higher in drier soils. The emergence of D. longicaudata adults was individually influenced by soil type and moisture factors, and the number of emerged D. longicaudata adults was three times higher in sandy loam and lower in a heavy clay soil. Always, the number of emerged adults was higher at higher moisture conditions. C. capitata and D. longicaudata pupal development was affected by moisture and soil type, which may facilitate pest sampling and allow release areas for the parasitoid to be defined under field conditions.
Spiral computed tomographic imaging related to computerized ultrasonographic images of carotid plaque morphology and histology.

Echolucency of carotid atherosclerotic plaques, as evaluated by computerized B‐mode ultrasonographic images, has been associated with an increased incidence of brain infarcts on cerebral computed tomographic scans. We tested the hypotheses that characterization of carotid plaques on spiral computed tomographic images correlates with that on computerized B‐mode ultrasonographic images and that spiral computed tomographic imaging predicts the histomorphometric plaque content.
Infection intensity and infectivity of the tick‐borne pathogen Borrelia afzelii

The ‘trade‐off’ hypothesis for virulence evolution assumes that between‐host transmission rate is a positive and saturating function of pathogen exploitation and virulence, but there are as yet few tests of this assumption, in particular for vector‐borne pathogens. Here, I show that the infectivity (probability of transmission) of the tick‐borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii from two of its natural rodent hosts (bank vole and yellow‐necked mouse) to its main tick vector increases asymptotically with increasing exploitation (measured as bacterial load in skin biopsies). Hence, this result provides support for one of the basic assumptions of the ‘trade‐off hypothesis’. Moreover, there was no difference in infectivity between bank voles and yellow‐necked mice despite bacterial loads being on average an order of magnitude higher in bank voles, most likely because ticks took larger blood meals from mice. This shows that interspecific variation in host resistance does not necessarily translate into a difference in infectivity.
Antagonistic interactions amongst bacteriocin‐producing enteric bacteria in dual species biofilms

Aims: The objective of this study was to investigate the antagonistic interactions between bacteriocin‐producing enteric bacteria in dual species biofilms and the interspecies interactions correlated with sensitivity to biocides. Methods and Results: When compared with their single species counterparts, the dual species biofilms formed by bacteriocin‐producing strains exhibited a decrease in biofilm size and an increase in sensitivity to the antimicrobial agents hypochlorite, triclosan and benzalkonium chloride. The five dual species biofilms studied all resulted in biofilms containing a mixture of the two strains. This was attributed to the spatial distribution of cells within the biofilm, with each strain forming its own microcolonies. The production of a bacteriocin also gave a strain a competitive advantage when interacting with a bacteriocin‐sensitive strain within a biofilm, both in gaining a foothold in a new environment and in preventing the colonization of a potential competitor into a pre‐established biofilm. Conclusions: It was concluded that bacteriocins might be used specifically for interacting with competing strains within a biofilm, as opposed to a planktonic, environment. Significance and Impact of the Study: Unlike planktonically grown bacteriocin‐producing populations, where one strain will always be out‐competed, bacteriocin‐producing and bacteriocin‐sensitive strains can coexist in biofilm communities, clearly demonstrating major differences between biofilm and planktonic competition. This paper highlights the importance of bacteriocin production in the development of biofilm communities.
Relocation of remote dwellers living with hemodialysis: a time trade-off survey.

BACKGROUND There has been little research exploring the experience of dialysis therapy for people living in remote communities. Remote residence location has previously been associated with excess mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients, suggesting that relocation to a referral center might improve outcomes. It is unknown whether patients view this approach as acceptable. METHODS We studied 121 remote-dwelling chronic HD patients using the time trade-off method applied to hypothetical scenarios. RESULTS Participants indicated that they would trade a median of 6 years of life in their current location (including current social supports) (95% CI 2.25-7) for 10 years of life in a referral center without any of their existing social supports (meaning they would be willing to forgo 4 years of life to remain in their current residence location). When current social supports were assumed to continue in both locations, people were only willing to forego a median of 2 years of life (95% CI 1-4) to remain in their current location. Older participants were much less willing to accept relocation than younger participants; the median time trade-off associated with relocation and without social supports was 2 years for participants aged <50 years, 3 years for those aged 50-69.9 years and 9 years for those aged ≥70 years. CONCLUSIONS Hemodialysis patients currently living remotely were willing to forgo much of their remaining life expectancy rather than relocate-especially among older participants. These findings suggest that decisions about relocation should be accompanied by discussion of anticipated changes in quality of life and life expectancy.
Essays on Banking for Micro and Small Enterprises

This thesis provides new evidence concerning the way financial intermediaries fulfill the role of distributing capital efficiently to micro and small enterprise and diversify intertemporal risk at different stages of development. Chapter 2 and 3 present results about intertemporal risk sharing services provided by relationship banks to microentrepreneurs in developing countries after an aggregate income shock. The analysis is based on a data set in which the customer data of the microfinance institution ProCredit Ecuador is merged with the monthly data of seismic activity and explosions of the volcano Tungurahua in Ecuador from 2001 to 2006. Results indicate that new clients are less likely to receive a loan after the shock, but old clients face no lending restrictions. Additionally, old clients also pay lower interest rates after the shock and have lower default rates. The conclusion is that relationship banking facilitates intertemporal risk sharing for individuals that have a long term relationship with a bank. Chapter 4 empirically analyzes the competition between banks with different lending technologies, relationship lending and transaction lending, in the credit business with micro and small entrepreneurs in developing countries. I analyze a unique dataset consisting of a combination of credit bureau data with customer data of an Ecuadorian microfinance institution. The results support the hypothesis that especially transaction lending contributes to the problem of overindebtedness in developing countries. However, clients prefer to pay their installments to relationship banks, because they offer additional services. Chapter 5 analyzes management behavior in German credit cooperatives. One key feature of their institutional structure in the past was the fact that members have no ownership rights on the retained profits in order to assure the sustainability of the institution. Nowadays when members are mainly financially motivated and their incentives to monitor the management are weak, this institutional feature has the potential to generate negative incentives for the cooperatives management. I present a model on the incentive effects of this institutional feature and test the implications on a dataset of German credit cooperatives.
Investigating informative, conservative and conditional role of capital structure in competitive environment of market and its effect on financial reporting quality process in Tehran Stock Exchange

On the one side, increased competitive pressures have been led to take conserv ative approaches in companies and on the other side; it has been caused to reduce expec tations from future performance of business unit. At first, the researc h evaluates the relationship between competitiv e structures of produc ts and conditional conservation and then the relationship between financing struc tures and c onditional conservation. For this purpose, 93 companies were selec ted from 2006 to 2014. Basu's model (1997) was used to evaluate competition and financ ing effects on conditional conservation, financing and c ompetitive struc tures. The results indicated that there is positive significant relationship between c ompetitive struc tures of products and conditional conservation and financial reporting. A lso, the c ompanies are financed via long - term debts, do not reduc e conditional conservation level, but the companies are financ ed via equity, reduc e conditional conservation level in financial reporting.
Optimal Beamforming for Gaussian MIMO Wiretap Channels With Two Transmit Antennas

A Gaussian multiple-input multiple-output wiretap channel in which the eavesdropper and legitimate receiver are equipped with arbitrary numbers of antennas and the transmitter has two antennas is studied in this paper. The input covariance matrix that achieves the secrecy capacity is determined. In particular, it is shown that the secrecy capacity of this channel can be achieved by linear precoding. Precoding and power allocation schemes that maximize the achievable secrecy rate, and thus achieve the secrecy capacity, are developed. The secrecy capacity is then compared with the achievable secrecy rate of generalized singular value decomposition (GSVD)-based precoding, which is the best previously proposed technique for this problem. Numerical results demonstrate that substantial gain can be obtained in secrecy rate between the proposed and GSVD-based precodings.
EXPLOITING GLOBALIZATION POTENTIAL: U.S.

This paper develops a model of global strategy that includes the constructs of industry globalization potential, the use of global strategy, the role of organization and management and the performance consequences of using global strategy. Propositions are developed as to why American and Japanese MNCs might differ in their perceptions of industry globalization potential, in their desired global strategy response, in their organizationallyderived ability to implement global strategy and in their resulting performance. The model and arguments are examined in extensive interviews with senior executives at 36 worldwide businesses belonging to some of the largest American and Japanese MNCs. Data are analyzed using a partial least squares causal model. The results show that the Japanese firms have more globalized stategies than do the Americans, and that this factor affects their performance favorably.
Giant obturator schwannoma: an unusual finding in a patient with prostate cancer

A 58-year-old man was found to have a large retroperitoneal pelvic mass on a staging computed tomography (CT) scan for newly diagnosed high-risk prostate cancer (Figs 1,2). He was asymptomatic and referred with a screen-detected elevated prostate specific antigen of 22; subsequent prostate biopsies revealed Gleason 8 (4 + 4) in 9 of 12 cores. A staging bone scan demonstrated no evidence of skeletal metastases; the CT scan was otherwise unremarkable. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound were performed in an attempt to further characterize the nature of the lesion. The ovoid, heterogeneous mass appeared encapsulated and was seen in the left side of the pelvis, displacing the bladder to the right. It measured 75 ¥ 85 ¥ 100 mm in maximal dimensions and was seen to be arising in the retroperitoneum, abutting the left obturator internus muscle. A clear plane was seen to separate the mass from both bladder and prostate. Given the clinical scenario, a giant malignant lymph node was considered one of the possible diagnoses. The management plan was for open radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection including excision of the mass. A low midline incision and extraperitoneal approach easily exposed the prominent mass. It was as expected, separate from the bladder and prostate; however, it was densely adherent to the left pelvic sidewall, making dissection difficult. The obturator nerve could not be identified on that side of the pelvis. The mass was excised intact, and a specimen sent for frozen section, which was non-diagnostic, however, indicated that the lesion appeared neither nodal nor malignant in nature. Following excision of the mass, a structure thought to be a transacted-free end of the obturator nerve was identified; a neurosurgeon was consulted who attended and advised no further action until a clinical assessment was made. Surgery proceeded to radical prostatectomy with lymph node dissection and was completed without further event. Post-operatively, the patient and his wife were counselled as to the possibility of an obturator nerve injury. At this point, they revealed that the patient had experienced several years of persistent pain and paraesthesia in the medial aspect of the left knee, along with a gait disturbance, which was consistent with obturator neuropathy. The symptoms had previously been attributed to an old sporting injury without further investigation. Follow-up of the patient reveals a mild weakness in thigh adduction; however, the pain previously
Wave front evolution in strongly heterogeneous layered media using the fast marching method

SUMMARY The fast marching method (FMM) is a grid based numerical scheme for tracking the evolution of monotonically advancing interfaces via finite-difference solution of the eikonal equation. Like many other grid based techniques, FMM is only capable of finding the first-arriving phase in continuous media; however, it distinguishes itself by combining both unconditional stability and rapid computation, making it a truly practical scheme for velocity fields of arbitrary complexity. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential of FMM for finding later arriving phases in layered media. In particular, we focus on reflections from smooth subhorizontal interfaces that separate regions of continuous velocity variation. The method we adopt for calculating reflected phases involves two stages: the first stage initializes FMM at the source and tracks the incident wave front to all points on the reflector surface; the second stage tracks the reflected wave front by reinitializing FMM from the interface point with minimum traveltime. Layer velocities are described by a regular grid of velocity nodes and layer boundaries are described by a set of interface nodes that may be irregularly distributed. A triangulation routine is used to locally suture interface nodes to neighbouring velocity nodes in order to facilitate the tracking of wave fronts to and from the reflector. A number of synthetic tests are carried out to assess the accuracy, speed and robustness of the new scheme. These include comparisons with analytic solutions and with solutions obtained from a shooting method of ray tracing. The convergence of traveltimes as grid spacing is reduced is also examined. Results from these tests indicate that wave fronts can be accurately tracked with minimal computational effort, even in the presence of complex velocity fields and layer boundaries with high curvature. Incident wave fronts containing gradient discontinuities or shocks also pose no difficulty. Further development of the wave front reinitialization scheme should allow other later arrivals such as multiples to be successfully located.