Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of chemistry-aerosol-climate coupling on predictions of future climate and future levels of tropospheric ozone and aerosols

We explore the extent to which chemistry-aerosol-climate coupling influences predictions of future ozone and aerosols as well as future climate using the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) general circulation model II' with on-line simulation of tropospheric ozone-NO_x-hydrocarbon chemistry and sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, black carbon, primary organic carbon, and secondary organic carbon aerosols. Based on IPCC scenario A2, year 2100 ozone, aerosols, and climate simulated with full chemistry-aerosol-climate coupling are compared with those simulated from a stepwise approach. In the stepwise method year 2100 ozone and aerosols are first simulated using present-day climate and year 2100 emissions (denoted as simulation CHEM2100sw) and year 2100 climate is then predicted using offline monthly fields of O_3 and aerosols from CHEM2100sw (denoted as simulation CLIM2100sw). The fully coupled chemistry-aerosol-climate simulation predicts a 15% lower global burden of O_3 for year 2100 than the simulation CHEM2100sw which does not account for future changes in climate. Relative to CHEM2100sw, year 2100 column burdens of all aerosols in the fully coupled simulation exhibit reductions of 10–20 mg m^−2 in DJF and up to 10 mg m^−2 in JJA in mid to high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, reductions of up to 20 mg m^−2 over the eastern United States, northeastern China, and Europe in DJF, and increases of 30–50 mg m^−2 over populated and biomass burning areas in JJA. As a result, relative to year 2100 climate simulated from CLIM2100sw, full chemistry-aerosol-climate coupling leads to a stronger net global warming by greenhouse gases, tropospheric ozone and aerosols in year 2100, with a global and annual mean surface air temperature higher by 0.42 K. For simulation of year 2100 aerosols, we conclude that it is important to consider the positive feedback between future aerosol direct radiative forcing and future aerosol concentrations; increased aerosol concentrations lead to reductions in convection and precipitation (or wet deposition of aerosols), further increasing lower tropospheric aerosol concentrations.
An Examination of Long-Term Abnormal Stock Returns and Operating Performance Following R&D Increases

We examine a sample of 8,313 cases, between 1951 and 2001, where firms unexpectedly increase their research and development (R&D) expenditures by a significant amount. We find consistent evidence of a misreaction, as manifested in the significantly positive abnormal stock returns that our sample firms' shareholders experience following these increases. We also find consistent evidence that our sample firms experience significantly positive long-term abnormal operating performance following their R&D increases. Our findings suggest that R&D increases are beneficial investments, and that the market is slow to recognize the extent of this benefit (consistent with investor underreaction). Copyright 2004 by The American Finance Association.
The Pattern of Enhancement of Src Kinase Activity on Platelet-derived Growth Factor Stimulation of Glioblastoma Cells Is Affected by the Integrin Engaged*

Enhanced expression of both integrin αvβ3 and platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFr) has been described in glioblastoma tumors. We therefore explored the possibility that integrin αvβ3 cooperates with PDGFr to promote cell migration in glioblastoma cells, and extended the study to identify the Src family members that are activated on PDGF stimulation. Glioblastoma cells utilize integrins αvβ3 and αvβ5 to mediate vitronectin attachment. We found that physiologic PDGF stimulation (83 pm, 10 min) of vitronectin-adherent cells promoted the specific recruitment of integrin αvβ3-containing focal adhesions to the cell cortex and αvβ3-mediated cell motility. Analysis of PDGFr immunoprecipitates indicated an association of the PDGFr β with integrin αvβ3, but not integrin αvβ5. Cells plated onto collagen or laminin, which engage different integrins, exhibited significantly less migration on PDGF stimulation, indicating a cooperation of αvβ3 and the PDGFr β in glioblastoma cells that promotes migration. Further analysis of the cells plated onto vitronectin indicated that PDGF stimulation caused an increase in Src kinase activity, which was associated with integrin αvβ3. In the vitronectin-adherent cells, Lyn was associated preferentially with αvβ3 both in the presence and absence of PDGF stimulation. In contrast, Fyn was associated with both αvβ3 and αvβ5. Moreover, PDGF stimulation increased the activity of Lyn, but not Fyn, in vitronectin-adherent cells, and the activity of Fyn, but not Lyn, in laminin-adherent cells. Using cells attached to mAb anti-αvβ3 or mAb anti-integrin α6, we confirmed the activation of specific members of the Src kinase family with PDGF stimulation. Down-regulation of Lyn expression by siRNA significantly inhibited the cell migration mediated by integrin αvβ3 in PDGF-stimulated cells, demonstrating the PDGFr β cooperates with integrin αvβ3 in promoting the motility of vitronectin-adherent glioblastoma cells through a Lyn kinase-mediated pathway. Notably, the data indicate that engagement of different integrins alters the identity of the Src family members that are activated on stimulation with PDGF.
Plane shear flows of frictionless spheres: Kinetic theory and 3D soft-sphere discrete element method simulations

We use existing 3D Discrete Element simulations of simple shear flows of spheres to evaluate the radial distribution function at contact that enables kinetic theory to correctly predict the pressure and the shear stress, for different values of the collisional coefficient of restitution. Then, we perform 3D Discrete Element simulations of plane flows of frictionless, inelastic spheres, sheared between walls made bumpy by gluing particles in a regular array, at fixed average volume fraction and distance between the walls. The results of the numerical simulations are used to derive boundary conditions appropriated in the cases of large and small bumpiness. Those boundary conditions are, then, employed to numerically integrate the differential equations of Extended Kinetic Theory, where the breaking of the molecular chaos assumption at volume fraction larger than 0.49 is taken into account in the expression of the dissipation rate. We show that the Extended Kinetic Theory is in very good agreement with the numerical simulations, even for coefficients of restitution as low as 0.50. When the bumpiness is increased, we observe that some of the flowing particles are stuck in the gaps between the wall spheres. As a consequence, the walls are more dissipative than expected, and the flows resemble simple shear flows, i.e., flows of rather constant volume fraction and granular temperature.
Relationship of Heart Sounds to Acceleration of Blood Flow

A concept has been presented that abrupt acceleration or deceleration of blood flow is associated with an energy source sufficient to displace the mass of the heart, and that, consequently, this mass will oscillate at a sum of frequencies that are a function of chamber mass and restoring forces. Induced pressure transients may be observed in all chambers, the lower frequencies appearing on conventional pressure tracings, the higher frequencies as intracardiac sound. Using high frequency response instrumentation in dogs, intravascular sound has been compared with pressure and flow events throughout the cardiac cycle. (1) The first component of the first heart sound occurs during early isometric ventricular contraction and is associated with lower frequency pressure transients that may berecorded from all chambers of the heart. The left atrial “c-wave” is one of these transients. (2) The second component of the first heart sound occurs during ventricular ejection, and appears to be a function of acceleration of aortic blood flow. (3) The second heart sound begins significantly before aortic valve closure, while forward flow is still going on, and is proportional to the magnitude of deceleration of blood flow. (4) The third heart sound appears only in the presence of left ventricular failure at the time of rapid ventricular filling, and is associated with a low frequency wave recordable from the central aorta. The production of these transients is presumed to be deceleration of inflow as the limits of ventricular relaxation are reached. (5) A fourth sound arises coincident with pressure transients in other chambers as atrial systole further distends the left ventricle. It is proposed that acceleration and deceleration of blood flow is a sufficient and necessary condition for the origin of cardiovascular sound transients.
Return and risk of German open‐end real estate funds

Open‐end real estate funds (so‐called ‘Offene Immobilienfonds’) play a major role in the German market for securitized real estate investments. Such funds are pools of money from many investors, which are invested in real estate by special investment management companies. This study seeks to identify the risk and return profile of this investment vehicle (before and after income taxes), to compare it with those of other major asset classes, and to provide implications for their appropriate role in a mixed‐asset portfolio. Additionally, an overview of the institutional architecture and role of German open‐end real estate funds is given. Empirical evidence suggests that the financial characteristics of open‐end real estate funds are in many respects similar to those reported for direct real estate investments. Accordingly, German open‐end real estate funds qualify for medium and long‐term investment horizons, rather than for shorter holding periods.
Electrophysiological classification of P2X7 receptors in rat cultured neocortical astroglia

Background and purpose: P2X7 receptors are ATP‐gated cation channels mediating important functions in microglial cells, such as the release of cytokines and phagocytosis. Electrophysiological evidence that these receptors also occur in CNS astroglia is rare and rather incomplete.
Research and Development and Firm Risk

Spending on R&D has grown faster than other investments. This may result in higher return and higher risk. We focus on the latter and examine how research and development (R&D) affects the risks of US firms. We analyze the impact on the firm’s beta, its systematic and idiosyncratic risk, and the combination of the latter two (total risk). Because investors prefer upside to downside risk, we also analyze whether downside risk is also influenced by R&D. We use panel and quantile regressions and control for dividend payouts, growth, leverage, asset liquidity, firm size, earnings variability, firm age and industry competition. We then show that the impact is positive and highly significant for beta, systematic risk and total risk. The impact on systematic risk contrasts to the finding by McAlister et al. (2007) who find that R&D insulates firms from market downturns and thereby lowers systematic risk. The increases in risks are, moreover, stronger at higher relative levels of R&D spending. Unfortunately for investors, downside risk is also increasing with relative R&D spending. The results may make it also more difficult for managers to defend R&D investments. R&D may indeed generate future returns, but also adds to the next year’s risk. The impact on systematic risk contrasts to the finding by McAlister et al. [2007] that R&D insulates firms from market downturns and thereby lowers systematic risk. While the magnitudes of the effects are small, the impact is relevant when compared with other accounting variables included in the model, especially for beta and systematic risk. Apart from this, there are strong indications that the hypothesized relationis non-linear.
Global Ranking of Accounting Programmes and the Elite Effect in Accounting Research

We provide a global ranking of accounting research and examine the elite degree and elite affiliation effect. Based on 24 accounting journals during the period 1991-2005, the top 5 most productive countries in accounting research are in the following order: the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong. We find a significant elite degree effect, indicating that authors who graduated from elite accounting programmes have a disproportionate share of publications in top-notch journals. The same conclusion is also supported by the elite affiliation effect in which leading accounting journals have higher concentration of authors who are affiliated with elite institutions. Copyright (c) The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2007 AFAANZ.
Randomised controlled monotherapy trials: which comparators to use?

As approximately 50% of patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy achieve seizure remission after initial monotherapy, the selection of the first-choice drug to be used as the gold standard in randomised clinical trials is critical. Several first and second generation drugs have been used in regulatory and pragmatic monotherapy trials with similar efficacy but differing pharmacokinetic, tolerability, and safety profiles. None of the available compounds has an ideal profile and second generation drugs do not appear to present unequivocal advantages in this regard. Compared to first generation drugs, some newer generation antiepileptic drugs may be preferred as they have similar efficacy but lower potential for idiosyncratic reactions and drug interactions. However, more recent antiepileptic drugs also have limitations, which include lack of superiority and, in some cases, unbearable adverse effects. In this light, there are no standard criteria as a reference for the selection of the best comparator for new monotherapy trials. However, according to the recommendations of evidencebased guidelines, carbamazepine still represents the first-choice drug for patients with partial epilepsy. Ethosuximide may be an option for absence epilepsy. In contrast, for the treatment of patients with other generalised epilepsies, there is no clear indication of preferred drug, as valproate, which has been found to prevail over other compounds, should be withheld in women of childbearing age due to its teratogenic potential, and there is insufficient evidence to choose an alternative drug.
Convertible Securities in Merger Transactions

This paper provides a rationale for the use of convertible securities as the medium of exchange in corporate change-of-control transactions. We argue that convertible securities can resolve the information asymmetry about the bidder’s value while at the same time mitigating the information asymmetry about the target’s value. In contrast, deals with cash or stock can only address one information asymmetry or the other but not both. Empirically, we find that a bidder is more likely to offer convertible securities, rather than all cash or all stock, when both the bidder and its target face large asymmetric information problems. We also find that both bidders and targets in convertible deals enjoy positive abnormal stock returns around takeover announcements. These findings provide empirical support for the use of convertible securities to resolve the double-sided asymmetric information problem. Finally, we find that bidder returns in convertible deals are larger than in all-cash and all-stock deals, but that target returns in convertible deals are smaller than in all-cash and all-stock deals.
Unintended Consequences of Changing Accounting Standards: The Case of Fair Value Accounting and Mandatory Dividends

A growing body of literature investigates the interaction of changes in accounting standards with institutions such as investor protection laws and corporate governance mechanisms. We examine the unintended consequences of fair value accounting in determining mandated preferred dividends. We study the case of Russian energy conglomerate UES, which had a good corporate governance track record and a consistent dividend history. Following its adoption of fair value accounting, UES reported the highest quarterly profit in world corporate history, but it subsequently omitted dividends for all its shareholders. The case analysis suggests that the transitory nature of fair value adjustments and the interaction with the investment policy were important considerations in justifying the dividend omission. The reduction in preferred dividends was not offset by any capital gains, and led to a wealth transfer from preferred to ordinary shareholders. Thus, requiring the use of fair value accounting when determining the dividend distribution base can lead to unintended consequences and increase agency costs for minority shareholders.
Liberalized emerging markets and the world economy: testing for increased integration with time-varying volatility

Due to increasing globalization and its potential benefits, many emerging markets have introduced capital liberalization policies to attract much needed foreign direct investment. The objective of this article is to empirically investigate whether the conducted deregulation policies resulted in greater integration of emerging financial markets with the world market. For this purpose, a novel method introduced by Hatemi-J and Hacker (2005) is utilized to calculate the parameters as well as to test the significance of these parameters. This method is shown to be robust to nonnormality and time-varying volatility that usually characterize financial data and therefore it can provide more accurate inference compared to other methods. We find that only four of 17 emerging markets have become more integrated with the world market after implementing the liberalization policy.
Optimal Board Monitoring in Family-Owned Companies: Evidence from Asia

We propose that high levels of monitoring are not always in the best interests of minority shareholders. In family-owned companies the optimal level of board monitoring required by minority shareholders is expected to be lower than other companies. This is because the relative benefits and costs of monitoring are different in family-owned companies. At moderate levels of board monitoring, we find concave relationships between board monitoring variables and firm performance for family-owned companies but not for other companies. The optimal level of board monitoring for our sample of Asian family-owned companies equates to board independence of 38%, separation of the Chairman and CEO positions and establishment of audit and remuneration committees. Additional testing shows that the optimal level of board monitoring is sensitive to the magnitude of the agency conflict between the family group and minority shareholders and the presence of substitute monitoring. The results confirm that more monitoring is not always associated with better performance. However, the board governance practices of family-owned companies are still well below the identified optimal levels.
The Consequences of State Economic Development Strategies on Income Distribution in the American States, 1976 to 1994

I ask whether the economic development strategies pursued by state governments to stimulate growth have unintended consequences for the well-being of the citizenry, particularly income distribution. Pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis was employed to empirically evaluate the effects of state economic development strategy on the distribution of income in the American states for the 1976 to 1994 period. Results demonstrate that the economic development strategy state governments take has differential effects on the distribution of income. States that adopt demand-side policies (promoting research and development, technology, and exportation) more than traditional supply-side policies (offering tax abatements and capital subsidies) are associated with more equitable distributions of income. Although the results indicate that states have the power to reduce income inequalities by employing more demand-oriented economic development strategies, the substantive impact is quite small, and the frequency with which states do this is rare when compared to the use of supply-side tactics.
The Macroeconomic News Cycle and Uncertainty Resolution

We examine the behavior of return volatility and trading at 5-minute intervals in the treasury bond futures market in the context of the monthly macroeconomic news cycle. We advance and confirm the hypothesis that volatility and trading activity are higher in the first half of the month. The data indicate that these patterns arise from at least two sources: (1) a higher level of uncertainty regarding the value of news in announcements in the first half of the month, and (2) improvement in efficiency of macroeconomic forecasts from the first to the second half of the month.
Unguided Clinical and Actuarial Assessment of Re-offending Risk: A Direct Comparison with Sex Offenders in Denmark

Meta-analyses suggest that actuarial risk assessments outperform unguided clinical judgment for prediction of recidivism in criminal offenders. However, there is a lack of direct comparisons of the predictive accuracy of clinical judgment and actuarial risk scales for sexual offenders. We followed up 121 male sex offenders (≥18 years) subjected to pre-trial forensic psychiatric assessment in Denmark in 1978–1992 (mean post-detainment time = 16.4 years) to compare the predictive validity of unstructured clinical judgment of recidivism risk with that of the well-established Static-99 (Hanson and Thornton, Law and Human Behavior 24:119–136, 2000) and an extension of the Static-99, the Static-2002 (Hanson and Thornton, Notes on the development of Static-2002 (Rep. No. 2003–01), Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 2003). The predictive accuracy of unguided judgment did not exceed chance for any sexual, severe sexual or any violent (sexual or non-sexual) reconviction (AUCs of the ROC curve = 0.52, 95%CI = 0.41–0.63; 0.50, 95%CI = 0.34–0.67; and 0.57, 95%CI = 0.40–0.73, respectively). In contrast, all three outcomes were predicted significantly better than chance by the Static-99 (AUC = 0.62, 95%CI = 0.52–0.72; 0.72, 95%CI = 0.59–0.84; and 0.71, 95%CI = 0.56–0.86) and the Static-2002 (AUC = 0.67, 95%CI = 0.57–0.77; 0.69, 95%CI = 0.56–0.83; and 0.70, 95%CI = 0.55–0.86). Static-99 outperformed clinical judgment for sexual recidivision (χ2 = 5.11, df = 1, p < .05). The Static-2002 was significantly more accurate for the prediction of any sexual recidivism as compared to unguided clinical judgment but its advantage fell just short of statistical significance for severe sexual recidivism (χ2 = 3.56, df = 1, p = 0.06). When tested for recidivism within 2 years, none of the three prediction methods yielded results significantly better than chance for any outcome. This direct trial of the unguided clinical method argues against its continued use for risk assessment of sexual offenders.