Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drivers of corporate disclosure: a structural equation analysis in a Central European setting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a network of interlinked hypotheses about determinants of corporate disclosure in Central Europe – especially in Germany and Poland – and evaluate it empirically.Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses network is developed from literature and evaluated with structural equation modeling. Sixty annual reports from Germany and Poland have been examined using an enhanced version of the PRISM‐project content analysis approach with 118 items.Findings – Firm size and industry do not directly influence corporate disclosure but are mediated by crosslisting. The home country effect is of a direct and indirect nature with the latter being mediated by firm size and crosslisting.Research limitations/implications – Manual content analysis of reports limits validity, reliability, sample and country focus. Further research needs to address additional factors influencing corporate disclosure.Practical implications – Companies’ disclosure quality seems to profit the mo.
Does multinational activity displace trade

Using two-panel data sets on the operations of U.S. multinational firms abroad and the operations of foreign multinational firms in the United States, this article examines the empirical relationship between international trade and multinational activity. The evidence supports the conclusion that multinational activity and trade are complementary activities, particularly multinational activity and intrafirm trade. This empirical result is consistent with the theoretical reasons one might expect a complementary relationship between the two activities and is also robust to different approaches and specifications. Copyright 2000 by Oxford University Press.
School Expenditures and Post-schooling Earnings: Evidence from High School and Beyond

Studies based on inputs measured at the state level generally report that school expenditures have substantial effects on students' adult wages, whereas studies based on less aggregated measures report small effects. The author uses wage data from High School and Beyond to analyze this discrepancy, and to estimate the effect of school expenditures on students' post-schooling earnings. The author finds that the discrepancy in the literature stems mostly from two factors: measurement error in district-level expenditures and omitted state effects in the earnings regression. The author also finds that the effect of school expenditures on earnings is significant but small. A 10% increase in school spending would increase students' adult wages by only 0.68%. Copyright 1996 by MIT Press.
Does China have Inflationary Effects on the USA and Japan?

With China's share in global trade increasing rapidly, some argued in 2002-2003 that China was exporting deflation to other countries as it was dumping cheap goods in mature markets. Later, others argued that China was causing sharp increases in global prices. This paper uses several econometric techniques to assess the extent of the link between inflation rates between China and the USA and Japan. Only limited empirical evidence at the aggregate level is found for consumer price inflation in China leading to price changes in the USA and Japan. However, there is some evidence that inflation in the USA has an impact on Chinese inflation. The results seem consistent with the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan being concerned about inflation and, hence, adjusting policy such that inflation shocks have no significant effect on overall inflation. Recent Chinese price rises are unlikely to have a material effect on the USA or Japan.
Oxidative Stress and Neurobehavioral Problems in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy

Neurobehavioral problems after chemotherapy treatment for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have been a recent focus of investigation. This study extended previous research that suggested oxidative stress as a potential mechanism for chemotherapy-induced central nervous system injury by examining early markers of oxidative stress in relation to subsequent neurobehavioral problems. Oxidized and unoxidized components of phosphatidylcholine (PC) were measured in the cerebrospinal fluid of 87 children with ALL at diagnosis, induction, and consolidation. Behavioral assessments were conducted postconsolidation and at the end of chemotherapy. Results revealed a significant association between physiologic reactivity (high vs. low PC changes from diagnosis) and behavioral outcomes (high vs. low pathology). Elevated oxidized PC fraction change was predictive of increased problems with aggression at the end of therapy as well as postconsolidation adaptability. Furthermore, symptoms of hyperactivity systematically changed over time in relation to both unoxidized PC and oxidized PC fraction reactivity. These findings suggest that symptoms of behavioral problems occur early in the course of chemotherapy and that increases in the cerebrospinal fluid PC markers of oxidative stress during induction and consolidation may help to predict certain future behavioral problems.
Dynamic capability emergence in the venture creation process

This article explores dynamic capability formation in new ventures examining technology commercialization at the microlevel of entrepreneurs’ actions and decisions. The research reflects a longitudinal, qualitative, multi-case study design to build theory. Findings reveal two interdependent micro-level patterns that reflect dynamic entrepreneurial capabilities. First, prospecting problems or the capacity to identify problems in industrial settings that a commercially untried technology might solve. Second, openly sharing technological features with prospective customers in order to jointly design prototype products. Revealing technology helped ensure new venture survival in contrast with conventional wisdom that links firm survival to the insulation and protection of technology. Moreover, micro-level patterns shaped macro-level change in venture/customer dyads and in related customer’ industries.
CNR1 Gene and Risk of the Metabolic Syndrome in Patients With Schizophrenia

Abstract Metabolic disturbances are more prevalent in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) than in the general population. The endocannabinoid system plays an important role in the regulation of dopamine transmission and several metabolic pathways, and the endocannabinoid receptor type 1 gene (CNR1) is considered a candidate gene for both SCZ and metabolic disorders. We examined whether genetic variation in CNR1 was associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a naturalistic cohort of 407 patients with SCZ. The minor alleles of rs6928499, rs1535255, and rs2023239 were nominally associated with a lower risk of MetS [odds ratio (OR), 0.56; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.37–0.84; P = 0.006; OR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.37–0.84; P = 0.006; and OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.27–0.72; P = 0.001, respectively, adjusted for age, sex, duration of illness, clozapine or olanzapine treatment). These differences were mainly due to differences in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and fasting glucose but not in body mass index or waist circumference. No significant association of the other polymorphisms (rs806377, rs1049353, rs6454674, and rs806379) with MetS was found. These results provide evidence that the prevalence of MetS is associated with the CNR1 gene in patients with SCZ during long-term treatment with antipsychotic treatment. Further studies are needed to uncover the exact molecular basis for this association, which could provide novel treatment targets for the MetS.
Stimulation of Systemic Bone Formation Induced by Experimental Blood Loss

Direct physical injury to bone marrow is associated with a systemic osteogenic response. However, blood loss, a condition that stimulates hemopoietic stem cells, also may activate osteoprogenitor cells in the bone marrow. To determine if bleeding induces a systemic osteogenic response, the mineral appositional rates and osteoblast numbers were determined in the bones of rats that were subjected to controlled cardiac bleeding and compared with those of rats subjected to ablation of their tibial bone marrow. In addition, a study of the kinetics of the osteogenic responses during the first 10 days after operative treatment was performed by quantitating the serum levels of biochemical indices known to be associated with systemic bone formation. The results showed that animals that sustained acute blood loss(1% or 3% body weight) or injury to their tibial bone marrow had statistically significant increases in mineral appositional rate, osteoblast number, and serum levels of osteogenic growth peptide. The kinetics studies showed that osteogenic growth peptide levels peaked on the tenth postoperative day and declined sharply thereafter. An enhancement of serum osteocalcin activity occurred only on the second postoperative day, was increased in all experimental groups when compared with untreated control animals, but immediately declined to baseline levels. Alkaline phosphatase activities increased in the experimental groups, peaking on Day 10 after tibial bone marrow ablation and on Day 12 in the group that underwent bleeding. These findings suggest that bleeding alone, independent of any skeletal trauma, may evoke a systemic osteogenic response. This response is similar in its timing and magnitude to that which has been shown to follow direct physical injury to bone marrow. The observation that systemic bone formation follows bone marrow activation induced by two different stimuli suggests that these responses may be mediated by common regulatory mechanisms. The ability to trigger or control these responses may form the basis for future therapeutic strategies to enhance bone formation.
Dynamic Asymmetric Leverage in Stochastic Volatility Models

ABSTRACT In the class of stochastic volatility (SV) models, leverage effects are typically specified through the direct correlation between the innovations in both returns and volatility, resulting in the dynamic leverage (DL) model. Recently, two asymmetric SV models based on threshold effects have been proposed in the literature. As such models consider only the sign of the previous return and neglect its magnitude, this paper proposes a dynamic asymmetric leverage (DAL) model that accommodates the direct correlation as well as the sign and magnitude of the threshold effects. A special case of the DAL model with zero direct correlation between the innovations is the asymmetric leverage (AL) model. The dynamic asymmetric leverage models are estimated by the Monte Carlo likelihood (MCL) method. Monte Carlo experiments are presented to examine the finite sample properties of the estimator. For a sample size of T = 2000 with 500 replications, the sample means, standard deviations, and root mean squared errors of the MCL estimators indicate only a small finite sample bias. The empirical estimates for S&P 500 and TOPIX financial returns, and USD/AUD and YEN/USD exchange rates, indicate that the DAL class, including the DL and AL models, is generally superior to threshold SV models with respect to AIC and BIC, with AL typically providing the best fit to the data.
Conduction block silences parts of a chemical synapse in the leech central nervous system.

1. The pressure (P) sensory neurones innervating the ventral skin of the medicinal leech have receptive fields comprising a central region of skin innervated by two thicker axons and two neighbouring regions innervated by two thinner axons. Impulses originating in the thinner axons may fail to propagate through the central ganglion, apparently blocked at the branch point of large and small axons. 2. The P neurone excites the longitudinal (L) motoneurone, and blocked impulses originating in the anterior fine axon produce e.p.s.p.s that are less than one‐half normal amplitude. Blocked impulses in the posterior fine axon are typically ineffective. 3. The branches of P and L neurones, marked with intracellularly injected horseradish peroxidase or with Lucifer Yellow, make synaptic contact at up to sixty‐six sites within the neuropile. Of P neurone branches emerging from two fine axons, those from the posterior axon make fewer contacts, usually one or two at most, while branches from the anterior axon represent no more than half the total contacts. From cell to cell there is some variation in the total number of contacts, the distribution of branches, and the strength of transmission. 4. The locations of contacts measured morphologically correlate well with their distributions as predicted from reductions in e.p.s.p. amplitude during conduction block.
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES ROBUSTLY OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY WITH NEAR-RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

The paper considers optimal monetary stabilization policy in a forward-looking model, when the central bank recognizes that private-sector expectations need not be precisely model-consistent, and wishes to choose a policy that will be as good as possible in the case of any beliefs that are close enough to model-consistency. The proposed method offers a way of avoiding the assumption that the central bank can count on private-sector expectations coinciding precisely with whatever it plans to do, while at the same time also avoiding the equally unpalatable assumption that the central bank can precisely model private-sector learning and optimize in reliance upon a precise law of motion
Morphology and distribution of retinal ganglion cells projecting to different layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus in normal and Siamese cats

Electrophoretic injections of horseradish peroxidase were made into physiologically characterized sites within the different layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nuclei (LGNd) of normal and Siamese cats. The histochemical procedures used stained the cell bodies, dendrites, and axons of retrogradely labeled ganglion cells. In both normal and Siamese cats, only alpha and beta ganglion cells are labeled by injections restricted to the A laminae. In normal cats, the alpha/beta ratios (number of labeled alpha cells/number of labeled alpha + beta cells) resulting from injections into lamina A increase from about 0.045 at 0.5 mm from the area centralis to about 0.12 in the far periphery. The alpha/beta ratios observed outside of the area centralis in normal cats following injections into different parts of lamina A1 were lower at each eccentricity than those resulting from injections into corresponding parts of lamina A. Also, the cell bodies and dendritic fields of alpha and beta cells projecting to lamina A1 are somewhat larger than those projecting to corresponding parts of lamina A. Outside of the area centralis, the relative numbers of alpha and beta cells projecting to Siamese lamina A are normal. However, alpha cells comprise an abnormally small proportion of ganglion cells projecting to the normal segments of Siamese lamina A1 and an abnormally large proportion of cells projecting to the abnormal segments of lamina A1. In Siamese cats, alpha and beta cells projecting to lamina A1 are distributed continuously throughout virtually all of the ipsilateral and contralateral temporal retinas. Since large parts of the ipsilateral and contralateral hemifields are not represented in Siamese lamina A1, it seems that some of the retinal afferents to this lamina are being suppressed. Injections into the C laminae of the LGNd show that the same morphological classes of ganglion cells project to these laminae in normal and Siamese cats. The classes projecting to the contralateral as C laminae (laminae C and C2) include alpha, beta, gamma, and epsilon as well as two other groups of cells referred to g1 and g2 cells, gamma, epsilon, g1, and g2 cells project to the ipsilateral C lamina (lamina C1). In siamese, but not in normal cats, examples of all of these types are found far into the contralateral temporal retina following injections involving lamina C1. This indicates that all classes projecting to the ipsilateral C lamina misproject in Siamese cats.
The Stock Market, the Housing Market and Consumer Behaviour

After the buoyancy of stock markets in the late nineties, share prices have generally trended downwards since 2001. By contrast, house prices have continued to increase, rising more rapidly than the general price level in several countries. These developments have led to renewed interest in the impact of asset prices on consumption and overall demand. This paper analyses the roles of household financial wealth and housing wealth across G7 countries (with the exception of Germany), in determining private consumption. It provides some estimates of the sensitivity of consumption to various forms of wealth and tests whether these sensitivities have changed over time. The impacts of recent financial and housing market developments on consumption are also quantified. The main results are, first, that for all countries, wealth channels are identified, second, that these effects vary significantly across countries, and third that for some countries, their importance has tended to rise markedly over the recent past.
COEVOLUTION BETWEEN MATERNAL TRANSFER OF IMMUNITY AND OTHER RESISTANCE STRATEGIES AGAINST PATHOGENS

Among the wide variety of resistance mechanisms to parasitism, the transgenerational transfer of immunity from mother to offspring has largely been overlooked and never included in evolutionary or coevolutionary studies of resistance mechanisms. Here we study the evolution and coevolution of various resistance mechanisms with a special focus on maternal transfer of immunity. In particular we show that maternal transfer of immunity is only expected to evolve when cross immunity is high and when the pathogens have an intermediate virulence. We also show that the outcome of the coevolution between various resistance mechanisms depends critically on the life span of the host. We predict that short‐lived species should invest in avoidance strategies, whereas long‐lived species should invest in acquired resistance mechanisms. These results may help understanding the diversity of resistance strategies that have evolved in vertebrate species. Our framework also provides a general basis for the study of the evolution of other transgenerational resistance mechanisms.
Economy-wide Impacts of Bt Cotton

This study uses a multi-region computable general equilibrium model to assess the impacts of international Bt cotton adoption on cotton and related sectors of regional economies. Productivity gain estimates are based on 2005 adoption rates for Bt cotton in seven countries. Global economic benefits are nearly $1.4 billion, while US benefits are over $200 million. Increased production from Bt cotton adoption leads to a 3% reduction in the world cotton price. Employment and trade balances in the textile and apparel sectors increase for China and India, but generally decline elsewhere. Individual countries obtain greater economic welfare gains if they adopt Bt cotton than if they do not adopt. Non-adopting regions lose cotton market share to adopting regions.
The Long‐Run and Short‐Run Impact of Captive Supplies on the Spot Market Price: An Agent‐Based Artificial Market

An agent-based model is developed that matches the results of Xia and Sexton (2004) as well as our generalization of their model. We relax Xia and Sexton's assumption of no supply response by captive feeders, which reduces the price-depressing effect of captive supplies. Finally, the agent-based model is used to simulate packers choosing both captive supply quantities and spot market quantities. Packers in the relaxed agent-based model choose no captive supplies and thus reach the Cournot solution. The research narrows the gap between theoretical models and the empirical work on captive supplies that shows little effect on prices, but a gap remains. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE Postmenopausal hormone therapy and the risk of breast cancer: a contrary thought

The most important unanswered question regarding postmenopausal hormone therapy and the risk of breast cancer is whether hormone therapy initiates the growth of new breast cancers or whether the epidemiologic data reflect a hormonal impact on preexisting tumors. In this perspective I review the evidence favoring hormonal effects on preexisting tumors and suggest that exposure to combined estrogen and progestin is beneficial, causing greater differentiation and earlier detection of breast cancers.
Human resource strategies for managing knowledge workers: an Afro-Asian comparative analysis

We use the model of culture fit to determine the human resource (HR) strategies for managing knowledge workers in two socio-culturally different countries: South Africa (SA) and Singapore. The national culture of SA is ethnically more diverse. Enterprise environment, such as institutional factors, particularly ownership, organization size and industry type, has more HR impact in Singapore than in SA. We found that there were convergent effective HR strategies used for motivating and retaining, but practices were divergent for attracting knowledge workers. When most frequent and ineffective strategies were studied, there were divergent practices. This knowledge of effective strategies being transferred to the two countries from more developed economies is in line with similar HR research.
Electoral Turnout and State Redistribution

This study explores the relationship between electoral participation and income redistribution by way of social transfers, using data from the European Social Survey, the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, and the Luxembourg Income Study. It extends previous research by measuring the income skew of turnout rather than using average turnout as a proxy for its income bias. We find that, controlling for a number of other variables, the income skew of turnout is negatively related to transfer redistribution and that electoral participation by those in poverty is positively associated with redistribution in their favor.
Choosing Governance Modes for External Technology Sourcing

This study examines the effect of uncertainty on governance mode choice of interfirm relationships in new business development (NBD). We combine transaction cost economics and real options reasoning, arguing that in the early stages of NBD, where technological and market uncertainty are very high, companies are better off using governance modes that are reversible and involve a low level of commitment. When uncertainty has decreased as a result of prior R&D investments, transaction costs considerations become dominant and companies will shift towards governance modes that are less reversible and more hierarchical. We argue that technological distance leads to less hierarchical governance modes and prior cooperation between firms leads to subsequent choices for more hierarchical modes. Finally, we propose that higher exogenous uncertainty leads to less hierarchical governance modes.
Prestorage pooled whole‐blood–derived leukoreduced platelets stored for seven days, preserve acceptable quality and do not show evidence of a mixed lymphocyte reaction

BACKGROUND: Prestorage pooling of whole‐blood–derived PCs (WBD‐PCs) would be advantageous to transfusion services in that it would make the product available in a more timely manner, reduce wastage of untransfused pools, and simplify bacterial screening by allowing testing of the pool rather than each single PLT concentrate (PC).
Current approaches in haemophilic arthropathy of the hip

Summary. The hip is considered to be one of the main load bearing joints of the body. In the haemophilic patient joint bleeds can be catastrophic, leading to long‐term joint degeneration and accompanying arthritis. In this review we explore the mechanisms of joint destruction, with particular consideration of the anatomy of the hip and how it may influence disease progression. We also review current strategies for treatment including hip replacement in the haemophilic patient and describe our experiences as a unit. Finally we evaluate future prospects in the management of hip disease in haemophilia.