Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributional Conflict between Powerful States and International Treaty Ratification

Why do states ratify international treaties? While previous research has emphasized domestic political factors, we focus on power politics in situations in which powerful states disagree on the merits of a treaty. We argue that states supporting the status quo should discourage third parties from ratifying the treaty, whereas challenger states should entice them to do so. Based on this theory, we expect third parties’ ratification decisions to be influenced by their dependence on the conflicting states. To test the theory, we use data on the conflict between the United States and the European Union over the regulation of trade in genetically modified organisms. The European Union created a new treaty, the Cartagena Protocol, to enhance biosafety regulation and propagate the “precautionary principle” over the “sound science principle” defended by the United States. Our quantitative analysis shows that ratification decisions of third parties were influenced by relations to and dependence on the clashing giants.
“Sprinting with Small Steps” Towards Promotion: Solutions for the Age Dilemma in the CCP Cadre Appointment System

Within the operational procedures of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadre appointment system, age restrictions hinder cadre promotion. As a result, three different methods have emerged to bypass these restrictions, allowing officials to attain faster promotion. These three methods are the Communist Youth League route, temporary transferred duty and non-regulation promotion. This article will explain the age restriction system, and then outline the three methods and discuss their impact on the appointment system as a whole. The examples of Zhou Qiang and Lu Hao, rising political stars, demonstrate how these methods are used to gain substantial age advantages for successful career progression.
The Development of Community-based Tourism: Re-thinking the Relationship Between Tour Operators and Development Agents as Intermediaries in Rural and Isolated Area Communities

The purpose of this paper is to invoke a Foucauldian framework in order to re-think the development of community-based tourism by focusing on the relationship between intermediaries and rural and isolated area communities in Papua New Guinea. Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge and governmentality provide a 'way of thinking' about this relationship that challenges the dominant discourse of the tourism industry. To further elaborate these alternative concepts, the researchers lead a discussion through a number of areas that impact on the development of community-based tourism. These include the introduction of western models of management and their ability to undermine traditional forms of knowledge, the conceptualisation of the tourist destination as interactive space, and a critique of the tourism industry through poststructuralist feminist theory. From these perspectives community-based tourism or ecotourism suggests a symbolic or mutual relationship where the tourist is not given central priority but becomes an equal part of the system.
Contagion across real estate and equity markets during European sovereign debt crisis

Standard methods of testing contagion may not work well if the data set is not normally distributed. To cope with this problem, Hatemi-J and Hacker (2005) proposed a new case-resampling bootstrap method to test contagion. In this paper, we extend this method to test the parameters in the Forbes-Rigobon multivariate (FRM) test. The new method has the advantage that the bivariate model is extended to a multivariate framework which jointly models and tests all combinations of contagious linkages. We apply our method to investigate contagion across equity and real estate markets of four countries: Greece, U.K., U.S. and Hong Kong, during the European sovereign debt crisis, and compare the result with that by performing the FRM test directly. Two important results are found. Firstly, both tests we use give similar p-values of the coefficients which indicate the significance of contagion. Secondly, for both tests, the contagion pattern in the equity and real estate markets are different. Our study has an implication to investors that they should regularly review their portfolio and be aware of contagion triggered by a crisis. This would help them reduce their loss and is useful in strategic property management.
Do Investors Under-React to Information in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts?

In this paper, we highlight important consequences of the choice of deflator for conclusions regarding apparent patterns in stock returns. In particular, we focus on the use of share price as a deflator. Previous research has documented that there are patterns in stock returns related to the magnitude of share price, and consequently this relation has the potential to confound inferences about information variables that are scaled by share price. We show analytically the potentially misleading effects of using share price as a deflator in abnormal returns tests and identify several studies in the literature that have deflated candidate anomaly variables by price. We then select one previous finding-evidence of abnormal returns to a strategy based on share-price-scaled analysts' forecasts-as an exemplar of the problem. Taken as a whole, our findings indicate that after controlling for the systematic negative relation between share price and subsequent abnormal return there is no apparent mis-weighting by investors of the information in analysts' earnings forecasts or abnormal returns to an investment strategy based on analysts' forecasts. These findings suggest that caution is warranted in the selection of deflators in anomaly studies and in the interpretation of findings of abnormal returns to share-price-scaled information variables. Copyright (c) 2008 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Expression of the multiple antibiotic resistance operon (mar) during growth of Escherichia coli as a biofilm

The multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) operon is a global regulator controlling the expression of various genes in Escherichia coli which constitutes the mar regulon. Upregulation of mar leads to a multi‐drug resistant phenotype, which includes resistance towards structurally unrelated antibiotics, organic solvents and the disinfectant pine oil. Biofilms also display similar decreases in susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. A marOII‐lacZ fusion strain (SPC105) of E. coli was used to monitor mar expression under various growth conditions including batch, continuous and biofilm culture. In chemically‐defined media (CDM), mar expression was maximal in mid‐log and declined in the stationary phase. Conversely, in rich media (Luria‐Bertani broth), minimal expression in mid‐log was followed by an increase in the stationary phase. In continuous culture, expression was inversely related to specific growth rate (μ = 0.05–0.4 h−1). LacZ expression by the marOII‐lacZ fusion was generally low within the total biofilm population and equivalent to that of stationary phase cultures grown in batch culture. When the expression of mar in CDM batch culture was compared with that in biofilm populations, β‐galactosidase activity was generally higher throughout batch culture than in the attached population. Overall, these results suggest that while mar expression will be greatest within the depths of a biofilm where growth rates are suppressed, its probable induction within biofilms cannot explain the elevated levels of antibiotic resistance observed.
More Clouds on the Horizon? Polar Tourists' Weather Tolerances in the Context of Climate Change

Abstract This article examines high Arctic summer tourists' weather perceptions and tolerances. Given that global warming strikes Arctic regions more forcefully than other parts of the world, an improved understanding of visitors' weather perceptions and responses is imperative for tourism operations in these areas. Evidence from a survey in the Spitsbergen (Svalbard) archipelago shows that visitors are fairly tolerant with respect to present summer season weather conditions, although differences between motivational segments are revealed. Results demonstrate that weather elements such as wind and rather low temperatures have no significant impact on the tourists' overall weather appreciation. Rather, there seems to be a clear dislike of weather elements reducing visibility. Projected climate changes indicate increased precipitation, which is likely to be accompanied by more days and nights with overcast skies. Given tourists' aversion towards weather elements obstructing visual sensations, this may pose some challenges for tourism operators in Spitsbergen (Svalbard) and in other high Arctic destinations.
LAPTM4B*2 allele is associated with the development of papillary thyroid carcinoma in Chinese women

Lysosome-associated protein transmembrane 4-β (LAPTM4B) contains a polymorphic region that contributes to the increased risk of numerous types of tumor. However, no study has yet demonstrated an association between the expression of the LAPTM4B gene and tumor differentiation, and the reason that LAPTM4B polymorphisms affect the susceptibility of individuals to cancer remains to be elucidated. The present study assessed the possible association between LAPTM4B polymorphism and the risk of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), and attempted to identify the underlying mechanism for variation in patient susceptibility with respect to transcription regulation in the polymorphism region. The case control study included 183 papillary thyroid carcinoma patients (132 females, 51 males) and 697 healthy controls (249 females, 448 males). Genomic DNA was extracted from the blood and the genotype of LAPTM4B was identified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The results of the PCR revealed that LAPTM4B allele *2 was associated with PTC risk in comparison with LAPTM4B allele *1 [odds ratio (OR), 1.968; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.363–2.841, P<0.001] in females, while LAPTM4B*2 was not associated with PTC risk in males (OR, 0.996, 95% CI, 0.615–1.612, P=0.986). Notably, LAPTM4B polymorphism was not associated with clinical parameters in the female patient group. In addition, by performing a luciferase reporter assay in the PTC TPC1 and B-CPAP cell lines, the transcriptional activity of the +10/+311 plasmid, representing LAPTM4B*2 was reduced compared with that of the +10/+292 plasmid representing LAPTM4B*1. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggested that LAPTM4B*2 was a susceptibility factor for PTC in the female Chinese population and this may not be caused by the transcriptional regulation of LAPTM4B polymorphism region in TPC1 and B-CPAP cell lines.
PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE TEACHERS REGARDING THE INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE INTO THE AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Science teachers who taught in a high school with an Agricultural Science and Technology Program were the focus of this study to determine their support for integrating science into Agricultural Education Programs. Results indicated that science teachers have responded positively to the call to integrate science into the agricultural education curriculum. The participants agreed that agriculture is an applied science and students are more aware of the science connections and learn more through an integrated curriculum in agriculture. A majority of the science teachers agreed that teacher preparation programs should provide instruction on how to integrate science, and student teachers should be placed in programs that promote integration. Science teachers believed that integrating science in agricultural education would contribute to educational reform by helping students meet state standards. According to the science teachers, barriers to integrating science included lack of equipment, funds, workshops, and the science teachers’ lack of an agriculture background. The respondents agreed the science and agriculture programs have something to offer each other and would benefit students. However, one third of the teachers indicated a neutral response and one third disagreed that the science and agriculture departments worked together in a collaborative effort in their school.
Exporting and rm performance: Evidence from India

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the direction of causality between firm productivity and export status. The correlation can arise from multiple alternative causal models, and the authors study if more productive firms export, and/or if firms learn to export, and/or if firms learn by exporting. ,The authors investigate these relationships, harnessing the natural experiments offered by firms which transitioned into exporting, in a dataset of Indian firms from 1989 to 2015. Each firm which made the transition is matched against a control which did not. The transitions take place across many years, thus permitting a matched event study in firm outcomes. ,The authors find there is self-selection of more productive firms into exporting. Firms that make the transition into exporting become bigger, but there is little evidence of learning by exporting, of improvements in productivity right after exporting commences. However, there is evidence of learning to export, that is there is improvement in productivity of export starters in comparison to their productivity a couple of years before they begin to export. ,The strength of the paper lies in an opportunity for sound measurement: we observe firms make a transition from domestic market into exporting. The transitions take place across many years, thus permitting a matched event study in firm outcomes. Using this methodology, the authors find that firms become more productive a few years before they export, that is they learn to export. They contribute to the literature by bringing evidence of “learning to export” from a developing country.
Do firms use dividends to signal large future cash flow increases

an Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University. We find that firms poised to experience large, permanent cash flow increases after four years of flat cash flow tend to boost their dividends before their cash flow jumps. These firms also have a high frequency of relatively large dividend increases prior to the cash flow shock. Investors appear to interpret the dividend changes as signals about future profitability: firms that sharply increase their dividends earn large market-adjusted stock returns in the year before their cash flow rises. This direct link between positive cash flow shocks, dividend decisions, and stock returns supports the hypothesis that dividend changes signal positive information about permanent future cash flow levels. However, our results also suggest that signaling plays a relatively minor role in corporate dividend policy.
Inventory Commitment and Prioritized Backlogging Clearance with Alternative Delivery Lead Times

We propose a model where customers are classified into two groups: short lead‐time customers who require the product immediately and long lead‐time customers to whom the supplier may deliver either immediately or in the next cycle. Unmet orders are backlogged with associated costs. Specifically, the supplier faces two problems: how the on‐hand inventories should be allocated between the two classes of customers and how the backlogged orders should be cleared when replenishments arrive. We treat the former as an inventory commitment problem and handle the latter with priority rules. We characterize and compare the inventory commitment policies with three priority rules in clearing backlogs. We also explore the optimal inventory replenishment decision and evaluate the performance of each priority rule.
Culture and Violence: Psycho-cultural Variables Involved in Homicide across Nations

Die Arbeit geht von der grundlegenden Annahme aus, dass spezifische kulturelle Bedingungen psychopathologische Effekte haben konnen, die interpersonale Gewalt begunstigen. Ziel der Studie war die Klarung der Frage, ob die Haufigkeit von Totungsdelikten (abhangige Variable) mit bestimmten Einstellungen, Uberzeugungen, Werthaltungen und Auspragungen auf kulturellen Merkmalsdimensionen zusammenhangt. Um diese Frage zu klaren, wurden unabhangige Variablen ausgewahlt, von denen sechs sich auf die Wichtigkeit von Religion (Religiositat), Kontroll- und Machtorientierung (Omnipotenz), die kategorische Unterscheidung von Gut und Bose (Absolutismus), Nationalstolz (Nationalismus), Akzeptanz von Wettbewerb (Wettbewerbsorientierung) und Befurwortung von Autoritat und Strafe (Autoritarismus) beziehen. Die zur Messung dieser Variablen relevanten Daten wurden dem World Values Survey entnommen. Fur zwei weitere Kulturdimensionen, Kollektivismus und Machtdistanz, wurden die Ergebnisse der Studien von Hofstede verwendet. Als neunte unabhangige Variable diente das Bruttonationaleinkommen. Mittels multipler Imputation wurden die 7% fehlender Messwerte durch Schatzwerte erganzt, so dass die Daten von 82 Staaten fur die Analysen zur Verfugung standen.rnErgebnisse: Eine schrittweise multiple Regression ergab fur Omnipotenz (β = .44, P < .01) und Bruttonationaleinkommen (s = -.27, P < .01) die starksten Regressionseffekte auf die Totungsrate als abhangige Variable. Die neun unabhangigen Variablen luden auf zwei Faktoren, soziokonomischer Entwicklungsstand (SED) und psychokultureller Faktor (Psy-Cul), die negativ korreliert waren (-.47). Psy-Cul wurde als Indikator fur Narzismus und als Mediator des Effekts von SED auf Totungsrate interpretiert. Hierarchische Clusteranalysen auf der Basis der beiden Faktoren ergaben eine klare Unterscheidung zwischen drei Gruppen von Nationen: westliche Nationen, Entwicklungsnationen und postkommunistische Nationen.
The Impact of Dydrogesterone Supplementation on Serum Cytokine Profile in Women with Threatened Abortion

Problem The role of increased Th1 cytokine expression in pregnancy failure has been questioned recently. The therapeutic value of progestogens in threatened abortion (TA) is still debated. The aim of this prospective study was to compare serum cytokine [tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, interleukin (IL)‐12 and IL‐10] concentrations in women with TA to those in women with normal pregnancy and to evaluate the impact of dydrogesterone supplementation in the former group on cytokine concentration.
The Method of Payment in Corporate Acquisitions, Investment Opportunities, and Management Ownership

This article examines the motives underlying the payment method in corporate acquisitions. The findings support the notion that the higher the acquirer's growth opportunities, the more likely the acquirer is to use stock to finance an acquisition. Acquirer managerial ownership is not related to the probability of stock financing over small and large ranges of ownership but is negatively related over a middle range. In addition, the likelihood of stock financing increases with higher preacquisition market and acquiring firm stock returns. It decreases with an acquirer's higher cash availability, higher institutional shareholdings and blockholdings, and in tender offers. Copyright 1996 by American Finance Association.
Do Stock Market Investors Overreact

This paper investigates the evidence on the stock market overreaction hypothesis (ORH), which holds that, if stock prices systematically overshoot as a consequence of excessive investor optimism or pessimism, price reversals should be predictable from past price performance. The ORH stands in contradiction to the efficient markets hypothesis which is a cornerstone of financial economics. This study is unique in the overreaction literature because it is restricted to larger and better-known listed companies, whose shares are more frequently traded. This restriction more or less eliminates two alternative explanations to the overreaction hypothesis: it minimises the influence of bid-ask biases and infrequent trading, and reduces the possibility that reversals are primarily a small-firm phenomenon. The paper also investigates a third alternative explanation, namely that time-varying risk explains the reversal effect. The study employs unbiased methods of return computation and uses data from 1975 to 1991 for nearly 1,000 UK companies. Overall, the evidence appears to be consistent with the overreaction hypothesis, subject to certain qualifications. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997.
Auditor industry specialization and audit fees surrounding Section 404 implementation

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between auditor industry specialization and audit fees surrounding Section 404 implementation. Design/methodology/approach - – With a sample of 1,006 industrial firms over the 2003-2005 reporting periods, an ordinary least square regression model was used to regress change in audit fees on auditor specialization measure and other control variables. Findings - – It was found that auditor industry specialization is negatively related to the change in audit fees during the first year of Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) compliance (2003-2004). It was also found that there were no significant cost savings associated with auditor industry specialization in the second year of SOX compliance (2004-2005). Practical implications - – These results suggest that industry-specific expertise may enable auditors to adapt more efficiently to new significant audit standards and regulations, but that such efficiencies are likely to be most pronounced during the initial implementation year. Originality/value - – Auditor competition and auditor specialization are at the forefront of today’s ever-changing accounting industry. Analysis of a contemporary auditing issue (auditor specialization) in the context of major legislation (SOX) provides a research setting that gives both academics and practitioners valuable insight toward how future legislation can impact current accounting industry issues such as the increasing need to have more expertise.
DEPRESSION, ALCOHOL ABUSE, AND GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN MAZAHUA WOMEN IN A RURAL MEXICAN VILLAGE

This first study of depression and alcohol abuse in indigenous women in Mexico focuses on Mazahua women in a rural village. Women between the ages of 15 and 55 were interviewed using the Beck Depression Inventory, an Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse survey, and a socioeconomic survey. Unexpected results showed that although alcohol abuse was absent, these women experience depression a generation earlier than the international and national averages for women, with an overall incidence about twice as great. Depression was associated with spouse's emigration, infidelity, or alcoholism. Sharp intergenerational differences were found in identity and socioeconomic status.