Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Spatial Aspects of Enterprise Learning in Transition Countries

This paper investigates the sources of enterprise learning under transition, using the results of a recent survey conducted in six Central and East European countries. The analysis identifies three possible and interacting ways of enterprise learning: (1) learning by doing; (2) learning from the environment; and (3) learning from networks. Then it examines the spatial variations of the factors affecting learning by contrasting capital regions with western border regions and all sampled firms. The paper concludes that enterprise learning in transition economies is a spatially selective process, as most structural and behavioural factors tend to favour capital regions. Consequently, transition policies have to incorporate certain types of regional policy into their core, as a supplementary and balancing force to market-driven structural and spatial adjustments. A partir d'une enquête récente menée en six pays de l'Europe centrale et orientale, cet article cherche à examiner les origines de l'apprentissage d'entreprise dans les pays en voie de transition. L'analyse distingue trois façons éventuelles qui agissent l'une sur l'autre: (1) apprendre sur le tas; (2) apprendre en milieu; et (3) apprendre en réseau. Il s'ensuit un examen des variations spatiales des facteurs qui influent sur l'apprentissage en comparant les régions principales aux régions frontalières occidentales et à toutes les entreprises qui figurent dans l'échantillon. On conclut que l'apprentissage d'entreprise dans les économies en voie de transition s'avère un processus sélectif du point de vue spatial, vu que la plupart des facteurs structurels et de comportement ont tendance à favoriser les régions principales. Par conséquent, les politiques de transition doivent incorporer des politiques régionales particulières comme force supplémentaire et d'équilibre face aux ajustements structurels et spatiaux qui sont déterminés par les contraintes du marché. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die Quellen der Vermittlung von Kenntnissen zur Betriebsführung unter Übergangsbedingungen, wobei er sich auf die Ergebnisse einer kürzlich in sechs Ländern Mittel-und Osteuropas durchgeführten Umfrage stützt. Die Analyse stellt drei mögliche, und aufeinander einwirkende Arten der Vermittlung von Kenntnissen zur Betriebsführung vor: (1) Lernen durch Tun; (2) Lernen von der Umwelt; und (3) Lernen von Netzwerken. Sodann untersucht sie die räumlichen Abweichungen der Faktoren, die sich auf Lernprozesse auswirken, indem sie Hauptstadtregionen den westlichen Grenzgebiete und allen untersuchten Firmen gegenüberstellt. Der Aufsatz folgert, daß Vermittlung von Kenntnissen zur Betriebsführung in sich im Übergang befindlichen Wirtschaften ein räumlich aussiebender Vorgang ist, da die meisten strukturellen und Verhaltensfaktoren dazu neigen, Hauptstadtregionen zu begünstigen. Infolgedessen muß Übergangspolitik ihrem Kerngehalt gewisse Formen der Regionalpolitik als ergänzende und ausgleichende Kraft zu den vom Markt bestimmten strukturellen und räumlichen Einstellungen einverleiben.
Corporate liquidity and capital structure

We solve for a firm's optimal cash holding policy within a continuous time, contingent claims framework using dividends, short-term borrowing, and equity issues as controls assuming mean reversion of earnings. Optimal cash is non-monotone in business conditions and increasing in the level of long-term debt. The model matches closely a wide range of empirical benchmarks and predicts cash and leverage dynamics in line with the empirical literature. Firm value is quite insensitive to changes in the level of long-term debt. The model has interesting implications for asset substitution, hedging, and pecking order. Growth opportunities do not greatly affect cash holding policy. The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. , Oxford University Press.
How Hot Is Your Bottom Line? Linking Carbon and Financial Performance

This study adds two new perspectives to the long-running debate regarding the linkage between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP): First, we add the aspect of issue materiality and suggest research to put more emphasis on the question of how individual CSP issues can be assumed to systematically influence the business environment from a theoretical point of view. Second, we highlight the measurement level of the underlying data screens as an important determinant of the actual effects of CSP on CFP. Focusing on climate change, we developed a set of questions that cover a firm’s carbon emissions and carbon management strategies. These questions were included in a questionnaire sent out annually to the 2,500 largest companies by market cap within the Dow Jones Global Index by an independent Swiss-based asset management firm. Our results show that when using carbon emissions as an outcome-based measurement, corporate environmental performance pays off. Conversely, when using carbon management as a process-based measurement, we find a negative relationship between corporate environmental performance and CFP.
Takeover-divestiture combinations and shareholder wealth

Situations in which a firm is taken over by another and then subsequently spun off are of interest, because it is not clear whether the spin off is the reversal of a bad decision or the second part of a deliberate action to extract value from the target firm. To explore these issues, we analyse the effect of the takeover and divestiture on the value of the firm that initiates these takeovers. There is a negative wealth effect for the firms that undertake these transactions upon the announcement of the takeover and a positive wealth effect for the spinoff. However, the combined wealth effect of the takeover and spinoff is not significant. Regressing this total ‘round-trip’ wealth effect for each firm on accounting and financial characteristics of the firm targeted in the takeover reveals a positive relation between total wealth effect and research and development expenditure in the target firm. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that takeover-divestiture combinations can increase shareholder wealth when they target firms that have growth opportunities that can be appropriated.
Markovian Projection Onto a Displaced Diffusion: Generic Formulas with Applications

We develop a systematic approach to Markovian projection onto an effective displaced diffusion, and work out a set of computationally efficient formulas valid for a large class of non-Markovian underlying processes. The generic derivation is followed by applications, including the calculation of FX options in cross-currency models and swaption pricing in LIBOR Market Models, where we are able to recover in an unambiguous way many known analytical approximations and derive several new ones.
Bundles, Duties, and Rights: A Revised Framework for Analysis of Natural Resource Property Rights Regimes

In their 1992 paper, Schlager and Ostrom presented a property rights framework characterized by nested, cumulative attributes. It has become arguably the most ubiquitous framework for analysis of natural resources and property rights. We revisit their contribution and discuss how the framework could evolve to address increasingly complex situations, with particular attention to institutional change. We devote increased attention to duties and liabilities associated with right allocation, tying the framework to a broader property rights literature. We conclude with an application to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), illustrating how revisions to the framework facilitate contemporary institutional analysis. (JEL K11, Q15)
Using Repeat Challengers to Estimate the Effect of Campaign Spending on Election Outcomes in the U.S. House

Previous studies of congressional spending have typically found a large positive effect of challenger spending but little evidence for effects of incumbent spending. Those studies, however, do not adequately control for inherent differences in vote-getting ability across candidates. "High-quality" challengers are likely to receive a high fraction of the vote and have high campaign expenditures, even if campaign spending has no impact on election outcomes. To avoid that bias, this paper examines elections in which the same two candidates face one another on more than one occasion; differencing eliminates the influence of any fixed candidate or district attributes. Estimates of the effects of challenger spending are an order of magnitude below those of previous studies. Campaign spending has an extremely small impact on election outcomes, regardless of who does the spending. Campaign spending limits appear socially desirable, but public financing of campaigns does not.
Diethylstilbesterol has Gender-Specific Effects on Weight Gain and Bone Development in Mice

Neonatal exposure to diethylstilbesterol (DES) in female mice programs estrogen-sensitive tissues, resulting in greater body weight gain and positive effects on bone architecture at adulthood. Using the CD-1 mouse model, the objective of the present study was to examine how short-term neonatal exposure to DES modulates weight gain as well as bone mineral density (BMD), bone strength, and bone microarchitecture in both males and females at adulthood. Male and female offspring (n = 8–12 pups/treatment/gender) were randomized to DES (2 mg/kg bw/d) or control (corn oil) from postnatal day 1 to 5 (subcutaneous injection, once daily) and sacrificed at 4 mo of age. Body weight was measured weekly, while bone mineral, strength, and microarchitecture were measured at 4 mo of age. DES treatment resulted in significantly higher body weight in females but lower weight in males at 4 mo of age. In DES-treated females, markedly higher BMD of lumbar vertebrae (LV1–LV3) was translated into significantly stronger LV2 that was more resistant to fracture; similar effects were observed at the femur midpoint. At the spine, males had a markedly lower BMD and peak load, suggesting an adverse effect. Microstructural analyses demonstrated that functional changes in femurs, i.e., peak load, were primarily due to modulation of cortical bone. In conclusion, neonatal exposure to DES exerted gender-specific effects on body weight gain and bone health.
Detection of Antigen in Sera of Patients with Invasive Aspergillosis: Intra- and Interlaboratory Reproducibility

ABSTRACT The intra- and interlaboratory reproducibilities of a commercial sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection ofAspergillus galactomannan in serum (Platelia Aspergillus; Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, Marnes-La-Coquette, France) were evaluated in six laboratories of university hospitals. Twenty serum samples were obtained from 12 neutropenic patients including 6 with invasive aspergillosis. These samples were blinded and sent to each center together with eight blinded ELISA-negative serum samples spiked with known concentrations of galactomannan. The centers were provided with ELISA microtiter plates from a single batch and a detailed protocol. Ten clinical samples showed ELISA reactivity, while 10 samples were ELISA negative. The mean coefficient of variation (CV) of the optical density values was 4.24% within a single assay and 25.6% between runs. The interassay CV of the ratios for the serum samples tested was 18.6%. Analysis of ordinal interpretation of the ELISA result (i.e., negative, gray zone, or positive) showed excellent reproducibility. Recalculation of the cutoff values for positive and negative samples suggested that the cutoff level recommended by the manufacturer could be lowered from 1.0 to 0.8 for negative samples and from 1.5 to 1.0 for positive samples. The intra- and interlaboratory reproducibilities were excellent when the ELISA results were interpreted as ordinal data, but considerable variation in optical density values and, to a lesser extent, in the ratios for the serum samples tested, was observed between runs. High assay variability was also found for serum samples spiked with known concentrations of galactomannan. Therefore, antigen titers in serum samples from a single patient, measured in different runs, should be compared with caution.
Characterization of Mouse Striatal Precursor Cell Lines Expressing Functional Dopamine Receptors

Dopamine and its receptors appear in the developing brain early in the embryonic period and dopamine receptor activation influences proliferation and differentiation of neuroepithelial precursor cells. Since dopamine D1 and D2 receptor activation produces opposing effects on precursor cell activity, dopamine’s overall effects may correlate with relative numbers and activity of each receptor subtype on the precursor cells. Dopamine receptor expression and activity in individual precursor cells in the intact brain are difficult to ascertain. Therefore, cell lines with known receptor expression profiles can be useful tools to study dopamine’s influence on neuroepithelial cells. We report characterization of dopamine receptor expression and activity profiles in three mouse striatal precursor cell lines and suggest that these cell lines can be valuable tools to study dopamine’s effects on striatal precursor cell proliferation and differentiation.
Modelling the effect of vertical mixing on bottle incubations for determining in situ phytoplankton dynamics. I. Growth rates

Reliable estimates of in situ phytoplankton growth rates are central to understanding the dynamics of aquatic ecosystems. A common approach for estimating in situ growth rates is to incu- bate natural phytoplankton assemblages in clear bottles at fixed depths or irradiance levels and mea- sure the change in chlorophyll a (Chl) over the incubation period (typically 24 h). Using a modelling approach, we investigate the accuracy of these Chl-based methods focussing on 2 aspects: (1) in a freely mixing surface layer, the cells are typically not in balanced growth, and with photoacclimation, changes in Chl may yield different growth rates than changes in carbon; and (2) the in vitro methods neglect any vertical movement due to turbulence and its effect on the cells' light history. The growth rates thus strongly depend on the incubation depth and are not necessarily representative of the depth-integrated in situ growth rate in the freely mixing surface layer. We employ an individual based turbulence and photosynthesis model, which also accounts for photoacclimation and photo - inhibition, to show that the in vitro Chl-based growth rate can differ both from its carbon-based in vitro equivalent and from the in situ value by up to 100%, depending on turbulence intensity, optical depth of the mixing layer, and incubation depth within the layer. We make recommendations for choosing the best depth for single-depth incubations. Furthermore we demonstrate that, if incubation bottles are being oscillated up and down through the water column, these systematic errors can be significantly reduced. In the present study, we focus on Chl-based methods only, while productivity measurements using carbon-based techniques (e.g. 14 C) are discussed in Ross et al. (2011; Mar Ecol Prog Ser 435:33-45).
Incidence of adenomatous colorectal polyps in cardiac transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND The present study evaluates the effects of long-term immunosuppression after cardiac transplantation on the risk for adenomatous polyps. METHODS The endoscopic procedures performed at LDS and University Hospitals in cardiac transplant recipients were reviewed and compared with results from a previously studied control group. RESULTS A total of 123 endoscopic procedures were performed in 98 heart transplant patients (59% for cancer screening and 41% for gastrointestinal complaints). Eighty-five percent of patients were male and 15% were female; their mean age was 57 years. In the group <3 years posttransplant, adenomatous polyps were present in 25%, hyperplastic polyps were present in 10%, and synchronous lesions in 3 patients. In the group >3 years posttransplant, adenomatous polyps were present in 16%, hyperplastic polyps were present in 22%, and synchronous lesions in were evident in 3 patients. No significant difference with results from a previously studied control group. CONCLUSIONS Long-term immunosuppression does not increase the risk for adenomatous polyps of the colon.
Earnings Persistence, Losses and the Estimation of Earnings Response Coefficients

One of the major themes of capital markets accounting research concerns mapping the relation between accounting earnings and security returns. There is still not agreement on the functional form of this relation. The models analysed here are those where: the level of earnings alone, the change in earnings alone, or both, scaled by price, are used as explanatory variables for returns. This article demonstrates that if earnings are either completely permanent or entirely transitory, the earnings response coefficients (ERCs) estimated by levels and changes models should coincide. However, if earnings comprise a mixed process of permanent and transitory components, the ERC estimated by the levels will differ from that estimated by the changes model. Using losses to identify transitory components in earnings, empirical evidence consistent with these predictions is provided. A combined model using both the level of, and change in, earnings is justified as a weighted average of an earnings and a book value valuation model (e.g., Ohlson, 1989). An alternative rationalization concerns the mitigation of an errors-in-variables problem associated with the estimation of unexpected earnings (Ali and Zarowin, 1992). The results for the combined model are more consistent with the latter. In this context, some previous empirical studies perceive the levels variable as a useful addition to the changes variable when there are transitory components in earnings. However, the evidence reported here suggests that the level of earnings, scaled by price, appears to be the fundamental earnings explanatory variable for returns (Ohlson, 1991, p. 1). The changes variable can, when the errors-in-variables problem is not mitigated by other methods, be a useful addition to the levels variable.
Cicero as Orator and Philosopher: The Value of the Pro Murena for Ciceronian Political Thought

This essay seeks to demonstrate that the different generic parts of Cicero's corpus are but different sides of the mind of the same man, and, thus, that all parts of the corpus—including the forensic speeches, once they have been corroborated by other passages in his corpus—should be regarded as valuable evidence for understanding Ciceronian political thought. A comparison of Cicero's Peripatetic criticism of the Younger Cato's Stoicism in the Pro Murena to the view of Cato's politics expressed in his private correspondence of 61–60 BC and in De Finibus 4.61 reveals that this criticism is more than just a humorous digression to win the case. As an extended expression of Cicero's belief that the inflexible moral certainties of Cato's Stoicism could be detrimental to the managing of the consensus necessary to political life in a republic, the Pro Murena should also be recognized as an articulation of Cicero's philosophical approach to the practice of politics.
Information Disclosure by Family-Controlled Firms: The Role of Board Independence and Institutional Ownership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of family control on the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual report of Indonesian listed firms. Further, it seeks to investigate the role of corporate governance mechanisms in explaining the association between family control and voluntary disclosure. Governance mechanisms addressed here include board independence and institutional ownership. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs a sample comprising non-financial firms on the Indonesia stock exchange that published the 2010 annual report. The voluntary disclosure index is computed for each sample firm, based on content analysis of the annual report. Cross-sectional regressions are performed to test research hypotheses. Findings – Our evidence reveals that family control negatively and significantly influences the extent of information disclosure. This finding suggests that family-controlled firms have lower motivation to disclose additional voluntary information, which.
Immobilization and Stabilization of a Cyclodextrin Glycosyltransferase by Covalent Attachment on Highly Activated Glyoxyl‐Agarose Supports

Covalent immobilization of cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase on glyoxyl‐agarose beads promotes a very high stabilization of the enzyme against any distorting agent (temperature, pH, organic solvents). For example, the optimized immobilized preparation preserves 90% of initial activity when incubated for 22 h in 30% ethanol at pH 7 and 40 °C. Other immobilized preparations (obtained via other immobilization protocols) exhibit less than 10% of activity after incubation under similar conditions. Optimized glyoxyl‐agarose immobilized preparation expressed a high percentage of catalytic activity (70%). Immobilization using any technique prevents enzyme inactivation by air bubbles during strong stirring of the enzyme. Stabilization of the enzyme immobilized on glyoxyl‐agarose is higher when using the highest activation degree (75 μmol of glyoxyl per milliliter of support) as well as when performing long enzyme‐support incubation times (4 h) at room temperature. Multipoint covalent immobilization seems to be responsible for this very high stabilization associated to the immobilization process on highly activated glyoxyl‐agarose. The stabilization of the enzyme against the inactivation by ethanol seems to be interesting to improve cyclodextrin production: ethanol strongly inhibits the enzymatic degradation of cyclodextrin while hardly affecting the cyclodextrin production rate of the immobilized‐stabilized preparation.
Factors Associated with Human Small Aggressive Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer

Background: Some non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) progress to distant lymph nodes or metastasize while relatively small. Such small aggressive NSCLCs (SA-NSCLC) are no longer resectable with curative intent, carry a grave prognosis, and may involve unique biological pathways. This is a study of factors associated with SA-NSCLC. Methods: A nested case-case study was embedded in the National Cancer Institute's Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. SA-NSCLC cases had stage T1, N3, and/or M1 NSCLC (n = 48) and non–SA-NSCLC cases had T2 to T3, N0 to N2, and M0 NSCLC (n = 329). Associations were assessed by multiple logistic regression. Results: SA-NSCLCs were associated with younger age at diagnosis [odds ratio (OR)≥65 versus <65, 0.44; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.22-0.88], female gender, family history of lung cancer, and the interaction gender*family history of lung cancer and were inversely associated with ibuprofen use (ORyes versus no, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.11-0.76). The ORs for associating gender (women versus men) with SA-NSCLC in those with and without a family history of lung cancer were 11.76 (95% CI, 2.00-69.22) and 1.86 (95% CI, 0.88-3.96), respectively. These associations held adjusted for histology and time from screening to diagnosis and when alternative controls were assessed. Conclusion: SA-NSCLC was associated with female gender, especially in those with a family history of lung cancer. If these exploratory findings, which are subject to bias, are validated as causal, elucidation of the genetic and female factors involved may improve understanding of cancer progression and lead to preventions and therapies. Ibuprofen may inhibit lung cancer progression. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(10):2082–9)