Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Valuation-Relevance of the Foreign Translation Adjustment: The Impact of Barriers to Entry and Rigidity of Wages

We examine the economic effects of barriers to entry and rigidity of wages signaled by the foreign currency translation adjustment on multinational firms' stock returns. Specifically, based on economic theories an appreciation (depreciation) of the foreign currency exchange rate could signal (a) an increase (decrease) in the foreign country's economic growth leading to potentially higher future cash flows for firms operating in environments with barriers to entry: innovation-intensive companies and asset-intensive companies, and (b) a decrease (increase) in future profits for firms operating in environments with rigidity of wages: labor-intensive companies. Firms that are research and development (R&D) leaders in their industry are our proxy for innovation-intensive companies. Among the R&D followers, firms with large total assets (employees) to sales ratio are classified as asset-intensive (labor-intensive) firms. Innovation- and asset-intensive firms are our proxy for firms likely to be affected by the barriers to entry and labor-intensive firms are our proxy for firms likely to be affected by the rigidity of wages. We find that the foreign currency translation adjustment is positively associated with abnormal stock returns for R&D leaders and asset-intensive, R&D followers. We also find that the foreign currency translation adjustment is negatively associated with abnormal stock returns for labor-intensive, R&D followers. This shows the importance of assessing the valuation-relevance of the foreign currency translation adjustment by considering the economic contexts of foreign currency fluctuations. Overall, the evidence shows that the accounting rules governing foreign currency translations in general produce results consistent with the economic effects of foreign exchange rate changes.
Airway Management in Children: Ultrasonography Assessment of Tracheal Intubation in Real Time?

BACKGROUND: Pediatric tracheal intubation requires considerable expertise and can represent a challenge to many anesthesiologists. Confirmation of correct tracheal tube position relies on direct visualization or indirect measures, such as auscultation and capnography. These methods have varying sensitivity and specificity, especially in the infant and young child. Ultrasonography is noninvasive and is becoming more readily available to the anesthesiologist. In this study, we investigated the characteristic real-time ultrasonographic findings of the normal pediatric airway during tracheal intubation and its suitability for clinical use. METHODS: Thirty healthy children with normal airways requiring tracheal intubation were studied. Ultrasonographic measurements of the pediatric airway during tracheal intubation under deep inhaled anesthesia were performed using a Sonosite Titan® (Sonosite, Bothell, WA) scanner while recording characteristic images during this process. Correct tracheal tube placement was further confirmed using auscultation and satisfactory end-tidal capnography. RESULTS: The mean (± sd) age of studied patients was 48 ± 37 mo, weight was 19.7. ± 8.6 kg and the sex ratio (m/f) was 1:2. Successful tracheal intubation was verified using the following criteria: 1) identification of the trachea and tracheal rings, 2) visualization of vocal cords, 3) widening of glottis as the tracheal tube passes through, and 4) tracheal tube position above carina and demonstration of movement of the chest wall visceroparietal pleural interface (i.e., sliding sign) after manual ventilation of the lungs. One esophageal intubation was readily recognized by visualization of the tube in the left paratracheal space. CONCLUSION: This study describes characteristic ultrasonographic findings of the pediatric airway during tracheal intubation. It suggests that ultrasonography may be useful for airway management in children.
An application of the ECSI model as a predictor of satisfaction and loyalty for backpacker hostels

Purpose – To determine which factors account for customer satisfaction with a service and their loyalty to a given service provider, in the particular, context of “backpacking” in Australia, a significant element of the country's hospitality and tourism economy.Design/methodology/approach – A series of hypotheses was developed from the services marketing literature and built into a 52 item questionnaire administered to 281 backpackers staying at the three youth hostels in Australia, who thus responded whilst actually experiencing the service encounter rather than in recalling it later. The European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) was used to measure the strength and direction of the determinants of customer satisfaction, and the impact that the antecedents of satisfaction had on loyalty to the generic provider.Findings – The results of confirmatory factor analysis of the questionnaire responses suggest that brand image is a predictor of satisfaction with a hostel, while perceived value indicates a degr.
Are two methods better than one? Evaluating the effectiveness of combining errorless learning with vanishing cues

A growing trend in memory rehabilitation is to combine learning principles to enhance treatment effects. While this makes intuitive sense, little is known about the added value of incorporating each method. A further complication is that some interventions, although primarily based on one learning principle, actually incorporate several, which again adds to the difficulty in differentiating the individual contribution of techniques. In this paper we report results of two experiments comparing the effectiveness of combining principles of errorless learning (EL) with vanishing cues (VC) relative to each in isolation. Healthy controls (N = 60), learning under standard and dual-task conditions, and patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (N = 22) took part in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. In each experiment, participants were asked to learn greeble– or face–name associations, and memory was tested after interference or brief delay. For healthy controls, EL alone and EL + VC produced the best results, but there was no difference between these conditions. For the Alzheimer's patients, all treatment conditions (EL, VC, EL + VC) were significantly better than trial and error, and, in this case, we found that the combined method was significantly better than VC in isolation. Importantly, in both experiments there was little support for use of combined over individual learning principles.
Calibration of diffuse correlation spectroscopy blood flow index with venous-occlusion diffuse optical spectroscopy in skeletal muscle

Abstract. We investigate and assess the utility of a simple scheme for continuous absolute blood flow monitoring based on diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS). The scheme calibrates DCS using venous-occlusion diffuse optical spectroscopy (VO-DOS) measurements of arm muscle tissue at a single time-point. A calibration coefficient (γ) for the arm is determined, permitting conversion of DCS blood flow indices to absolute blood flow units, and a study of healthy adults (N=10) is carried out to ascertain the variability of γ. The average DCS calibration coefficient for the right (i.e., dominant) arm was γ=(1.24±0.15)×108 (mL·100 mL−1·min−1)/(cm2/s). However, variability can be significant and is apparent in our site-to-site and day-to-day repeated measurements. The peak hyperemic blood flow overshoot relative to baseline resting flow was also studied following arm-cuff ischemia; excellent agreement between VO-DOS and DCS was found (R2=0.95, slope=0.94±0.07, mean difference=−0.10±0.45). Finally, we show that incorporation of subject-specific absolute optical properties significantly improves blood flow calibration accuracy.
Promoting Learning for Sustainability: Principals' Perceptions of the Role of Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres

Abstract Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres provide programs that are designed to address a range of environmental education aims, and contribute broadly to student learning for sustainability. This paper examines the roles such Centres can play, and how they might contribute to the Australian Government's initiative in relation to sustainable schools. Interviews with the principals of 23 such Centres in Queensland revealed three roles or models under which they operate: the destination model; the expert/advisor model; and the partnership model. Principals' understandings of these roles are discussed and the factors that support or hinder their implementation are identified. It is concluded that while the provision of programs in the environment is still a vital role of outdoor and environmental education centres, these can also be seen as a point of entry to long-term partnerships with whole school communities.
Building cooperative capacity: the specialty coffee sector in Nicaragua

Purpose - – Within the context of widespread donor support for producer organizations, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of interventions aimed at rescuing a failed cooperative and improving performance and business linkages between grower-suppliers and international markets through enterprise development. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper reports a case study of a Nicaraguan coffee cooperative, Soppexcca, which received substantial donor support at the time of the international coffee crisis between 1999 and 2004. The study used a framework of organizational structure, strategy, empowerment, and performance to assess business performance and sustainability. Quantitative and qualitative data collection focussed on asset building and changes during the period 2005-2009. Findings - – Soppexcca achieved major advances in asset building. External interventions played a pivotal role in building organizational capacity to respond to buyers’ demands and market-related shocks. Support was received not only from donors but also from supply chain partners and third-sector organizations. However, important gaps remain, and addressing these gaps requires changes in Soppexcca and sustained support. Research limitations/implications - – As a case study, findings cannot be readily generalized but the implications will be of significance beyond the coffee sector in Nicaragua, wherever and in whatever sector building cooperative capacity is an important development objective. Social implications - – Experience with Soppexcca shows that the creation of sustainable collective organizations is a long-term process, particularly in respect of building human capital. Originality/value - – The paper examines enterprise development using concepts of capital asset formation and cooperative performance, and argues the significance of effective links between value chain stakeholders as well as internal cooperative performance.
Control Motivations and Capital Structure Decision

This paper investigates the impact of corporate control motives on the firm's capital structure decision. Block holders with high control motivations face a trade-off between getting external finance and losing or diluting their control over the firm's decisions. Debt offers a solution to this dilemma while external equity does not. We hypothesize that firms with block holders that value control should have higher debt-equity ratios. Furthermore, we also hypothesize that debt is used more where control is valued most: in countries where minority shareholders rights are not well-protected and where losing control would cost the most. Risk-reduction motivations provide the competing hypothesis to control. In such a case, un-diversified block holders would want to decrease leverage to reduce firm specific risk in their un-diversified portfolios. We investigate the impact of family block holders because these are the best example of shareholders who, on one hand, value corporate control most and, on the other, have un-diversified portfolios. We use 3,608 firms from 36 different countries and find that, after controlling for all variables identified by the existing literature, control motives influence capital structure decisions significantly. Family firms have higher leverage relative to non-family firms and they have even higher leverage in countries where minority shareholders are least protected. Families are found to use leverage in a strategic way. They use it less when (a) they possess control-enhancing mechanisms, and (b) when their stake is high enough that can allow them to have control anyway.
Performance Consequences of Group Versus Individual Compensation Schemes for Senior Executives

This paper investigates the firm performance implications associated with the choice of individual versus group compensation schemes for senior executives below the CEO level. We define individual compensation schemes where senior executives are compensated independently from other senior executives, where incentive compensation is linked to individual performance. In contrast, group compensation schemes are defined where senior executive compensation is jointly determined with other senior executives, with compensation linked to common incentives. This paper is motivated by limited evidence on the firm performance implications of compensation scheme choice for senior executives', limiting critical evaluation of senior executives' compensation. Evidence using Australian data provides support that firms that choose compensation contracts for the senior executives that are not congruent with firm characteristics suffer lower subsequent accounting performance. However this lower performance is not significant for changes in market value of equity. The findings contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding the determination of appropriate corporate governance mechanisms in the presence of agency conflicts, and especially executive compensation schemes.
Self‐employment among people with disabilities: evidence for Europe

This paper examines the use of self‐employment among people with disabilities in Europe. Using data from the European Community Household Panel for the period 1995–2001 for 13 European countries we found that people with disabilities were more likely to be self‐employed than people without disabilities. Self‐employment provides flexibility and a better adjustment between disability status and working life. Moreover, the levels of satisfaction with job, type of job and working conditions of self‐employed disabled people are higher than those reported by disabled people who are wage and salary earners. Policy‐makers must encourage self‐employment to increase the levels of well‐being and employment of people with disabilities in Europe.
Ownership or Performance: What Determines Board of Directors' Turnover in Italy?

This paper analyses the turnover of board of directors members on a sample of companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in the period 1988-1996. Our aim is to investigate if board members change more frequently when company performance is poor, as the literature suggests, if this relationship is similar for C.E.O.s and other board members, and if and how the ownership structure of Italian companies affects these relationships. We use three different measures of board of directors turnovers: turnover A is the turnover of all board members; turnover B is the turnover of the President, Vice-President, C.E.O. and General Manager; finally turnover C is the turnover of C.E.O.s only. We find that changes in ownership affect turnover and that the relationship between turnover and performance is stronger in companies that have experienced a change in the controlling shareholder.
Validation of an Arab name algorithm in the determination of Arab ancestry for use in health research

Objective. Data about Arab-Americans, a growing ethnic minority, are not routinely collected in vital statistics, registry, or administrative data in the USA. The difficulty in identifying Arab-Americans using publicly available data sources is a barrier to health research about this group. Here, we validate an empirically based probabilistic Arab name algorithm (ANA) for identifying Arab-Americans in health research. Design. We used data from all Michigan birth certificates between 2000 and 2005. Fathers' surnames and mothers' maiden names were coded as Arab or non-Arab according to the ANA. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, and positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) of Arab ethnicity inferred using the ANA as compared to self-reported Arab ancestry. Results. Statewide, the ANA had a specificity of 98.9%, a sensitivity of 50.3%, a PPV of 57.0%, and an NPV of 98.6%. Both the false-positive and false-negative rates were higher among men than among women. As the concentration of Arab-Americans in a study locality increased, the ANA false-positive rate increased and false-negative rate decreased. Conclusion. The ANA is highly specific but only moderately sensitive as a means of detecting Arab ancestry. Future research should compare health characteristics among Arab-American populations defined by Arab ancestry and those defined by the ANA.
A comparison of the medical lethality of suicide attempts in bipolar and major depressive disorders.

OBJECTIVES Among mood disorders, bipolar disorder (BPD) is often noted to involve the highest rates of suicide attempts and possibly of completion. This study sought to determine whether suicide attempters with BPD exhibit suicide attempts with higher lethality than attempters with major depressive disorder (MDD) and to explore differences in clinical features associated with suicidal acts. METHODS Mood disordered suicide attempters were interviewed about Axis I and II diagnoses, lifetime history of suicide attempts, suicidal intent, suicidal ideation, the medical lethality of their most severe suicide attempt, severity of depression, hopelessness, lifetime aggression, and impulsivity. RESULTS The maximum lethality of suicidal acts tended to be higher among BPD attempters compared with those with MDD. However, there were no differences in the number of suicide attempts, intent to die or suicidal ideation. Suicide attempters with BPD reported higher levels of aggression and impulsivity but less hopelessness compared with MDD attempters. These differences could not be explained by Cluster B personality disorder comorbidity. Of note, within the BPD group, but not the MDD group, males reported suicidal acts with higher lethality. Multivariate analyses suggested that risk for more lethal suicide attempts is associated with BPD and male sex and that bipolar males appear to be especially vulnerable to these behaviors. CONCLUSIONS Males with BPD make more lethal suicide attempts than females with BPD, an effect not observed among the MDD sample. Our findings suggest that higher rates of suicidal behavior in BPD may be due to a specific effect of BPD on males, leading to more dangerous suicidal behaviors. This effect, together with the larger proportion of males in the BPD group compared with the MDD group may lead to higher rates of reported attempted and completed suicide.
Unravelling the ‘Black Box’ of the Accounting Profession: Evidence from the IFRS for SMEs

The current project of the IASB to issue accounting standards for small and medium firms (so-called “IFRS for SMEs”) intends to further boost the accounting harmonization process. At the same time, the standards have been discussed and criticized from several parts and the European Commission has decided to not adopt them for the moment. Di Pietra et al. (2008) and Quagli and Paoloni (2012) show that the preparation process of the IFRS for SMEs does not fully involve some important constituencies that would be strongly affected by the new standards, in primis chartered accountants. We conducted an extensive survey of 1,269 Italian Chartered Accountants (CAs) and ten interviews with presidents of the local CAs’ Associations to detect any possible “decoupling” between the structures and activities (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). First, we assess CAs’ attitude towards the new standards and, in particular, we document the role played by the perception of the financial and economic benefits of the new standards and the understanding of the technical and the reasons that led to the preparation of the IFRS for SMEs. Second, we study the heterogeneity among CAs and we find that the level of knowledge of these standards and the perceived relevance of tax rules positively influence the perception of the new standards, whereas the length of the CA’s professional experience has a negative effect.
A growing importance of large fires in conterminous United States during 1984–2012

Fire frequency, extent, and size exhibit a strong linkage with climate conditions and play a vital role in the climate system. Previous studies have shown that the frequency of large fires in the western United States increased significantly since the mid‐1980s due to climate warming and frequent droughts. However, less work has been conducted to examine burned area and fire emissions of large fires at a national scale, and the underlying mechanisms accounting for the increases in the frequency of large fires are far from clear. In this study, we integrated remote‐sensed fire perimeter and burn severity data sets into the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model to estimate carbon emissions from large fires (i.e., fires with size larger than 1000 acres or 4.05 km2) in conterminous United States from 1984 to 2012. The results show that average area burned by large fires was 1.44 × 104 km2 yr−1 and carbon emissions from large fires were 17.65 Tg C yr−1 during the study period. According to the Mann‐Kendall trend test, annual burned area and pyrogenic carbon emissions presented significant upward trends at the rates of 810 km2 yr−1 and 0.87 Tg C yr−1, respectively. Characteristic fire size (fire size with the largest contribution to the total burned area) in the period of 2004–2012 increased by 176.1% compared to the period of 1984–1993. We further found that the larger fires were associated with higher burn severity and occurred more frequently in the warmer and drier conditions. This finding implies that the continued warming and drying trends in the 21st century would enhance the total burned area and fire emissions due to the contributions of larger and more severe wildfires.
Glial calcium

This review summarizes current knowledge relating intracellular calcium and glial function. During steady state, glia maintain a low cytosolic calcium level by pumping calcium into intracellular stores and by extruding calcium across the plasma membrane. Glial Ca2+ increases in response to a variety of physiological stimuli. Some stimuli open membrane calcium channels, others release calcium from intracellular stores, and some do both. The temporal and spatial complexity of glial cytosolic calcium changes suggest that these responses may form the basis of an intracellular or intercellular signaling system. Cytosolic calcium rises effect changes in glial structure and function through protein kinases, phospholipases, and direct interaction with lipid and protein constituents. Ultimately, calcium signaling influences glial gene expression, development, metabolism, and regulation of the extracellular milieu. Disturbances in glial calcium homeostasis may have a role in certain pathological conditions. The discovery of complex calcium‐based glial signaling systems, capable of sensing and influencing neural activity, suggest a more integrated neuro‐glial model of information processing in the central nervous system. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.