Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Beta Coefficients as Predictors of Return

Two major controversies have arisen regarding beta coefficients. First, are they useful in the retrospective measurement of investment performance? Second, can they be employed for purposes of stock selection? This paper is concerned with the latter of these two issues. More specifically, we shall seek to determine if there is any correlation between historical beta coefficients and future stock performance. Will portfolios with high historical betas outperform the averages over an ensuing market advance? Will portfolios with low historical betas successfully resist a market setback? In the sections that follow, we will: 1) briefly review the computation and interpretation of betas; 2) examine the distribution of beta coefficients for each year over the 1961-1970 decade; 3) determine if betas for each year are good predictors of return for the succeeding year; and 4) determine if betas immediately prior to primary bull (bear) markets are reliable indicators of prospective stock performance over the coming advance (decline).
Development of Surveys for Study of Departure Time Choice: Two-Stage Approach to Efficient Design

Modeling of departure time choice has recently received renewed attention because of the increasing levels of congestion in many cities and the growing popularity of travel demand management strategies such as road pricing. Current practice for evaluation of the effectiveness of travel demand management policies usually involves incorporation of the temporal dimension into transport planning models only through fixed factors derived from origin–destination data, but this practice makes them unsuitable for use in proper prediction of demand at different times of the day. To mitigate these deficiencies, the authors argue in favor of estimation and application of specially formulated time-of-day choice models. Here the concentration is on the process used to generate a survey design that obtains data suitable for estimation of such models that will ensure both realism and simplicity in the presentation; in particular, the stated preference exercise includes dependence between attribute levels. The proposed procedure should be widely applicable and offers many improvements over current practice in the field.
SELECTIVE AND REVERSIBLE INHIBITION OF THE SYNTHESIS OF BACTERIAL DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID BY PHENETHYL ALCOHOL

Berrah, Ghoulem (Indiana University, Bloomington) and Walter A. Konetzka. Selective and reversible inhibition of the synthesis of bacterial deoxyribonucleic acid by phenethyl alcohol. J. Bacteriol. 83:738–744. 1962. —The selective inhibitory effects of phenethyl alcohol on gram-negative bacteria were confirmed with a variety of species. At a concentration of 0.25%, phenethyl alcohol was bacteriostatic for gram-negative bacteria; gram-positive cells were unaffected. Pseudomonas fluorescens required higher concentrations of the compound for inhibition than did the other gram-negative bacteria, and the gram-positive, acid-fast mycobacteria resembled the majority of gram-negative bacteria in sensitivity. In the presence of phenethyl alcohol, gram-negative cells formed long filaments. There was no net synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in such cells, whereas protein and ribonucleic acid (RNA) syntheses were unaffected. Upon removal of phenethyl alcohol, multiplication of the cells immediately ensued, with concomitant DNA synthesis. Yeast extract stimulated both RNA and protein synthesis in phenethyl alcohol-treated Escherichia coli, but no detectable stimulation of DNA synthesis occurred under these conditions.
The Politics of Cap Reform: Trade Negotiations, Institutional Settings and Blame Avoidance

In this article we argue that the conclusion of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and the subsequent role of the WTO has changed the international context of CAP policy-making. However, comparing the three latest CAP reforms, we demonstrate that pressures on the CAP arising from international trade negotiations cannot alone account for the way in which the EU responds in terms of CAP reform. The institutional setting within which the reform package was determined also played a crucial role. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the CoAM seems to be a more conducive setting than the European Council for undertaking substantial reform of the CAP. We suggest that the choice of institutional setting is influenced by the desire of farm ministers and of heads of state or government to avoid blame for unpopular decisions. When CAP reform is an integral part of a broader package, farm ministers pass the final decision to the European Council and when CAP reform is defined as a separate issue the European Council avoids involvement.
The Transparency International and Nigeria’s Corruption Perception Index: Implications for Sustainable Transformation

Corruption constitutes a canker worm that has eaten deep into the entire fabric of Nigeria's social system. Successive governments have taken diverse steps to nip the scourge in the bud albeit with debatable degrees of success. Despite the celebrated declaration of war against corruption, Nigeria's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) appears to continually go down. For instance, the Transparency International in its Corruption Perception Index, (CPI) ranked Nigeria as the second most corrupt nation in the world for three consecutive years: 2001, 2002 and 2003. In 2006, Nigeria ranked as the 21 st most corrupt country, globally. In the 2009 global corruption perception index, Nigeria dropped from its 121 st place in 2008 to 130 th position, out of the 180 countries surveyed. The report of the 2011 CPI showed that Nigeria emerged 143 rd among the 183 nations covered by the survey with a score of 2.4 on a scale of 10 points. In the 2012 report, Nigeria ranked 135 th out of the 178 countries polled, scoring 27% out of a possible 100%. This paper examined the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index vis- a-vis Nigeria's downward slide on the global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and its implications for sustainable transformation in Nigeria. It notes that rightly or wrongly, the seeming failure of the war against corruption in Nigeria may not be unconnected with the epileptic nature of political will on the part of the political leadership as well as the weakness of relevant institutions charged with the responsibility of being at the vanguard of the war. This probably explains why skeptical eyebrows are raised whenever the war against corruption is paraded as one of the success stories of the government. This scenario has implications on the country's sustainable transformation agenda. The paper recommends that the federal government demonstrates appropriate political will to prosecute corrupt persons especially Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) such as governors, ministers and members of the national assembly. Government must also enthrone good governance and accountability to restore public confidence in governance.
The political economy of development in South Africa

“A central aspect of the gap in technique is the relationship between culture and technical modernization. In order to modernize industrially, is it necessary to Westernize culturally? Japan from 1868 decided that a county could modernise industrially without Westernizing culturally. ‘Western technique, Japanese spirit’ was Japan’s slogan. Japan proceeded on that basic assumption. Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s and 1930s decided that in order to modernize industrially a country had to Westernize culturally. ” 1
Patterns of road surface movement after three endurance horse-riding events in protected areas, south-east Queensland

Abstract Reviews of horse-riding impacts usually mention degradation of trails, watercourses and vegetation. These potential impacts are of current relevance within some south-east Queensland protected areas where the future of horse-riding is subject to studies on biophysical and social impacts. This study aimed to provide an indication of soil movement patterns on vehicular roads in response to three separate endurance riding events, which represent the most intense horse use of these roads with up to 300 passes in one day. A measure of the areal extent and depth of erosion was obtained from at least 16 sections of road at each event. Across the study, there was an average increase in eroded area of less than 2 per cent and decrease of erosion depth by less than 1 mm. Linear mixed effects modelling revealed that soil movement was weakly related to slope and field texture, where the steeper the slope and softer the surface the more movement. Soil movement could be predicted using pre-existing road characteristics alone and the number of horse passes was not significant in soil redistribution. While no other data on horse-related soil movement from such roads is known, this study supports the contention that harder surfaces (i.e. graded, built-up vehicular roads) would suffer less soil loss than other track types. There was no evidence to suggest that the combination of vehicle tracks and horse use compounded soil loss. Where other maintained vehicle tracks elsewhere within protected areas are like those studied here, it is expected that high-use horse-riding would have little impact on the road surface additional to other uses.
The problems facing the agricultural sector in Nigeria and the prospect of Muzara’ah and supply chain model

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to develop a Muzara’ah–supply chain model for the purpose of enhancing agricultural financing and productivity in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach - – In this paper, an expert survey approach was employed to validate the newly developed model. Findings - – A survey result on the model reveals that majority of the respondents agreed with the Muzara’ah–supply chain model and preferred it to the existing models. Research limitations/implications - – The main limitation of this study is limited number of respondents. Practical implications - – With this newly developed financing model that is based risk sharing principles, the application of this model could help to reduce moral hazard and enhance agricultural productivity. Originality/value - – To the best knowledge of the researchers, such kind of study for financing agriculture does not exists in the case of Nigeria.
The Role of Perceived Consumer Effectiveness and Motivational Attitude on Socially Responsible Purchasing Behavior in South Korea

ABSTRACT An increase in economic development and globalization has led to an increase in Korean consumer expectations of socially responsible businesses. Nevertheless, Korean consumers are not highly aware of social responsibility issues in regard to their consumption nor are they conscious of current socially responsible activities by the corporations from which they are purchasing. Therefore, social responsibility practitioners need to understand the function of consumers’ perceived effectiveness in encouraging socially responsible purchasing in order to build strategic marking performance. The authors examine whether Korean consumers care about social responsibility by considering the relationship of perceived consumer effectiveness, motivational attitudes, and socially responsible purchase behavior. This study discovers the differential issues of personal attitude and social attitude on consumers’ ethical behavior. Implications and limitations are discussed.
Effect of chitosan on weight loss in overweight and obese individuals: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

This article aims to determine whether chitosan, a popular, over‐the‐counter, weight loss supplement, is an effective treatment for overweight and obesity. It is designed as a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. The data sources include the electronic databases Medline, EMBASE, Biosis, CINAHL and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CCTR); the specialized websites Controlled Trials, International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS), System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (SIGLE), Reuter's Health Service, Natural Alternatives International and Pharmanutrients; and bibliographies of relevant journal articles. Included were randomized controlled trials of chitosan with a minimum duration of 4 weeks in adults who were overweight or obese and/or had hypercholesterolaemia at baseline. Fourteen trials involving a total of 1071 participants were included in the review. Analyses involving all trials indicated that chitosan preparations result in a small but statistically significant greater reduction in body weight (weighted mean difference −1.7 kg; 95% confidence interval −2.1, −1.3 kg, P < 0.00001) compared with placebo. Analyses restricted to high‐quality studies showed that reductions in weight [−0.6 (−1.2, 0.1) kg, P = 0.11] were less than in lower quality studies [−2.3 (−2.7, −1.8) kg, P < 0.00001]. Results obtained from high‐quality trials indicate that the effect of chitosan on body weight is minimal and unlikely to be of clinical significance.
Discussion of dividend increases and future earnings

Ali and Urcan (this issue) examine the relation between dividend increases and unexpected changes in future earnings to test the signaling theory of dividends. Prior research has generally found weak and conflicting results. The primary contribution of this paper is that they recognize the interaction between the signaling theory of dividend and the catering theory proposed by Baker and Wurgler (2004). The catering theory posits that investors have a time-varying preference for dividends and that managers cater to this preference by paying dividends when preference for dividends is high. This makes it difficult to demonstrate empirical support for the dividend signaling theory because managers could be increasing dividends either to signal future changes in value or to cater to investors’ preferences or both. Therefore, in this paper, the authors examine the relationship between future earnings changes and dividends by studying this relationship separately in periods when investors exhibit a high preference for dividends as opposed to those periods when they exhibit a low preference for dividends. The authors closely follow existing research in designing their tests. They document a positive relationship between dividend increases and future changes in earnings only for periods when the dividend premium is low and attribute this to the signaling theory of dividends. They replicate the results of the most closely related papers (Nissim and Ziv 2001 and Grullon et al. 2005) and demonstrate that their results are due to controlling for the time-varying dividend preference and not an artifact of their sample or earnings expectations model. The authors have been very careful in staying very close to the literature they build on in terms of sample selection as well as empirical models, so that they can interpret their results similarly. My discussion, however, is broader in scope and raises issues with this literature in general that I believe are important in drawing significant conclusions from this line of research. Broadly speaking, I focus on issues related to choice of dividends as the signaling mechanism, the timing of the signal, and the implications of these for the tests of these signaling models.
ELOVL3 Is an Important Component for Early Onset of Lipid Recruitment in Brown Adipose Tissue*

During the recruitment process of brown adipose tissue, the mRNA level of the fatty acyl chain elongase Elovl3 is elevated more than 200-fold in cold-stressed mice. We have obtained Elovl3-ablated mice and report here that, although cold-acclimated Elovl3-ablated mice experienced an increased heat loss due to impaired skin barrier, they were unable to hyperrecruit their brown adipose tissue. Instead, they used muscle shivering in order to maintain body temperature. Lack of Elovl3 resulted in a transient decrease in the capacity to elongate saturated fatty acyl-CoAs into very long chain fatty acids, concomitantly with the occurrence of reduced levels of arachidic acid (C20:0) and behenic acid (C22:0) in brown adipose tissue during the initial cold stress. This effect on very long chain fatty acid synthesis could be illustrated as a decrease in the condensation activity of the elongation enzyme. In addition, warm-acclimated Elovl3-ablated mice showed diminished ability to accumulate fat and reduced metabolic capacity within the brown fat cells. This points to ELOVL3 as an important regulator of endogenous synthesis of saturated very long chain fatty acids and triglyceride formation in brown adipose tissue during the early phase of the tissue recruitment.
Pelagic Fishing at 42,000 Years Before the Present and the Maritime Skills of Modern Humans

Abundant fish remains from a shelter in East Timor imply that humans were fishing the deep sea by 43,000 years ago. By 50,000 years ago, it is clear that modern humans were capable of long-distance sea travel as they colonized Australia. However, evidence for advanced maritime skills, and for fishing in particular, is rare before the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene. Here we report remains of a variety of pelagic and other fish species dating to 42,000 years before the present from Jerimalai shelter in East Timor, as well as the earliest definite evidence for fishhook manufacture in the world. Capturing pelagic fish such as tuna requires high levels of planning and complex maritime technology. The evidence implies that the inhabitants were fishing in the deep sea.
Industrial Land Use, Externalities, and Residential Location

Studies using individual housing units as the observation base have not supported the hypothesis that certain nonresidential land uses have a negative impact on housing values. Basically, externalities associated with these land uses have very localized effects. Other studies, using municipalities as the observation base, have found that nonresidential land uses do reduce housing values, and suggest that there may be municipality-wide or nonlocalized externality effects. This paper extends these analyses, of nonlocalized externality effects and test the hypothesis that residential locational choice is also affected by the nonlocalized nature of externalities associated with nonresidential land use, distinguishing between the localized versus nonlocalized externalities associated with industrial land use. An empirical model is used to test this hypothesis. The results show that the concentration of industrial activity has a positive effect on housing values but that municipalities with major air polluting industries have significantly lower housing values. This suggests that the type of industrial activity, especially in relation to the type of externalities being generated, as well as the concentration of activity should be included in models determining the effectiveness of zoning.
Local heroes : the political economy of Russian regional governance

List of Tables and FiguresPrefaceNote on TransliterationCh. 1Introduction3Ch. 2The Political Economy of Government Performance27Ch. 3Decentralization and Democratization: The Development of Regional Government Institutions56Ch. 4Who Governs Russia Well? Measuring Institutional Performance90Ch. 5Testing Theories of Performance Variation: Economic, Social-Structural, and Cultural Hypotheses131Ch. 6The Political Economy of Government Performance: Testing the Theory164Ch. 7Democracy and the Market at Risk? 192App. ARegional Government Structures205App. BCross-Tabulations of Constituent Satisfaction with Regional Government by Urban and Rural Dwellers and by Levels of Education208Bibliography221Index235
Personal networks in emerging knowledge-based firms: spatial and functional patterns

The commercialization of high technology and professional knowledge is often organized by individuals and firms within networks. Operational models of the personal network entrepreneurs build both individually (egocentric networks) and collectively as members of the small–firm clusters (sociocentric networks), which are presented and applied to Swedish data. Entrepreneurs in knowledge–based firms, when compared with traditional firms, invest more time in networking and also build more focused networks. Academic entrepreneurs in science parks establish less dense local networks than traditional entrepreneurs in the industrial districts. A panel analysis suggests that the differences between knowledge–based and traditional firms with respect to personal networking are reduced over time.
Influence of festival attribute qualities on Slow Food tourists’ experience, satisfaction level and revisit intention

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Slow Food festival attributes on visitors’ overall experience, their satisfaction level and revisit intention. A total of 209 usable questionnaires were collected from visitors at Mold Slow Food festival, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted using analysis of moment structures version 19.0. A theoretical model representing the relationships among festival attribute qualities, experience quality, satisfaction level and revisit intention is examined using path analysis. With the addition of new paths from programmes to satisfaction and from food and other amenities to satisfaction, a revised theoretical model emerged. It indicated that all three festival attribute qualities (programmes, food and other amenities and entertainment) have direct impacts on the visitors’ overall experience and satisfaction; however, only the quality of food and other amenities contributed directly to revisit intention of the Slow Food festival.
Environmental commitment and manufacturing excellence: a comparative study within Canadian industry

The development of an environmental policy represents the cornerstone of an environmental management system (EMS), an essential tool that helps companies both systematically manage their environmental obligations and risks, and promote these objectives throughout the entire organization. The implementation of such policies must rest not solely upon the development of specific pollution-reduction programmes but also upon more encompassing issues dealing with the examination of existing management systems and work procedures. This paper presents the results of a study conducted in 250 manufacturing firms. It examines factors such as manufacturing policies and competitive positioning in their role as driving forces behind environmental commitment. The study's results demonstrate that environmental commitment is often linked to sound management practices. Good relations with both employees and suppliers, participatory management and total quality management programmes appear to be intimately correlated with the existence of an environmental policy. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment
Over the Cliff: From the Subprime to the Global Financial Crisis

This paper examines what transformed a significant, but relatively mild, financial disruption into a full-fledged financial crisis. It discusses why, although the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy was a key trigger for the global financial crisis, three other events were at least as important: the AIG collapse on September 16, 2008; the run on the Reserve Primary Fund on the same day; and the struggle to get the Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP) plan approved by Congress over the following couple of weeks. The paper then looks at the policy responses to the financial crisis to evaluate whether they helped avoid a worldwide depression. The paper ends by discussing the policy challenges raised in the aftermath of the crisis.