Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Dvd vs. Divx Standard War: Empirical Evidence of Vaporware

In this paper, we empirically measure the effect of the DIVX preannouncement in the DVD market. We do this by measuring the effect of potential (incompatible) competition on a network undergoing growth. We find that there are network effects in the DVD market and that the preannouncement of DIVX slowed down the adoption of DVD technology. This suggests that strategic preannouncements can indeed affect the outcome of a standards competition.
Adverse Selection and the Market for Building Society Mortgage Finance

This study investigates the possibility of adverse selection in the U.K. mortgage market. Long- and short-run equations for the supply and demand for building society net advances are estimated using the Johansen procedure and three stage least squares. The authors identify a long-run, backward-bending mortgage supply curve with a bank-optimal nominal mortgage rate of 11.86 percent and, from the cointegrating vectors, they are able to estimate good error correction representations of supply and demand using three stage least squares. The authors find that the adjustment of supply and demand towards their long-run equilibrium values is fairly slow. Copyright 1997 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester
Mutations in gyrA gene of quinolone-resistant Salmonella serotypes isolated from humans and animals

The quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDRs) of the gyrA genes of quinolone-resistant clinical and veterinary salmonella isolates were sequenced. Substitutions analogous to a substitution of a Ser to a Phe at position 83 (Ser83-->Phe) and Asp87-->Gly or Tyr in Escherichia coli were found, as was a single novel mutation outside of the QRDR resulting in Ala119-->Glu. The data suggest that gyrA mutations are associated with quinolone resistance in veterinary and clinical salmonella isolates and that the limits of the QRDR may require revision.
Negotiated expertise in policy-making: How governments use hybrid advisory committees

By linking the realms of public policy-making, science and the public, advisory committees that include academics, state representatives and societal stakeholders answer to a double challenge that governments face today: a need for technical knowledge and an increasing demand for public acceptance and accountability. In contrast to purely scientific policy advice, little theoretical attention has so far been paid to these hybrid advisory committees. Drawing on and adapting research on knowledge utilisation, theories of delegation, decision-making and governance, an analytical framework of the use of multi-source, negotiated expertise will be developed and applied to four cases set up by the German Federal Government with mandates in social policy and in science and technology policy. The study shows the committees’ pronounced governance potential, which builds on their political and epistemic authority. It describes two distinct dynamics that lend the committees to instrumental, problem solving, and symbolic, substantiating purposes.
Time-Varying Betas of US REITs from 1972 to 2013

This study estimates the time-varying REIT betas with a structural time series model using monthly REIT return data for the periods from 1972 to 2013. Based on the FTSE-NAREIT return indices for the equity REIT (EREIT) and mortgage REIT (MREIT), we found corroborative evidence of the temporal declines in the betas of the two REITs up to 1999. The time-varying beta characteristics of the two REIT betas are fundamentally different in the 2000s. While the MREIT betas continued to decline, the EREIT betas showed a sharp reversal of the downward trend. Coinciding with the low interest regime in the US, EREITs used more external debt to fund new acquisitions and development activities, and as a result, the EREIT betas increased sharply in 2000s. The EREIT betas hit the peak in 2009; and declined thereafter when active deleveraging occurred in the market. Using firm level data, we construct two leverage-sorted EREIT portfolios, and our empirical results do not reject the leverage effects on time-varying EREIT betas. However, we find that the leverage effect is not triggered by the declines in stock prices as proposed in the finance literature.
Association between Aqueous Cytokines and Diabetic Retinopathy Stage

Purpose To measure the concentrations of various cytokines in the aqueous humor from patients with different stages of diabetic retinopathy. Methods All selected cataract patients were categorized into 4 groups: the control group (patients without diabetes), nonretinopathy (NDR) group (diabetic patients without retinopathy), nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) group, and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) group. The aqueous concentrations of interleukin- (IL-) 1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from patients were measured using the cytometric bead array technique. Results In this study, 10, 22, 15, and 14 patients were included in the control, NDR, NPDR, and PDR groups, respectively. No difference was observed in the aqueous concentrations of all cytokines between the control group and the NDR group. By contrast, comparison of these groups revealed that the aqueous concentrations of most inflammatory cytokines were significantly higher in the PDR and NPDR groups. In addition, the concentrations of IL-2, IL-5, and VEGF were higher in the PDR group than those in the NPDR group. Conclusions Aqueous concentrations of various cytokines increased with the severity of patients' diabetic retinopathy. This finding implies that these cytokines might play a role in the progression of diabetic retinopathy.
Is Chapter 11 Efficient

The efficiency of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process is examined by estimating the impact of Chapter 11 filings on the operating performance of bankrupt firms. We control for firm-level heterogeneity in prefiling characteristics using matching methods to select benchmark firms comparable to filing firms. We compare bankrupt firms’ operating performances with those of matched nonbankrupt firms. Our results challenge the contention that Chapter 11 is an inefficient, debtor-friendly mechanism that rehabilitates economically nonviable firms. We demonstrate that firms that file under Chapter 11 perform no worse and, if anything, better than comparable nonfiling firms.
Removing the Veil?

For Marx, commodity fetishism is the tendency of people to see the product of their labor in terms of relationships between things, rather than social relationships between people. In other words, people viewthe commodity only in terms of the characteristics of the final product while the process through which it was created remains obscured and, therefore, unconsidered. This has crucial implications for our collective ability to see and address the ongoing processes of social and environmental destruction under capitalism. This article examines one effort to lift the veil obscuring the relations and processes of commodity production. Fair trade attempts to make visible the social and environmental relations of production and exchange that lie behind the commodity. This assists producers in making a shift in the qualitative nature of production, particularly in terms of its impacts on producers and on the environment. The purpose of this article is to determine the extent to which fair trade can address the problem of commodity fetishism and to identify the barriers it encounters in attempting to do so.
Prognosis of Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Intrapulmonary Metastases

Background: In the current TNM staging system revised in 1997 for lung cancer, intrapulmonary metastases (PM) are classified into two categories: PM1 (in the same lobe of the primary tumor), designated as T4; and PM2 (in a different lobe), as M1. There have been no large-scale analyses on PM in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. We collected data nationwide in Japan for 7408 lung cancer patients undergoing surgical resection during a single year, 1994. We analyzed the long-term survival of NSCLC patients to evaluate the prognostic impact of PM in relation to other prognostic factors. Method: Medical records of 6525 NSCLC patients undergoing surgical resection during a single year, 1994, were analyzed as a subset work of the Japanese Joint Committee of Lung Cancer Registry. The committee sent a questionnaire on outcome and clinicopathological profiles to 303 institutions. Results: There were 6080 PM0 (no PM), 317 PM1, and 128 PM2 patients. The 5-year survival rates were 55.1% for PM0 patients, 26.8% for PM1, and 22.5% for PM2 patients, respectively. The differences in survival between patients with PM0 and PM1 and between patients with PM0 and PM2 were significant (p < 0.001, respectively); the difference in survival was not significant between patients with PM1 and PM2 (p = 0.298). In R0 and N0 patients, survival differences were similar for PM0, PM1, and PM2 patients. Significant survival difference was detected between T3 and PM1 (p = 0.0317) and between PM1 patients and T4 patients excluding PM1 (p = 0.0083). The 5-year survival rates of PM2 patients and M1 patients excluding PM2 were 22.5% and 20.5%, respectively, and there was no significant difference between the groups (p = 0.434). Conclusion: There was no significant survival difference between NSCLC patients with PM1 and PM2. The survival of patients with PM1 was between that of the T3 and T4 patients excluding PM1.
The Transformation of Governance

The latter 20th and beginning of the 21st century have ushered in new forms of governance, opening the gates to what has been variously described as a “new public service,” a “multisectored public service,” and a “state of agents. ” As government authority is dispersed, we increasingly rely on these new public servants for service delivery and policy implementation. But who are now the agents of the state? How might the changed makeup of a new public service alter our expectations about democratic governance? The questions we investigate in this study are, first, now that the public sector has been transformed, what are the characteristics of the agents of the new governance? And are the new public servants, in the words of Charles Goodsell, “ordinary people”? We use the General Social Survey to shed light on our focal question. Our results suggest that public servants in for-profit settings resemble traditional civil servants in many ways. The growing ranks of social, health, and education public servants in nonprofit settings are distinct in many ways from civil servants and for-profit public servants. Implications of the changing composition of the public sector in an era of transformed governance are discussed.
Representation and Public Policy: The Consequences of Senate Apportionment for the Geographic Distribution of Federal Funds

Political scientists have long believed that the formal arrangements of representative institutions make a difference for public policy; in spite of this, they have largely neglected to investigate the policy effects of Senate apportionment This paper tests the hypothesis that coalition building in the Senate will produce distributions of federal funds to states reflecting the enhanced representation of small states in the Senate Using Bickers and Stein's U. S. Domestic Assistance Programs Database, I find that, first, federal distributive programs are typically constructed so that a majority, frequently an overwhelming majority, of states benefit Second, using a pooled cross-sectional time-series design (N = 350), I examine the distributions of federal funds to states in different types of domestic assistance programs to determine if they bear the imprint of Senate apportionment I find that over-represented states tend to receive higher allocations of federal funds per capita, most notably in programs characterized as nondiscretionary distributive.
Changing Urban Systems in Post-communist Societies in Central Europe: Analysis and Prediction

This paper is concerned with three levels of urban system changes; changes in the intra-urban structure of cities after the collapse of the communist regimes; changes in the national or state urban systems, i.e. inter-urban systems; and changes in the international system of capital cities in central Europe. The restoration of the land market and the removal of rent controls will lead to socially polarised neighbourhoods and new retail patterns. The reintroduction of market economies will convert the socialist policy of even development into one of increased concentration on growth centres within deindustrialisation in which national capitals will play a greater role. Lastly, at the international level national capitals will hierarchicise as in pre-1914 years and new dynamic frontier zones may arise.
Acting on the Edge of Public Sector: Hospital Corporatization and Collective Bargaining in Hungary and Slovakia

Effective public sector management became central to economic and political debates across Europe in the last decade. One of the most affected domains is public healthcare that is often subject to ambiguous reforms combining private and public sector “best practices”. This paper attempts to extend our theoretical and empirical knowledge on healthcare reforms and their effect on employment relations in Hungary and Slovakia. A particularly salient feature of healthcare reforms in both countries is hospital corporatization, defined as a process in which public hospitals become subject to regulations applicable to private sector companies, formally entailing the possibility of bankruptcy. We argue that effects of corporatization on employment relations are more complex than the available literature in organizational change and public sector management suggests. Corporatization contributed to stability in bargaining patterns, while produced diversity in bargaining outcomes in Hungary and Slovakia. Particular effects of corporatization have been channelled through the interests and responses of involved actors. Despite market-oriented reforms of the institutional environment, we found remarkable similarities in how actors responded to hospital reorganization; and in the stability of bargaining institutions due to actors’ commitment or inability to bring forth institutional change in bargaining patterns.
Academic and Social Integration of Chinese International Students in Italy

The increasing mobility of students has supported the internationalization of higher education. Studying abroad brings to the forefront language and cultural issues. In this paper, through interviews and survey data I investigate the academic and social integration of Chinese students in Italian universities. While these students look forward to academic excellence, social integration is also significant in how well students perform academically and how they feel about their studies. I focus on factors that affect students' abilities and behaviors in blending academically and socially in Italy and attempt to bring out the idea that successful academic and social integration translates into better academic achievements. The results should help Chinese overseas students ascertain whether academic and social integration are effective for their studying abroad, what obstacles they may face and how they may be overcome. This research on social blending finds that there is a significant correlation between academic and social factors. This paper also indicates that a lack of Italian language skills, communication skills, and preparation for studying abroad directly influences social integration, academic achievements, and the expansion of social networks.
Virome Analysis of Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, and Ixodes scapularis Ticks Reveals Novel Highly Divergent Vertebrate and Invertebrate Viruses

ABSTRACT A wide range of bacterial pathogens have been identified in ticks, yet the diversity of viruses in ticks is largely unexplored. In the United States, Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, and Ixodes scapularis are among the principal tick species associated with pathogen transmission. We used high-throughput sequencing to characterize the viromes of these tick species and identified the presence of Powassan virus and eight novel viruses. These included the most divergent nairovirus described to date, two new clades of tick-borne phleboviruses, a mononegavirus, and viruses with similarity to plant and insect viruses. Our analysis revealed that ticks are reservoirs for a wide range of viruses and suggests that discovery and characterization of tick-borne viruses will have implications for viral taxonomy and may provide insight into tick-transmitted diseases. IMPORTANCE Ticks are implicated as vectors of a wide array of human and animal pathogens. To better understand the extent of tick-borne diseases, it is crucial to uncover the full range of microbial agents associated with ticks. Our current knowledge of the diversity of tick-associated viruses is limited, in part due to the lack of investigation of tick viromes. In this study, we examined the viromes of three tick species from the United States. We found that ticks are hosts to highly divergent viruses across several taxa, including ones previously associated with human disease. Our data underscore the diversity of tick-associated viruses and provide the foundation for further studies into viral etiology of tick-borne diseases.
The importance of accurately measuring growth

This welcome collaboration between economists and ecologists focuses on one of society's topmost priorities, i.e. the links between economic growth and environmental sustainability. The closely argued presentation by Arrow et al. should be an eye-opener for the so-called mainstream economists, who have so far tended not to recognize that economic growth cannot go on forever since the natural resource base is finite and there are indeed limits to the globe's carrying capacity. Our aim here is to reinforce the central propositions of this article, while pointing out certain directions in which the authors, perhaps for lack of space, did not develop this valuable initiative. To us, the most impressive message of this contribution is that the optimism propagated by those who have been advocating environmental inaction on the argument that market forces will take care of the environment is unfounded. Such optimism has relied on the alleged ability of the market to indicate problems, identify scarcities and generally guide decisions via price movements and the self-interest of economic agents. The environment, being quintessentially a long-term concern, has tended to fall between cause and effect. As environmental linkages with the economy often present themselves as externalities, the myopic market frequently fails to notice them. Besides, many important parts of the environment are meta-economic, being 'invaluable' or 'priceless', falling totally outside the market. With the surge of population and economic activity during the past two generations or so, the environment has come under unprecedented stress. The authors very ably refute the alleged inverted-U relationship (similar in a different context to a Kuznets curve) that the optimists have been stressing: namely that with the rise of incomes the environment may initially suffer, but will eventually prosper as the rich begin to value environmental amenities and sustainability more. 'The inverted-U relation is evidence that this has happened in some cases. It does not constitute evidence that it will happen in all cases, or that it will happen in time to avert the important and irreversible global consequences of growth! It should be obvious that most people in the world survive on an average income well below what has been claimed to be a threshold necessary, but by no meanssufficient, to trigger environmental consciousness, and it is most unlikely that enough people in the developing countries will even in the next half-century attain a level of per
Trust in Functional and Dysfunctional Organizational Leaders: The R ole of Leadership Style, Employees' Emotions and Trustworthiness Perceptions

ii Acknowledgments iv List of Tables vii List of Figures ix List of Appendices x CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Trust in General and Trust in Leaders 3 Leadership Style and Trust in Leader 10 Emotions and Trust 30 Emotions in General 35 Leadership Styles and Followers’ Emotions 36 How Trust and Leadership May Relate to Positive and Negative Emotions 44 Putting It All Together: The Proposed Model of Relationships Among Leadership Styles, Emotions, Trustworthiness Perceptions, and Trust 48 CHAPTER 2: STUDY ONE 52 Introduction 52 Method 56 Results 63 Discussion 96 CHAPTER 3: STUDY TWO 105 Introduction 105 Method 107 Results 111 Discussion 133 CHAPTER 4: STUDY THREE 142
Poverty Of Parents And Child Labour In Benin City: A Preliminary Account Of Its Nature And Implications

This work starts from the basic premise that poverty, a major problem of rapid urbanization in developing nations, is a major contributory factor in the growth and exacerbation of child labour. Child labour in Benin City reflect prevalent urban poverty which compel parents to send children of school age to work to boost family income. For many hours a day, children of poor parents are engaged in economic ventures such as street hawking, cart/wheel barrow pushing, bus conducting, plaiting of hair as well as being apprenticed to artisans. By focusing on the linkage between parent poverty and exacerbation of child labour, it is expected that some primary data will be generated that will assist in understanding the root causes and implications of the phenomenon in an urban city like Benin as well as appreciate the burden of these juvenile workers in a developing economy. JORIND Vol. 3 (2) 2005: pp. 111-117
Noncontact low‐frequency ultrasound therapy in the treatment of chronic wounds: A meta‐analysis

Our objective was to summarize and quantify the effects of a noncontact low‐frequency ultrasound (NLFU) therapy on healing of chronic wounds. We performed a meta‐analysis of eight published studies reporting effects of NLFU on wound size and healing rate of chronic wounds in 444 NLFU‐treated patients. A search of the PubMed database was conducted in January 2010 and updated in October 2010. We used random‐effects linear regression models to estimate the proportional reductions in wound area and volume and the proportion of wounds healed from baseline to last follow‐up. In four studies (N=188) reporting change in wound area from baseline, NLFU was associated with 85.2% area reduction (95% CI 64.7%–97.6%) over a mean 7 weeks. In four studies (N=278) reporting reduction in wound volume, NLFU was associated with 79.7% volume reduction (95% CI 46.1%–98.8%) over a mean 12 weeks. In seven studies (N=429) reporting proportion of wounds healing by study end (mean time to healing 8.2 weeks; median 6.8 weeks), meta‐analyzed healing rates over time suggest 32.7% of wounds healed on average by 6 weeks (95% CI 23.3%–42.1%) and 41.7% by 12 weeks. NLFU for treatment of chronic wounds was associated with consistent and substantial wound size reductions, as well as favorable rates of healing.
Credibility of online reviews and initial trust

This article investigates the main and interactional effects of review valence and the presence of source identity on consumer perception of credibility of an online review and initial trust of travel services being reviewed. An experimental design is developed involving 639 travel consumers. Results indicate that a negative online review is deemed more credible than a positive online review, while a positive online review leads to a greater initial trust than a negative review. These findings apply when the identity of the reviewer is disclosed. However, when the reviewer’s identity is not disclosed, there is no significant difference between positive and negative reviews either in terms of perceived credibility or impact on consumer trust. Theoretical and managerial implications, limitations and future directions are also discussed.