Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial development and economic growth: Additional evidence

This note suggests that, contrary to the conclusions reached in several recent studies, the empirical evidence does not support the view that financial development promotes economic growth. It is first noted that the predominant pattern in the data for 95 individual countries is that of a negligible or weakly negative covariation between financial development and growth of real GDP per capita. Second, the individual‐country correlational picture is a sharp contrast to the correlations based on crosscountry data that have been used in most research on the subject. Third, individual‐country estimates of a basic multiple‐regression growth model also do not indicate a positive association between financial development and growth. Fourth, in cross‐country data and models of the kind that have been used in most studies, when the regression structure is permitted to vary across three subgroups, a huge parametric heterogeneity is observed, and the overall indication is that of a negligible or negative association.
Leptospirosis in Istanbul, Turkey: A wide spectrum in clinical course and complications

Patients with high fever and multiorgan involvement were investigated for the determination of frequency, clinical course and complications of leptospirosis in Istanbul. Leptospirosis was determined in 22 cases among the 35 hospitalized patients that were prediagnosed as leptospirosis according to ‘Probable Leptospirosis Diagnosis and Follow-up’ form. Among the leptospirosis cases 19 were male and 16 were military staff. Mean age was 35.6 y. Dark field examination (DFE), latex agglutination test (LAG), ELISA IgM, leptospirosis culture (LC) and microscopic agglutination test (MAT) were performed to confirm the diagnoses. The most frequent initial symptoms and findings were fever, fatigue, headache, nausea-vomiting and increased muscle sensitivity. Jaundice was noted only in 2 cases. A 74-y-old female patient died after the recurrence of the disease with severe rhabdomyolysis and pulmonary failure. Sagittal sinus thrombosis, perimyocarditis and chronic renal failure were major complications in another 3 patients. ELISA IgM, LC, DFE, LAG and MAT tests were positive in 68, 72, 82, 100 and 100% of the patients, respectively. As a conclusion, diagnosis of leptospirosis is usually overlooked. Clinical awareness, use of probable leptospirosis diagnosis forms and the application of different laboratory methods in the diagnosis of suspected cases may offer the chance to diagnose the leptospirosis accurately.
Employment Effects of Minimum and Subminimum Wages: Panel Data on State Minimum Wage Laws

Using panel data on state minimum wage laws and economic conditions for the years 1973–89, the authors reevaluate existing evidence on the effects of a minimum wage on employment. Their estimates indicate that a 10% increase in the minimum wage causes a decline of 1–2% in employment among teenagers and a decline of 1.5–2% in employment for young adults, similar to the ranges suggested by earlier time-series studies. The authors also find evidence that youth subminimum wage provisions enacted by state legislatures moderate the disemployment effects of minimum wages on teenagers.
The influence of online social networks on performance of small and medium enterprises: an empirical investigation of the online business to business network XING

Social networks are considered a contributing factor in the growth and performance of companies, especially in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper examines how CEOs of SMEs perceive online social networks (OSNs) as beneficial for their companies. As CEOs strongly identify with their SME, the influence of the OSN on the SME is largely driven by the CEO's value perception of OSN utilisation. Results of a focus group discussion and survey among 181 owners and CEOs of Austrian SMEs, who are members of the OSN XING, revealed indeed that trust in the OSN and access to resources available only through OSN membership lead to satisfaction with the OSN. Although access to resources does not lead to growth itself, it is mediated by the perceived value of the OSN. Trust and perceived value of the OSN increase the intention of recommending the OSN to other business partners (i.e., word of mouth). These outcomes are largely mediated by company growth and the perceived value of OSN participation. Implications for the use of OSN are discussed from the customer's (i.e., SME's) perspective, as well as from the corporate OSN perspective.
Asymmetric Price Responses of Residential Energy Demand in Ontario

During the last few decades, oil prices have experienced both sharp increases and, more recently, equally sharp decreases. A number of researchers (e.g. Gately 1993a, 1993b; Hogan 1993; Shealy 1990) have examined the demand responses to these price movements and concluded that price-induced changes in demand have not been symmetric. More specifically, this asymmetry is said to have taken the form of larger demand changes for price increases than for price decreases. To explain this phenomenon, it is typically argued that the oil price rises of the 1970s and early 1980s set in motion behavioural changes that had long-lasting effects, so that when price decreases occurred later in the 1980s, relatively small changes in demand were observed. Shealy (1990), among others, points to the capital stock as playing an important role in this process, but does not explicitly incorporate infornmation on the stock of capital in the model he estimates. Studies that have examined this issue are typically based on as many as three broad levels of aggregation. They tend to aggregate geographically, focusing on entire countries or even groups of countries. Many of these studies also aggregate across sectors of the economy, and thus fail to take into account the different patterns of energy utilization in different regions and/or sectors of the economy. Finally, by looking only at the demand for oil products or at total energy demand, these studies do not explicitly allow for inter-fuel substitution. In contrast, we examine residential energy demand in a single province (Ontario) and allow for inter-fuel substitution by specifying a system of fuel expenditure share equations, which is estimated using annual data for the period 1962-1989. Our focus on the residential sector is predicated on the
Market Timing: Style and Size Rotation Using the VIX

Changes in the Market Volatility Index (VIX) of the Chicago Board Options Exchange are statistically significant leading indicators of daily market returns. On days that follow increases in the VIX, portfolios of large-capitalization stocks outperform portfolios of small-capitalization stocks and value-based portfolios outperform growth-based portfolios. On days following a decrease in the VIX, the opposites occur. The implication is that market timing may be feasible—at least for portfolio yield enhancement.
Analyzing Export Behavior Through Managerial Characteristics and Perceptions: A Multiple Case-Based Research

ABSTRACT The decision-maker's role in international activity is crucial, particularly in the case of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the extant literature on internationalization is characterized by a lack of consensus among scholars as to what constitutes the managerial factor in determining exporting. Therefore, this study focuses on the following issue: Which are the decision-maker's characteristics and perceptions that may influence the export behavior of SMEs? To address this main research question, a multiple-case study method is applied across four Spanish exporting SMEs. The findings show that high educational level, language skills, high-risk tolerance, innovativeness, as well as strongly perceived export stimuli compared to low and relatively easy to overcome export barriers positively influence the export involvement and development in these investigated SMEs. The study provides further insights into the research topic by jointly studying managerial characteristics and perceptions in the Spanish context where the exporting activities have not been as widely studied so far.
DESARROLLO DEL ENOTURISMO DESDE LA PERSPECTIVA DE LAS BODEGAS FAMILIARES

Wine tourism has potential to assist in the economic development of rural areas, as the tourism industry provides a number of additional destinations can generate additional value to the region. However, the wine industry and tourism do not always go hand in hand. The cellars, which constitute the core of the tourism product, must engage in the development of this type of tourism. But overall, the wine sector comprises small businesses, many of them
Consultations: A Qualitative Enquiry Victims' Barriers to Discussing Domestic Violence in Clinical

Victims of domestic violence frequently attend health care facilities. In many cases, their abusive experience is neither disclosed nor discussed during clinical consultations. This study examined the barriers faced by women when discussing abuse with health care providers, specifically in cases involving Malaysian women with a history of domestic violence. A qualitative study using in-depth interviews was conducted with 10 women with a history of domestic violence residing at a shelter. Purposive sampling was conducted until data saturation. Using the grounded theory approach of analysis, themes that emerged from these interviews were then further analyzed to examine the barriers faced by these women. Women who experienced domestic violence faced multiple barriers while discussing their accounts of abuse with others. Values placed on the privacy of domestic violence; upholding the traditional gender roles; preserving the family unity; minimizing the abuse, the feeling of shame, self-blame; and fearing their abuser generally create internal barriers when discussing their encounters of abuse with health care providers. The perceived unknown role of health care professionals when dealing with patients experiencing domestic violence as well as the previous 1University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia Corresponding Author: Sajaratulnisah Othman, Department of Primary Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia. Email: sajaratul@ummc.edu. my 507136 JIVXXX10.1177/0886260513507136Journal of Interpersonal ViolenceOthman et al. research-article2013 at Universiti Malaya (S141/J/2004) on May 25, 2014 jiv.sagepub. com Downloaded from 1498 Journal of Interpersonal Violence 29(8) negative experiences in clinical consultations acted as external barriers for discussing abuse with health care providers. Women with domestic violence experiences faced internal and external barriers to discussing their abuse during clinical consultations. Physicians and health care providers must consider domestic violence in consultations with female patients. A good doctor–patient relationship that encompasses empathy, confidence, trust, support, assurance, confidentiality, and guidance can help patients with abusive backgrounds overcome these barriers, leading to the disclosure and discussion of their abusive encounters. Proper education, guidelines, and support for health care providers are required to help them assist women with histories of domestic violence.
The Acquisition of Failing Thrifts: Returns to Acquirers

The federal government's resolution of the thrift crisis under the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) has been criticized for "giving away" the assets of failed thrifts. One indicator of the regulators' effectiveness and efficiency in disposing of a failed thrift's assets is the equity market's reaction to the announcement that a particular acquirer has been awarded the right to purchase those assets. A few studies have examined this issue with mixed results. In one study, it was found that the acquirers paid less than market value under FSLIC resolutions, and so their shareholders appeared to realize abnormal returns. In another study, benefits were found only for resolutions that took place in December 1988, when several resolutions were concluded quickly prior to a significant change in the tax law.
The Eleven Deadliest Sins of Knowledge Management

This article draws attention to a number of errors that could potentially cripple the efforts of any organization attempting to generate and leverage knowledge. Many of these errors are associated with the concept of knowledge itself—how knowledge is understood in organizational settings. The article notes the sources of each error as well as some key implications for managing knowledge. It concludes with some brief suggestions on how to avoid, or at least ameliorate these errors.
Spanish version of Colquitt's Organizational Justice Scale.

BACKGROUND Organizational justice (OJ) is an important predictor of different work attitudes and behaviors. Colquitt's Organizational Justice Scale (COJS) was designed to assess employees' perceptions of fairness. This scale has four dimensions: distributive, procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice. The objective of this study is to validate it in a Spanish sample. METHOD The scale was administered to 460 Spanish employees from the service sector. 40.4% were men and 59.6% women. RESULTS The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported the four dimensions structure for Spanish version of COJS. This model showed a better fit to data that the others models tested. Cronbach's alpha obtained for subscales ranged between . 88 and . 95. Correlations of the Spanish version of COJS with measures of incivility and job satisfaction were statistically significant and had a moderate to high magnitude, indicating a reasonable degree of construct validity. CONCLUSIONS The Spanish version of COJS has adequate psychometric properties and may be of value in assessing OJ in Spanish setting.
"Successful aging": effect of subclinical cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death in older adults. Among those without clinical disease, high levels of subclinical disease are associated with poor survival. The effect of the extent of subclinical cardiovascular disease on the quality of the remaining years has not been defined. METHODS In a longitudinal cohort study, 2932 men and women aged 65 years and older were followed up for 8 years to determine the likelihood of maintaining intact health and functioning. Successful aging was defined as remaining free of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and with intact physical and cognitive functioning. RESULTS Younger age at study entry and a lower extent of subclinical cardiovascular disease were independently associated with the likelihood of maintaining successful aging. In age-stratified summaries, those with subclinical disease had a trajectory of decline similar to subjects 5 years older without subclinical vascular disease. Regression analyses showed that the decline associated with subclinical disease was equivalent to 6.5 (95% confidence interval, 6.4-6.6) years of aging for women and 5.6 (95% confidence interval, 5.4-5.8) years of aging for men. Individual measures of the extent of cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and higher C-reactive protein level were also independently predictive of fewer years of successful aging, but none of these factors substantially attenuated the effect of age itself. CONCLUSIONS There is a graded relationship between the extent of vascular disease measured noninvasively and the likelihood of maintaining intact health and function. Prevention of subclinical vascular disease may increase the quality and the quantity of years in late life.
Commercial Mortgage Underwriting: How Well Do Lenders Manage the Risks?

Loan-to-value ratio and debt service coverage ratios have long been viewed as the two important quantitative measures of the default risk of commercial mortgages. Option-based models of default provide strong theoretic support for the importance of original loan-to-value ratio. The same theoretical predictions have found strong empirical support in residential single-family mortgage analyses. However, recent empirical studies of commercial mortgage default have raised questions about the role of loan-to-value ratio in assessing the riskiness of commercial mortgages. These studies generally either find no relationship or a puzzling negative relationship between loan-to-value ratio and default. In this paper, we use a very large data base of commercial loan histories to thoroughly investigate this issue. We find strong evidence that loan-to-value ratio (and debt service coverage ratio) is endogenous to the underwriting process. Lenders react to other (unmeasured) risk factors by a combination of credit rationing (lowering the loan amount) and pricing. As a result, unusually low loan-to-value ratio loans appear to have above average risk in other dimensions and their default probabilities are equal to or higher than average. We find that the pricing spread that lenders establish as part of the underwriting process serves as an excellent summary measure of the riskiness of the loan. We test the effectiveness of lenders' ability to appropriately price loan-to-value risk and find that, on average, there is no unpriced effect of loan-to-value ratio after controlling for the lender's pricing.
Giant Planet Occurrence in the Stellar Mass-Metallicity Plane

Correlations between stellar properties and the occurrence rate of exoplanets can be used to inform the target selection of future planet-search efforts and provide valuable clues about the planet-formation process. We analyze a sample of 1266 stars drawn from the California Planet Survey targets to determine the empirical functional form describing the likelihood of a star harboring a giant planet as a function of its mass and metallicity. Our stellar sample ranges from M dwarfs with masses as low as 0.2 M⊙ to intermediate-mass subgiants with masses as high as 1.9 M⊙. In agreement with previous studies, our sample exhibits a planet-metallicity correlation at all stellar masses; the fraction of stars that harbor giant planets scales as f ∝ 101.2[Fe/H]. We can rule out a flat metallicity relationship among our evolved stars (at 98% confidence), which argues that the high metallicities of stars with planets is not likely due to convective envelope “pollution. ” Our data also rule out a constant planet occurrence rate for [Fe/H] < 0, indicating that giant planets continue to become rarer at sub-Solar metallicities. We also find that planet occurrence increases with stellar mass (f ∝ M⋆), characterized by a rise from 3% around M dwarfs (0.5 M⊙) to 14% around A stars (2 M⊙), at Solar metallicity. We argue that the correlation between stellar properties and giant planet occurrence is strong supporting evidence of the core-accretion model of planet formation.
Factors influencing family planning practice among reproductive age married women in Hlaing Township, Myanmar.

OBJECTIVE To study the factors that influence the family planning practice among married, reproductive age women in Hlaing Township, Myanmar. MATERIAL AND METHOD Cross-sectional survey research was conducted among 284 married, reproductive age women using stratified random sampling. The data were collected through questionnaire interviews during February and March 2012 and analyzed by frequency, percentage, Chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression. RESULTS The proportion of families practicing family planning was 74.7%, contraceptive injection being the most commonly used method. The factors influencing family planning practice were attitude towards family planning, 24-hour availability of family planning services, health worker support, and partner and friends support. The women with a positive attitude toward family planning practiced family planning 3.7 times more than women who had a negative attitude. If family planning services were available for 24 hours, then women would practice 3.4 times more than if they were not available for 24 hours. When women got fair to good support from health workers, they practiced 15.0 times more on family planning and 4.3 times more who got fair to good support from partners and friends than women who got low support. CONCLUSION The factors influencing family planning practice of married, reproductive age women were attitude toward family planning, 24-hour availability of family planning services, health worker support, and partner and friends support. The findings suggest that empowerment of health workers, training of volunteers, pharmacists and contraceptive drug providers, encouraging inter-spousal communication, and peer support, as well as an integrated approach to primary health care in order to target different populations to change women's attitudes on family planning, could increase family planning practice among Myanmar women.
Evaluation of three-dimensional kinematics of the distal portion of the forelimb in horses walking in a straight line.

OBJECTIVE To develop a method that allows quantification of the 3 anatomic rotations in the digital joints of moving horses and measure these rotations when horses are walking in a straight line on a hard track. ANIMALS 4 healthy French Trotter horses. PROCEDURE Triads of ultrasonic kinematic markers were surgically linked to the 4 distal segments of the digits of the left forelimb of each horse. Three-dimensional (3-D) coordinates of these markers were recorded in horses walking in a straight line. The three angles of rotation of each digital joint were calculated by use of a joint coordinate system as well as the 3-D orientation of the hoof and third metacarpal bone. A calibration procedure was developed to convert data from measurements within a technical coordinate system to data in relation to an anatomically relevant coordinate system. RESULTS Precision of the method was 0.5 degrees, and repeatability of the calibrations resulted in variations of 1.4 degrees. Extrasagittal movements of the proximal and distal interphalangeal joints were obvious during landing because the impact of the hoof was on the lateral side. Mean +/- SD extension of the proximal interphalangeal joint was 10.0 +/- 2.5 degrees. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE This study provides a description of the technical background, error analysis, and procedures used to measure the 3-D rotations of the 4 distal segments of the forelimb in walking horses. As a major result substantial involvement of the proximal interphalangeal joint in the sagittal and extrasagittal planes should incline investigators and clinicians to consider the functional importance of this joint.
Who Benefits from Training and R&D, the Firm or the Workers?

The present paper offers a novel study of the effects of intangible assets on wages and productivity. Training, R&D and physical capital are all taken into account, and their joint effects are examined. We use panels of firms in order to control for unobserved fixed effects and the potential endogeneity of training and R&D, using data for France and Sweden. The estimation of productivity and wage equations allows us to show how the benefits of investment in physical capital, training and R&D are shared between the firm and the workers. We found that firms indeed obtain the largest part of the returns to their investments, but their share is relatively lower for intangible assets (R&D and training) than for physical capital.