Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical analysis of online purchase of kid's products by urban Indian parents

E-commerce is increasingly becoming the chosen retail format with young consumers regardless of geographic constraints. Thus, it is but natural that as these consumers mature to parenthood, they would increasingly use the channel for making purchases meant for their child. The phenomenon takes on added significance for an urban parent as he juggles between parental, personal and professional roles, no matter what be the gender. Further, this parent serves as the mentor in the child's consumer socialisation process. This exploratory study is an attempt to explore the online purchase pattern of the urban Indian parent for children product categories. Based on a qualitative study with urban Indian parents a quantitative study was accomplished on a sample of 236 Indian parents, residing in the National Capital Region, India. The study showed a promising trend both in terms of frequency and online spends on a variety of product categories. Further, a step-wise discrimnant function was formulated on the basis of 12 purchase parameters, which could help distinguish the heavy from light online buyer.
Can Firms Build Capital-Market Reputation to Compensate for Poor Investor Protection ? Evidence from Dividend Policies

The existing literature on law and finance generally assumes that firms are passive recipients of the influence of investor protections on their ability to raise external financing. In this paper, we empirically identify a commitment mechanism, i.e., dividend payouts, which firms use to establish a reputation for better treatment of outside shareholders in order to compensate for country-level weak protection of shareholders and to obtain better access to equity markets. We show that, in weak-protection countries, firms with growth prospects tend to initiate dividends earlier and pay a higher level of dividends not only as compared to their counterparts in strong protection countries but also as compared to low-growth firms in the same legal regime. As evidence of better access to capital markets, in weak-protection countries, growth firms with a good dividend history (e.g., three years of consistently high dividend payouts) attain higher stock market valuation and raise more equity financing. JEL Classification:
Community-based Participatory Research: Necessary Next Steps

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is gaining increasing credence among public health researchers and practitioners. However, there is no standardization in assessing the quality of research methods, the effectiveness of the interventions, and the reporting requirements in the literature. The absence of standardization precludes meaningful comparisons of CBPR studies. Several authors have proposed a broad set of competencies required for CBPR research for both individuals and organizations, but the discussion remains fragmented. The Prevention Research Centers (PRC) Program recently began a qualitative assessment of its national efforts, including an evaluation of how PRCs implement CBPR studies. Topics of interest include types of community partnerships; community capacity for research, evaluation, and training; and factors that help and hinder partner relationships. The assessment will likely contribute to the development of a standard set of competencies and resources required for effective CBPR.
Smokeless tobacco consumption among school children.

BACKGROUND More than one-third of the tobacco consumed regionally is of smokeless form. AIMS To determine the prevalence and pattern of smokeless tobacco use among school children. SETTINGS AND DESIGN This cross-sectional study was conducted among children in 5 randomly selected high schools in Kannur district, Kerala, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted among 1200 children. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS PASW 17 software was used for data analysis. RESULTS The mean age of the students was 14.4 years with a standard deviation (SD) of 1.2 years, and 8.5% (CI, 7.1-10.2) of the participants were tobacco users. Smokeless tobacco was used by 2% (CI, 1.2-3.4) of the participants. None of the female students used tobacco products. Among the tobacco users, the mean age at the start of any tobacco use was 12.8 years with an SD of 1.1 years. The minimum age was 12 years and the maximum was 14 years. More than 50% smokeless tobacco users started their habit at the age of 12 years; 38.5% of them started at the age of 13 years and remaining at the age of 14 years. The 84.6% smokeless tobacco users were using it 2-3 times a week and 39% of them revealed that the tobacco products were purchased from shops located near the schools. Among the users, one used to keep the quid in the mouth for more than half an hour. CONCLUSION The study concludes that there is a need to educate the children regarding the hazards associated with tobacco consumption.
Understanding suppliers' participation in business-to-government (B2G) electronic auction markets in the thai context

This paper investigates online knowledge sharing behaviour in Baidu Knows, a platform sponsored by the largest search engine company Baidu in China. We developed a spider engine to collect data from over 2 million questions posted at Baidu Knows. The data collected allows us to profile registered members, to answer questions such as who are the main driving force of those online communities and their attributes, and who are the free-riders seldom posting and answering questions. We also test several hypotheses in explaining the motivations of knowledge sharing, and the quality of such knowledge sharing. Our results indicate that there is a large proportion of users who seldom answer questions, but always ask questions. Although their behaviour seems selfish at the surface, they are actually the key factors driving the growth of online knowledge sharing communities.
RNAi-mediated suppression of p-coumaroyl-CoA 3′-hydroxylase in hybrid poplar impacts lignin deposition and soluble secondary metabolism

p-Coumaroyl-CoA 3′-hydroxylase (C3′H) is a cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase that catalyzes the 3′-hydroxylation of p-coumaroyl shikimate and p-coumaroyl quinate. We used RNA interference to generate transgenic hybrid poplar suppressed in C3′H expression and analyzed them with respect to transcript abundance, cell wall structure and chemical composition, and soluble metabolite levels. RT-PCR expression profiles confirmed the down-regulation of C3′H in a number of lines, which generally correlated very well with reduced total cell wall lignin content. The most strongly repressed line was chosen for further analysis and compared with the wild-type trees. In-depth characterization revealed that along with the significant decrease in total lignin content, a significant shift in lignin monomer composition was observed, favoring the generation of p-hydroxyphenyl units at the expense of guaiacyl units while the proportion of syringyl moieties remained constant. Suppression of C3′H also resulted in the accumulation of substantial pools of 1-O-p-coumaroyl-β-d-glucoside and other phenylpropanoid glycosides, and p-coumaroyl shikimate, providing further insight into the role of C3′H in the lignin biosynthetic pathway. The data presented indicate that when down-regulated, C3′H becomes a rate-limiting step in lignin biosynthesis and further support the involvement of hydroxycinnamic acid shikimate esters in the lignin biosynthetic pathway.
Generation of lipid vesicles using microfluidic T-junctions with pneumatic valves

We describe a method for generating giant (micro sized) lipid vesicles using pneumatic valves and microfluidic T-junction. Water, oil containing lipids, and water were sequentially infused into the microfluidic channel to form bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) on chambers (Fig. 1). Valves on the back of the chambers were driven pneumatically and pushed the water out of the chamber; consequently the BLMs were blown into giant lipid vesicles that encapsulate materials containing in the first water phase. Since this method is simple enough, it will be useful for the rapid and efficient encapsulation within the lipid vesicles.
Venture Capital and Private Equity Contracting: An International Perspective

Other books present corporate finance approaches to the venture capital and private equity industry, but many key decisions require an understanding of the ways that law and economics work together. This revised and updated 2e offers broad perspectives and principles not found in other course books, enabling readers to deduce the economic implications of specific contract terms. This approach avoids the common pitfalls of implying that contractual terms apply equally to firms in any industry anywhere in the world. In the 2e, datasets from over 40 countries are used to analyze and consider limited partnership contracts, compensation agreements, and differences in the structure of limited partnership venture capital funds, corporate venture capital funds, and government venture capital funds. There is also an in-depth study of contracts between different types of venture capital funds and entrepreneurial firms, including security design, and detailed cash flow, control and veto rights. The implications of such contracts for value-added effort and for performance are examined with reference to data from an international perspective. With seven new or completely revised chapters covering a range of topics from Fund Size and Diseconomies of Scale to Fundraising and Regulation, this new edition will be essential for financial and legal students and researchers considering international venture capital and private equity. Features: an analysis of the structure and governance features of venture capital contracts; in-depth study of contracts between different types of venture capital funds and entrepreneurial firms; international datasets from over 40 countries around the world; additional references on a companion website; and sample contracts, including limited partnership agreements, term sheets, shareholder agreements, and subscription agreements.
Corporate social and environmental reporting : a user perspective

Most extant studies of corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER) tend to examine the volume of CSER by companies. In contrast, the significance of this thesis lies in its focus on key stakeholders who are users of CSER and their needs. The perspectives of multiple key stakeholders, including investing, procuring and campaigning stakeholders, are investigated with respect to what they perceive to be valuable social and environmental reporting in supporting decision making. This thesis also goes beyond CSER and examines social and environmental reporting from other sources, including but not limited to reporting arising from private meetings between companies and stakeholders and information about companies’ social and environmental impact or performance from information intermediaries. Stakeholder perceptions on the value and the qualitative characteristics of social and environmental reporting have been sought through semi-structured questionnaire with individuals drawn from the key stakeholder groups. Consistent with stakeholder theory, it is expected that stakeholder needs may vary. The findings in this thesis support a hypothesised relationship between the value of social and environmental reporting and information qualitative characteristics. Other key findings show that the availability of social and environmental reporting affects stakeholders’ extent of use of social and environmental reporting and that the drivers for the value of information and the extent of use of information are different. The findings present important implications for both company managers and policy-makers. Company managers are better informed concerning stakeholder information needs. Thus they are better equipped to make decisions about the extent, scope and form of CSER. Furthermore, this thesis enables policy-makers to assess whether CSER requirements under current regulatory mechanisms reflect stakeholder needs. Finally this thesis has contributed towards enriching literature in the CSER area.
The Dividend Puzzle; An Enigma 50 Years on

This paper investigates over fifty years of the major dividend policy themes, from Litners 1956 theory that earnings drive dividends through to the great financial crises impacting on international and Australian companies dividend policies. The question of why companies pay dividends seems to have a fluid, interwoven, contradictory and everchanging nature. Black’s conclusion in 1976, that when it comes to dividends there is no clear cut answer, only a puzzle, is as relevant today as it was then.
MODEL PERILAKU PENERIMAAN INTERNET BANKING DI BANK SYARI’AH : PERAN MOTIVASI SPIRITUAL

This study contributes to develop technology adoption model based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) on the customers of Islamic bank. This study aims to build a conceptual and empirical model on the role of spiritual motivation, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust in the acceptance of internet banking, thereby building theoretical model that can be used as a reference as model behavior of products based information technology acceptance in Islamic bank. This study is different from previous studies in the following matters: this study builds theoretical models of internet banking acceptance behavior by developing a new variable, namely the spiritual motivation predicted to influence customer behavior in using internet banking and integrates the variable of trust with Technology Acceptance Model. This study is a type of survey research by using a quantitative approach. The research data are obtained from 170 Muslim customers of Bank Syariah Mandiri in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, by using convenience sampling technique. For research model testing technique, it used the Structural Equation Model approach. The study's findings include seven items. First, this study suggests new findings that spiritual motivation is positively and significantly associated with customer interest in using internet banking. Second, trust is not related to the interest in internet banking acceptance behavior. Third, perceived ease of use is positively and significantly associated with trust. Fourth, perceived ease of use is positively and significantly associated with perceived usefulness. Fifth, perceived ease of use is not related to the interest of internet banking acceptance behavior. However, in this study, it is found that perceived ease of use is an important element that affects the perceived usefulness and is indirectly able to influence the behavioral intention in using internet banking. Sixth, perceived usefulness is associated with a positive and significant interest in internet banking acceptance behavior. Seventh, behavioral intention is significantly and positively related to internet banking actual usage behavior. Thus, these new findings reinforce the theoretical model constructed in this study on the role of spiritual motivation in the acceptance of internet banking in Islamic bank.
Audit Committee Expertise and Financial Reporting Quality: An empirical study in Malaysia

Since Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002, there has been growing interest in the research concerning audit committee expertise. Audit committee plays an important role on the quality and credibility of financial reporting, since they effectively function as a governance mechanism. Whilst, many studies have examined the attributes of audit committee financial expertise with regard to financial reporting quality, and their composition of expertise on the audit committee board, few have focused on the financial expertise aspect specifically and none have considered extending the meaning of expert other than the notion of a professionally qualified accountant. This study examines the audit committee expertise attribute in detail and investigates the relationship between these expertise attributes and financial reporting quality, and thus, complements extant literature on audit committee expertise
Determinants of target capital structure: evidence on South East Asia countries under dynamic framework

The purpose of this study is to identify the existence of target capital structure and to explore the determinants of target capital structure for selected countries in the South East Asia region using the dynamic framework. We also analyze the impact of country specific determinants on the corporate structure decisions within the firms in the countries understudy. We contribute to the existing literature by documenting strong evidence that firms in the selected countries pursue target capital structure. We also conclude that the importance of firm specific determinants varies across countries for firms in the selected countries in the region. The introduction of country specific variables such as the level of stock market development, bond market development, economic growth, interest rates and country governance support and enhance these findings. The importance of country determinants also varies across countries understudy despite sharing some similarities. We also witness cases of inconsistencies regarding the impact of factors on capital structure in the countries under study. To wrap up, we conclude that the capital structure decision is not only the product of the firm’s own characteristics but also the result of institutional environment and corporate governance in which the firm operates.
Mathematical and software providing of research of deformation and relaxation processes in environments with fractal structure

The two-dimensional mathematical model of rheological behavior of wood in non-isothermal moisture transfer conditions which consider the medium fractal structure, available memory and spatial correlation effects was synthesized. Difference schemes of differential equations of heat and moisture transfer and visco-elastic deformation in the two-dimensional area with appropriate boundary conditions was constructed. The algorithmic and software aspects for implementing the mathematical models using predictor-corrector method was obtained.
Detecting 2014 Northern Iraq Insurgency using night-time light imagery

The territory controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has grown rapidly since the start of the Syrian Civil War. In 2014, ISIS expanded its control into Northern Iraq, leading to a major humanitarian crisis in the region. This study makes use of night-time light images to detect the ISIS offensive against Iraq in 2014. We developed an algorithm to separate city lights from oilfield lights, based on an urban extent map. The image analysis indicates that all Northern Iraqi provinces experienced a large reduction in city lighting, varying from 16% to 93%. This reduction is especially evident in the three ISIS-controlled provinces, Al-Anbar, Saladin, and Ninawa, where the reduction of city lighting from May to December 2014 was 59%, 50%, and 93%, respectively. Most of the ISIS-controlled cities, including Mosul and Tikrit, experienced a loss of more than 90% in city lighting after being seized by ISIS, while the cities controlled by the Iraqi security forces (ISF) did not lose as much lighting. In contrast, the city lights in Ar Raqqa, Syria, ISIS’s de facto capital, did not show a decline after that region was seized by ISIS. We conclude that the conflict in Northern Iraq has resulted in a major loss of city lighting and that this loss is most likely due to lack of access to the Iraqi electricity supply grid rather than a deliberate ISIS strategy.
A systematic review of the quality of research on hands-on and distance healing: clinical and laboratory studies.

PURPOSE To systematically review the quality of published experimental clinical and laboratory research involving hands-on healing and distance healing between 1955 and 2001. DATA SOURCES Studies were identified through comprehensive literature searches on spiritual healing in MEDLINE, PSYCH LIT, EMBASE, CISCOM, and the Cochrane Library from their inceptions to December 2001. STUDY SELECTION We selected published randomized, controlled trials of spiritual healing (hands-on healing and distance healing) done in clinical and laboratory settings, all of which had been peer reviewed. DATA EXTRACTION Independent quality assessment of internal validity was conducted on all identified studies using the comprehensive Likelihood of Validity Evaluation scale. Clinical and laboratory studies were analyzed separately and then subdivided into hands-on healing or distance healing interventions. RESULTS A total of 45 laboratory and 45 clinical studies published between 1956 and 2001 met the inclusion criteria. Of the clinical studies, 31 (70.5%) reported positive outcomes as did 28 (62%) of the laboratory studies; 4 (9%) of the clinical studies reported negative outcomes as did 15 (33%) of the laboratory studies. The mean percent overall internal validity for clinical studies was 69% (65% for hands-on healing and 75% for distance healing) and for laboratory studies 82% (82% for hands-on healing and 81% for distance healing). Major methodological problems of these studies included adequacy of blinding, dropped data in laboratory studies, reliability of outcome measures, rare use of power estimations and confidence intervals, and lack of independent replication. CONCLUSIONS When laboratory studies were compared to clinical studies in the areas of hands-on healing and distance healing across the quality criteria for internal validity, distance healing studies scored better than hands-on healing studies, and laboratory studies fared better than clinical studies. Many studies of healing contained major problems that must be addressed in any future research.
On Dualizing Clones as Lawvere Theories

In this paper we treat clones as Lawvere theories and then dualize them as categories, rather than as single objects of a category of algebras. The approach applies only to some primitive-positive clones, but in return, a structure with somewhat surprising properties is obtained. To illustrate the method, we thoroughly investigate the lattice of clones of operations over a finite boolean algebra.
What is Special About Hedge Fund Activism? Evidence from 13-D Filings

We provide an empirical assessment of two incentivizing mechanisms that help overcome agency costs caused by the separation of ownership and control: namely inside ownership and external blockholdings. Our findings suggest that defining features of these mechanisms, like high ownership and costly (active) effort provision, are important determinants for a successful outcome. On the other hand, the type of activist seems to be of minor importance only. We find that announcements of activist hedge fund holdings are not accompanied with larger abnormal returns than our base-group of activist investors. The only group standing apart with a smaller effect are financial institutions. Our sample covers all Schedule 13D filings from 1985-2012. Incidences of active blockholders are very frequent with over 10000 filings per year (1900 initial filings). Additionally, these events are associated with substantial abnormal returns, 7% for initial lings (4% for all filings).