Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The US–China trade dispute: spill-over effects for selected oil-exporting countries in Africa using GVAR analysis

Abstract This article forecasts possible effects of the trade war between the two economic powers, United States (US) and China on oil-exporting African countries using historical data from 1970 to 2017. It is observed that the present trade disagreement between US and China would disrupt global trade positively for some countries and negative for the others due to world trade integration. In view of this scenario, we adopt a global vector autoregression (GVAR) to examine the global effects of the two dominant countries on the output of the selected oil-exporting African countries. After establishing strong exogeneity between foreign variables and the domestic variables, the findings show that foreign output shocks are positive over the period for all the selected countries except for Angola. In addition, the effects of oil export revenue shocks are different with long-run negative effects for Nigeria and Tunisia while positive effects are found for Algeria, Angola, Egypt and Gabon. This article concludes that all the selected African countries are susceptible to external shocks from US and China trade relations.
Misvaluation and UK Mergers 1985-2002

This paper examines the effects of ex-ante misvaluation on merger activities in UK 1985-2002 using a sample of 302 bidders and targets. Adopting the methodology of M/B by Rhodes-Kropf, Robinson, and Viswananthan (2005), we decompose M/B into three components: firm-specific errors, sector-wide errors and long-run to book ratio. The first two capture misvaluation while the last reflects growth prospects. Our empirical results provide strong support for the misvaluation theory in line with US studies. We also find that high long-run-to-value firms acquire low long-run-to-value firms contrary to the findings by Rhodes-Kropf et al.
Global governance as patchwork: the making of the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract This article develops an analytical framework geared at making sense of global governance as patchwork. Our three-step methodology operationalizes the concept of ‘bricolage’ by focusing on the political practices and the value struggles that underpin the making of global public policies. This framework throws light on the widespread contestation over the objectives and solutions that should be pursued globally, as well as on the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that structure global governance. To demonstrate the relevance of our approach, we examine a key initiative drawn from contemporary IPE and development politics: the making of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Analyzing the making of the SDGs through our methodology sheds light on the bricolage of global public policies in three interconnected ways: (1) in showing the social mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion; (2) in documenting the variety of views involved and the prevalence of conflict; and (3) in identifying practical and normative alternatives that get discarded along the way. Overall, the proposed framework helps restore the contingency and idiosyncrasies of global policies, while also uncovering their common patterns.
The Effect of Unilateral Lateral Rectus Recession for the Treatment of Moderate-Angle Exotropia

Purpose: To evaluate the surgical results and the amount of correction per millimeter after unilateral lateral rectus recession for moderate-angle exotropia in a pediatric population. Methods: This study included 30 subjects who underwent 9-mm unilateral lateral rectus recession for basic type intermittent exotropia with deviation of 23 to 28 prism diopters (PD) and were followed-up for 6 months or more after surgery. Results: Seventeen subjects were male and 13 were female. The mean age of subjects was 9.7 years. Defining satisfactory postoperative ocular alignment as 8PD or less, 25 of 30 subjects (83.3%) were satisfactorily aligned at 2 months postoperatively. The success rates at 4, and 6 months postoperatively were 76.7% respectively. No overcorrected subjects were found after 2 months postoperatively. A postoperative limitation of abduction was not found in all subjects after 2 months postoperatively. The average amount of correction per millimeter of recession at 2, 4, and 6 months was 2.830. 26PD, 2.750. 37PD, and 2.720. 44PD respectively (range, 1.56 to 3.18PD). There was no statistically significant difference in the amount of correction per millimeter throughout the follow-up period (ANOVA, p=0.05). Conclusions: Unilateral lateral rectus recession appears to be an effective surgical procedure for the treatment of moderate-angle exotropia. However to reduce the rate of undercorrection, which is one of disadvantages of this procedure, proper patient selection is required.
Overnight Returns: An International Sentiment Measure

Abstract The suitability of overnight returns as a firm-specific investor sentiment measure, previously found in the United States, is similarly present in international equity markets. This delivers a completely novel approach to measure investor sentiment at the firm level. For applicability reasons overnight returns have to fulfill 3 characteristics that would be expected of a sentiment measure. First, overnight returns persist in the short run; second, this persistence is stronger among harder-to-value firms; and third, stocks with high overnight returns underperform in the long run. Implementing this novel sentiment measure on a common anomaly, the authors find explanatory power even beyond a market-wide sentiment measure.
State capitalism(s) redux? Theories, tensions, controversies

This article interrogates the notion of state capitalism, exploring the contributions and limits of the concept as a means of theorizing the more visible role of the state across the world capitalist economy. We critically synthesize the key arguments, outlining commonly cited properties and practices of state capitalism, in three bodies of literature: strategic management, comparative capitalism and global political economy. We find that the term not only lacks a unified definition, but actually refers to an extremely wide array of policy instruments, strategic objectives, institutional forms and networks, that involve the state to different degrees. For this proliferation of competing usages to be productive and not lead to analytical impasses, we argue that there is a need for a heightened level of reflexive scrutiny of state capitalism as a category of analysis. In that spirit, we identify three issues that the literature must further grapple with for the term to be analytically meaningful, that is, capable of rendering (state)capitalist diversity amenable to analysis and critique: (1) the ‘missing link’ of a theory of the capitalist state, (2) the time horizons of state capitalism, or the question of ‘periodization’, (3) territorial considerations or the question of ‘locating’ state capitalism.
A Memetic Algorithm for the Green Vehicle Routing Problem

The green vehicle routing problem is a variation of the classic vehicle routing problem in which the transportation fleet is composed of electric vehicles with limited autonomy in need of recharge during their duties. As an NP-hard problem, this problem is very difficult to solve. In this paper, we first propose a memetic algorithm (MA)—a population-based algorithm—to tackle this problem. To be more specific, we incorporate an adaptive local search procedure based on a reward and punishment mechanism inspired by reinforcement learning to effectively manage the multiple neighborhood moves and guide the search, an effective backbone-based crossover operator to generate the feasible child solutions to obtain a better trade-off between intensification and diversification of the search, and a longest common subsequence-based population updating strategy to effectively manage the population. The purpose of this research is to propose a highly effective heuristic for solving the green vehicle routing problem and bring new ideas for this type of problem. Experimental results show that our algorithm is highly effective in comparison with the current state-of-the-art algorithms. In particular, our algorithm is able to find the best solutions for 84 out of the 92 instances. Key component of the approach is analyzed to evaluate its impact on the proposed algorithm and to identify the appropriate search mechanism for this type of problem.
The stakeholder-empowering philanthropy of Edward Filene

Abstract Credit unions currently serve over 110 million members in the United States. This is surprising, given the challenges associated with forming cooperatives. This paper explains how grants were used to overcome these challenges and create the modern credit union sector. Edward Filene, a wealthy 20th-century department store owner, provided philanthropic funding and technical expertise to early credit unions, resulting directly in the creation of 26,000 American credit unions over a 45-year period. Filene's leadership helped overcome the various social dilemmas associated with creating cooperatives, reforming institutions, and establishing an institutional framework that enables and supports cooperatives.
Digital labour markets in the platform economy: mapping the political challenges of crowd work and gig work

This study takes a closer look at platform-based digital business models and their implications for the economy and for society. While digital platforms have come to play a role in many branches of the economy, the present publication is focussed on the socio-politically most contested ones, namely digital labour platforms. These new platforms are increasingly beset by criticism. Usually they rely on a workforce of independent contractors, who work on their own account and at their own risk, for low wages and without social security. Neither the platform providers nor their clients take on the role and responsibilities of an employer. Labour laws, worker protection, health and safety regulations, quality of work and social security contributions mostly fall to the responsibility of the independent contractors alone, who are also not entitled to the kind of workers' participation common in other sectors. The clients of the platforms essentially gain access to an on-demand workforce, while the independent contractors who provide the labour are subject to precarious working conditions.
ANÁLISIS DE LA DESERCIÓN ESTUDIANTIL EN LAS UNIVERSIDADES DEL ECUADOR Y AMÉRICA LATINA

ANALYSIS OF STUDENT DEATH IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF ECUADOR AND LATIN AMERICA RESUMEN Esta investigacion se analiza la causas y factores de desercion universitario y el desarrollo sobre los niveles de desercion en las universidades de Ecuador y America Latina, con el fin de identificar los factores que interaccionan e inciden en el aumento de la desercion, en este estudio encontramos que aspectos como el socioeconomico, educativo y psicologica influyen significativamente en esta problematica siendo los que representan mayor relevancia en los articulos, tesis y libros citados bibliograficamente en este trabajo. Tambien se logro identificar que utilizando estrategias de retencion y programas de seguimiento en los estudiantes durante toda la etapa de pregrado han disminuido significativamente la desercion universitaria en otros paises. Por tal motivo los programas permiten tener indicadores donde los elementos de mayor convergencia entre los estudios, encontramos con alta frecuencia las dificultades economicas, la historia personal y familiar de los estudiantes, las falencias en la educacion media y en menor medida plantean estrategias que puedan ser usadas por universidades. Con estos programas que son especificos para cada factor podemos concluir que, aunque existe gran interes en el fenomeno de la desercion y diversidad en los estudios encontrados, la insolvencia reposa en la separacion de estrategias y politicas efectivas y cuestionables que frenen la desercion en las universidades. PALABRAS CLAVE: Desercion; factores; programas; estrategias; seguimiento. ABSTRACT This article analyzes the causes and factors of university dropout and development on dropout rates in Ecuador and Latin America, with the object of identify the factors that interact and influence the increase in dropouts. This study found that aspects such as social-economic, educational and psychological significantly influence this problem being that pose the greatest relevance in articles, theses and books cited bibliographically in this work. It was also possible to identify that using retention strategy and monitoring programs on students throughout the undergraduate stage have significantly decreased the college dropout in other countries. For this reason programs have indicators which allow the elements of greater convergence between the studies, we found a high frequency economic difficulties, personal and family history of students, shortcomings in secondary education and less posed strategies that can be used by universities. With these programs that are specific to each factor we can conclude that, although there is great interest in the phenomenon of desertion and diversity in the studies found, insolvency lies in the separation of strategies and effective and questionable policies to curb dropout in universities. KEYWORDS: dropout; factors; programs; strategies; monitoring.
Corporate Governance: To What Extent it is important in the Arab Countries?

Globally, Corporate Governance is an important and vital control system and its importance has led to essential for such a system to be applied. The current paper focused on the root of such a system, which started officially on 2002 in America as a form of Sarbanes–Oxley Act. The literature review demonstrated that corporate governance and its beginning started for centuries ago. The current study dealt with some useful information about the origin of corporate governance with highlight of its presence and spread in the Arab countries through what have been done by the researchers in this context. Thus, this study gives a clear imagination to the researchers and academic about the history of corporate governance and brief account about its existence in some of the Arab countries.
Determinants and Impact of Online Reviews on Product Satisfaction

Abstract As an increasing number of consumers prefer online shopping, online customer reviews play an important role in a customer’s pre-purchase decisions. Both reviews and product information are seen as a guide that impacts a customer’s decision process. Given the growing importance of E-commerce, this study examines the impact that online reviews and product details have on customers’ product satisfaction. In this study, we specifically explore the role that a customer’s product certainty and review helpfulness have on product satisfaction. The study furthers the body of knowledge regarding online reviews and factors that influence customers’ product satisfaction. The study results provide insight into the factors that should help E-commerce companies adapt their business model to better fit consumers’ expectations.
Multi-year prediction of European summer drought conditions for the agricultural sector

Decadal climate prediction, where climate models are initialized with the contemporaneous state of the Earth system and run for a decade into the future, represents a new source of near-term climate information to better inform decisions and policies across key climate-sensitive sectors. This paper illustrates the potential usefulness of such predictions for building a climate service for agricultural needs. In particular, we assess the forecast quality of multi-model climate predictions in estimating two user-relevant drought indices, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), at multi-annual timescales during European summer. We obtain high skill for predicting five-year average (forecast years 1–5) SPEI across Southern Europe, while for the same forecast period SPI exhibits high and significant skill over Scandinavia and its surrounding regions. In addition, an assessment of the added value of initialized decadal climate information with respect to standard uninitialized climate projections is presented. The model initialization improves the forecast skill over Central Europe, the Balkan region and Southern Scandinavia. Most of the increased skill found with initialization seems to be due to the climate forecast systems ability to improve the extended summer precipitation and potential evapotranspiration forecast, as well as their ability to adequately represent the observed effects of these climate variables on the drought indices.
Real Effects of PCAOB International Inspections

This paper examines the effect of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) international inspection program on companies' financing and investing decisions. Difference-in-differences regression estimates suggest that companies respond to their auditor receiving a “deficiency-free” inspection report by issuing additional external capital amounting to 1.4 percent of assets and increasing investment by 0.5 percent of assets. These effects are larger for (1) financially constrained companies and (2) companies located in countries where there is no regulator or the regulator does not conduct inspections. Further, the effect on financing decisions is stronger in countries with (1) low corruption, (2) strong rule of law, and (3) high regulatory quality. Descriptive evidence suggests that inspections increase the use of financial covenants in debt contracts, which is likely one of the mechanisms through which inspections generate real effects. This paper documents the value of PCAOB inspections in mitigating financing frictions for non-U.S. companies. JEL Classifications: D8; D25; G15; G31; G38; M4; M41; M42. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text.
Valuation effects of cultural disparity on cross border mergers: The evidence from India

The object of this study is to explore the effect of cultural distance on both the long run and short run performance of cross border mergers and acquisitions undertaken by Indian acquiring firms. We utilize buy and hold returns (BHAR), cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) and cross-sectional regression analysis in our study. Adopting the traditional Hofstede measure of cultural distance and other pertinent variables, commonly used to measure cultural differences, we document a negative and statistically significant influence of cultural distance on Indian cross-border M&As and corroborate some of other findings reported in prior research. Also, we find that the BHAR is nevertheless higher when the acquisitions are friendly, paid for 100% cash, and the acquiring firm is large, older and belongs to a business group. The inclusion of the variable ‘business group’ along with industry relatedness and acquirer size provides valuable insights into the Indian cross border acquisition landscape, wherein business groups dominate to a great extent.
Prognosis of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis

Objective To investigate the long-term prognosis of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis(CVST) and to identify the early predictors of poor outcome.Methods We performed a prospective register study on the prognosis of CVST patients.All patients were followed up continuously.The primary endpoint was death or dependence as assessed by the modified Rankin Scale(mRS) score 2 at month 6.A multivariable logistic regression model was applied to identify the predictors of outcome.Results A total of 52 CVST patients were included.The rates of recurrence and death at month 6 were 13.5% and 7.7%,respectively,and 29.9% of the patients were dead or dependent at month 6.The multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that the predictors of death or dependence at month 6 were intracranial parenchymal lesion(OR=14.62,95%CI 2.36 to 90.36) and delayed diagnosis(OR=13.14,95%CI 1.90 to 90.84). Conclusion In China,CVST is still a disease that may lead to death or dependence.Its long-term prognosis is relatively poor compared to that reported in western patients.This difference may due to the delayed diagnosis of CVST in China.
Seborrheic Dermatitis-like Norwegian Scabies on a Patient Living in an Eldercare Hospital

Norwegian scabies is a crusted rash that's caused by a massive infestation with the mite Sarcoptes scabiei. The characteristic skin lesions of this form are gross scaling and hyperkeratotic plaques, and especially on the hands, feet, face, nails and scalp with varying degrees of pruritus. It is often seen in the individuals with human immunodeficiency virus infection, the elderly, immunocompromised patients and institutionalized persons. We report here on a case of Norwegian scabies on an 86-year-old patient who was living in an eldercare hospital, and the patient presented with localized, pruritic, erythematous patches with thick yelolwish crusts on the scalp.
EFFECT OF MANAGERIAL OWNERSHIP, DEBT COVENANT, POLITICAL COST AND GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES ON ACCOUNTING CONSERVATISM LEVELSd Growth Opportunities On Accounting Conservatism Levels

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of managerial ownership, debt covenants, political costs and growth opportunities on the level of accounting conservatism, case studies on manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2011-2015. Testing this hypothesis uses multiple regression analysis. The regression coefficient test (T Test) in this study shows that the debt covenant and growth opportunities have a significant negative effect on the level of accounting conservatism, while the managerial ownership and political cost variables have no significant effect on the level of accounting conservatism. Suggestions for this study are to be able to expand the research sample so that the results can be generalized and can also be used to add or replace other variables that can affect accounting conservatism.
A Networked Analysis and Engineering Framework for New Business Models

New technological possibilities and paradigm shifts from product-centered to service-centered offerings are one of the main drivers of business models. Business ventures today are more and more networked. Often, various partners are needed to deliver a service or product to frequently cross-linked customers with sometimes bi- or even multi-variant roles. Furthermore, business models are embedded in socio-technical systems where different kinds of needs and values of all actors, including social, ecological, technical and economic values, have to be balanced. The resulting complex network of actors, needs and values requires continuous management in order to create and operate viable and sustainable business models. This paper proposes a multi-layer framework to analyze existing business models as well as to shape new business ventures in a networked and values-based way and to support the identification of tacit network effects within business ecosystems. Based on an existing multi-layered analysis toolkit, focusing on legal and business dynamics aspects, an enhanced visualization and analysis tool is proposed that focuses especially on ethical, social and environmental aspects to foster the creation of (strongly) sustainable business models. The research process to create the presented approach followed the Design Science Research paradigm by applying argumentative-deductive analysis (ADA) and first applications in real-world case studies. A practical case from an international Open Source Software (OSS) project serves as an example to illustrate this values-based visualization and analysis layer and its benefits for managers and decision makers in the area of business model and information system management.