Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance of buyout-backed initial public offerings:Evidence from the United States

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to research whether initial public offerings (IPOs) backed by buyout sponsors are able to deliver superior stock performance over non-backed issues. Based on the benefits brought by the leveraged buyout model, the information asymmetry issues are likely to be mitigated in buyout-backed offerings. This indicates less negative surprises in the aftermarket and is expected to reflect on better stock market performance. I utilize buy-and-hold abnormal returns against three different benchmarks and time periods of 12, 24 and 36 months to detect patterns in stock performance between buyoutand nonbacked IPOs. In addition, the causes of performance are studied in multivariate regressions to gain insight on which offer-, company-, and owner-specific factors drive the stock’s performance. DATA The sample contains 2,021 IPOs listed in the United States between April 1996 and December 2008. The SDC Platinum’s dataset of buyout-backed offerings is validated by studying their IPO prospectuses, identifying 321 issues as buyout-backed ones. Stock price data is obtained from Center for Research in Security Prices, and accounting items from Compustat. RESULTS I find strong evidence for buyout-backed offerings outperforming their non-backed peers and the S&P 500 benchmark over the first year of trading. Still, the persistence of outperformance does not hold consistently for longer time periods or against all benchmarks. This study shows support for buyout-firm reputation, length of buyout-firm involvement and earnings quality to have a significant positive impact on the stock performance of buyout-backed offerings. However, I find no evidence on the size of buyout-firm’s ownership share to affect the performance.
Una aproximación al RTE y a la Tarea de Búsqueda de Implicación Textual usando Máquinas de Soporte Vectorial

En este trabajo se presenta un sistema de Reconocimiento de Implicacion Textual, y un subsistema que permite atacar el problema de la busqueda de implicaciones. El sistema utiliza un clasificador de Maquina de Soporte Vectorial con un conjunto de 32 caracteristicas, las cuales incluyen similaridad lexica y semantica para las tareas de clasificacion de dos y tres vias. Adicionalmente, se presenta una aproximacion inicial al problema de busqueda de implicancias en un conjunto de documentos que utiliza analisis de correferencias.
Small Business Establishment Profiles and Rapid Population Growth in Sunbelt Metropolitan Areas, 1995-2005

This study investigates a linkage between rapid population growth in the Sunbelt's metropolitan areas (MSAs) and characteristics of small-scale businesses. Many Sunbelt MSAs are experiencing relatively rapid employment growth that also fuels population growth, and such linkages could well be related to especially potent employment multiplier effects associated with small firms. Using data from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for 2000, relative concentrations of small-scale establishments in rapidly growing Sunbelt MSAs are described and classified by type. Size of MSA appears to be an important factor in supporting higher- and/or lower-order activities, as proposed by the basic principles of central place theory. In contrast, some of the slowest growing Snowbelt MSAs show a lack of small businesses in key economic sectors, particularly quaternary activities, and their economies continue to be dominated by location-specific industries, such as mining.
Exploring or exporting? Qualitative methods in times of globalisation

Europeanism, westernism and methodological imperialism all refer to the classic criticism of Western research in non-Western contexts. Though I welcome the debate, I find arguments based on simple binary oppositions and descriptions problematic. This debate is better positioned as one about the quality of qualitative research. With reference to the criticism I ask if contemporary qualitative research is stuck in old problems. Based on my ethnographic data from East Africa I show that the pitfalls of Western research that are pointed to in classic criticisms are the outcome of old models and poor analytic work. I also show that contemporary ‘Western’ qualitative research offers analytic alternatives that better allow us to capture local non-Western contexts. Nonetheless, I welcome new epistemologies emerging from non-Western philosophies and practices not yet known in the hegemonic West.
Professional Power Through Education: Universal Course Design Initiatives in Occupational Therapy Curriculum

ABSTRACT The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) has put forth a Centennial Vision that requires academic settings to explore and evaluate modes of instruction for future occupational therapy practitioners. The authors of the Centennial Vision call for occupational therapy to be recognized as a powerful profession that contributes to the health and wellness of society. They further state that education is a key factor to achieving this power aspect of the vision, and this will require innovative instructional methods that produce positive educational outcomes. This study explored the effectiveness of Universal Course Design (UCD) in occupational therapy curriculum. UCD ensures the best learning environment and instructional methods for all learners prior to instruction, as opposed to altering the learning environment or instructional methods for a select few after instruction has begun. The findings indicate that those students participating in UCD methods demonstrated higher educational outcomes in occupational therapy curriculum (t == 3.885, p ==.000). Therefore, this instructional method appears to be a beneficial process to realizing some of the key goals set forth in the AOTA Centennial Vision.
A Conceptual Schema Based XML Schema with Integrity Constraints Checking

The more popular XML for exchanging and representing information on Web, the more important flat XML (XML) and intelligent editors become. For data exchanging, an XML data with an XML Schema and integrity constraints are preferred. We employ an object-role modeling (ORM) for enriching the XML Schema constraints and providing better validation the XML Data. An XML conceptual schema is presented using the ORM conceptual model. Editor Meta Tables are generated from the conceptual schema diagram and are populated. A User XML Schema base on the information in the editor meta tables is generated. However, W3C XML Schema language does not support all of the ORM constraints. Therefore, we propose an Editor XML Schema and an Editor XML Data to cover unsupported the ORM constraints. We propose the algorithms for defining constraint in the User XML Schema and extending validity constraint checking. Finally, XQuery is used for extending validity checking.
Overly Scripted: Exploring the Impact of a Scripted Literacy Curriculum on a Preschool Teacher's Instructional Practices in Mathematics

As part of a renewed focus on early childhood mathematics education, researchers have recently called for increased attention to preschool mathematics curricula. This article, which is based on a multiyear ethnographic study in a rural preschool primarily serving African American children, contributes to this area of interest by documenting the instructional practices a teacher learned from her mandated literacy curriculum. This curriculum, which was highly scripted, shaped the teacher's instructional practices in mathematics as well as in literacy. The teacher's mathematical engagement with children, during formal lessons and informal play, reflected the instructional beliefs of the literacy curriculum, which was demonstrated by a focus on efficiently completing planned tasks, rather than pursuing children's thinking, and by narrowing mathematics to the use of proper grammar and posing simple questions. This study argues that the curriculum's highly structured scripts made it less likely that the teacher would engage in innovative practices in mathematics, which reduced opportunities for children in the classroom to reason and problem solve mathematically. In addition, because of the adoption patterns of scripted curricula, teachers of low-income, minority children are more likely to have their mathematics teaching shaped in this way.
How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic Organization and Leadership

"One of the best theoretical and applied analyses of university academic organization and leadership in print. This book is significant because it is not only thoughtfully developed and based on careful reading of the extensive literature on leadership and governance, but it is also deliberately intAnded to enable the author to bridge the gap between theories of organization, on one hand, and practical application, on the other. " ? Journal of Higher Education
Resistance to Sri Lankan Cassava Mosaic Virus (SLCMV) in Genetically Engineered Cassava cv. KU50 through RNA Silencing

Cassava ranks fifth among the starch producing crops of the world, its annual bioethanol yield is higher than for any other crop. Cassava cultivar KU50, the most widely grown cultivar for non-food purposes is susceptible to Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus (SLCMV). The objective of this work was to engineer resistance to SLCMV by RNA interference (RNAi) in order to increase biomass yield, an important aspect for bioethanol production. Here, we produced transgenic KU50 lines expressing dsRNA homologous to the region between the AV2 and AV1 of DNA A of SLCMV. High level expression of dsRNA of SLCMV did not induce any growth abnormality in the transgenic plants. Transgenic lines displayed high levels of resistance to SLCMV compared to the wild-type plants and no virus load could be detected in uninoculated new leaves of the infected resistant lines after PCR amplification and RT-PCR analysis. The agronomic performance of the transgenic lines was unimpaired after inoculation with the virus as the plants presented similar growth when compared to the mock inoculated control plants and revealed no apparent reduction in the amount and weight of tubers produced. We show that the resistance is correlated with post-transcriptional gene silencing because of the production of transgene specific siRNA. The results demonstrate that transgenic lines exhibited high levels of resistance to SLCMV. This resistance coupled with the desirable yield components in the transgenic lines makes them better candidates for exploitation in the production of biomass as well as bioethanol.
From neuronal populations to behavior: a computational journey

Cognitive behaviors originate in the responses of neuronal populations. We have a reasonable understanding of how the activity of a single neuron can be related to a specific behavior. However, it is still unclear how more complex behaviors are inferred from the responses of neuronal populations. This is a particularly timely problem because multi-neuronal recording techniques have recently become increasingly available, simultaneously spurring advances in the analysis of neuronal population data. These developments are, however, constrained by the challenges of combining theoretical and experimental approaches because both approaches have their unique set of constraints. A solution to this problem is to design computational models that are either derived or inspired by cortical computations.
Diverse RNA-Binding Proteins Interact with Functionally Related Sets of RNAs, Suggesting an Extensive Regulatory System

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have roles in the regulation of many post-transcriptional steps in gene expression, but relatively few RBPs have been systematically studied. We searched for the RNA targets of 40 proteins in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a selective sample of the approximately 600 annotated and predicted RBPs, as well as several proteins not annotated as RBPs. At least 33 of these 40 proteins, including three of the four proteins that were not previously known or predicted to be RBPs, were reproducibly associated with specific sets of a few to several hundred RNAs. Remarkably, many of the RBPs we studied bound mRNAs whose protein products share identifiable functional or cytotopic features. We identified specific sequences or predicted structures significantly enriched in target mRNAs of 16 RBPs. These potential RNA-recognition elements were diverse in sequence, structure, and location: some were found predominantly in 3′-untranslated regions, others in 5′-untranslated regions, some in coding sequences, and many in two or more of these features. Although this study only examined a small fraction of the universe of yeast RBPs, 70% of the mRNA transcriptome had significant associations with at least one of these RBPs, and on average, each distinct yeast mRNA interacted with three of the RBPs, suggesting the potential for a rich, multidimensional network of regulation. These results strongly suggest that combinatorial binding of RBPs to specific recognition elements in mRNAs is a pervasive mechanism for multi-dimensional regulation of their post-transcriptional fate.
School Leadership Policy Trends and Developments: Policy Expediency or Policy Excellence?

Background: Institutional theorists suggest environmental stakeholders in the organizational field have a symbiotic relationship with governing agencies, leading to institutional isomorphism. Hence state policy makers copy the work of their colleagues across states to create a sense of legitimacy, certainty, and professionalization rather than developing policy based on metrics of efficiency and/or effectiveness. It can stifle innovation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the trends in state policy for school-based education administrators as an indicator of institutional isomorphism. Research Design: A “cohesive leadership system” for school leaders that has been operationalized by researchers through a five-segment continuum of standards, preparation program approval, assessment and licensure, mentoring and induction, and ongoing professional development coupled with licensure renewal. Researchers in this study reviewed published state regulations in all 50 states with respect to each of these five segments. Findings: Key trends include universal standards-based preparation, continuous renewal, increasing assessment and accountability, a wider breadth of providers for administrator development, tiered licensure, and renewal linked to school improvement, as measured by student standardized assessments. The establishment of the continuum itself as well as the trends within each facet of the continuum reflect high degrees of field conformity (isomorphism) and diminishing policy space for alternative paradigms. Conclusions: This trend is likely to continue because of the tight coupling of the environmental field related to educational administration. The conclusions suggest methods for injecting change into state policy to ensure advances in the field rather than simply replication of the status quo.
On operational flexibility in power systems

Operational flexibility is an important property of electric power systems. The term flexibility is widely used in the context of power systems although at times without a proper definition. The role of operational flexibility for the transition of existing power systems, many of them based on fossil fuels, towards power systems effectively accommodating high shares of variable Renewable Energy Sources (RES) has been widely recognized. Availability of sufficient operational flexibility is a necessary precondition for the grid integration of large shares of power in-feed from variable RES, for example wind power and photovoltaics (PV). The paper analyzes the role of operational flexibility in power systems. Necessary flexibility metrics for categorizing different types of operational flexibility are discussed. A new methodology for assessing the technically available operational flexibility is presented. Qualitative insights are derived, notably regarding the limits of RES integration for a given power system with its specific flexibility properties. An extensive simulation study is performed, assessing the role that operational flexibility has for the mitigation of challenges, namely curtailment, arising from high shares of variable RES in-feed.
Position reconstruction in monolithic block detectors

In high resolution PET systems the detector generally uses a scintillator which consists of individual pixel elements. The scintillation light of such a pixel element will be identified and thus the interaction is localized by the pixel position. Consequently, the delivered position of such a detector can only take discrete values. A different approach is the monolithic scintillator detector. A continuous scintillator block spans over an area of several photodetector pixels and the position is reconstructed from the recorded light distribution. Manufacturing of this detector is easier and the sensitivity is generally higher as no scintillating material is wasted for optical isolation between the pixels. But the challenge is to find a dedicated algorithm in order to identify the interaction position with sufficient resolution. We will present measurements of a monolithic scintillator detector (21×18×10mm3 LYSO) and compare different reconstruction methods. Already a Least Square Optimization algorithm based on a rather simple model delivers a resolution similar to an Artificial Neural Network approach but which requires pre-registered data for training. The comparison of the resolution to that of a pixelated detector of similar size and 2×2×10mm3 pixels shows the superior performance of the continuous block.
Candidate performance measures for screening for, assessing, and treating unhealthy substance use in hospitals.

TO THE EDITOR: Saitz’s recent article (1) lends an important perspective on a critically important topic. We agree completely that performance measures must be evidence-based to be credible for use in an accountability context (2). However, we believe it is important to note that the candidate performance measures Saitz discusses represent a subset of a very early iteration of a candidate performance measure set pertinent to alcohol and tobacco use that is currently being tested in the field by The Joint Commission. References to drug use have been eliminated from the draft measure set in response to feedback obtained during the stakeholder comment period to which Saitz refers. As noted in the article, the draft measure set comprises an equal number of performance measures addressing tobacco use and cessation counseling, in addition to alcohol use. The ultimate disposition or composition of the measure set will be determined at the close of the pilot testing period and review of findings by the Technical Advisory Panel, slated for this fall. The strength of the scientific evidence behind a performance measure is a crucial component of decisions made by The Joint Commission to include or exclude any measure from a final set. The development of this performance measure set should not be construed as a veiled attempt to influence public policy, although we acknowledge that some critics might disagree. Instead, wellconstructed, well-specified, and well-tested evidence-based performance measures enable health care organizations to identify gaps in evidence-based care and improve health care quality. We do not anticipate that the alcohol measures that are the subject of Saitz’s article will be mandated for use by all Joint Commission–accredited hospitals. Presumably, hospitals that have identified a need and desire to improve practice in the areas comprising the measures will adopt them for their own purposes.
Exploiting Synchronicity Networks for Finding Valuables in Heterogeneous Networks

Successful enterprises depend on high performing teams consisting of productive individuals, who can effective find valuable information. Predictive methods are highly desired to identify these inter-related, multityped entities that can potentially help to improve enterprise performance before they become productive. For such predictive methods, observation of their dynamic behavior in the organizational social networks may provide useful input. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to analyze and rank heterogeneous objects in multi-level networks by their value for improving productivity. Compared to existing approaches that either focus on static factors of productivity or single type of entities (e.g., individuals), our work offers two unique contributions. First, we propose a novel multi-level synchronicity network representation which allows us to exploit the structural characteristics of various entities’ dynamic behavior. Furthermore, based on the synchronicity networks, we propose a novel algorithm for Heterogeneous Multi-level networks Ranking, to simultaneously rank inter-related heterogeneous entities (e.g., topics, individuals and teams) by their value. Our experiments demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms existing methods in both enterprise organizational social networks and public social media.
Unsupervised Intrinsic Calibration of Depth Sensors via SLAM

We present a new, generic approach to the calibration of depth sensor intrinsics that requires only the ability to run SLAM. In particular, no specialized hardware, calibration target, or hand measurement is required. Essential to this approach is the idea that certain intrinsic parameters, identified here as myopic, govern distortions that increase with range. We demonstrate these ideas on the calibration of the popular Kinect and Xtion Pro Live RGBD sensors, which typically exhibit significant depth distortion at ranges greater than three meters. Making use of the myopic property, we show how to efficiently learn a discrete grid of 32,000 depth multipliers that resolve this distortion. Compared to the most similar unsupervised calibration work in the literature, this is a 100-fold increase in the maximum number of calibration parameters previously learned. Compared to the supervised calibration approach, the work of this paper means the difference between A) printing a poster of a checkerboard, mounting it to a rigid plane, and recording data of it from many different angles and ranges a process that often requires two people or repeated use of a special easel versus B) recording a few minutes of data from unmodified, natural environments. This is advantageous both for individuals who wish to calibrate their own sensors as well as for a robot that needs to calibrate automatically while in the field.
Organ chemiluminescence: noninvasive assay for oxidative radical reactions.

In situ and perfused rat livers showed a spontaneous chemiluminescence of 7-12 counts/sec . cm2 (corresponding to 7-12 x 10(3) photons/sec . cm2); chemiluminescence was increased up to 30 times by infusion of exogenous hydroperoxides. The chemiluminescence of the perfused liver was oxygen dependent. Ethyl, t-butyl, and cumene hydroperoxides were almost equally effective in inducing light emission in the perfused liver. Glutathione release and chemiluminescence showed a parallel increase upon hydroperoxide supply to the perfused liver. A partial spectral analysis of the chemiluminescence of the perfused liver showed a predominance of red-light-emitting species, presumably arising from the singlet oxygen dimol-emission peaks. Many side reactions derived from the complex free radical sequence of lipid peroxidation could afford the chemistry leading to light emission, which represents only about 10(-14) of the utilization of peroxide.