Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do good starts make good finishes? The case of CEO pay

We study the effects of job market conditions at the start of future CEOs’ careers. We find no evidence of persistent rewards for US public firms’ CEOs for starting their career in more successful firms, or for the luck of entering the job market in a good economy. Rather, we show that long-term effects are countercyclical as those executives who start their careers in a recession earn a higher CEO pay, consistent with selection. We also find that initial job conditions may yield a higher first CEO compensation but the positive effect dissipates over time. While related labor market research points to procyclical cohort effects and suggests that favorable initial conditions positively affect careers in the long run, our findings support the notion that the market for CEOs is efficient.
Aligned interference neutralization and the degrees of freedom of the 2 × 2 × 2 interference channel

We show that the 2 × 2 × 2 interference network, i.e., the multihop interference network formed by concatenation of two 2-user interference channels achieves the min-cut outer bound value of 2 DoF, for almost all values of channel coefficients, for both time-varying or fixed channel coefficients. The key to this result is a new idea, called aligned interference neutralization, that provides a way to align interference terms over each hop in a manner that allows them to be cancelled over the air at the last hop.
Bad news for chordal partitions

Reed and Seymour [1998] asked whether every graph has a partition into induced connected nonempty bipartite subgraphs such that the quotient graph is chordal. If true, this would have significant ramifications for Hadwiger's Conjecture. We prove that the answer is “no.” In fact, we show that the answer is still “no” for several relaxations of the question.
The essentials of finance and accounting for nonfinancial managers

Outside of the accounting and finance departments, not many business people are interested in the finer points of financial reports. But every manager must have a thorough understanding of what their finance and accounting staffs do, why they do it, and what these reports really mean. This indispensable book demystifies the role that accounting and finance play in a corporation and demonstrates how financial decisions are manifestations of company goals. The author's crystal-clear examples show how managers can connect corporate financial information directly to their own strategies and actions. To demonstrate these connections, the author covers such essential topics as: Balance sheets and income/cash flow statements Reading and understanding annual reports Fixed-cost and variable-cost issues Financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting.
Robust cross-platform disease prediction using gene expression microarrays

Microarray technology has been used to predict patient prognosis and response to treatment, which is starting to have an impact on disease intervention and control, and is a significant measure for public health. However, the process has been hindered by a lack of adequate clinical validation. Since both microarray analyses and clinical trials are time and effort intensive, it is crucial to use accumulated inter-study data to validate information from individual studies. For over a decade, microarray data have been accumulated from different technologies. However, using data from one platform to build a model that robustly predicts the clinical characteristics of a new data from another platform remains a challenge. Current cross-platform gene prediction methods use only genes common to both training and test datasets. There are two main drawbacks to that approach: model reconstruction and loss of information. As a result, the prediction accuracy of those methods is unstable. In this dissertation, a module-based prediction strategy was developed to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks. By the current method, groups of genes sharing similar expression patterns rather than individual genes were used as the basic elements of the model predictor. Such an approach borrows information from genesi¯ similarity when genes are absent in test data. By overcoming the problems of missing genes and noise across platforms, this method yielded robust predictions independent of information from the test data. The performance of this method was evaluated using publicly available microarray data. K-means clustering was used to group genes sharing similar expression profiles into gene modules and small modules were merged into their nearest neighbors. A univariate or multivariate feature selection procedures was applied and a representative gene from each selected module was identified. A prediction model was then constructed by the representative genes from selected gene modules. As a result, the prediction model is portable to any test study as long as partial genes in each module exist in the test study. The newly developed method showed advantages over the traditional methods in terms of prediction robustness to gene noise and gene mismatch issues in inter-study prediction.
Analysis Of Phytochemical Constituents And Antimicrobial Activities Of Alpinia calcarata Against Clinical

To study the antimicrobial activity and phytochemical characterization of essential oil isolated from the rhizome of Alpinia calcarata against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Fresh rhizomes of Alpinia calcarata were subjected to hydro distillation process to obtain essential oil and characterized by Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS). The essential oil was evaluated for antibacterial and antifungal activity against ten pathogenic bacteria and seven fungi by the disc diffusion method. GC – MS analysis of the essential oil extracted from the rhizome of Alpinia calcarata contained the derivatives of 2-octanone, camphene, 1,8-cineole, α fenchyl acetate, 2 hexanone, 4 methyl- 2- hexanone and other minor compounds. The antimicrobial activity of the oil showed significant inhibitory activity against the human pathogenic bacteria, no activity was observed against the fungi Aspergillus aculeatus and Fusarium oxysporum. The findings of the present study indicate that the rhizome extract of Alpinia calcarata possess secondary metabolites and potential to develop antimicrobial drugs.
Commercial Real Estate: Underwriting, Mortgages, and Prices

Commercial real estate (CRE) has undergone enormous changes over the past two decades, even apart from the financial crisis. At the end of 2010, commercial mortgage balances totaled over $2 trillion. That was about twice as many at the end of 2000. At its peak in 2008, the ratio of balances to the size of the U.S. economy was one and a half times as large as it was in 2000. Historically, more than half of commercial mortgages were held by commercial banks and other depositories. Life insurers historically were the other major holders. Over the past dozen years, however, “nontraditional investors” have held increasingly important shares of total commercial mortgages. Thus, the relative size of the commercial mortgage market has fluctuated considerably and the percentages of total commercial mortgages that different groups of investors held have also shifted considerably over time. In addition, (inflation-adjusted) CRE prices dipped by more than 20 percent in the early 1990s, before rising about 50 percent during the 2000s and then dropping by about 50 percent since 2007. Since 2007, various indicators signaled that commercial mortgage underwriting, after apparently being lax, had tightened rapidly and severely.We combined information from several indicators of commercial mortgage underwriting to construct a single underwriting index (UW) for 1990-2011. We used information about commercial mortgage underwriting from banks and from government-employed bank examiners. We also used information about the commercial mortgages that were acquired by life insurance companies. These data series each directly measured an important aspect of underwriting. To construct UW, we then combined those data series with an indirect indicator of underwriting, the net flow of commercial mortgages acquired by “nontraditional” investors. We also explain why some well-known indicators were unlikely to accurately reflect underwriting during 1990-2011.We then used the UW in a vector auto-regression to estimate how CRE prices and commercial mortgages responded to changes in underwriting, and, in turn, how prices and mortgages affected underwriting itself. We found that underwriting had important, independent effects on the CRE market. The estimates suggested that both price and non-price components of underwriting affected commercial real estate.We also found that underwriting itself responded to developments in commercial real estate. In particular, we found that underwriting loosened when (the growth rates of) CRE prices were predicted to rise. One implication is that underwriting amplified movements in CRE markets: Predictions of faster price growth loosened underwriting, which raised CRE lending and prices, which in turn loosened underwriting further.
Possible Case of Mania Associated with Ma‐Huang

Several commercially available weight‐loss supplements contain ma‐huang, an herb derived from Ephedra sinica. Previous reports have raised awareness that ma‐huang supplements may precipitate symptoms consistent with mania in susceptible individuals. A 21‐year‐old woman required psychiatric hospitalization as a result of acute manic symptoms with psychosis. The emergence of her symptoms coincided with her use of two supplements containing ma‐huang. Consumers need to be educated about the potential adverse psychiatric effects of ma‐huang in order to make well‐informed decisions before using such supplements. A preexisting psychiatric disorder may also increase susceptibility to these adverse effects.
Functional Comparison of Egr3 Transcription Factor Isoforms

Abstract: Recent studies indicate that the Egr family of transcription regulatory factors plays a key role in nervous system development and plasticity. In prior studies, we demonstrated that multiple isoforms of the Egr3 transcription regulatory factor are expressed in brain and appear to be generated by use of alternative translation start sites. To compare the functional activity of these isoforms, we have examined their ability to stimulate transcription of a luciferase reporter construct driven by the Egr response element. Analysis of a series of N‐terminal truncation constructs indicates that Egr3 contains two distinct activation domains: one located in the segment upstream of Met106, the start site of the major truncated isoform Egr3β, and the other located C‐terminal to all of the alternative translation start sites used to generate Egr3 isoforms detected in brain. We confirmed this inference by demonstrating that each of these segments is able to drive transcription when fused to the GAL4 DNA binding domain. Taken together, these studies indicate that the internal translation start sites present in Egr3 are used to generate Egr3 isoforms lacking the activation domain located N‐terminal to Met106.
Vision-based lane line detection for autonomous vehicle navigation and guidance

Vehicle pose estimation with respect to the road plays a critical role in the advances of autonomous vehicle navigation and guidance. Vision-based road lane line detection provides a feasible and low cost solution as the vehicle pose can be derived from the detection. While good progress has been made, the lane line detection has remained an open one, given challenging road appearances. In this paper, we propose a more robust vision-based approach by making use of ridge detector and sequential RANSAC (RANdom Sample Consensus). The pose estimation accuracy and consistency are improved by imposing parallelism constraints and fitting multi road models simultaneously. The algorithm is so robust that it is still able to work even when lane line only exists on one side of the road.
Development of an Online Smoking Cessation Curriculum for Pacific Islanders: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach

Abstract: Background: Pacific Islanders (PIs) have one of the highest rates of cigarette use, but evidence-based smoking cessation programs designed specifically for PIs are practically nonexistent. Objectives: This paper reports on the development of a culturally tailored smoking cessation curriculum designed specifically for young adult PIs using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. This paper demonstrates the shared leadership and equal contribution of community and academic partnerships. Methods: Together community and academic partners conceptualized and developed a smoking cessation curriculum. Data from formative studies shaped the various components of the educational modules. Results: Eight educational modules were developed through CBPR. Information on the dangers of cigarettes, benefits to cessation, and ways to cope with cravings and stress through cognitive behavioral therapy were offered in both narrative and non-narrative formats. Conclusions: Use of CBPR is critical in the development of the curriculum because it allowed for the sharing of ideas and knowledge between academics and community members.
Efficacy of pitavastatin, a new HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, on lipid and glucose metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is one of the risk factors for macrovascular disease. Treatment of hypercholesterolemia is important in patients with type 2 diabetes to prevent macrovascular disease. The 3-hydroxy-3-methyl glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) are key drugs to lower the cholesterol level not only in nondiabetic patients but also in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, some statins might worsen glycemic control (1) whereas some of them might be neutral (2) or improve glycemic control (3), and their effects on glucose metabolism are controversial. Pitavastatin, an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, has been available in Japan since 2003 (4) and the Republic of Korea since 2005, and its effect on glucose metabolism in diabetic patients …
Corticofugal projections to trigeminal motoneurons innervating antagonistic jaw muscles in rats as demonstrated by anterograde and retrograde tract tracing

Little is known about the organization of corticofugal projections controlling antagonistic jaw muscles. To address this issue, we employed retrograde (Fluorogold; FG) and anterograde (biotinylated dextran amine; BDA) tracing techniques in rats. Three groups of premotoneurons were identified by injecting FG into the jaw‐closing (JC) and ‐opening (JO) subdivisions of the trigeminal motor nucleus (Vmo). These were 1) the intertrigeminal region (Vint) and principal trigeminal sensory nucleus for JC nucleus; 2) the reticular region medial to JO nucleus (RmJO) for JO nucleus; and 3) the parabrachial (Pb) and supratrigeminal (Vsup) nuclei, reticular regions medial and ventral to JC nucleus, rostrodorsomedial oralis (Vor), and juxtatrigeminal region (Vjuxt) containing a mixture of premotoneurons to both the nuclei. Subsequently, FG was injected into the representative premotoneuron structures. The JC and JO premotoneurons received main afferents from the lateral and medial agranular fields of motor cortex (Agl and Agm), respectively, whereas afferents to the nuclei with both JC and JO premotoneurons arose from Agl also and from primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Finally, BDA was injected into each of the three cortical areas representing the premotoneuron structures to complement the FG data. The Agl and Agm projected to reticular regions around the Vmo, whereas the Pb, Vsup, Vor, and Vjuxt received input from Agl. The S1 projected to the trigeminal sensory nuclei as well as to the Pb, Vsup, and Vjuxt. These results suggest that corticofugal projections to Vmo via premotoneuron structures consist of multiple pathways, which influence distinct patterns of jaw movements. J. Comp. Neurol. 514:368–386, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Health Condition Monitoring of Machines Based on Hidden Markov Model and Contribution Analysis

Degradation parameter from normal to failure condition of machine part or system is needed as an object of health monitoring in condition-based maintenance (CBM). This paper proposes a hidden Markov model (HMM) and contribution-analysis-based method to assess the machine health degradation. A dynamic principal component analysis (DPCA) is used to extract effective features from vibration signals, where inherent signal autocorrelation is considered. A novel machine health assessment indication, HMM-based Mahalanobis distance is proposed to provide a comprehensible indication for quantifying machine health states. A variable-replacing-based contribution analysis method is developed to discover the effective features that are responsible for the detection and assessment of machine health degradation in its whole life. The experimental results based on a bearing test bed show the plausibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods, which can be considered as the machine health degradation monitoring model.
Local Public Goods Provision in the Post-Agricultural Tax Era in Rural China

This paper investigates regional differences in local public goods provision in rural area in the 2000s, using large village sample surveys (CHIP 2002 and 2007 surveys, a survey in Ningxia). Focuses are on changes in the coverage of public investment projects, regional differences in the determinants of public investment projects, and changes in the coverage of public services provided by village collectives. The main findings are as follows. First, we confirmed that coverage of public investment projects had increased in the 2000s. Second, in spite of concentration of fiscal administration into county level as one of the pillars of the reform of taxation and local fiscal system, administrative villages still played indispensable roles in local public goods provision. Third, we found that incentive of peasants, financial ability of villages, and incentive of local government affect location decision and budget structure of public investment projects and that direction and strength of such factors were different by regions.
International market entry mode strategies of manufacturing firms and service firms: A resource‐based perspective

This research has two major purposes: developing and testing a resource‐based framework for entry mode choice and ascertaining the extent to which the determinants of foreign market entry mode choice in the manufacturing sector apply to foreign market entry mode choice in the non‐separable service sector. Using mail survey data collected from top‐level managers of US firms that had been engaged in international business, the article tests a number of research hypotheses concerning foreign market entry mode choice in the manufacturing and service sectors. The managerial and research implications of the findings are delineated and directions for future research are offered.
Multiple cues integration for part-based adaptive workpieces detection

Conventional object detection algorithms usually suffer from illumination changes and partial occlusions. In this paper, we proposed a novel detection algorithm that integrates multiple cues with adjustable weights to robustly detect objects in various illumination conditions. To further cope with partial occlusions, each cue detector is decomposed into several individual part detectors whose weights are adaptively adjusted. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed algorithm.
Isolation and Characterization of an Endosperm-Specific Promoter from Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Genes coding for avenin-like proteins (ALP) represent a new family of wheat storage protein genes. To find a wheat endosperm-specific promoter, a 1644-bp fragment upstream of the ALP type-B gene (GenBank accession number JN622144) was isolated. The important promoter elements of the ALP type-B gene were ascertained through sequence analysis which revealed that this fragment contains the TATA and CAAT boxes, which are important elements in gene expression. A prolamin box containing an endosperm motif and a GCN4-like motif (GLM) is present at about 300 bp upstream of the translation start site. The promoter sequence has two ESP-like elements and one of them is followed by an RY motif with the nucleotides CATG overlapping. The RY motif is considered the core functional sequence in a promoter. In an attempt to confirm the promoter activity, a series of 5¢-deletions of the promoter were fused with the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene, and the constructs were stably introduced into tobacco plants. GUS staining confirmed that the AVL type-B promoter is an endosperm-specific promoter in tobacco seeds. Quantitative analysis of GUS expression in transgenic plants showed that even the shortest 5’-deletion, i.e. a 290-bp promoter sequence within the prolamin box, was sufficient to drive GUS expression in the endosperm. The highest expression level was found in transgenic plants containing the 5¢-deletion vector construct pALP-8. This suggests that the ESP-like element overlapping with the RY motif may play a crucial role in the regulatory function of the promoter.
catena-Poly[di-μ1,1-azido-(1,10-phenanthroline)cadmium(II)]

The asymmetric unit of the title CdII compound, [Cd(N3)2(C12H8N2)]n, contains a CdII atom, located on a twofold axis passing through the middle of the phenanthroline molecule, one azide ion and half of a 1,10-phenanthroline molecule. The CdII atom exhibits a distorted octahedral coordination including one chelating 1,10-phenanthroline ligand and four azide ligands. The crystal structure features chains along the c direction in which azide groups doubly bridge two adjacent CdII atoms in an end-on (EO) mode. Interchain π–π stacking interactions, with centroid–centroid separations of 3.408 (2) Å between the central aromatic rings of 1,10-phenanthroline molecules, lead to a supramolecular sheet parallel to the bc plane.
High-Frequency Jump Analysis of the Bitcoin Market

We use the database leak of Mt. Gox exchange to analyze the dynamics of the price of bitcoin from June 2011 to November 2013. This gives us a rare opportunity to study an emerging retail-focused, highly speculative and unregulated market with trader identifiers at a tick transaction level. Jumps are frequent events and they cluster in time. The order flow imbalance and the preponderance of aggressive traders, as well as a widening of the bid-ask spread predict them. Jumps have short-term positive impact on market activity and illiquidity and see a persistent change in the price.
Bangladesh apparel industry and its workers in a changing world economy

This thesis explores and analyses recent changes and challenges faced by the apparel industry of Bangladesh and the consequences of those for the Bangladesh economy. More specifically, it explores and analyses the importance of the apparel industry in the Bangladesh economy, the challenges faced by this industry, impacts of implementation of various international trade rules on the apparel industry, consequences of Bangladesh's attempts to enter in bilateral and regional free trade agreements with its neighbouring countries, status of workers' rights in the apparel industry of Bangladesh and how globalisation is affecting the level of addressing these workers' rights and also impacts of increases in workers' productivity and wage on the apparel industry and on the Bangladesh economy.