Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seeking Shelter: Empirically Modeling Tax Shelters Using Financial Statement Information

ABSTRACT: Using confidential tax shelter and tax return data obtained from the Internal Revenue Service, this study develops and validates an expanded model for inferring the likelihood that a firm engages in a tax shelter. Results show that tax shelter likelihood is positively related to subsidiaries located in tax havens, foreign-source income, inconsistent book-tax treatment, litigation losses, use of promoters, profitability, and size, and negatively related to leverage. Supplemental tests show that total book-tax differences (BTDs) and the contingent tax liability reserve are significantly related to tax shelter usage, while discretionary permanent BTDs and long-run cash effective tax rates are not. Finally, the model is weaker, yet still significant, in the FIN 48 disclosure environment. This research provides investors and policymakers with an extended, validated measure to calculate the presence of extreme cases of corporate tax aggressiveness. Such information could also aid analysts and other ta.
How Company-Specific Production Systems Affect Plant Performance: The S-Curve Theory

Inspired by the Toyota Production System, many multinational manufacturers have recently developed their own company-specific production systems. While there is a general consensus that these systems can boost plant performance, the literature does not offer an explanation for the pattern of this improvement. We propose that this pattern follows an S-curve: as a plant implements a company-specific production system, its performance improves slowly at first, then grows rapidly, then less rapidly, and, finally, the improvement rate tapers off. We developed this empirically grounded theory by using a case research methodology. The case is the implementation of the Volvo Production System (VPS) in Volvo Group’s 67 factories worldwide. The data were collected from different sources: a survey, Volvo’s formal audit process, and 40 plant visits, which included observations on the factory floor and 200 interviews with managers. We used locally weighted regression to discern the pattern of improvement directly from the data. The S-curve theory has significant managerial and theoretical implications. It suggests that managers should tailor their targets and action plans based on the level of maturity the plant has reached in implementing the company-specific production system. Knowledge of what to expect when implementing such a system fills a gap in the literature and offers explanations of the forces that shape the pattern of change in a plant’s performance during implementation.
Perishable Asset Revenue Management with Markovian Time Dependent Demand Intensities

Many industries face the problem of selling a fixed stock of items over a finite horizon. These industries include airlines selling seats before planes depart, hotels renting rooms before midnight, theaters selling seats before curtain time, and retailers selling seasonal items with long procurement lead times. Given a sunk investment in seats, rooms, or winter coats, the objective for these industries is to maximize revenues in excess of salvage value. When demand is price sensitive and stochastic, pricing is an effective tool to maximize expected revenues. In this paper we address the problem of deciding the optimal timing of price changes within a given menu of allowable, possibly time dependent, price paths each of which is associated with a general Poisson process with Markovian, time dependent, predictable intensities. We show that a set of variational inequalities characterize the value functions and the optimal (possibly random) time changes. In addition, we develop an efficient algorithm to compute the optimal value functions and the optimal pricing policy.
Preparation of Biological Material For X‐Ray Microanalysis of Diffusible Elements

Any method used for the analysis of diffusible elements within a cell should involve conditions which eliminate the redistribution of those elements. Redistribution of diffusible substances is caused by (a) ice damage during freezing, (b) thawing during sectioning, and (c) thawing during handling of sections. To eliminate this sections were cut (a) in the 5–8 μm ice crystal free surface layer obtained by freezing in melting nitrogen, (b) at a specimen temperature of 133 K and a knife temperature of 173 K to 153 K, and the temperature of the chamber was kept low by evaporating nitrogen from an extra reservoir inside the chamber, by regulating the output of a foil heater. A grid carrier was designed to simplify the section collection and the sections were affixed on to the grid in a press assembly. The sections were hard and translucent, and showed faint interference colours.
Development of INS/GNSS UAV-Borne Vector Gravimetry System

An airborne gravimetry system consisting of an inertial navigation system (INS) and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) has been proven to perform well in gravity observation. The system is also more cost- or time-effective than satellite missions and terrestrial gravimeters. In this letter, an unmanned aerial vehicle has been developed as a platform to carry the INS/GNSS vector gravimetry system using an unmanned helicopter. In addition to the kinematic mode, the unmanned helicopter can perform the zero velocity update (ZUPT) mode, which is a novel method in the acquisition of gravity. Results show that the accuracies of the horizontal and vertical gravity disturbance from the kinematic mode at crossover points are approximately 6–11 and 4 mGal, respectively, with a 0.5-km resolution. The accuracy of the repeatability in ZUPT mode is evaluated with the accuracies of approximately 2–3 mGal.
Analysis of Signal Dynamics in Oxygen-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objectives:Oxygen-enhanced MRI (O2-MRI) is frequently based on a block paradigm consisting of a series of consecutive T1-weighted scans acquired during alternating blocks with inhalation of room air and of pure oxygen. This design results in a complex signal-time course for each pixel, which displays the oxygen wash-in and wash-out processes and provides spatially resolved information about the lung function. The purpose of the present study was to optimize the signal-time-course analysis to extract (pixelwise) the maximum amount of information from the acquired data, and to introduce an appropriate cross-correlation approach for data sets containing the oxygen wash-in and wash-out periods. Materials and Methods:O2-MRI data of 11 healthy volunteers were acquired with a multislice inversion-recovery single-shot turbo-spin-echo sequence at 1.5 Tesla; lung and spleen were manually segmented on all 44 acquired slices. Six different model functions were pixelwise fitted to the data and compared using the Akaike information criterion. Four different reference functions were compared for cross-correlation analysis. Results:The optimal model function is a piecewise exponential function (median enhancement in lung/spleen: 16.3%/14.8%) with different time constants for wash-in (29.4 seconds/72.7 seconds) and wash-out (25.1 seconds/29.6 seconds). As a new parameter, it contains the delay between switching the gas supply and the onset of the signal change (4.8 seconds/24.5 seconds). Optimal cross-correlation results were obtained with a piecewise exponential reference function, which was temporally shifted to maximize the correlation, yielding median correlation coefficients of 0.694 and 0.878, median time delays of 7.5 seconds and 38.6 seconds, and median fractions of oxygen-activated pixels of 83.6% and 92.2% in the lung and the spleen, respectively. Conclusions:It was demonstrated that the pixelwise assessment of O2-MRI data are optimally performed with piecewise exponential functions. Cross-correlation analysis with a piecewise exponential reference function results in significantly higher fractions of oxygen-activated pixels than with rectangular functions.
Delayed-type Hypersensitivity (DTH) Immune Response Related With EBV-DNA in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Treated With Autologous Dendritic Cell Vaccination After Radiotherapy

The aim of this work was to investigate the outcome of an autologous dendritic cell (DC) vaccination in patients with stage II/III nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC). From 38 patients with stage II/III Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated NPCs after a radiotherapy, 16 human leukocyte antigen-A2 (HLA-A2)-positive patients were enrolled and medicated with autologous DCs, which were pulsed with HLA-A2-restricted EBV-encoded latent membrane protein 2A (LMP2A) peptides. The lymphocyte subsets, serum cytokines, and EBV-DNA levels as well as the delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses were determined after vaccination combined with a radiotherapy/chemotherapy. The serum levels of interleukin-2 and interferon-&ggr; (P<0.05) as well as the percentage of natural killer and CD4+T cells increased significantly (P<0.05) after the vaccination. Nine of 16 (56.25%) patients showed a positive skin response to the HLA-A2 restricted EBV LMP2A peptides in a DTH test. The serum EBV-DNA level decreased significantly from 1519±384 to 1214±211 copies/mL in the 9 DTH-positive patients (P=0.0310). No unanticipated or serious toxicity was observed and the vaccine was well tolerated. In conclusion, in NPC patients vaccinated after radiotherapy with autologous DCs, which were pulsed with EBV LMP2A peptides, Th1-specific immune responses were elicited particularly in DTH test positive individuals. The clinical results obtained are encouraging and the EBV-specific HLA-A2-restricted DC vaccination is a promising treatment for EBV-related NPCs.
Photocatalytic degradation of agricultural antibiotics using a UV-LED light source

With a view to developing a UV-LED photocatalytic reactor for small and remote water systems, the degradation of three representative agriculturally produced contaminants, two antibiotics and an endocrine disruptor hormone, was evaluated in a bench 365 nm LED photoreactor using a slurry of the well-known Degussa P25® (TiO2) as photocatalyst. Use of an additional electron capture additives O2 and H2O2 was also assessed. Loss of the parent organic compounds was tracked by HPLC or UV absorbance and mineralization, where feasible, was studied with TOC analysis with conventional instrumentation. In all cases, degradation is significant with moderate light dose. Lab data suggest log reduction with light delivery less than 2.2 kWhr per cubic meter light delivery.
Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide lipid A heterogeneity: differential activities of tetra‐ and penta‐acylated lipid A structures on E‐selectin expression and TLR4 recognition

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a Gram‐negative bacterium strongly associated with periodontitis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the tissue surrounding the tooth root surface. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) obtained from P. gingivalis is unusual in that it has been shown to display an unusual amount of lipid A heterogeneity containing both tetra‐ and penta‐acylated lipid A structures. In this report, it is shown that penta‐acylated lipid A structures facilitate E‐selectin expression whereas tetra‐acylated lipid A structures do not. Furthermore, it is shown that tetra‐acylated lipid A structures are potent antagonists for E‐selectin expression. Both tetra‐ and penta‐acylated lipid A structures interact with TLR4 although experiments utilizing human, mouse and human/mouse chimeric TLR4 proteins demonstrated that they interact differentially with the TLR4 signalling complexes. The presence of two different structural types of lipid A in P. gingivalis LPS, with opposing effects on the E‐selectin response suggests that this organism is able to modulate innate host responses by alterations in the relative amount of these lipid A structures.
Enhanced facilitation of spatial attention in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE While attentional functions are usually found to be impaired in schizophrenia, a review of the literature on the orienting of spatial attention in schizophrenia suggested that voluntary attentional orienting in response to a valid cue might be paradoxically enhanced. We tested this hypothesis with orienting tasks involving the cued detection of a laterally presented target stimulus. METHOD Subjects were chronic schizophrenia patients (SZ) and matched healthy control subjects (HC). In Experiment 1 (15 SZ, 16 HC), cues were endogenous (arrows) and could be valid (100% predictive) or neutral with respect to the subsequent target position. In Experiment 2 (16 SZ, 16 HC), subjects performed a standard orienting task with unpredictive exogenous cues (brightening of the target boxes). RESULTS In Experiment 1, SZ showed a larger attentional facilitation effect on reaction time than HC. In Experiment 2, no clear sign of enhanced attentional facilitation was found in SZ. CONCLUSIONS The voluntary, facilitatory shifting of spatial attention may be relatively enhanced in individuals with schizophrenia in comparison to healthy individuals. This effect bears resemblance to other relative enhancements of information processing in schizophrenia such as saccade speed and semantic priming.
Membership Has Its Privileges

This article compares the relative importance of political capital (in the form of membership in the Chinese Communist Party) and human capital (in the form of higher education) in urban China. Survey data from urban China strongly support two key elements of the intellectual New Class theory: intellectuals will have privileged access into the party, and the importance of education relative to political reliability will increase over time. The data also show how political capital and human capital are converted into high paying and prestigious jobs. There is also evidence of a separate path of career mobility: for the most socially prestigious jobs, a college degree—not a party card—is the key. Economic reforms of the post-Mao era are creating a gap between political power, on one hand, and social prestige and economic power, on the other. This gap can be expected to grow as the reforms continue.
A Distributed Tactile Sensor for Intuitive Human-Robot Interfacing

Safety of human-robot physical interaction is enabled not only by suitable robot control strategies but also by suitable sensing technologies. For example, if distributed tactile sensors were available on the robot, they could be used not only to detect unintentional collisions, but also as human-machine interface by enabling a new mode of social interaction with the machine. Starting from their previous works, the authors developed a conformable distributed tactile sensor that can be easily conformed to the different parts of the robot body. Its ability to estimate contact force components and to provide a tactile map with an accurate spatial resolution enables the robot to handle both unintentional collisions in safe human-robot collaboration tasks and intentional touches where the sensor is used as human-machine interface. In this paper, the authors present the characterization of the proposed tactile sensor and they show how it can be also exploited to recognize haptic tactile gestures, by tailoring recognition algorithms, well known in the image processing field, to the case of tactile images. In particular, a set of haptic gestures has been defined to test three recognition algorithms on a group of users. The paper demonstrates how the same sensor originally designed to manage unintentional collisions can be successfully used also as human-machine interface.
T Cell Glycolipid-Enriched Membrane Domains Are Constitutively Assembled as Membrane Patches That Translocate to Immune Synapses1

In T cells, glycolipid-enriched membrane (GEM) domains, or lipid rafts, are assembled into immune synapses in response to Ag presentation. However, the properties of T cell GEM domains in the absence of stimulatory signals, such as their size and distribution in the plasma membrane, are less clear. To address this question, we used confocal microscopy to measure GEM domains in unstimulated T cells expressing a GEM-targeted green fluorescent protein molecule. Our experiments showed that the GEM domains were assembled into membrane patches that were micrometers in size, as evidenced by a specific enrichment of GEM-associated molecules and resistance of the patches to extraction by Triton X-100. However, treatment of cells with latrunculin B disrupted the patching of the GEM domains and their resistance to Triton X-100. Similarly, the patches were coenriched with F-actin, and actin occurred in the detergent-resistant GEM fraction of T cells. Live-cell imaging showed that the patches were mobile and underwent translocation in the plasma membrane to immune synapses in stimulated T cells. Targeting of GEM domains to immune synapses was found to be actin-dependent, and required phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity and myosin motor proteins. We conclude from our results that T cell GEM domains are constitutively assembled by the actin cytoskeleton into micrometer-sized membrane patches, and that GEM domains and the GEM-enriched patches can function as a vehicle for targeting molecules to immune synapses.
Does it pay to be a Jack-of-all-trades?

Ed Lazear has suggested that because entrepreneurs perform many tasks they must be jackof-all-trades. The theory predicts that entrepreneurs should be generalists and those who work for others should be specialists. We evaluate the relationship between general experience and the choice of self-employment, owning multiple businesses, the probability of commercializing inventions, as well its relationship to income. Data from a survey of 780 inventors and 300 individuals from the general population confirm only one aspect of the theory: entrepreneurs typically have more varied labor market experience. However, the more varied their experience the lower their household income. Results instead support the “hobo syndrome” – that there is heterogeneity in tastes for skills variety.
Mechanisms of action potential propagation failure at sites of axon branching in the crayfish.

1. The phenomena leading to action potential conduction block during repetitive stimulation of the excitor axon of the opener muscle in the crayfish walking leg were studied. 2. Action potentials, recorded extracellularly with micro‐electrodes, failed to propagate past sites of axonal bifurcation following at least 3000 impulses; reduction of the rate or brief cessation of stimulation resulted in restored conduction. 3. Failure occurred initially at branch points located most peripherally and then more centrally as stimulation continued; this centripetal progression of the site of block resulted in a stepwise reduction of the number of synaptic terminals from which transmitter was released. 4. Prior to conduction failure, the conduction velocity and the sodium inward current of the action potentials decreased. 5. Local application of hyperpolarizing current or of physiological saline with low [K+] in the vicinity of a block can restore propagation; thus depolarization of the membrane most probably causes failure. 6. Soaking the preparation for as long as 2 hr in the metabolic inhibitor 2,4‐dinitrophenol had no effect on the number of stimulus impulses before initial conduction block; however, the time required for recovery from the failure was prolonged. 7. The number of impulses prior to block was related directly to the temperature of the preparation; this had a Q10 calculated to be about 1 . 3. 8. It is suggested that during repetitive activity, the K+ gradient across the membrane is reduced, resulting in depolarization and eventually in conduction failure.
Human peripheral B cells: A different cytometric point of view

Human peripheral B lymphocytes, analyzed by current flow cytometers, frequently show complex patterns of morphological and fluorescence signals. However, fluorescence intensity values are commonly reported without any correlation to the cell surface area. We propose a different approach, based on the evaluation of the ratio of phenotype fluorescence intensity to forward scatter intensity, to determine the apparent fluorescence density of surface molecules.
Gatekeeping strategies for clinical trials that do not require all primary effects to be significant

In this paper we describe methods for addressing multiplicity issues arising in the analysis of clinical trials with multiple endpoints and/or multiple dose levels. Efficient ‘gatekeeping strategies’ for multiplicity problems of this kind are developed. One family of hypotheses (comprising the primary objectives) is treated as a ‘gatekeeper’, and the other family or families (comprising secondary and tertiary objectives) are tested only if one or more gatekeeper hypotheses have been rejected. We discuss methods for constructing gatekeeping testing procedures using weighted Bonferroni tests, weighted Simes tests, and weighted resampling‐based tests, all within the closed testing framework. The new strategies are illustrated using an example from a clinical trial with co‐primary endpoints, and using an example from a dose‐finding study with multiple endpoints. Power comparisons with competing methods show the gatekeeping methods are more powerful when the primary objective of the trial must be met. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Understanding the Doubly Fed Induction Generator During Voltage Dips

The doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is normally controlled with stator-flux orientation. The DFIG is a poorly damped system with a natural frequency near the grid frequency. This leads to natural oscillations on the stator flux and on other variables. When voltage dips occur, there are oscillations on the stator flux that produces electromotive forces and consequently disturbances on the rotor currents. This paper presents a comprehensive study of the DFIG during voltage dips. The method presented in this paper, valid for symmetric and for asymmetric voltage dips, is based on the classical model of the induction machine with stator flux orientation and neglects only a small part of the cross-coupling terms. The response depends on the design methodology of the proportional-integral inner controllers. Analytical, simulation, and experimental results are shown. The analysis and results can be divided into two sets depending if the voltage dip magnitude is smaller or deeper than 0.5 p.u.
The Practicalities of a Learning Tourism Destination: a Case Study of the Ningaloo Coast

The complex and dynamic nature of tourism, and the need to address triple bottom line sustainability, has encouraged a search for adaptive tourism management approaches based on organisational learning. In this paper, the authors discuss a practical approach for the implementation of a Learning Tourism Destination (LTD), a new concept derived from the theory of learning organisations. Preliminary results from a case study undertaken at the Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia are discussed. The conducted surveys indicate that the LTD forms a useful framework for fostering consensus building, dialogue and collective learning processes among stakeholders. The proposed approach has the potential to improve decision-making within the concept of sustainable tourism development by facilitating participative planning processes. The overall strategy of this paper is to explore the practicalities of the LTD implementation process, and to spark further conceptual and practical debate, based on the analysis of the Ningaloo case study.
Land Prices and Farm-Based Returns

The theoretical and empirical relationship between farm-based residual returns, the opportunity cost of farmland, and farmland prices is developed. Temporal hypotheses concerning the source of land price movements are tested using a variant of Granger causality. In the aggregate, farmland prices are found to be unidirectionally "caused" by residual farm-based returns. The findings support the hypothesis that farmland prices are determined mainly within the farm sector and lend credence to the use of extrapolative expectations processes in structural farmland price models.