Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Audit Report Lags after Voluntary and Involuntary Auditor Changes

SYNOPSIS: We find that the audit report lag is significantly higher for former Andersen clients (that did not follow their Andersen partner to the new audit firm) than for clients voluntarily changing auditors from another Big 5 predecessor for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002 (the first year with the new auditor for ex-Andersen clients). The differences in audit reporting lags between the two groups are not significant for fiscal years ended December 31, 2000 (the last year before Andersen’s Enron related problems surfaced), or 2003 (the second year with the successor auditor). We also find that clients with voluntary (i.e., non-Andersen) auditor changes have only marginally higher audit reporting lags compared to clients without auditor changes. Our results, focusing on a cost component of involuntary auditor changes, thus provide relevant empirical evidence for debates surrounding mandatory auditor rotation. We also find that ex-Andersen clients that followed the Andersen partner to the new audi.
EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF RICARDIAN EQUIVALENCE

This study employs laboratory experiments to test aspects of Ricardian equivalence. An overlapping generations model forms the basis of the experimental design. Whenever Ricardian equivalence predicts a positive bequest, outcomes close to those predicted occur, after allowance for learning. Observed deviations from Ricardian equilibrium are small, but biased in a Keynesian direction: changes in bequests do not fully offset changes in government debt. The imposition of a binding nonnegativity constraint on bequests produces the predicted neoclassical behavior. The cost to the players of deviations from the theoretical equilibrium is apparently an important determinant of the variability of observed deviations. Copyright 1991 by Oxford University Press.
The RBV theory foundation of strategic HRM: critical flaws, problems for research and practice, and an alternative economics paradigm

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm is a guiding paradigm for strategic HRM research. This article explores the RBV–strategic HRM intersection, identifies and critiques RBV weaknesses and problem areas, develops new implications for RBV–strategic HRM theory and empirical work, and develops an alternative economics-based decision model for making HRM choices. The article focuses on four RBV–strategic HRM dimensions: HRM performance and the ‘no rules for riches’ proposition; alternative definitions of value and competitive advantage and implications for strategic HRM's dependent variable; neglect of marginal decision rules and consequent misprediction of optimal HRM adoption; and the impact on employee relations of RBV-guided rent-capture practices. Numerous implications for theory and practice are developed; also suggested is a new paradigm approach for strategic HRM theory.
Generalized proportional integral observer based backstepping control for DC-DC buck converters with mismatched disturbances

Considering load uncertainties in the DC-DC buck converter, the mismatched disturbances are imposed on the system, which would cause degradation of the control performance. Conventional backstepping control (BSC) scheme fails to achieve a high precision performance especially in the presence of strong disturbances. In addition, the disturbances caused by load uncertainties are complex in reality, which often turn out to be time series polynomial forms. Generalized proportional integral observer (GPIO) based backstepping control scheme is advocated in this paper to solve this problem. The GPIO based backstepping algorithm performs not only a promising disturbance rejection ability but also a nice property of tracking performance. A rigorous stability analysis for the closed-loop system is presented. The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method is validated by both simulation and experimental results.
The Expected-Utility Hypothesis and the Measurability of Utility

ThENEWED attention is currently ~ being devoted to a hypothesis LX. about choices involving risk suggested by Gabriel Cramer and Daniel Bernoulli, employed by Alfred Marshall, and recently revived by von Neumann and Morgenstern: namely, that individuals choose in such circumstances as if they were seeking to maximize the expected value of some quantity. The hypothetical quantity thus defined has, especially recently, been called "utility. " This hypothesis, if reasonably valid in a sufficiently wide domain, has far-reaching implications for economic theory.2 It provides a unified interpretation of two kinds of economic behavior that have traditionally been rationalized on divergent, and largely inconsistent, lines -first, choices among alternatives re' We are indebted to William J. Baumol and Jacob Marschak for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. This paper was mainly written while Savage was a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and a research scholar in France under the Fulbright Act (Public Law 584, 79th Cong.). His contribution is an outgrowth of work at the University of Chicago sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. garded as certain, rationalized in terms of consistent preferences for the goods in question and deliberative selection of the alternative highest in the scale of preference; second, choices among alternatives involving risk, rationalized in terms of ill-defined preferences for "risk" or "uncertainty," generally regarded as "irrational" in the sense that they admit of no simple and reasonably universal description but can only be determined ad hoc in each individual case. Furthermore, the expected-utility hypothesis has potentially rich empirical content. As we have shown elsewhere, a few simple and widely accepted empirical generalizations about behavior under circumstances involving riskf can be used to specialize the hypoth-
Social Capital and Entrepreneurship in Great Britain

This paper examines the evidence for the existence of a link between social capital and the propensity to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is proxied by self-employment and the influence of social capital is indicated both indirectly in aggregate-level data analysis and directly in micro-level data. The results suggest a modest, but heretofore neglected influence of social capital on entrepreneurship levels and suggest a reason why existing research on self-employment has tended to produce inconclusive and inconsistent results.
Measurement of Modern and Traditional Self-Concepts in Asian Transitional Economies

This article describes the development and validation of a new consumer self-concept scale created for use in Confucian societies whose economies formerly were centrally planned but are now moving toward a free-market system. Traditional self and modern self are proposed to be the two subconstructs of the perceptions of self. The empirical work involved with the scale development and validation using data from Vietnam and China are presented. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed in this article.
Morphogenesis, Pathogenesis, Detection and Transmission Risks of White Spot Syndrome Virus in Shrimps

Among the important challenges to shrimp aquaculture worldwide are diseases caused by viruses, in particular by White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) whose genome of 305 kb has been recently sequenced. WSSV, also dubbed White Spot Bacilliform Virus (WSBV), is a major shrimp pathogen with a high mortality rate and a wide host range. The sequencing and characterization of different strains of WSSV has begun to reveal aspects of its biology, virulence and pathogenesis. Knowledge on these aspects is critical for developing effective control methods. The socioeconomic impacts of the diseases caused by the WSSV have been catastrophic in some shrimp producing countries of Asia and the Americas. Thus, these diseases were listed by the World Animal Health Organization (or Office International des Epizootics, OIE) as posing a significant threat to cultured and wild crustaceans as a consequence of international trade or movement of infected organisms. The aim of this review is to present a state-of-the-art knowledge in different aspects of WSSV like morphogenesis, pathogenesis, transmission risks, detection, bio-inoculation studies, and international rules and standards.
Evaluation Frequency and Forgetful Principals

This paper analyzes the bahavior of a principal with bounded memory who can offer a two-period performance-based contract to an agent. In the model he can choose whether to evaluate the agent after each period or only at the end of the second period. If the agent is wealth-constrained, the option to evaluate him twice can be profitable. But without the constraint on the part of the agent, the principal will always prefer to evaluate only once in order to reduce evaluation costs. Finally we consider a modification leads us to a trade-off between more and less frequent evaluations.
Competition and efficiency in the Dutch life insurance industry

The lack of available prices in the Dutch life insurance industry makes competition an elusive concept that defies direct observation. Therefore, this article investigates competition by analysing several factors which may affect the competitive nature of a market and various indirect measurement approaches. After discussing various supply and demand factors which may constitute a so-called tight oligopoly, we establish the existence of scale economies and the importance of cost X-inefficiency, since severe competition would force firms to exploit available scale economies and to reduce X-inefficiencies. Both scale economies and X-inefficiencies turn out to be substantial, although more or less comparable to those found for insurers in other countries and to other financial institutions. Further, we apply the Boone indicator, a novel approach to measuring the effects of competition. This indicator points to limited competition in comparison to other sectors in the Netherlands. Further investigations of submarkets should reveal where policy measures in order to promote competition might be appropriate. †The views expressed in this article are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of CPB or DNB
Family Involvement and Post-IPO Investment Policy

Drawing from agency theory and socioemotional wealth considerations, we evaluate the extent post-IPO investment policy choices and their economic consequences differ for family firms relative to nonfamily firms. Our results suggest that family firms underinvest in post-IPO liquidity, total investment spending, and R&D expenditures, relative to similar non-family firms. On the other hand, family firms overinvest in capital spending and underinvest in acquisition spending relative to nonfamily firms with dispersed but not concentrated ownership structures. Furthermore, while increases in R&D spending decrease shareholder value in family firms, the reverse is the case with acquisition spending.
Absorption Boom and Fiscal Stance: What Lies Ahead in Eastern Europe?

This paper estimates revenue and expenditure pro-cyclicality with respect to output and domestic absorption in new member states of the European Union and Croatia to assess whether these countries used the boom years of 2003-07 to create sufficient fiscal space. The current crisis has found many countries short of fiscal space. As these countries enter a different phase of capital inflows, some with large vulnerabilities and inflexible monetary policy options, the role of fiscal policy becomes more important. This paper also looks at these issues to see how fiscal policy can play a more effective role in demand management in these countries.
An unusual form of fertilization in the malaria parasite of the Himalayan flying squirrel

SUMMARY Fertilization phenomena has been observed in the malaria parasite of the Himalayan Flying Squirrel with blood showing heavy infection. The blood was obtained on the slide, put in the moist chamber, dried and stained. Two types of microgametes could be distinguished. One of these two types were found in various stages of the process of fertilization. More than one microgamete were often found to take part in fertilizing a single macrogamete. This is the first recorded case of polyspermy in malaria parasites. Thanks are due to Mr Nandalal Pau for his help in preparing the Plate incorporated in this paper. This investigation received financial support from the World Health Organization.
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AS PREDICTORS OF READING COMPREHENSION AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

Abstract : The present study was conducted to investigate types of Multiple Intelligences as predictors of reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. To meet this objective, a 60-item TOEFL test and a 90-item multiple intelligences questionnaire were distributed among 240 male and female Iranians studying English at Qazali and Parsian Universities in Qazvin. Data were analyzed using a multiple regression procedure. The result of the data analysis indicated that musical, interpersonal, kinesthetic, and logical intelligences were predicators of reading comprehension. Moreover, musical, verbal, visual, kinesthetic and natural intelligences made significant contributions to predicting vocabulary knowledge. Key words: Multiple intelligences, reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge.
The synergistic effects of NGF and IGF‐1 on neurite growth in adult sensory neurons: convergence on the PI 3‐kinase signaling pathway

Nerve growth factor (NGF) and insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1) play an important role in promoting axonal growth from dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Adult DRG neurons exhibit neurotrophin‐independent survival, providing an excellent system with which to study trophic factor effects on neurite growth in the absence of significant survival effects. Using young adult rat DRG neurons we have demonstrated a synergistic effect of NGF plus IGF (N + I), compared with either factor alone, in promoting neurite growth. Not only does the presence of NGF and IGF‐1 enhance neurite initiation, it also significantly augments the extent of neurite branching and elongation. We have also examined potential mechanism(s) underlying this synergistic effect. Immunoblotting experiments of classical growth factor intermediary signalling pathways (PI 3‐K‐Akt‐GSK‐3 and Ras‐Raf‐MAPK) were performed using phospho‐specific antibodies to assess activation state. We found that activation of Akt and MAPK correlated with neurite elongation and branching. However, using pharmacological inhibitors, we observed that a PI 3‐K pathway involving both Akt and GSK‐3 appeared to be more important for neurite extension and branching than MAPK‐dependent signalling. In fact, inhibition of activation of MAPK with U0126 resulted in increased neuritic branching, possibly as a result of the concomitant increase observed in phospho‐Akt. Furthermore, inhibition of GSK3 (which is negatively regulated by phosphorylation on S9/S21) also resulted in increased growth. Our data point to signalling convergence upon the PI 3‐K‐Akt‐GSK‐3 pathway that underlies the NGF plus IGF synergism. In addition, to our knowledge, this is the first report in primary neurons that inhibition of GSK3 results in an enhanced neurite growth.
Tariff index theory

For a single tariff, the height of the tariff is an unambiguous measure of the policy's restrictiveness. With more than one tariff, theory has not provided an extension that captures the idea of the tariff's height, so analysts have used index numbers such as the mean and the coefficient of variation (standard deviation divided by the mean) of tariffs. By contrast, the theoretical literature on the piecemeal reform of tariffs shows that efficiency gains from tariff reform depend on complex conditions that have little relation to the mean or variance of tariffs. But in the absence of a connection between theory and empirical measures, it is difficult to know whether to discard the measures. Moreover, the piecemeal reform question of measuring the welfare gain from a tariff is not directly related to the problem of evaluating the height of restrictiveness. The problem of finding a single number analogous to the height of tariffs is the tariff index number problem. The authors have developed a solution: the Trade Restrictiveness Index, which they define as the uniform tariff factor that is equivalent in trade restrictiveness (equivalent in the balance of trade) to the actual differentiated tariff structure. Here, the author develops the Trade Restrictiveness Index in terms of mean and variance-covariance indexes of the tariff schedule. There are two payoffs. First, the Trade Restrictiveness Index can be decomposed into expressions that rescue the commonsense idea that lower mean and lower variance of tariffs are both efficient. Second, a special case is offered in which the proper weights in the mean and variance of tariffs are the observed trade weights. Thus, the Trade Restrictiveness Index is superior to traditional summary measures such as the average tariff rate and the coefficient variation for the tariff schedule. It requires only limited additional information on the structure of the economy to yield a measure that is preferable on both theoretical and practical grounds.
Business Groups and the Big Push: Meiji Japan's Mass Privatization and Subsequent Growth

Paul Rosenstein-Rodan argues that economic development requires coordinated investment in many interdependent industries, and prescribes a flood of state-controlled investment across all sectors—a so-called big push. Widespread government failure defeated twentieth-century ‘big push’ schemes. But spillovers across firms and industries, and from public goods, hold-up problems, and capital market limitations are real, and justify coordinated growth across sectors if it can be done without government failures. Large, extensively diversified pyramidal business groups of listed firms dominate the histories of developed economies and the economies of developing economies. Arguing that such groups provided this coordination in prewar Japan after a state-run big push failed, we propose that pyramidal business groups are private-sector mechanisms for coordinating big push growth, and that competition between rival groups induces efficiency unattainable in a state-run big push. We postulate that a successful business-group led big push requires economic openness, basic public goods, rule of law, separation of the state from business, and a timely demise of business groups when the big push phase is complete.Where these criteria are not met, growth stalls and oligarchic families become too powerful to dislodge.
Who Promotes Protection? Economic and Electoral Influences on Trade-Related Position Taking in the Senate

Existing studies of Congressional behavior devote little attention to understanding legislators' trade-related positions outside the context of roll call votes. Using a new dataset on bill sponsorship that spans 15 Congresses, the author explores the factors that affect a senator's propensity to introduce protectionist trade bills, including state-level manufacturing characteristics, economic cycles, and electoral vulnerability. The results provide support for a number of the prominent economic-based explanations for trade policy preferences, including the Heckscher-Ohlin and Ricardo-Viner models, and also draw attention to several additional economic and political influences on policy outcomes. Beyond trade politics, these findings have implications for the expanding body of research on bill sponsorship as well as the literature on the role of Congress in U.S. foreign policymaking.
Alterations of the basement membrane and connective tissue antigens in human metastatic lymph nodes

Antigens of the basement membrane (type‐IV collagen and laminin) and the connective tissue (type‐Ill collagen and fibronectin) were studied by immunofluorescence in 16 lymph nodes draining colorectal carcinomas and 6 lymph nodes draining breast carcinomas. A comparison was also made between 7 primary colorectal carcinomas and 9 lymph nodes draining these tumors. Anti‐type‐IV collagen and anti‐laminin rarely stained the basement membrane of metastatic tumors. In contrast, we detected type‐IV collagen in the peritumoral stroma, although similar images were rarely seen in primary tumors. When tumoral cells were in the vicinity of lymphoid cells, they were occasionaly separated by a barrier stained by the four antisera, or only by antifibronectin and anti‐type‐lll collagen. In other cases no barrier was observed between both types of cells which were in close contact. On the whole the above alterations were more marked in the lymph nodes draining breast carcinomas, in comparison to those draining colorectal carcinomas. Tumor cells were never stained by antitype‐IV collagen or antilaminin serum. Some cells found either in the lymphoid or in the tumor area of metastatic lymph nodes were stained not only by these antisera, but also by a monoclonal antibody against Willebrand Factor, which is a marker of endothelial cells. Thus the labelled cells were characterized as being derived from the capillary wall.
A Note on Best Response Dynamics

We investigate the relationship between the continuous time best response dynamic, its perturbed version and evolutionary dynamics in relation to mixed strategy equilibria. We find that as the level of noise approaches zero, the perturbed best response dynamic has the same quantitative properties as a broad class of evolutionary dynamics. That is, stability properties of equilibria are robust across learning dynamics of quite different origins and motivations.
Relational-Regularized Discriminative Sparse Learning for Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis

Accurate identification and understanding informative feature is important for early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prognosis and diagnosis. In this paper, we propose a novel discriminative sparse learning method with relational regularization to jointly predict the clinical score and classify AD disease stages using multimodal features. Specifically, we apply a discriminative learning technique to expand the class-specific difference and include geometric information for effective feature selection. In addition, two kind of relational information are incorporated to explore the intrinsic relationships among features and training subjects in terms of similarity learning. We map the original feature into the target space to identify the informative and predictive features by sparse learning technique. A unique loss function is designed to include both discriminative learning and relational regularization methods. Experimental results based on a total of 805 subjects [including 226 AD patients, 393 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects, and 186 normal controls (NCs)] from AD neuroimaging initiative database show that the proposed method can obtain a classification accuracy of 94.68% for AD versus NC, 80.32% for MCI versus NC, and 74.58% for progressive MCI versus stable MCI, respectively. In addition, we achieve remarkable performance for the clinical scores prediction and classification label identification, which has efficacy for AD disease diagnosis and prognosis. The algorithm comparison demonstrates the effectiveness of the introduced learning techniques and superiority over the state-of-the-arts methods.
Enhanced multiplexing capacity of low-coherence reflectometric sensors with a loop topology

A novel scheme for enhancing the multiplexing capacity of low-coherence reflectometric sensors is demonstrated. The scheme is based on connecting the sensing elements in serial in a loop configuration, allowing each of the sensors within the array being interrogated twice from opposite directions. The bi-directional interrogation enhances the multiplexing capacity in terms of maximum sensor number. The bi-interrogation scheme would also allow normal operation of the sensor array even when one end or somewhere of the transmission fiber were broken, improving the reliability of the sensing system for large-scale structural monitoring.