Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stock Price and Industrial Production in Developing Countries: A Dynamic Heterogeneous Panel Analysis

As an investor, we are interested in the relationship between economic and financial indicators. For this, for the investor, it is of utmost importance to identify the correct model for the long run and short run relationship, as this will determine the timing of entering and exiting the stock market. In this paper we investigate the correlation between the real stock price and the real industrial production index. The estimation of correlation coefficient would involve the panel data of nine (9) developing countries, including the four (4) BRIC countries, using data for the period 2008 to 2010. We employed the panel unit root test and panel cointegration tests using Eviews. We then proceed with the estimation of Fixed Effect (FE), Random Effect (RE), Pool Mean Group (PMG) and the Mean Group (MG) using Stata II command. The application of the heterogeneous panel model of Pool Mean Group (PMG) and the Mean Group (MG) – Im,Pesaran,Smith (IPS,1999) will allow for the heterogeneity effect among the different economies. Our findings proved that RE is superior to FE due to the inconsistency problem, which is the existence of correlation between missing cross sectional variables with the explanatory/regressor variables. The Hausman test performed supported this finding. We observed that the slope coefficients indicate a negative relationship between real industrial production and real stock price. Again, although both PMG and MG are consistent, Hausman test proved that MG is inefficient, and thus PMG is chosen for the final estimation. Finally, while we found out that in the short run the coefficient of industrial production varies with each country, they were the same in the long run.
Associations between Temporary Employment, Alcohol Dependence and Cigarette Smoking among Turkish Health Care Workers

This study aims to investigate the association between contract type (temporary vs permanent employment) and unhealthy behaviour (alcohol dependence and cigarette smoking) in a sample of Turkish health care workers (N = 480). The authors hypothesize that temporary compared with permanent workers are more likely to depend on alcohol and to smoke cigarettes owing to increased work-related stress. Conditional logistic regressions were used to estimate the odds ratios of alcohol dependence and smoking status according to contract type. Controlling for gender, occupational position, education, family status, age, tenure and income, temporary workers compared with permanent workers were 5.6 times more likely to be alcohol dependent. However, no significant differences were established for smoking status. The study underlines the association between temporary employment and alcohol dependence, and, in particular, the possibility of reversed causation and possibilities for generalizing results to other populations and to other countries, as an important route for future research.
Physicians’ Weight Loss Counseling in Two Public Hospital Primary Care Clinics

Purpose Primary care physicians are an important source of information on weight management. Nevertheless, weight loss counseling by these physicians remains inadequate. This study sought to determine physicians’ barriers to providing weight loss counseling in a public hospital, patients’ recall of physicians’ weight loss recommendations, and the influence of physicians’ counseling on patients’ understanding, motivation, and behavior regarding weight loss. Method In 2001, four focus groups of faculty and residents were held at two primary care clinics affiliated with the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport to determine the barriers to providing weight loss counseling. Scripted probes were used to uncover consensus norms. In 2001–02, structured exit interviews were conducted with 210 overweight or obese patients recruited from the clinics to determine patients’ recall of physicians’ weight loss recommendations, and patients’ understanding of the relationship between weight and health, and their stages of readiness for weight loss. Results Physicians identified major barriers to providing weight loss counseling, including insufficient confidence, knowledge, and skills. Obesity was underdocumented as a distinct clinical diagnosis. Only 5% of the patients recalled being given the combined weight loss strategy of diet and exercise. However, patients who recalled being counseled to lose weight were more likely to understand the risks of obesity, the benefits of weight loss, and were at a higher stage of readiness for weight loss. Conclusions Physicians’ weight loss counseling had a significant effect on patients’ understanding of and motivation for weight loss. However, physicians provided insufficient guidance on weight management strategies, possibly because of inadequate counseling skills and confidence.
SPADIC — A self-triggered pulse amplification and digitization ASIC

For the readout of the TRD sub-detector of the planned fixed-target CBM experiment at FAIR/GSI (Darmstadt, Germany), a new self-triggered amplification and digitization mixed-signal chip is being developed. The final asic will have 32–64 channels each composed of a low noise and power charge preamplifier, a 7–9 Bit pipeline ADC running at about 25 MSamples/s and some digital data processing units carrying out detector specific tasks such as ion-tail cancellation and baseline correction. A token ring network will act as a balancing arbiter between the channels and the output serializer. The latest 180 nm test-chip has 26 preamplifier/shaper channels and 8 ADCs. For control signal generation and output decoding two synthesized blocks have also been integrated. By connecting both preamplifier and ADC, digital snap-shots of injected test-pulses have been recorded successfully, showing the proper oscilloscope-like operation of the whole mixed-signal data chain from analog amplification to digital output encoding.
The Impact of Industry Classifications on Financial Research

Abstract Using approximately 10,000 firms jointly covered by Compustat and CRSP from 1974–1993, we find substantial differences in the SIC codes designated by the two databases. More than 36 percent of the classifications disagree at the two-digit level and nearly 80 percent disagree at the four-digit level. We examine the impact of these differences upon financial research in several ways. First, we show that the classification of utilities, financial firms, and conglomerate acquisitions are affected by the choice of CRSP vs. Compustat SIC codes. Second, we show that industry classification matters in financial research by illustrating that size- and industry-matched comparisons are more powerful than pure size matches. Third, we test the specification and power of Compustat vs. CRSP classifications by simulating a typical financial experiment in which sample firms are matched to control firms by industry. We find that: i) Compustat matched samples are more powerful than CRSP matched samples in detecting abnormal performance; ii) nonparametric tests outperform parametric tests; and iii) four-digit SIC code matches are more powerful than two-digit SIC code matches. These results are robust to the inclusion or exclusion of extreme values, and hold for both NYSE/AMEX and Nasdaq firms.
Characteristics of Brain Abscess with Isolation of Anaerobic Bacteria

In view of its localization, brain abscess (BA) usually requires medical and surgical care. A broad spectrum of bacteria is involved. Recent reports stress the increasing frequency of anaerobes, but their impact has not been well evaluated. A retrospective review was conducted of all episodes of documented BA admitted in a tertiary-care hospital over a 10 y period. BA due to anaerobic bacteria (group A) were compared with other cases (group B) to determine the frequency and eventual characteristics of BA with isolated anaerobic bacteria. Between 1991 and 2000, BA were diagnosed in 42 patients (28M, 14F, mean age 54.6 y). No differences in clinical features and laboratory findings were found between patients with BA caused by anaerobic (n=22) and only aerobic (n=20) bacteria. Using appropriate microbiological techniques, 41 anaerobic bacteria strains were isolated in 22 of 42 patients (52.4%) with BA. Anaerobic bacteria were associated with aerobic strains in 5 patients (12%), whereas in 17 patients (40.5%) only anaerobic strains were isolated in cerebral puncture cultures. The most frequently isolated species were Fusobacterium nucleatum (n=14), Prevotella sp. (n=8), Actinomyces sp. (n=6) and Bacteroides sp. (n=4). Compared with group B, group A had more cases of a single abscess (p=0.03) and ear, nose and throat (ENT) as a source of infection (p=0.04), and seemed to have a better outcome (p=0.07). These results emphasize the important role that anaerobic bacteria play in BA. The presence of such pathogens must be evoked when faced with a single abscess, an ENT infection, or both. Therapy should take into account this high frequency.
Enhance privacy in big data and cloud via diff-anonym algorithm

The main issue with big data in cloud is the processed or used always need to be by third party. It is very important for the owners of data or clients to trust and to have the guarantee of privacy for the information stored in cloud or analyzed as big data. The privacy models studied in previous research showed that privacy infringement for big data happened because of limitation, privacy guarantee rate or dissemination of accurate data which is obtainable in the data set. In addition, there are various privacy models. In order to determine the best and the most appropriate model to be applied in the future, which also guarantees big data privacy, it is necessary to invest in research and study. In the next part, we surfed some of the privacy models in order to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each model in privacy assurance for big data in cloud. The present study also proposes combined Diff-Anonym algorithm (K-anonymity and differential models) to provide data anonymity with guarantee to keep balance between ambiguity of private data and clarity of general data.
Foreign Firms and Inter-industry Spillovers in Indian Manufacturing

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has benefits both for the host country and the home country. Multinational corporations or foreign firms are supposed to have frontier technology, which are expected to have spillover effects on local firms when they enter a country. Most studies on Indian industry have focused on intra-industry spillovers and have found some evidence of this. The present study's focus is on inter-industry spillovers (for example, from auto-components to assemblers) on which there are few studies, as the literature unambiguously expects inter-industry spillovers to occur. This paper establishes the presence of spillover effects on domestic firms due to horizontal, backward and forward linkages with foreign firms in the Indian manufacturing industry, which affect domestic firms’ productivity. It also establishes that inter-industry spillovers are negative for some industries.
Can good corporate governance practices contribute to firms' financial performance? – evidence from Malaysian companies

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance practices and structures on the performance of firms in Malaysia. An empirical study was conducted based on data involving 120 Malaysian-listed companies over a four-year period from 1996 to 1999. This period encompassed the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, which affected most countries in the Southeast Asian region including Malaysia. Due to the combination of cross-sectional and time-series data, panel data regression techniques were used to analyse performance of the firms using both fixed effects and random effects models. Using Return on Equity (ROE) as the dependent variable, it was established that the size of firm, gearing ratio (borrowing) and dominant CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) significantly influenced the performance of firms. The impact of size on the performance of firms followed a quadratic fashion with performance increasing with the size of the firm up to the optimal size of around 7,729 million Malaysian Ringgit (RM). Beyond that, firm performance declined with increasing size. Borrowing had a negative effect on earnings with 1% increase in borrowing having a 0.13% decrease in ROE. Finally, CEOs who are also chairman of the board exert a positive influence on company earnings. The study suggests that dominant CEOs could increase performance of firms when they dominate the decision-making process in their companies.
EXPLORATIONS IN THE WORKING CLASS AT A TIME OF CRISIS

The Global Financial Crisis has intensified class reformation which is very much back on the social science research agenda. The past three decades have seen great changes in the composition of the working class. The decisions by capitalists about when, where and in what technologies to invest, shape the proletariat, and workers' combativity in turn spurs on investment in labour- displacing technologies. The growth in ‘immaterial’ and ‘affective’ production, work that creates immaterial products and emotional affect, is certain to accelerate. As well as paying attention to ‘new’ types of wage labour, class analysts are also studying the large quantities of paid labour performed outside the ‘measured’ economy, and the even vaster quantities of unpaid work undertaken in what is called ‘the gift economy’. Both are often performed within the ambit of family-households which, with family businesses, are the main drivers of a vast underground economy. The interconnections of family- households are the basis of the networks of reciprocal obligation that make up and bind communities together. These communities also concern themselves with local social infrastructure, shared resources and common facilities. Working people have developed a plethora of movements and organisations that in various ways carry on the war of position in defence of the networks and communities that sustain them.
Audit Committee Characteristics and Audit Report Lag

This study seeks to determine whether audit committee compositional features are associated with the timeliness of financial reporting by Australian firms. Timeliness of financial reporting by firms, of which the length of an audit is a fundamental component, adds information content and impacts firm value, making an examination of audit report lag determinants important. Results indicate that audit committee members with financial expertise, prior audit committee experience and those who are independent are associated with shorter audit report lag. Results suggest that legislation mandating audit committee financial expertise and independence are effective also in improving the timeliness of financial reporting. More importantly, our results suggest that there may be benefits in constituting audit committees with other compositional features such as prior committee experience in overall efforts to improve the timeliness, and therefore quality, of financial reporting by firms.
Effects of Patents on Productivity Growth in Korean Manufacturing: A Panel Data Analysis

We analyse the contributions of patents to total factor productivity (TFP) performance in Korean manufacturing industries during the period 1981-1999. This paper treats potential autocorrelation problems seriously and uses recent panel cointegration approaches to investigate the robustness of the patent-TFP relationship. The results show that both domestic and foreign-resident patent applications have significant positive effects on productivity and that foreign-resident patent applications have a larger effect than domestic patents in improving TFP in Korean manufacturing. We also find evidence of knowledge spillovers among industries, in that the patent applications of other industries increase TFP in any single industry.
On the dynamic stability of biped locomotion.

While biped locomotion involves very complicated dynamical processes, a good deal can be learned about stability and feedback control from an analysis of simplified mathematical models. This paper treats locomotion dynamics relative to planar motion under an assumption that leg mass can be ignored in comparison to body mass. Thus the hypothetical biped possesses one rotational degree of freedom and two translational degrees, leading to a sixth-order system of nonlinear differential equations. These equations are linearized and feedback control laws are then derived to produce the desired stable forward motion. The feedback laws proposed involve a combination of continuous and discrete concepts to produce both step length and step period control as well as control of body attitude and altitude. The applicability of the control laws to the nonlinear system in the presence of large disturbances is verified by computer simulation. Hopefully, the results presented are significant relative to control processes arising in lower extremity prostheses and orthoses as well as to the design of biped robots.
A Neuroprotective Brain-penetrating Endopeptidase Fusion Protein Ameliorates Alzheimer Disease Pathology and Restores Neurogenesis*

Background: Development of new therapeutic approaches for Alzheimer disease (AD) is crucial. Results: A recombinant enzyme engineered to cross the blood-brain barrier treats the accumulation of Aβ in a mouse model. Conclusion: This study shows a therapy can improve the symptoms of AD while also increasing the population of new neurons. Significance: The enzyme could be delivered weekly or even monthly to patients. Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized by widespread neurodegeneration throughout the association cortex and limbic system, deposition of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in the neuropil and around the blood vessels, and formation of neurofibrillary tangles. The endopeptidase neprilysin has been successfully used to reduce the accumulation of Aβ following intracranial viral vector delivery or ex vivo manipulated intracranial delivery. These therapies have relied on direct injections into the brain, whereas a clinically desirable therapy would involve i.v. infusion of a recombinant enzyme. We previously characterized a recombinant neprilysin that contained a 38-amino acid brain-targeting domain. Recombinant cell lines have been generated expressing this brain-targeted enzyme (ASN12). In this report, we characterize the ASN12 recombinant protein for pharmacology in a mouse as well as efficacy in two APPtg mouse models of AD. The recombinant ASN12 transited to the brain with a t½ of 24 h and accumulated to 1.7% of injected dose at 24 h following i.v. delivery. We examined pharmacodynamics in the tg2576 APPtg mouse with the prion promoter APP695 SWE mutation and in the Line41 mThy1 APP751 mutation mouse. Treatment of either APPtg mouse resulted in reduced Aβ, increased neuronal synapses, and improved learning and memory. In addition, the Line41 APPtg mice showed increased levels of C-terminal neuropeptide Y fragments and increased neurogenesis. These results suggest that the recombinant brain-targeted neprilysin, ASN12, may be an effective treatment for AD and warrant further investigation in clinical trials.
Increasing autistic children's daily spontaneous speech.

We investigated the effectiveness of teaching parents of 3 autistic boys to use a time delay procedure to increase their children's appropriate spontaneous speech in several naturally occurring daily settings (e.g., saying "good morning" in the morning). Generalization across settings and within settings across persons and locations was assessed. Variation in the children's spontaneous speech was also assessed. In addition procedural errors in the parents' use of time delay were calculated. Results indicated that all children increased their daily spontaneous speech and generalized their speech to other locations and persons.
An exploration of inter-functional integration in the new service development process

This article explores the nature of inter-functional integration in the new service development process through a detailed study of two new internal ICT services developed at one of Europe's largest service providers: Consignia, the UK postal service. The study develops a conceptual framework, incorporating dimensions of process, context and outcomes, to inform the analysis. The empirical findings reveal that the level and timing of appropriate functional stakeholders, influence of relationships with external stakeholders, formalisation and ownership of authority, shared understanding of goals and the influence of shifting organisational contexts act as critical factors underlying the nature of inter-functional activities and outcomes. Managerial implications and future research directions are drawn.
Economic Modeling for Disaster Impact Analysis: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract Analyzing economic impacts of disasters has attracted interest from a wide audience in recent years, not only because of the frequent occurrence of large natural disasters worldwide but also because of the spread of terrorism to a global scale. This paper reviews past modeling studies for economic impact analysis of disasters, focusing especially on the input–output model and related modeling frameworks, such as the social accounting matrix and the computable general equilibrium model. The paper also discusses the issues of disaster modeling raised by the literature, and proposes some future directions.
Institutionalisation in professional freestyle snowboarding – Finnish professional riders’ perceptions

Abstract By employing W. Richard Scott’s neo-institutional tools this study examines how Finnish professional snowboarders perceive the possibilities of self-expression amid the changes that have taken place in the field of professional snowboarding in recent years. The results indicate that snowboarders perceive competitions and filming or photo shoots as two different subfields in which different institutional elements are emphasised. Both subfields play a strong role in marketing the sponsor and the riders appear to have adopted their role in this system well. However, the pro snowboarders express concern about the regularisation of courses, styles and formats of the competitions and the loss of participant control. They are, however, able to accept many new influences by adapting them to fit in with the ethos of snowboarding. The riders value the freedom offered by the niche and social media, but also express concern about a decline in riding performance emerging owing to the informal organisational models used outside the regulated arenas.
The Relationships Between Uncertainty and Posttraumatic Stress in Survivors of Childhood Cancer

&NA; The purposes of this study were to understand the levels of uncertainty and posttraumatic stress and to examine their relationships in young adult survivors of childhood cancer. A cross-sectional correlational design was used in this study. Mailed survey was the data collection method. The Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale-Community Form was the measure of uncertainty. The University of California at Los Angeles Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Index was the measure of posttraumatic stress. A total of 46 (51.1%) survivors responded to the survey and the analysis was based on data from 45. Participants reported a mean 51.3 (SD = 14.5, range = 23 to 90) level of uncertainty; and a mean 15.7 (SD = 11.0, range = 0 to 43) level of posttraumatic stress. Uncertainty was positively correlated with posttraumatic stress (r = .40, p = .039). The re-conceptualization of the Uncertainty in Illness Theory (UIT) and developmental perspectives can explain the relationships between uncertainty and posttraumatic stress in the young adult survivors of childhood cancer. The re-conceptualization of UIT can serve as a guide for future studies.