Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Essays in Networks of Finance and Experimental Finance: A Behavioral View

Behavioral and managerial biases can occur among corporate executives that lead to suboptimal decision making and outcomes for the shareholders. In the first essay, I study how the personal networks of CEO affect the performance of the firm in the context of IPO. I find that CEOs at higher social hierarchical positions can allow managerial entrenchment and prevent dismissal. The findings show that influential CEOs are associated with higher IPO underpricing, lower likelihood of positive offer price revision, and lower likelihood of wealth creation for the pre-IPO shareholders. In the second essay, I explore how the social connections between bidder and bidder advisors affect M&A outcomes. I show that the M&A deals with a bidder-bidder financial advisor connection exists have a lower CAR at announcement than the deals without such connections. I also show that M&A deals advised by personally connected financial advisor are more likely to complete but are executed less efficiently in terms of time to resolution. I find evidence that both the bidder CEO and the financial advisor receive higher cash bonus and advisor fees, respectively, when there are bidder-bidder financial advisor connections exist. Behavioral bias can also occur among individuals and lead to asset bubbles, especially in an environment with widely available credit and increased wealth inequality. In the third essay, using an experimental approach, I study how wealth inequality, leverage, and the effect that people trying to keep up with the status benchmark, which is so called “Joneses effect”, affect the asset bubbles. I find that unequal initial endowments and the presence of a Joneses effect lead to substantial overpricing as compared to situations where only unequal initial endowment or both factors are absent. ©2018 by Weineng Xu All Rights Reserved
Polyunsaturated fatty acid induces cardioprotection against ischemia-reperfusion through the inhibition of NF-kappaB and induction of Nrf2

The mechanistic evidence to support the cardioprotective effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are controversial. The aim was to test cardioprotective mechanisms induced by PUFA supplementation against cardiac ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Ten-week-old male Wistar rats (225 ± 14 g, n = 14) were divided in two groups: rats without supplementation (n = 7) and a PUFA group, supplemented by PUFA (0.6 g/kg/day; DHA:EPA = 3:1) for eight weeks (n = 7). Hearts were perfused with Krebs–Henseleit buffer for 20 min (control conditions); others were subjected to control conditions, 30 min of global ischemia and 120 min of reperfusion (IR group). Infarct size (IS) and left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) were measured at 120 min of reperfusion. Oxidative stress biomarkers (TBARS, total carbonyls), antioxidant status (CAT, catalase; SOD, superoxide dismutase; GSH-Px, glutathione peroxidase activity and GSH/GSSG ratio), myeloperoxidase activity, ATP levels and nuclear transcription factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-κB) were determined in both experimental conditions. At the end of reperfusion, hearts supplemented with PUFA showed lower IS and a higher LVDP compared with the nonsupplemented rats. Hearts in the group supplemented with PUFA showed lower levels of oxidative stress markers and higher antioxidant activity, decreased MPO activity and NF-κB and Nrf2 activation compared with the nonsupplemented group. Cardioprotective effects of PUFA are exerted through induction of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant mechanism at tissue level.
Integrative transformation of Caenorhabditis elegans

A technique for introducing exogenous DNA into the chromosomes of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is presented. A cloned C. elegans amber suppressor tRNA gene, sup‐7, is used as a selectable marker. The activity of this amber suppressor is selected for by injecting worms which carry an amber termination mutation in a gene (tra‐3) whose function is required for fertility. Transient expression of sup‐7 is evidenced by the presence of fertile (rescued) animals in the generation after injection. In a fraction of cases, these fertile animals give rise to stable suppressor lines (eight have been characterized so far). Each of the stable suppressor lines carries injected DNA sequences. The suppressor activities have been mapped to chromosomal loci, indicating that the exogenous DNA has integrated into the genome. This technique has been used to introduce a chimeric gene containing a Drosophila heat shock promoter element fused to coding sequences from the Escherichia coli β‐galactosidase gene. This chimeric gene functions and is heat inducible in the resulting stably transformed lines.
Advancing nursing practice with a unit-based clinical expert.

OBJECTIVE To explore patterns in the practice of nursing and patient outcomes. DESIGN Qualitative field research. POPULATION, SAMPLE, SETTING Populations were critical care nurses and critically ill adult patients in the 10-bed medical critical care unit of a 900-bed teaching hospital. A convenience-purposive sample of 27 nurses and 31 patients was studied in 1985. METHODS Six months of participant observation, unstructured interviews, and the constant comparison method of grounded theory. FINDINGS Markedly different patterns were found in expert and nonexpert practice. The substantive theory of conversion helped explain how the majority of nonexpert nurses advanced their practice. The metaphor of catalyzed conversion captures how a unit-based expert nurse serves as a catalyst to advance the practice of nonexperts. Presence, defined as the way of being within a given clinical context, differentiated nurses. CONCLUSIONS (a) Expert and nonexpert practices are substantively different. (b) Expert and nonexpert practice results in different patient outcomes. (c) Conversion helps explain changes in nonexpert practice. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS A unit-based expert nurse can increase patient-focused care.
RT_Image: An Open-Source Tool for Investigating PET in Radiation Oncology

Positron emission tomography (PET) has emerged as a valuable imaging modality for the diagnosis and staging of cancer. However, despite evidence that PET may be useful for defining target volumes for radiation therapy, no standardized methodology for accomplishing this task exists. To facilitate the investigation of the utility of PET imaging in radiotherapy treatment planning and accelerate its integration into clinical radiation oncology, we have developed software for exploratory analysis and segmentation of functional imaging datasets. The application, RT_Image, allows display of multiple imaging datasets and associated three-dimensional regions-of-interest (ROIs) at arbitrary view angles and fields of view. It also includes semi-automated image segmentation tools for defining metabolically active tumor volumes that may aid creation of target volumes for treatment planning. RT_Image is DICOM compliant, permitting the transfer of imaging data and DICOM-RT structure sets between the application and treatment planning software. RT_Image has been used by radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and radiation physicists to analyze over 200 PET datasets. Novel segmentation techniques have been implemented within this programming framework for therapy planning and for evaluation of molecular imaging-derived parameters as prognostic indicators. RT_Image represents a freely-available software base on which further investigations of the utlity of PET and molecular imaging in radiation oncology may be built. The development of tools such as this is critical in order to realize the potential of molecular imagingguided radiation therapy.
Teaching: Igniting the Fire Within

Dr. Lowell Mason (1875) asked teachers to reflect on the question: “Do we awaken the spirit of learning or dull it” (p. 5)? After some quality reflection I have concluded that it is my privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility to awaken or “light the fire” in the hearts of my students. However, I also realize that there is a delicate balance that must be achieved in order to ensure that the fire is not quenched in the process. My grandmother often told me that you can lead a horse to water but if the horse is not thirsty, he cannot be forced to drink. Students can be led into a classroom, persuaded to buy a book and may even read that book and yet if they are not interested in the subject matter, they will not learn. We hope that our students arrive in our classes motivated to learn the subject matter, but this is not always the case. Therefore, the primary role of the teacher is to entice the student to drink of the knowledge, to ensure that the knowledge is understandable and subsequently, ensure that the students thirst for more. We become learning managers, orchestrating experiences that assist our students in achieving certain learning objectives. Perhaps this is an oversimplification, but this motto is the cornerstone of my approach to teaching. The remaining three cornerstones of my philosophy focus on the students, the subject matter, and the teacher.
Automated Fault Diagnosis and Accommodation Control for Mechanical Systems

In this paper, a fault diagnosis and accommodation control scheme is designed, which is applicable to mechanical systems. First, the fault detection is developed by designing a nonlinear observer. Second, the fault isolation is achieved by using multiple fault observers. Third, when a fault is diagnosed, an adequate fault accommodation control is triggered to compensate the effects of the fault function. Finally, case study is given to illustrate the effects of the proposed method.
Development of a quantitative, validated Capillary electrophoresis‐time of flight – mass spectrometry method with integrated high‐confidence analyte identification for metabolomics

A CE‐MS method was developed and validated for the quantitative analysis of negatively charged metabolites by making use of the high mass accuracy and the quantitation capabilities of a TOF mass analyzer in combination with automated feature extraction and database search. Metabolites of the central carbon metabolism were quantified with an LOD and lower LOQ (LLOQ) of 0.2–2 and 1–4 µM, respectively. The method was used to elucidate metabolic changes in the Escherichia coli deletion mutant PntAB‐UdhA that lacks nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase function, under both stationary and exponential growth conditions. The reproducibility of metabolite extraction and CE‐TOF‐MS analysis ranged from 3.7 to 22.7 and 7.9 to 22.6%, respectively, while the biological variance was 3.4–31.3%. We observed significant differences in metabolite abundance, particularly in the citrate cycle, between wild‐type and mutant E. coli. Overall, more than 600 features were found by automated feature detection, which resulted in ∼150 high‐confidence metabolite identifications. Concomitant analyses with two different GC‐MS methods allowed not only crossvalidation of the quantitative results obtained by the various methods, but also led to a more comprehensive coverage of the E. coli metabolome.
Susceptibility of pRb‐deficient epidermis to chemical skin carcinogenesis is dependent on the p107 allele dosage

Functional inactivation of the pRb‐dependent pathway is a general feature of human cancer. However, only a reduced spectrum of tumors displays inactivation of the Rb gene. This can be attributed, at least partially, to the possible overlapping functions carried out by the related retinoblastoma family members p107 and p130. We observed that loss of pRb in epidermis, using the Cre/LoxP technology, results in proliferation and differentiation defects. These alterations are partially compensated by the elevation in the levels of p107. Moreover, epidermis lacking pRb and p107, but not pRb alone, develops spontaneous tumors, and double deficient primary keratinocytes are highly susceptible to Ha‐ras‐induced transformation. Two‐stage chemical carcinogenesis experiments in mice lacking pRb in epidermis revealed a reduced susceptibility in papilloma formation and an increase in the malignant conversion. We have now explored whether the loss of one p107 allele, inducing a decrease in the levels of p107 up to normal levels could restore the susceptibility of pRb‐deficient skin to two‐stage protocol. We observed partial restoration in the incidence, number, and size of tumors. However, there is no increased malignancy despite sustained p53 activation. We also observed a partial reduction in the levels of proapoptotic proteins in benign papillomas. These data confirm our previous suggestions on the role of p107 as a tumor suppressor in epidermis in the absence of pRb. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of Social Category Priming on Personal Attitudes

In four studies, we examined the spontaneous activation of specific attitudes related to social categories. These studies investigated whether priming participants with concepts associated with the elderly and skinheads influenced participants' attitudes. The results consistently demonstrated that priming a social category can influence people's attitudes such that they become more similar to those of people in the primed category. After participants were primed with the elderly category, their attitudes became more conservative; after participants were primed with the skinhead category, their attitudes became more prejudiced. We also found that these effects can occur without awareness and intention and are specific to the participants' own attitudes. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.
Pro-poor growth and the realization of common prosperity of socialism with Chinese characteristics

Purpose As the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics, common prosperity stands for both the goal of and the approach to economic growth. Shared development is a new stage of the process of common prosperity. From the perspective of economic growth, it requires the low- and middle-income groups to gain more from the growth than high-income groups. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Based on provincial panel data, the random effect model and the dynamic panel model are used in this paper to analyze the path to achieve pro-poor growth. Findings The keys to achieve pro-poor growth are first to promote new urbanization with people at the center, diversify the forms of employment and improve the income structure of the residents, and second to improve the accuracy in designing redistribution policies. Originality/value After the realization of “some get rich first” policy, it is important to swiftly adapt to a new mindset of shared development, which charters a new course to the Marxist common prosperity. There exist few established economic theories or action plans with respect to shared development. Pro-poor growth, however, offers a perspective to achieve both sharing and development.
Antibacterial Activity of Gatifloxacin (AM-1155, CG5501, BMS-206584), a Newly Developed Fluoroquinolone, against Sequentially Acquired Quinolone-Resistant Mutants and thenorA Transformant of Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT Alternate mutations in the grlA and gyrAgenes were observed through the first- to fourth-step mutants which were obtained from four Staphylococcus aureus strains by sequential selection with several fluoroquinolones. The increases in the MICs of gatifloxacin accompanying those mutational steps suggest that primary targets of gatifloxacin in the wild type and the first-, second-, and third-step mutants are wild-type topoisomerase IV (topo IV), wild-type DNA gyrase, singly mutated topo IV, and singly mutated DNA gyrase, respectively. Gatifloxacin had activity equal to that of tosufloxacin and activity more potent than those of norfloxacin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and sparfloxacin against the second-step mutants (grlA gyrA; gatifloxacin MIC range, 1.56 to 3.13 μg/ml) and had the most potent activity against the third-step mutants (grlA gyrA grlA; gatifloxacin MIC range, 1.56 to 6.25 μg/ml), suggesting that gatifloxacin possesses the most potent inhibitory activity against singly mutated topo IV and singly mutated DNA gyrase among the quinolones tested. Moreover, gatifloxacin selected resistant mutants from wild-type and the second-step mutants at a low frequency. Gatifloxacin possessed potent activity (MIC, 0.39 μg/ml) against the NorA-overproducing strain S. aureus NY12, thenorA transformant, which was slightly lower than that against the parent strain SA113. The increases in the MICs of the quinolones tested against NY12 were negatively correlated with the hydrophobicity of the quinolones (correlation coefficient, −0.93;P < 0.01). Therefore, this slight decrease in the activity of gatifloxacin is attributable to its high hydrophobicity. Those properties of gatifloxacin likely explain its good activity against quinolone-resistant clinical isolates of S. aureusharboring the grlA, gyrA, and/ornorA mutations.
Antispasmodic effect of Acorus calamus Linn. is mediated through calcium channel blockade

Acorus calamus Linn. (Araceae) is a native of Central Asia and Eastern Europe and has widespread use in the traditional system of medicine for gastrointestinal disorders such as colic pain and diarrhoea. This study was aimed at providing a possible pharmacological basis to the use of this plant as an antispasmodic and antidiarrhoeal. In the isolated rabbit jejunum preparation the crude extract (Ac.Cr), which tested positive for the presence of alkaloid, saponins and tannins, caused inhibition of spontaneous and high K+ (80 mm)‐induced contractions, with respective EC50 values of 0.42 ± 0.06 and 0.13 ± 0.04 mg/mL (mean ± SEM; n = 6–8), thus showing spasmolytic activity, mediated possibly through calcium channel blockade (CCB). The CCB activity was confirmed when pre‐treatment of the tissue with Ac.Cr (0.3–1.0 mg/mL) caused a rightward shift in the Ca++ dose‐response curves similar to that caused by verapamil, a standard calcium channel blocker. Activity‐directed fractionation revealed that the CCB activity was concentrated in the n‐hexane fraction while the ethylacetate fraction was less potent. These results suggest that the spasmolytic effect of the plant extract is mediated through the presence of CCB‐like constituent(s) which is concentrated in the n‐hexane fraction and this study provides a strong mechanistic base for its traditional use in gastrointestinal disorders such as colic pain and diarrhoea. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Does working memory change with age? The interactions of concurrent articulation with the effects of word length and acoustic confusion

ABSTRACT The effects of acoustic confusion (phonological similarity), word length, and concurrent articulation (articulatory suppression) are cited as support for Working Memory's phonological loop component (e.g., Baddeley, 2000, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 7, 544). Research has focused on younger adults, with no studies examining whether concurrent articulation reduces the word length and acoustic confusion effects among older adults. In the current study, younger and older adults were given lists of similar and dissimilar letters (Experiment 1) or long and short words (Experiment 2) for immediate serial reconstruction of order. Items were presented visually or auditorily, with or without concurrent articulation. As expected, younger and older adults demonstrated effects of acoustic confusion, word length, and concurrent articulation. Further, concurrent articulation reduced the effects of acoustic confusion and word length equally for younger and older adults. This suggests that age-related differences occur in overall performance, but do not reflect an age-related deficiency in the functioning of the phonological loop component of working memory.
Size-Dependent Multiple-Scattering Effects of Mesoporous TiO2 Beads Distinguished by Optical Coherence Tomography

In this study, we propose a new analysis method using optical coherence tomography to further use the diffusive reflectance measurement to quantify the contribution of the size-dependent multiple-scattering effects of mesoporous TiO<sub>2</sub> beads. The diffusive reflectance results from the complex interactions between light and the scattering particles, and influences the slopes of the associated depth-dependent A-scan profiles, which can be fitted based on the extended Huygens–Fresnel model to quantify the contribution ratio of the multiple-scattering effects to the single scattering effects. The mesoporous TiO<sub>2</sub> beads with average diameter of 300 nm show higher contribution percentage of multiple-scattering effects inducing reflectivity enhancement in the longer wavelength region. The contribution ratio of multiple-scattering effects can be distinguished numerically, and is enhanced from 5% to 40% and then decreased to 20% for the bead diameters ranging from 20 to 300 nm and then to 500 nm, respectively. The calculated scattering coefficients are 13.5 ± 0.6 mm<sup>–1</sup>, 16.5 ± 0.6 mm<sup>–1</sup>, 20.2 ± 0.6 mm<sup>–1</sup>, and 18.5 ± 0.6 mm<sup>–1</sup>, respectively.
Preliminary validation of the Spanish version of the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe) using Rasch analysis

Primary objective: To explore the construct validity of the Spanish version of the Frontal Systems Behavioral Scale (FrSBe) using Rasch modelling. Methods: Item responses of 245 Spanish subjects were analysed using Rasch analysis: self-rating of 65 participants with TBI or stroke (sample A), family-rating of the same 65 participants (sample B) and self-rating of 115 healthy individuals (sample C). Results: After removing or grouping several problematic items, the Apathy and the Executive Dysfunction sub-scales were found to be valid measures for samples A and B and the Disinhibition sub-scale was valid for samples B and C. Person Separation Index of reliability of sub-scales was greater than 0.83 for sample B and ∼0.72 for A and C. All items showed disordered threshold categories in samples A and B and five items were ordered in sample C. Conclusions: With a few modifications, the sub-scales of the FrSBe-Spanish version are adequate measures for the assessment of the behavioural syndromes derived from frontal systems dysfunction in persons with brain injury. The family-rating form is preferable to the self-rating form. Only the Disinhibition scale is a valid measure for the behavioural assessment of the normal population. A reduction of response categories is suggested.
BPSK-modulated radio transmissions over optical CDMA network for MAI elimination

We describe the implementation of radio-over-fiber (ROF) techniques with a combination of spectral-amplitude-coding optical code-division-multiple-access (SAC-OCDMA). The architecture of proposed fiber-radio network is presented in details where the radio frequency (RF) modulated signal is up-converted to the spectrum-coded optical carriers. System evaluation is analyzed by deriving the average bit error rate (BER) expression. Gaussian approximation is applied for the noise distribution, taking into account the thermal and phase-induced intensity noise (PIIN) in the receiver. The binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) signal is modulated on a radio frequency (RF) carrier. System evaluations are performed under the condition of different code-types (m-sequence code and SQC code) and code-lengths.